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| Stock | Falken Industries, Inc. | | Symbol | FLKI |
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click here to log in | | | | JustForBucks | Thursday, July 29, 2010 01:36PM | Focusing On Global Strategy OTC : FLKI
To boost efficiency and profitability, some companies like Falken (OTC symbol FLKI) have become faster and more adaptive multinationals.
If adversity is the best teacher, the Great Recession should have been a prime learning opportunity for companies worldwide. It certainly was for this company, the New Jersey based creator of innovative global brands and products, the most notable of which is the Clean Plus® brand. They’ve been at it for going on two decades. Considering that it garners 90% of its royalty and license income from abroad, the company’s challenges were great and compounded by a strong Euro that cut into profits coming and going. Coming because sales into dollar based economies were impossible due to high prices, and going because now that the dollar has firmed up substantially, its currency losses for GAAP reporting are substantial – so substantial in fact that they wiped out singularly the entire second quarter profit. A mere paper loss of course since most of the company’s purchases for raw material and research is European based – but still not designed to favor motivation among wall street traders that have ignored the company since its inception.
“We learned valuable lessons and gained a healthy sense of crisis” said Manuel Garcia, Communications Officer. But for the currency loss the company has been profitable in each of the last three quarters.
As one would expect, the tactical practice orchestrated by Helle Madso, FLKI’ president required a mindset totally different than that practiced in the industry. Management and the entire global distribution network had to realize that business as usual was not an option. Changing an ingrained distribution culture was not easy, yet Madso was able to accelerate a program of structural reform. “We consolidated overlapping functions and shortened supervisory processes” she explained. “Now we’re leaner, more reactive and able to provide stronger support for members of our distribution networks.”
The revamp also extended to the manufacturing units. Traditionally the company had routed different research and productions in separate, dedicated plants and facilities. To improve efficiencies it created multipurpose production units to manufacture chemicals and impregnated accessories such as wipes. Workers switch between different roles in the assembly process. The new composite system delivers such significant productivity gains and cost savings that Madso is now keen to roll out the process globally. “The financial crisis taught us that we can’t control our environment. What we can do is have a culture that adapts to circumstances” she says. “Ultimately it’s the adaptable who survive.”
To ensure that the company grows and prospers over the next decade, Madso has devised a plan for the next stage of globalization. The multipronged strategy involves building up the product lines, expanding the reach, and moving even more aggressively into the emerging markets of China and other Asian countries, and not to be forgotten, diversifying into new lines of business, notably disinfection and medical care.
If the rapid success of the company’s pipelined products is anything to go by, FLKI looks to be well on its way to meeting its targets. The company’s product conceptions are shaking up the market. Products renowned for their convenience, portability and usability (the company’s line product motto is “It Simply Works”.) have attracted large new audiences. Women where the purchase rate has tripled, and the middle aged, two groups generally ignored by the company’s competitors. “We’re aiming at 20% global market share by 2015, and it’s a target we’re confident of hitting” says Garcia.
In medical and disinfection products Madso’s goals are equally clear. She wants to grow the rigid business by around 70% in the next five years. Social and economic trends are aligning to support Madso’s bold vision. Eager to expand, but aware that developing the business almost from scratch would require a huge investment, Madso took the bold step of going on the acquisition trail targeting small to medium sized companies in Chemicals, wipes, and related productions.
Of course the relative economic robustness of developing countries vis-à-vis the developed world is another major post–recession paradigm shift that no company can afford to ignore. With no debt and a booming distribution network, market demands for FLKI product conceptions are on the rise. “Making a big push into these markets is the N°1 priority in the midterm” said Garcia.
Expanding into new business areas is as important as expanding into new countries. FLKI devotes a significant proportion of the roughly 10% of revenues it commits to research and development every year to move into promising new business areas.
But just as important to the company’s success is its policy on corporate social responsibility. Whether aligning itself with the UN’s Global Compact for sustainability and responsible business practices, or creating green products in environmentally responsible ways, all of FLKI’s initiatives are inspired by its “Social IN” philosophy. This helps people worldwide lead healthier and more fulfilling lives, and maintains that the value of a company that does right by its shareholders and society at large will inevitably rise.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Tuesday, July 27, 2010 03:37AM | FREE TRADE MATTERS OTC:FLKI
The word "trade" doesn't get warm receptions in polls, so it's no surprise that politicians speak only with the export side of their mouth, leaving out the import side of the free-trade equation
There aren't many CEO's of successful companies on the good-guy list these days, but Falken Industries' President Helle Madso certainly makes the grade. Falken conceives, creates, and manufactures things; it does not practice financial spins or guru magic. It cleans oil rather than spill it. As it stands in the world today, this company is an active generator of the sort of industrialized jobs that a recession-wrecked world very much needs.
In part, this company's ability so compete so successfully on the world markets is that its policies do a 180° on US trade policy.
This dynamic company offers a brilliant example both for the havoc wreaked on the US job market by the Great Recession - and the prospective for world markets to turn that desolation around. Last year the company proved itself a master of cost management and the envy of the industry. Its distribution network shed none of the 12.000 employed, its marketing and promotional activities were increased, profits were unprecedented and the distribution and landing platforms are recruiting.
Most of that job growth is linked to a substantial rise in cross export activities from its 380 worldwide distribution points. Nearly 70% of FLKI's product conceptions are sold only overseas. And, amazingly this company is finally no longer unique - though it retains a substantial lead - in the industry as other multinationals are recognizing the trend. The activities of countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa was the primary focus at a recent corporate colloquy sponsored by the company, convening CEO's, members of the press and analyst of the industry.
When Madso looks around the globe, she sees the influential of emergent countries moving uncompromisingly to remove trade barriers, while the US sits in the bleachers. Taiwan and China, are but to inking a mutual free-trade deal, as are South Korea, China and Japan team up to produce a free-trade bloc. The European Union where the company is firmly established as an industry leader with its Clean Plus® product conceptions will complete an agreement with South Korea that will lower tariffs on its product exports to the country.
How does a multinational like FLKI react to the US stand-still on world trade? Instead of abandoning the opportunities, companies like FLKI are finding ways to circumvent the tariffs, all to often by creating the jobs elsewhere. "It will cause us to invest more and more inside those trade zones" says Manuel Garcia, FLKI Communications Officer.
The US gives lip-service to being dedicated to getting key trade agreements enacted, but the Obama administration's support for business and therefore credibly for lasting jobs remains tepid. Getting whatever through this Congress will debilitate the Democratic Party’s liberal base, and this is an election year, hence the US will proceed with baby steps, slowing growth for FLKI competitors because the company, contrary to many of its larger competitors, is firmly established with distribution and landing platforms in all foreign trade zones.
And still to FLKI's good fortune, the word "trade" doesn't check well in polls, so it's no surprise that politicians speak only with the export side of their mouth, leaving out the import side of the free-trade equation.
Madso fully understands the emotional politics of free trade, and fears its row. "As CEO's were accused of short term beliefs, but FLKI has never thought less than 10 years out" says Madso. During the last decade the company has effectively concentrated on establishing its distribution network, trade zone landing platforms, and a reputation for product conceptions that have given it global leadership and a logistical 96.7% perfect delivery ratio to clients everywhere in the world.
"US policies refusing to be more proactive on trade, are destructive to the industry, simply, if the US hopes to compete from a US manufacturing base creating jobs here, it has to get off its hind quarter." concluded Garcia.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Friday, July 2, 2010 07:25AM | WOMEN leadership in the marketing machine OTC : FLKI
The how to of success : Buck the trend, witness a 26 year old (in 1997) Norwegian entrepreneur and her extraordinary success in that ever so macho world of automobile aftercare
As actress, singer, director and producer Jada Pinkett Smith once said "We still have a ways to go for more doors to open for women on every front. But it's looking up." Witness a 26 year old (in 1997) Norwegian entrepreneur and her extraordinary success in that ever so macho world of automobile aftercare. Her brain child, the Clean Plus® branded products, and her company Falken Industries Ltd of Trenton New Jersey, are global operators distributing product conceptions through more than 380 distribution plateforms worldwide.
Car care products directed to women ? And why not ? While and notably in 1997 such a statement would hardly suit the then conventional wisdom a quick look at these product conceptions and you can wonder why they do not yet figure quite prominently in product-placement opportunities in your local movie sequel. Well quite aside from the fact that they are as likely to do so as girls evolving from Manolos to Louboutin stilettos, or Apple Computers substituted by the sleeek Hewlett Packard machines that look a bit like fashion accessories themselves these products designed and vested with style and performance are certain to make women's hearts beat faster provide speed, ease, and a marvelous shine.
Did you know that women own more than 50% of all registered automobiles ? Did you know that women are 80% of the component of a decision to buy a car ? Yet world wide there is but one company, that starting in 1997 has created a line taking women as a primary target.
FLKI and the Clean Plus® product group are not the only companies eying the women's market and wondering if it might hold a secret to success in a rough economic climate. FLKI is simply the first to identify it and to secure for itself a well implanted leadership position. Even before the economic crisis, FLKI realized that women's financial power in both rich and poor countries was increasing, but the downturn gave women an extra leg up. Men lost more jobs, whereas women started more companies. Meanxhile the pay gap continued to decrease. Assuming the trend continues women will make more than average man by 2024 with developing and major emerging market nations following closely behind.
What's amazing is that FLKI's collosal competitors were unable to cotton onto this, leaving this enormous market to the Clean Plus® group and its distribution channels. Simply the general concensus of the established companies, ie Turtle Wax, Armor All, 3M, Meguiars, Auto Glym, Sonax etc ignored and seemingly continue to ignore that women make the majority of purchasing decisions in automotive selections, but for these giants of industry, they remain an afterthought when it comes to product development and marketing. "A lot of the people making these decisions at these top companies are still older men" says Manuel Garcia communications Officer for FLKI.
"Women are much more likely to pay a premium for their favorite products, typically those that greater aesthetic and emotional appeal" said Helle Madso, president of FLKI and creator of the Clean Plus® conceptions. it's no accident that Clean Plus® is the most favored brand across all product categories for women.
They make things that work and which are beautiful is a comment oft heard by this writer in various interviews. The products have better finishes, more sensually appealing components and higher-quality.
The industry remains blind to FLKI's success in product conceptions, its traded stock (symbol FLKI) is nowhere near reflecting its potential, and the sound of women stating that the industry has failed to meet their needs has no listeners save in the halls of Trenton or Oslo Norway where the product group is headquartered.
The Clean Plus® product group crafts strategies geared toward women's life cycle and its web site is far more accessible than that of its competitors. It's a smart move given that women are going to control the majority of the world's new earned income over the next decade, and they'll be spending it on a lot more than $ 800 gold heels.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Saturday, June 12, 2010 11:35AM | FALKEN STAYS ON TOP OTC : FLKI
It is more than eight years since I first wrote about the Falken (FLKI) concept - most known for its Clean Plus® product conceptions. The idea that a concept targetting women in car care, complete with a how to that didn't assume an out of its element consumer would come to play a new and mor muscular role in the global market for car maintenance, care, and detailling. Throughout the period leading up to the economic crash of late, I often felt that the durability of this small creative company taking on behemoths of the trade, would have to be tested through an economic shock.
