Kaydon Corporation (USA) reported third quarter 2002 sales rose only 0.5% from 2001 while net income climbed 38%.

Kaydon is a diversified manufacturing operation which manufactures bearings under the Kaydon brand in the United States and Cooper Roller Bearings in the U.K.

Third quarter 2002 sales were $68.5 million, up from $68.2 million in third quarter 2001. But net income from continuing operations rose from $6.1 million (9% of sales) to $8.3 million (12% of sales).

For the first nine months of 2002, Kaydon's gross fell 8.5% to $71 million, from $77.5 million in 2001. Unadjusted net income was $3.4 million, versus a $7.5 million loss for the first nine months of 2001. For all of 2001, Kaydon lost $4 million, but the company is on track to return to profitability this year.

One serious drain on profits, the Fluid Power Group, was formally divested earlier in 2002. Fluid Power lost approximately $10 million during 2001, on sales of only $49.5 million. Including asset write-downs, Fluid Power lost over $47 million in 2001.

Kaydon President and CEO, Brian Campbell, said, "While we continue to encounter challenges in our key markets, results for the quarter were in line with our expectations. We continue to believe that we are at or near the bottom of the trough in demand from our key markets, however, we expect that we will be affected for a period of time by the cautious capital spending patterns of our customer base. At the present time, it is difficult to predict when these trends will reverse themselves."