MVIS 2024 Q3 AI Chat

Q304 CC Transcript Part 2

Commercial finished goods:



RR: Focus on ramping Flic and Nomad. First phase in both cases is behind us.

Value and demand of products is no longer in question. In last 4 weeks of quarter overcame production difficulties and now have sustainable production.

Focus on blocking and tackling coming to market.



Flic below expectations due to delay of large order from Shell Canada. Rollout from Utilitran delayed somewhat. Past 3 quarters have seen sales comprised of a few large orders.



Flic had strong October, 1500 units. Sales funnel looks very different – larger number of customers. Look for growth and smoothing of Flic revenue. Relationship with Smead is key – well known office products company. Flic well suited to retail channel – Staples, Office Max – shrinkwrapped file management applications. App software provider model of software delivery important to uptake of Flic. Smead launch to reduce price of SmeadLink product. Next front is to perform catalog ordering. JumpTech doing that today, 2005 significant catalog ordering potential.

Make bar code scanning broadly available. Growth in Q4 for Flic. Multiple dist channels starting to take hold. Repeat orders.



Nomad q3 constrained by production problems

only last three weeks of quarter shipping units to customers



quality is good, fixed costs should decline



began rollout in late september

immediate upturn in activity as result of availability of units

reference accounts, media awareness, targeted telemarketing



set targets for lead generation qualified requests



increase in sales activity across the board in October

400 dealers requested demos, across all major brands of vehicles.



reference account program helps brand awareness, prospects, feed sales channel with targeted leads effectively. Top 20 Tool award helping awareness.



132 units sold to date.



october best revenue month with Nomad

soliciation for purchase of 37 Nomads + accessories for Army Reserve vehicle maintenance depots

significant new market opening up

miltary sales to come in larger unit chunks; a lot of opportunities for Natl Guard and other branches of military

completed highly successful test for Air Force maintenance crews

recently seen very strong and growing interest in military maintenance

lots of money available for purchase of e-tools

broad categories of budget available to support purchase of tools like Nomad



targeting more activity from independent reps

growing footprint by adding more reps

adp + reynolds & reynolds will distribute Nomad in Canada & US later in this quarter

large leads coming from independent reps

add software + solution providers as part of disty channel



growth from repeat orders as well



Andrew:

power user groups of Nomad are developing

positive feedback affirming use of Nomad

users don’t take it off their heads

tool is boosting productivity, grass roots success and acceptance



RR: how many repeat customers?



Andrew:

6 key first installs fairly significant repeat orders



RR: in one case sold 1 unit a month and a half ago to customer, follow on for 5 units

sales cycle shortening -- awareness and ref accts shortening cycle (shortest less than an hour)

leading indicators look positive regarding continuing the trend

purchase decision being made faster based on appearance of Nomad as established product in market

initially estimated average 2.5 Nomads per dealer

avg number of nomads to dealer moving to 4 or more

larger initial orders now have multiple prospects for 20-40 unit range, one for 75 units

starting to see indications of product establishment and brand awareness



Andrew:

still blocking and tackling re getting out to demo it

major Chevy dealer in mid-Atlantic has 15 units called re customer needs more units



Tom:

25-35% brand recognition from cold calls of dealers

At major auto aftermkt trade show, 80% people have heard of Nomad



RR: moving to the point where the harvesting is easier to do

increase footprint, increase sales activity, more efficient channels



Stryker Brigade order for 10 units, preparing to ship shortly



pre-solicitation for 2 units for option of up to 250 units for Stryker

avg selling price $6,000

meaningful potential

number would correlate to equip 1/2 to 2/3 of a brigade's full requirement



out of $6.4M in 05 appropriations,

$2.4M piece is associated to mounted warrior program



250 unit order is sole source solicitation.

mvis is only source that meets their requirements

day/night readability, compatibility with FBCB2 and weapons sighting



military maintenance is huge market

commercial aviation is obvious choice, given very positive recent US Air Force experience

testimonial videos

within automotive, 2 major auto OEMs looking for manufacturing + mfring maintenance equipment

also interested other users of high capacity machines and equipment (semiconductor, consumer packaged goods companies have interest in Nomad).



