Cadre Holdings, Inc. (CDRE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Great. Well, welcome, everybody. I'm glad you're here, and we have really a fantastic program for you. And I will start you off this morning. So good morning, everyone. For those who are not familiar, I'm Warren Kanders; Chairman Cadre CEO and Chairman. I want to welcome you all to the Sears Analyst and Investor event, and I'm excited to be joined by our President, Brad Williams, our CFO; Blaine Browers; and our Vice President and General Manager of Global Armor; Jim Duncan, our Vice President, General Manager, Global EOD, Rob Reynolds as well as additional members of our team supporting our activities today. We appreciate those of you who are here in person with us as well as those participating virtually via webcast. Today's presentation is focused on one element of the Cadre operating model, innovation, which is a key differentiator for the Cadre and it allows us to maintain our premium positions in our core markets as a trusted brand. In a moment, Brad will highlight in greater detail how innovation fits into the operating model. As most of you have heard me share previously, the operating model has been a driving force behind Cadre's outstanding performance since our IPO in November of 2021. We are exceptionally proud of how we have been able to deliver for our shareholders and expect the Cadre operating model to continue to drive enhanced executive execution and results moving forward. Again, I thank you all for being here with us today and want to reiterate that Cadre is ideally positioned to capitalize on attractive opportunities through acquisitions and organic growth to further expand our platform and to enhance our market leadership over the long term. With that, I will turn the presentation over to Brad. And thank you again for being here today. Brad, over to you.

Thank you, Warren. All right. Thank you, folks, for being in the room today with us. Thanks for folks on the webcast. So I'm going to walk you through the agenda of the presentation, and then I'm going to go into the Cadre operating model in more detail. So first up, I'm going to spend about 10 minutes giving you an overview of the Cadre Operating model. And I'm going to talk about how innovation specifically fits into the operating model. Once I've finished up with that, then Jim Duncan, who's our VP, GM of Global Armor will come up. And Jim is going to talk about an exciting innovative Armor product that, quite frankly, has been one of the most exciting products that we've had in the last 3 or 4 years. So looking forward to Jim going through that. He'll spend about 30 minutes on that presentation. And at the end of the presentation, he'll take questions. So about 15 minutes we have allotted for any Q&A for the Armor presentation. After that, Rob Reynolds, who's in the back of the room also, he'll come up and Rob is our VP GM of Global EOD. And he's going to talk through ICOR Technology. And for those who have been playing close attention to the story, ICOR was an acquisition that we made in the EOD space in January of this year, and he's going to talk you through what the company is all about, products and a little bit later as we do our breakout sessions and hands-on sessions we get an opportunity to drive a couple of our robots that we have here on site. And then lastly, after Rob goes through that, I'm going to come back up. Blaine will be up here, and we'll open up the floor to questions, and we'll spend about 15 minutes. If you have any additional questions, whether it's things that you didn't think of about the first 2 presentations or just in general about Cadre. So that's the agenda. After that, the webcast will end and then we're going to go have some fun instead of staying in this room, right? We're going to do some breakout sessions and get hands on and do some demonstrations of a lot of our products, okay? I do have to hit this slide, as you all know. So forward-looking statements. I'm not going to read it to you. I just want to point it out that we'll be talking about innovation, products, any forward-looking type information and just to make sure that we abide by that. All right. We went through this one. This is who's presenting today. So let's talk about the operating model. We're on Slide 4, by the way, for those who are on the webcast. never fear, I think I've only got about 100 slides on the operating model, okay? For those who have been around me and spend time one-on-one or myself and Blaine or we've met an investor conferences, you know I can talk about the operating model for hours. And that's because it's so important to who we are and what we do in our story. So here's the operating model. For those that haven't dug in, I'll break it down. I'm going to stay high level, but I'm going to break it down a little bit more than typically what we do. So the contrary operating model, what is it, right? And you can see it on the screen, it's a behavior-based leadership centric, operating way that enables us to create greater value for our customers and stakeholders. It guides how we work, innovate, solve problems, improve and engage with each other customers and our communities. That last sentence is incredibly important to what we're all about. So I'm going to say it one more time. It guides how we work. So think about that, how we close our books, the schedule that we use to close our books, how we innovate, how we work in operations, how we run our monthly business reviews, it is the thread that grows across the entire company. How we innovate, which I talked about, how we solve problems, so these problems don't recur over and over and over again, how we improve, how we engage each other. That's important. There's a big cultural element to an operating model, and we feel like we've got a pretty special one here at Cadre. And then externally to our customers, so we just don't treat ourselves this way, but also to our customers and the communities that we engage with. So that's what it is. Let's talk about to the right side now. This is the operating model, the circle that you see on the right. We spent over a year working on how to build our operating model, okay, not on the pretty picture and how it looks and that side of things. We spent less time on that. More of the time we spend on what goes into the operating model. That's one of the hardest pieces. There can be so many elements to it. And we wanted to make sure that we had a visual that was easy to walk people through internally at the company and then also externally. So here's how it works. Outside of the circle, pretty simple. Those are our values of the company: integrity, curiosity, excellence empowerment. You're going to see those as a thread throughout today's activities, for those that are here physically today. Inside the circle, these are 6 leadership capabilities that we feel are critical to getting to the excellent stage within a company, all right? And again, critical to getting to that excellent stage. And so you can see the 6 , I'm not going to go over those in detail, but I do want to point out 2 of the 6 are people-related tools, and that was important to us to make sure that those were front and center in our operating model, associate engagement and talent development. And one of the reasons we wanted to do this type of event, you guys get a lot of exposure to myself and Blaine and Warren, but not to the rest of our leadership team. This is only about 25% of the leaders out of about 16 that are on our leadership team that are here. And I think you will be impressed with the team. All right. So moving on a bit. So let's go to how we then execute the operating model. So think of the circle as the strategy and then think of this as the execution. That's one of the biggest gaps in operating models in my experience, you guys know my background, right? Ingersoll Rand, Danaher, IDEX, right? Great things about those operating models. We spend a lot of time benchmarking other companies outside of those 3. And what we found is there's a bit of a gap. So typically, you'll be throwing a bunch of tools, and you're kind of there to find for yourself on how to implement them, use the tools, you get trained in the tools, but how to sequence and then how they should be laid out is something that we feel like is a bit of a gap. So when we created our operating model, we wanted to tack on what we call the excellence maturity matrix. It's simply, you go from left to right, -- you start with the fundamentals, which you can see, there's 7 tools in the fundamental step. And for those who know these tools, these are 7 powerful tools that any company needs to really be from a foundational standpoint, focused on. From there, you move on to the building capability stage, and we do have ways to subjectively and objectively measure when someone is ready to go from fundamentals to that next stage. There is some subjectivity involved in that, but we end up a green business unit versus the folks that lead these tools in the organization, are you ready to move on, okay, and do a self-reflection. Building capability, that next step, I call it the layup step internally inside the company, not as intense as the fundamental step, but very, very critical to what we do. When you look at that, there's really 3 themes in the building capability step. There's new product development, which I'll talk about here in a minute. There are people tools and there are Lean principles. So the building capability step begins the Lean principle side of things, which then feeds into the last step, which is our excellence phase. And that's really what we want to get to is the excellent side of things. So for those that are here and online, you can see the excellence phase are really Kaizen tools, growth tools and leadership tools. Kaizen is a very, very, very powerful tool. And quite frankly, in my career, it's been one of the most memorable tools at other companies that I've led, championed, sponsored, and it's a tool that begins to drive your operating model broad and deep within the company because you're starting to do Kaizen out on the shop floor, in carpet land and work with individuals throughout the company to solve problems and put processes in place to just continue to improve again and again and again. So I'm excited at the point we get to the Kaizen toolkit here, which is that excellence phase. And then keep in mind, these tools, they continue, right? We don't just complete fundamentals and then stop, right? You master fundamentals, you get a building capability and then you go to excellence, and it just continues over and over and over again. All right. So let's talk about our innovation side of things. We have 2 tools that you can see on Slide 6 that I have highlighted in green. So Toll Gate Zero and new product development process. So we'll talk about Toll Gate Zero first. Toll Gate Zero, simply think of it as a litmus test for -- is the project worth doing. Should we invest in that project? Or is it a -- which a lot of companies all have and we have them too, where is it a pet project that someone wants to do and they think it's going to succeed and you end up burning a bunch of time and money and resources on and it's really not something that we need to be doing. So it drives that focus. So that's why we have TG Zero or Toll Gate Zero at the beginning in the fundamental stage because it's important to make sure that our business units begin that process and get it ingrained in that culture upfront. It also provides that shared understanding. When you think of new product development, it takes a lot of people to make that work when you commercialize the product. Marketing sales category folks, product management, you name it. So a lot of work that goes into it. It really brings that common focus together to make sure that we're nailing that approach. Then new product development. So once something is approved by the Vice President and General Manager and their finance lead within that business unit at a Toll Gate Zero, then it gets birthed into the full new product development process, right? So think of it that way. So all in NPD process is, it's really important because NPD is very complicated and it's complex, is think of it as a way to outline criteria that you need to do and do it in a manner so that you'll have the best product to fit what's needed in the market and then optimize also our shareholder value, right? That's the way to think about it, to make sure steps aren't missed so that we have phenomenal products to a hold, which I'm going to close with in a minute, that trusted brand promise that we're known for out in the marketplace. So that's part of that discipline that we make sure that we put in that process. All right. And then lastly, and you'll see some of these. So when you look at that NPD process and what we've done in the last couple of years, quite frankly, most of you guys probably have heard about these, especially the ones that are in the law enforcement side of things. So we've produced a new family of holsters called Vault. We've got a new 3D body sizing app. HyperX has been a great kit. IncogX is the holster of the year from Guns and Ammo. And then Jim Duncan is talking about -- is going to talk about Apex, right? So this process that we use Toll Gate Zero, new product development, that's what feeds these great products that we've seen go out into the marketplace. All right. Before I turn it over to Jim Duncan, all right, I'm going to read quite a bit of this to keep me on track here a bit of this last piece. But what I want to tie this together with is, remember what our mission is, okay? It's together, we say lives. And I want you to think about that for a second. We're at 2,199 saves in our Safes Club, 2,199. So men and women, first responders that have had their lives saved, either using or wearing our products. It's pretty important, right? Pretty special. Think of their friends, kids, spouses, moms, dads, their families that are associated with those folks that they can continue to live on because of those products that they've been using and wearing. Gets you to think a little bit more for a second. Everybody think of an 8-year-old. Most people in this room should know some kind of 8-year-old, 7-year-old, 10-year-old, right? Think of that for a minute. Everybody got it? On the webcast, you got it. Think of that 8-year-old. So I'm going to talk about an 8-year old little girl for a second and hopefully can get through this. So it's a 8 year-old girl and that had an experience years ago in the early 2000s, and her father was a first responder. And when she was 8 years old, they had to go through that dramatic situation or father being a first responder to be an officer, and he was shot and he was wearing a body armor and he was saved from that incident. Unfortunately, he couldn't go back to duty, and that was also very tough that started from this shooting that happened. So now let's fast forward really quick to a few years ago, okay? So now the same 8-year-old little girl has now grown up. He writes us a letter. Yes, since she writes us a letter, right? 8 year old girl, traumatic experience, father was an officer, wearing our Safariland Body Armor, lives from the incident, and then she writes us a letter. And here's what she said, I'll quote, "It is not lost on me that I have Safariland and all of its workers to thank for this special day because Safariland, I was able to have my father present on my wedding day because the work you do. He was able to walk me down the aisle and dance with me on my wedding day." So let me repeat, "because the work you do, he was able to walk me down the aisle and dance with me on my wedding day." Pretty awesome mission. And that's how we feel about it. That's how a lot of our employees throughout the company feel that we have that duty. We have to make sure that we have these disciplined processes and now the operating model framework to be able to use to deliver that brand promise so that first responders can trust us. So think of us as not that company that develops a product that is just good enough, and there's some bad actors out there that make products that are just good enough. That's not us. We're not that company. So what we do is we strive for excellence, which you saw in the operating model. All right. Thank you, guys, for your attention. I'm going to turn it over to Jim Duncan, and he's going to continue the story, and he's going to talk about Apex.

