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http://www.winningbrandscorporation.com/dcontent/11335
Q: When are earnings due to be reported and are revenue and profit goals being attained?
A: Winning Brands Corporation (WBC) is a newly public company, and is still officially a Non-Reporting Issuer. However, the company has commenced voluntarily audit of its first annual results through U.S. Certified Public Accountants accredited by the PCAOB (Public Company Account Oversight Board). The company is targeting the start of regular disclosure by the end of 2006.
The company is permitted to make informal interim disclosure of certain financial and operational details so long as the method of disclosure is not preferential to some persons over others. The Winning Brands Corporation website is accessible to all persons equally and naturally as a source of comments for attribution and information. Accordingly, the comments below will be helpful to investors by disclosing the company's general operating assumptions.
WBC has designed its business plan to pass through 6 Phases; Initial Operations Phase (Annual Sales less than $1 Million), Implementation Phase (Annual Sales less than $3 Million), Growth Phase (Annual Sales less than $5 Million), Self-Sustaining Phase (Sales between $5-50 Million), Established Phase (Sales between $50 Million and $100 Million), World Phase (Sales over $100 Million).
The company is currently on track with its operating goals during the current initial phase as a young public company with sales revenue consistent with Initial Operations Phase targets. The Initial Operations Phase is characterized my more research than sales and more testing than actual distribution. In general terms, this can be thought of as the phase during which the starting foundation is laid for the subsequent phases. It is expected to be approximately one year in duration. Operational developments of a material nature during the Initial Operations Phase are disclosed by means of News Releases. The Implementation Phase for WBC is expected to commence 2007.
WBC management avoids promotional exageration designed to stimulate buying of shares based on unrealistic projections. Accordingly, because of the company’s realistic targets, the company can state that it is currently meeting its declared expectations of sales/expenses and operational outcomes commensurate with its applicable current phase of business.
Q: What is sales growth YOY and Qtrly YOY. Meeting or exceeding expectations?
A: As this is the initial year of operations, year-over-year figures are not yet applicable.
Q: Does your leadership team have a stock appreciation timetable that you work from? Do you update this and how often?
A: The shares of Winning Brands Corporation are in the most highly speculative segment of the equities market because the firm is newly public, operating with initial protocols in its business and not yet proven in its product marketplace. Conventional valuation techniques do not apply, as the primary asset of the company is its proprietary methods and formulas that have yet to become firmly established.
It is therefore not possible to create short term conventional share price forecasts based on the traditional equity valuation parameters until the firm becomes more established. In due course, it will be possible to apply Price/Earnings Ratios, Book Value Ratios and other conventional tools of prediction as the basis of setting share price targets. In the speculative sector of the market, there is much subjective projection at work in estimating Future possible share price performance.
The primary consideration for any investor in a company that is at such an early stage of development is whether the company is likely to survive the most challenging stage of (any company’s) life – the early years.
Over the long term, if the Winning Brand Corporation establishes itself as a brand Portfolio in the international markets that WBC is targeting, then it may be possible at a P/E Ratio of 25:1 to achieve share price targets of U.S. $2.50 per share for every $100 Million in sales. This assumes that the issued and outstanding share count is 250 Million, the company is profitable and planned structures are in place. A pro-rata variation of the formula that has been applied to these variables may be necessary over time to accommodate adjusted factors. Therefore, if the company succeeds, then there is substantial upward potential for the shares from the current start-up trading range.
These are management targets only. They are affected by variables in the market for the company’s products, the ability of the company to finance expansion, the possible loss of key management at any time and many other factors beyond the company’s control. The existence of such targets serves the purpose of defining goals and measures of progress for its products and for shareholder value.
Q: With huge successful firms in your sector whose sales are in the tens of billions of dallars annually, like Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Colgate to name only a few, how will Winning Brands compete? Can’t they simply “squash” you?
A: There is a widespread misunderstanding about the nature of competition as between “giants” and emerging companies. There is a role for both and they have differing objectives. In fact, they benefit from each other’s existence.
The largest firms like the ones you have mentioned are in many ways the standard bearers. They have developed mature organizational structure and best practices in much that they do. They provide stability to the industry and to society. However it is in the nature of large organizations that they are better at being stable than being innovative. This is due to internal vested interests that things be done a certain way. It is a natural and normal condition within all large organizations.
