LeMaitre Vascular shrugged off slower sales during the first three months of 2009 to narrow its net loss, but restructuring charges kept the company out of the black.
The Burlington-based company, which makes a wide array of products and implants for vascular disease, said sales fell slightly during the first quarter, reaching $11.4 million compared with $11.8 million during the same period last year — a 4 percent slip.
Company officials blamed a steep reduction in sales through international distributors for the incremental slowdown. Overall, distribution sales were down 53 percent, a side effect from LeMaitre’s previously announced termination of a contract with
Edwards Lifesciences LLC.
LeMaitre terminated its distribution deal with Edwards in March and was forced to pay a more than $3.5 million kill fee and purchase the distributor’s customer lists for its AlboGraft polyester prosthetic graft. Overall, LeMaitre took a restructuring charge of $1.8 million for the quarter.
But the company still managed to narrow its losses, posting a $1.8 million loss for the quarter compared with a $2.5 million loss during the first quarter of 2008.
