First-Quarter Loss at Alpharel at $3.6 Million

Alpharel, the struggling Camarillo computer data storage firm, lost $3.6 million for the first quarter ended March 31 contrasted with a profit of $243,000, or 4 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue was down 85% to $628,000 from $4.1 million a year ago.

The company blamed its poor performance on a slowdown in orders from the Department of Defense, its largest customer. Alpharel said it has been largely unsuccessful in obtaining orders from other non-technical customers.