Maker of Near-Indestructible Glass Panels Thrives in Q4, 2011

Gorilla Glass panels turned out to be a very lucrative venture for the company that invented them, enough so that Corning reported record annual sales for 2011.

Like Western Digital and Advanced Micro Devices, Corning has published the financial results for the most recent quarter, as well as the whole year 2011.

As some may know, Corning's Gorilla Glass has been showing up as part of rugged devices, especially tablets, more and more often lately.

Thus, hearing that the company had a particularly good year may not come as a surprise at all.

For 2011, sales were of $7.9 billion / 6.08 billion Euro, marking a rise of 19% over the $6.6 billion / 5.08 billion Euro of 2010.

Simply put, this was a record high annual sales performance.

“This past year was a very successful one for Corning,” said Wendell P. Weeks, chairman, chief executive officer, and president.

“We had the strongest annual sales performance in our 161-year history. We set new records for gross margin and operating income (before special items). The company generated positive free cash flow for the eighth consecutive year. We have a healthy balance sheet, and we raised our shareholder dividend and initiated a share repurchase program.”

Meanwhile, the $1.9 billion / 1.43 billion Euro sales of the fourth quarter was actually lower sequentially, but still higher than in Q4, 2010, by 7% actually.

“Four of our business segments - Telecommunications, Environmental Technologies, Life Sciences, and Specialty Materials - had excellent performance in 2011,” the CEO stated.

“The aggregate sales and net income (before special items) of these segments grew 31% and 136 % respectively. Sales of Corning Gorilla Glass almost tripled. Our innovation investments paid off with the introduction of Corning Lotus Glass for OLED displays and a new, improved cover glass, Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Our outstanding performance came despite the less-than-robust growth in economies around the world.”