WILTON, Conn., March 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The following was issued
today by Startech Environmental Corporation:
Good afternoon, and welcome to the Startech Environmental Corporation
Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I am Joseph Klimek, president and chief
executive officer of Startech.
I welcome all of you to our Engineering, Research and Demonstration
Center. When we last met I had only recently taken over as president and CEO
and I put forward to you, our shareholders, my vision for how we could achieve
the success that was possible for our company. My approach is one that seeks
long term stable growth, rather than unrealistic expectations. I believe we
have done well in implementing our plan over the past year. Unfortunately,
the continued stagnation in the overall economy, as well as some other events
outside our control, have hampered the recognition in the marketplace that
should have resulted from our efforts.
One of the circumstances that is outside our control is the Eico Systems
Corporation's ongoing corporate restructuring. Our first commercial plasma
converter is awaiting full scale operation. We have had excellent dialogue
with the management of Eico and we believe we are nearing an agreed upon plan
to achieve the long awaited operation of our ash processing system. The
entire system has been delivered and will begin to operate as soon as the
customer is ready to proceed. Based upon recent discussions which I had in
Japan with the president of Eico we expect this to occur within the next sixty
days. As we said previously, the difference between boasting a fully
operational demonstration system and a commercially operating system is
self-evident.
Last year I put before you a four-pronged approach to achieve greater
market awareness and acceptance of our technologies. The approach included
direct sales to customers, joint development efforts, BOO/BOT efforts, and
engineering services and testing. While our efforts in these areas have not
been reflected in our share price there have been significant strides made in
each. As a company, and as a management team, we need to continue to improve
the long-term prospects of the company and trust that these efforts will be
recognized by the market and factored into the value placed on Startech
equities. To this point I believe that the market has failed to realize the
inherent value of Startech securities and the company as a whole.
Over the past year we have made meaningful progress toward restoring
Startech's initial promise and positioning the company to capitalize on its
strengths. I stood before you last year and projected that Startech, a
company that in its entire history, prior to my becoming President and CEO,
had never exceeded $2,500,000 in annual sales, would exceed $10,000,000 in
calendar year 2002. I am pleased to announce that we have sales under
contract exceeding this number. I expect this success rate to continue into
and beyond 2003. In fact, we have already signed a contract with the company
representing the Polish Municipality of Bytom for a 10 ton per day Plasma
Converter System(TM).
As we look forward into the future, I am confident that our business model
will continue achieving the promise of its superior technology and vision and
open up the doors to sustainable profitability and growth. I suspect that the
successes of 2002 are only the tip of the iceberg. Now I realize that in the
end these are just words, and our shareholders deserve, and expect, more than
just empty rhetoric. Shareholders want share appreciation. Clearly we as a
company are not in the position that we had hoped to have reached at this
point, and you have not seen the profitable return on your investment that you
and I would have liked. But, in examining the strides the company has made
since I began as president, particularly the signing of two contracts last
year, I am confident that the future for this company is bright. I believe
that we are extremely close to meeting everyone's expectations. Our recent
sales, and testing programs, have all originated and been closed since I
reported to you last year.
Our near term success will be driven by direct sales of our equipment. We
have a current pipeline in excess of $10 million in equipment sales in Poland.
We are working with a dedicated and capable group of people who have the
resources and finances to bring these matters forward. I have been to Poland
numerous times to speak with all the parties involved, tour the facilities
that will house our systems, and negotiate the contracts. These customers are
working on their own timeframe and schedule and doing all they can to expedite
the funding process. They have worked effectively to receive the support and
approval from all the necessary stakeholder groups. We are provided constant
updates as they continue to put their financing in place through public and
private sources of capital. We have received the initial payment for one of
these announced projects, and we are told to expect continued funding for both
projects to accelerate over the next 30-45 days. Manufacturing and delivering
these systems in 2003 will cement our position as a force in our burgeoning
industry.
