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January 19, 2010 It has been an eventful year and an
even more eventful quarter. As shown in the financial statements filed
on SEDAR on Friday, January 15, 2010, revenues for the quarter ended December
31, 2009 were nearly $1 million. Compared to corresponding quarters of
previous years, this was an 18-fold increase in revenues. This dramatic
increase came about for a number of reasons, including the Company becoming an
Official Supplier to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games (“The Winter Games”),
concerns about the H1N1 pandemic, health authorities recommending the use of
hand sanitizers and a general shortage of hand sanitizers in the market. A host
of new customers started stocking ALDA’s T36®
Antiseptic Hand Sanitizer and some also offered T36®
Disinfectant to their customers. The new retail outlets included Shoppers
Drug Marts, Pharmasave, London Drugs, T&T Supermarkets and IGA Marketplace.
The Company
also became a supplier to Acklands-Grainger, Inc. (“AGI”) Canada’s largest
distributor of industrial, safety and fastener products. The bulk of the sales were of T36®
Antiseptic Hand Sanitizer in 60 and 240 ml bottles and 900 and 1,200 ml
bags for manual and automatic dispensers which were placed throughout various
VANOC locations including the Richmond Olympic Oval and General Motors Place, Vancouver
International Airport (“YVR”) Grouse Mountain Resorts, the municipalities of
New Westminster and Richmond, VANOC headquarters and the Whistler
Conference Centre. As the Winter Games approach, ALDA and
T36® will be receiving an increased amount
of publicity and exposure from posters that are placed throughout the
Skytrain system and large billboards at YVR and the Canada-US border. The
Company’s products will be found throughout the Winter Games and samples
will be purchased by VANOC for athletes, volunteers and media representatives.
While sales were much higher than
usual, production expenses also increased proportionately and gross margins
of approximately 27% were achieved. Management will look for cost savings as
demand for products becomes more predictable but the financial commitments to
VANOC during the next quarter suggest that profitability will be unlikely. An
obvious way to improve margins is for the Company to control
its own manufacturing and management will be reviewing this possibility once the
demand for product has stabilized and proper projections can be made. A major effort will be undertaken in
sales and marketing now that the hand sanitizer market is less frantic.
There are still many potential customers that can be approached and the current
customers will be needing assistance from the Company to properly position and
promote T36® products. The Company received a substantial amount of publicity since the VANOC agreement was announced including interviews with CBC, CTV and Global TV, Business in Vancouver and BNN. With an estimated 10,000 media representatives attending the Winter Games, more opportunities are likely to arise. ALDA Pharmaceuticals Corp. 635 Columbia Street, New Westminster, BC V3M 1A7 Canada Telephone [604] 521.8300 - Facsimile [604] 521.8322 www.aldacorp.com |