All right. Good morning, everyone. For those that are not with us in person, please move to Slide 10. Again, welcome. I think you're going to have a great day to day. We're very, very excited for all that we have planned for you. So Warren mentioned innovation, Brad mentioned innovation. Sometimes it's an easy word to throw around companies apply it to products, processes and sometimes is questionable as to whether or not something is truly innovative. The product we're going to talk about today, we feel confident. Obviously, I'm just a little biased. It's truly innovative. Before we focus on our Apex carrier system, we're going to go back in history. So for those that are looking at the screen, that tan carrier system that you see on this slide was developed in the 70s. So 50 years of thousands of officers using it, it is the predominant design for conceivable armor used today in law enforcement. It's actually changed very, very little. The carrier to the right, the blue carrier, the one I have in person here on your left, it is almost a mirror image of that 1970s design carrier. So it says a couple of things. tried and true, very, very solid design. A couple of limitations with it are opportunities for improvement that we've taken advantage of. As you go down the list, it uses a significant amount of Velcro and Elastic. As we all know, Velcro, well, there's better Velcro today than 50 years ago. Velcro is velcro, right? Elastic is what, a bunch of rubber bands. And those river bands always want to find home when they've been stretched and they've had pressure put upon them. So a couple of limitations with this carrier system. One, you put it on, it's got a front ballistic panel and a back ballistic panel. So it's a 2-panel system. The front panel overlaps the back and then it's attached on the side with elastic and velcro. It hangs on the body though. So the weight of the system sits on the shoulders of the 2 attachment points. So it's a 4-point attachment system. So the entirety of the way to the ballistic system is on your shoulders. Now body arm materials today have gotten a lot lighter. But nonetheless, you were in this thing 8, 10, 12 hours a day, you do feel the fatigue in the shoulders. Something that every officer that wears Armor will point out, it's inherently going to be an issue. The other limitation -- a, other limitation with the system is, because you attach it with the elastic being pressure on elastic, and that elastic is always trying to find a home. When you move in this armor, it will start to write up your torso somewhat because, again, you've got the attention pulling back against stretched elastic. And those of us who aren't the perfect V-shape torso, once it starts to come above your waste area, what's going to happen, the vest rides up. They have an issue that we call ride up in the industry, the best will not go back down on its own at all. So if you're ever standing around looking at an officer and you happen to notice, you will see police officers constantly pulling down on their armor. One, it's uncomfortable when it rides up to, you do start to create a little bit more of a gap for your protected area. So again, tried and true design, thousands of lives save not bad. But again, how can we improve approve on that. A couple of other things. So your best fits best on the day your size. So these tests are all custom-sized, you're put in it, right? The best is made. And what happens if you -- if that process starts and you're in the Police Academy. Most folks in the Police Academy, pretty good shape, right, pretty lean, waste is smaller and then they go out on the street, as I did, 1 or 2 or 100 runs to the drive-thru, what happens? We start to expand a little bit. So what happens to that vest that used to fit you perfectly is you start having to move your attachment point because your girth has changed. Well, when the front panel overlaps the back, that gives you your side coverage to protect you against a ballistic event. You start to gain weight, you start to reduce that overlap by the nature of your body growing. Armor is typically on average worn for about 5 years, the cycle, right? We all know what a body can do over the course of 5 years. It changes. This system is not very well built to adjust for body changes over time. And lastly, and then I'll move on. The other thing the system does, it depends -- it puts the onus on the officer to attach the velcro in the same spot every time to ensure they have the right overlap. So you do open itself up for potential human error where they don't close it the right way or as much. And then you've got -- again, you start to get in a situation where your overlap could be compromised. So solid design, nothing lasts for 50 years that isn't any good. But the fact of the matter is there's a lot of areas to improve upon it. What do we do about it? We really sat down and said, okay, got this design tried and true, where is it suboptimal in function, some of the things we talked about. And then we really took a lot of time in the NPD process looking at the day and the life of an officer. So as we all know, it's not a secondary job, right? Sometimes it's very dynamic when it comes to movement. It's not constant. They do the normal things that we do. They sit at a desk, they get in and out of a car, they do all that kind of stuff. But at times, obviously, it's a very dynamic job. So they're moving, reaching, vending, running, climbing, all those kind of things. So we had to kind of look at what was out there from the consumable armor world and go, what materials structure, what can we change to really help support what an officer does on a day-to-day function of their jobs. And we kind of started just popped in this title of officer athlete because, in fact, at times, they do have movements similar to athletes right? So the mindset changes to what can we do from an equipment standpoint to support them as they move through their daily function. Is there a way to have those panels articulate to not restricted by the velcro and the elastic. Can we look at compression? Are there other attributes with materials or function that will help make a product more supportive of what they do. So moving on to Slide 12. What became very clear to us as we looked at how armors warn, how it's used, the materials and what was out there. We could do a lot better. And we also built upon the success of our HyperX system that Brad mentioned. Our tactical system, HyperX has been hugely successful for us that was launched a few years ago. We took a look at that and said, why has it been so successful? Obviously, it has the right level of protection that inherently has to be there. But the other thing was we did a similar thing and we looked at the function of the product as it sits on the officer's body. The HyperX has been successful because you've got extreme wearability relative to a lot of tactical systems on the market. We devised a cummerbund system that allows for micro adjustments. So if they're wearing different type of undergarment weather changes or whatever, the vest can adjust to fit close to their body, snugs if they're moving through there, especially your tactical officers are very dynamic. We looked at how the shoulders work on tactical body armor. Most shoulders were fixed. We went to an articulated shoulder design. So what it really came down to was, again, how does it move with the officer the comfort when it was on. And then the other focus on that was significant weight reduction. So we took all of that what we knew that could be improved in modern day or current concealable armor, what we had found with our HyperX tactical system. And then we looked at athletics. We said, okay, if the officers are athlete, what sport kind of aligns with what they do. And we really looked really hard at football. You think about it in the photo show back in the day, football pads were what, big, bulky, away from the body, prevailing wisdom at the time said, that's how you protect against trauma. And while football equipment isn't intended to stop bullet, it is a trauma protection-type system. Well, over the years, what have we seen? Improvement materials, reduction in size, closer to the body, a lot of compression. So we started thinking, okay, do we have something there as we thought about the development of the Apex system? Compression became a big thought. Compression is not new, which I'll talk about later on, but we looked at the materials today because, obviously, these products are worn every day. They're taken on. They're taking off. It's got to be very, very durable. So we looked a lot at the cycling industry. We've had a lot of good improvement with compression materials. So we took all that together, what we had seen in athletic, athletic performance, how those products have been improved. And what was born out of that was the Apex carrier system. We're now on Slide 13 for those not in the room. Blaine, would you step up. So when we talk about innovation, it starts with the overall design. So the APEX system versus what's currently in use is a 4-piece armor system. So you have a front panel, you have a back panel. But on your side, you have a separate panel. It's 10 inches in length and about 6 inches high. It sits in a channel, and it allows for articulation, been, if I can ask you to turn sideways, it allows for articulation between your front and back panel. So these can move freely while still maintaining ballistic protection completely across the side of the body, okay? So what that does, when Blaine or an officer moves, however he moves, it articulates it moves and maintains coverage, but you don't have the elastic trying to pull those panels back into place. So he's not fighting resistance from the elastic. The other thing I failed to mention on the other slide with a lot of us today because of the way it ties into the torso only. when the officer does move, it can create gaps in coverage, meaning the ballistics can kind of lift off the body a little bit. It happens once in a while, it's not a major concern or anything, but it is something that is suboptimal. With this type of a system because the way it moves, it doesn't make the -- or allow for the panels to come off the body and kind of bunch up. So a lot of really good. So the articulation is one of the main attributes of the system that is completely different. The other thing this does, we talked about how the body changes. So if I can get you to turn a little bit, right? Blaine's an in-shape guy. Pretty lean, right? So Blaine right now has about 4 inches of overlap, front-end back because he's got 10 inches of ballistic material underneath these panels, right? So Blaine hits a few drive-throughs, right, on the job, expands a little bit. He's got what we call stored coverage in the system. So if he expands a little, his coverage is maintained. So you have a safety factor that stays in place with the design of this product. And again, without the restriction on the movement, he moves much more freely. So the articulation with the maintained protection is a huge component of our Apex vest system. We had one more time. We talked a lot about compression. It's also a big, big part of this. So again, you go from 4 points of attachment with pressure on the torso from elastic to a garment that is made with 2 different types of compression material. So the entire vest is pulling the panels into the body. What that does, it allows the weight of the vest now to be borne by his entire torso versus the shoulders, okay? Major, major improvement of what's out there. It also helps, as we showed earlier, decreasing the gapping that goes on. It essentially allows the vest to hug the body as opposed to hang off the body. Major improvement in how the vest is worn. The ride up from the elastic pulling is completely gone with this product. We've had some quotes later for some officers that were present during our trials. So this vest doesn't ride up on the body. Blaine raises hands and put them back down, you won't see the vest jumping up and staying on the body, which is what you will see with a lot of armor that's done out there. The other thing, and this is not consistent with everyone because you don't have a ride up, we have found that in some individuals, we can actually give them a slightly longer ballistic panel in the front in the back, therefore, allowing for more ballistic protection in certain in the front and the back of the body. So obviously, a really nice upgrade with what's going on. So thank you, Blaine. The other thing I'll point out was, as I mentioned, compression is not new. It's not a new thought, okay? Most of us in this industry already had a compression-based carrier. They're called a T-shirt carrier. Do you take something compression T-shirt, you built some pockets in it, you put ballistic panels on it. It would have many of the positive attributes that Apex does. The challenge is taking it on and off, doning and doffing that product. Even when you're young and you have great shoulder mobility because of those ballistic panels, it's no easy feat, quite comical to what somebody put one of those on or try to take it off. Imagine as we age as an officer, you don't have the shoulder articulation, the range of movement trying. So previously, no one was ever to defeat that design flaw. We all have them. They -- it's not a big seller. Typically, it's very, very deep cover assignments, executive protection type details. They'll wear that. But again, not easy to don and doff. The great work the team did was designing a front-opening design. So anyone can take it on and off, the front panel is in a pocket, a sub-pocket within a pocket and then tucks on from the right to the left, attaches with a small tiny amount of velcro at the top and then the compression keeps it against the body. So that's kind of the great difference with the Apex. It's used by anybody who can zip a product on in a front-opening type environment. So excellent, excellent results with the product. A quick overview I've already touched on most of it. On the one shoulder, you've got the only spot of velcro on this. It's about a 2-inch by 2 inch square. That's all it does is hold one piece of the top of the panel against the body. We talked about the 4 piece floating architecture. We were able to extend the garment down a little bit lower, again, because it doesn't ride it stays tucked in quite nicely. With the ride up, again, it creates an issue with some best. Also, it has a front-of tamale pocket. Some officers elect to wear additional protection over their vitals that can also be accommodated in this product. So feedback highlights. Again, we ran through the function. This took about 2 years to develop extensive testing, customer feedback, first prototypes were worn by myself and the team. Frankly, I cleaned my garage on Saturday wearing the system for about 2 hours. In the first 2 hours, I wore a different body armor system, bending, reaching just to kind of see how it fit on the body. So we all took the prototype home over the weekend and said, "Let's use them." We did that, came back on Monday. Smiles on all our faces saying, "Hey, we think we have something here." Obviously, that's not enough to lean into a new product. So we took it out to contacts we had at several major agencies across the country and put their folks in some. We were also careful to have this worn by many different types of lease officers, like control units, regular desk cops, specialty units deep cover. So we had a great input from a lot of different types of officers, doing a lot of different types of jobs. The major agencies, some smaller agencies, the quotes are outstanding. I forgot I was worrying this vest. Again, that weight issue is a real problem with current designs. That's female body I've ever won. The restrictive nature of current consumable armor impacts females even more than the males to the anatomical differences, really a challenge. And there's no ride up and less fatigue. So I didn't make up the ride up quote. That's just the way the industry kind of sees it. And it's just become expected because, again, 50-plus years of most folks were in that type of armor. So great feedback, super exciting. So in conclusion, we do feel this is a highly differentiated product, very innovative. We really -- we feel like we've solved some of the main issues in shortcomings with what's out there, which was our goal. Again, the pressure points at the shoulders, reducing fatigue, moving with the officer, not against the officer, eliminates that ride up and the overlap reduction that occurs with fluctuations in body weight have been mitigated to a great extent with this product. This product was launched in late January of this year at SHOT Show, we had a great response. We had a lot of samples there, great displays, officers that we're working to show and buy checked it out, several tried to buy the samples on the spot and take them home, quite comical. I'm still getting e-mails from some of those officers who are now trying to order their products. That was really, really cool. Had a great launch. What we're doing from education of the industry standpoint is we've targeted a little over 300 domestic law enforcement agencies. They have received invitations asking them to respond to our sales representatives in their area. And then they get a one-on-one or they can bring their team in experience learning about the armor. So we have samples in their hands, show them, take them through it. And then typically, those are now turning into wear tests. So we'll fit 1 or 2 or more of the officers that are decision-makers at those agencies and then we start kind of the war test process. So excited about that, a lot of activity. And then field shoot demos. You're going to see a field shoot demo today abbreviated. We're getting a lot of requests for the shoot demos because it is a new product, that's not a surprise that was expected. They want to see how it operates during a ballistic event. And so we're getting those lined up, super excited and the wear test activity has got very positive feedback. So again, excited about the Apex Concealable Armor system, truly a differentiator. And I will turn it over for questions, please.

