British Columbia's Loss is Now Florida's Gain

"There's individuals and engineers that are still working out of virtual and satellite offices up there but the operations manufacturing has moved, " said GPS Industries Vice President of Sales and Marketing Kevin Carpenter, speaking to BC Golf News from Sarasota. The transition, ongoing for the past six months, was concluded February 1.

A combination of factors led to moving the company's nerve center to Florida, one of which was to be closer to one of GPSI's leading investment partners, Great White Shark Enterprises, owned by Hall of Fame golfer and business mogul, Greg Norman. The company had previously run ParView Inc., a GPS based operation based in Florida, which offered the owners easy access to a significant talent pool of experienced personal, both on the technical and operational side.

"There are still folks employed by the company in British Columbia, says Carpenter, "It's just that the large office structure and overhead (located in South Surrey) is no longer a part of the picture.

GPSI is a world leader renowned for it's Informer golf management system that features a HD screen mounted in golf carts to illustrate each hole with precise distance measurements, strategic tips, clubhouse communications and targeted advertisement messages, all available to the player in an interactive, real-time format.

The company employs 21 people in Sarasota and plans to grow to at least 45 local employees in the next few years; the balance of the company's 70 employees are based in Surrey and Austin, Texas.

"This has been a massive turnaround and reorganization project, said Carpenter, a co-founder of the former Sarasota-based ParView, Inc., an early innovator and pioneer of the GPS Course Management industry.

"You know, prior to the investors and the board bringing in the new executive team, the company had had a hundred million dollars invested and never made any money so it was time to make a move and to do something different and so, being on the old definition of insanity by Einstein, right, doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result."

GPS Industries, which trades over the counter (GPSN), most recently filed a quarterly report -- for the third quarter of 2008 -- with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showing a loss of $4.45 million, or 1 cent per share on revenues of $4.8 million. The firm also reports assets of $30 million, including $1.5 million in cash, and liability of about $32.4 million with 542 million shares outstanding.

Although the company's shares were selling for 1.1 cents on Monday, down a fraction of a penny, or about 12 percent, GPSI plays a significant role at some of the most affluent and popular resorts and courses in the $58-billion world-wide golf industry.

Commenting on the company's prospects for the coming season given the overall current economic situation, Carpenter is extremely enthusiastic.

"I think it will be a sweet victory when we accomplish our goals; it'll just make it all the more sweet, given the trying and challenging times we have right now. Are we going to make it? I absolutely believe that in my heart of hearts."

It is an opinion heartened by the fact that GPS Industries operates in a less competitive market today than 10 years ago.

"There's only one other major player in the high end cart mounted golf cart GPS industry. The rest are hand held consumer products that don't provide any course management and are not direct competitors to us.

"The market is consolidated and our position has been solidified as the best-of-breed within the industry. So there's going to be a market for our products for a long time to come.

"It's much like the bar at happy hour up there in Surrey - - the one that gives away the free snacks during happy hour has a tough time taking it away when times get tough because they built their happy hour business on that.

"Well, we're the free chicken wings at the happy hour and it's tough taking an amenity away even in tough times because you built your key structure and justification of your business model around all the things that you include for the experience. We're part of that."

GPSI made a notable impression recently participating in two major golf industry shows - The PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando and The Golf Industry Show in New Orleans - - -
GPSI Products & Partnerships at Golf Shows