Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Co., the top maker of memory products for computers and consumer electronics, reported a big boost in 2010 sales after a year of rebounding prices for memory chips and improving demand.
The company on Monday reported 2010 sales of $6.5 billion, up from $4.1 billion in 2009.
Privately held Kingston has some 800 workers here. It doesn’t disclose profits.
The bulk of its sales come from buying up memory chips and assembling them into modules and cards for computers.
It also makes flash memory products, including thumb drives and storage cards for cameras, cell phones and computers.
“Our company was able to take advantage of an improving global economy as well as catch some lucky breaks to achieve our best sales year ever in 2010,” said David Sun, cofounder and operations chief.
The sales record makes Kingston the biggest private company in Orange County.
Kingston leapfrogged Newport Beach’s Pacific Life Insurance Co., which reported $5.6 billion in 2010 revenue.
The third-biggest is Irvine’s Golden State Foods Corp., which saw $4.6 billion in 2010 sales.
Kingston said the sales gain was due to better prices for memory chips and stronger demand for computer products from corporations and consumers.
“Kingston saw a rise in average selling prices for most of its product lines in 2010, particularly during the first quarter,” the company said in a statement. “Demand was also healthy from both corporate end customers and consumers.”
2010 was a high watermark for Kingston. It’s second-highest yearly sales record was in 2007, when it recorded $4.5 billion in sales.
Kingston first reached the $1 billion mark in 1995. I doubled to $2 billion in 2004 and reached $3 billion in sales in 2005.
