SMART TECHNOLOGIES TO SLASH 25% OF WORKFORCE

Company to shed 25% of its employees

Calgary-based SMART Technologies Inc. said Tuesday it will lay off 25 per cent of its 1,400 staff as part of a corporate restructuring that will see the company split into two business units.

“Today’s announcement marks a significant change in SMART’S operating model and has been designed to improve the customer experience and provide a more efficient and robust platform to build upon,” president and chief executive Neil Gaydon, who took over the reins at SMART in November, said in a statement. “The markets SMART operates in remain challenging, and establishing the right operating platform is critical to successfully executing our strategy.”

A spokesperson for SMART, Marina Geronazzo, did not provide details on what types of positions would be affected, saying only that Tuesday’s announcement is specific to SMART’S operations in Canada, the U.S. and South America. SMART currently has 1,400 employees, the majority of whom are based at the company’s Calgary headquarters. The company — best known for its interactive whiteboards that have become a favourite teaching tool in many classrooms — has been struggling recently. In August, it announced a decision to cut operating expenses by 10 per cent, a move which also resulted in workforce reductions. In April, SMART’S co-founders Nancy Knowlton and David Martin, resigned their executive management roles. In 2011, SMART closed a manufacturing and distribution centre in Kanata, Ont., laying off about 200 staff and shifting production overseas. The newly announced restructuring will see the company split into two business units — one which will remain focused on educational products, and one which will focus on products for business customers. Currently, 85 per cent of SMART’S revenues come from the education market, while only 15 per cent come from the business and government markets.

“We are known as a company that has really built our reputation around what we’ve done in education,” Geronazzo said. “That’s been a very healthy market for us for a number of years. But we recognize there’s a great deal of opportunity in enterprise, so it really makes sense to streamline our corporate functions around these two different target markets.”

TomKeenan—atechnology expert and professor in the University of Calgary’s faculty of environmental design — said SMART has traditionally been a powerful force in the education sector, but that market has slowed.

“They’ve got to do something, it’s pretty obvious. In terms of staff cuts, while you can’t cut yourself to greatness, you still have to deal with the financial reality,” Keenan said.

Keenan said SMART has as good a chance as anyone to succeed in the business product market, but it won’t be an easy task.

“They have tough, tough competition in the business stream,” he said. “All the players are out there and it doesn’t seem like they (SMART) have the kind of toehold in business that they have in education.”

Geronazzo said SMART will continue to emphasize product development.

From April 1 to Sept. 30, 2012, the company invested $25 million into research and development. Last month, it unveiled the SMART LightRaise 60wi interactive projector, the world’s first fully integrated touch-enabled interactive projector.

SMART’s restructuring plan will be fully implemented by March 31, 2013.

The company expects the changes will reduce costs by $40 million annually.

Shares in SMART Technologies closed at $1.38 Tuesday, up 3.8 per cent.