[indiscernible] how they will fix that?

It's very inconsistent, okay. We don't go into this kind of thing, expecting the cycle to change from a time standpoint. That would be unrealistic. Will there be some? Yes. Is there a way to gauge who and how many? Some contracts are written where products kind of locked in right for the life of the contract, others can change mid contracts, so they just may shift over to something. Some agencies do complete buyouts of new armor, it's very inconsistent. So -- but we don't go into this planning for the rate of that change to be impacting.

First variable. I mean in reordering the cost of going with this versus, I guess, you're still providing the legacy for people who want it or maybe I'm wrong.

Yes. So the price point of this is different from the current product, okay? The fact of the matter is from a budgetary standpoint, we still feel that it's in the range that most agencies will be able to get into this product if they so yes.

Any pricing differential you're willing to share versus the incumbent systems that are out there? Like what's the relative kind of pricing between 2? And then what do you think in terms of departments that are willing to adopt the compression system versus the traditional methodology that they typically use is this viable for 100% officers or is this looked at as maybe more of a higher-end solution?

Yes. So MSRPs, which are public prices out there, you've got between $125 and $150 difference on this product. Okay. As far as the perception of compression versus other, again, it's a new way to wear armor. So that's why we are heavily focused on the wear test activity. The feedback has been very, very solid. Obviously, again, bias, but try to find areas of opportunity in this product versus kind of what's out there, I think, is very, very difficult. So folks to put this on who have worn armor, immediately notice the lack of weight on the shoulders and when they move, they immediately notice a difference in the product that it doesn't ride up. So it's definitely an attention getter next Sorry, Jeff.

One they've been through the test that you talked about, the wear test the shoot test. What are you seeing in terms of adoption rates? So for an agency that's done the test, say they're buying 100 sets of Armor? What's the kind of breakdown between the new and the old?

It's going to be kind of how I mentioned. They all buy very, very differently. So some would roll something like this into their current buying cycle. That's a likely scenario. They would just simply go, okay, now we shift to this with -- the next officer that needs armor. Some agencies that issue all to their new officers, they might do a transition. So they will move to their current type of test they're buying to something like this. So it's highly variable.

So a couple of things on the price point being slightly different. And I'm just wondering, when they make the decision, I mean, you're making a decision about life and death, obviously. Why wouldn't they spend the extra $125 to $150 for this kind of a solution that's so much more robust?

I can't answer that. I would find the money if I was back on the job. I do think it is a superior system in fit form and function, but every agency has to make those decisions. So I can't really answer why they wouldn't. We feel it's a superior system. Again, we still sell our current updated material-wise other system we do quite well. It saved a lot of lives. We just feel that this has attributes that certainly support how those officers have to do their job.

Okay. And then also, I realize it's sort of a probability or percentage thing in terms of the sizes, not having as much or robust coverage. I'm just wondering, I mean, how the industry thinks about that and how some officers think about that? Are there some that want more coverage on the sites where there aren't the plates in the front in the back?

So all should want coverage, okay? There's a recommended amount of overlap. It is not a law. There's a recommended amount of overlap of 2 inches. Armor should overlap 2 inches on the side. Some agencies approve less than that. That's up to an agency issue. Some don't really have an opinion. We follow the recommendation of at least a 2-inch overlap. One of the design features of the more widely sold up to date vest is as you increase the overlap, if you think about the ballistic panels as they do overlap, because when the body -- when the arm leads to the side, it creates a little bit of bulk. So that's where you do get some officers the complaint that actually have extra overlap. They feel like it's too bulky when they put their arms to the side. The other benefit of this system, you don't have that because when the front and back articulate over the side panel, it doesn't create additional bulk. So this is comfortable when you do put your arms on the side versus some of the other systems, more comfortable.

