Norbain Financial Performance and UK Market

Norbain's financial results and recent comments identify challenges both for the UK market and for traditional suppliers. According to financial reports from Company House, Norbain's revenue fell 13.1% from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009 (from 139 Million GB Pounds down to 121 Million GB Pounds). These were the most recent publicly disclosed financial documents. From Norbain's comments below, this drop has continued or accelerated in the last 12 months.

A May 2010 interview confirms those challenges and provides commentary from Norbain's CEO. In the 12 minute interview, key comments made include:

• They initially claimed that the recession would be much worse than everyone anticipated (see 2008 report) and it has turned out a lot worse than even they thought
• "UK market has been pretty terrible"
• "Major users of CCTV have just delayed their roll-out programs"
• "Nearly everybody is reporting a 20% drop in the CCTV market ... in the last 12 months" [Note: this is generally true for analog incumbents]
• "Accelerated price erosion"
• "Nightmare scenario ship lots more products for the same amount or less money"
• Coming year, "UK flat next 6 to 9 months based on the world does not collapse ... slight uptake second half of the year"
• "Public sector spending pretty ravaged next 6 months" in UK

At the 6 minute market of the interview embedded below, the discussion turns to financial performance and the UK / European market.