Good summary on the conference call.
I was also impressed with the amount of questions and the higher level of energy in this call. The last couple sounded like everyone was sleepwalking through them, This time, some of the outside world crept in.
I think the Yen problem is more problematic than the Asian markets that make up ten percent of revenues, since it seems that Leica and Japan Radio Corp. (car nav), for instance, were providing price pressure on TRMB even outside of Asia, due to the exchange rates. Charlie Trimble made a point of Leica's advantage in putting Magellan in the red.
I will indulge myself here and report the good news out of the call (we all need some cheering up):
In the agriculture market, Trimble said "we're moving into a dominant position," with Rockwell leaving and Ashtech having left six months ago. In the timing market, he said that Trimble is moving from a number two position into the number one position over the next 12 to 18 months, and that market analysts would agree with this. (There was no mention of who is number one, but I suppose it could be Datum.) He said that the company had "rejuvenated" the land survey market (with the 4700 and 4800 series) and that GIS is doing "very nicely." The Beijing office, opened in June, is the one bright spot in the Asian market, and is expected to surpass this quarter's goal of $2 million in revenues (with $1.5 million in orders already received.) He was also pretty emphatic that the problems in the aerospace division in Austin, while still not completely under control, showed a lot of good progress between April and June. (April sounded like a disaster, and I suspect there have been a few layoffs in Austin to reduce overhead while they work through inventory.)
In response to a challenge as to what he would tell discouraged long-term stockholders, Charlie Trimble said it would be a real shame to get out and miss a positive move. "Competitively, we are in an incredibly better position than two years ago. We are definitely winning the long term race. There will be some nice announcements over the next quarter or two." |
