Domestic versus Export Sales questionDuring the corporate presentation, Mr. Veloso was clearly delighted to announce that Canadian shareholders could once again source Verde SuperGreensand on Amazon.ca, and encouraged us to promote the product by buying and gifting a bag to each of our neighbours to enjoy in their beautiful back gardens. $99.99 for a 20 kg bag of the microionized prudcut with free delivery anywhere in Canada.
This very positive, welcomed and to be frank, long delayed annoucement is great news which prompted several follow-on questions during the Q&A portion of the presentation, including this one:
In the Q1 2020 MD&A you provided a breakdown of sales (by tonne) between domestic customers and export customers, with comparators to the previous year (2020 Q1 331 tonnes, 2019 Q1 148 tonnes). In the Q2 2020 MD&A and all subsequent quarterly and annual reports, the split between domestic and export sales has not been disclosed. Can you please expand the Sales (in tonnes) table in the monthly newsletter in the future to include the breakdown as provided in Q1 in both 2020 and 2019?
This to me was a polite and reasonable request on behalf of all shareholders, especially since the Company had at one time decided the breakdown of sales between domestic and export was useful information to publish and share with investors.
I will need to see the video replay to be sure, but I think Mr. Veloso must have ingested a foul tasting bug just as he was about to answer this question. Otherwise how would you explain the sneering invective with which he spat out his disdainful response? It certainly caught my attention, and based on prior posts, other participants as well (thanks Pedro)
How might a CEO have otherwise responded to this question?
"Yes, we can and will do so starting with the June newsletter, thank you for your interest."
"No, we will not expand the Sales table in the newsletter, but we will include this breakdown in the quarterly MD&A going forward."
"No, we will not provide this breakdown - this is competitively sensitive information that should not have been shared in 2020 - that was a mistake."
"No, we will not provide this breakdown - our focus is on the domestic Brazilian market and any export sales are immaterial - well under 1%. Engaging Amazon as our North American distributor is just a publicity/marketing ploy."
Upon reflection, it looked like the question hit a very sensitive nerve for Mr. Veloso, which makes me wonder why an inquiry into this apparently immaterial area of the Company's sales efforts would illicit such a strong negative reaction.
Very strange, in my opinion. What do you think?
S.