Marketing Worldwide Corp MWWC As Chairman of M
Post# of 1842
Marketing Worldwide Corp MWWC
As Chairman of MWW Automotive (MWWC) and one of the original founders, I felt it was time to intensify communication with our shareholders, as we are in a critical stage of the development of the company. I am impressed with the large and dedicated public following of our company and the significant daily trading volume that has developed over the last several months, if not yet at the share price that we all would like to see. All of us at MWW are extremely appreciative for the many constructive (critical) comments and votes of confidence that we have received from the majority of the MWW shareholders. At the same time I understand the frustration and concerns that exist among some of our early shareholders.
Based on this and the current developments in MWW, I felt compelled and obligated to express my strong sentiment of appreciation and encouragement to the MWW investment community. At the same time, this letter should also serve as a big picture recap of our recent history and in particular, the struggles we went through over the last several years, following the onset of the automotive industry crash in the past and the subsequent global financial crisis. We may have lost a few battles during that time (who did not), but all together I believe we have succeeded in making significant progress, not only in stabilizing but also advancing the company's development on many different levels. In addition the automotive industry in general has recovered strongly and is producing some of the best results since 2008. I am confident that we will succeed in the advancement of our company to the benefit of all shareholders and that we are at the starting point on a path of solid recovery.
Those who are familiar with MWW and its history know that we were well positioned to move on to the next level of our development, when the automotive and subsequently the financial crisis hit us all. Many companies far larger than MWW did not survive the turmoil. MWW, thanks to a dedicated core team, weathered the storm and continued, often times at the expense of and based on the sacrifices made by key staff and the core management team. I am also using this opportunity to publically express my sincere appreciation to them.
In the years following these difficult times, we reacted quickly and began working on the recovery by implementing a variety of significant changes and improvements. We adjusted our business model, reviewed and modified our client roster and established greater diversification inn order to reduce dependency based on client concentration to the Toyota brand, our major customer at the time. We hired a new top management team and were successful in acquiring a new CEO, Mr. Chuck Pinkerton. The recovery of the automotive industry will complement our team's efforts.
Mr. Pinkerton is a seasoned automotive veteran and experienced turn-around specialist and as the writing of this letter, has already accomplished implementing many of the goals and objectives we had laid out together in our recovery plan. This also meant changes in business focus and client targets, resulting in a shift towards the role of a service provider and logistics executer, not only in the automotive industry, but also the industrial market segment. We expanded our 40,000 square foot Baroda "Class A" painting facility with new production lines and an expansive logistics area and implemented many manufacturing improvements to increase productivity. At the same time we implemented aggressive cost-down exercises to make the organization more lean and agile. This allowed our CEO to utilize his long standing relationships to bring a large number of new clients to the table and expand the company's reach from a focus in the automotive industry to the industrial markets to further improve diversification and risk distribution.
Thanks to the exceptional work of our financial consultant (and large shareholder), Mr. Rainer Poertner, a seasoned professional in the public sector, who has been working with us from day One, we were also able to build momentum in the stock market. With the tremendous help of several New York and California funds and the many investors who bought our stock, we were able to fund our recovery efforts and the cost of new production start-ups and continue to grow towards a once again, stable future. While this has resulted in some temporary pressure on cash flow and the stock price, we are confident that we will be able to overcome this hurdle also, once we can demonstrate our improved performance.
The restructuring process was painful, time consuming as most difficult recoveries are, and is not quite completed yet. While we have succeeded on many fronts already and have newly acquired a number of well-established and strong clients, we have also been plagued with the typical delays that come along with new relationships and new production start-ups. This is especially applicable when it comes to new and very large industrial parts that were still in their final engineering and prototype stages when they had been awarded to us. Other new clients have already begun production with us and are beginning to steadily increase our production volume. This volume should further increase in the coming weeks and months.
Two of our largest customers, ROUSH Performance Products and Polytec FOHA, to name a few, are two of the most established Tier One suppliers and manufacturers in the automotive industry for both domestic and international brands and we have begun production for several of their new products. In cooperation with these two companies we are currently producing for the Ford Mustang, the Ford F-150 the Ford Edge, the Hyundai Genesis, Subaru, Chevrolet Malibu and several others. We are now beginning to see a steady increase in orders, expected to develop even stronger over the coming months.
Diversification into the non-automotive sector was one of our most important objectives and Chuck Pinkerton has successfully received technical certification of our plant, technologies and production processes by several of our large clients and approval for production samples that we're intending to put into full production soon. In addition we will also handle logistics for our industrial client GSI North America. Understandably, the start-up process for these high volume production contracts is complicated and requires advance funds. Often time's delays are caused by certain design and engineering processes at our clients' that are not under our control. Credible indication from our new customers though allows guarded hope that a kick-off for these contracts, originally planned for end of last year, will materialize in the coming 2-3 months.
While we are still struggling to finance all the newly awarded programs and operations, while expanding production capacity at the same time in order to be prepared for larger volume, all signs finally point towards a steady increase in business from new customers and the customers that MWW currently services. I truly believe that the worst is going to be over soon and we are once again set for a prosperous future.
So far, we weathered an unprecedented crisis in the financial sector and in the automotive industry. We made the necessary adjustments, we're working smarter and harder and our goal is within reach to transform MWW into a stable business platform and trusted name in the automotive and industrial industries. By doing so, we should be generating steadily increasing revenues and profits and subsequently improve the share value for all MWW shareholders. Most of us here at MWW are also large shareholders and we are all looking forward to benefit.
Granted, final success still requires absolute dedication and hard work on a daily basis and continuing sacrifices still need to be made by our core staff and the entire management team. Some of them are still working without and/or reduced salaries, but we feel this effort should be rewarded soon and we all should see the rewards forthcoming in the not so distant future.
Again, I appreciate your support and trust in our company and our management team and I sincerely believe, that with everybody's cooperation, we will manage to reach our projected milestones soon. While there may be no absolute guarantees in life, I can guarantee you that we have a very dedicated management team that is absolutely committed to making this work. We appreciate your trust, patience and support. Please go out there and let the world know about MWW as your contribution to the success of MWW.
Sincerely
Michael Winzkowski President and Chairman
P.S. I know everybody is anxious to hear about dollar values, time lines and financial development. Chuck Pinkerton will address this in more detail some time in the near future, once we are in a position to do so with a certain level of reliability and authorization. Again, we very much appreciate your patience and support.