Protolabs (NYSE: PRLB) financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2017 report a record turnover for the Minnesota headquartered on-demand manufacturer.
With expertise in CNC milling, injection molding and 3D printing, the leading digital enterprise turned over $94.2 million in Q4 2017, a 30.2% increase on revenue of $72.4 million in the same period in 2016 (three months ending December 31). For the full year in total, the company reported headline revenue of $344.5 million, a 15.6% increase on 2016’s end of year revenue which was $298.1 million.
Vicki Holt, President and Chief Executive Officer of Protolabs comments, “Protolabs continues to demonstrate its ability to provide solutions to our customers to help them accelerate product development, reduce risk and optimize supply chains by delivering custom parts at unprecedented speeds,”
“The fourth quarter was a strong ending to a great year. During the quarter, we delivered double-digit revenue growth in each of our services and in each of our regions on a constant currency basis.”
Double digit growth across all business segments
Protolabs’ rapid manufacturing business revenue is split by five categories: Injection Molding, CNC Machining, , Sheet Metal, and Other.
Injection Molding represents the largest portion of Protalabs’ business, with an annual revenue of $194.4 million. CNC Machining is the second most lucrative business, with annual FY 2017 turnover of $103.7 million, and incidentally the leading growth for the year, up by 27% on revenue for the same three months ending December 31 2016.
for the three months ended December 31 2017, generated a revenue of $11.3 million (GAAP), up by over $1.4 million in revenue for the same period in 2016 which was $9.8 million. For the full year, the segment reported a revenue of $43.2 million, a 14.5% growth on FY 2016’s revenue of $37.8 million.
The gross profit for the full year 2017, with all five business segments combined, was $193.8 million. For comparison, the gross profit for all five business segments in the full year 2016 was $167 million.
Revenue by region
Most of Protolabs’ business was conducted in the United States, generating a revenue of $263.1 million, a 17.5% on FY 2016. For Europe, total revenue for the year ended December 31 2017 was $70.2 million and Japan, total revenue was $11.3 million.
The number of unique product developers and engineers served by Protolabs worldwide was 37,267 in FY 2017, up by almost 6,000 on the customers served in 2016.
Protolabs 3D printing activity
In 2017, Protolabs expanded its capabilities in its largest investment to date to offer HP Multi-Jet Fusion, and Stratasys Polyjet services. In November 2017 the company also acquired New Hampshire custom parts supplier RAPID Manufacturing Group, LLC, for $110 million in cash and $10 million in Proto Labs stock.
Holt concludes, “Our customer focus will continue in 2018 as we continue to evolve our sales approach to develop deeper customer relationships, further advance each of our four service offerings, and increase the scale of our operations, with an initial focus on integrating the RAPID acquisition.”
Protolabs’ consolidated statements of operations for the full year 2017 can be viewed below, and the full report can be found here.
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Featured image shows a Protolabs 3D printed turbine demonstrator. Photo by Michael Petch
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