It is one thing to come up with great concepts and designs, great performance an still greater abilities to control cost and deliver better for less - when everything elsewhere seems fine, but strenght can only really be proven through less favorble external conditions. The reent turmoil certainly qualified as that and the FLKI concept an product distribution network survived it well. Indeed, these days I think that the combined world wide sales of FLKI product concepts and its distributors might exceed that of its largest competitors such as 3M's Meguiars, Clorox' Armor All, Honeywell's Holt and Turtle wax. Projecting historical rates of growth and notably current performance and abilities as noted in press releases and other professional media, by 2017, combined. So why has this crisis been good for FLKI ?
It has demonstrated the failing and unsustainability of the pass along, no price is limited philosophy of its competitors as of the arrogance of lacking research and development - a wax is a polish is a wax, same sh.. different label so present in the market for car care notably with the then controlling brands. The decline of these giants convinced FLKI that they must seize and quickly, what it takes to stimulate spending on car care if it had to have any chance of achieving its goals. The two recent press releases reporting 4Q and 1Q results demonstrate that FLKI's swift and savvy stimulus plan for its distribution network is working. FLKI has overtaken its largest competitors in at least one of its product conceptions and is hot on their heels, or may even have surpassed them in products covering the professional trades, industry, and private label.
Despite the crisis, FLKI management did not panic and the stability culture in the company fostered by its management has survived. Extraordinary work on the procurement side has bested its production costs by large margins over that of its strongest competitors. Low inflation is a new reality, and the investment climate is strong - FLKI is seizing the opportunity expanding its global distribution of innovative product concept, priced on a global price list adjusted for purchasing power. Implantations in the BRIC, but also in the struggling "third world" and East Block are developping aggressively.
FLKI has improved its business model in large part by boosting efficiency in nearly every aspect of its activities. It's distribution expansion has for the better part of two years targetted the so-called N11, or the "Next 11" many of which have emerged from the crisis in better shape than predicted. I Asia, Populous Indonesia is perhaps the most exciting of these countries and some people are suggesting it might even become as big as one of the BRICs where FLKI product conceptions are very present. FLKI's prospects with its wide range of producgt conceptions, over 160 products in active production, and at least as many in a "ready" pipeline coupled to its ability to raise prices and still remain considerably below its nearest competition makes its prospects for the future quite encouraging.
Mexico, Nigeria and Turkey also show great promise for FLKI product conceptions. Turkey is especially intriguing, given its young and vibrant population and its unique position as a bridge between East and West. FLKI new business development efforts are activelly present with distribution platforms already in Turkey.
What is FLKI going to look like as it adjusts to these demands upon its creativity, conceptions, procurement and logistic challenges ? Surely there will be all sorts of unpredictable political and econmic developments associated with its rise. This makes its talented management, and strong focus on procurement and operating costs all the more important as a venue for enhancing profit. FLKI already exerts a disproportionate impact, given its size, on the huge automobile after-market industry. My bet is that FLKI and its shareholders will become wealthier, and that the consumer will continue to enjoy high tech, top of the line product conceptions at prices it can actually afford.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Monday, February 15, 2010 02:10PM | Small is best, but hedge the political risk by investing in that opportunity choosing the safer route OTC : FLKI
Unless you like the high of loss and figure among the family of day traders betting on odds of 1080:1 you’ll insist on these rules as a precondition of your dollar’s transmission.
You know things are out of whack when the press reports overwhelming confidence by Americans because the nation only lost 11,000 jobs in the current month, and traders call a stock that returned 1,900% in the last 52 weeks and the swing traders among them 890% then 390% then a final 40%, and in 2010 is repeating the pattern by its current downswing, a pig.
For the first item after all, the unemployment rate did come down to “only” 10%, the worst in decades, for the second to hell with the facts and fundamentals, the history and record, the to easily manipulate volume and the chart that’s what’s important and that of course is what is contributing to the remarkable success story of these individuals, 1080 of them lose money to every one that makes some.
Consistent with both examples is that there is no real end in sight. U.S. unemployment is expected to remain in the stratosphere for years to come, the best projections putting it at 8 percent for 2014. “The average American will not be better off in five years – unemployment will remain high and wage growth will continue to be flat,” said chief among the gurus George Soros who forecast n “age of wealth destruction” four months before the crisis hit.
As to the second item, volume and charts are wholly irrelevant, flat is the new up with two to three swing trades provided for the short term hungry, setting up the next high.
And while the first will be pumped with billions – to a point - to prevent job losses from being worse, nothing but fools will pump up the traditional day trader’s heaven, Pink Sheet non reporting, no information, no business but great hype and web sites entities that fill the interest of gossip in chat rooms.
Things are different and require different measures. In the first instance growing debts will not allow the governments anywhere to spend much more for dubious results. In the second every investor and trader can change his destiny, notably with the high yield potentials found on Pink Sheets.
Beware of your reaction. Pink Sheets finds hundreds of behemoths companies like Toyota amongst its ranks. And with them hundreds of small companies, with real businesses, real products, real potential, innovative management : one common feature, they are “reporting companies” which on Pink Sheets means they hold the designation “Current Information”. Any company proposed that does not hold a “Current Information” should be dismissed from consideration at once.
Among the “Current Information” companies there are tell-tale signs of concerns. Ambiguous unverifiable press releases, no press or industry reports or articles present on a Google search of the symbol, the horrific mention of “over priced” in relation to their stock by industry analyst, the ever present projections relating to income, and products and approvals forever to come and flower the bed of anxious shareholders and example that comes to mind is SPGN and there are hundreds of these chat room sweetheart that have tanked investor hopes and bounties.
This is an era where normal is defined otherwise. Flat is the new normal. Crash the stock will drop 15 to 25%, bang it will take its time (two to three months) to pop back up and establish a new base above the last. It will do this two to three times during the year. Volume and charts are of no consequence for these stocks, what goes in goes out the same way, in chunks of 10,000 in and 5000 out. Due diligence has changed. Go right to management or to the internet shop, buy (do not ask for free samples), use, touch, smell and witness the reality of the product, call the company or better address a note to the dedicated Email line for shareholders – ask where and how you can buy the products. Best still write the communication officer – not the IR or PR firm… the communication officer of the company. Beware a communication officer who turns to be the President, CEO or some other high ended “title” his or interest will be to promote shares not the business.
There are key differences in this recession and past ones. Small is best. By small I mean companies with a market capitalization of no less than 10 million, a float of no less than 4 times the number of shareholders, and total shares outstanding of no more than 75% of the currently authorized. Unless you like the high of loss and figure among the family of day traders betting on odds of 1080:1 you’ll insist on these rules as a precondition of your dollar’s transmission.
Remember debts, the ratio of current assets to current liabilities is crucial in these times of difficult money. Strike immediately any company with current liabilities superior to current assets.
Globalization continues to take a toll on US based companies, and this is reflecting in the job market, now even white-collar. Emerging markets have come out of the financial crisis richer and stronger. Hedge the political risk however, invest in that opportunity choosing the safer route a small (market cap between 10 and 50 million) company rated “Current Information” on the Pinks who is well positioned in emerging markets putting the focus of its investment and new business development there. Finding this is relatively easy, Google the press on the stock symbol, seek reports on activity in emerging small countries.
Note that these targeted countries have better educated, more-productive workers which are increasingly able to perform jobs higher up the food chain. Demand is just beginning and the prize will go to the product or brand that present, will aggressively indoctrinate the populace of these countries, jump starting and then keeping their interest.
I am an analyst in the Automobile After-Market Industry, and am conscious that
This article begs the question of what company do I know that meets all of the prerequisite criteria to merit your investment dollar. I can only answer in respect to my industry, and there I can only underline one such company, Falken Industries, a small ($ 30 million market capitalization) New Jersey based publicly traded company (symbol FLKI) whose award winning product conceptions are present globally and whose aggressive strategic leadership on establishing landing platforms in countries such as Egypt, Bulgaria, Russia etc is well known. One by one and unambiguously the company historically meets these investment criteria. The stock has recently been hit by heavy profit taking and is positioned to enter its first swing trade for 2010 – I’m buying, what more can I say?
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Saturday, February 13, 2010 01:56PM | Whereas the industry must play catch up, this company continues its uninterrupted motoring through world wide markets. OTC : FLKI
The blathering nabobs of negativism are ignoring the facts – the important facts.
Pessimism in the Automobile Industry, let alone the Automobile After-market industry has controlled emotions for all of 2009. The gurus on both sides are all holding to the theory that nothing will work. It can’t work. Well they’re wrong, and couldn’t be more wrong. While traders, notably the one’s who call themselves “day traders” (and I don’t mean the professionals of the trade) are a demonstrative case and classic example of throwing good money after bad, it has become a foregone conclusion that these individuals are in the game not for the gain, but for the high – how else can you define someone making repeated bets 1080 / 1 against him?
But there is an exception to all this gloom and doom. A small company very much in that industry, that has been making industry news since its inception in 1997.
This company has been plotting, fiddling and concentrating on the fundamentals of its business. Do you remember a time when publicly listed companies were more worried about their products than their quarterly filings? Well here is an example, this small company barely $ 30 million in market cap, has clobbered giants and established itself as a formidable global player with its product conceptions distributed world wide. Just Google FLKI you’ll see plenty to wonder about. “The company‘s success has been better than we expected, in fact than anyone in this industry expected” said Manuel Garcia, communications officer.
Skeptics are now focused on the why’s of the company’s relative unknown status with the investment banking industry. With more than 4000 shareholders; there never fail to be one to remind management that its disengagement with the promotion and public awareness of its stock is contributing to the grossly undervalued share price of barely 20 cents.
While not a day trader’s paradise, the company historically caters to swing traders and intermediate investors. Traditionally it provides 2 to 3 swing trades each year, last year 3, yielding 890%, 390%, and 40% - and now has seemingly bottomed on what will be its first swing trade for 2010. Project a price? Sure I will. I project a bounce over the next two to three months breaking its last established swing high of 19 cents and all the way through to 23 cents – that would complete the first swing trade for 2010.
The entrepreneurial management is fiercely independent and known for its seeming disinterest for pursuing let alone cooperating with its regular mega-bucks suitors. But with rumors tossing about prices of near $ 3 per share for how long? This is a company that has sacrificed nothing for the betterment of shareholders, delivering a 1900% return for those on board in the last 52 weeks.
This notwithstanding impatience remains. This is not a short term day trade. The fundamentals are fabulous – and I should know, as I have been an analyst in the Automobile After-Market Industry for the last 26 years. I have covered this little company since its birth in Trenton in 1997. Success is on the way for disheartened short term traders, even volume and pretty charts will come. This is strongly suggested by readily available data, and it all will happen sooner than one thinks because at last, the company has announced the creation of a public awareness cell within its communication department.
