Message From the CEO – 2015
Marco-MoranGreetings,
I would like to start by thanking all of our customers, employees, shareholders, business partners and vendors for their continued support and all who progressively play such an important role in the ongoing success of Dewmar International BMC, Inc.
The year 2015 has been the most active and financially prosperous period in the company’s history. Moreover, the Company is well positioned for sustained growth on several fronts. At the beginning of the year, I outlined key goals and objectives for the business, below I would like to provide an update on the business’ progress as it relates to stated 2015 goals and an outlook on exciting developments.
Highlights for the Year
Products:
This year, we managed a number of consumer brands, namely PhysiPet, Yellow Jacket iPhone Stun Gun/Charger, Rocky Mountain High Hemp , C-Swiss Hemp Iced Tea, Chillo Hemp Energy, Canna Energy, Lean Slow Motion Potion and Kush Cakes, that we have placed for sale on various e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com, Walmart.com and e-Bay.com.
As we enter 2016, we have negotiated new contracts that have allowed us to gain full control of the manufacturing, sales, marketing and brand management rights of several of the aforementioned brands. We will provide greater detail in future releases describing what our launch and go-to-market strategy is for those products.
Lean Slow Motion Potion (LeanSMP) has successfully completed its 3rd full year in Walmart stores. Lean currently is still the longest standing relaxation drink on the shelves in the history of Walmart. We recently received approval from our assigned Walmart Beverage Buyer for expansion into approximately 150 Walmart locations in the central Texas area for proposed execution in 2016. A critical factor in Walmart approving the expansion of LeanSMP was Dewmar’s demonstrative ability to provide the requisite merchandising and marketing support to achieve projected sales goals. Dewmar has budgeted a minimum of $100,000 to invest in targeted marketing across social media advertising, radio ads, in-store samplings and brand awareness campaigns. This targeted marketing strategy follows the business’s strategy to saturate brand awareness and product availability in a defined geography and allow Consumer demand to pull our branded products into new markets.
Regarding the past FDA warning letter regarding LeanSMP, we hired Mr. Alan Shugarman, MS, RDN, LDN, CISSN to formally respond on our behalf to the FDA in October 2014. Since then, we have not had any more requests or comments from the FDA regarding the matter. Mr. Shugarman has extensive experience in the Nutrition, Supplement, Health and Fitness category as well as in manufacturing, legal, regulatory, and FDA matters and has worked for FDA in Washington DC and has consulted on numerous FDA related matters in the nutrition and dietary supplement field. The main issues the FDA cited involved non-compliant labels; is subsequently being changed to Dietary Supplement Facts labeling. There is no issue with Lean as a Dietary Supplement containing melatonin as an active ingredient.
As previously announced, we successfully launched Kush Cakes hemp infused brownies at The Big Industry Show in Denver during the second quarter of 2015. Initial sales to distributors and wholesalers exceeded expectations and created back orders while production ramped up in stages to ensure quality control.
Kush Cakes continues to enjoy a high brand awareness quotient and was featured in the 420 Goody Box which helped give us positive publicity and a boost in sales. To support continued Kush Cakes sales growth, in 2016, we plan to commit additional resources towards marketing to wholesalers with increased trade show attendance, online and print media advertising as well as sampling events.
We have several pending contracts for new product development. One will include a special new brownie product with one of our existing clients. Furthermore, we have begun to work closely with researchers and top providers of advanced probiotic compounds to produce a line of probiotics that can stimulate broad-spectrum immune activity while remaining free of gluten, dairy, corn, soy and GMO’s.
Healthcare Services:
One of the greatest occurrences for Dewmar during the final quarter of 2014 was the acquisition of a new subsidiary, Health & Wellness Research Consortium, LLC. I like to refer to it as The Consortium for short. The goal of this company is to develop and implement healthcare sales and marketing strategies for pharmacies, clinics and hospitals in order to help maximize the client’s income earning potential. We, in turn, share in the gain in profitability that our team of consultant helped to generate. The Consortium integrates strategic insight, operational excellence and a deep understanding of our specific target market to deliver results by matching a fertile new patient base with pharmacies, clinics and a variety of healthcare specialty care centers.
Furthermore, the Consortium invests in healthcare technologies, innovative practices and high profit-margin diagnostic equipment while simultaneously creating value through strategic guidance, operational insights, and industry strategy. We provide our partners and clients with the unique insight to drive critical decision making, improve their performance and achieve sustained profitable growth. As shown in the unaudited 8K financials, the Consortium was responsible for millions of dollars of revenue earnings in 2014. Our upcoming audited financials will show that his revenue trend has been sustained throughout 2015.
Events and Activities
Dewmar staff and I were extremely active in attending a host of business events, special meetings, conferences and more from local to international venues. Below is a partial list of these activities.
White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities’ (HBCU):
Dr. Ivory Toldson, White House Director & Dr. Moran
Dr. Ivory Toldson, White House Director & Dr. Moran
Dewmar CEO and President, J.D. Houston, received a personal invitation request from White House Director, Dr. Ivory Toldson, to attended the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities’ (HBCU) annual conference in September 2015 where we met a number of College Presidents to discuss opportunities to partner on a number of agriculture research and grow projects. Dewmar received a special invitation to attend the Billion Dollar Roundtable discussion that included one-on-one discussions with Walmart’s Director of Global Inclusion for the purpose of having Dewmar to collaborate with various universities and Walmart to match new inventions, intellectual property and agricultural crops with the needs of Walmart. Vice President Joe Biden was present at this event on behalf of the White House.
