Questions & Answers

‘I had been researching the Surveillance and Security Market for some time because I believe that it is fundamentally a very exciting sector. The twin attributes of significant growth (the world market for CCTV and video surveillance equipment is predicted to be $8bn+ in 2010 – up from $4.8bn in 2005)* and a very fragmented supply chain present major opportunities for growth through global expansion and consolidation for those companies that have the right strategy. Quadnetics is one of the largest and most innovative companies in the UK in this field and so naturally I wanted to know more about it. I was delighted and honoured to be asked by David and the Board to join at this interesting and crucial time in the Company’s evolution and to lead it into the next phase of growth. We have the potential to become world leaders in our chosen markets’.

‘Without doubt – because our key customers told us in a recent Group-wide survey – our greatest strength is the capability of our product offering. The deep knowledge of our target market sectors embedded in the business enables us to design, develop and commission surveillance systems which are truly market leading and add real value to our customers’ operations. Of course the quality and dedication of our people featured very highly in that survey – we have some of the most experienced, dedicated and knowledgeable staff in the industry on our teams. This combination gives us the ability to solve very complex CCTV design problems and deliver systems which truly meet our customers’ design needs’.

‘Firstly it is about focus. Quadnetics is a business with a tremendous track record of organic growth across a broad spectrum of the UK market with some international success. I believe that to grow the business globally from that UK base we need to focus on a limited number of scalable product offerings in sectors where we can continue to maintain our technology edge. Those sectors are mobile systems, industrial systems and critical security systems where the needs of our customers are sufficiently demanding that few companies will have the skills to satisfy them.

Secondly it’s about efficiency. The diverse portfolio nature of the Group, which has evolved through a process of organic growth and acquisitions, had led to unnecessary replication of overheads and too many sites.

Thirdly it’s about innovation. By more tightly integrating the businesses, it is possible to create new products which satisfy customer needs in more than one sector and territory. Bringing all of our R&D capabilities together under common leadership will lead to faster development cycles and better products’.

‘It is really a mixed picture across our markets with some areas more affected than others. The North American Gaming and UK Financial Services and Defence markets have all suffered significant slow-downs of spend on upgrades and new installations though we believe that ultimately this will mostly mean delayed rather than cancelled projects. On the positive side sales of our on-vehicle CCTV products grew and margins increased and the introduction of our new purpose designed mobile video recorder has been well received. Sales into the oil & gas and marine markets were equally buoyant and we are now winning more turn-key integrated system projects as a result of cross-selling combinations of technologies from within the Group. The UK Networks business also had a strong year with record sales and profits’.

• ‘Continuing the momentum created by the restructuring and really focusing on winning business in new territories especially Europe, the Middle East and North America.
• Not waiting for the global economic situation to improve but finding niche areas for growth in spite of the turmoil.
• Ensuring that we have sufficient resources to keep innovating ahead of the competition’.