It’s too late for FLKI competitors to recapture market share lost to the company’s aggressive implantations. In fact it’s simply much cheaper to take the company out, buy it and buy it cheap on a deal which I would speculate can be done for between $ 2-3 per share. Less for a sizeable portion in fact, because there is no controlling block, and a large increasing float. It should be no major problem acquiring 10-15% at under or just above a dollar with much of it at present undervalued levels.
Fourth quarter figures are expected to be announced on February 15 +/- with major news thereafter so says the scuttlebutt in the industry. Reportedly a significant increase in sales will be announced. With the economy improving and the four steps of market recoveries rolling along, demand will pick up. This will have a major impact on FLKI, but little to show for its publicly traded behemoth competitors whose car care subsidiaries have little to offer to counter FLKI award winning product conceptions and therefore to the managerial requirements of quarterly reporting.
We’re in the fourth step right now, but whereas the industry must play catch up, FLKI continues its uninterrupted motoring through world wide markets.
The industry with rare exceptions such as the one depicted above has suffered this economic contraction with a darkened mood. Much of its pain self inflicted. Prognosticators have been spectacularly behind the curve. Oops, since the unforeseen debacles of 2008, existential angst has led forecasters to err on the side of bearishness. Combine ennui with a tendency to extrapolate existing trend lines in the future and gloom begets gloom.
Nothing of the sorts can be found in the executive offices of FLKI where management radiates a mysterious enthusiasm. Something is cooking, and a quick Google search of FLKI may suggest the cause for the absence of pessimism. For the press covering this company, it has become an article of faith that it will continue to lead the industry globally. With an admitted more than 160 products in the pipeline and enough awards to wall paper a warehouse it is not a difficult assumption. It follows that the company’s policies can spell only success and that with a capital S.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Monday, February 8, 2010 03:43PM | Will they ever learn – chat rooms - Running with the herd chasing and paying dearly for rainbows!
There’s no gold at the end of those rainbows but the sweet and bitter adrenaline rush of talking big and talking day trade is well worth the pecuniary losses.
There are two regular presences found on the chat rooms; they are dominated by the “living room day traders” whose chances for a loss are stacked against them with the odds playing 1080/1, and they are sprinkled with chat room investors. The first bunch think the stock market is nuts and that its primary purpose is to give each and every one an opportunity to buy and sell quickly and often such, seemingly, as to ensure to a maximum; the American dream the constitutional right to lose one’s money – albeit the losers will say, but the sweet and bitter adrenaline rush of talking big and talking day trade is well worth the pecuniary losses.
Meandering through the ever changing recommendations – stocks are usually promoted artificially on a mere say so, and this is particularly notable on the day trade chat rooms – one can see the pattern and it’s never good. The stress and dialogue is never on the company but on volume, chart, cryptic press releases and micro engineered pop ups to sucker the gullible all of which for the small companies being “discussed” are and can be easily manipulated. It’s exciting and that’s the point for the 1080 losers to every one winner: it’s great to be the one though!
Try an intelligent communication or posting some fundamentally and verifiable useful reason to buy a stock and the promoters (the 1 in the 1080 present on the chat rooms) download an arsenal of diatribe, even going to having the innocent soul “banned” from the site for suggesting some reading before letting loose on one’s dollars. Chat rooms are a sucker’s game designed to attract the unknowing gluttons for punishment who rather than Google a company to see what the press or news releases say, rather than Email the company and get some veridical information, will rush to buy on an unknown promoter’s – often moderator’s - say so. The feeling of owning hundreds of thousands, even millions of shares (of a stock selling for a fraction of a penny) simply is worth the loss.
The second batch believes the economy is doomed and so the overwhelming consensus triggers a reflex reaction since the end is near; let’s make a killing, what the hell. The selection process is simple, any one of the fraction of a penny stocks promoted to the herd grazing in the chat rooms. Drunk with greed, driven by the high, the participants mask the depression and dejection driving their internal mechanisms; they buy for the sake of buying, knowing that the promoter will soon drop the bottom out. Look at SPGN for one of thousands of examples I have documented all of which were heavily promoted on the chat rooms.
Personally, a swing trader right of Attila the Hun, I like stocks that sit in sideway trades slowly building their fundamental business rather than their volume and charts. The first will ensure the other and the market is full of small (market capitalization of $25 million or less) companies that meet exacting rules to justify investment. Let’s take one as a mere example of hundreds – Falken Industries traded on the OTC under symbol FLKI.
As a general rule I stay away from companies (i) whose market capitalization is less than $ 10 million, (ii) whose press releases are not backed up by articles and general industry press, (iii) who are not rated “Current Information” on the Pink sheets, where most of these companies can be found together with Toyota and many other behemoths of international business, (iv) that do not provide swing trade opportunities, not less than one and not more than three annually. I like to see discussion about real deals at press conferences, not prospective deals. I like press releases that follow press conferences. I like to see products not pretty web sites neatly conceived by IR or promotion outfits. In fact the rule I usually find to apply in small cap situations is that success is generally inversely related to the size and complexity of the company’s corporate web page. I buy their products on their web store, touch them, feel them, use them and pepper their shareholder, info, or communications department with questions about products, products, and more products, a small company with less than 50 product conceptions and global distribution will not earn a right to my dollars. A small company that takes more than 48 hours to answer my Email will get no further attention either. FLKI passes all of these tests – and strangely enough, though it generated a juicy 1900% return for its investors in the last 52 weeks, it also generated 890%, 390% and 40% on three swing trades during 2009.
I am an analyst for the Automobile After-market industry. Consequently I admit to more familiarity (and a likely penchant) with companies such as FLKI who have a dominant global business in the industry. But the importance of the criteria is paramount and must be found, notably in a Pink Sheet stock, and this, whatever the industry you favor.
Of course one could simplify the advice for present chat room will be victims; as Keynes said, “the central principle of investment is to go contrary to the general opinion.” Good companies not unlike FLKI are of no interest to the dominant promoters which monitor the activity on chat rooms and spin their stock on volume and charts. You can be certain that when the chat room crowd sounds off on where a stock is going, that sudden burst is the center of the herd as it thunders toward a cliff.
Manic speculator is too kind a word for the 1080 / 1. They are a credulous kind easily parted from their money. Volatility, volume, charts and madness are the order of the day. Chat room moderators, all too often promoters pushing their wares sit around salivating – banning from their sites any participant polluting the environment with logical and edifying information: there should be no sunshine cast upon the goings on of their chat room.
Some will argue that the 1080/1 should have to pay for their sins of greed and leverage. I have to concede that this is tempting at least for the knowing, but chat rooms would have nothing to exploit if they were populated by anyone other than those noteworthy for their distinct credulity.
After every crisis one can find predictions abound that the crisis will be followed by a rebound and then a long period of sideway trading. I don’t buy it. Sure this is backed by past performance, but if the past was a a real component of the future, I and all other industry analyst would be rich.
Prudently I consider alternatives. As a contrarian I run from obsessions – much like those regularly found on chat rooms.
As for now my best gem in the rough, fundamentally sound, globally present and with more than 160 product conceptions out and an equal number in the pipeline, trading sideways for a time, rising bit by bit, I sound off on FLKI. Of course I know that because as you guessed it I touched it, felt it, smelled it, and confirmed it all before I put the whole dollar it took to buy 5 shares at the current 20 cent price.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Saturday, February 6, 2010 12:20PM | LAGGARD The « IN » word in business development? OTC : FLKI
Implanting the Philippines? Surely you jest!
Well if there’s one thing to be said about a small (market capitalization under $ 30 million) publicly traded company that’s also an uncontested innovative global industry leader, is that it never gets boring.
Falken Industries (OTC : FLKI) has an incredible knack for finding the most unusual markets and polishing them to gem like qualities. It does equally well in introducing its product concepts years before its competitors appear or come to take the market seriously. Today the target of its attention is; the Philippines.
The world has been passing the Philippines by, unmistakably. Back in the 60’s, the country had the second-highest per capita income in Asia, lagging behind only Japan. But in the decade that followed, South Korea and Taiwan had surpassed it, ten years later it was Malaysia and Thailand that streaked by and China not to be outdone did it in the 90’s. Now, to the dismay of the Philippine privileged class, Indonesia has roared by to pass it.
I was back in the Philippines (my first visit there was while on R & R from Vietnam in 1967. I was deployed there with the USMC from 1966 to 1968) just last fall: very little had changed in Manila. I was back in the same hotel as 15 years before while covering an Asian Automobile After-Market convention. There are few options upon which I could target my interest, there were hardly any new companies to meet and the same handful of family businesses controlled or in the least dominated the market. Jeepney buses were about, triggering a nostalgic remembrance of years gone by. To place your thoughts in time, Jeepneys were around during WWII and remains even today the preferred mode of public transportation.
The point is made early to foreign travelers. From spanking clean ultra modern airports everywhere throughout Asia travelers to Manila must plow through a 1970’s style budget facility overwhelmed by excessive painstaking controls and a novel tax which must be paid in local currency to pass through the return gate; tax calculated to leave you with a few hundred useless pesos when boarding (no credit cards accepted – cash only and pesos at that). The obvious mechanism is apparent; the tax forces a remainder from the even number that cash withdrawal from the local machine will oblige – nice way to generate foreign currency reserves !
Some of us can remember the 50’s and the 60’s. The Philippines were then the star of the day – remember Burma and Sri Lanka – they were part of the club of three. Forget the last two who fell into disuse and disfavor long ago. The Philippines is now a horrific reminder of how fancy projections go askew and why playing catch up lacks the element of inevitability – and this even for the Philippines which is, hands down, a wealthy state in terms of human capital and natural resources… hum are we getting close to a motive for FLKI’s global strategic success in these countries ?
True, the Philippines are not the only country that has lost its way, history – current history is tormented with such instances. The Philippines have missed out on waves of investment led booms and the quantifiably few successes translate into no real progress for a nation whose population is increasing at the rate of 2% annually. The country is a laggard. One obvious cause is the highly subjective enforcement and interpretation of laws and regulations. Simply the rules can change on a whim midway through the game.
Little wonder then that there is so little foreign investment – the Philippines attracted barely 12% of the amount invested say in Indonesia. It takes guts, experience and a strong back to navigate these waters. But why then FLKI’s keen interest and decision to proceed: Auto sales have stagnated and remain at the level of the 90’s. This translates to a huge pool of used vehicles requiring repair, maintenance and car care! That coupled to FLKI’s extensive experience in developing these markets, makes for a huge opportunity.
Will the game change with the forthcoming election? Manuel Garcia, communications Officer at FLKI had this to say : “Six years ago Indonesia and the Philippines were on parity and while Indonesia is hardly the epitome of economic virtue, it has, due to a modicum of political stability, had relative success over the past few years. We believe the same will occur in the Philippines and that reforms will usher in the good times.”
