Plug Power Sails into the Bay Area
May 27, 2015
Home of the Golden Gate Bridge, Ghirardelli Chocolate and the 2014 World Series champion San Francisco Giants. The Plug POWERTrip – our six-city investor road show – spent the day in beautiful San Francisco at the Merchants Exchange Club with a group of our west coast investors.
President & CEO, Andy Marsh kicked off the presentation by announcing our recently-signed Master Services Agreement with a large footwear manufacturer in North America. The footwear manufacturer has completed a demonstration at one of its distribution centers with very positive results. Corporate management at the footwear manufacturer has defined the first three sites for implementation of Plug Power’s GenKey hydrogen and fuel cell solution and is analyzing wide adoption of the technology in its 30 sites globally.
Andy went on to discuss Plug Power’s 2015 goals and objectives. He highlighted the GenDrive platform, explaining that it is really three different series of products designed for different types of material handling equipment. Andy mentioned that a key target for 2015 is the integration of our internal fuel cell stacks into our products in order to drive costs down. He also spoke about GenFuel, noting that we do 2,500 fuelings each day into Plug Power fuel cells – that’s one every 12 seconds.
John Cococcia, Plug Power’s Vice President Business Development & Investor Relations, then discussed our strategy for expansion opportunities in markets like stationary, ground support equipment, transportation refrigeration and European material handling. John outlined how we decide what to focus on in the near and long term and why hydrogen is a critical enabler for any market.
Following management presentations, the floor was opened for a robust Q&A session and we were not disappointed by the questions from our investors. Questions centered around strategic markets and hydrogen for the most part. We were asked how much hydrogen a typical 250-unit warehouse uses in a day (about 250kg or 1kg per truck per day, though some customer usage strategies use more), how we manage preventative maintenance at a customer location (onsite Plug Power employees at each site, though that model may soon change for denser geographic regions), and which adjacent market we’re most excited about in the near term (Europe is exciting because it is an extension of what we do today).
Some of the other questions included what the biggest reason is that we lose sales deals, why we are not pursuing residential backup or prime power, and how our strategy process relates to the range extender and refrigeration truck markets. For detailed answers to each of those and more, you’ll have to listen to the replay of the webcast.
We enjoyed speaking with you all during and after the event. If you were not able to join us in San Francisco, you can listen to the webcast replay here: http://www.plugpowertrip.com.
Next, we’ll be heading south to meet with investors in Dallas, TX on Friday, May 29th. This is where Andy Marsh got his start and he’s eager to connect with all of you there!