This was the first year that Argox participated at EuroShop, the Global Retail Trade Fair, which was held from February 19~23. The focus of the fair was on retail technologies and the majority of visitors were European retail professionals. Eastern Europeans were in abundance, and Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, and Russians all visited our booth. We were pleased that many recognized the Argox brand, and some even mentioned their customers had requested our products. There were also discussions about representing Argox products. The show provided another indication that Eastern Europe is an emerging market that can't be ignored. For Argox, the fair was a success and a sign of new beginnings, and we look forward to participating in the next Euroshop.

After the Chinese New Year break, the Argox sales team held a spring party to get the year started with a bang. Gathering at a local Thai restaurant, the sales team partied into the early hours. Host for the evening was Perry Ho, VP of Business Development. Perry won a big cash prize at last month's Year-end Party, and he showed his generosity by making sure the sales team got off to a good start. For the sales department spring is also a new beginning.

In the summer of '98 Argox became the first company in Taiwan to produce a heavy-duty industrial barcode printer. However, six months after product launch there was virtually no response from the market. After many inquiries and much heated discussion, the partners at Argox began to grasp the reasons for the disappointing sales. First, customers had accepted the notion that a Taiwan product could not match the performance of U.S. or Japanese products; second, Argox's printer was often incompatible with customer systems, and finally, Argox's industrial printer required better machining of its metal parts.

Instead of giving up, the Argox team met each challenge by: 1) strengthening customer support and promising "to respond within 24 hours to any customer problem;" 2) broadening product compatibility by offering PPLA and PPLB emulations and developing Argox's own "PPLZ" emulation program; 3) investing in Taiwan's best metal machining shop to produced the required precision components.

Within a year orders for the industrial printer took off, which confirmed that the original decision to manufacture the heavy-duty printer was correct. This also showed that even after fierce internal debate, the partners at Argox could unite to support the group's final decision.