Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the BOS third quarter 2021 results conference call. All participants are present in listen-only mode. Following management's formal presentation, instructions will be given for the question-and-answer session. For operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and will be available on the BOS. website as of tomorrow. With us on the line today are Mr. Eyal Cohen, CEO, and Mr. Moshe Zeltzer, CFO. Before I turn the call over to Mr. Cohen, I would like to remind everyone that forward-looking statements for the respective company's business, financial condition, and results of its operation are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated.
Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, product demand, pricing, market acceptance, changing economic conditions, risk in product and technology development, and the effect of the company's accounting policies, as well as certain other risk factors which are detailed from time to time in the company's filings with the various securities authorities. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Eyal Cohen, CEO. Mr. Cohen, please go ahead.
I want to dedicate this call to the most critical challenge we are facing, the operating loss of the robotics division. First, I want to share with you some background on the nature of the business of the robotics division. The division develops and sells custom-made robotic systems. It doesn't sell off-the-shelf robots. Building a customized robotic system involves many phases. It has a long and expensive sales cycle and a low closing rate because it requires significant investment from the customer. The system's pricing is very complex because it is based on an initial concept of the machine rather than on a final detailed design. The time of delivery takes on average half a year. Customized robots require the development of a unique feature, and therefore there are development risks.
We did see an 80% reduction in the operating loss of the robotics division in the first nine months of the year 2021 as compared to the comparable period last year. However, we have not yet been able to successfully reflect the inherent risks of this business in our pricing. Going forward, in order to mitigate the risk and optimize our sales resources, we will focus our sales effort mainly on the Israeli market rather than worldwide. At the end of the third quarter, we closed our sales office in the U.S. and turned to working through a distributor. I realized that in order to succeed in the U.S. market, we have to increase our U.S. sales, marketing, and support presence significantly, but we cannot afford this cost at this stage.
In the Israeli market, we will focus on strategic customers that we define as heavy automation consumers from varied industries. We will learn these customers' needs, products, standards, production, and logistics processes. We expect our learning cost curve to improve gradually and the inherent risks of the business to decrease accordingly. Focusing on Israel is expected to also shorten the sales cycle, reduce our associated sales costs, and increase the transaction closing rates. Securing about 10 new strategic Israeli customers will dramatically change the operational results of the robotics business. We believe that we will lead this division to a breakeven point during the year 2022, and that in the years after, it will be the growth engine of BOS. Now I will take your questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question-and-answer session. If you have a question, please press star one. If you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star two. If you are using speaker equipment, kindly lift the handset before pressing the numbers. Your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Please stand by while we call for your questions. I repeat, if you have a question, please press star one. There are no questions at this time. Before I ask Mr. Cohen to go ahead with his closing statement, I would like to remind participants that a replay of this call will be available on the company website, www.boscom.com, by tomorrow. Mr. Cohen, would you like to make your concluding statement?
Yes. Thank you. Thank you for joining our call today, and I am looking forward to meeting you on our next call. You are welcome to contact me anytime by phone, WhatsApp, or email. Thank you for your support.
This concludes BOS. third quarter 2021 results conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.