Company officials attribute this expansion to increasing worldwide product demand, and to the continuing introduction of new, technically advanced products.  Construction of the new 144,000 square foot facility – designated as Building Seven – will begin in the next month with completion scheduled for early 2005. With this addition, Pelco’s <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Clovis operations will expand to over 550,000 square feet of buildings spread over nearly forty acres. 

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Already the Central Valley’s largest manufacturing employer, Pelco’s 1,600 person workforce will increase to over 2,100 by the end of 2005. The newly created jobs will cover a complete range from production workers to professional and management positions. 

A new day care center for employees’ children will also be added as part of this project. All of Pelco’s manufacturing operations are located in Clovis. 

Commenting on the growth plans, Pelco’s Manufacturing Vice President Tim Glines stated, “Continuing, heavy investments in leading-edge manufacturing technologies, coupled with our outstanding, productive workforce, allow our Clovis made products to effectively compete anywhere in the world. ‘Made in USA’ is an unshakable part of our culture.” 

The company has access to an additional twenty-five acres in the ClovisIndustrial Park for future growth. Increasing demand for Pelco products is particularly strong in international markets where the company has recently opened numerous customer support offices, Distribution Centers, and designated service centers. 

Pelco officials further noted that the company’s ongoing success is being continuously fueled by a steady flow of advanced new digital and network based video products. 

In recent years, Pelco’s Engineering/Research and Development Group has increased to over 225 people; and in 2003 a 40,000 square foot dedicated ProductDevelopmentCenter was opened. 

Executive Vice President Carrie Migliore commented, “We have assembled the most talented, powerful product development group ever seen in this industry. Staying ahead of the technology curve is the best, possible long term insurance for Pelco and our customers.”

Commenting on the growth plans and the fact that Pelco has just received its tenth consecutive PSA Superstar Award – the most prestigious customer satisfaction award in the security industry – Pelco CEO David L. McDonald said,

“We are obviously pleased at our continuing growth and success which, I feel, we owe to our truly exceptional employees who, every day, surprise our customers with an unexpected level of service and support.” 

 Pelco’s big range is supported in Australia by Pacific Communications.

IR is a big player in the electronic security industry and its Security and Safety Sector includes architectural hardware products, mechanical locks, and electronic and biometric access-control technologies, including Schlage locks.

Ingersoll-Rand had net income of $237.8 million, or $1.36 a share, for the latest quarter, compared with $154.6 million, or 88 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding divested businesses and gains on their sale, the company had third-quarter income of $205.6 million, or $1.18 a share.

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The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial was for earnings, excluding items, of $1.16 a share. In July, Ingersoll-Rand forecast third-quarter earnings of $1.10 to $1.15 a share, excluding a gain from the sale of parts of its drilling business. Third-quarter revenue rose to $2.37 billion from $2.06 billion.

The company increased its estimate for 2004 earnings from total operations to $4.80 to $4.90 a share, up from a July projection of $4.75 to $4.85 a share. First Call, which generally excludes items, expects 2004 earnings of $4.90 a share. In 2003, Ingersoll-Rand earned $3.34 a share.

The company is incorporated in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Hamilton, Bermuda, but has executive offices in Montvale, N.J. Shares of Ingersoll-Rand closed Thursday down $1.88, or 2.8 percent, at $66.22 on the New York Stock Exchange. It has offices in Australia and New Zealand distributing a wide range of access control solutions. In 2003 the company’s Security and Safety Sector, which has been flagged by IR as one of 4 global growth areas on which it will focus, took revenues of $US1.6 billion.

In all, the company’s third quarter 2004 net income of $US48,319,000 and diluted earnings per share of $US.67, compared to diluted earnings per share of $US.66 in the third quarter of 2003.

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Diebold also achieved record third quarter revenue of $US613,393,000, 7.6 percent higher than the third quarter 2003 revenue of $US570,239,000.

Diluted earnings per share grew 1.5 percent, driven by strong performance in the financial self-service and security businesses. Earnings were adversely affected by the election systems business, which was dilutive by $US.04 per share in the third quarter of 2004 but was $US.06 accretive in the third quarter of 2003.

“We are very encouraged by our continued strong order growth during the quarter,” said Walden W. O’Dell, Diebold chairman and chief executive officer.

“We also achieved strong earnings per share growth in our financial self- service and security businesses, growing more than 18 percent.

UTC has previously approached Kidde with a formal proposal for a cash offer for the entire share capital of Kidde, most recently at a price of up to 160p and subject to due diligence. This approach was rebuffed and UTC’s request for satisfactory due diligence denied. UTC is considering whether to proceed with an offer and intends to meet with shareholders in order to seek their support for satisfactory due diligence access.

