Swiss Surveying & Engineering Company, Leica Geosystems has announced that it had started customer shipments of its latest flagship product, Leica SmartStation, ahead of schedule.
Leica officially launched its SmartStation, the world’s first high performance total station with integrated GPS, this past February 2005. At that time, the Company stated that shipments would begin in April 2005. Due to the efficient implementation of its operational plans, combined with an expedient ramp-up of production, the Surveying & Engineering division has been able to make shipments earlier than previously announced.
In conjunction with the SmartStation announcement, the Company also took the opportunity to confirm its sales and earnings guidance for the full fiscal year. It stated that order momentum in all of its businesses supported its full year sales growth estimate of between 11%-12%. The company stated that it was uncertain where it would fall within this range, which it said was largely dependant upon the conversion to sales of several large orders in its GIS & Mapping division, which might slip into the first quarter of the following fiscal year.
At the same time, the company reiterated its expectation that sales growth in Surveying & Engineering would exceed 15% for the full year. In terms of profitability, Leica Geosystems continues to expect the full year EBITDA margin to be at or slightly above 16%, with net income to approach CHF 50 million.