On the other hand emerging firms are more inclined to take risks. By being unconventional, smaller firms are in fact providing a form of research and development to society and to the larger firms. Ultimately the largest companies would prefer a Mergers and Acquisitions response to emerging success stories than to use tactics that would bring dishonour to their own employees, stakeholders and customers. Accordingly, the largest firms are more akin to mentors.
The greater competitive trials come from other emerging companies with less to lose by engaging in tactics that are unethically disruptive, or because they are simply more innovative. There are many intelligent people and companies in the world being innovative at any moment in time.
Winning Brands Corporation operates on the premise that competitors offer lessons of how to be better at what one does. Therefore it may be the willingness to learn, rising above personal ego and putting the customer first in decision making that may be the most predictive indicator of a company’s ability to operate in a competitive environment.
Every worthwhile industry has competitive activity. It is therefore encouraging to note that the demand for cleaning products is so vast, and growing, that it can sustain huge industries who in the aggregate account for hundreds of billions of dollars in annual sales. Winning Brands Corporation does not need to make huge inroads in order to become an unqualified success in its own right.
Q: Is the stock being shorted? Have you followed up on this and is it resolved?
A: WBC relies on investment professionals to operate within the regulations and guidelines for short selling or any other trading decisions. Management of the company provides the public with an above average level of disclosure for a company of its size and stage of development specifically so that shareholders can accurately gauge the general state of affairs at the company and thereby make reasonable personal choices.
Management requests that shareholders alert it of specific instances of any market activity which is of concern by means of supplying specifics sufficient for the basis of researching the matter.
Q: Are the primary shareholders 144 Stockholders? What % of the stock is held by insiders and institutions? How many shares are in the float?
A: As at October 31, 2006 approximately 75% of the issued and outstanding shares are restricted from trading under “144” provisions. These restrictions expire automatically approximately in the 1st Qtr 2008. There are SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) provisions which may permit some of the restricted shares to be released from restriction in 2007. Any 2007 shares coming out of restriction will remain subject to a constraint on the rate at which they may be sold; approximately 1% of the issued and outstanding every 90 days from the date on which the restriction lift is granted. This 75% consists of founding shareholders, employees and persons who are involved with the forward movement of the company toward its goals. They may technically be insiders depending upon their relationship to information at any point in time. These are factors that change with individual circumstances. The estimation of a float, ie the number of free trading shares available for purchase and sale at any given time is an approximation only. As at October 31, 2006 this figure may be approximately 50 million shares, of the approximately 220 million shares issued and outstanding.
Q: As CEO, what plan do you have in place to increase shareholder value? Are there any details you can share about this plan?
A: Shareholder value ultimately derives from the desirability of the company in its marketplace, both for its products and it shares.
Desirability is in turn derived from legitimate success in material terms through the growth of assets (physical or intangible), goodwill and brand recognition.
The plan of the CEO of Winning Brands Corporation, Eric Lehner, is to remain focused on making progress toward these fundamentals over the long term. Mr. Lehner has remarked publicly on many occasions that the tendency of North American companies to plan for short term gains over long term achievement is overdue for a change. The emerging global economy mixes practices of successful companies and societies with longer term horizons. There is in his view an increasing sophistication in the standard which is applied to the term “success”. Socially responsible work environments, meaningful interaction with customers, continuous quality improvement are only some of the “new” basics according to Mr. Lehner.
He feels that the days of chasing immediate bumps in earnings, unnatural price-per-share movements or any other measurement of the company’s progress are discredited by the emergence of massive long term thinking organizations whose businesses span generations and continents.
Any prospective investor should know that Winning Brands Corporation’s mission of replacing hazardous chemicals in widespread use with safer alternatives is designed to last a lifetime – work worthy of a generation. The company’s progress in being part of the solution for a world whose ecosystems are under stress, rather than being part of the problem requires an evolution in the public’s behaviour as well.
Such changes amongst the public do not come easily or quickly, as habits are difficult to change. On a strictly business level however Winning Brands Corporation is exceptionally well positioned to benefit from the increasing urgency in these matters. Governments are beginning to impose regulations which are ahead of the public’s level of awareness. All WBC products are designed with this in mind.
It is the official planning precept of Winning Brands Corporation that Climate Change (often described as Global Warming) is a real phenomenon and worsening. WBC is acting now to position itself to be relevant with cleaning solutions (and perhaps other chemicals) which are oriented toward improving the status quo of water quality internationally. Water quality is not directly related to CO2 emissions and carbon load as a causitive element, but plays a part in preserving the eco-integrity of all natural bodies of water whose eco-systems will be under new stresses.