Garcia added: “And yes, FLKI will have no competitors. Existing products are meaningfully inferior to FLKI’s product conceptions, appallingly expensive, and lacking in all manufacturer support.”
With 10 million Filipinos abroad – many of which apparently shareholders of FLKI - better prospects are very likely to bring some of that talent to return home enhancing prospect for well established brands (FLKI’s most successful product conception is the Clean Plus® branded lines) by adding to the economy’s underlying productivity – it thus seems timely and judicious for FLKI’s decision to undertake the establishment in the Philippines of a landing platform and production facility targeting the Asian markets.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Friday, February 5, 2010 08:53AM | Why Bulgaria - nothing new about this "Normal" OTC : FLKI
What's a small publicly traded company (OTC : FLKI) from New Jersey doing establishing landing platforms for its product conceptions in far remote places like Bulgaria ?
These are no fools rushing in.
With a market capitalization of under $ 30 million, a global success disproportionate to its size and product concepts sitting on the shelves of retailers and in the shops of professionals and assembly plants of factories almost every where, the company keeps the momentum going and that, without skipping a beat.
Following the announcement of a recently signed $ 6 million agreement for distribution in Egypt, the company is now underway to establish a landing platform for distribution of its conceptions in Bulgaria : why ?
Manuel Garcia, communications officer responding to puzzled looks at the Press Conference said : "Modern Bulgaria is a vibrant growing nation that like FLKI is looking to the future".
The country is also seeped in a rich cultural heritage. Since the fall of the USSR, Bulgaria has been undergoing dramatic economic changes, shifting to a free market economy, privatization, and has benefited from significant international investment. Bulgaria, a member of the European Union since 2007, has an industrialized open free market with a large advanced private sector and strategically state-owned enterprises. The recent global financial crisis has proven no crisis at all with the impact on Bulgaria far less than that suffered by its sister EU states. Unemployment is low and the country has a stable rate of economic growth. It's expected that Bulgaria will join the Euro-zone as early as this year. Bulgaria's economic climate is poised for further growth and investment.
More importantly, Eastern Europe and the ex-soviet states where its product conceptions are widely distributed put the area high on the priority agenda for FLKI. Bulgaria has long been an important stabilizing factor in Eastern Europe's economic and political climate. At a crossroad, between major FLKI markets, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, Bulgaria holds a strategic geographic location. Bulgaria strategic geographical location between the Black Sea and bordered by Turkey, Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Romania holds a significant role for trade of FLKI product concepts in the region.
Bulgaria has a long history of foreign rule, and rich cultural fusion which has formed a cultural tapestry that can be seen in Bulgaria's culture, language and religion. Its rich history has left a significant historical legacy, spectacular architecture and beautiful cultural works.
Modern day Bulgaria keeps alive its ancient traditions while embracing the future as it grows into a modern state. The country has a well-developed energy sector which places it in a significant role throughout the Balkans where FLKI professional and industrial products are widely respected.
Bulgarians are enjoying an increased prosperity and the higher level of disposable income has created a high demand for high performance convenience oriented products such as those conceived by FLKI.
The Clean Plus® Product Group who will establish the landing platform has a growing relationship with Bulgarian consumers and is confident that its strategy for Eastern European markets will continue to prosper. The Product Group has a significant presence and continues to cut major inroads into Eastern Europe as it concludes numerous distribution arrangements in Turkey, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Moldova, Russia and Poland.
Bulgaria is the logical next step to complete coverage of the Baltic area. These are no fools rushing in.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Sunday, January 31, 2010 11:52AM | Set For the Title - Again OTC : FLKI
Yes, this company is is likely to again foil the industries toils and win back-to-back successes?
Fate still has a chance to play cruel tricks to the enthusiastic bunch of researchers, engineers and chemists making up the FLKI research and development teams manning the controls where award winning product conceptions take shape, but barring her unwelcome intervention, it seems likely that FLKI will claim this year's title for European Product Innovation for its "Brilliance" line of professional car care, body shop and detailing products targeting the likes of Fortune 500 giants 3M and Dupont. The products, launched at the Equip'Auto Trade Show in October of last year are rolling off the production line by the truck load and are expected by industry gurus to generate well in excess of $ 12 million in sales.
With 160 products in daily production and a like amount in the pipeline FLKI has set itself for an impressive 2010, and the purveyors of its major brand conception, Clean Plus® will undoubtedly lift the year's winning cup.
That would be a noteworthy achievement under any circumstances, but is all the more remarkable because FLKI is a small ($ 25 million market capitalization - traded on the OTC under symbol FLKI) battling the financial Goliaths of the industry in all its domains. Ask FLKI's communication officer Manuel Garcia to explain how a debt free modestly funded outfit like FLKI can successfully and regularly take on the might of big-budget operations and the answers can vary, yet they have a common thread. The self-effacing answer from Garcia is that the research and development is the easy part. "Everyone on the FLKI product conception team is really passionate about their work and puts in far more time than they really should," he says. "Having the right people - a truly dedicated team where it's more about trying to get the results than lining pockets - has helped FLKI pick up points and repeated successes, you have to have the right people behind you or it doesn't matter how much money you've got." He added.
A quick comment is in order on the point of lining pockets. FLKI shareholders - some 4000+ strong - seem to be doing a nice job of that. With a 52 week return of 1900% for the long term holders and 890%, 390% and 40% in three swing trades last year, the company made # 1 on CNN's List of Best Performing Stocks for 2009.
But the technical crowd in the investment banking industry also agrees that this year is a positive mover for this stock as well, just to take one report from the gurus at ALLOTCBB "From the relationship between price and moving averages; we can see that: this stock is BULLISH in short-term; and NEUTRAL in mid-long term" and "(t)he narrow width of the bands suggests low volatility as compared to FLKI.OB's normal range. This is often a sign that a stock may be about to initiate a new trend."
FLKI has long been known for having the best engineers on the grid. This is perhaps because from personal observation, this global company really does operate like one big family. Their guys going from the seed of idea to the distribution of the finished product are much focused and have an incredible eye for the sort of detail that breeds reliability and their experience in consumer, professional and industrial products has meant that they have not made the silly mistakes that regularly cost their competitors, sales, positioning and market share.
Expanding the feeling of family beyond the company to its global network of landing platforms and distributors has also helped. Because of its size FLKI limits the amount of outside help upon which it relies. It is a model of vertical integration and a master at establishing partnerships making it a hands down industry leader in procurement and purchasing for example - just Google FLKI.
Maintaining good relationships is facilitated by FLKI's devotion to the concerns of the global distributors who promote its product conceptions. It innovates and struggles to prevent pass-along increases in prices that are nothing but the consequence of inefficiency or a callous disregard for the difficulties faced by resellers. The extraordinary success of one, the Clean Plus® Product Group is exemplary; the group has not raised prices to its distributors and retailers since 2001 and has suffered not the slightest drop in net operating margins.
"Being friendly with people, year in year out is the simplest thing we can do," said Garcia. FLKI knows from experience not to skimp on quality so that each product concept is a major challenge, because with a criterion of quality no lesser than the best of its competitors and prices not more than 25% less it takes a well oiled machine to roll these out. And this machine can be revved up to 10.000 RPM without the slightest damage. FLKI technical personnel all know the value of checking and then rechecking every component of a product's composition. What is crucially important is that product conceptions always make it to the end of the race! Reliability of performance, price and availability has been incredible for this industry player, with worldwide statistics for perfect delivery exceeding 98.6%. Incredible reliability certainly explains the worldwide leadership position of FLKI product conceptions.
And luck? Well admittedly even with all the foregoing it's not in the bag. But FLKI is known to make its own luck. They drive their entire effort to stay out of trouble, focused and indoctrinated with the idiom that to win you have to finish.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Thursday, January 28, 2010 10:55AM | Hey, Do You Smell The Coffee ? OTC : FLKI
What's with the 100%, 200% or even 300% projected gains you're hearing about?
This always happens. I cover a small company ($ 25 million market Capitalization) like Falken Industries traded on the OTC under symbol FLKI whO fires up on a slow pace to heaven this past year yielding a 1900% increase for its investors in 52 weeks - giving up not a sous and people talk like I have some kind of crystal ball. Absolutely not.
To respond. I believe that the company is likely to top 600% this year from its present laughable and seriously post crisis undervalued position of 20 cents. That would bring it to $ 1.20 with its next resistance level at $ 1.23.
Simply, FLKI has consistently made positive gains from $0.01 to more that $0.20 oscillating to the delight of traders, three times for the year handing them the healthy bounty of 890% on the first swing, 390% on the second and 40% on the third. At .20 cents it closed 1900% higher than its 52 week low so that even passive investors were well rewarded - if you consider 1900% adequate of course.
Let's ignore the credible speculations of an acquisition at and around $ 3-4 per share which are permeating the mills.
FLKI, is going places. This is no ordinary company that just appeared out of nowhere and is beta-testing a product for the benefit of chat room traders. With more than 160 award winning products in production covering the spheres of consumer, professional and industrial segments, it counts fortune 500's and numerous major retailers on a global basis as users and or resellers of its award winning product conceptions.
FLKI has a 13-year history of bringing to market a full suite of innovative, high performance and value products - just Google FLKI you'll get the idea. Its product lines address the needs of consumers, businesses, financiers, scientist, engineers, militaries, aerospace, civil defense and automotive and vehicular after-care users.
These are the kind of products that turn otherwise mundane functions into moving, real time, high performance effective results. Some of these products are light years ahead of anything I've seen in the industry - and it shows, FLKI is turning the industry on its ear.
What does the industry see in FLKI? A better way to do business and to jump ahead of the competition. FLKI is a trend setter by excellence, it resourceful and savvy buyers pay 30% less than its colossal competitors, it sources even prime raw materials, it hedges market fluctuations to the fine tuning of a high tech banking institution (I know the analogy may not be timely !); but best of all, it conceives and designs products that are the envy of its industrial competitors and the pleasure of the consumer.
With a global network of more than 380 locations in 53 countries and territories pushing its product conceptions, it's no wonder that it is fueling interest of the industry giants.
When and if the investment banking community ever wakes up on this one it's simply going to be too late. While FLKI's ferociously independent management is unlikely to let go to progressively better offers with open arms, there is no blocking majority and with over 4000 shareholders and prices rumored to approach $ 3-4 per share, greed and shareholder interest has to eventually overcome the creative blood and independence that made the company the global leader that it is.
Well let's pay no mind and keep riding the slow train to success. 1900% last year wasn't simply so bad and if they send us our severance at $ 3-4 a share as expected, well I guess I'll go quietly...
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 10:37AM | I'm sitting back watching that time when everyone will rush OTC:FLKI
The market is not happy, it kicked and moaned most of the time as the news went from bad to worse and people decided to feed up a nasty correction. Everyone is moving to solve the issues which ail the world and this from both sides of our planet. Where's the sensible approach?
