Proto Labs Inc., a digital manufacturing services provider, reported a 6.9% year-over-year increase in first-quarter sales despite a January slowdown in demand related to the coronavirus. The company handles virtually all of its sales through its ecommerce site and is taking several steps to improve how it interacts with customers, president and CEO Robert Bodor says.

The ecommerce-based company offers injection molding, CNC machining, 3D printing, and sheet metal fabrication to about 50,000 product developers, engineers, and supply chain teams throughout the world.

Robert Bodor, president and CEO, Proto Labs Inc.

In January 2021, Protolabs agreed to pay $280 million (plus up to $50 million contingent on performance) for Amsterdam-based Hubs. Hubs offers digital manufacturing services through an international network of hundreds of manufacturers and also processes orders online. In the first quarter of 2022, Protolabs “made progress on the integration of the Protolabs and Hubs offers into one ecommerce platform with a focus to provide a best-in-class customer experience,” Bodor said on the Q1 earnings call last week.

Revenue at Hubs, formerly 3D Hubs, grew 78.6% year-over-year in the first quarter to $10.3 million. That brought total revenue at Protolabs to $124.2 million. Protolabs reported a 37.3% year-over-year increase in net income to $5.095 million. Gross profit inched up less than 1% to $55.8 million. The result: a 44.9% gross margin, down from 47.6%.

In addition, Protolabs is deploying technology and strategies optimize pricing to improve sales and margins, Bodor says.

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