luckie
06-22-2006, 01:28 PM
Sales on a roll, Segway considers going public
Gas prices boost appeal
Boston Globe
By Davis Bushnell
June 22, 2006
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/06/22/sales_on_a_roll_segway_considers_going_public/
BEDFORD, N.H. -- Segway Inc. is riding a crest of demand for its Human Transporters, or scooter-like vehicles, and could try to go public ``in the next two years, depending on market condition," chief executive James D. Norrod asserted in an interview last week at corporate-manufacturing headquarters in Bedford.
The company introduced its innovative product four years ago and received a big splash of publicity from the print media and national television networks and cable stations. Despite this exposure, ``there was slow demand at first, and it took longer than we had thought" to get a considerable number of orders for these electric vehicles using computerized, dynamic stabilization technology, Norrod said. Marketing vice president Klee Kleber added, ``Our product requires people to change their behavior" about personal transportation, ``so you have to find market segments that will adapt." Moreover, Kleber noted, there are competing means of transportation, namely, bicycles, golf carts, and motorcycles.
But recently the sales climate changed for the better for the company's three product lines, spurred by high gasoline prices and an increased environmental awareness by customers, said Norrod and J. Douglas Field, vice president of design and engineering and chief technology officer. All Norrod will say -- and this is his standard response to media inquiries -- is that ``tens of thousands of units have been sold to consumers and commercial customers and that sales are growing at a 50 percent year-over-year rate."
Norrod admits to being a private person, declining to even reveal his age. Kleber is 39 and Field is 40. There are 100 employees in Bedford and about 20 outside sales people. Efforts to get a line on the amount of money invested in the company and estimated annual sales from Dean Kamen, inventor of the Human Transporter technology, or from executives of Segway's two major investors, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Credit Suisse Group, also proved unsuccessful.
Kamen, Segway's chairman and principal of DEKA Research and Development Corp. of Manchester, N.H., and officials of the two firms did not return telephone queries. However, Norrod and his two top officers, Field and Kleber, were willing to reveal general information about the company and its products, which retail for between $4,500 and $5,000 each.
In July 1999, Kamen formed Segway rather than license his technology to the company, Field said, recalling that Kamen had previously licensed to Johnson & Johnson, for example, a mobility device for the disabled. At the core of Kamen's technology, Field said, are ``microprocessors that look at sensors and determine the vehicle's power and direction." Toes pressed on the platform of the company's iconic product, the HT i180, move the vehicle forward; heels pressed down on the platform cause the vehicle to stop. Direction is dictated by moving the left handle. The vehicle's top speed is 12.5 miles per hour. It can go up to 25 miles on one electrical charge.
In February 2003, the first Human Transporters were shipped to Amazon.com customers, and eight months later, Brookstone Inc., based in Merrimack, N.H., began offering Segway products in its retail stores and in mail-order catalogs. Brookstone has not carried these products ``for at least a year," spokesman Robert Padgett said, adding that the reason for terminating the agreement is proprietary. Segway sells its products mostly through distributors in 30 countries, Norrod said; there are 120 dealers in the United States but only ``four or five in New England." That's because, he said, ``most of our business is in the Sun Belt, or on the West Coast and in the Southeast, where people can use our products 12 months a year."
Commercial sales are 40 percent of the total and growing, Norrod said, with the Walt Disney Company and the Chicago Police Department topping the list. Disney uses 300 units at its various properties, while Chicago police have 100 vehicles in service. Chicago police spokesman Patrick Camden said the vehicles are used for patrolling portions of O'Hare International Airport and the Michigan Avenue business district -- areas that are inaccessible to larger vehicles.
Segway has put a lot of effort and money in lobbying states to allow Human Transporters on sidewalks, Field and Kleber said. Some 43 states have enacted such laws, they said, but Massachusetts is not one of them. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont do have these laws. Two Segway products are not suited to use on city sidewalks. These are XT Cross-Terrain Transporters and the Robotic Mobility Platforms. The mobility platforms are typically used by the military and by police when there are bomb threats, Field said. Field said that new personal transportation products are being researched, but the company favors ``making incremental improvements to the products that we now have."
