The parent company of local supermarket chain Stater Bros. Markets reported its revenue picked up a little in its most recent quarter.

The San Bernardino-based company attributed part of the increase in sales to the quarter in which Christmas Day landed. The holiday is the only day the company closes its stores. Last year, it fell in the second quarter. This year, it fell in the first, making the company's second quarter sales look artificially better.

Despite the higher sales, the company's net income was flat. For the first two quarters combined, the company is lagging just a bit in net income compared with this point last year.

Although Stater Bros. is private (it's owned by Jack H. Brown, its chairman and chief executive), because of its public debt it must file financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission and field analyst questions each quarter.

Hansen Natural Corp.

A new line of Hansen Natural Corp.'s (Nasdaq: HANS) energy drinks hit shelves more than a year ago. Customers have responded favorably. But investors are expecting more.

The Corona-based maker of the Monster Energy line of drinks and other beverages reported record profits and sales for its most recent quarter.

Hansen earned $28.8 million in the three months ended March 31, or 29 cents per share, compared with $20.2 million, or 21 cents a share, for the same three months in 2007.

Much of the sales growth came from Java Monster, a dairy-based coffee drink that was introduced in April 2007.

But Wall Street analysts had a consensus expectation of profits of 35 cents per share.

Net sales jumped 28% from the previous year to $212.2 million, but fell short of Wall Street estimates of$220.7 million.

The company blamed higher costs for missing the estimates, including the cost of sales, warehousing and general operations.

Also, customers bought large quantities of 16-ounce cans of Monster Energy drinks at the end of 2007, averting an announced price increase but cutting into sales that probably would have happened during this quarter, Rodney Sachs, chairman and chief executive officer, told analysts.

"If we were to take into account the estimated buying at the end of the fourth quarter, the result would be about 36 cents a share," Sachs said. "I think this result shows a more normalized trading position."

The Java Monster brand accounted for more than 14% of Hansen's sales.

Sachs told analysts Java Monster's convenience store sales are now half that of Starbucks bottled Frappaccino, which has been on the market for at least 10 years.

Hansen products still rank second in overall market share to Red Bull, but Sachs said the gap is getting narrower.

Sales of Monster drinks are growing faster than the energy drink category as a whole.

"We are continuing to close the gap on Red Bull," Sachs said.

A recent research report by Goldman Sachs suggests that smaller brands, including Rockstar and SoBe, are losing market share that Monster is gaining.

Sales growth for all these products has slowed slightly because of the weak economy, but Stanley Makadok, a beverage industry consultant and president of Yardley, Pa.-based Century Management Consultants Inc., said beverage sales tend to be recession-proof.

"If you can't afford a soft drink, it's pretty bad," Makadok said. "It's a low-cost-per-unit item."

American States Water

American States Water Co. (NYSE: AWR) saw its net income and earnings per share decline more than 20% from a year ago in the quarter ended March 31.

Net income for the first quarter decreased 24.1% to $5.3 million or 31 cents per share compared with $7 million or 40 cents per share for the same period in 2007.

In a statement, the utility attributed much of the decline to an 8.1% decline in water consumption during the first quarter, which amounted to a $2.6 million decrease in water revenues.

Higher operating and maintenance expenses accounted for another $1 million, the San Dimas company reported.

Basin Water

Basin Water Inc. (Nasdaq: BWTR) in Rancho Cucamonga reported sales nearly doubled to $3 million in the quarter ended March 31, compared with $1.6 million in the year-earlier quarter. Despite that growth, the company's loss more than doubled, to $5.1 million, or 24 cents per share, compared with a loss of $2.2 million, or 11 cents per share, in the first three months of 2007.

Adding to increased costs were one-time severance charges of $1 million related to the departure of former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Peter L. Jensen in February.

In a statement, the company attributed the balance of its higher G&A expenses to "strategic expansion of personnel and corporate resources."

"These results do not reflect our expectations for the year as a whole," Chief Executive OfficerMichael Stark said in a release.

Basin Water builds systems to treat contaminated groundwater, and industrial process water using its proprietary ion-exchange treatment method.

Channell Commercial

Channell Commercial Corp. (Nasdaq: CHNL) posted a net loss of $1.6 million or 17 cents per share for the quarter ended March 31 as sales declined to $25.2 million. In the same period a year earlier, Temecula-based Channell Commercial reported a net income of $115,000, or one cent per share, on sales of $32.9 million.

Weak demand for the company's telecommunications and water tank products is expected to continue in the second quarter, according to a release.

Channell revised second-quarter sales expectations downward significantly to $28 million to $29 million, versus prior guidance in the $38 million to $-39 million range and said it expected net income to fall between a loss of one cent per share and a profit of two cents per share, compared with prior expectations in the 26 cents to 27 cents-per-share range.

In financial filings, the company said it had reduced the work force at its Bushman Tanks subsidiary in Australia by 25% and reduced activity at three facilities.

On April 29, Channell was notified that it is out of compliance with Nasdaq market listing requirements due to the resignation of an independent board member.

The company has said it expects to resolve that issue within the time allotted by Nasdaq. The Press-Enterprise contributed to this report.