Strong growth tugged a little tight on the selling, general and administrative expenses of CellStar Corp., which reported a $2 million operating loss for the second quarter and a net loss of $3 million.
In addition to operations restructuring and losses due to expense, the company is without its president and chief operating officer, Terry S. Parker.
Parker has resigned due to illness. He joined CellStar in early 1995 after longtime employment with GTE; Parker became president of GTE Mobilnet Inc. in 1986 and was later president of the GTE Mobile Communications Group.
His duties in CellStar’s sales and international development will be handled by Alan Goldfield, the company’s founder and chief executive officer. Parker will remain on the CellStar board of directors.
The company is a wholesale distributor and retailer of cellular phones and related products, with headquarters northwest of Dallas in Carrollton, Texas.
CellStar said the financial and operating problems that have surfaced in the first and second quarter reports this year will be alleviated once the company sells its Sam’s Club kiosk business.
Recently, CellStar reported it had a letter of intent with a Fortune 500 buyer for the Communication Centers operated in 347 Sam’s stores nationwide; Sam’s Club is a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Total revenues jumped 27 percent in the second quarter ended May 31, to $225.6 million, compared with $177.8 million in second quarter 1995. Of $225.6 million, $202.6 million was from net product sales, an increase of 29 percent from the prior year. CellStar said that reflects its strong international wholesale presence, although the company’s overall international results were negatively impacted by a currency devaluation in Venezuela.
CellStar is restructuring its operations. The impact of those changes should show up by the end of the fourth quarter.
