FORT LAUDERDALE, FL--(Marketwire - Jan 22, 2013) -  Ocean Bio-Chem, Inc. (NASDAQ: [ OBCI ])

• All-Time Record Fourth Quarter Sales
• Fifth Consecutive Fourth Quarter Record Sales
• All-Time Record Sales for Second Half of the Year

Ocean Bio-Chem, Inc. (NASDAQ: [ OBCI ]), a leading manufacturer and distributor of appearance, performance, and maintenance products serving the marine, automotive, power sports, recreational vehicle and outdoor power equipment markets, today is pleased to announce all time record fourth quarter sales were posted in 2012, achieved all time six month record sales in the final six months of the year, and seven years of continuous record sales for the last six months of the year. It is also the fifth consecutive record sales for the fourth quarter for Ocean Bio-Chem.

"The strong finish to 2012, including the growth of sales outside our core marine markets, bodes well for our business outlook for 2013," said Ocean Bio-Chem, Inc. CEO Peter Dornau. "We are seeing strong sales growth in our automotive, power sports and outdoor power equipment sectors. Our significant increase in our advertising and promotional budget is paying sales dividends and opening new sectors and customers for our products."

"We are especially pleased that our fourth quarter sales record of approximately $6.9 million, compared to approximately $6.8 million in 2011, was made despite the fact, as previously announced, that a major customer significantly cut back on orders, to put in place 'just in time' or 'same day' inventory," said Jeffrey S. Barocas, CFO. 

The strong second half year's sales was a combination of an all time company record in the third quarter and record quarterly sales for the 4th quarter. Sales for the year topped $31 million, down slightly from 2011 because of a decrease in sales to a major customer in 2012. We still fully expect this customer's sales to increase in 2013 as their inventory carrying levels have now been adjusted. The sales decrease in this customer's purchasing was fully offset with increased sales to other customers in the second half of 2012. We are a stronger company today with a sales concentration less dependent on one major customer," Mr. Dornau said.

"The sales growth in the fourth quarter was led by continuing increased sales of our fuel additive, StarTron®. As consumers are educated of the ill effects of ethanol (E-10 fuels) and how StarTron® cures fuel related problems, sales continue to be strong. In addition, we saw an increase in our MDG Mold Odor Control System products. We believe the increase was useful in combating the effects from Hurricane Sandy.

The complete Form 10-K filing for fiscal year 2012 will be available at [ www.sec.gov ] no later than April 1, 2013. 

About Ocean Bio-Chem, Inc.:

Ocean Bio-Chem, Inc. is principally engaged in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of a broad line of appearance and maintenance products for boats, recreational vehicles, automobiles, power sports, outdoor power equipment and motorcycle markets under the Star brite® StarTron® and other trademarks within the United States of America and Canada. In addition, the Company produces private label formulations of many of its products for various customers and provides custom blending and packaging services for these and other products.

The Company trades publicly under NASDAQ Capital Markets, Ticker Symbol: OBCI.

The Company's web sites are: [ www.oceanbiochem.com ], [ www.starbrite.com ] and [ www.startron.com ].

Forward-looking Statements:
Certain statements contained in this Press Release including without limitation expectations as to future sales and operating results, constitute forward-looking statements. For this purpose, any statements contained in this report that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as "believe," "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "could" including the negative or other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that may affect these results include, but are not limited to, the highly competitive nature of our industry, reliance on certain key customers, changes in consumer demand for marine, recreational vehicle and automotive products, advertising and promotional efforts, exposure to market risks for changes in interest rates and in foreign exchange rates, and other factors.