Just remind us, what's the average base price? You said you're up like $125, $150. What's that what's the normal price of the prior esterase -- about -- approximately...

I can't really because we have pricing structures based on distributor side.

Few hundred? I mean is it...

It's highly variable. I can't really comment on that.

No, no, that's fair. And then -- so it sounds like maybe not disrupting the cycle so much, but maybe also future market share gains as the other vests come up on their 5-year warranty or whatever it is, you guys are probably better positioned to keep that business or maybe get new business that...

That's the hope for sure.

Yes. The hope we're going to have market share gain and obviously, retention as we go forward. Again, trying 2 product 50 years old, no reason to go in and spend time improving that other than we were aware of issues and opportunities where we could create a product that was going to help with safety, comfort, differentiate in the marketplace.

And you mentioned this versus a pretty long true-and-tried product. Are the competitors out there also, I assume, trying to innovate and upgrade as well, right?

I'm sorry? We're patent pending. We have a couple of points of patent pending on this product. Yes, their competitors are always trying to iterate like we are on what's out there. This is an area, frankly, a lot of companies have not focused on heavily because you can tell how difficult it is. There are just certain elements of concealable armor. It's not obvious what you can do. And again, I think years ago, when folks went to T-shirt carriers, understanding that, that compression was a benefit. Once that didn't work, I think a lot of folks just kind of backed away. And we came back and took another stab at it and really sat down with our design team and our engineers and said, how do we solve for this? Because we like so much of what it did do. Originally, there was a version A of this, was worked on for a while and then it went in the closet. I wasn't going to work through the NPD process. There were some issues with it. And we dusted it off and pulled it out after some time and then focus on it and the result is the Apex system.

[indiscernible] Or data saying like this want to hire an [indiscernible] ...

Sorry, repeat the questions. Sorry, if you don't mind.

So who's the -- basically who's the decision maker or the...

Would you sell to? And how does that feedback loop from this is clearly superior. -- comfortable at average. How does that work?

So again, every agency is different. So you may have an agency where the cheap or police or the sheriff is he's a gear person, he's focused. They're always going to want that certain level of safety. They're very concerned. "Hey, does this have the safety that is required," right, for obvious reasons. As far as picking product, -- sometimes it's a range master. It could be a committee. It's different at each agency. And then what they generally will do with a new product, even when it's very similar to what they're in, they'll get you to wear test or use it or range tested or something like that because, again, given the nature of these kind of products, they have to know that they're going to work. So it is different. Every agency kind of approaches it differently. Sometimes your larger agencies have committees, but you'd be surprised. So yes, there's a POC that kind of does the intake. So if a salesperson is out trying to bring something to market, they're going to know who you call first and then it will kind of go from there. And every product is different to you based on the level of use impact, safety and things like that.

[indiscernible] a virtual fitting option?

I'm sorry?

You offer a virtual fitting option...

Yes. The mobile-based expert fit system that we have, this is going live in very short order. So it will be available on our expert. Yes. Yes, sir.

Thanks for your presentation. Just a couple of questions. First of all, if you have an agency that doesn't currently have a budget to a higher price point. Can the officer contribute their own pocket or can the officers purchase the product out of their own pocket at any time? And then the second question that I have for you is gradually. Can you give us a feel for what the ballistic protection is on this product versus some of your other products?

So I'll start with the first one. Again, agency dependent. When agencies allow their officers to upgrade if they so choose. So they'll say you have x amount to get your armor. Some agencies buy the armor for the officer. So that's an agency decision. Some agencies are in an area where it's a-- it's called a cash market or cash allowance. Those officers are given a uniform allowance, and it's to cover generally almost everything that they wear. So it could be uniforms, armor, some even include the firearm. So again, multiple ways for that to occur. You can't really speak to there's anyone. As far as ballistic protection, our ballistic packages today will work in this Apex system. So this system benefits from packages that are clearly pliable. They have a soft hand, right, because it's going to conform to your body. So in a heavier stiffer package is not going to feel as great in the system on the body. It's just not built for that. But you don't have a difference in ballistic protection level. We don't -- we accommodate the carrier system with our current politic packages. No worries, Matt.

Is this more expensive to make.

What's that?

Is this more expensive to make?

You've got a little more ballistic material in this product. So that's where there's any cost differences from the [indiscernible] material.

[indiscernible] Ratio or no acceleration of that cycle, which I think maybe one of the questions was kind of pointing at that, meaning the Apex carrier system is not going to accelerate the 5-year warranty replacement cycle typically that you see in the industry.

No, it is not.

It just won't happen.

It won't happen and you would not be wise to plan for that. You're always hopeful things do things, but the fact of the matter is, from a business planning standpoint, you don't plan for that to move. It's too budget dependent.

Yes. Just on the manufacturing side, does this get right into the legacy operations? Or are there other manufacturing...

No, it fits, again, the ballistics are shaping grade. The carrier system, while obviously impactful based on how it's used, fits into our kind of network of what we do today with our factories and our partnerships. So...

You said the ballistic packages don't change. It's not that they can't take the armor from previous systems and use it in the new carrier right...

No, no, no, no. Not at all. No. This is a 4P system. And even if it were not, your shape will change in what we call the grade. So it has to be designed and cut for this type of a carrier.

So what doesn't change are the layers that make up the ballistic material.

Yes. So [indiscernible] layup, we call it. Your recipe, if you will, is identical. Awesome. Thank you for your time and your attention.

