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This crisis hit the Automobile After-Market industry as many other crisis have by the busting of arrogance grown of inertia, a lack of imagination, care and creativity. This was caused by the now notorious slackening of entrepreneurial policies and drive as corporate colossus after another acquired the few, the all, of the active players of the time, leading to a longstanding disdain for new, active, performing and innovative products and the economic discipline that tight entrepreneurial budgets compel. The alarms were there as far back as 1997, when a small company called Falken Industries launched its product conceptions against its gigantic competitors, throwing the industry on its knees. Yet, the all knowing of the day, unimpressed by this newcomer stuck to their policies of targeting the 8% market of automobile enthusiasts, ignoring the 92%, and largest amongst these; women. Women in 1997 owned 50% of all cars on the road in most western countries. Women, while few in the enthusiast category, were prominent in the care of their automobiles which for the most part they considered an extension of their homes. Women in 1997 had no products in car-care addressed to their particular needs; quick, painless, efficient and effective car maintenance. That is, until 1997 when this then tiny little company which to this day remains a small company ($ 25 million in market capitalization) launched the conception that would become the Clean Plus® Product Group, a global industry leader in consumer, professional and industrial chemicals and cleaning and maintenance products. Meanwhile, its competitors sank deeper and deeper in the red. Behind this inaction lay the belief that the policies and few players that had sustained this market could continue to exist with a callous disregard for the wants and needs of the consumer. And hence, the less they did the better. For a long period this held, the market remained in the hand of a half a dozen companies all individually large enough to intimidate any would be entrepreneur. The quick buck of other industries flagged their entrepreneurial interest away from the automobile after-market in all events. It's too late now. The cost of playing catch up in global markets dominated by Clean Plus® and other FLKI product conceptions would far exceed the cost of acquiring this gem, publicly traded under symbol FLKI. Predictably overtures have occurred attempting to motivate the management of FLKI to abandon for the sake of the buck, albeit a lot of them, their fiercely valued creative independence. Solicited routinely, the time will come when the interest of its 4000+ shareholders will prevail, and this unique gem of the industry will be swallowed by the mighty giants and once again the industry will be dominated by the half a dozen few. This hypothesis is all the more realistic when you consider that the investment banking industry has yet to focus on this up and coming opportunity, licking their wounds, and laying their hyperbole on the new issues that fill their coffers not unusually at the expense of the takers. FLKI is a virtual unknown outside of the industry which keeps its stock down to a fraction of its value. An acquisition would likely bring $ 3 to $ 4 per share based on history for this industry, yet the stock trades today at .195 cents - go figure. Lastly and very suggestive of preparation underway, the company recently announced in a recent press release the appointment of a giant of the acquisition and merger field to its Board of Directors. Meanwhile, FLKI management seems well focused on development of its conceptions in the emerging nations (BRIC) and is taking to tightening its hold on the European markets where markets are lolling in their splendid berths, enjoying the declining dollar and British pound whose fall enhances the value of the euro, the currency of choice for FLKI. So will the industry, and notably this formidable innovator end in an anti-climax? I don't think so. The crisis hit an industry that was already in the throes of change. But, where that process will lead and whether it will be enough to awaken the entrepreneurial drive that fuels consumer demand remains open to question.
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Car care, car-care, autocare, chemicals, polishes, wax, wipes, wet wipes, clean plus, Lingettes, Nettoyant, Desinfectant, Wipes, Chimie, Degraissan,
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