BLT - Blis Technologies

[neopoleII]

"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"
the response was to send living human beings into battle to "use up" the limited supply of german ammunition.
sort of like what blt is doing now....... milking the last few hard core followers for the last drop.
sorry about my statement.... but i got milked enough.... and seen nothing yet except letters asking for more investment monies..... think its 12 years now...... in my case the early bird got screwed.

it seems the johny come latelies are getting screwed less ....... but more so obviously.

close it down. sell the intellectual property and send the docktors into retirement.

[neopoleII]

well sparky.... i hope you are right...... i / we could use some good outside jovial good luck.
in fact... if it turns for the better...... i'll buy you and mrs clown a fine dinner.
but a website wont cut it... nor will radio adds. overseas presents?... been happening for many years.
whats the answer?...... maybe some swavy advertising like 42 below??

anyway still a holder, just not optimistic anymore.

[emearg]

Hi STC. How much do you think they should spend on the NZ advertising campaign? And how much extra revenue would you expect from this in year one?

[emearg]

To be honest, I'd bring in an outside investor with expertise, maybe merge with their proven operations including a sales channel. That would give BLT a much greater fillip in credibility than the existing sales programme. I don't dispute Blis understand science, what they seem to lack is sales and marketing know-how.

If I was to look at a partner who has the right skill set, complementary products, science based approach and and proven sales force, I'd go with a company like About Health who market those Reseveratrol products on Newstalk ZB. Take a look at their website, they do things much better than Blis do. Celebrity endorsements, website that pretty much fits a desktop PC page with all useful info, clean and uncluttered. Their website is http://abouthealth.co.nz

No magic in their advertising pitch, just repetition, pushing the value message, and the use of trusted names like Leighton Smith and Mike Hosking. It seems to work well.

Hi STC. How much do you think they should spend on the NZ advertising campaign? And how much extra revenue would you expect from this in year one?

I responded to your comment with this question because spending a significant amount of money would probably not result in large revenue increases. Blis Throatguard sales have been growing at a reasonable rate (10-20% pa (from memory)) and the product is now number three in NZ in this segment. As I recall NZ sales are around 300k. So a big spend probably wouldn't result in equally big revenue gains let alone profit. Blis used to do the distribution and marketing themselves but a few years ago switched to using Pharmabroker in NZ. This has resulted in the steady gains. They have run radio advertisements. There have been TV advertisements this year. There are product brochures in some chemists explaning Throatguard Daily and Boost. To me this seems like a reasonable approach given the limited resources available. Pharmabroker will only invest.

I can't see NZ ever being a big win for Blis, more a test bed for their products. This is especially the case with supplements.

Spending a lot of money on a advertising campaign strikes me as the wrong approach and would only be out of desperation.

I don't think I am qualified to give answers on this! I don't know the books, and I don't know enough.

Fair enough. My comments are using figures as I recall them. They may be a bit off but should give the correct general idea

Blis seems to lack a director with sales channel experience in the medical sector - maybe that's the first problem. They have the science down to pat, but they need someone who understands direct selling, sales plans and similar. They have tax, biotech and startup experience on the board, but they really aren't cutting through with their sales/distribution. So maybe that's a good first step.

I agree. I'm not too sure what the directors strengths are to be honest. To me it seems that the CEO is the strength of this company since he took over in 2007.

Someone on the EBOS thread joked that EBOS should acquire Blis. I wouldn't expect they'd want Blis, but obviously a meaningful healthcare distribution agreement could be a very good thing for BLT, if they don't have the confidence they can sell directly themselves.

Have you checked out http://www.stratumnutrition.com & http://www.novusint.com ?

Stratum is Blis's international distributer. They have much more resource than Blis with the limited capital it has available/can raise now it is in the penny dreadful category. It is backed by Novus. Novus focus on animal orientated products including companion animals. I suspect this is why Blis is doing studies on the effects of K12 on canines.

Blis are trying the direct selling approach themselves on the web. It is a pretty bad website but is it bad enough to stop sales? Probably some but not all.

I would like to see Blis get M18 into dental surgeries. That is a nice fit of products/services.

In my opinion Blis K12 lozenges will only be a small part of the future. The future is inclusion in food and other products. Ideally products with a short shelf life like yoghurt and icecream. Gum is another good fit. It needs to be in mainstream products sold at normal (or close to) prices.

For that reason I support the current strategy. Unfortunately it will take more time. Probably another year at least before food products are released. If that happens Blis will become profitable. If it doesn't happen Blis won't become profitable and will no doubt fold.

If Blis becomes successful in time the profits will be very large. I am willing to risk my money on that basis. So are a number of others who have put large amounts of money into the business in the past few years.

STC, taking my comments into account, what do you think they should do in addition to what they are doing? Are they doing things they shouldn't be doing? Making icecream for instance? Cheers

[simla]

Probably another year at least before food products are released. If that happens Blis will become profitable. If it doesn't happen Blis won't become profitable and will no doubt fold.

The thing that struck me most about the issue was the strong shareholder support. This not only gives them enough cash to recover from the expensive events of the last 18 months (change distributor with disruption, buy ice cream company and refit and relaunch, GRAS, Europe and China, new lines of research probably, etc) but suggests they may have the support to survive long enough to benefit from them. My gut reaction is that they may have a good 2 years of safe sailing in front of them at present after that, even if they have to fall back on another issue at some point, which I'm sure they're hoping not to. All of which is quite an improvement on the nervousness of earlier this year, if true. Further, there has been the occasional nervousness about takeover, but that level of shareholder support might suggest quite a decent rump would refuse to play ball at the least.

All of which suggests a much stronger company than it felt earlier this year. The whole sales revenue thing still needs to come right, but I sense a stirring of fate perhaps finally coming together here.

[simla]

Concrete suggestions, always good. You may have a good point about the pictures of bacteria etc. The likes of Colgate always project images of white and pastel, clean, sparkling, and clinical. No doubt they have found that works. Interesting point, Sparky.

[Guild]

On the website the first thing I noticed was the M18 combined with Blis on the website, I thought it was a spoof website.

[emearg]

I'm a little skeptical of the ice cream venture. While I appreciate the overall purpose is showing how the Blis product can be adapted for different food types, on reflection I don't see ice cream, particularly "gourmet" ice cream as the best tool. Useful as a proof of concept, but as a business model I'm yet to be convinced.

I agree and wish they hadn't taken the POC all the way to being a commercial operator!

Big picture wise Blis K12 and or M18 could be in ice cream marketed in a different way i.e. not gourmet. Mainstream or close to it is more sensible. Scale is what Blis needs. Always focussing on specialist areas isn't the way to achieve this.

[emearg]

I agree and wish they hadn't taken the POC all the way to being a commercial operator!

Best case scenario is they grow the ice cream business to an adequate scale and sell it to a big player. Pigs may fly first of course...

[fungus pudding]

Best case scenario is they grow the ice cream business to an adequate scale and sell it to a big player. Pigs may fly first of course...

Yep. Pigs will be flying long before that ice cream makes any impression on the market.