Good morning, everyone. Just for the people that are online. I believe we're on Slide #19 at this point. So my name is Rob Reynolds. I'm the token Canadian amongst the team with Cadre. Happy to be here. Amazing facility. We just don't have places like this back in Canada. I take care of the EOD portfolio of businesses on behalf of Cadre. And when you kind of take a look at EOD, for those who aren't aware, EOD is a military term for explosive ordinance disposal. So what that takes care of is bomb disposal, as you know, within law enforcement. On the military side, they call it improvised explosive device defeat. It also takes into account on the military side, munitions disposals, so grenades, rockets, artillery shells and then it also encompasses landline clearance as well. So if you kind of take a look at the military uses, it's very broad. When you talk about law enforcement, very specific in terms of suspicious devices and the bomb squad that you know out in the field. Today, I'm going to talk about ICOR technology. As Brad mentioned, we acquired ICOR back in January, and it's definitely an awesome fit within the capabilities that we have, and it's going to help us grow the portfolio that we already have within the existing business units. I'm not going to talk about girth and write-up and the expanding bodies. If the robots change in size, it's by design, not because we went through the drive-through too many times. Just a little bit about the company. We're an international company. Although we do a lot of work in the U.S., and that's where our biggest chunk is, we do operate in 62 countries worldwide. So we are an international operation, and we do deal with all 4 corners of the world. If you take a look at the previous owners and the team that we were able to acquire, although ICOR has only been in the marketplace since 2005, back in my military career actually dealt with the previous owners in their previous company they had, which was [ UD Performance ]. So if you kind of take a look at the combined experience of the team, previous owners and the team that they brought along with them, they've got about 30 years there that there's a lot of good people that have stuck with it because of the brand, but also, as Brad said, together, we save lives is really important from this perspective because when you start talking robots, you're putting a robot down range in harm's way versus a human body. So they rally around that mission as well, and there's a great team there that kind of is a very strategic fit with what we do. I found it in 2005. And right now, we've got about 570 end users worldwide, 430 of them being in the U.S. So when you kind of take a look at the markets, U.S. being probably the biggest market for this type of equipment, that was very attractive to us to be able to get such a good hold within that U.S. market. When you kind of take a look at 935 [ Aegis ] Drive in Ottawa, Canada, there's a lot going on in that building. We do all of our R&D in-house. We have electronic mechanical design. So if you think of a robot, you've got mechanical attributes. So the track systems, the arms, the claws, the grips, all those kind of things, but you also need to have some electronics and some software that's going to drive all those as well. So we do all that in-house. We do our own software design. We have our own machine shop, so CNC. And basically, it allows us to do precision manufacturing. it allows us to do our own prototyping. If you kind of take a look at a lot of the machine shops out there, they're dealing with a lot of high volume. And in order to get small quantity volume -- small volume prototypes through, you usually get pushed to the bottom of the list. So to have that capability in-house really helps us along in terms of innovating and moving the products forward. We also do our own production, so shop floor warehouse. We have the machine shop. We do global logistics. We don't outsource any of that. And then we have a quality team that takes care of it all. Skilled labor force, if you kind of take a look at the type of work we do, it's just not anybody that can do these kind of -- these type of functions, and we're also ISO-certified. Key customers, as you can imagine, when you look around the world, a lot of increase in this capability post 9/11. So when you kind of take a look at who our customer base is. This is one interesting product that spans both military and law enforcement. A lot of the standard operating procedures in bomb disposal are common between both A bomb is a bomb is a bomb and the way you approach it and the way you deal with it is fairly common. So we deal with a lot of major state police departments, federal agencies, U.S. Department of State. We have a contract there that does a lot of gifting programs for external customers that are building up capability. Same with the United Nations. There's a lot of missions abroad, third world countries, gifting programs through the United Nations in order to build up those capabilities in those countries. From a market perspective, as I've been talking about, we've got the EOD market. So that's the bomb disposal. That's where we came from. But as robots become more prevalent in other missions, we really saw a niche market in this area for us to address the needs of SWAT teams and tactical teams as well. So how do we take our technology and innovate it to different capabilities and different functions as well. And that's where we've had a lot of our success and a lot of our growth in terms of the number of robots that we've put out into the field. I want to take a look at ICOR, why were they a target for myself and why did I bring that to the Cadre team. A lot of it is reputational. When you kind of take a look at them [indiscernible] for 7 emergency call line. And why is that important? One, we operate internationally. If our call center was 8 to 4 Eastern Standard Time and an international customer called up, nobody would be answering the phone. More importantly, here in New Jersey, there's a call. There's a suspicious device. It's 1:00 in the morning, the bomb squad deploys. They turn on the robot. And with anything electronics, you've got computers, you've got your laundry every time you have an issue. You have to call 1-800 and you talk, they talk you through and you get your machine running again. Imagine being on a call, you get your robot out and there's something malfunctioning on your robot. I've got 2 options. I call and hopefully, they pick up the phone or I put the robot away, I put a bomb suit on and I put myself at risk and go down range. So having that 24/7 capability, and when we talk about together, we save lives, it's really to make sure that when you're down range and you're doing something, somebody is on the other end of the phone, that's going to help you troubleshoot your robot, so you can put a robot down range versus a human life. Ease of use. There's a lot of complicated technology out there, and then there's a lot of simple technology. How do we build a very capable machine that meets the requirements of the teams while making it simple to function. If you look at Department of State, United Nations, we're talking about third world countries, not very educated, not very experienced. How do we put a capability in their hands that they can pick up and have very easy terms where I can turn it on, I can drive it. I can manipulate with it, and it's not that technical and it's easy to learn. Ease of use is a lot important because a lot of the operators that we see sometimes bomb disposal is a secondary task for them. So they might be a firefighter. But then when there's a call, they put on their bomb suit, and they go do the bomb response. That means they're not working with this equipment on a regular basis. So if I'm not doing EOD training or bomb disposal training for months at a time, I need to be able to pick that robot off the shelf after 3 months and still be very proficient on it. So that's where the ease of use comes in. We're known for quality and reliability. But I think the biggest thing for me when I kind of look at the market space, we've got a very capable robot that's competitively priced and very cost effective. And that's where we've hit our sweet spot is making sure we understand what our competitors are doing, where they're priced in the market and making sure that we've got a good package that can meet the needs at a price they can afford because budgets are tight. And when you kind of look at law enforcement budgets and military budgets, we need to make sure that we can meet their needs and fit within their budget envelopes. Robots aren't only the only things we do. If you kind of take a look at the response stands here, there's a lot of equipment that feeds into the back of these. So I'm going to talk today about our robot portfolio, but just for awareness, we also do what's called the hook and line kit. So robots can't get everywhere. So if the robot can't get everywhere, then I need to go do something. So there's a capability called semi remote. So remote is robots, semi-remote is, I go down, if I'm dealing with a car bomb and I need to access that car. Last thing I want to do is put my hand on the car door or pull it open and keep my fingers crossed. So Hook and Line is a bunch of different tools, clamps, carabiners, ropes, pulleys and those kind of things that allows me to go to the car, set up a certain device on the door handle, go back a safe distance, pull a rope, the door opens. And if something was to go bad, I'm still at a safe distance back. So a key component when I can't get a robot down range, I need a hook and line kit. If I'm dealing with a suspicious device, I need to find it first before I can neutralize it. So search equipment, that's where that comes in. I need to search for the device. I need to find it, call the bomb squad and they take care of it. And then there's an array of cables and reels and tools that kind of help the operators at as well. So ICOR is able to do all those in order to help fill the back of these response vehicles. I'm going to talk a little bit -- brad said, innovation is the goal here. So I'm going to do a little bit of a trip down memory lane, where we're at today and then where we're looking to the future because it's a really interesting story of how ICOR came to market. The first time they came to market and they stood up in 2005, they didn't release their first robot until 2008. And why is that? So 3 years Remember, the first trade show ICOR ever went to, and I was attending and I walked by their booth and all they had was a table with a survey and a suggestion box. And that was kind of the start. What does the end user want, what is the end user needs and where are the gaps in current technology that maybe we can get a differentiator and we can get a step up. So the first robot they brought to market was the MK2. And it's an EOD robot. It's mainly for bond disposal operations, just under 200 pounds so it's what we call a medium-sized robot. There's 3 key attributes that we came to market on that were different than what other competitors were pushing out. First of all, it was the first robot that had 2 arms. So why is 2 arms important? I can go down range with a claw on the end of an arm. I can open a door. I can go in, I can move furniture, I could pull a carpet, I can do all these things. But when I find the device, I don't have any tools to neutralize it. So by having 2 arms, I can go down range with a claw to manipulate and do what I have to do, but I also have on board what we see with these tubes right here, which are what we call waterjet disruptors. So basically, this is mad explosively driven water that shoots into a device and rips it all parts so that the components get separated before a signal goes from a battery to a blasting cap. So by having the tools down range, I can now do those 2 missions with 1 trip down range versus having to bring the robot back, reconfigure it and then push it back down range again. So that was the first innovation. Second one I want to talk about is 2-way audio communications. So if you think about a response, the first thing that happens is the patrol policeman is on the ground, he goes in and they evacuate the area. They want to make sure that there's nobody in that area when a device is there in case it goes off. Or if I'm taking a positive action on a device and something goes wrong, nobody is in the danger or radius. However, people hide in their basements. They hide in closets, they wander into the area. So 2-way communications allows me to communicate with those innocent bystanders and get them into a safe area, while the mission is going on. That was new to the market. And then the third was a 3-speed transmission. So why is this important? Well, if you kind of think about it, if I'm driving a robot near a device, I want to be going really slow. But if I'm 700 yards away, and I need to drive a very slow robot 700 yards, we're wasting a lot of time on target. And 2 things could happen. I could have a timer device. So I'm on a count down and at some point, that device is going to go off. So speed is definitely important. The other side is every time you close off a city center or an area and you evacuate, people get nervous. So the whole mantra of bomb squad is how quickly can I return that area safe back to the community. So the least amount of time on target takes care of those 2 things. So by creating a robot that has a chain drive versus electrical motors and whatnot, I can have different speeds and these different speeds means I can drive fast down range. And as I approach the device, I stop change gears, go into slow mode because now I want to be delicate with the actions that I'm taking. So the MK3 is first robot to the market released those kind of 3 things, and that's what kind of created ICOR's little buzz within the marketplace, and that got us going. And we started looking at other applications and what other markets we can go into. So we came up with what we call a small-sized robot, our T5 about 150 pounds. For those online, we're on Slide #24 right now. So this is a dual-purpose robot for both bond disposal and for tactical SWAT. And some of the key attributes here was as robots become more prevalent in the marketplace, tactical teams were looking, why am I sending somebody on the other side of a wall when I don't know what's there. So how do I send eyes and ears on the other side of the wall before I put a human life at risk and in there. So in came the T5. Very capable robot. It's got an arm on it. It's got a claw, the claw can open doors. It can get into those areas and do the things that it needs to do and see the things that it needs to do before that team enters into that area. Some of the innovations here was similar length of the footprint of the robot, but we made it a lot narrower. Why did we make it narrower because you kind of look at buses, airplanes and those type of vessels where there's not a whole lot of area in the aisle. So a different footprint than the MK3 for a different application. As we all know, when you get on an airplane, the aisles are fairly narrow, but where do things get stored, they get stored up top. So now I need reach. How am I going to get some reach. So we introduced the telescopic arm reaches just under 9 feet in order to be able to access the overhead bins. Why do I want to access the overhead bins, I want to search them to make sure they're clear or if I find a device, I can either shoot it with a waterjet disruptor or I can pick it up, and I can take it off that airplane, take it to a safe removal place without putting a human life at harm. So those were the key aspects of the robot. We also included 28 communications, but for a very different reason, 2-way communications now, if I'm dealing with the SWAT response, and I've got an active shooter or a hostage situation. I can now send a robot in to negotiate with that person and speak through the robot to that person versus sending in a negotiator. So same technology, different application as the markets have changed, and we see the different requirements. As time goes by, what we're seeing on the tactical side is T5 is great. It's a little bit bigger. It's a little bit more robust. It's a 2-man lift. How do I get a small package that's a one-man portable backpack under my arm so that it's easy to deploy, and I can get some results. So out came the mini. So lower price points. So it's a lot more affordable so that you can distribute it to many different squads but still very capable. A lot of competition in this area, but a lot of the competition in this area don't have a robot that comes with an arm or the arm comes as an accessory. So the robot