U.S. production ramping up fastLooking at the seekingalpha transcript, this is one of the things that stands out from Alex Fernandes' opening comments:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/3372385-avigilons-aiocf-ceo-alexander-fernandes-on-q2-2015-results-earnings-call-transcript
We continue to execute on our strategy of investing for growth, while maintaining an eye on profitability. In Q2, headcount increased by 111 employees and we ended the quarter with 886 employees worldwide. We're expanding in all areas of the business. However, approximately 48 of the new additions in this quarter were in manufacturing. This is to support our new U.S. manufacturing facility in Plano, Texas.
The build out of our U.S. manufacturing facility remains on track. At the beginning of Q2 we began using it as our U.S. distribution hub to fulfill all the U.S. sales orders. Currently, the Plano facility has the capability to manufacture and assemble a subset of our products. By the end of Q4, we plan to be able to produce all products in our portfolio at this facility.
I'm actually surprised at how quickly this is being done. I'm even starting to wonder if the buildup over there, along with the ramping up of support functions that's moving ahead so quickly, isn't a signal of something even I hadn't considered up until now, like a retail strategy to catpture market share from U.S. consumers, possibly in conjuction with someone like Walmart, who've had a well advertised strategy to promote U.S. made product since 2013.
https://corporate.walmart.com/global-responsibility/us-manufacturing
That would definitely fit with Avigilon's started objective of becoming a household name and would explain a lot of other things, like their big push to develop cloud services in Boston over the past year. After looking at what Walmart is offering online with regards to homel video surveillance products, most, if not all, the products I see listed are identified as Imported when you look at product details, With the Plano plant, Avigilon is one of only a few in their industry that could probably actually claim Made in USA products, and probably also one of the few manufacturers in their industry with enough scale to pull that kind of partnership off.
Just thinking out loud and trying to reverse engineer the approach Avigilon has had of late to a lot of things. It's obviously something they wouldn't talk about until they are ready to launch and which would make a big splash in the industry, but it's also something most people might not be thinking about, judging by the analyst questions they got yesterday, including myself, because it's not something you would typically associate with their busines model up to nowbut it doesn't mean a retail strategy it's not a very real possibility.