Sales drop at JDSU division in Santa Rosa

JDSU’s Santa Rosa-based optical division saw revenues drop 13.4 percent to $42.6 million in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the company reported Tuesday.

For the fiscal year ending June 28, the Optical Security and Performance Products division reported revenues declined 2.4 percent to $200.8 million.

The division has more than 550 employees, most of them in Santa Rosa. It manufactures color-changing, or “optically variable” pigments used in the currencies of more than 100 countries to thwart counterfeiting. But it also makes products for consumer electronics, government and health care.

In a conference call, company officials said some of the declining revenue was due to the division ending certain “lower margin,” thin-film manufacturing for optical products.

For the entire company, net revenues reached $1.7 billion for the fiscal year, an increase of 4 percent. JDSU reported a net loss for the year of $17.8 million, or 8 cents a share, compared to a net income of $57 million, or 24 cents a share, for the previous years.