OTCBB FTEL
For Immediate Release
January 16,1997
FRANKLIN SHOWS TIDY TURNAROUND
Westlake Village, CA.> Franklin Telecom announced today that sales for the two
months ending December 31, 1996 totaled $632,000, as compared with a total of
$430,000 for all of last year. Sales for the full six months ending December 31, 1996
were $881,000.
Frank W. Peters, Franklin's president and CEO, stated, "It is highly satisfying to see that
the investment of time and money that has fueled the research and development of our
new product & service lines is now starting a handsome pay-back. When you consider
that our Cyclone products have not even hit the market yet, our current results are even
more gratifying. Furthermore, we have accomplished this without incurring any bank
debt."
According to Tom Russell, Franklin's Vice President of Finance & CFO, sales
projections for the new D-Mark II Channel Banks continues to be rosy. "In the last
quarter, we've seen a number of Fortune 500 companies "discover" the D-Mark. This is
in addition to the market we foresaw with ISP's. Another interesting development is that
the industry is finally "catching up" to our Hurricane 155Mbps LAN adapter cards. When
we first introduced them a year ago, we had essentially 'leap frogged' over one
generation of these cards (100 Mbps) and what we discovered was that the marketplace
wasn't prepared for them. That's changing now and we're seeing significant interest for
the first time."
The eagerly awaited Cyclone products should be hitting the market during the next
quarter, as well, according to Peters. The Cyclone products will significantly reduce the
cost of equipment set-up for Internet Service Providers.
The recently introduced toll-free unlimited 800# Internet access offered by FNet,
Franklin's internet division, is expected to grow substantially throughout the coming year.
Indeed, Neil Wyenn, FNet's vice president of sales, explains that the rate of growth for
FNet is being directly controlled by Franklin to keep pace with the installation of additional
equipment to handle the increased demand. "This is mandatory to keep the level of
service i.e. no busy signals--that FNet subscribers expect. Since we focus on business
customers, many of whom have large traveling sales forces, we feel obliged to go the
extra mile to insure that the highest quality is maintained for all our accounts."
Russell confirms that for the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1996, Franklin Telecom
incurred a consolidated net loss of $1,467,000 on sales of $430,000. The net loss is a
direct result of Ftel's investment in new product and services development. A copy of
the audited financial statement is available upon request. Please contact Helen West at
(805) 373-8688 or by e-mail at hwest@ftel.net.
More information can be obtained by contacting Helen West, Shareholder Relations, at 805-373-8688.
Franklin Telecom, founded in 1981, designs and manufactures communications devices and software.
Franklin has an installed base of over 100,000 nodes. Franklin is traded on the Over The Counter Market
as "FTEL". |
