The word in the financial community is that consolidation is likely to start occurring in our industry. Really? Didn’t I write about that almost 18 months ago? Yet frankly it will start to really speed up when the cost of acquiring companies is cheaper than the cost of expanding capacity.
With current stock prices relatively high, when compared to other more mature industries, the current sentiment seems to expand internal capacity in a race to the finish, rather than to buy out competition. This will change as the industry swings become more predicatable and less volatile.
For ICP Solar, we’re in a unique position in that we go with the flow. If cell prices continue to look to drop, our customers benefit. If cell prices increases, we raise prices like everyone else. The barrier to entry into our market is more complex, although admittedly less expensive, than the commodity end of the market. We offer services beyond products and innovation is the key in our part of the business, whereas cost per watt is the focus on the mainstream players side.
With several new channels now being targeted by us, and with a consistent reduction of non-profitable business being shelved, our turnaround is focusing on high margin and high volume opportunities, far beyond what we have targeted to date. Expect innovations to focus on mass appeal targets and simplified adaptability. The key to our success will lie in how much better we use the microchip, not the actual microchip speed or cost. These are secondary in a market which is still quite open (tiny penetration) to a company which continues to service its clients better than anyone in the market.
Sass