While just about every investor
has likely heard of globally-recognized companies and brands such as Lenovo’s
Motorola Mobility (OTC: LNVGY), Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Philips (NYSE: PHG) and
Toshiba (OTC: TOSYY), or healthcare sector operators like Roche (OTCQX: RHHBY)
and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), many remain surprisingly unfamiliar with
the increasingly vital carrying case and protective solutions provider which
reinforces these heavy-hitters: Forward Industries (NASDAQ: FORD). West Palm
Beach, Florida-headquartered Forward Industries conceptualizes, designs and
delivers an extremely wide variety of tailored carrying case and usability
solutions for gadgets produced by these globally-recognized brands. These
solutions are either packaged with the branded product or sold in the retail
aftermarket, and they significantly enhance the functionality, as well as brand
presence, of the core product.
Whether we are talking about a
carrying case for portable electronic healthcare devices, such as the blood
glucose monitoring kits used by diabetics, handheld bar code scanners used in a
warehouse, GPS devices for recreation and navigation, firearms, or even the
average consumer’s smartphone/tablet – chances are that Forward Industries
makes a carrying case, clip, stand or other accessory that the reader has used.
With a highly skilled team of innovators that work hand-in-hand with the
company’s OEM clients (or their contract manufacturing firms) to custom design
the perfect carry, protective or usability accessory and over three decades of
experience leveraging the premium manufacturing metrics available in China and
the Far East, Forward Industries is one of the most sought-after accoutrement
design shops on earth today.
After Forward Industries has
worked with the OEM customer and its sizable supply chain in Asia, consisting
of 800,000 square feet of manufacturing capacity, the company then ensures that
gold-standard quality control procedures are utilized in order to make certain
that the commercially approved production units meet with the exacting
specifications that have been laid out. The company’s logistical and global
warehousing capacity, as well as its comprehensive compliance structures, have
won Forward Industries mounting favor among the roughly 81 OEMs around the
world with which the company currently does business.
One of the largest companies that
FORD has such a tight-knit relationship with is Germany-based multinational
chemical and pharmaceutical developer, Bayer (OTC: BAYRY), with whom Forward
Industries recently signed a sizable carry case extension deal. This extension
deal adds to a relationship stretching back several years and has FORD
supplying the customized carrying cases that go with Bayer’s diabetic products
all the way through to the end of 2018. Such a deal speaks volumes about how
Forward Industries has become one of only a handful of trusted go-to suppliers
chosen by healthcare and tech sector majors to handle the accessories for their
most important products.
The Bayer extension deal should
also give investors a hint as to how important the company’s proven abilities
to satisfy the complex compliance demands within this heavily regulated
industry are, especially when it comes to differentiating FORD from its
numerous competitors. Little wonder then that the company’s Q4 financials
(ended September 30, 2015) showed a 2.3 percent increase in gross profit
percentages when compared to Q4 FY14, or the company’s 128 percent jump in
gross profits over the same interval. FORD’s Q4 FY15 EPS of $0.03 per share was
quite a feat considering the turbulence experienced by the company due to an
expensive (now resolved) proxy battle and paints a stark contrast with the loss
of $(0.08) per share seen during the same quarter in the prior year.
The company’s ability to turn
profitability around so sharply despite the proxy battle, and its ability to
shore up its OEM-focused presence with the Bayer deal, is a positive signal to
markets about where the company’s CEO, Terry Wise, is taking Forward Industries
this year. Consistently delighted multinational customers, who continue to
praise FORD for its quality and cost-effectiveness, will most likely see this
case and accessory designer through to a profitable 2016 – following up nicely
on its return to the black, with two back-to-back quarters of solid
profitability.
Forward Industries is now fully
committed to mustering sustained momentum via the hammering out of long-term
sourcing agreements with new and existing customers, as well as a broadening of
its product mix, which should help FORD secure access to an expanding customer
base. Innovation has long been the watchword at FORD, and its in-house
conceptualization and design capabilities are a force in this sector that has
to be reckoned with. Given that the company has the ability to go from
co-creation sessions with the customer, through traditional art approaches and
on into 3D modelling quite rapidly, rounding out the design phase with both
traditional mockup and 3D printing, FORD should be able to continue landing new
customers across the board with ease this year.
Already serving industries ranging
from tech, medical devices and video gaming to military, government and
automotive, the sky is the limit for Forward Industries when it comes to
design. With warehousing and production in Shenzhen and Dongguan, China, as
well as operational footholds in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong and Taipei, Taiwan,
Forward Industries can offer unique scaling/sourcing benefits to its customers,
and also has the global sales footprint to back it up. With sales offices in
California and Indiana, as well as Switzerland – managed via the company’s
wholly-owned Forward US and Forward Switzerland subsidiaries – FORD has the
cost-effective manufacturing/supply capacity, as well as the key target market
localized sales force strength, needed to really deliver in 2016 on its
aspirations of continued profitability.
This is true whether we are
talking about the $10 billion plus global glucose monitoring and diabetes
management device market (Kalorama Information), or the smartphone market,
which shipped around 1.44 billion units last year (IDC).
Take a closer look, visit
http://www.forwardindustries.com/
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