Set For the Title - Again OTC : FLKI
Yes, this company is is likely to again foil the industries toils and win back-to-back successes?
Fate still has a chance to play cruel tricks to the enthusiastic bunch of researchers, engineers and chemists making up the FLKI research and development teams manning the controls where award winning product conceptions take shape, but barring her unwelcome intervention, it seems likely that FLKI will claim this year's title for European Product Innovation for its "Brilliance" line of professional car care, body shop and detailing products targeting the likes of Fortune 500 giants 3M and Dupont. The products, launched at the Equip'Auto Trade Show in October of last year are rolling off the production line by the truck load and are expected by industry gurus to generate well in excess of $ 12 million in sales.
With 160 products in daily production and a like amount in the pipeline FLKI has set itself for an impressive 2010, and the purveyors of its major brand conception, Clean Plus® will undoubtedly lift the year's winning cup.
That would be a noteworthy achievement under any circumstances, but is all the more remarkable because FLKI is a small ($ 25 million market capitalization - traded on the OTC under symbol FLKI) battling the financial Goliaths of the industry in all its domains. Ask FLKI's communication officer Manuel Garcia to explain how a debt free modestly funded outfit like FLKI can successfully and regularly take on the might of big-budget operations and the answers can vary, yet they have a common thread. The self-effacing answer from Garcia is that the research and development is the easy part. "Everyone on the FLKI product conception team is really passionate about their work and puts in far more time than they really should," he says. "Having the right people - a truly dedicated team where it's more about trying to get the results than lining pockets - has helped FLKI pick up points and repeated successes, you have to have the right people behind you or it doesn't matter how much money you've got." He added.
A quick comment is in order on the point of lining pockets. FLKI shareholders - some 4000+ strong - seem to be doing a nice job of that. With a 52 week return of 1900% for the long term holders and 890%, 390% and 40% in three swing trades last year, the company made # 1 on CNN's List of Best Performing Stocks for 2009.
But the technical crowd in the investment banking industry also agrees that this year is a positive mover for this stock as well, just to take one report from the gurus at ALLOTCBB "From the relationship between price and moving averages; we can see that: this stock is BULLISH in short-term; and NEUTRAL in mid-long term" and "(t)he narrow width of the bands suggests low volatility as compared to FLKI.OB's normal range. This is often a sign that a stock may be about to initiate a new trend."
FLKI has long been known for having the best engineers on the grid. This is perhaps because from personal observation, this global company really does operate like one big family. Their guys going from the seed of idea to the distribution of the finished product are much focused and have an incredible eye for the sort of detail that breeds reliability and their experience in consumer, professional and industrial products has meant that they have not made the silly mistakes that regularly cost their competitors, sales, positioning and market share.
Expanding the feeling of family beyond the company to its global network of landing platforms and distributors has also helped. Because of its size FLKI limits the amount of outside help upon which it relies. It is a model of vertical integration and a master at establishing partnerships making it a hands down industry leader in procurement and purchasing for example - just Google FLKI.
Maintaining good relationships is facilitated by FLKI's devotion to the concerns of the global distributors who promote its product conceptions. It innovates and struggles to prevent pass-along increases in prices that are nothing but the consequence of inefficiency or a callous disregard for the difficulties faced by resellers. The extraordinary success of one, the Clean Plus® Product Group is exemplary; the group has not raised prices to its distributors and retailers since 2001 and has suffered not the slightest drop in net operating margins.
"Being friendly with people, year in year out is the simplest thing we can do," said Garcia. FLKI knows from experience not to skimp on quality so that each product concept is a major challenge, because with a criterion of quality no lesser than the best of its competitors and prices not more than 25% less it takes a well oiled machine to roll these out. And this machine can be revved up to 10.000 RPM without the slightest damage. FLKI technical personnel all know the value of checking and then rechecking every component of a product's composition. What is crucially important is that product conceptions always make it to the end of the race! Reliability of performance, price and availability has been incredible for this industry player, with worldwide statistics for perfect delivery exceeding 98.6%. Incredible reliability certainly explains the worldwide leadership position of FLKI product conceptions.
And luck? Well admittedly even with all the foregoing it's not in the bag. But FLKI is known to make its own luck. They drive their entire effort to stay out of trouble, focused and indoctrinated with the idiom that to win you have to finish.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards. |