is great if you put it on the other side of the wall, but if there's a door to open, how do you access. So we made sure that these kind of things were standard and the offerings that we put forward. NTOA, National Tactical Officers Association, they member tested and they recommend this robot to all the tactical teams that are members there. So that was a key marketing side for us. Get member tested member recommended, and that's where a lot of the growth has come from. Also the first robot where we started looking at presets. So if I'm going to climb stairs, I got to configure the robot to climb stairs, so that doesn't fall over. It doesn't roll over and it don't compromise the technology that I have. So you kind of look at a smaller-sized robot, 64 pounds. You think about stairs, right? If I've got a smaller footprint, it's going to be harder to manipulate and manage those obstacles going over a curb, climbing over a bunch of pallets, those kind of things. So how do we have a small robot that can expand its footprint in order to manage those situations. So if you kind of take a look on the 4 corners, you've got these flippers that can extend out as required and then fold back in when they need to. And it does 2 things. One, it extends the footprint to make climbing stairs a lot easier, managing curbs, those kind of things. But also if I'm going to manipulate and grab something, it's going to also increase my center of mass, my footprint so that I'm a lot more stable when I'm starting to pull and push on things. So this robot here, the Mini Caliber through the market -- the SWAT side, we were extremely surprised on how it took up, and now that's created a whole new area for us to play in. So very, very happy with the success of the Mini. So next thing, we've got a medium. We've got a small and we've got a Mini what's missing from the portfolio. And what's really missing from the portfolio is the workhorse. So on Slide 26, we're looking at the T4. T4 is the largest robot in the portfolio, 770 pounds. So there's a reason why it's that big. If you kind of take a look at car bombs mainly designed, developed to address vehicle-borne IEDs. And what's so different about them? Well, you need a very capable arm because you need to go in a window, you need to go into the floor wells of the vehicle. I need to get into the trunk. I need to get into the glove box. So I need a very dexterous arm that can do all those things. Once the arm is in the vehicle, though, I need a strong weight to offset at the back so that the arm doesn't flip the vehicle over. The other thing in a car bomb situation is the last action you always do is you pull the car, the length of the vehicle to make sure that when the wheels turn, two, there's nothing under the vehicle that you missed. So you also need a very strong capable robot to be able to drag a car and push a car. So the innovation that we saw here was, okay, so I've got the 2-arm version, which is weapons and claw. But once my law goes into that vehicle, I lose eyes from all the different cameras that are giving me situational awareness on the robot. So we introduced a third arm that you see here with a pan-tilt-zoom camera that can enter the vehicle along with the arm and gives you a overview of what you're looking at. So I get a very precise view from the claw camera, which is only looking at a specific area. But how do I know what configuration my arm is in? How do I know what else is in that vehicle. So that was one of the key innovations here. The other innovation with this vehicle was our 3D real-time touchscreen. So moving with technology instead of rubber buttons to push, touchscreen. And then when we talk about 3D, once that arm is inside of a vehicle, I don't know what angles the arm pieces are at. I don't know what angle the claw is at. So on the screen of the command control station, I actually have an avatar of the vehicle itself that shows me what angle all the different articulations are at. So that when I push, pull, move, I know that I'm going to hit something or I'm going to remove the arm from the vehicle and it's not going to get caught on anything and tug that vehicle. Last thing you want to do when you're dealing with devices is make some movements that are going to change the type -- depends on the switching within the device you're dealing with. There's a thing called the Mercury Tilt switch. So if the vehicle tilts and moves and the mercury moves in a certain way, it connects the electrical connection and then it's a bad day all along. So I don't want to be moving that vehicle and touching that vehicle with the arm when it's inside or when I'm approaching it. So knowing the configuration of the arm at all times becomes very, very important. So some of the innovations there. So these are the legacy robots that Ichor built over time. So that's kind of the trip down memory lane that I talked about. And if I kind of move to Slide 27, where are we at today? So the latest robot that we've brought to the market is what we call the FLEX. So why do we call it FLEX because it's a flexible robot that's 250 pounds, it's between a medium-sized and a large size. And why is that important? Because budgets are tight. A lot of squads can't afford to buy 2 robots, a small one and a large one. So how do you get that hybrid robot that can do a lot of the large vehicle tasks submissions while maintaining a certain footprint. So that's where the FLEX came in. So the size was very important in our design considerations. The other side of this is we really went to what we call a smart robot, we moved from analog operating systems to a digital operating system. And moving to digital now allows us to put so much more software and capability into these platforms. And with FLEX, now we've designed and developed the architecture that we're going to be able to carry on in future design and developments as well. What does it allow me to do? If I kind of take a look at it, when I'm using waterjets, it's not like a bullet coming out of a gun. That water that gets shot out doesn't go very far. It's effective in a short distance but not a long distance. So I need to be as close to as possible to that device without touching it. So now I can put software in that allows me to gauge the distance of my water cannons in terms of the package that I'm approaching. It allows me to create what we call presets. So if I want to set a preset where the arm will configurate itself for a waterjet shot, I can create that preset, hit preset #1, and the robot automatically will configure itself into that position. For stair climbing, preset for stair climbing, I hit stair climbing, the robot configures itself to climb those stairs. So I can have those inputed by ourselves at the factory or end users can create their own presets as well, and we can set it up that way. The other thing that the operating platform does for us when I'm on a mission, I go down range, I do what I have to do with the robot. I've got a lot of my mind, I got a lot of things to do. Last thing I want to do is have to spend time manipulating the robot, packing it up and everything else. I can just hit a home button. The robot folds itself back up and it's ready to kind of put away. So all these technologies and software allows us to do these kind of things. And then one of the things we're seeing in the marketplace is the gray haired operators like myself are all retiring at this point in time and who's coming in to replace them. The Nintendo generation, right? So we kind of take a look at Nintendo controllers, Bluetooth controllers, that's what a lot of these techs grew up on. So if they already have the dexterity of a Nintendo controller, how do we apply it to this robot so that when they come on board and start playing with it, they already know the controller down pat. Now they just have to understand and correlate what each button in action does within the robot. I kind of take a look at my 2 boys, I'm old school, I'll deal with the command control station. I grew up in the joystick era. All will use the justice in the buttons. My kids they'll pick up that Nintendo and they'll have that robot dancing and singing much quicker than I ever would. So those are some of the innovations with the current FLEX that we put out to the market, and we're seeing a huge pickup on this robot. It's one of our best sellers at this point in time as well. But purely an EOD bomb disposal robot to do the missions that we've been talking about. So I think -- where we came from, strong, strong reputation for ICOR. We've got a market-leading product now in the FLEX. And then there's also the future, right? So where are we going next? And if you kind of take a look at where robotics are going, there's a lot of technology based, and it all comes down to that operating system and the architecture. What we're seeing is a change in the robot market space where it's less about the mechanical attributes of the robots. It's more about the capabilities and what you can do with the software. And there's a whole bunch of buzzwords like GIS mapping, fly the claw, all those kind of things where it's all software based, but those are what we're starting to see on some of the end users' requirements, and the market is shifting. We've got a very capable team that knows these kind of things and it's kind of moving those directions as well. So common digital operating system, so the architecture, we developed it with FLEX, we're going to be applying it to future, but it allows us to network our robots when they're down range. If I've got multiple robots deployed, they can talk to each other. So now I know I'm going to take a positive action in sector A, is sector B in a safe zone? Yes or no, before I take that positive action. If I need to share video streams, if I need to share images, I can do that through them. If a robot and communications only gets me so far in terms of the distance that radio will speak, I can use a robot as a repeater station and double the distance that the robots can go down range. To kind of take a look at it as not just bomb disposal but like a whole response. You might have a couple of SWAT teams out there doing perimeter security with small robots. Typically, a bomb maker, a trigger man needs to be fairly close and in proximity. So they can be looking at the crowds that are gathering and trying to track that person and find that person and sharing that information through the other robots as well back to the command station. So a lot on the ecosystem of multiple network robots and the architecture we put into the FLEX allows us to do that. AI, machine learning, vision processing, big buzzwords in the technology today. But if you kind of think of robotics, it makes a lot of sense. So picture this. I'm driving down range and through vision processing, the robot sees a door handle. We all know that there's 100 different types of door handles, but the robot can now recognize the type of door handle that it's going to come up against. Through AI, you can look and say, okay, that door handle requires me to configure the robot arm and the claw to be able to approach it at this angle and grab onto it a certain way. Machine learning, I've opened it 5, 10, 15 times. I've learned each time. Now I know how I need to turn the door handle in order for it to open and what angle I need to be in order to pull it. So the robot is going to start learning from it's difference. So that's real today. It exists. So these are the kind of things that we're looking to the future and saying, "Hey, we need to keep up." As we said, ease of use, let the robot do the work for us, right? We're also kind of looking at optimized driver assistance technology, big words to basically say, "how does the robot become autonomous in certain situations or what we call semi-autonomous." So how do I load the robot up with sensors so that if I'm climbing stairs and the robot sense is that its center of gravity is off, the robot itself reconfigures and makes the changes it needs to avoid tumbling down that stair. So the robot senses that, "hey, I need to extend the claw further up because I'm a little light in the front and too heavy in the back." So the robot starts doing that. The other piece, GIS mapping. So where did that robot go? Well, that robot went here, there, here and I can pin it on my screen so that I know that, "hey, the robot cleared this safe passage for us to go, and we're going to stick to that route and stick to that route only. And I can now share that with multiple different end users." I could also get to the point and say, "Hey, now I know where the device is, I hit a button, it records the GPS coordinates of the device, and that helps me with geolocating and I can share that information." The big thing for me as a former operator is, I finished my task, and now it's time for me to deal with other things. I need to deal with the on-site place. I need to deal with the Commander. I need to start moving the area back to safety and start repopulating that area. Last thing I want to do is spend my time driving that robot back to 700 yards I talked about earlier. So because I mapped my track in, I just hit home. That vehicle turns around and it drives itself back to the command vehicle while I start dealing with other things. These technologies exist. Just they're new on the marketplace, but we're really looking at how we implement these into our future products. So as I said, trip down memory lane, what got us to where we need to be. We've got an excellent platform as we speak, but we're not going to stop there. There's definitely a future if we want to stay relevant. Where we fit into Cadre. So I wanted to kind of share this because you take a look at our response management and talk about collaboration with Cadre capabilities. phone call, somebody says, "Hey, I think there's a bomb help." So the first people on scene, you've got your patrol officer shows up. They start doing perimeter security. They're geared up with all the Safariland gear. They've got TCI for comms. They're using Cyalume Technology to mark different areas off. There's a big capability there within Cadre. All of a sudden, we realize that there's something in building x. So I need to send the tactical team in to figure out what's going on in building x. So all of a sudden, the tactical team goes in with a HyperX, there's a Med-Eng suit there. There's an ICOR Mini, they go in and all of a sudden, they find out they're dealing with an explosive device. So now they've got an explosive device. Now we need to render it safe. So now Med-Eng comes in with its equipment. I don't know other companies out there that has this amount of capability within one OEM to be able to do all this stuff. So I think from a product integration opportunity, Med-Eng, Safariland, TCI, Defense Technology, there's huge opportunity for interoperability. Commercial opportunities, we're already leveraging Med-Eng and ICOR's channel partners and our channels to market. I think with Safariland or channels to the tactical SWAT market are definitely increased, and it gives us the opportunity for some combined marketing initiatives. Brad talked a lot about the operating model. Internally, there's a lot of opportunities as well. We're really looking forward to changing our culture to continuous improvement using the tools to make us more effective and more efficient. Synergies with R&D, you look at the capabilities we have here, how do we put it into other products within the Cadre portfolio? Common supplier base. And because most of these businesses are in the Ottawa area, we're just a stone throw down the road. So how do we leverage shared services, finance, IT, HR, those kind of things so that we can make sure that we've got standardization across the businesses, but we also don't need to invest in individual teams in each of those different businesses as well. So just to summarize, you can see there's a broad portfolio of different robots for different tasks and different applications, definitely a forward-looking R&D team, looking at how do we remain competitive within the future. We're definitely cognizant of end user requirements. That's what has driven all of our development programs, but really need to continue to focus on ease of use. And if you kind of take a look at the world today, the world is firing back up again. You've got Ukraine, you've got Gaza. There's definitely some conflicts there that are going to need some of these capabilities, and we're already working with some partners on that front. But as I showed on the last slide, there's a lot of key opportunities with Cadre as well. So on that note, thank you very much. I'd like to open it up for some questions. First, with the hand up here.

