A4S announce $1 million first quarter loss, but revenues triple

LOVELAND, Colo.--A4S chief executive officer Tom Marinelli announced in a conference call May 17 that the company's first quarter results "show we have substantial work ahead of us," but also show the traction the company has created in the mass-transit market with its ShiftWatch high-resolution mobile video surveillance systems. While A4S announced $1,124,000 in losses, roughly double the losses of 1Q 2005, it also announced a 189 percent revenue increase, from $74,000 in last year's first quarter to $213,000 in 1Q 2006. Chief financial officer Jeff McGonegal noted that expenditures increased because of extensive marketing efforts and $400,000 in spending for receivables and inventory. Plus, $100,000 in expenses were added because of new SEC rules requiring compensation in the form of stock to be listed as an expenditure. The best news, said McGonegal, is that while 2005's revenues all came from one source, Kansas City's mass-transit network, in 2006 Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, and Vacavile, Calif., contributed significantly to revenues. Further, recent national media attention regarding a stabbing incident that A4S's ShiftWatch product help resolve led to a large re-order from Cleveland and much better name-recognition around the country. Further, said president Michael Siemens, the law-enforcement market for in-car surveillance, which he called a $4.3 billion market, is something A4S is poised to attack because of his role in standards creation through the International Association of Chiefs of Police, who will release standards for in-car surveillance later this year. "Police chiefs and sheriffs began asking for guidance [on in-car surveillance] many years ago," Seimens said. The IACP will "provide that guidance." Siemens chairs the IACP's interoperability task force.