The Consortium, as well as myself personally, has engaged in a financial investment in CirrusMD, a telemedicine technology that offers patients the ability to securely text message, share images and video chat with doctors over smartphones, tablets and computers. A person can schedule a video appointment anytime, anywhere, or instantly strike up a conversation via text.
World Trade Center Mississippi launched the first session of the 2015 Global Business Leadership Program in Spring 2015 with a full day of speakers offering global marketplace insights to a select class of Mississippi’s emerging leaders in international business-related fields. Session one concluded with a tour of Dewmar International, a Mississippi-based brand management services company that specializes in developing new products for distribution in both international and national markets. The tour was led by CEO Marco Moran, who offered a presentation of Dewmar’s products to the class and provided insights into the leadership skills needed to succeed in global business.
Dr. Moran and Mississippi Global Business Leaders
Dr. Moran and Mississippi Global Business Leaders
In May, I attended the 2015 Global Executive Speaking Series titled “Planning for Cuba” where former Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, Mike Espy, spoke in great detail about his past and current role in leading delegations of Mississippi based companies on a trade mission to Cuba as the U.S. lifts its long-standing trade embargo.
Regarding telemedicine and international affairs, I hosted Dr. Maurice Mars, the head of Telehealth for South Africa at the annual Governor’s Export Summit after we both returned the previous day from the American Telemedicine Association National Conference.
Dr. Maurice Mars and Dr. Moran
Dr. Maurice Mars and Dr. Moran
Awards and Accolades
Mississippi Minority Business Alliance Central Region Award:
Recipient of the 2015 Mississippi Minority Business Alliance Central Region Award in the presence of special guests Governor Phil Bryant; Antwuan Griffin, Deputy Assistant Secretary U.S. Department of CommerceInternational Trade; and Joann J. Hill, Chief of the Office of Business Development Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)
2015 LSU 100: Fastest Growing Tiger Businesses:
On behalf of the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute, Dewmar was named to the 2015 LSU 100:Fastest Growing Tiger Businesses. Now in its fifth year, the LSU 100 celebrates and recognizes the successful business achievements of LSU alumni and former students from all parts of the world. This year Dewmar was ranked #39 and is the second time receiving the award in the past three years.
Innovator of the Year -Young, Gifted and Empowered Awardee:
On February 28, 2016 I will be awarded the Mississippi Innovator of the Year as a part of the Savvy Lifestyle Magazine annual YG&E Awards. Young, Gifted & Empowered honors individuals who are champions for and in the arts, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, education, innovation and leadership. The honorees are between the age 25-45 and have demonstrated a noteworthy commitment to excellence and community service; a high level of character, leadership, and innovation through professional and personal growth.
Plans for 2016
International Trade:
After attending an Outbound Trade Mission to Toronto, Canada in conjunction with the Mississippi Development Authority, Dewmar has completed a detailed market analysis to assess the viability of Lean sales within the market. We have completed an agreement with Liquid Brands Management for a hopeful 2016 launch of Lean Slow Motion Potion into major Canadian retail chain convenience store outlets. We had to make some changes to the formulation at the request of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and we now currently are awaiting the Temporary Marketing Authorization from Health Canada before we go into production.
Enhanced Digital Presence:
Our corporation, subsidiaries, products and services all have a story to tell and we plan to better communicate that story through an enhanced digital presence allowing us to build relevant connections with our shareholders, business partners and Consumers. The upgrades will occur in stages starting with the company’s corporate web site. Other targeted improvements include product brand web sites, social media properties, ecommerce and content.
Dewmar International voided all of its toxic financers by end of March 2014, and in 2015 we kept our promise by not diluting our stock. As this year closes, the number of issued and outstanding shares still remains at 2,426,163,513 while maintaining the same float of 2,225,613,590 shares for the entire year. This is approximately the same number of shares in the float when our stock once was above 3 cents per share. Hopefully, this shows our level of commitment to our investors be more selective about our capital sources and frequency of financing has been the direct result of implemented cost controls and increased revenue.
Currently, our PCAOB accredited auditing firm, Malone Bailey, is conducting a complete audit of our 2014 financials. Once submitted, the audit satisfies our SEC filing requirements and further validates the financial results we made public in our most recently published 8K.
With regard to re-establishing current filing status for the company with the SEC, plan projections from our third-party accounting firm estimate project completion of our full year 2015 and Q1-2016 audited financials by the end of April 2016. Looking forward, we’ve brought on additional resources to manage bookkeeping administration to help ensure we remain current with all of our required filings.
Conclusion
Dewmar International prides itself on focusing on the long term success of the Company. As evidenced by our several accomplishments during the year, the entire Team here at Dewmar International has been working vigorously towards delivering results against our 2015 strategic plan. With the Team’s primary focus on tactical execution, administrative functions such as financial audits had been delayed earlier in the year. Again, we’ve addressed this by adding additional resources to complete the audit work and we project completing by April 2016.
As the CEO of Dewmar International, I’m committed to the long term growth and success of the company. In fact, as I have previously reported all of my issued stock shares remain in certificate form which means they’re illiquid for current trading. My policy to maintain the shares in certificate form is reflective of my confidence in the long term success of the company and also helps to align my interests and the interests of the business with that of our long term shareholders.
As a friendly reminder to investors and those interested in following Dewmar’s activities, you can sign up below (or on the homepage) to our free newsletter that will give you a first alert on all press releases, Messages from the CEO and other important updates from Dewmar International BMC, Inc. Our company continues to voluntarily provide information to FINRA and other stock market regulating agencies to validate the information we share with the investor community.
Dr. Marco Moran, President & CEO
December 31, 2015
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