Wolfson Microelectronics has warned of falling order volumes from consumer customers in the important pre-Christmas period.
The Scottish chip supplier has seen falls in both sales and profits in the third quarter.
Wolfson said that since the trading update on 2 October, the market environment has continued to weaken and it had experienced a further “broad based deterioration in order intake and rescheduling of orders”.
“The company continues to be affected by the unprecedented uncertainty surrounding global consumer confidence, leading customers across a broad range of applications to further scale back their orders to volumes well below normal seasonal patterns,” said Dave Shrigley, CEO of Wolfson.
“In response we are continuing to control costs tightly to mitigate the impact on margins and maintain cash generation,” said Shrigley. “With a strong market position, a robust balance sheet and a business strategy aimed at significantly expanding our addressable market, we remain well placed to return to growth when market conditions improve.”
Third quarter revenues were $60.5m down from $70.4m a year ago. Operating profit was $5m down from $13.7m in Q3 2007.
Wolfson said it expects Q4 2008 revenue to be in the range $35m-$45m, resulting in anticipated full year 2008 revenue in the range of $196m-$206m.