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Attended the AGM - had the honour of meeting Truro Trader. SRT looked after us very well and gave a very informative tour and presentation. I think both Truro & I came away even more optimistic about the future than before.
Can't say I disagree Hardboy! I also met extrader who was also positive and a LTH. I said to several people " Can't quite see what can go wrong now" and neither could anybody else I said it to! All agreed we were poised for success. There was a round of applause at the end of the meeting.
Soft launch of Nexus soon and 50 organisations around the world, including the RNLI, are going to be given a Nexus for testing. The idea is that it will be used in various testing conditions by demanding people. Makes sense to me. Onwards and upwards folks
Can I ask any LTH's if they can clear up something for me - why haven't SRT been able to secure any major contracts (that I am aware of) with HMGov? Being a UK company and all that and given boatloads of traffic across the Channel and so on. Seems to me there is an open goal there and would help foreign sales - "if your own government won't buy your kit, why would we?..." as well as potentially being logistically easier to deliver on.
Possibly because a large section of the Conservative party are very much in favour of mass migration as they think it boosts GDP . Never mind it wrecks everyone's per capita GDP
My first AGM and visit to the 'command centre' in Midsomer Norton.
Overall impressions positive. My observations :
- informative walk-through the premises. All staff 'primed' and 'on message'.
- connectivity issues (Q w/Cardiff?) meant no interactive display took place. Unfortunate, but- if this can happen here- it's a salutary reminder of the technical and logistical challenges there must be in less developed environments;
- Nexus display v impressive, esp. the 'Apple-like' focus on quality, not just technical (H/C tolerance and functionality) but also 'personal' stuff like clarity of visuals and the 'feel' of button operation. Latency is critical to the experience. Unit retail price ($ 1,500) seems high but - in context of the target market - immaterial. It will also allow good margins ('blended ca. 40%' we were told later).
The unit can handle - if I got this right - up to 30 connections (a mix of interactive communicating devices anywhere on board and passive trackers like AirTags ), with commercial or leisure applications.
One feature in particular - a 'man overboard' instant alert (and location) when a device drops out of the pre-determined base unit perimeter - seems a compelling argument to convince even the die-hard traditionalist VHF user ('this is your Captain speaking') to switch over to Nexus- whether it helps save a deckhand of a fishing crew or a child (or tipsy adult) on a leisure boat.
There'll be a soft launch at an upcoming exhibition, with 50 or so units provided to a representative 'target market', with a mid 2024 target general roll-out.
For ATONs, there's a similar Japanese-like policy of 'continuous improvement', tweaking the offering with incremental features/add-ons, eg allowing some remote maintenance diagnostics.
The software team were conspicuous by their absence - a couple of rows of empty PC banks as 'place-holders' for staff all working from home.
The hardware /R + D area looked OK to this layman (and my more techie son) and I liked the investment in an owned testing unit to reduce/mitigate somewhat dependency on Flextronic.
The AGM business was handled well and the presentation + Q and A and conversations throughout the day gave me a more nuanced understanding of the business, in particular the 'soft' info re potential interdepartmental 'turf wars' (Navy vs Coast Guard vs Fisheries, for instance; 19 fiefdoms in Indonesia) and the domestic politics - in Philippines - of commercial vs 'artesanal' fishermen.
There's a lot at stake (fish both as food / livelihood and for export potential : a possible doubling of exports (USD 1 Billion+) if fish are 'EU compliant' . Pres.Marcos seems to be taking a 'hands-on' approach to sorting this out, with the current legal wrangle hopefully resolved in the next few months.
Customers often want a snazzy Head Office for their command centre, there may be a bit of 'mission creep' - certainly time invested - by SRT in massaging egos.
Contin
Continued...
On the business front, Simon again walked us through the system contract delivery cycle and 'bundling' of multiple interlinked phases. He sounded confident that existing facilities offered enough headroom for the resultant potential 'lumpiness' of cashflows.
In terms of MDA pipeline, there appear to be 3 x liveish prospects aggregating $ 140m (pls correct if I misheard this); as to transceivers, Simon referenced the US market (18m of the 28m leisure craft in the world?) and a newly appointed sales person there.
More generally, the Ukraine conflict and migration towards Europe seem to be moving SRT's product range up the political agenda, even (again, if I understood correctly) the UK was showing more interest than hitherto.
