Proto Labs Shows Increased Revenue in Their Q2 Financial Results

If you’re trying to determine whether a company is succeeding or not, one of key words to look out for is ‘expansion’, which generally entails internal growth and a potential increase of revenue. If you need proof of this, look no further than the Maple Plain, Minnesota-headquartered manufacturing solutions provider Proto Labs, which has expanded their reach both inside and outside of the 3D printing industry. Last year, they increased their employment numbers significantly, tacking on 170 new jobs in their North Carolina facility. Around the same time period, Proto Labs announced that they’d be integrating additive manufacturing into their production process, which previously mainly utilized injection molding and CNC machining.

Last week, Proto Labs expanded their manufacturing services yet again, introducing Concept Laser’s LaserCUSING technology into their new 77,000-square-foot facility later on this year. As they continue to increase the number of services they offer to their customers, their recently released second quarter financial results show that the recent expansions have paid off. According to their Q2 results, Proto Labs has brought in a revenue of $75 million, a 17% increase from the $64 million they posted at the same time last year. $4.8 million of their revenue came from the German company Alphaform, which Proto Labs acquired during their final quarter of 2015.

The revenue made from their 3D printing services shows an even greater percentage of growth, totaling $9.1 million ($7 million excluding Alphaform), which is a whopping 29% increase from the second quarter of 2015. The number of unique product developers and engineers was 13,519, a 14 percent increase compared to the 11,822 from last year. It seems that, in almost every concentrated area, Proto Labs has shown some sort of growth during the Q2, especially in the 3D printing sector. In fact, the one negative stated in the financial report seems to be the lack of growth of their injection molding and CNC machining in the Americas.

“Revenue growth was solid in the second quarter, driven by continued strong growth in 3D printing, strength in our European markets, and the contribution from Alphaform,” said Vicki Holt, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We were also pleased with the legacy growth in Europe in the quarter, which grew 24 percent and we saw an improved performance in Japan with a revenue increase of 46 percent year over year. In the Americas, we experienced slower than expected growth in injection molding and CNC machining. This was primarily due to a slowdown in the US industrial economy as well as attrition in sales leadership.”

In addition to their overall increase in revenue, Proto Labs generated $19.9 million in cash during Q2, while total cash and investments increased $7.1 million during the quarter. Although the manufacturing service bureau seems to be on the right track, they did see a decreased gross margin, which can partially be attributed to Alphaform, which had a 310 basis point negative impact on the gross margin. As for Proto Labs’ future plans, their CEO states that they will continue to work towards improving the sales growth, especially in the Americas. All in all, Proto Labs has a pretty good reason to be confident in their ability to keep growing, as their number of acquisitions, available manufacturing processes, and overall revenue continues to expand upward. Discuss Further in the Proto Labs Q2 Results forum over at 3DPB.com.