Lucky for all, I am neither a political analyst nor a guru of any sort preaching one thing or another. I am but a humble industry analyst and cover the most mundane of industries, the Automobile After-Market Industry; but mundane it is no longer. There's money to be made here, and the big one's are handing out both their money and market share to the small industry gems not unlike Falken Industries Ltd, a small company (market cap $ 25 million), brain child of a young Norwegian MBA and traded under symbol FLKI.
Very prudently, the company has been making its moves, it launched in 1997, and since its award winning product conceptions have lined the walls of award winners and the shelves of retailers and users globally. The company is responsible for more than 160 products currently in production. Through the thick and the thin this company moves early and has become an industry model at cost controls and in stemming the flow of its liquidities. Free of debt, it nurtures its business and as it names implies, from high beyond, it pinpoints a market and sweeps upon its unsuspecting prey. All too often, the hard won, century old markets of complacent monster sized competitors - but only a little bit will do you for this flexible instrument of creativity.
We don't have year ends yet of course but we do have an Internet full of useful information. Just Google "FLKI" (without the quotes) and read on. Management, which tends to be right of Attila the Hun in my humble view, suggest that preliminaries might indicate that sales accelerated 1.9 percent for the month of December - a normally dismal period for that portion of its business dealing with auto-care products, this from 0.6 percent the previous month. My own bet is that sales climbed 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter.
For the first time since 1997, FLKI doesn't deny acquisition or merger invitations or interest. It's incredibly creative management doesn't seem to take lightly its fall into major corporate America but the scuttlebutt suggest that at the $3 or $4 a share people are talking, the company is a done deal. Moreover there does not appear to be a controlling block so that astute competitors could quietly finesses at least positions of up to 4.9% (about 392,000 shares - a whopping $ 80,000 at these prices) before they sprang. The stock a basic unknown to the trading community is selling at 20 cents.
Let's no forget that FLKI sits with the technology, skill, and purchasing knowhow to tackle a 9.5 billion dollar industrial segment.
As I see it, the market's inaction, unwitting ignorance of this opportunity can't last. It is possible because the hapless competitors circling have no possible interest in putting a light on it, and the investment community are too busy licking their wounds or for the smaller part wasting their time on chat rooms. Hapless I say about the competition, because given FLKI's commanding global lead in product conceptions and branding, its is outrageously cheaper for them to buy the company than to try to take back the market share they have lost, let alone acquire FLKI's or that of its collaborators.
To me, the market's reaction is pretty entertaining - I'm sitting back watching that time when everyone will rush - the herd is on its way paying dollars for what they could have acquired for pennies today. I'm similarly amused from my reading of chat room commentary crafted by the know it alls who claim all the wrong thing as a prerequisite to a buy. Result a 1080:1 loss ratio. But say they, it's the adrenaline rush that counts.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards. | | | | JustForBucks | Thursday, January 21, 2010 01:51AM | An Industry as irrational as ever OTC:FLKI
This crisis hit the Automobile After-Market industry as many other crisis have by the busting of arrogance grown of inertia, a lack of imagination, care and creativity. This was caused by the now notorious slackening of entrepreneurial policies and drive as corporate colossus after another acquired the few, the all, of the active players of the time, leading to a longstanding disdain for new, active, performing and innovative products and the economic discipline that tight entrepreneurial budgets compel.
The alarms were there as far back as 1997, when a small company called Falken Industries launched its product conceptions against its gigantic competitors, throwing the industry on its knees. Yet, the all knowing of the day, unimpressed by this newcomer stuck to their policies of targeting the 8% market of automobile enthusiasts, ignoring the 92%, and largest amongst these; women.
Women in 1997 owned 50% of all cars on the road in most western countries. Women, while few in the enthusiast category, were prominent in the care of their automobiles which for the most part they considered an extension of their homes. Women in 1997 had no products in car-care addressed to their particular needs; quick, painless, efficient and effective car maintenance. That is, until 1997 when this then tiny little company which to this day remains a small company ($ 25 million in market capitalization) launched the conception that would become the Clean Plus® Product Group, a global industry leader in consumer, professional and industrial chemicals and cleaning and maintenance products.
Meanwhile, its competitors sank deeper and deeper in the red. Behind this inaction lay the belief that the policies and few players that had sustained this market could continue to exist with a callous disregard for the wants and needs of the consumer. And hence, the less they did the better. For a long period this held, the market remained in the hand of a half a dozen companies all individually large enough to intimidate any would be entrepreneur. The quick buck of other industries flagged their entrepreneurial interest away from the automobile after-market in all events.
It's too late now. The cost of playing catch up in global markets dominated by Clean Plus® and other FLKI product conceptions would far exceed the cost of acquiring this gem, publicly traded under symbol FLKI. Predictably overtures have occurred attempting to motivate the management of FLKI to abandon for the sake of the buck, albeit a lot of them, their fiercely valued creative independence. Solicited routinely, the time will come when the interest of its 4000+ shareholders will prevail, and this unique gem of the industry will be swallowed by the mighty giants and once again the industry will be dominated by the half a dozen few. This hypothesis is all the more realistic when you consider that the investment banking industry has yet to focus on this up and coming opportunity, licking their wounds, and laying their hyperbole on the new issues that fill their coffers not unusually at the expense of the takers. FLKI is a virtual unknown outside of the industry which keeps its stock down to a fraction of its value. An acquisition would likely bring $ 3 to $ 4 per share based on history for this industry, yet the stock trades today at .195 cents - go figure. Lastly and very suggestive of preparation underway, the company recently announced in a recent press release the appointment of a giant of the acquisition and merger field to its Board of Directors.
Meanwhile, FLKI management seems well focused on development of its conceptions in the emerging nations (BRIC) and is taking to tightening its hold on the European markets where markets are lolling in their splendid berths, enjoying the declining dollar and British pound whose fall enhances the value of the euro, the currency of choice for FLKI.
So will the industry, and notably this formidable innovator end in an anti-climax? I don't think so. The crisis hit an industry that was already in the throes of change. But, where that process will lead and whether it will be enough to awaken the entrepreneurial drive that fuels consumer demand remains open to question.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Monday, January 18, 2010 03:40AM | FALKEN Brings Much Needed Relief to Victims of the Haiti Earthquake OTC : FLKI
This company has a heart disproportionate to its size ! Its humanitarian surface exceeds that of its colossal competitors, but then so does everything it does. An exceptional company it gives spontaneously, quantities that make a difference and to all areas of our small planet.
In the steps of Huricane Katrina, the disaster in Thailand, the Oil Spill Control effort in Southern Norway, the Floods of the Philippines and now the disaster in Haiti, Falken is again hand in hand with the relief and medical assistance teams, cooperating with military and civil defense units and providing essential degreasing, cleansing and disinfectant materials.
Falken Industries Ltd (FLKI) in a telephone interview on Friday, confirmed that it would underwrite a donation of 4320 buckets of its award winning 800 hand wipe product each bucket containing SN10® its fastest acting, most effective and safest anti-microbial known in the industry in an effort to quickly assist relief and medical workers in the recent Haitian disaster and tragedy.
The value at cost of the donation is € 86,400 or $ 100,000.
FLKI's proprietary platform technology has proven effective in surface, water, and airborne applications and recently in military and civil defense. The technology can neutralize harmful environmental contaminants, toxins, and dangerous microorganisms. The obvious of which are spores, mold, fungi, bacteria, and viruses, features essential to the disaster relief operations now being conducted.
Product conceptions based on the company's proprietary SN10© platform, disinfect, decontaminate, and sterilize. The company believes this class of products has important applications for Healthcare Facilities, Consumers / Household use, Industrial Applications, as well as the proven utilization for Military / Homeland Security.
The product, part of the Clean Plus® collection originally conceived by FLKI is widely available globally through a network of more than 380 landing plaforms known as Super Distributors. This network enhances the speed at which these important components of emergency relief can be dispatched on site.
Falken Communication Officer Manuel Garcia stated, "Falken's heart goes out to the victims and families of this disaster, and this latest gesture is consistent with FLKI's policy to bring immediate solutions to those in need."
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
Distributors interested in learning more about the Clean Plus© Product Group's capabilities and opportunities should visit www.cleanplus.com.
| | | | JustForBucks | Sunday, January 17, 2010 04:52AM | Through natural selection, the best one survives OTC : FLKI
The industry is better off embracing entrepreneurial complexities rather than shoehorn another faulty but comprehensive paradigm.
It was not that long ago that the behemoths of my industry, the Automobile After-Market were considered to be all-knowing. Before the crisis, the prevailing dogma in this world of giants was to follow each other, to not rock the boat, and that a label and design change “will do ya”. These notions once seemed self-evident to industrialist and their investors.
Well these industry giants have enjoyed exalted status for decades, or at least they did until the creation of Falken Industries Ltd, a small (market capitalization about $20,000,000) traded on the OTC, under symbol FLKI. This company, the brain child of a then 26 year old Norwegian woman toting her recently printed MBA from a top European school, quickly recognized the flaws of such rigid thinking and launched in 1997 a revolutionary concept targeting the waste of her giant competitors, which has today become a global leader, expanding the market and taking a progressively more important morsel of the competition’s market share.
The waste was what is today the singularly major market of FLKI; women. Today 57% of all sales of FLKI product conceptions, best known under the Clean Plus® brand, are women.
“The industry had gone astray, ignoring 92% of the market to concentrate on the world of the macho enthusiast, itself only 8%, leaving the balance for the taking; so that’s what we did” said Manuel Garcia, communications Officer at FLKI. Yet the industry continues to vigorously defend their creed very much as an alcoholic denies he has a problem.
Is it worth the thought? For these giants, the auto-care business handled by some far strewn subsidiary somewhere on the organizational chart represents a microbes’ portion of their business. This small incidence in their business in all cases a small fraction of 1% of sales, doesn’t merit the time of senior management or the impact that a capital injection might support. And so, big as they might be, they are, as evident, subject to assault by companies a fraction of their size.
FLKI management to their credit saw the trouble coming. Never falling prey to the herd mentality or to the scattershot findings of big shot industry gurus with no principles to show how to apply their convictions in the real world. It continued its quest for a different way to run an Automobile After-Market business targeting a market that no one addressed or wanted; women.
Little by little FLKI pocked holes in the prevailing theory. It was first to developed and grow a line of auto-care wipes, and its then revolutionary and currently amazing system for procurement ensured rising margins in a time of declining demand guaranteeing its dominance in difficult markets, this all while its competitors were raising prices, abandoning marginal markets, and losing market share. “We built our company on an understanding that the industry giants simply don’t know” added Garcia. The secret seems to lie in FLKI’s ability to study and evaluate markets. To catalog segments and activities and chart their fortunes over time, to categorize the market’s many players. That means identifying the various participants in any given market, and learning what kind of strategy is popular at a particular moment in time. “What is their biomass? How are they going to interact with each other? How are they going to interact with each other? Incredible as it may seem giants as they may be, FLKI competitors do not collect this kind of information. Yet, FLKI researchers argue that consumers adapt and will vary depending on their psychology at any given moment. Over time, tracking a wide variety of settings, FLKI is able to develop an extraordinarily good sense of how the consumer market will behave and target those conclusions with product development that hits the epicenter of growth in the industry.