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UTC currently holds 21.875 million shares (2.6 percent) of Kidde. At this time there can be no certainty as to whether an offer will be made or the value of any offer. A new offer would certainly be subject to customary terms and conditions, including a further Hart-Scott-Rodino filing.

UTC said last week that it had received clearance to acquire up to 30 percent of the ordinary shares of Kidde plc under the Hart-Scott-Rodino rules in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />United States.

Meanwhile, despite turning UTC down, Kidde indicated it was open to a higher offer but it’s counter proposal was rejected in turn by UTC. Kidde’s proposal was based upon United Technologies agreeing to a price that was unacceptable, said Paul Jackson, a spokesman for United Technologies. Kidde also would not allow United Technologies a satisfactory examination of the company’s financial records, he said.

Kidde provides fire and safety products, systems and services for industries that overlap with United Technologies’ aerospace, defense, industrial, commercial and consumer markets. The products include detection, protection, prevention and fire fighting.

Shares of United Technologies fell 4 cents to close at $91 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. Kidde shares rose 17.2 percent to close at 170 pence, above ($3.10), above the high end of what was being offered, on London’s Stock Exchange.

The ACCC’s charges relate to Chubb Security Australia entering into agreements with clients to provide security services when at the time of entering into the agreements there were reasonable grounds, of which Chubb was aware, for believing that it would be unable to supply all contracted services within the period agreed. 

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The contracts were entered into between 5 June, 2001 and 4 November, 2002, and clients affected were located in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Sydney, the Gosford region, Canberra and Tasmania.

Chubb Security Australia went before Justice Annabelle Bennett of the Federal Court, in Sydney on June 24 this year and informed the court it proposed to plead guilty to the charges. At that time Justice Bennett listed the matter for one day’s hearing at 10.15am on October 15 to “determine the appropriate penalty”.

While there’s as yet no mention of the hearing on the ACCC’s website, industry association ASIAL reported in its online newsletter last week that “On Friday 15th October 2004, Chubb Security Australia pleaded guilty in the Federal Court (this actually occurred on June 24, we believe) to charges of contravening the Trade Practices Act.”

ASIAL’s newsletter noted that Justice Bennett “will hand down her decision in the coming weeks.” More interestingly, the newletter reported that an independent panel appointed by the ASIAL Board had put forward options and recommendations on how the Association should handle this matter, including a possible “package of sanctions”. This panel is completing its task and will shortly report back to ASIAL’s national executive council, the newsletter said.

This is a watershed case for ASIAL and the NSW licensing model, which is run at arms length by the NSW police service. While small organizations, security officers and security managers have all lost their security licenses, had their association memberships terminated and been denied the right to earn a living in the security industry, some for relatively minor infringements, bigger corporations have up to this point, sailed through serious crimes entirely unscathed.

The crimes of bigger organisations have variously included misleading customers, failure to provide services that have been paid for and price collusion, among other things. Despite charges in Australian courts, none of the major organizations (and none of their senior officers) has ever been denied the right to continue operating in the security industry. Conversely, SNW is aware of a security manager whose license was cancelled by the Security Industry Registry, even though no charge was recorded against him in a misdemeanor hearing.

And there’s another telling factor in the case. A raft of recommendations has just been handed down that will upgrade the Security Industry Act in NSW, significantly broadening the numbers and types of people and companies who may now be required to operate under its rules.

In light of these recommendations, a failure to adequately prosecute in this case will be seen as a failure of the Act by a majority in the security industry, many of whom have long felt NSW licensing raises revenue without a balanced policing of the Act.

The performance of such companies is relevant because increased penetration of DVRs in the consumer market will have an impact on pricing of commercial systems

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SA said its earnings for the fiscal first quarter ended Oct. 1 rose to $US55.9 million, or 36 cents a share, matching the average forecast by analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

It earned $US42.7 million, or 28 cents a share, in the same period last year.

Sales increased 14 percent to $452.7 million from $US395.6 million a year earlier, but fell short of analysts’ mean forecast of $461 million.

Scientific-Atlanta said demand for its DVRs remains strong, with 397,000 shipped during the quarter. The company also said it sold 416,000 cable modems, a record number for any quarter.

Compared to the motion JPEG standard (Joint Picture Expert Group), “MxPEG” requires only one third of the network bandwidth for data transmission, while still providing very high image quality.

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Network camera manufacturer Mobotix developed the licence-free MxPEG technology to transmit the live images its cameras produce without generating any appreciable network load (1.5 Mbps) for even high-resolution quality (12 images per second, 640 x 480 pixels, 70 percent JPEG quality).

At this data rate, the video stream occupies less than two percent of a standard computer network (100 megabits). As a result, large-format video streams can be transmitted easily via existing networks or the Internet.