IMGCAP(1)]
NCR Corp., the world's largest ATM manufacturer based on 2007 shipments, says its goal is to become the industry's low-cost operator, which would enable the company to create scale and supply-line efficiency needed in ATM manufacturing. Bill Nuti, chairman and CEO of the Dayton, Ohio-based manufacturer, outlined the company's plans during a presentation to analysts at NCR Analyst Day earlier this month at the New York Stock Exchange. NCR plans to reach its goal, in part, by relocating operations to low-cost manufacturing regions. "Our strategy is to continue to drive efficiencies across all of our operations [so] we can reinvest in our business growth and deliver shareholder value," an NCR spokesperson wrote ATM&Debit News, a CardLine sister publication, in an e-mail message. "We have taken significant steps in the last few years to realign our ATM-manufacturing operations and manufacturing-engineering infrastructure to the most-efficient cost regions while maintaining the integrity of product release process." NCR's goal of becoming the lowest-cost industry operator excludes its pension obligations, says Gil Luria, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. "NCR is referring to what it calls nonpension operating income," Luria says. In a Nov. 21 analyst report, Luria wrote that NCR had $5.1 billion in pension obligations, which were $300 million overfunded at the end of 2007 but may become underfunded by end of this year. This could mean the company would have to make more cash contributions to the pension fund by 2010.