While it cannot be determined if FLKI’s substantial global lead over its much larger competitors can continue, the company has already done what no one else has dared to do – propose a successor to the vaunted, but flawed industry dogma. It is clear however that the greatest lesson painted by the extraordinary success of this near unknown company (though its stock’s behavior seems to suggest that will change quickly) is that the industry should forego grand unified models for entrepreneurial and unpredictable ones, which of course is an incongruous fit into the Corporate America environment into which these behemoth subsidiaries are compelled to operate. Consequently it is a reasonable bet that FLKI will continue its global operations devoid of real and meaningful competition until that day when it too, driven eventually by the greed of a substantial offer succumbs and falls prey to the acquisition of a behemoth – management and shareholders crying for the loss of their independence all the way to the bank.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Tuesday, January 12, 2010 12:27AM | That market, the woman and her car. OTC: FLKI
It was not that long ago that the behemoths of my industry, the Automobile After-Market, led every one to believe that they were all-knowing. That is of course, like the crisis for the financial markets, the car care industry was rocketed to different pastures by a small company (about $ 20-25 million in market cap) currently traded on the over-the-counter markets under symbol FLKI. This company struck in late 1997 and has continued its aggressive product conceptions, designs and target objectives to become a global brand and product conception leader.
In 1997 a then 26 year Norwegian woman debarked packing her recently earned MBA from a top European School. FLKI's President and founder had won the seed capital for her brain child idea whom she posited as inevitably qualified to take a huge market heretofore ignored. To the land of the free, the land of opportunity she headed.
The market she targeted; the woman and her car.
This was 1997, and the car care industry was, according to the prevailing dogma of the day a man's business. The industry was uniquely dedicated to the one that would rather spend the weekend in the garage than at home with his family: the so-called car enthusiast. Devoted to his car, egotistic to a fault, this consumer was easily manipulated into a craving to pay three times the price to give his car nothing but the best - he got it, a label, a macho design and often a decent product too if you ignored the exorbitant price.
One would have thought that large companies, who enjoyed exalted status for decades before, would have understood that an industry catering to only 8% of the global market is simply not rational. Well they didn't, they left a 92% gap open big enough to pass a tank. And pass the FLKI crew did. In the decade that has followed FLKI has garnered awards, renowned brand and reputation for performance and quality, management perseverance, and better products at one third the price all of which quickly put FLKI in the elite team of global players.
Google FLKI and you'll wonder why the company is so unknown by the investment community. "We prefer it that way - the focus stays on our shareholder interest rather than short term reporting exigencies" said Manuel Garcia, Communications Officer.
There's much to say for Garcia's confidence even from the perspective of an investor and there are near 4000 of them (officially there are approximately 3,600 shareholders). A look at the last 52 weeks for the stock reveals a rise in the stock value of 1900%. No chart for day traders granted, but a pattern of two to three rounds of favorable trading activity is evident each year since 2006. The first in 2009 gave traders 890%, the second 390% and the third 40%. For my money, be it the little that there is, those kind of returns without the investment community's imprimatur have the merit of being real.
This kind of rigid thinking and notions remains. The industry still vigorously defends their continuing and persistent century old strategy, modernizing by copying all too often conceptions designed by competing engineers, or revamping entire lines with a quick brush of label design.
Makes you think doesn't it. The race between the hare and the turtle comes to mind. FLKI's young and dynamic President and her staff in product development are plotting along at just my speed. Slow but sure, look at all those people in the dust.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Sunday, January 10, 2010 02:12PM | Look under the doomsayers – opportunity abounds, here’s one OTC:FLKI
Sometimes you have to wonder. As an analyst for the Automobile After-Market, I am compelled to take note of industry news. And so, the FLKI Press Release pointedly released to the public after the market close on Friday was on my desk seconds after its release (Major Board Appointment Promises Substantial Momentum in FLKI Growth ). The release begs the question: Why would an albeit small company (market capitalization barely $ 20 million at Friday’s closing price) whose fundamentals leave no room for criticism in the opinion of most analyst including yours truly await market close before releasing outstanding good news? It’s come to that in these days of mass confusion. The gems in the market, good companies, seem embarrassed or afraid of releasing good news - their share price may pop up too fast they fear and with it expectations for short term objectives anathema to progress for a fundamentally based entrepreneurial business.
Take the only release this past Friday concerning my industry. There President and founder Helle Madso of Falken Industries – best known for the company’s Clean Plus® product conceptions, seems almost embarrassed that a mega buck master financier and industrialist would be willing to give of his time and expertise to her company, a company she says has yet to be discovered by the investment banking community. Well Ms Madso, let’s leave well enough alone and don’t worry about the investment bankers!
In the 52 weeks just past with its stock suffering the merciless battering of the “crisis”, the company that no one seems to know managed to provide a return of 1900% for shareholders of record, a family which currently counts up to nearly 4000 strong. Granted the company will not prove of interest for the day trader since its history of volatility demonstrates two or three major swings in the market each year with each swing finishing on a higher close. The first of these swings provided short term investors with an 890% increase – putting the company first on CNN’s list of best companies - before crashing down from profit takers to establish a significant bottom at .19 cents. The second of these swings in 2009 made a profit for short term traders of 390% and the third swing of the year returned a late trade profit in early January of 40%.
Now while there is no joy for the typical non-pro day trader if he cannot spend his life on chat boards enriching the pockets of brokerage firms on statistic showing losers toping winners by a healthy 1080 : 1, it seems to me that a “trader” on a rotation of three pulling down profits of 890%, 390% and 40% ought to be very happy. But what about the investor, the guy or girl that will put their chips out and check on it in a year or so, well at least on this unknown company, if history repeats itself in the forthcoming year, they’ll have to settle for a miserly 1900%.
FLKI’s new director will assuredly facilitate the passage of this entrepreneurial company to that of a major corporation. It is also possible, and likely that this appointment is consistent with press releases past where the company announced a new policy of growth by acquisition. Big guns like this one don’t come on board a company of this size without purpose or motive.
Unfortunately the market has so set itself that the better companies tell us nothing good except in passing at the close of a Friday, leaving the weekend to bury the news in a flutter of prospective “good news” announcements timed to surface at the opening of the markets to feed the appetite of day traders for fractional penny stocks. This leaves us in a quandary. Has the market turned entirely contrarian? Do we – should we - read opening market good news as fodder for the unwary? The feeling seems to weigh in favor of the latter. Good companies, the small companies with a real business, real potential, and steady solid upward motion with or without a rotation styled to spike investor interest at the expense of day traders, seem to be establishing a pattern in press releases favoring an effort designed at satisfying the disclosure requirements and crossing their fingers that the herd will not, on the news, stampede its stock. Timing is now a component of press release consideration.
Is that any way to run a business?
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Saturday, January 2, 2010 10:20AM |
A DESIGN REVOLUTION OTC:FLKI
In the days when printing was also a matter of hot metal, compositors - the people who set type - held over groups of familiar, indeed over-used, expressions in what was known as a cliché. Bad journalism still depends on them. But one cliché no-one ever thought they would need is the FLKI Design Revolution. Yet, we have one now on a road near you.
The back-story is fascinating, revealing the strange behavior patterns that animated and continues to animate other members of the industry. Sigmund Freud thought there was a natural instinct to incest, hence his Oedipus complex. An Ozark redneck agreed: surprised to find his new wife a virgin he returned her, saying, “if she ain’t good enough for her kin folks, she ain’t good enough for me.”
The new recently announced Brilliance product collection in the Clean Plus® “Pro” line of FLKI’s conceptions is a product of some surprising relationships.
Deep breath.
The CEO and founder, a Norwegian young woman who in 1997 was 26 years of age and well armed for business with a top European MBA completed her studies in graphic design. It wasn’t long before she concluded that her countrymen did not have what it takes to make a great product and decided to do her thing in a corporate design from the land of the free - Falken Industries was thus born. Today, the Chief Product Development Engineer is an award winning French-born man then 38 years of age who studied engineering of course, but then went on with Arts and Design. It was 1997 the coming of an age missed by all of us others in the industry. It was also the year I began, as an analyst in the industry, to cover this amazing company.
The design boss is a young American from Texas, standing 6’4” and towering over his European staff, the creative team. A graduate of a prestigious Arts and Designs institution in New York, he worked his way through the school of hard knocks, attacking the manfully, loyally if totally wrong historically influenced designs of the established industry to achieve world wide prominence in the industry for his work on FLKI product conceptions.
“The thing about FLKI product conceptions is that they have the winning looks that weapons have” said Manuel Garcia, Communications Officer. Notions of FLKI designs sometime incongruously turn up on the ineffably feeble competition in products that have no similarities whatsoever to weaponry in looks or performance. Working out of an advanced studio the creative team labors on designs for various conceptions which at the prototype level must meet competition with performance not less than any competitor existing but at a 25% lesser cost to the consumer. “Price and Performance are important contributions to a products success, but it’s on the drawing board of design that the weaponry takes shape. It’s just brilliant” added Garcia.
There are no established clichés with this design team and there will be nothing to be lost by extreme forms of design bravery. The prevailing atmosphere is the seductive prospect of working on an empty canvas with each product conceptions released from the hearth of the FLKI research and development center.
Is this the FLKI Design Revolution? Definitely maybe, but it’s only fair to warn those of its competitors still sitting on the thought of pulling forward traditional well nurtured past designs that the ancient Greeks knew that incest often leads to tragedy.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Monday, December 21, 2009 07:48AM | Left turn to purgatory OTC:FLKI
You know the problem with society today? We're far too happy and contented. Not that I'm pushing sickness and disease to make the world a more pleasant place to live, but a sense of proportion wouldn't go amiss.
Having beaten off (mostly) the hunger, cold and deadly infections that have spoiled the fund for several millennia we're now convinced that full fat milk is a global killer. Cultural paranoia suggests that exposing my children to sunlight without 100% total screen caked upon them will have a fatal effect in the long run; and letting them ride a bike without a helmet - well I should expect social services at the door !
On the road cars are safer then they have ever been. They're packed with safety, airbags compressed in cubbyholes, and warnings are everywhere in the road system telling of your entry into a crumble zone. Road maintenance makes you feel like your car is going to fall apart when you get out and slam the door. Car care maintenance has become a regular obligation save for those that are fortunate enough to exchange a chemical products budget for that of a new car payment.
