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November 13, 2014 | Dan Beaulieu, D.B. Management GroupEstimated reading time: 7 minutes
Beaulieu: I’m glad to hear that, Anaya. I think tabl top shows can be very effective, not to mention economical, and they allow you to get up close and personal with customers. Now, a show I really want to hear about is the RF show you attended in Rome. How was that?
Vardya: We were able to sign up a rep so that was an immediate win. Additionally, we were able to capture significant leads. We were also able to catch up with our U.S. customers which enabled us to spend more time with them at a European show than we are able to at shows in the U.S. It also gave us an opportunity to meet with PCB shops in Europe and start to get an understanding of their capabilities.
Beaulieu: As you begin to wrap up this year what plans do you have for next year? Where is the company going?
Vardya: Our goal is to aggressively attack the marketplace and work on significant growth. We plan to increase our certifications and are working on getting AS9100 certified. We are also working on increasing the products that we are MIL certified on and increase the products and materials that we have UL certification on.
Beaulieu: How are you selling these days? Have you hired any new salespeople?
Vardya: Yes, Dan, we have hired two new sales people: Ken Moffat based in Canada, and Sean McConville, based in Maryland. Both are seasoned sales professionals and have had many years in the industry. We are working on increasing our direct sales staff as well. Over the years we have depended primarily on manufacturers’ reps and salespeople based in the factory. We believe that for us to be successful we need a healthy mix of both and are working on increasing our direct sales team. I anticipate hiring another person on the West Coast in the near future.
Beaulieu: That’s good. I'm definitely seeing an upswing in hiring seasoned professionals like Ken and Sean. I think that as you go up the technology ladder you need salespeople with their kind of experience. Can you tell us about your customers?
Vardya: I see a lot of customers coming to us for help on flex and rigid-flex technology. In some cases we are helping designers take a flex circuit and a rigid circuit and combine those into a rigid-flex circuit. Many designers are targeting higher reliability and this solution certainly helps with that. There also appears to be a little mystery to stack ups in this area due to the different kinds of materials that are available.
Some of our RF customers are looking for solutions to thermal management issues and are coming to us for potential solutions. This is an arena where we have a wide breadth of technology and know-how. We can turn around these solutions faster than any of our competitors since we don’t have to go to a subcontractor for any part of that process.
Beaulieu: What trends are you seeing in our industry?
Vardya: From a PCB industry perspective, we have seen a number of shops close down this year. In addition, TTM announced they will be buying Viaystems. Assuming this sale closes, it will certainly change the marketplace in North America. The jury is still out on what the effect of this will be, but everyone agrees things will be changing.
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