News

Screen Research Restructures and Looks Forward to Strengthening Market Position (3/11/2009)

Screen Research (distributed in the UK by Pulse Marketing) has announced a restructuring program in response to changing market conditions and to focus on new product development and introductions. Following an extensive investment program during 2007 and 2008 (including a new manufacturing facility in Nantes, France, and the recruitment of senior staff), the Screen Research group – with sales of $5.5million – has successfully strengthened many aspects of its business. These include product portfolio development, enhanced technical support and marketing tools.

These investments were planned when looking at a healthy market showing high growth potential. However, the knock-on effect of the recent global economic downturn has seen a couple of business quarters performing below expectation. The company had previously experienced a growth rate of 30% year-on-year, but has seen this slow to 2% within its Systems Integration business.

Taking a realistic view of a continuation of this stabilisation of sales levels, the company has considered how to meet the challenges of the prevailing market conditions. Screen Research’s strategy is to adapt to this situation and re-organise the company in order to secure its long-term stability within an increasingly competitive market.

Under French regulations, any re-organisation generates a significant short-term impact on the company’s cash-flow. By seeking the protection of the government during this period, the company is able to focus on cash-flow and on market and product development issues rather than on any intrinsic re-structuring costs.

As with many manufacturing businesses, the restructuring is targeted toward the production facility and to a much lesser extent to the operational services based at the headquarters in Nantes. The US subsidiary office in Atlanta and Asia/Pacific office (based in Bangkok, Thailand) are not affected by this procedure in both financial and legal terms. To the contrary, the company anticipates that it will be able to reinforce its US operation in the short term by bringing additional team members to support the US market. The performance of the recently established Atlanta office has been extremely encouraging.

Yves Trélohan, C.E.O and Founder, comments: “We feel very positive about the timing of this program as we recently introduced our new Classic 2 product line and successfully launched our new ISF®-certified MultiPix™ range of screen fabrics at the CEDIA Expo 2009, indicating a promising business quarter ahead.”

Mike Beatty of Pulse Marketing: “We at Pulse are delighted to hear the recent news regarding Screen Research’s restructuring. It allows Pulse to continue supplying UK dealers with the world’s finest selection of projection screens.”

With 6 patents and unique product solutions such as the award winning LeWing™, Screen Research has been recognized as a innovative company. Trélohan continues: “R&D efforts are our short and mid-term priorities as we are involved in a constantly evolving market requiring new solutions to match rapid developments in the video projector technology, pricing and application. We plan to introduce more new products a the ISE show in Amsterdam, in February 2010.”

The company communicated its plans to its distribution network recently and has been pleased with the support it has received. The current revenue trend is fully in line with its expectations. Screen Research is convinced that this action had to be taken in order to secure its financial position and has a strongly belief in the ability of the company and its distribution network to be able to successfully introduce a comprehensive new product and fabric program and implement an IP protection strategy.

www.pulsemarketing.com
www.screenresearch.com