The law is there for us too. Forget the issues of minors, licenses etc. It's now illegal to eat while driving. This is now a dangerous offence. Now I see others worry still more. Those that would be police in my part of the world have stricken the heart of car enthusiasts; you're now an offender if you overtake a car. I'm not talking about tire-squealing charges in the face of oncoming traffic - I'm talking about legitimate, smooth maneuvers on empty roads. Nowadays, they all get the same reaction - when I look in the mirror after passing someone, I see shocked faces, flashing headlights and hand gestures. I need a sign in the back window next to the Clean Plus® racing stripes that says "What"?
Some cars are worse than others. I recently drove Falken Industries'roadster at a corporate event for distributors and industry press - that was okay because people can't wait to let you by, just to have a closer look. But this 1959 Triumph TR3 A with its loaded history of roadster rallies and Le Mans and other speed and endurance markings is an open invitation for undisguised hatred on the road. We all know FLKI and its best known product conceptions under the Clean Plus® brand has a reputation already for its leadership in the industry, but the company has taken this to new heights sponsoring and participating in world wide sports racing events. Sharp, responsive and devastatingly quick like their corporate strategies, the FLKI half a century old roadster exclusively maintained with Clean Plus® products looks sparkling new as it skips down a line of traffic like a pebble across a pond, each move made in utter control and confidence by the driver; me. Every enthusiast, child and woman looks upon the car in awe. Kids waive, drivers give the thumbs up.
But all this doesn't go well with all. Dark and mysterious bureaucrats in government redesign roads to deliberately reduce visibility and crate adverse cambers, all to cause accidents and so slow people down. This dystopian vision is of a future where we all stop thinking for ourselves and follow each other moronically like sheep. Now more than ever, we follow each other on autopilot in a 50 mph mobile queue, absorbed in some mindless local radio and totally oblivious to the machinery beneath us. In an environment like this overtaking someone is like walking into a stranger's house and switching TV channels while they're in the middle of watching their favorite soap. In a second they switch mode from dribbling imbecile to affronted civic leader. "How dare you overtake me"?
People even close up the gap, so you can't squeeze in front of them, happier to see you pulverized in a head-on collision than get away with such antisocial behavior as passing them by.
This is because while they have no intention of passing, you're not allowed either; when you overtake, you're breaking rank, rocking the boat; you're dropping your socially numbing drugs and starting to feel real emotions. It's not allowed. An enthusiast just wants to drive his car, not drift in a fog, but driving with your brain engaged is "dangerous".
So I think my conclusion is, we're all doomed and we might as well blow our brains out now and be done with it. But in the meantime remember to show your real humanity, that spark of car and independence, by not following the herd. Obviously I'm not suggesting you drive fast and overtake things, because that would be dangerous and irresponsible but you could do as I do, when I want to stand up for myself.
I dig out my overalls, grab my Clean Plus® high ended tool and product kit, polish and detail the car, drink full fat milk, buy another thousand shares of FLKI and then ride my bike around the park without a helmet.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Friday, December 18, 2009 08:50AM | A better way to do business OTC:FLKI
Are you one of those masochistic fractional penny day traders that elucidates on chat boards? Then as playing 1080:1 odds against myself is not my game what follows, a thought on a good sound fundamentals trading opportunity, is not likely to be of much interest to you; you might actually make some money! Instead, you'll probably prefer the excitement and the thrill of buying millions of most likely worthless shares betting on the buy of the next credulous victim of the hype of some promoter or his cousin the pumper to up the bargain by .0002 on manipulated charts or volumes. It works 1 time in 1080, but it provides the rush of adrenaline that only high risk of and actual losses can provide.
Time and again, I am asked; why buy this stock? As an analyst for the Automobile After-Market I am told to cover this or that corporation. I write reports and findings and give my opinion. As to which stock someone should buy I cannot opine. What I can do however is level the playing field by providing my opinion based on the conclusions I have reached in the course of my journalistic undertakings.
I'm talking about my favorite stock for 2011, Falken Industries trading on the OTC under symbol FLKI. The stock has found a hard and confirmed bottom in the .18 to .19 cents level and has been trading sideways since. This is seasonal and will not last very long. Simply said, the stock at these levels is an absolute steal; in my opinion of course.
People ask me all the time so here it goes : Do I see 100%, 200% or even 300% gains for FLKI? Absolutely not. We're talking 700% potential WITHIN A YEAR and that's .15 cents a share less than its closest level of resistance at $ 1.23.
I've followed this company since 1997. FLKI is going places. This is no ordinary small-cap (market capitalization at the moment is $ 15 million) that just appeared out of nowhere and is beta-testing a product.
Countries, States, Cities and multinationals are just some of the bigwigs using FLKI product conceptions. Consumers are in the hundreds of thousands.
FLKI has a 12-year history of bringing to market a full suite of innovative chemical and wipe products and innovations, the best conception of which are known under the Clean Plus® brand. The company is green and unique in its mix of entirely bio-degradable conceptions. It has years of advance over its competitors and the product mix and pipeline to sustain those advances for years to come.
FLKI also provides industry-leading, interactive product conceptions and solutions that help business, healthcare; science, vehicular care, janitorial and engineering users gain critical advantages from all sorts of uniquely performing products.
These are the kinds of products that take dull and boring work and turn it around into moving, real time, immediate and efficient performance. They allow users to complete mundane tasks rapidly with performance that's light years ahead of anything I've seen.
What do multi national clients, major chain stores, convenience stores and industrial concerns get from these products that keep them loyal to FLKI?
Well, certainly a better way to do business, and a definite and meaningful jump ahead of their competition. FLKI has for years won industry awards for innovation and recognition for its leading price / performance / rotations.
The press is fabulous and the professional media couldn't be better. Just Google FLKI and see for yourself. The deals are real and significant, and as word gets out, the share price sitting at a confirmed bottom of 18-19 cents could start a quick climb AGAIN.
700% gains are darn near a sure thing for 2011!
Think about it. Or better yet, stick a couple thousand dollars worth of shares in your mad money or rainy day fund.
| | | | JustForBucks | Wednesday, December 16, 2009 03:59AM | Don't fix them: The world's dilapidated roads to the rescue OTC:FLKI
The Automobile After-Market, barring a couple of small firms is comatose, wrecked by a crisis that doesn't seem to end and as to which most companies can see no light.
Yet there is a great opportunities at these devastating times. Devastation of the economy and of the people making it up makes for greater incentive, indeed for the necessity to hold on; to life of course but more importantly for the industry to the old family car. The older and the more worn it is the more car care equipment and products are necessary to keep the beast rolling.
But help is on the way. Government has told us so. While they all pumped trillions of dollars into their financial systems, they pumped life into this industry by pulling money away, the rescue of the Automobile After-Market industry is highlighted by government's starvation of the world's roadway infrastructure.
The world's roads are falling apart. It's a global disgrace and we're paying for it twice over, in taxation and repair bills. Those repair bills are a de-facto subsidy to the Automobile After-Market industry.
The world's road system is falling apart - literally. Chronic under-investment slashed local authority budgets and spiraling compensation costs mean motorists are facing the misery of driving on potholed, cracked and rutted roads that won't be repaired for years. A grim picture of our crumbling road network; but good cause to believe in the success of those companies of the Automobile After-Market Industry that supply the wares to automobile and vehicular maintenance and care : one such leading global company is a small public company traded on the OTC under the symbol FLKI.
As best the experts tell it there is a ten year backlog of road maintenance work in the western world alone. That's a give or take a billion one trillion dollar shortfall, and a lot of hay. In the United States, roads are resurfaced approximately every 55 years whereas the recommended timescale is 20 years.
Quite aside from the advantages visited upon the industry, lawyers in certain jurisdictions are having a field day. Annual compensation claims against state, municipal and federal authorities for road damage and accidents have sky rocketed to hundreds of millions.
When I say Automobile After-Market, put the stress on the word "after" this because warranty claims premised on damage caused by road surface represent one in six of the warranty claims handled for vehicle breakdown. Damaged suspensions are the leading claim according to the Automobile Industry and its Dealerships who pay the bill. This is a fast growing trend which is seriously impacting on the increasing losses of the Automobile Industry to the proportionate benefit of the Automobile After-Market who supplies the parts, the products and the chemicals for maintenance, rectification and repairs.
The problem as I see it is that the world is locked in a spiral of decline. Less money each year is spent on addressing this situation. Motorist contribute about 800 billion dollars to their respective treasuries each year, yet only 12% of those amounts is actually budgeted, let alone spent, on roads and that doesn't mean to the limited task of maintenance and repairs.
The dedicated fund for routine maintenance remains available to busy government accounting gurus for allocations to fill any short elsewhere. The fault as best I can lay it is with the federal governments. While one can see increases being allocated to State and other authorities the funds are not restricted to road repairs and maintenance, hence it is too often diverted away to education, health or another more evocative and politically attractive issue.
This to me makes no real sense. You don't have to be politically savvy to realize that improving what people see when they walk out of their front door has voter appeal. Yet, don't take the bet, road improvements is an uphill battle as is improving the transportation system, over the years less than 4% of road related income has been spent on transportation. The word "pittance" comes to mind.
See an opportunity in the Automobile After-market? Yes, my instinct and the excellent fundamentals move me to the stock of a small innovative and highly successful company; FLKI. The company stands to pick up a massive morsel of these easy pickings and at current share prices is a steal – every one aware of the nightmare of roads and their effect on vehicles of all kind should own a couple thousand dollars worth of FLKI shares.
| | | | JustForBucks | Tuesday, December 15, 2009 09:14AM | Blind, the world is blind OTC : FLKI
When it comes to gems in the proverbial haystack, industrial giants not unlike investors and traders are simply blind. Assuredly it is hard to find that perfect little company that for a decade and more seems to be doing nothing wrong. This is why I have been fascinated by the brain child of a young Norwegian woman Falken Industries Ltd, which trades on the OTC under symbol FLKI. I have covered the company since its inception in 1997 off and on and it never ceases to amaze me.
Recently I penned an article for the trades dealing with the ignored segment of the market, the Muslim world. I noted that FLKI had made substantial investments over several years and that it had established itself nicely in a semi unique position as the supplier of clean innovative products for this world whose markets are estimated at $ 4 trillion. Picture my amazement to find that tiny little FLKI (market cap about $ 15 million and whose shares recently bottomed at .18 to .19 cents) had a leadership position with entire product lines designed to those markets. I mean versions in Arabic, meeting all separate regulatory and filing requirements of the different countries, and designed to respond to cultural and esthetical preferences. The Muslim world is clearly targeted and not some offshoot export market; this is true at least for FLKI and the purveyors of its product conceptions.
I was not surprising thus when at a meeting of the press this morning, FLKI communications officer Manuel Garcia announced that FLKI had made a $6,075,000 agreement for distribution of its consumer product concepts in Egypt.
Distributed globally by The Clean Plus® Product Group, this group spent several years joint developing a network of distribution points. These efforts were concluded by a formalized agreement for Super Distribution of the Clean Plus® Premium Auto Care line in Egypt. The Agreement provides for wholesale purchases of $ 1,250,000 each year for the product segment.
