Iec Electronics Corporation (IEC) swung to a net loss for the quarter ended Dec. 30, 2016. The company has made a net loss of $0.86 million, or $ 0.09 a share in the quarter, against a net profit of $1.54 million, or $0.15 a share in the last year period.

Revenue during the quarter plunged 36.31 percent to $20.98 million from $32.93 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 911 basis points over the previous year period to 8.56 percent. Operating margin for the quarter stood at negative 3.08 percent as compared to a positive 5.56 percent for the previous year period.

Operating loss for the quarter was $0.65 million, compared with an operating income of $1.83 million in the previous year period.

Jeffrey T. Schlarbaum, president and chief executive officer of IEC Electronics commented, "As we expected and previously announced, our first quarter revenues and profitability were negatively impacted by reduced volume from two key customers. Importantly, the softness is not the result of lost programs and these customers are long-term partners who we believe remain committed to working with IEC. We expect this revenue decrease will persist through the second quarter of fiscal 2017, but we are optimistic that volume should ramp up in the second half of fiscal 2017, enabling us to exit fiscal 2017 similar to the levels achieved in fiscal 2016.