In today’s battered and bruised economy, organizations of all shapes, sizes and colors are striving to cut costs while improving efficiencies. As the nation pushes to conserve energy like never before, many are targeting HVAC as a starting point and upgrading or replacing old systems.
Savvy investors are putting their money into companies out there that are capitalizing on this trend. A strong sector of the energy conservation trend is the HVAC industry and Marmion Industries Corp. (OTCBB: MMIO) is a contender that we like these days. MMIO announced today that it has effectively surpassed its monthly purchase order total for January ($272,484.91) through the first two weeks of February ($321,989.55).This brings the company’s year-to-date total of announced purchase orders to nearly $600,000. Not too shabby after getting off to a slow start during the first few weeks of the year, which are historically slow for the company.
With a great deal of enterprise and consumer investment currently heavily weighted in necessity versus luxury, it’s no surprise to us that The Freedonia Group, Inc. expects the U.S. HVAC market to remain quite healthy through 2011. The research firm forecasts the U.S. market to reach $16.8 Billion in 2011 with about ¾ of demand being attributable to replacement. In addition, non- residential construction is expected to command the lion’s share of revenue dollars.This bodes extremely well for MMIO as the company primarily targets business in the commercial and industrial sectors, staying away from the residential marketplace all together. With The International Energy Agency expecting the oil and gas sector to invest more than $8 trillion on infrastructure by 2030 and commercial jobs rolling in like crazy, I’d say that MMIO has been very astute in positioning its business thus far.
In a testament to the quality of the company’s products, MMIO recently completed a project for Lucite International, the world’s leading producer of acrylic monomers and owner of the popular Lucite® and Perspex® brands. MMIO has also recently announced shipping product to ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), the fifth-largest global refinery based on crude oil capacity and owner of the sixth-largest total of proved oil & gas reserves in the world.
On the commercial side of the business, as I have mentioned before, but it warrants repeating: Marmion is one of just two local mechanical contractors chosen for the new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ‘LEED’ Certification of Quality Program. The designation allowed the company to secure approximately $3,000,000 worth of commercial contracts within a relatively short time frame, at least some of which is still to be booked in 2008.
It appears as if the Marmion’s plans to both diversify its business and become more aggressive in its sales/marketing efforts are beginning to pan out. MMIO also has installs with MAJOR petrochemical players that hold the potential to take the company to the next level with just one big order.With business booming, brand recognition growing amongst tier-one petrochemical players and a new facility about to be constructed that will help the company meeting growing demand for its products, 2008 is shaping up to be yet another record year for MMIO.
The stock has been hanging around the $.01 range for so long now that an announcement such as todays could be just what the doctor ordered to get shares moving in a northward direction. As such, adding MMIO to your watch list right now (if it isn’t there already) is probably a good idea.
Share This Article
