This past year has been an amazing one for Cirrus LED. With a dedication to innovation and customer satisfaction, we've seen a double-digit increase in sales and customer growth in 2022. To meet the needs of our growing customer base, we have invested heavily in technology and continue to expand our production facility located in New Hampshire. This has included purchasing state-of-the-art robotics, hiring experienced engineers and technicians, and training staff on the latest production techniques.
Our all-new Outdoor collection was released earlier this year, and with it, we introduced a line of new 12mm LED modules in addition to our 6mm and 9mm offerings. Durable, easy to install, and maintain — Cirrus has changed the game with our all-new stunning full-color Outdoor LED product. This next-generation LED panel is the culmination of over twelve years of research and development and offers a variety of industry-first features.
"The unveiling of this new panel is the most exciting and significant technological advancement we have ever made and blows the competition out of the water. We've been working on this for over two years, and it is a very exciting time for all of us here at Cirrus," said Dan Kerluke, CGO of Cirrus LED. "To top it all off, it's set to be the most efficient and affordable panel made on the market."
2022 was also a big year for our factory in Portsmouth, NH. We made major investments in expanding our SMT line, bringing more production in-house, and finding smart solutions to purchasing critical components.
When we say we've grown our SMT line, we mean it. By incorporating more robotics and automation, we've not only increased our production capacity but also decreased product defects. As a result, we anticipate a 233% rise in unit production by 2023 and will double that figure by 2024.
“The investment into automation and technology has made our production process more nimble and streamlined.”, says Ken Hall, Director of Operations at Cirrus LED. “We are able to produce upwards of 233% more units in the same space, with the same headcount.”
For us, vertical integration is a major focus. The benefit of this approach is twofold: we can maintain a high level of quality in our products and deliver them quickly to our customers. Unlike some well-known competitors, who take 20-25 weeks to send out products, all of these changes are part of the reason we can process and ship orders from our facility within 48 hours.
This year, we hired plastics and molding experts to stay competitive and increase vertical integration. This allows us to produce plastic components in-house. Furthermore, we source our raw materials for this process from US suppliers, decreasing our reliance on materials from overseas.
“Our commitment to providing our customers with swift and reliable product delivery is unmatched. We heard from our customers that they had been waiting for more than 20 weeks for their orders from competitors. We knew that this lack of timely delivery was not only causing individual projects to fail, but it was also having a negative impact on their businesses.”, says Dave Rycyna, CEO of Cirrus LED, “That is why we have dedicated ourselves to making sure our customers have a reliable supply chain and to pushing the boundaries of the LED sign industry. Our dedication to providing our customers with the stability they need to succeed is just one of the many ways we continue to grow our customer base.”
When it comes to running a successful business, supply chain and distribution are two of the most important factors to consider. Many companies have struggled with these issues in the past couple of years. However, we have found a way to overcome these obstacles. By being smart and strategic with our buying, we have been able to stay on top of supply chain issues and source hard-to-find critical components at competitive prices. This has allowed us to remain successful despite the challenges we face.
Cirrus LED’s success can be attributed to our focus on providing customers with the best products and services possible. We have grown our internal and external support teams as part of this commitment. Waiting for support can be frustrating when you are trying to solve a problem for your customers or business. Earlier this year, we set a goal to reduce our support hold and response times and succeeded! In 2022 we boast the shortest average support wait times in the industry at just 3 minutes on average.
To help our sign shop partners, we launched our Field Service Technician program to support our partners where they are. Located throughout the country, this team provides training, best practices, and installation validation to partners in their area. They also support new partners and guide them through their first installs.
We rolled out powerful new features to our easy-to-use digital signage software, ScreenHub. ScreenHub now offers customers the ability to track and monitor their system's overall health without additional hardware like cameras while new role-based access control (RBAC) and Workspaces come together to give businesses more security and oversight to who is accessing their displays.
With Workspaces, customers can now group their digital signage to make managing locations and even sections of the business easier. New role-based access allows businesses to control who is accessing their ScreenHub account and to collaborate effortlessly within the software.
We also added a health dashboard to ScreenHub to enable customers to monitor their signs more easily. Users can now see if their displays are connected to ScreenHub, if the content is scheduled to play, and if their displays have the latest version of ScreenHub running all in one place. If the user owns a Cirrus sign, they can also track the temperature and if any panels are out.
To protect signs from electrical damage, ScreenHub now tracks power to the all-new Cirrus Outdoor displays and will shut them down if it detects bad power. This protects our customers' investment and ensures displays last for years.
At Cirrus, we are passionate about creating a better future for our partners. We strive to provide the highest level of quality and support to ensure a positive experience. As we continue to grow year-over-year, we are investing in the research and development of innovative products that will help improve customer engagement and satisfaction. We believe these steps will further strengthen our relationships with partners and help them succeed in the long term. We are excited to continue our growth in the coming year and look forward to providing the best support and products we can.