Hi Froggy $. Your frequent posts on the amazing range of potential applications for graphene are right on the money. The opportunities are enormous. And the samples sent to the Boeings, Fords, Paint Manufacturers, drilling fluid makers, building materials suppliers, composite developers, fire retardant suppliers, tyre makers etc., etc., are the starting point. But what has happened - has there been any follow up at all ? The first smples were sent out about two years ago to a drilling fluid company. I have searched through all the reports and announcements, can't find a mention of any results. We keep getting told that the companies we get involved with insist on confidentiality for commercial reasons. In at least a couple of cases I am aware of, it is in fact FGR who have been insisting on the company receiving the sample signing a non-disclosure agreement. One of these companies was very happy to work with FGR in helping to promote the potential for graphene, but there was never any follow up, no request for results, no offer of on-going assistance, and when the manager of the section moved on, the project was shelved. No follow up from FGR to this day.
One of the main problems seems to be a total lack of marketing expertise within First Graphene. A global commodity trader (Traxys) has been engaged. But there is a problem with that. Graphene is not a commodity. There is a big range of iterations in the graphene space. It's really a spectrum of products - regular graphene, graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, and in each you have different specs - varying numbers of layers, different flake sizes etc. It seems some in FGR now understand that there needs to be a partnership between the supplier of the graphene and the customer to work out exactly the characteristics that are best suited for the particular application. A global commodity trader is unlikely to be useful. And within the FGR team only Andy G in the UK has the experience and qualifications to assist.
There is not even one professional technical marketing person on the staff as far we have been told, and that surely must be a high priority right now. Yes, there are a miriad of potential opportunities for the range of graphene products that FGR now has the capability of producing. We now need a management team, a truly professional marketing section, and a board capable of developing a proper stragetic plan to prepare for the Graphene Revolution. Or the opportunity will pass by while we watch.
We have the unique 99.5% pure vein graphene from Sri Lanka, and a low cost way of turning it into products that seem to be world leading. We have had these capabilities now for fair while. But while others with higher costs, utilising lower quality inputs, are involved in he commercialisation and manufacture of products already on the market, FGR does not seem to be making headway. The BEST battery was going to have a commercial prototype ready for demonstration at the Nov 2017 IDTechEx at Santa Clara. In early 2018 it was due "any time now". Still waiting. Yes, these things take time - but the slippage across so many parts of this business points to management performance.
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