Schmitt Industries Inc's Competitiveness

Competitors in the Balancer Segment primarily come from Germany and Italy. These competitors produce electromechanical and water balancers and process control products similar to SBS. The Company’s primary competitors are Marposs S.p.A., MPM Micro Prazision Marx GmbH and Balance Systems S.r.l.

Management believes the TMS and Lasercheck surface measurement products are two of only a few systems that provide fast, accurate, repeatable non-contact microroughness measurement for a wide variety of commercial customers. The Company believes its surface measurement products are currently the only systems that can provide measurements as low as a few hundredths of an Å, with reproducibility +/- 0.2Å or 1% and repeatability of +/-0.1Å. There are differences between our surface measurement products and other optical techniques (which include profilometers, scanning tunneling microscopes, atomic force microscopes or interferometers). These other technologies require the intervention of a skilled operator to perform measurements relatively slowly, whereas our surface measurement products are much simpler and, consequently, can make measurements more rapidly while still maintaining excellent repeatability and accuracy. Stylus profilometers are simpler devices that require less skilled operators. However, measurements must be conducted under vibration isolation conditions, and large areas require numerous scans; thus, stylus profilometers are generally destructive to soft materials such as most coated optics.

The market for distance measurement and dimensional sizing products is extremely competitive, characterized by rapidly changing technology. The Company believes the principal elements of competition include quality of ongoing technical support and maintenance coupled with responsiveness to customer needs, as well as price, product quality, reliability and performance. The differences between the Company’s sensors and competitive products include pushbutton selection of output signals in certain models and sensors that can be programmed using serial commands through a PC computer.

Competing surface measurement products and dimensional sizing products come from established multinational competitors, most of which are significantly larger and have greater financial, engineering, manufacturing and marketing resources. Company pricing is intended to obtain market share and meet competitive supplier prices. The market strategy is to establish measurement products with the best quality, reliability and performance and superior economic value.

Management believes that the Xact Tank Monitoring System offers the only ultrasonic sensor specifically designed to provide independent precise tank level calculation while most other competitors utilize gauge-reading technology, which reads the tank fill level from a pre-installed float gauge and is less accurate. Competitors offer telemetry options based on cellular or closed loop communication networks whereas Xact telemetry is satellite based. Competitors include, but are not limited to, Independent Technologies, Inc. (Wesroc), NasCorp (SkyTracker), WacnGo, Silicon Controls, TankLink, Centeron, TankScan and Enertrack.