In addition to Poland, there is good reason to believe we will be able to
close at least one or two additional sales over the next sixty days. These
sales are based out of Australia and Japan. I believe these recent
developments will allow Startech to exceed the $10,000,000 in sales which I
had predicted for 2002 again in 2003. Our efforts are focused on closing
these deals and manufacturing those already closed. We also continue to
pursue ongoing projects in the United States, Ireland, Canada, South Africa,
Philippines, China, Italy, and others.
Our efforts in the United States are moving steadily forward. By now you
all understand the level of difficulty involved in establishing the initial
project for a new technology in an environmentally sensitive industry. Absent
unlimited funds, which we do not have, we must depend on other sources of
capital. The sluggish economy and the normal permitting cycle have caused
delay in the ViTech project. But make no mistake, we have made progress and
still believe the joint development project with ViTech to be a promising
opportunity.
We are also encouraged by our new test program with Concurrent
Technologies Corporation (CTC) to demonstrate the ability of the Plasma
Converter System(TM) to irreversibly destroy end-of-life (EOL) electronic
scrap in its DEER2 program. This demonstration program will test the ability
of Startech's Plasma Converter System (PCS) to economically dispose of, and
convert, end-of-life (EOL) electronic scrap into a useable synthesis gas and
inert melt using a single step process.
Another positive event for us was President Bush's support and enthusiasm
for the hydrogen economy. We continue to tell as many groups as we can of
Startech's unique ability to play a significant role in hydrogen production
and distribution. We recently presented StarCell(TM) to the 14th Annual U.S.
Hydrogen Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C., and we are currently
scheduled for presentations at three additional hydrogen/fuel cell
conferences. People are now listening. We have had excellent meetings with
EPA officials, and other government departments and agencies. Startech
products have received significant interest since the State of the Union
message delivered by President Bush and we are constantly evaluating how best
to proceed in this new and exciting area. In fact, we expect that StarCell
will be a featured article in an upcoming Department of Energy publication.
Additionally, we hope to announce shortly another hydrogen-related project
that has been under development with the State of Connecticut.
An obvious concern of our shareholders is the capital structure of the
company and its cash position. Clearly, we need to remain mindful of this
important area and take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that we can
meet all the near term business needs and contingencies that we face. While
our past success in this area is no guarantee of future results, I believe we
will continue to meet the needs of the company in this area through a
combination of cash flow from sales and strategic investments when needed. I
believe we have shown great resourcefulness during what has been a very
difficult fund raising environment. We constantly monitor the situation and
will take all reasonable steps to meet our ongoing needs and challenges in a
manner that has the least impact on our current shareholders. Any need for
future investment will be positively impacted by our cash flow from sales
which, as I mentioned I expect to begin before the end of this month. We also
have ongoing discussions with a number of groups regarding investment capital,
and we believe funding is available. Lastly, we have implemented various cost
reduction activities and continue to seek ways to reduce costs in other areas.
During the first months of my leadership I focused on managing existing
issues and implementing a corporate environment that breeds, and demands,
results. We are now incredibly close to realizing the success that many of us
have worked so hard to attain, and that you, our shareholders, have waited for
so patiently and supportively. The foundation is now in place for us to
achieve what we have talked about in the past. Our focus for 2003 will be to
become profitable for the first time. I expect to achieve this result by
delivering three systems this year and continuing our expanding testing
programs. Additionally, I will not be satisfied unless we attain 4 new sales.
At the same time we will continue to exploit StarCell and its unique
capability to hasten the reality of the hydrogen economy.
We ask much of our shareholders when we again ask them to be patient. It
has been a long and slow road, but often times those are the most worthwhile.
SOURCE Startech Environmental Corporation
 back to top
Related links:
http://www.startech.net
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/113537.html
CONTACT:
Robert DeRochie, VP of Investor Relations,
Startech Environmental Corporation, +1-203-762-2499
|
