Wolfson Microelectronics predicts return to profit

The company saw a strong rise in sales in the first half of the year

Edinburgh-based chip maker, Wolfson Microelectronics, has reported another loss but has predicted a return to profit later this year when new products are launched.

The company made a half year loss of £6.7m, a 17% increase on last year.

However the firm said sales grew by more than 10% in the same period.

The company, which makes microchips for mobile phones, TVs and gaming consoles employs about 370 people in 12 locations throughout the world.

Wolfson launched 18 new products in the first six months of the year and earlier in the summer, it announced a contract with Samsung.

Its audio chip is included in Samsung's Wave and Galaxy S smartphones.

The company said it was optimistic that its new design products would return it to profitability.

Following the results, Mike Hickey, chief executive officer of Wolfson, said: "Looking ahead, we expect the previously reported design-ins, responsible for the strong sequential growth in Q2, to continue to translate into sales and support the strong backlog we see for both Q3 and Q4.

"This underpins our expectation of revenue growth and a return to profitability in Q3 and a strong 2nd half of 2010.

"The strength of our expanding portfolio and our design-in performance gives us increasing confidence of further revenue growth next year."