For the future for ICOR, when you think about the connected system, open architecture, is the goal to make it open to any robotics or just ICOR.

So it can be open to any -- like most of these systems are OEM agnostic. So I had a one bullet up there that talked about customer-based IP radios. So we can have the robot communicate to an officer's radio. We could have somebody's body camera now networked into the robots, like there's an opportunity. So not just on the robot side, but with a lot of the other technologies as well.

Okay. And then also to -- for robotics, comms or the computing space, how quickly that market changes, how does that complement or work with the Cadre operating model, where you have the time gates first, you need to prove a market out, but that market might not exist, but you need to do the R&D today.

Yes. So always a challenge. We see it in some of the other businesses that I have as well by the time you design it, technology has moved forward. So that means that on the team, you need to have some very smart individuals that are keeping up with technologies, understands these and are spending time with academia. When you kind of take a look at some of the platforms we play in, we spend a lot of time with R&D groups that are looking like 5 to 10 years out so that we understand the technologies of the future so that we can be incorporating them earlier in the process. But it does mean you have to resource up differently, component engineers, sustaining engineers because unlike Armor or bombsuits, the material technology lasts a lot longer than electronics and software. So the model becomes a little bit different, and you need to make sure you have the resources to be able to support that.

[indiscernible] product itself.

So bonds are very, very different in nature. You could have big ones, small ones, you could have ones with fragmentation. You could have ones with no fragmentation. So it's a very, very difficult question to answer. We do have what we call the Purple Heart Club, it's similar to the Saves Club, where every time a robot has taken a hit versus an end user. And we've got some customers who have come to us with stories that took a hit, just like our Timex watch, takes the looking keeps on taking and keeps going through. I think it comes down to the size of, like you said, the size of the device and how you hit it and what are the components of that device.

Try and build the [indiscernible].

Yes. Yes absolutely. So I think he was first.

So I just wanted to circle back if we could kind of the software-centric component because it seems like we're at a place now where you have to keep innovating the robots, but you're a little bit more focused on software. So just wondering your strategy around that, how that plays into the whole AI theme. And when we get potentially to where the robots can be more autonomous?

Absolutely. So you saw some of the key areas we're looking at. For things like this, there's autonomous functions that you can incorporate. So I want the robot to drive here and then stop. And then at that point, I'll take it over. If I'm going to do a positive action on a device, there has to be a man in loop. Because you don't fire weapons where the robot decides hand good to go because you just don't know. So you always have to have a man in the loop. So that piece will never leave. What we're trying to do is implement new software that makes it easier for the operator to use, make the robot smart. We've already on FLEX incorporated what we call anti-collision software. So the robot will not do harm to itself based on the load and where it's going. So all of these things aren't necessarily to make a world where you don't need people like myself and my previous role anymore, you will always need that, but how do we make it easier for the person to use more capable. And let's see how smart we can make the robot, but you still need that human interface.

But the shift to software over the mechanical, does that -- as you add capabilities, does that allow for additional revenue on that same robot? Or does it make the customer want to buy the better robot in 2 years, 3 years?

Both. As you could see from our customer base, you've got very uneducated low level of experienced third world country operators that probably won't need or use that level of technology, and then you'll have others. So you can have your base level robot that does the base necessities. And then as you see more sophisticated customers come along, that's where those become like a plus up in terms of your pricing. So some will come with the base capability at a certain price point. But as you can layer these on, you can go command to a higher price point as well.

I would just add that as we get into additional software opportunities, it does open that recurring revenue stream for us, just from having a software background at one point, support and maintenance becomes an element of that. And then also just upgrades that can be pushed out to robots to give additional technology and upgrades versus like a mechanical upgrade, which can be much more difficult. So whether it's ICOR, Med-Eng that Rob leads or other businesses we have, this really gives us that opportunity to do that.

Just a couple of questions. First out, the military theater. How well tested are these robots for electromagnetic warfare?

Yes. So good question. My background was military. And a lot of times where we have jamming capabilities prevalent, I can't drive my robot off of an RF signal. So there are some systems that we have where you tether the robot and you operate them off of fiber optic. So the robot will go down range, and you'll maintain all the capability you have, but you'll be tethered versus working RF. Without going into how jammers work and all that, there's other things that you can do with jammers to reserve a frequency so that you don't take away the capability of certain products, but usually, you need clearances to know a little bit more about those kind of things. But...

Are any of these operating in the Ukraine, Russia battle today?

Yes, we have delivered some robots to Ukraine, and that's definitely a growth area for us as well.

And I guess just a second question, whether it's a military theater or police agencies, we're seeing the use of drones pick up quite dramatically. That's going to be true over the next 3 to 5 years for sure. How do you think about your robots operating within the setting.

Yes, absolutely. And when I kind of talk about that ecosystem and the architecture that's allowing them to be networked together. We're starting to see drones not necessarily take over, but for me to deploy a robot out of the back of the vehicle, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of times a lot of effort. It's a big chunk of material. If I can fly a drone over and say, yes, I have a device, I have to deal with that, go get the robot? Or yes, no, we're good. All we need is a x-ray, and we can go pick it up and take it away. The robot is just complement -- the UAV becomes complementary to that. The drone becomes another tool in the toolbox that helps with that situation, with that tasking. So I think more and more you're going to see there was a concept I saw once where you had this larger robot that had drones on it and the robot could deploy the drones as required on behalf of the. So I just think as technology goes on, you're going to start seeing more and more interaction between drones, robots and human interface.

Growth strategy [indiscernible].

Could be one or the other. It depends.

Yes, it depends.

And there's different ways to do it. We could partner, we could acquire, we could develop the capability internally. At the end of the day, mechanical engineers and electronics engineers putting software together.

And keep in mind, Rob, you mentioned the word military and the ICOR business, when you look at the product road map that Rob walked through, we top out -- there's military robots beyond, right? So our top robots [ $400,000 ], if I remember right, when you get up in the $1 million-plus robots, that's when you get into the large military contracts, which is not where we're playing, we feel like there's enough runway within what we just walked through between EOD and SWAT or tactical teams like Rob walk through before you even get into the military side. So we're going to continue to build out around that. And also the EOD bond so business is really where our strategy is at. Probably have time for one more question.

Just a quick one. Who are the biggest competitors for you? Like is it FLIR Endeavor? Or who do you bump into?

Yes. So the robot market keeps growing because you see a lot of people moving into that space because a lot of talk about robotics, Certain companies spend a lot of their time in the different markets. When you look at the military market, that's where you see a lot of the FLIR Endeavor mind you, that's kind of a long path and a long pursue in order to get a large prize at the end of it. So you're usually competing against 3 or 4 within that. We're not that company that's going to spend a ton of money pursuing something over a 10-year period to be 1 of 5 that might get the contract at the end of it. We think that there's enough space where we're at on the law enforcement side, United Nations, where the flash to bang in terms of the procurement process is a lot quicker and less complex. And a lot of it's more off-the-shelf technology that already exists versus the military program where you're actually building and designing to their end requirements. So the needs are more outside of your own hands versus internal development?

So who are your competitors like just...

Our competitors, definitely FLIR, Endeavor, ICP. There's a couple of homegrown robots in Spain, Nuvo, another one in Poland that get a lot of federal funding to build up. Telerob in Germany is a good competitor in both military and law enforcement as well.

Thanks for the question, Ron. All right. think that's it from an ICOR perspective. So thank you, Rob. I appreciate the EOD overview there. And I don't know that Rob mentioned it. He talked about his background. Rob is a ex-Canadian EODtech. So if you wonder how the heck did he amassed so much knowledge in the space. So he's actually lived this side of things. Okay. So what we're going to go into now, and we're a little bit ahead of schedule, but we're going to keep it that way. So we continue to have the webcast going, Blaine and I'll be here to answer any questions that you guys may have around anything that you heard already, and we can fill it with other folks in the room or anything else about Cadre that we didn't cover that you're curious about. Any difficult question, we're going to send those to Blaine because he's got on body armor, he's fully protected. So you guys can sing those at him, but we'll open the floor up. And then we'll finish up, and we'll be ahead of schedule, which is good for those that are on site because that means you get more time to play. which we feel like is based on the feedback we've been hearing is what you guys really want to do. So we'll take questions now. Any questions in general about Cadre.

For all the opportunities for Alpha Safety for bolt-ons, where do they need to be in the Cadre operating model for you guys to pursue it and say, okay, we have the core in place now we can bolt on.

