“Cummins-Allison had a positive year with growth in sales and market share”

How do you evaluate your participation in latest G2E?
Of course, inquiries from new, prospective customers are always a key metric for trade shows. However, we also see G2E as an opportunity to meet with existing customers and present new products - or demonstrate our larger equipment that we are not able to bring to a customer's facility.  Also, we have key international markets that are served by distributors and G2E provides an opportunity to meet with these distributors and their customers.     

What was the feedback from visitors and customers?
Overall, people seemed pretty upbeat and indicated keen interest in our products, especially those that they feel can significantly improve their operations.  However, 2011 budgets remain constrained for many of the gaming properties, but where demonstrable ROI is possible, new equipment investment is certainly being justified.

What was their response to your products and new launches?
We received some excellent response to our new products.  One product in particular that generated almost overwhelming positive interest - particularly from Latin America - was our JetScan Model 4391.  The unique ability of this model to process both slot tickets and currency in a single pass continues to gain the attention of properties looking for a compact, cost effective solution to increase soft count room productivity.  

How did you see this edition regarding G2E 2009? 
We understand that total attendance was up over last year's show and we indeed saw good traffic to our booth.  Continuing the trend from G2E 2009, it seems properties are sending fewer people than past years, but those people tend to be the higher-level decision-makers.  Subsequently, we found the caliber of discussions we had to be extremely high quality and "down to business".  

In your opinion, did the show demonstrate a recovery from the global crisis?
Someone once coined the phrase "cautiously optimistic" and this seems to reflect the business outlook of most of those we spoke to at G2E.  In the United States and many international markets, the gaming market is still under challenge, especially when it comes to "new builds" or significant expansions.  But there are several markets that are on a growth curve and people in those markets have definitely budgeted for new equipment.  And as we said earlier, where customers can gain better productivity or efficiency, they will invest in new or improved equipment.

How was this year for your company?
Cummins-Allison actually had a good year with growth in sales and market share.  We credit our constant R&D and product innovation with a sharp focus on bringing more efficiencies to our customers' operations, or products that can help our customers gain more customers.  

Which are your plans for next year?
More of the same.  In fact, we have some very exciting new products coming into the gaming market in 2011 and 2012 which we feel will be extremely well-received by customers.  We also will continue investing in our sales and service people in the way of training and keeping them abreast not only of our ever-evolving product line, but also of industry trends and customer needs.  The better informed we are, the better we can help our customers - it sounds pretty basic, but too many companies pull back on this during tough economic times.  Cummins is doing just the opposite.