BLT - Blis Technologies

[Bilbo]

Big mistake today from BLT. Email sent out to nearly 500 customers showing all the email addresses. They did recall it but too late. Apology followed, and some red faces I am sure. I don't suppose it will happen again, but not a good look.

A couple of concerns regarding that email.

1) It was only sent to around 500 people. Is that all the previous customers they have on their email list or was the mail out split into multiple batches?
2) The tech behind the email is obviously very low, probably just used an email client. No targeting of the text based on the known country of the customer etc.

[weasel]

Big mistake today from BLT. Email sent out to nearly 500 customers showing all the email addresses. They did recall it but too late. Apology followed, and some red faces I am sure. I don't suppose it will happen again, but not a good look.

Oh my god. Blis IT is a laughing stock.

[Grimy]

Well I'm peeved that despite buying plenty from them over the years on line that I didn't get an email at all. So I'm obviously not on that list-or was it just to overseas based buyers? From the above text it sounds like it was to NZ customers too, so it does raise a few questions.

[simla]

Well, anyway this reaction here is a demonstration on why companies need to put work into public perception of the company. It generates goodwill which companies need from time to time. It is why takeovers pay for goodwill.

Communication has consequences and should be as carefully planned as other activities, and not regarded as just that thing any old person can do at the last moment to meet obligations. Give it to someone with an interest in good communication (clear, comprehensive, and sensitive to emotional implications) and who expects to spend time thinking it through. And better yet get someone else with the same interest to give feedback before issuing the communication. The above email was pleasantly enough written to say what the company wanted to say, but a keen second opinion might have picked up that it did not say what the recipients wanted to hear, as witness comments above.

Likewise I would have said the current sagging share price was a reflection of the company's communications rather than its prospects. Or I hope so. Careful communication would settle that. Less telling us what the company wants to say, and more telling us what we need to hear.

The art of communication lies in saying what the other person wants to hear, not what you want to say - as anyone can attest who has endured listening to a great aunt rant on and on! It is usually possible to attain both ends with a little thought though.

[Leftfield]

I suspect BLT's communication re lower sales etc has taken the pressure off their performance, giving them breathing room to make some e-commerce marketing improvements via the internet.

That said, I think it v puzzling and concerning that they did not keep International website sales going until the new site is ready. Perhaps their International sales via the web were negligible?

This year I've reduced my holding a tab (doubled my money, so remainder is 'free') but am holding the remainder as a long term punt and looking forward to more info from the company. I suspect it will be at least Dec/Jan before we have any good news.

[RGR367]

They really have to improve especially on that website of theirs. My last online order early this month took 7 days! Seven days and without track and trace option from Dunedin when most online stores would even make the 2nd day delivery from your order date. So good on them for making some badly needed changes, be it the website or internal/external comms.

[winner69]

Blis seem to be getting 'mickey mousier' by the day

Will they ever be a decent company?

[GR8DAY]

...agree RGR. I think we all just need to suck this little "blip" up and view it as a positive..........a small cost to moving things ahead for future gains in growth. I certainly wont be loosing any sleep over it.

[Pipi]

The hole using NZ Post is a joke. I did that for a while in my business, wow talk about snail mail, i got so many complaints, also no track and trace (you really need to have that), also lots of parcel went missing.. I went back to Courier Post, who are way cheaper then $5 a parcel and a much faster service with tracking.

[simla]

This year I've reduced my holding a tab (doubled my money, so remainder is 'free') but am holding the remainder as a long term punt and looking forward to more info from the company. I suspect it will be at least Dec/Jan before we have any good news.

I have taken something of that view recently in light of the uncertainty. Haven't reduced down that far, but feel prudence is in order presently nevertheless, and have reduced a bit.

Blis seem to be getting 'mickey mousier' by the day

Will they ever be a decent company?

...agree RGR. I think we all just need to suck this little "blip" up and view it as a positive..........a small cost to moving things ahead for future gains in growth. I certainly wont be loosing any sleep over it.

These three viewpoints sum up the conundrum for investors. The company appears to be in a good position overall and the outlook must surely be reasonable. But over what time scale?

The company were "upbeat" last May. https://www.nzx.com/companies/BLT/announcements/282826

Then we had a shareholder update in June. It was upbeat too, told us a little news, but then was not repeated later. http://blis.co.nz/media/wysiwyg/pdfs...chnologies.pdf

We hoped that might develop into regular news with meat in it, as this recent example from Arvida. Not so far. https://www.nzx.com/files/attachments/255282.pdf

Then the September report had a commentary of just 1000 words including the titles. It did however talk of "strong sales performance", and future "rapid growth", and hiring 3 new key managers.

Then the February announcement of expected sales of just $6.5m compared to $5.6m last year. It said underlying demand had not changed, but of course we do not know what underlying demand is. https://www.nzx.com/companies/BLT/announcements/297031

What to make of it? It's beyond me to know what this adds up to. Might be good, or average, or bad. The only constant seems to me to be very minimal communication.