Thomas McClelland: Yeah, a very good question. And of course, there are no guarantees in life, but I think we are doing some things differently. I think that if we look historically, we’ve had a lot of difficulty with what we refer to as NRE programs, non-recurring engineering or a lot of new development activity. Historically, when those turn into later on into production, we’ve been able to do those very profitably, but we have been challenged with the development. And I think one thing that I’ve made a real effort to do differently, is we’re bidding these things differently. And I think to some extent, my experience here over many years, I have been involved in an awful lot of these development programs. And I know the pitfalls and the difficulties.
And I think we’re pushing back really hard, and we’re making sure that we bid these in a way that we feel confident that we can be profitable. And so I think that’s one of the elements. I think then the rest is just kind of the devils in the details. I think if we look at the specific programs that have just come online in November, I think these have a smaller non-recurring engineering component to them. They are much more production and those historically, we have been very effective on. So we’re confident in that regard. And I think the rest of it is just — I think one of the problems starting in 2018 is that the top management really didn’t understand the programs very well. And so we really didn’t — we just kind of ended up behind the eight ball from the start in some cases.
And I think I’m actively involved in these programs, and I’m committed to making sure that they execute effectively going forward. And I think — so that’s my take on things. It’s a really good question. But we will just have to see how things go going forward.
George Marema: I appreciate that. If I may slip in one — really one last quick one here. I know you guys don’t give guidance. Do you guys, as a company, have good visibility quarter-to-quarter on what revenues and costs look like or you don’t have much visibility?
Thomas McClelland: No, we have pretty good visibility.
George Marema: Have you considered giving quarterly guidance a quarter ahead?
Thomas McClelland: Steve?
Steve Bernstein: As of now, we don’t guide going forward, maybe we will continue in the future, but not for now.
George Marema: Okay. Thank you for your time.
Steve Bernstein: Okay.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is coming from Michael Eisner. Michael is a private investor. Michael, your line is live.
Unidentified Analyst: Hi, how many employees do you have at this time?
Thomas McClelland: We have just about 200 employees that including all three sites at this point.
Unidentified Analyst: That’s full time?
Thomas McClelland: Yes.
Unidentified Analyst: And some — you have some part-time also, right?
Thomas McClelland: We have some part-time. We work with some consultants and we have some contracts with some outside engineering contractors.
Unidentified Analyst: All right. So you hired more people. The three contracts, the first two, the technology is already proven on the first two? The $25 million and the $19 million.
Thomas McClelland: Yes.
Unidentified Analyst: That’s great. Now can these companies, whoever you are dealing with, can they give you more business on these two contracts?
Thomas McClelland: Yes.
Unidentified Analyst: Right, just the first part of like, for example, the $25 million that will be done in roughly two years or so, that could go through another $20 million, say.
Thomas McClelland: Well, it — I want to make sure I don’t mislead. It’s — in that particular case, is not like there are contract options going forward. But that is a major satellite supplier and we had many, many contracts with that particular company over the years, and we will have many more going forward. In fact, we do currently have other contracts with that company. And I have every reason to believe that if we are successful on that particular program that, that will lead to other satellite programs for us going forward.
Unidentified Analyst: Well, it should work because you’re using technology that worked before.
Thomas McClelland: Yeah. Absolutely. This — one of the things we pointed out in the press release is that this is a $25 million program, but from beginning to end, this is a 18-month time period. And in a way, this is — the ultimate customer is US government, and this is sort of a test to see if we and of course, our customer can deliver in this shortened period of time. Typically, a program like this would take roughly three years to do the same thing. We’re trying to do it in half that time. And so we’re — we see this as a big challenge, but it’s one that we are pretty confident that we can do and I think if we’re successful, I think there’s going to be a lot more business behind it.
Unidentified Analyst: All right. Well, that’s good to hear. But at this point, these three contracts, I assume you already started working on them.
Thomas McClelland: That’s correct, yes.
