Strong Q3 for Star brite, Star Tron parent
Ocean Bio-Chem, Inc., the parent company of Star brite and Star Tron, announced that net sales for the three months ended Sept. 30 increased approximately 4 percent to $10.3 million, compared to sales of $9.9 million in the same period in 2011.
The company was profitable for the 15th consecutive quarter, reporting net income of $770,618, or $0.09 per diluted share. Net income for the year-ago quarter totaled $1.1 million, or $0.13 per diluted share.
“Net sales increased in the third quarter because of our successful effort to market winterizing products, including antifreeze, to marine customers, a sector that saw double digit growth in sales volume,” CEO Peter Dornau said. “In addition, we continued to see sales growth of our enzyme fuel treatment product Star Tron in the automotive and small engine markets.”

“Ocean Bio-Chem made the marketing decision to significantly increase its advertising and promotion budget by approximately 65 percent in the third quarter of 2012. While this decreased net income for the quarter, it goes a long way toward cementing our future success by moving toward increasing our market share in important new segments including outdoor power equipment, motorcycling, powersports equipment and the automotive market. Our plan is to accomplish the promotional groundwork now to increase sales in future quarters and we are already seeing sales improvements,” said Gregor M. Dornau, vice president of sales and marketing.
“Results so far indicate an increase in sales for the fourth quarter. We are cautiously optimistic that this positive trend will continue through the balance of 2012,” Peter Dornau said.