“2015 was another great year for iRobot. Throughout the year, we made strategic investments in our business that drove record quarterly revenue and resulted in revenue and EPS (Earnings Per Share) that exceeded our expectations”. With these words Colin Angle, chairman and chief executive officer of iRobot , commented the positive results of the company. The revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015 was 206.4 million dollar, compared with 159.3 million for the same period of 2014. The revenue for the full year 2015 was 616.8 million, compared with 556.8 million in 2014. Net income was 19.3 million dollar in Q4 2015 (9.4 million for Q4 2014) and for the full year 2015 was 44.1 million (37.8 million in 2014). Adjusted EBITDA was 35 million for the fourth quarter of 2015 (19.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2014) and 92 million in 2015, compared with 79.8 million for full-year 2014. Domestic Home Robot business grew 46% in Q4 and 25% for the full year over 2014, due primarily to investment in ad media, national promotions, and the launch of Roomba 980.
Growth in China was more than 70% year-over-year in 2015 driven by the successful execution of the e-commerce strategy. “The divestiture of the Defense & Security business announced on February 4, 2016 will allow us to focus on the home and deliver accelerated revenue growth in 2016 and beyond – added Colin Angle -. Revenue, excluding D&S, is expected to grow 11-13% in 2016 as we expand worldwide distribution of Roomba 980, tap further into a large and growing market in China and build our wet floor care business. Our Roomba marketing programs were highly successful in the United States, where Q4 sell through at our top 5 retailers was up more than 70% year-on-year, resulting in a significant return on our investment. We are highly confident that we have the right marketing mix to export overseas to accelerate growth in those markets, and we expect revenue in all three geographic regions to grow in the low to mid-teens in 2016. Looking over a 3-year horizon, it is critical that we make strategic investments today to drive diversification of Home revenue for the future. This will include product diversification through more significant contributions from wet floor care as well as future revenue opportunities from connected, mapping products. This will also include more significant regional diversification as China continues to ramp and Japan returns to growth. The capital allocation and investment decisions we are making today will pave the road for higher revenue acceleration in 2017 and 2018”.