Changing characteristics of ocean currents, precipitation, evaporation, non-native species of plant life, insects and other biological content in lakes, rivers and the seas all tax the ecosystems to work hard in coping with change. In other words, these factors are all interconnected. Winning Brands Corporation designs cleaning solutions that are beneficial, not problematic, thus will experience increasing demand.
Q: How many analysts (if any) are tracking your company, it's stock and products in Canada and the USA? How soon before we get an analyst review of your stock and it's performance?
A: There are few analysts tracking the company currently. This is likely to change when WBC reporting begins. It is the objective of WBC over the long term to qualify for investment by Ethical Investment Funds of various types to fund significant step-up adjustments to the company’s operations over time. The company is as selective of its investment partners as it is of its business planning precepts.
Q: With the positive headlines on Yahoo or other information sites, or even your Pink Sheets Stock page, how is it that the stock is depressed from earlier prices.
A: It is in the nature of speculative stage companies that their share price changes can be dramatic up or down or back up again. The volumes may also fluctuate greatly.
It is also possible (and often the case) that early entrants are day traders wishing to capitalize on such short term swings, covering positions for many reasons that may be unrelated to the company’s progress.
Management of WBC respects and appreciates the decision by any person or institution to become a stockholder. Management must therefore also be concerned about the long term appreciation in the value of investor holdings. The official policy of WBC however is to discourage short term positions for the simple reason that the cycles by which major increases in shareholder value occur are longer than mere days, or even months in duration.
WBC is possibly attractive for the speculative investor who seeks growth in the value of their holding by several orders of magnitude but has the willingness and capacity to treat the holding as a long term participation in fundamental and world wide shifts that favour environmentally responsible companies.
It is the opinion of the management of WBC that the company will benefit increasingly from heightened awareness of ecological problems that appear to be growing in scope internationally, as all are affected to one degree or another by the quality of water. Human health safety is an increasingly important component in the definition of ecological equation. Winning Brands Corporation products are deliberately designed to be neutral or even beneficial in this respect as well.
However, WBC products are designed to be effective, not only safe. Therefore there may be more rapid growth in distribution of the company's products than slower moving mega-trends described above. When material developments happen, they are disclosed as News Releases. Individual investors then decide to what extent these developments support an expectation that the company will attain its goals in the near term and long term.
Q. With the obvious success of your dry cleaning products, how soon before you penetrate one of the world’s largest economies, California? The California legislature is planning to ban Perchloroethylene in all dry cleaning facilities.
A: WBC management operates on the premise that most change is met by resistance.
This resistance in its most innocent form can be lethargy. It can have more self-serving aspects, such as the protection of existing vested interests. Of greatest concern would be pro-active undermining of the type that would try to stop the agents of positive change.
It is not possible to predict how emerging new regulations for Dry Cleaners in California will be met over the long term. WBC management assumes that there will be aspects of all these styles of response present over the coming years.
Therefore, it is the company’s policy to remain focused on establishing a positive model of progress for Dry Cleaners who are willing and ready to apply these benefits to themselves and their customers. In practical terms, this means continuing to establish working sites that are satisfactory to the business people who own them, their clients' cleaning results and to governments as examples of what can be done to reduce toxic load in our economy and in the environment.
Therefore, the realistic answer is that it is a conversion that will be ongoing over many years, probably a decade – and not necessarily centred in California. With the speed of information exchange today, historical differences between jurisdictions in most matters is a diminishing characteristic. A larger, interconnected worldwide community of persons who are thinking globally and acting locally is replacing historic political boundaries. The implications are gradual but cumulative and can be seen all around us. Our work will be equally relevant across America.
The decision by Greenpeace to speak out in favour of non-toxic alternatives to Dry Cleaning in their research entitled “Dress to Kill” has been raising consciousness of this subject internationally. The progressive stance of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in which the use of Perc is strongly discouraged is also predictive of future development.
It is possible that the trend line for the adoption of non-Perc Dry Cleaning will be analogous to the trend line for the adoption of Hybrid vehicles; a minority of early adopters who through their success with the new paradigm will stimulate a second wave. We are still in the early adopter phase.
Q: Which brokerage house handles your equity (shares)?
A: Scott Trade advertises on the Pink Sheets as one company capable of handling Pink Sheets securities, however there are many. In general terms any full service and duly accredited investment dealership has the capability of arranging for the acquisition or sale of shares in Winning Brands Corporation (WNBD) Pink Sheets in USA, Canada or internationally.
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