VALLEY FORUM What Do You Expect in 2003? This may not have been the best year in economic history, but life goes on, businesses adapt, entrepreneurs remain optimistic and, consequently, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal asks: How do you see your business performing in 2003? Mitch McMullen CEO Newhall Coffee Roasting Co. Valencia We hope to see some growth in 2003. We’re redoing our Web site and looking for faster and easier ways to attract more people. Last year we hit $2 million and this year we hit $2.1 million, so we want to maintain that growth and maybe improve on it. Growth has been our pattern. We have 824 stores now that carry Newhall Coffee and two years ago we only had 10. I think we’re going to continue to add more stores in 2003. Mike Johnson CEO Animated Designs Inc. Westlake Village We see our industry leveled out and flat in 2003, but it’s not going down. Near the end of the year, we see things improving, but we’ll have to see. Our goal is 20-percent growth. Obviously, we’d like to add more customers and add more people to our staff, but things are very uncertain and you have to trust that things will improve as the year goes on. Mike Gavigan CFO Hoffman Video Systems Inc. Glendale We’re in a turnaround now and we’re very optimistic about 2003. We should be out of Chapter 11 by February and our strategy is to focus on our core video equipment and services business. It’s a challenge, but we feel ready to take on the market and bring the company back to a market leadership role. Rasha Drachkovitch President 44 Blue Productions Inc. Studio City There’s a sense that things are going back to normal. There’s a very good market out there for reality shows and making these shows still makes a lot of economic sense. We’ve been lucky with three new series starting up. We have a show on Lifetime, “What Should You Do?” starting in March, and we have “Collector Inspector” starting a second season on Home & Garden; and we have “Truth or Scare,” a pickup for a second season on Discovery Kids. That’s 50 hours of programming set for this coming year, which is great, but we had 120 hours three years ago. So overall, we’re looking at doing 10 to 20 percent better in 2003 than last year, but we’re pretty conservative about that. John Nagy President/CEO Nagy Protection Services Inc. Van Nuys We’re excited about our product of private security for school campuses, which we’ve been working on even before the incidents with the Washington, D.C. sniper. What’s also exciting is that there are a lot more open ears and awareness out there for improved security in schools. There is a lot more emphasis on security all around and a lot of eyes are watching the industry to see that it meets requirements. For us, I see a 25-percent increase in business for 2003. There is a growing demand out there for quality security service
