FRANKLIN, Ind., June 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a new video, Major General Duncan Heinz (USMC, ret.), President and CEO of IBC Advanced Alloys Corp. (“IBC” or the “Company”) (TSX-V:IB) (OTCQB:IAALF) discusses the Company’s strategies for future growth following IBC’s successful C$4.1 million capital raise and its achievement of operational profitability in the quarter ended on March 31, 2018 – the first time the Company had reached this financial milestone since mid-2008.
In a video interview, available for viewing here, General Heinz discusses how the Company intends to grow sales by acquiring new capital equipment and by maintaining a larger copper inventory, both of which will be enabled by the Company’s recent capital raise. He notes that there are several new product chemistries the Company intends to pursue in order to produce new and higher-margin products for niche markets. Finally, the General discusses how growth in the “Internet of Things” is already helping to boost sales for IBC.
Some highlights of the interview with the General include these excerpts:
On reaching operational profitability in fiscal Q3 of 2018:
- “In the quarter that ended March 31, we achieved a net operating profit of US$122,000, versus the prior quarter of a negative US$302,000. So, in a single quarter, we closed more than $400,000 in terms of net profit. If you look carefully at the numbers from previous quarters, we’ve been doing that kind of grunt force, hard work to get to these numbers. It has been all about the day-to-day operations in terms of how we do things more efficiently, how do we take costs out of our products, and make a better product. I’m very proud of the efforts of both of our operating divisions, and it has been truly both the Copper and EMC divisions in terms of achieving profitability.”
How IBC’s recent capital raise is expected to fuel further growth:
- “The immediate goal for growth is how do I increase my success rate in terms of order capture. In the Copper Division right now, a high percentage of our customers care more about my ability to deliver an item on a specific fulfillment date than they do about price. If I am able to produce that product for them, I’m more likely to get the sale. What is preventing me right now is the fact that … I don’t own the machine to be able to do the final machining on that work, and therefore I have to either find a subcontractor or I have to turn down the order. We have looked at orders across the last year and we have found a number of situations where, if we had owned a single machine, we could have captured US$1.7 million worth of more orders. And, those orders would have had a higher gross margin because we wouldn’t have had to send the part to a subcontractor to do a majority of that value-add. So, those are the kinds of targets that we are focusing on now.”
- The second goal for growth relates to increasing copper inventory, the General explains, “We are in an expanding economy right now, and you can see that in the [higher] price of copper … demand for copper is going up, and as it goes up, it gets more difficult to find copper sources. We will use a portion of the capital raise to increase our inventory. That will give me a buffer against supply stock and, more importantly, it will allow me to meet a greater proportion of orders. I can tell you that we know of two chemistries that I sell today that – anytime we have it on the factory floor – it’s gone. Those are the places we want to focus on.”
New Products
- “I can’t talk about the specific chemistries, but we believe that we have identified a couple of new product lines that could start to generate revenues in a three- to 36-month time period. Scandium-doped aluminum is just one of them. There are two others that we are really, really excited about, and which may be nearer-term than scandium-doped aluminum and allow us to enter into a very niche market with a great product at good gross margins. That’s about growing the top line.”
The “Internet of Things”
- “The internet of things is the ability of different devices to be able to talk to each other and to communicate and achieve a more synergistic effect. That means more computer chips, that means more bandwidth, more use of the internet waveform to do that. All of that means more computer chips.”
- “One of the products that IBC makes is components that go into high speed semiconductor manufacturing operations. Why do they use beryllium-aluminum alloy? Our material allows them to operate at higher speeds than other metals with better tolerances.”
- “There is going to be an explosion of demand [as a result of this trend]. We are already seeing that. If you look at our last quarter numbers, you saw a tremendous increase in the number of components we are shipping into this industry. Where we typically see a dip in orders during the end of year holiday season, we did not see that dip that past year. It has gone straight through.”
To see the entire video interview with General Heinz, please go here.
For more information on IBC and its innovative alloy products, go here.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors:
"Duncan Heinz”
David “Duncan” Heinz, President, CEO and Director
About IBC Advanced Alloys Corp.
IBC is a leading beryllium and copper advanced alloys company serving a variety of industries such as defense, aerospace, automotive, telecommunications, precision manufacturing, and others. IBC's Copper Alloys Division manufactures and distributes a variety of copper alloys as castings and forgings, including beryllium copper, chrome copper, and aluminum bronze. IBC's Engineered Materials Division makes the Beralcast® family of alloys, which can be precision cast and are used in an increasing number of defense, aerospace, and other systems, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. IBC's has production facilities in Indiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Missouri. The Company's common shares are traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "IB" and the OTCQB under the symbol "IAALF".
Contact:
Jim Sims, Director of Investor and Public Relations
+1 (303) 503-6203
Email: jsims@policycom.com
Website: www.ibcadvancedalloys.com
@IBCAdvanced $IB $IAALF #Beryllium #Beralcast
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