Quarterlytics / Technology / Communication Equipment / KVH Industries, Inc.

KVH Industries, Inc.

kvhi · NASDAQ Technology
Claim this profile
Ticker kvhi
Exchange NASDAQ
Sector Technology
Industry Communication Equipment
Employees 247
← All annual reports
FY2004 Annual Report · KVH Industries, Inc.
Sign in to download
Loading PDF…
Dear Fellow Stockholders,

We entered 2004 with a set of challenging goals for growth within our key markets –
mobile satellite television and defense guidance systems – and during the course of the
year, we achieved many major milestones:

• We completed our first full year of mobile satellite TV sales to the automotive 
market and became the only approved source for DIRECTV® service in cars.

• We strengthened and expanded both our marine satellite TV and 
communications families as well as our fiber optic product line.

• We developed new features and capabilities for our military navigation 

products to expand our potential addressable markets.

• We increased our annual revenues by 10% to a record $62.3 million.

Our core satellite business, delivering digital satellite TV to mobile consumers, continues
to drive our growth, with sales up 24% for the year. Visit any marina in North America
and you’ll see a sea of our trademark white and gray TracVision® and Tracphone® satellite
antennas. More major RV manufacturers use TracVision than any other brand of mobile
satellite TV antenna. And while sightings of our new TracVision A5 on cars might not 
be as frequent as I hope they’ll be in the future, I’m proud to say that when you do see
families around the United States enjoying DIRECTV programming in their automobile,
you know it’s a TracVision on their car.

Nevertheless, we recognize that some of our 2004 results were not up to either our expec-
tations or yours. Unforeseen challenges negatively affected our results and required us to
adapt our plans as the year progressed. The first quarter was the high point of the year for
our mobile satellite TV sales in the RV market, largely as a result of one of our largest
aftermarket customers significantly reducing its company-wide inventory for all of its
retail products beginning in the second quarter. Aftermarket sales of the TracVision A5
grew sequentially from the second quarter on, but not at the pace we originally hoped.
And, in light of shifting operational needs in Iraq, our largest U.S. military customers 
dramatically adjusted their purchasing priorities, leading us to reevaluate our sales goals
for the year.

These were the realities of the marketplace. While we remained confident in our long-term
strategic plan, we knew that we needed to adjust certain elements of our business operations.
Thankfully, our core assets were financially strong. We weathered the challenges posed
during the first half of the year and began taking steps that allowed us to adapt our business
tactics to what we were seeing in the marketplace. The company is stronger now as a result.

KVH Industries, Inc.
50 Enterprise Center
Middletown, RI 02842-5279
U.S.A.
Tel: 401.847.3327 
Fax: 401.849.0045
www.kvh.com

Strengthening Our Balance Sheet

Our plans to be the leading provider of mobile satellite TV systems to the booming automotive
video market are ambitious. We recognized that meeting the opportunities and challenges
that come with strong growth required that we strengthen our balance sheet. We did so by
completing an equity offering in February 2004 that enabled us to raise $48 million. As a
result, we are equipped with the financial resources necessary to support our growth plans.

Gaining Momentum in the Automotive Marketplace

Almost five years ago, we set out to develop the first commercially viable, low-profile satellite
TV antenna for cars because we believed that mobile video in automobiles had the potential
to dwarf any other mobile market we served. That belief seems to be proving correct –
industry analyst TRG Research recently indicated that more than 3.4 million mobile video
systems were sold for automobiles in 2004. In addition, analyst Frost & Sullivan expects
that by 2011, as many as 36.8 million vehicles in the U.S. will be equipped with passenger
entertainment systems. Just as important is Frost & Sullivan’s projection that by 2011, more
than 3 million of those cars will be equipped with mobile satellite TV. KVH is leading the
way with our award-winning TracVision A5 system providing access to 135+ channels of
DIRECTV programming, a fact recognized by Frost & Sullivan when it bestowed upon us its
first-ever “Market Leadership Award for Automotive Mobile Satellite TV” in January 2005.

Being the pioneer of new technology and opening a new market doesn’t come without its
share of challenges. Following the successful launch of the TracVision A5 in September
2003 and a full quarter of shipments to fill backlog and initial orders, sales of our automotive
satellite TV system slowed at the start of 2004. While sales did increase sequentially in the
second quarter, we elected to be much more aggressive with the price and promotion of the
TracVision A5. Thanks to the success of our ongoing product cost reduction program, we
were able to cut the TracVision A5’s MSRP by roughly 30% in July 2004 to ensure that we
capitalized on our “first-to-market” position and built momentum during the second half of
the year. It appears to be working. TracVision A5 sales continued to improve from one quarter
to the next and the sales ramp strengthened in the second half of the year.

