BLT - Blis Technologies

[fungus pudding]

Victory for Blis is at hand!

https://www.nzx.com/companies/BLT/announcements/228432

I've been expecting an announcement for some time 'blis is dog tucker'.

[simla]

Could be interesting actually. "Stratum Nutrition is a division of Novus Nutrition Brands, a subsidiary of Novus International, Inc. Novus is a leading developer of animal health and nutrition programs based on science." (Stratum website). Novus sell into 90 countries with revenues of $1 billion (Novus website.)

I think we got told straight away that Stratum wanted to look at Blis for dogs but needed more research. How expensive can the research really be given they have everything to hand? It may not even take that long, and they already have the encapsulation techniques to put it in dog food etc. Also, if there are big legal restrictions on making human health claims (which is the problem for advertising Blis) then this could be an interesting avenue that may not take that long to open maybe? As you say though, how long and how much?

[simla]

To clarify: There are laws restricting advertising of health claims in most countries, which is obviously to ensure that medicines are real and properly researched. This makes it hard for Blis to advertise though, as the product is a health product at heart.

But there are different laws for different products. Dietary supplements (the current Blis pills) are quite restricted legally in most countries, which is why most probiotic ads in NZ never actually tell you what they do. Foods usually have different rules though in many countries and are typically more open to ads. Pet products have different rules again - I haven't looked into them much, but they are looser. And then web sites are seemingly open to more direct claims too.

So Blis is facing the problem of how to advertise. Supplements have proved quite hard. They're going for food now but it takes time to get any new products launched by manufacturers. And they are trying to attract an audience to the web sites. And now pet products may be a useful avenue too. Blis have also got chemists explaining it in person, which chemists are presumably entitled to do. And they've just announced a sponsorship approach as well. I imagine the Q24 for acne is subject to much less restriction on advertising too.

Thus I presume Blis is poking around trying to find the fastest access to places it can actually meaningfully advertise. Advertising is what many here have called for, of course, but it's a chess game when you look at the laws. Noting the different laws in different market segments is one possible solution maybe. It's good that they are poking around. We need Blis to be advertised, but it's obviously a tricky assignment to find just where and how they can do it. They obviously intend to succeed however.

[winner69]

David said 'Wouldn't they be better to concentrate less of their limited funds on fooling around in the lab and more on selling their products and generating revenue for the company and profits for the company's owners, the shareholders?'

But fooling around is more fun than doing the hard yakka selling stuff ......that's why they go to work those scientists

[fungus pudding]

To clarify: There are laws restricting advertising of health claims in most countries, which is obviously to ensure that medicines are real and properly researched. This makes it hard for Blis to advertise though, as the product is a health product at heart.

But there are different laws for different products. Dietary supplements (the current Blis pills) are quite restricted legally in most countries, which is why most probiotic ads in NZ never actually tell you what they do. Foods usually have different rules though in many countries and are typically more open to ads. Pet products have different rules again - I haven't looked into them much, but they are looser. And then web sites are seemingly open to more direct claims too.

So Blis is facing the problem of how to advertise. Supplements have proved quite hard.

Have they? The current fad - resveratrol, seemsto be doing okay. There's been fortunes made with pleny of junk health rubbish.

[winner69]

sparky .... talk of dogs and the HUGE animal remedies market put a rocket under the shareprice today

Lozenges for dogs .... Masterpet as a distributor .... EBO .... a marriage made in heaven is EBO and BLT .... Percy would love that

[simla]

Morning Report this morning http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/busines...r_2012-048.mp3 (about 5 mins in) reported the dog product should be on the market in the US and Europe in a year.

[simla]

Blis raises $1.3m. In addition to the placements, 166 other shareholders sent an average of $4k each then. https://nzx.com/companies/BLT/announcements/228866

Seems there are still quite a few "stout hearted men" willing to be counted when needed. Well done chaps.

[simla]

Well, actually it naturally raises the question: just what sort of proposition is Blis now?

For a starter, we might assume they're reasonably well cashed up. They said they wanted 1.5m, so close enough. http://www.sharechat.co.nz/article/e...e-capital.html

Then we are told there will be no meaningful sales into the US or China until next financial year. Five months away perhaps, then?

Possible progress over the next year might reasonably include any of the following: sales into China, sales into Europe, resumed sales into the US, increased sales into the US, increased sales into Asia, increased web sales, increased NZ sales, increased ice cream sales, GRAS sales in the US, GRAS sales elsewhere, progress on M18 sales, sales of dog product.

The question is, which is more likely: continued failure to generate new revenue, or finally getting new revenue from all the activity? Interesting question. Answers on the back of an envelope! And how does that answer compare to the share price?

I don't know the answer, but the question sure is interesting. And interesting to read the next report too.


You know, Sparky,I hope ATM and PEB do well too. I've been following them for several years as well. But Blis doesn't have to fail for them to succeed! It was suggested Howard Paterson failed at things. But I checked and he was a founder of ATM, and I'm fairly sure he was a supporter of PEB too, and as far as I can tell all the things he set up have succeeded except so far Blis. With luck it will be 100% soon. Good luck to all NZ biotechs, as far as I'm concerned.

[simla]

Well done chaps. Fixed bayonets, on my command, over the top, and..... CHAAAAARGE....

Incidentally, a historical note, just out of interest. Yes, the trench warfare of WWI was awful, but remember that doing that DID win and peace was restored to Europe. The Germans deployed machine guns, tanks, planes and mustard gas in the field. This was completely unprecedented, and everyone just responded as best they could. Trench warfare was brutal and awful, but it DID work in the end in the face of unbelievable escalation of military technology.

More interesting still is that a horrible part of the trenches was Trench Mouth, a bacterial infection of the gums. So they would have loved Blis!