Echelon receives Frost & Sullivan Growth Leadership Award
For the second year in a row, Echelon has been recognized with the Growth Leadership Award, Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) Europe 2012 from Frost & Sullivan. Echelon was selected as the winner for its continual work in the following areas:- Accelerated Growth in Business
- Targeting New Emerging Markets
- Technology Innovation and Development
- Development Plans for Future Roadmap
Quotes from the Frost & Sullivan report:
Echelon’s Performance in AMI
"Echelon has been instrumental in spearheading the smart meter revolution in Europe. The company’s power line technology holds the highest market share for use in the smart meter market through its project with Enel and with its Networked Energy Services (NES) Systems deployments throughout Europe. Echelon has been the leader in the smart meter market in the Nordics with 35 per cent market share. The company holds the highest share of smart meter units shipped in Denmark with about 57 per cent share and has a strong presence in Finland, Norway and Sweden. In 2011, Echelon won large projects in Russia and Norway. The company holds the leadership position as a smart metering communication technology supplier with about 30 per cent share in 2011".
Accelerated Growth in Business - Revenue Growth
"Echelon has made significant financial and business progress in 2011 compared to previous years. In 2011, the company recorded 41 percent revenue growth, significantly outpacing the broader market. In 2010, the company recorded a 7 percent growth rate. The global revenues increased from approximately $111 million in 2010 to $156 million in 2011, thus depicting the company’s growth leadership position. The company witnessed a very strong growth in 2011 over 2010, which was also the highest growth for Echelon compared to the past in the utility business from one year to the other. Echelon achieved about 73 percent higher growth in the global utility smart metering business in 2011 against that of 2010. The global utility smart metering business revenues for the company, excluding PLC chips sold to Enel, were $99.4 million in 2011, while it was $57.3 million in 2010. The two major utility customers who primarily contributed to this growth are Fortum of Finland and Duke Energy of Ohio, USA. The factors that contributed to the business growth and development are accelerated rollout of large-scale projects in the United States and Europe, establishment of an important sub-systems partnership in China with a metering company, Holley Metering, and the partnership with ELO Sistemas Electronicos (ELO), a big metering company in Brazil, to deploy an end-to-end, two-way smart meter system built on Echelon’s technology".
Targeting New Emerging Markets through Partnerships at both Global and European Levels - Geographic Growth
"The key parameter of Echelon’s growth strategy is to extend the reach of its energy control networking platform by partnering with leading manufacturers in high-growth geographies where there is often a strong desire to purchase from local manufacturers. This has allowed Echelon to diversify its strategy from being just a provider of smart metering solutions. Echelon's field-proven technologies along with its experience gained by connecting more than 35 million homes to the smart grid, has enabled it to win contracts in Brazil and China, which has aided the company to grow, primarily by targeting and capturing the emerging geographic markets successfully. This unique strategy has enabled Echelon to work cooperatively with companies that previously would have been viewed as competitors and has stimulated Echelon’s growth through major tenders in Europe, North America, Asia, and Middle East. In this way Echelon aims at expanding its smart metering business in countries like China, India, Brazil and South Africa and other emerging smart grid markets in Latin America and Southeast Asia. By taking a flexible licensing model of sub-systems, Echelon is attempting to enter new local markets through partnerships. In 2011, the company established a strong position in two of the world’s largest potential smart grid geographies, which is also expected to be Echelon’s major markets over the next few years - Brazil and China".
Technology Innovation and Development
"The company classifies its products and services into two primary categories: Systems, such as its smart metering solutions, which are targeted for use by utilities and sub-systems that include components, control nodes and development software, which are sold typically to OEMs, who build them into their smart grid, smart cities and smart buildings solutions. In this way the company allows the bundling and unbundling of its smart metering and grid technology and solution options, which has stimulated its growth in Europe and is similar to the company’s strategy to gain market leadership in Brazil, China and the rest of the Asia markets. This strategic approach is also similar to the one executed during Enel’s smart metering roll out in Italy, where the networking and control technology for use in Enel’s smart meters was provided by Echelon for more than 30 million meters".
Development Plans for Future Roadmap
"By focusing on innovation, the company plans to effectively leverage its existing technology, to differentiate its products and formulate roadmaps in order to develop and provide value-adding solutions to the largest number of customers across Echelon’s markets and geographies.
2012 and beyond, the company plans to accelerate growth by implementing two main strategies -
• By increasing emphasis on sub-systems sales through its partners and design complete solutions by working in collaboration with local partners, to penetrate into the target markets.
• Directing innovation towards Echelon’s energy control networking platform and standardizing on Echelon’s COS software, this core platform can support the convergence in applications across the smart grid, smart cities and smart buildings".