In June 2004, we also announced a new agreement with DIRECTV, Inc., which emerged 
following months of technical evaluations by DIRECTV engineers and marketing discussions
between our two companies. The end result – DIRECTV created TOTAL CHOICE® MOBILE,
a unique programming package available for automobiles, and KVH is the only company
authorized to promote and activate this entertaining new service. To take advantage of our
relationship with DIRECTV, we also launched an expanded marketing effort to raise 
consumer awareness.

We also created a dedicated business development team with a mandate to respond to the
accelerating interest among automakers. Since then, we have met with many automotive
OEMs and our efforts are beginning to bear fruit. In November 2004, General Motors honored
the TracVision A5 with its “2004 Most Innovative Product” award. Cadillac is now actively
promoting the TracVision A5 to its premier dealers, featuring the TracVision A5 at its Super
Bowl-related festivities, dealer meetings, and industry venues like the New York Auto Show.
I believe that our efforts and the enthusiasm among automakers will help pave the way for
TracVision A5 sales directly through new car dealers as well as potential factory installation
of TracVision systems in the coming years.

I am confident that all of these bold steps in the aftermarket and in conjunction with the
OEMs, while perhaps coming at the expense of short-term results, are raising the odds of
our long-term success.

Supporting All Markets through Innovative New Technology

As a technology company, our research and development efforts are critical to our future 
success. We maintained our strong pace of R&D investment (roughly 10% of revenue) to
support new initiatives in all product families.

While we continued to refine the TracVision A5, we also pursued the development of both a
new, embedded system (a prototype of which was unveiled by Cadillac in March 2005) and
a next-generation electronic scanning antenna. In addition, we brought new marine products
like the TracVision G8 satellite TV system and Tracphone F33 satellite communications 
system to market in 2004. The result was strong growth in the marine marketplace throughout
the year. These efforts rolled over into 2005, when we introduced new, higher-performance
successors to a number of our marine TracVision systems.

In the defense market, one of our major objectives for 2004 and beyond is to make certain
that our TACNAV® military navigation systems evolve to meet emerging mission-critical
requirements. By combining our expertise in communications and navigation technology, 
we are positioning TACNAV to support new opportunities and new vehicle platforms in 
both the U.S. and foreign militaries.

Our long-term R&D efforts also resulted in the successful consolidation of our fiber optic
gyro product line into a single, core design using our patented digital signal processing 
technology. Our versatile new FOGs, including the DSP-3000, the militarized DSP-4000,
and our precision TG-6000 inertial measurement unit, have been well received and are 
gaining traction in the market. These systems are enabling us to compete aggressively for a
range of guidance and stabilization programs in both the defense and commercial arenas.

Improving Our Operational Model & Business Foundation

Our investment was not limited to R&D but also contributed to improvements in how we do
business. In mid-year, we launched a multifaceted effort to improve our internal systems 
and overall operations. We made significant headway in areas ranging from manufacturing
efficiencies and cost structure to more effective forecasting of retailer inventory patterns and
the overall predictability of our business performance. New shipping and warehousing systems
have substantially increased our operational efficiency. Additional robotic assembly systems
were installed to support TracVision A5 production. We expanded our European facilities to
accommodate expanding sales overseas. And we’ve fielded new on-the-road demonstration
vehicles that are crisscrossing the United States and supporting our TracVision A5 sales,
training, and media outreach efforts.

We also continue to invest in our employees at all levels, providing expanded training and
new tools and hiring talented personnel to support our initiatives. Advanced information 
systems are streamlining the sales and order process for our customers. We are expanding
our dealer training efforts as well as our customer support programs.

Each step and every initiative we pursue is focused on one goal: building a stronger business
foundation that will maximize long-term shareholder value.

Although the bottom line return in 2004 and the company’s stock price performance did not
meet expectations, we are in a stronger position now than we were at the start of 2004. 
We enter 2005 with:

•

•

the people, technology, financial assets, and flexibility to pursue the significant 
opportunities available to us;

a customer base that values our solutions, services, and support; and

• partners who are as committed to success as we are.

I believe that we made tremendous progress during the past year. KVH remains the leader in
substantial markets with excellent growth opportunities. We are taking actions we felt were 
necessary to help us deliver the consistent long-term, profitable growth and positive share-
holder returns that I and the more than 270 employees here at KVH Industries hope to deliver
to you, our fellow stockholders.

Thank you for your continued support.

Best regards,

Martin Kits van Heyningen
President and Chief Executive Officer

KVHIN-PL-05