Optelecom update

Last month, I wrote about the “belt-tightening” happening at Optelecom-NKF as they looked to stem losses and “right-size” US operations, where the company is focusing its growth strategy.

Today, they released their 2Q results. Still not very good. $2.3 million less in revenues than this same quarter last year (ya know, during the 2009 boomtimes). But it's going to take some time for that belt-tightening to take hold. Here's a summary of that belt-tightening:

— Replaced the geographical sales model and realigned the U.S. Sales Department to focus on three distinct markets, Transportation, Government, and Critical Infrastructure, in an effort to improve customer orientation.

— Consolidated the U.S. manufacturing operations into Optelecom-NKF's existing Dutch manufacturing facility and a U.S. based contract manufacturer.

— Streamlined Optelecom-NKF's international headquarters in the U.S. to leverage existing international operations and perform critical functions domestically.

These actions are expected to generate annualized savings of approximately $2.0 million in 2011, with partial savings expected during the balance of this year.

This was apparently a serious pain the butt. Enough so that the CFO was actually given a raise.

Now it's all about looking to the future. Here's Dave Patterson, Optelecom-NKF's President and CEO:

“We are now concentrating our efforts to drive improved U.S. sales performance. We have recruited strong leadership and realigned our U.S. sales teams in a way that addresses the unique needs of the key industry sectors we serve. I'm pleased that we were able to improve revenues sequentially even as we significantly reduced our workforce. As experts in Video over IP and Fiber, we are positioned to facilitate technology migration strategies for mission-critical applications. This has worked well for us in the European, Middle Eastern, and Asia Pacific regions.”