Egypt with its near 82,000,000 population is experiencing a booming market, notably for FLKI product conceptions. An effective and efficient distribution infrastructure is crucial for the continued development of FLKI product line conceptions. Egypt is a modern society and has proven to have a strong economy. It is consequently not surprising that Egypt now ranks amongst Super Distributors, landing platforms charged with servicing and developing the distribution network for a market and market segment.
Moreover, Egypt has embarked on the journey of upgrading and improving its infrastructure as business and technology evolves, traffic grows and the usage of modern transport and communication devices increases in the country. In this direction, Egypt has been witnessing an aggressive development of a large number of projects, educational, infrastructure, and bandwidth allocation for several years. These developments are attractive and quickly attracted The Clean Plus® Product Group to the country three years ago. Today a major commitment results consistent with the group’s dedication to establishing major global service and delivery centers in the country.
With a wide range of more than 160 product conceptions and half again in the pipeline, FLKI is poised to enter many markets. Their proprietary balanced blend of products enhances the fundamentals of the company.
| | | | JustForBucks | Wednesday, December 9, 2009 07:53AM | The Great Problem, no, it’s the great solution: OTC : FLKI
While in Germany recently I suffered the excruciating waste of time caused by a flood of rubber-neckers. This was on A1 one of Germany’s traditional highways. Being the person that I am - always looking for a good story - I investigated. The Polizei (Police) had stopped a car, a Golf, which was being driven with 12 persons on board. It was a sudden reminder of my college days.
While my German is assuredly lacking, I did manage to get the gist of the defense being opposed to the troopers. The driver simply said they were car sharing because of high fuel prices.
With the cost of gasoline and car care in general escalating, I wondered whether this is the kind of madness we are all going to be saddled with. I decided to investigate.
The figures back up this tragedy. The Automobile After-Market and gasoline purveyors are jacking prices up like there’s no tomorrow. Estimates run that US consumers are spending $ 65.7 million more on gasoline each and every day, with the average driver spending $ 87.43 per month on car maintenance, detailing, beautifying, washing etc. It’s the same story in Europe.
This, impacts most directly upon the poorest families with those in rural areas spending as much as 25% of their incomes operating a car. Resentment by the consumer targets government first of course since its taxes on fuel running from a low of 61.1% are significant. But, surprisingly consumer protest against car care industrialist and notably the better known brands was vicious. “it’s horrible, we can’t buy new cars anymore so we have to maintain our cars better and longer but we can’t afford a bottle of top quality polish” said Carl Johnson of Maury County Tennessee.
I contacted the marketing or communications officers firstly of the three largest US brands in terms of distribution, two of which are owned by colossus each a member of the Fortune group of elites. Cost increases are inevitable, raw materials are beyond our control, our general overhead keeps rising and quality isn’t free was the redundant come back.
I then flew to New Jersey, and eventually cornered Manuel Garcia, communications director of Falken, a small company traded on the OTC under symbol FLKI. The company has achieved industry renown because of its top end quality and incredibly successful cost controls - not the least of which is for raw material managed through its affiliate World Trading. “Nonsense, we have not raised prices since 2001 and continue to receive prizes for performance and innovation, the latest of which was for our “Brilliance” collection which we introduced in October” said Garcia. Much of this is the subject of press releases and general industry media easily found by searching FLKI on Google.
It seems that FLKI competitors are fanning the flames of protest across the global markets. While the flare ups have quieted as we enter the holiday season, there is much industry agreement that they will flare up again in the spring of 2010 just before the season for car care commences – retailers beware! FLKI with its publicized higher quality and lower prices seems meaningfully in good position. “In fact we have been contacted in the last two months by two of the three biggest retailers in the world and the largest auto parts store chain in Europe. All for our branded and private label products - the notable fact here is that they called us” added Garcia.
The relatively stable Automobile After-Market was first hit by the events of 9-11 and the political fallout that resulted rocked the already fragile oil-rich Middle East. The invasion of Iraq, political instability in Venezuela and America, India and China’s insatiable thirst for oil have all sent prices soaring. The industry, very much “oil” dependent for its plastic accessories, bottles, pumps and polishes, compounds and various chemicals was shattered by a barrage of price increases across the board.
Then Hurricane Katrina hit the American Gulf Coast, devastating half its key oil producing plants, followed by Hurricane Rita, which further hampered rebuilding operations. The result was that the industry’s raw material and accessory costs rose more than 40% with no end in sight. Add to that the fact that demand for the base raw material, oil, was voracious - America will for example use 4% more oil this year than last - at a time when supplies were a their all time lows and there you have it : disaster.
But wait, what about little FLKI (current market cap about $ 15 million). Hedged for three years out and protected by solid moves through its affiliate, the company suffered none of these intemperate costs. It increased no price, substantially increased production capacities and market share, all while increasing margins. “The confusion disappears when you consider that our competitors are huge and firmly believed they could leverage their non-auto care products to force their over-priced and lesser performing products ahead in the aisles. This of course is no more” suggested Garcia. A number of calls to chains, petroleum companies, and other retailers and distributors of FLKI product conceptions confirmed the incredible: there have been no price increases on these products since 2001. “Economies of scale are helping us still more as we penetrate or take market share. This is notable most recently in the Clean Plus® product conception for the automobile body shop, detailing and restoration industry, the so-called “Pro” line” said Garcia.
Well, where does this lead us? Well at the onset let me say that I do not recommend 12-up car sharing. It’s very painful I would imagine, and certainly dangerous. It will also positively damage the suspension of your car. Sensible car sharing on the other hand can work as more and more people are discovering through their burgeoning cars-pools.
Until things improve, the family car will stay. The cost of maintenance must include car care products of high end quality and at prices we can all afford. In the immediate short term - assuming FLKI competitors have the savvy to maintain quality and substantially lower their prices - Clean Plus® products with a 47.1% average advantage on industry pricing ex-vat has the global edge. “There’s been a price increase every few months for the last 5 years by our competitors and they have shown no lateral thinking in trying to alleviate the situation” concluded Garcia. I agree.
Let me go stock up. While at it I may just buy some FLKI stock as well – timing is everything and the spring is just around the corner.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
| | | | JustForBucks | Tuesday, December 8, 2009 12:47PM | THE REAL EMERGENCE in the Emerging markets OTC : FLKI
Looking around for a bright spot in this world economy? Good luck. People have been at it for better than two years now.
What were growth markets once as numerous as reverse mortgages, equity kickers, no interest, teaser rates, all motors of specialized economic activities have grown increasingly scarce. Suddenly however out come the consultants, the economist, the business types, all pointing their finger to the rise of a new emerging markets, one that will end up being the largest and most powerful of all : women.
Hello, where has everyone been? Women are poised to drive and lead the post-recession world economy. Globally, women earn and control the flow of some $ 5 trillion projected to double in the next 5 years. That's a lot of money for businesses that anticipated this ? one of these businesses is a business in a surprising industrial environment, the Automobile After-Market (it's actually the company's principal field of activity but the company is wide and far reaching). The company, Falken Industries Ltd, publicly traded under symbol FLKI, is the brain child of a then 27 year old woman. The year was 1997, a decade before the wise men of today realized that the market was huge - the female market that is.
No question, car care is the world of men, macho men for the most part, or enthusiast that would rather spend the weekend in the garage than with the wife and children. But that market today and in 1997 is only 8% of the car care market - but take a look around, only one company in the field caters to women's needs, desires, abilities, focus and objectives. That company is FLKI, best known for its conceptions for the global brand Clean Plus®.
It's kind of amusing isn't it? Here a young woman sits on top of a man's business and in a class believed to lead the world out of its ills for knowing in 1997 what the geniuses are discovering today.
Now it simply isn't that simple. Worldwide total income for men is $ 23.4 trillion, more than double the income generated by women, but the gap is shrinking significantly because the vast majority of new income growth is destined to women. A fortiori to businesses which are known and have built a strong reputation in the service of female interest. Women will be driving the cars and the shopping and as a result hope the predictors of our future, the recovery.
That is saying a great deal. That growth is more than twice the size of the two hottest markets, India and China combined - and FLKI predicted it, argued vehemently for it, and fought hard and fast for its beliefs. I know because I have been following this gem since 1997. Today, women make up 57% of all sales of FLKI product conceptions.
Let alone the leaders of the political world, finance or business - the executives of the Automobile after-market to this day maintain their traditional positions and targets. Some have made feeble attempts at redirecting without success a portion of their businesses toward the female segment. Strangely enough three major competitors of FLKI are owned fully by corporate giants whose most favorable interest they incomprehensibly ignore, to acquire or license FLKI technology and intellectual properties. Acquisition rumors abound of course, but the FLKI management team is a tough bunch that won't let go of the independence, flexibility, and rapidity to launch product conceptions with extraordinary success. In sum there is undoubtedly a number, but its likely to be in the $ 8 per share range, still peanuts for any one of the colossus that own the poor performing competitors of FLKI and its licensees and distributors.
"The power of the purse" proclaims women the economic engine of the future, but better still it will capitalize the development of products and conceptions that are devoted to female needs: like FLKI's car care conceptions for the Clean Plus® "Premium" line.
When's the last time you polished your car with a Carnuba wax using no more force than can be garnered from your little finger. It takes more than elaborate targeted designs, it takes performance that a woman can deliver without brute force. Again FLKI stands alone in this market.
True, women are focused more on health and children, but 50% of the cars are registered in a woman's name. Half of those cars are exclusively cared for by a woman who considers the car just an extension of her household.
And then there is the influence factor. Women are a comfortable 80% of the components leading to the decision to buy a car. It makes you think doesn't it? Why in 2009 in the Automobile After-Market and car care in particular, there is only one global company recognized and known for its product conceptions targeting women.
In this industry and in general one can suppose, women's rights over all are gaining, but male chauvinism is still resisting strongly. "Look lovely and keep quiet !" it wasn't that long ago that this was a dominant theme as was the notion that women were sex objects sufficiently fulfilled by homemaking.
There is still strong resistance and most particularly in the Automobile After-Market. Women are simply not taken seriously - all one need do is attend an International car show or watch the interface between a woman and a typical mechanic - what does she know after all? but a woman's success and global leadership is reality rather than theory. And this woman, FLKI's President and founder brings to the top of the Automobile After-Market industry a more human approach about running a car care company. This, in a world that's appreciating it more and more: just Google FLKI you'll know just why.
It's a stock every woman should have - and every man wanting to ride the emergence of the greatest emerging market this planet has ever experienced.
Falken Industries Ltd OTC : FLKI is a diversified industrial conglomerate that operates in Chemicals, Wet Wipe and Biodegradable Technology. Falken Industries Ltd is the concept behind more than 160 products distributed through a network of global platforms and the recipient of trade awards for innovations, biodegradability and environmental and health quality standards.
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