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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