BRG, the loose-lipped licensee

Today's licensee spotlight is BRG Group, a licensee that, unlike Vision-Environmental and Leminur, at least lays claim to a website, if little else.

The quoted location for the company, within the light industrial buffer zone between the city of Detroit and the suburban residential areas, actually belongs to Reid Glass, a glass and mirror vendor. While there would seem to be some kind of natural synergy present, the actual relationship between Reid Glass and BRG is somewhat murky. BRG may be made up of current/former Reid Glass employees, or there may be some other kind of relationship entirely.

Never an outfit to avoid milking something for more than it is worth, REFR went on to make something out of BRG's proximity to Detroit, suggesting in its press release announcing the new licensee, that it would be in a great position to interface with the automakers. The fact that BRG and Reid were not at all in that line of business was apparently not important.

All of that would make BRG kind of a "ho-hum" licensee, and certainly not one of the first ones I would profile. But then...

In November 2003, Forbes magazine published an article discussing REFR's recent history. It was not a particularly complimentary article (as if any self-respecting journalist could look themselves in the mirror after writing a puff piece on these jokers), but one quote in particular stood out:

Not everyone is impressed with SmartGlass. "I don't think the quality's good enough for me to be able to sell it," says Joel Cothery, president of Reid Glass, a Southfield, Mich. glass fabricator and installer.

In a word, ouch. Burned, in effect, by one of its own licensees. Until that time promoters would make hay about how nobody involved with SPD had anything critical to say about it in public, but no more.

Amazingly, the BRG website is still up, though one of the primary contacts has subsequently moved to Las Vegas. Needless to say, the bloom was off the rose with respect to this particular business relationship.

That Forbes article, by the way, is a great source of info on the real story at REFR, and well worth reading all the way through. I will most likely reference it again at some future date.

Provided, of course, that REFR's stock price tailspin doesn't become terminal too quickly. Going down?