Gas prices boost appeal
Boston Globe
By Davis Bushnell
June 22, 2006
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/06/22/sales_on_a_roll_segway_considers_going_public/
BEDFORD, N.H. -- Segway Inc. is riding a crest of demand for its Human Transporters, or scooter-like vehicles, and could try to go public ``in the next two years, depending on market condition," chief executive James D. Norrod asserted in an interview last week at corporate-manufacturing headquarters in Bedford.
The company introduced its innovative product four years ago and received a big splash of publicity from the print media and national television networks and cable stations. Despite this exposure, ``there was slow demand at first, and it took longer than we had thought" to get a considerable number of orders for these electric vehicles using computerized, dynamic stabilization technology, Norrod said. Marketing vice president Klee Kleber added, ``Our product requires people to change their behavior" about personal transportation, ``so you have to find market segments that will adapt." Moreover, Kleber noted, there are competing means of transportation, namely, bicycles, golf carts, and motorcycles.
But recently the sales climate changed for the better for the company's three product lines, spurred by high gasoline prices and an increased environmental awareness by customers, said Norrod and J. Douglas Field, vice president of design and engineering and chief technology officer. All Norrod will say -- and this is his standard response to media inquiries -- is that ``tens of thousands of units have been sold to consumers and commercial customers and that sales are growing at a 50 percent year-over-year rate."
Norrod admits to being a private person, declining to even reveal his age. Kleber is 39 and Field is 40. There are 100 employees in Bedford and about 20 outside sales people. Efforts to get a line on the amount of money invested in the company and estimated annual sales from Dean Kamen, inventor of the Human Transporter technology, or from executives of Segway's two major investors, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Credit Suisse Group, also proved unsuccessful.
Kamen, Segway's chairman and principal of DEKA Research and Development Corp. of Manchester, N.H., and officials of the two firms did not return telephone queries. However, Norrod and his two top officers, Field and Kleber, were willing to reveal general information about the company and its products, which retail for between $4,500 and $5,000 each.
In July 1999, Kamen formed Segway rather than license his technology to the company, Field said, recalling that Kamen had previously licensed to Johnson & Johnson, for example, a mobility device for the disabled. At the core of Kamen's technology, Field said, are ``microprocessors that look at sensors and determine the vehicle's power and direction." Toes pressed on the platform of the company's iconic product, the HT i180, move the vehicle forward; heels pressed down on the platform cause the vehicle to stop. Direction is dictated by moving the left handle. The vehicle's top speed is 12.5 miles per hour. It can go up to 25 miles on one electrical charge.
In February 2003, the first Human Transporters were shipped to Amazon.com customers, and eight months later, Brookstone Inc., based in Merrimack, N.H., began offering Segway products in its retail stores and in mail-order catalogs. Brookstone has not carried these products ``for at least a year," spokesman Robert Padgett said, adding that the reason for terminating the agreement is proprietary. Segway sells its products mostly through distributors in 30 countries, Norrod said; there are 120 dealers in the United States but only ``four or five in New England." That's because, he said, ``most of our business is in the Sun Belt, or on the West Coast and in the Southeast, where people can use our products 12 months a year."
Commercial sales are 40 percent of the total and growing, Norrod said, with the Walt Disney Company and the Chicago Police Department topping the list. Disney uses 300 units at its various properties, while Chicago police have 100 vehicles in service. Chicago police spokesman Patrick Camden said the vehicles are used for patrolling portions of O'Hare International Airport and the Michigan Avenue business district -- areas that are inaccessible to larger vehicles.
Segway has put a lot of effort and money in lobbying states to allow Human Transporters on sidewalks, Field and Kleber said. Some 43 states have enacted such laws, they said, but Massachusetts is not one of them. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont do have these laws. Two Segway products are not suited to use on city sidewalks. These are XT Cross-Terrain Transporters and the Robotic Mobility Platforms. The mobility platforms are typically used by the military and by police when there are bomb threats, Field said. Field said that new personal transportation products are being researched, but the company favors ``making incremental improvements to the products that we now have."