Last observation : very informative and enjoyable, meeting both the SRT 'team' - Directors and staff - and my fellow investors.
It's a shame only 20 -30 turned up...and the absence of 'suits' (representatives of the City) was a bit disappointing : SRT still seems to be under the radar, if things go to plan, I'd expect to see more institutional presence at the next AGM!
E & OE, NAI, DYOR, AIUI etc etc
ATB
Extrader,
Thanks for such a detailed report of your opinions from the AGM. The 140m mentioned is work in progress (projects) - orders SRT already have. I think the 3 projects which Simon expects to land soon (& in the time I've been involved with the company he has begun to realise how long Government organisations take to make decisions) were worth around 380m (not checked exact figure) and a further 1b+ of real live detailed projects in negotiation. So lots of future earnings.
I think the board would be happy with the attendance - they like to have a ratio of about 1:3 senior manager to shareholder to allow good networking over lunch.
And (I'm probably guilty of this too) but Simon would give you a good verbal slapping if he heard you talking about SRT in the third person. You're a shareholder - it's your company - so talk about it in the first person!
Hi Hardboy,
I stand corrected on your point re 'my company'. Maybe/I hope SRT is the exception that proves the rule, but I've found over the 40 years or so I've been investing that it's usually better for my wallet - and peace of mind - not to fall in love with a share ;-<
As regards future business, eagle eye over on advfn has posted his understanding of the situation (with a lot more other good stuff), which reflects my view
.."New System Pipeline.
I will provide a link to the presentation when it becomes available.
Following conversion of £180m (£40m+£140m) contracts over the past 12 months, the near term pipeline now stands at £380m. £260m is expected to be follow on business from existing customers, plus balance of £120m from three new customers. [Ed.: M East and Far East, IIRC].
Kenya is new on the block and it would like the project to commence in 2024.
SRT has pushed this into the £1.02bn medium term pipeline as delivery in such a short-time frame is unlikely."
Buses, eh!
ATB
Hi amoti_fati
I briefly explain how the sales cycle works in my post of the 16th. If the UK appropriate government bodies approached SRT I'm sure they would be welcome. But, as I said, they come to us.
The reason is that we don't have the resources to cold call. Our resources are concentrated on those customers that we judge, after discussions, to be eventual purchases. It's not the standard business model but then we don't have a standard product!
Hi TruroTrader,
I looked for your post - it's on 16th Aug, not Sept and appears to have been posted on the ECOB board, not here.
It's worth a read, hence my observation ;->
HTH
Thanks for taking the time to respond TruroTrader.
Not in any way meaning to argue/tell SRT how to do its business but wouldn't just one well put together cold call to UK Gov be worth the investment?
In asking, I'm reflecting on the essential long standing uselessness of the UKGov and Civil Service in identifying good solutions to any sort of meaningful issue. Unless being hit brutally over the head with the solution :)
As an external third party, I am also thinking that SRT's truly excellent technology is somewhat "hidden under a bushel" (no negative reflection on SRT intended) outside the fisheries/navigation sector. And as someone in international business myself, I have certainly experienced some benefit from UKGov getting behind quality British products and raising their profile a bit.
Anyway, just asking here as I haven't had the opportunity to attend any shareholder meetings. But meanwhile am continuing to invest in line with my modest means - in what I think is an excellent company.
Amor,
I had meant to reply to your post yesterday, but Truro did an excellent job. The fact is SRT are very stretched with our sales effort - $1.4b pipeline, which has approximately doubled in the last year. We don't need to go cold calling, There was an article in the Times which someone posted on here a few weeks ago which suggested SRT could help stop the boats crossing the channel. I'm not exactly sure that the journalist knew what he was talking about, (I hope no one on here is a journalist - not my favourite profession) but you'd think someone in Government would have read that and checked the story out.
The govt know all about SRT and it's capabilities. Just chose not to use them. I expect the backhanders are too small.
Hi extrader. My post was actually on the 16th of August which I forgot to mention. Not to sure about ECOB - haven't posted there for many a moon - to much negativity for me - mind you it could be valid!
Hi extrader. My post was actually on the 16th of August which I forgot to mention. Not to sure about ECOB - haven't posted there for many a moon - to much negativity for me - mind you it could be valid!