primary focus for this and next quarter is on automotive dealership



prospects for contracts and oem design wins very good in current quarter and through 2005

sequential increase in contract revs

$3M plus is where we'd like to head for contract

product opportunities through 2005

worked through production problems, building out the channels, prospects going forward are excellent



final comment on financing

with lmra asset available gives mvis flexibility relating to financing reduces cost of capital

desirable strategies to minimize dilution



charles paulson: question - on stock for 7 years - accumulated deficit continuing to pile up

when can we stop going to market for additional funding

stockholders are getting diluted

when does r&d stop and big product wins come through



rr: endemic to category of microdisplays

not unique to mvis

things have taken longer than people have thought wrt

tech and mrkt dev

what's kept us on course is the company has seen oem opportunities becomes systematically more realizable

proj growth for auto hud - mrkt now emerging from 102k units to 2004 to 4M units in 2010

avg selling price $500 down to $200

very significant business

if company had not seen opportunities + sales growth developing

would have reduced dev in tech

sees opps as very very real

capital has a cost and opportunity has a cost as well

another key piece is on finished goods product

flic available for a year

nomad in 2-3 months

delays costly but now see much greater clarity what the product opportunities are

with regards to ramping

reducing to raw numbers, breakeven would require $14-15M

late 2005, early 2006 moved out with delay in Nomad

is very achievable

20-30M capital required to get there

cost of capital goes down as topline ramps

if topline grows from contracts and products will reduce cost of capital

lmra asset will contribute to lower cost of capital.



cp: what is burn rate annualized

rr: 25-26 M annual burn rate

2005 ramp towards 15M quarter burn rate will come down towards latter part of the year

can get to $20M next year then couple quarters of much smaller losses

lmra gives flexibility $42M asset can be collared and hedged to access capital and maintain upside

more desirable position

post bubble downturn -



jim from unterberg towbin: what is prod capability on nomad right now

rr: nomad units held at 50/week capacity 150/week

driven more by inventory and purchasing strategy

jim: yields on those units

rr: quite high as finished goods,

components and subsystems, difficult to parse it out will require more analysis

finished goods quality over 90% yield

returns are low - defects are low

jim: why not more aggressive re lowering cost structure

rr: maintain cost increase sales + mktg budget

need thrust off the runway

ought to reduce engineering effort with flic and nomad

increase in opex had to do with mfring - scrap, inventory, inefficiency, will trend back down

need to maintain r+d -- if they did not feel the solution would be preferred in auto huds and large consumer market and micro

customers are real investment levels are real , making progress moving to products

if successes were'nt being had , would reduce costs



alan robinson: progress on indep sales channel for nomads

rr: advantage is gain presence without large fixed cost

downside is activities are not owned, need to motivate and incentive to sell nomads in addition to other products

ar: backlog

rr: 10 units to stryker at $7000

37 units to other branch more normal ($4000?)

ar: 7k seems higher

rr: new unit has switching capability so that's $7k

requested capability

point on asp is good, not a lot of pricing pressure --

as we move from direct to indirect we'll see increase volume in value prop and roi

people are buying into product

ar: give flic asp this quarter, why is loss $10M cash burn $7

rr: 1.6M is lmra 1.2M is extraordinary operating cost

al: flic is finding market which is connecting to handheld devices

rr: think have opp migrating asp on flic cordless planning intro of expanded cpu version of flic

target is $100 on basic unit plus accessories



jeff neal bear stearns: balance sheet related, explain use of cash raised from financing, did include note payable

-- note payable was lmra obligation

sep did not include lmra obligations

jn: change in paid in capital ?

-- book value

benefical conversion feature adjustments [over my head -- ed]



rr: final thoughts, thanks for joining

theme of why invest why raise capital why not reduce cost

see expanding more legitimate more real

evidence will be seen very soon

contract + prod make greater contribution

if significant oem design win, perhaps that will validate the activities we're participating in

our tech offers compelling advantages

coming together in 2005

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