I am happy to respond. The Company has only been public since last August and we are in the process of building a following. The reason I mentioned the Chelsea deal going unnoticed is the fact that none of the upside is on the oceanographic side of the business. My point here is that the company is underpinned by this side of the business which is profitable and with this announcement has doubled in size. This should give investors significant comfort, given the fact that ESI has been successful in this business segment since 1973.
The upside in this company will come from the MoistureúPoint line of instruments for the agricultural, forestry, mining and site remediation industries, and the new oil well sensor product. These products average a 60% gross margin and the markets are just developing. ESI has successfully won most of the recent landfill closures in California (these systems average $60K)and is the technology of choice for the California Waste Management Board's staff. As well, the new airport in Oslo, Norway uses ESI's MoisturePoint, and the Japanese government bought a number of the systems to monitor the hillsides near Kobe after the earthquake and recently purchased several more systems. ESI has been demonstrating its product with Hardy (Toro) for use with their irrigation systems and this is a huge market. Hardy wants to introduce a system that is activated by moisture requirements rather than time, and ESI is the only company in the world currently that can provide a moisture profile.
Another significant fact is that ESI has been chosen to write the ISO standard for this type of technology.
The Oil well sensor is the biggest potential upside, it is being developed in conjunction with the Saskatchewan Research Council and two major oil companies CS Resources (Pan Canadian) and Wascana. The Phase II testing will is completed and will be reported at the end of February. Field tests will begin this spring and all going well a commercial product should be available by the end of the year.
The difference here, unlike most R&D companies, is that E.S.I. has 16 fully-trained distributors in Europe, Japan and the United States, and has systems in over 30 countries. They are a sales and distribution company with a proven record of ability to sell into the global market.
Lastly, as for improved liquidity, we intend to be very aggressive with the Oil sensor announcement, and build from there.
I welcome your comments, and further questions.
Take care,
Doug Horne |