Yes. So without the safety, specifically, you're referencing right on the nuclear side. So yes, we had some questions last night at dinner around Alpha safety. So here's the way we look at Alpha and Nuclear at the moment, right? So we acquired Alpha. We've got a really good funnel that we acquired. There's about 100 targets in that funnel. And what we've been spending time doing is an M&A group is going through that funnel and starting to filter out what we want to set aside for now. First things we're filtering out in the setting aside are service-type companies. It doesn't mean we won't acquire service companies in the nuclear space, we want to stick with widget companies. We're innovators, we're manufacturers. We want to focus there first. So that's being pulled and set aside in the funnel. Second category of acquisitions that we're now looking at are obviously widget companies, but we're also looking for a footprint in -- that would be international based, okay? So we take the alpha capabilities we have today, which are all U.S.-based. There's 4 facilities in alpha in the U.S., really good products, highly engineered, really good market share within what they're doing, but a footprint outside of that will then complement the strategy that we liked within Alpha, which is to also expand within the U.K. was one of the targeted countries with all the work that goes on in Sellafield, which is a U.K. disposal facility. And then also the other target that we talked about, I think we've talked about is Fukushima. So with both of those, especially with the U.K. starting now, we're going to need a footprint as we go forward and do more work there. So we've looked at those acquisitions to see if they have footprints in Europe so that then we begin to pull those up in the funnel and focus on those. So -- if we do that, we'll begin to scale alpha beyond that. And then there are some smaller niche-ier type companies within nuclear. I went to the biggest show of the year or 2 weeks after we closed on Alpha called the Waste Management Symposium and it's a smaller, close-knit industry. So I could see all 4 walls of the show, which is kind of different compared to what I'm used to. But there's a lot of different really good innovative companies out there but smaller in nature. So once we get to scale with Alpha plus, let's call it, that gives us the ability to then to go back in and add these bolt-ons to it. That's the way we're going to approach it. That's where we're going at the moment. What else?

Just a follow-up on the alpha one. You guys said it's like a $3 billion market sees last night. But how much today can your products address how much of that market can you address? And do you need -- obviously, you're looking for additional products, but what can you give us a little more color on that?

Yes. That's -- as I said last night, that's a little tough question for us at the moment. So we did a bunch of research as we have in a bunch of end markets in vertical markets and nuclear is one. We spent a bunch of time and dollars to really figure out do we want to go play in that space. And I know you've heard me tell the same thing a little bit last night, but this is the back story for the rest of the group. So with that, what we've done is part of that market research was to give us the market sizing. So that $3 billion to $6 billion that we've talked about out there. And what we're doing, we have one of our M&A resources at that's working on taking the Oliver Wyman information and then digging down into which product categories make up the 3, which product categories make up to 6. And then once we have that information, we're going to then start saying, is it really $3 billion to $6 billion or is it $3 billion to $4 billion? Or is it $2 billion to $3 billion as we begin to hone in and really get our head around nuclear even deeper than what we have so far at this point. We love the macros, the 3 that we've always talked about, but now it's time for us to dig deeper and deeper and deeper to make sure we can identify which product categories go with that range.

I just wanted to kind of follow up on that. As far as the -- maybe you can speak a little more to the strategy for internal or organic innovation at Alpha, kind of where your focus is at this moment. Obviously, you're looking a lot of acquisitions, too.

Yes. So the focus at this moment with Alpha, I'll just say, in general, we award innovation on the end of that is integration, okay? Step one, we have to stay very true to the operating model. If you haven't figured that out yet, we're pretty disciplined folks in the room. So that can be kind of boring because we talk about the same stuff. But also, hopefully, you get a consistency there. So operating model, first step, okay? Actually, the first step is our first 120 days, which we talk about, which is immediately out of the gate, which is most of the stuff that falls directly under Blaine, which is finance, accounting, tax, legal, compliance, all that fun stuff. Well, not really, but all that stuff, right, that we do that Blaine and his team are absolutely phenomenal at. So that's step one. We are pretty close as of the last call, we do an integration call every week with the Alpha Safety team and Blaine's team. And the team then rolls up an update to me that says, here's where we're at with all that. Here's how we're doing. Here's what we need to help. Here's maybe where we're behind and things have been going really well with the Alpha Safety integration from that perspective. So that's number one. The second phase of that is then the Cadre operating model piece, and we're a little ahead of schedule there because the Alpha team is, I would call it, a pretty sophisticated team that we acquired, which is great in terms of the management team. So we brought in about 9 of their leadership team. I guess it's been about a month ago now into a Cadre operating model boot camp, where we focused on the fundamental tools for 1 week with their team. And so that got them up to speed. It got them energized. They left excited and they're implementing daily management, which is in all their facilities right now. So that's their first step. Second step, which will have -- it's actually already scheduled. I saw it in the schedule. First monthly business review with them. We hired a finance resource that is from a familiar company that is actually in [ Golden ] that's part of the team now that we have on board, and she's working with them to show them how to do MBRs, monthly business reviews, how to do the financial side of things, et cetera, et cetera, to take their training and put it into action. And then the third piece that they owe a plan in the next 3 weeks is 80/20. So where are we at with 80/20, what's in Quad4, I can spend all day on that and then figure out where do we go from there with 80/20. So that's our road map guys. Any of those questions, I'll always answer it that way because that's who we are, that's what we do.

Follow-up to that. As a follow-up to that, how does the integration with Ichor differ just being a smaller bolt-on rather than the full platform?

Love it because there is a difference. When you look at -- Blaine, do you want to talk about that one since I've been answering all this. Sure...

I was going to handle it. every integration is completely different based on the business itself. With ICOR, they came with a ton of backlog, right, frankly, longer than desired lead times. So really, out of the gate, the focus has been on operational on how we bring that backlog down and really get the lead times back to a normal level. That 120 days, though is the same, right? We're still doing the integration on the back office side of the IT, finance and accounting. Also had a really bigger, more experienced management team. So they're able to tackle the operating model stuff much quicker, right? We had them out in Jacksonville within the first, what, 60 days to spend time and go through the boot camp, Brad's talked about lowering the operating model. Whereas ICOR, our first priority is customers, right? So the operating model is really important. But if we don't have lead times to satisfy our customer or we have past dues to our customers that's secondary. Let's make sure we're serving our customers appropriately before we go there. So those are kind of the differences, and it's not really driven by the industry. It's more the -- you look at the business situation, the management team and then pick and choose.

Yes. I would say we just started the monthly business review tool that you saw in the fundamental section. So Rob owns ICOR, it's his responsibility, correct? So EOD, falls under him. So Rob has done a really good job getting the team up to speed on monthly business reviews and getting those kicked off and getting this started. MBRs are very, very critical part of staying connected to the businesses so that we understand how things are going, what are we doing to improve, 12-month rolling, productivity funnels. You name it. There's a standard playbook that we have within business -- monthly business reviews. So Rob has taken that step with them. And then the next tool that we'll end up implementing with them is daily management, which the issue or the challenge that Blaine just talked about with lead times, daily management is a tool that will help begin to alleviate some of that pressure on them. So far out of the gates, we've been using more brute force, I'll call it, instead of using daily management, Rob and his team have now been trained on daily management. We've been implemented daily management within the Med-Eng [ comm-suit ] companies up in Ottawa. So it's a nice fit where Rob 2 miles away down the street goes right over that facility and spends time with them, leading these tools, imbuing them the right way and creating that culture that Rob talked about around that. Okay. We've got 1 minute, 48 seconds. So what's left?

I'll try and leave us on a good one. But when you think about price, it's been a big part of the story. And a lot of that feels as if it's been due to you have this very broad customer base. And as we talked about the Armor opportunity, varied pricing across customers. So when you think about that and what that means for Alpha Safety, which just feels a little bit more of a niche market, maybe not as broad of a customer base, do you still see the same pricing opportunity in that nuclear market?

The short answer is yes.

Right, to your point, there's more customer concentration than we have on the core military and law enforcement side. But I think it's -- I was talking with someone the other night about it. It's extremely common, especially for a smaller business, right? And a lot of times, the smaller business is focused either on a top line goal or a bottom line goal. And if you're a $20 million business, a $20 million business, and let's say, it's -- Brad will more than I, we're running the business, and we own it. A lot of times, they'll set that goal of, hey, we want to make x, right? And that x at the bottom line allows us to pay for the vacations, whatever it is that's important to them. what that drives, though, is a fear of loss, right? Because if you're a $20 million business made up of $4 million opportunities, losing one of those is a real problem. But the challenge, and I think what this operating model does and what we've done with the Cadre's company prior to Alpha and acquisitions is really challenge those and take versus not approach of, hey, we have to win, but let's talk more about the dynamics of the opportunity where our competitors sit. In a lot of cases, the information is public, right, whether it's pricing information of who won, you can get the information from your customers or end users. So kind of collating that information and it's the same opportunity in Alpha. It's just a little bit smaller. And then also just kind of challenging. And sometimes you have to step out of bounds and there's a bit of -- if you're -- if you haven't lost an opportunity you haven't hit that point, right? So it's kind of challenging. You don't -- maybe don't want to lose 50% of the business, but push those opportunities up until the point where you start to feel that tension and then you can adjust it. And there's plenty of ways to grab information that allow you to correlate, not necessarily lose off the bat, but just continue to push up. And it's methodical, as we've talked about, right, it's not, hey, go throw 10% price out there and see what happens. It's really kind of inching up methodically, understanding dynamics in the environment. But Alpha -- actually it is the same opportunity, just a more concentrated approach to it.

So we started with the operating model, and we're going to close with that, okay? And for those that can't see a flip back to Slide 5 with the excellence maturity matrix. And on this point of pricing that comes up, that's one thing that's missing from our maturity matrix that we're currently talking about, all right, which is adding a tool called power pricing is the way we think about it because we keep repeating the playbook over and over and over when we have an acquisition when we came in here to this company, like it wasn't really being done very well at all. And just that methodology that Blaine just mentioned to think through that, how do you apply pricing? What do you do? Do you bottoms-up, looking at elasticity of demand? You name it. I call that power pricing. So what we're thinking of is adding, so if you see a change at some point, an [indiscernible] tool to the fundamental piece because out of the gate, that's where we want to make sure that we're after, which is making sure that we're optimizing pricing for our value proposition of our products. All right. So that's it. That is the prepared presentations for today. So for those that are online on the webcast, really appreciate everyone attending in that time. For those in the room, hang tight, don't get up and leave. We'll give you guys some directions on what we're doing next. So thank you guys so much for the attention.