December Newsletter
VOLUME 27 NO. 12
Before getting to the primary subject of this Memo, Christmas greetings and comments about the accomplishments of this company in 2008, heartfelt CONGRATULATIONS are in order:
Gem Equipment is pleased to congratulate Key Technology for being named one of the 200 best small publicly owned companies in the United States by Forbes magazine. This is an honor that should make Key Technology’s management and employees proud. Being named to this Forbes’ listing is a huge accomplishment.
Now on to Gem Equipment. Even though there have been frustrations, 2008 has been good year for Gem Equipment. Since this issue is doubling as a Christmas greeting to Gem Memo readers, any discussion of the frustrations not already covered previously, will be saved for future issues. Four new fryers manufactured by this company, started cooking product this year. One of them was the first Gem Equipment fryer to operate in Africa. Fryers produced by Gem Equipment are now in operation on every continent, except Antarctica. Unfortunately, without a lot of global warming, there is not much chance of producing any vegetable products to fry on Earth’s southern most Continent. Meanwhile, back in United States, fryer repair and rebuilding is a growing business for Gem Equipment. During the past year, this company performed field work on 10 different fryers. At this writing, Gem has orders for field work on 4 more fryers.
While it is too early to be sure, Gem’s outlook for 2009 appears to be good. An expanded sales force is one factor contributing to the expectation for another good year. This company now has 2 sales representatives operating from Western Oregon, one from Eastern Oregon, one in Idaho and one in Ohio. This is a large enough sales force so that the individual salesmen can reinforce each other. How this works is best illuminated by an incident that happened last month. One salesman was making a first time visit to a plant in Nevada. On this call, he was informed about a large project at another branch of this same company. This information was forwarded to Gem’s Ohio representative. That day, the Ohio rep contacted the plant with the project for an appointment. Gem’s salesman has already had a meeting with the plant’s engineering manager.
Due to slow moving receivables, Gem Equipment has had to request a temporary increase in the company’s operating capital line of credit. Approval was received for a large increase in a short time. According to the bank’s loan officer, Gem Equipment represents the type of business customer his bank prefers. This company is small enough so the line can be covered by one bank (a large loan to a business may have to be split up among more than one bank) and strong enough so the bank is confident the loan will be repaid.
GEM EQUIPMENT WISHES ALL MEMO READERS A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY PROSPORUS 2009.