Company Achieves 48 Percent Overall Growth and 100 Percent Growth in International Sales over Past Year
BILLERICA, Mass. -- Nov. 13, 2007 -- Echolab Corporation, a leading provider of professional video production switchers and broadcast tools, today announced end-year results representing a dramatic growth rate over the past year. As a whole, the company expanded by 48 percent over the duration of 2007, with growth driven largely by the launch of the Echolab Opera series of dual-format production switchers, released just over a year ago. Echolab also developed its dealer network and leveraged existing dealer channels to achieve 100 percent growth in the company‘s international sales.
“The rapid acceptance of the Opera production switcher in the United States and abroad has sent a strong message that the product‘s feature set meets market expectations for functionality and price,” said Chris Hackett, international sales manager at Echolab. “Our release of the HD-capable OvationMD production switcher also fueled this growth, helping us to realize tremendous growth and remarkable penetration of the global broadcast market.”
During Q3 2007, Echolab announced the appointment of Harrison Chang of UBS Consulting as the company‘s new master distributor and consultant based in Beijing. The company subsequently kicked off its China marketing efforts with its exhibit at BIRTV 2007. In addition to making substantial gains in overseas markets, Echolab reported a 13.5 percent increase in U.S. sales, also attributed in significant part to the launch of Opera.
The continued development of Echolab‘s executive, marketing, manufacturing, sales, and engineering staff, which altogether increased by 30 percent in 2007, improved the company‘s ability to create and execute creative marketing programs for its new technology platforms and products. Among the significant hires in 2007 was the appointment of industry veteran Nigel Spratling as Echolab president, and in this role Spratling has guided the company in addressing the growing demand for flexible production equipment. Echolab‘s internal evolution and the expansion of the company‘s manufacturing floor space by a third were fundamental to efficient operations within the manufacturing department.
“Our extraordinary growth in 2007 is due to a comprehensive program of focused sales and marketing efforts, new product developments, and sales channel reorganization,” said Spratling. “These programs are ongoing and expected to continue to provide excellent growth. In fact, the targeted growth for this financial year is expected to exceed 30 percent overall.”
More information about Echolab and the company‘s products and services is available at www.echolab.com.
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About Echolab
Echolab Corporation is a leading provider of video production switchers and tools that offer flexibility and on-air reliability for the production and distribution of digital media in a variety of formats. Built on Echolab‘s award-winning System on Chip technology, the dual-format Opera, SDI-format Nova, and new multi-definition Ovation MD lines of production switchers deliver the highest-quality output in analog and all digital formats, and are scalable for future expansion and operational enhancements. Echolab is online at www.echolab.com.
