Because I wasn't aware of the source of this, specifically, I looked it up and it's here; an 'interview' (for an interview, the 'interviewer' does an awfully lot of talking and is evidently not trained at asking meaningful questions in a productive manner - sorry to be critical, but it's really a poor interview, technically speaking) with an Ilford Marketing & Sales executive posted online on Oct 8 of this year:
The relevant section starts at around 12:20 with the question whether they have new products lined up for either 'entry level' users or 'Fine Art'. The response is this:
So that says awfully little, other than that they've been pouring money into something. This 'something' could be really new manufacturing capabilities (other product types than made before), or extension of existing capacity (depending on how you interpret 'new'). Also noteworthy is the phrase "investing through the R&D department" which leaves open the possibility that some of the product R&D actually occurs outside of Harman and is contracted out by their R&D department.
There's so many directions you could take this comment into. He's saying a lot, but not being specific on any of it, really. It's not clear if the millions are associated with new product development or process development, for instance. Smoke and mirrors, basically - which makes good sense given the context the talk happened in, the moment it happened and the person's function in the company.
In the follow-up, it becomes clear (my interpretation) that most of the investment was really aimed so far at keeping things running as they are and that they're only now starting to think about (and actually invest in) the future, which also entails attracting staff to replace older employees who are in the process of retiring.
From that talk, I get more of a feeling of a company trying to build a solid business in their existing technologies, coping with supply and materials costs issues, than a company that's exploring wild, new directions.
