- Sees huge market potential for plant-based foods
- Over 25,000 square foot of production and distribution
- Also developing possible coronavirus treatment
What Naturally Splendid Enterprises does:
Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd () () is the current 'go-to' manufacturer for health food products and ingredients and its focus is plant-based.
The company also provides contract manufacturing services for many global healthy food companies, private labelling a wide variety of nutritional food products.
It operates a SQF Level 2 certified food manufacturing facility just outside Vancouver spanning 25,000 square foot, and churns out brands, via its Prosnack subsidiary, like Natera Sport, Natera Hemp Foods, and the Woods Wild bar.
Prosnack generates revenue via two streams - contract manufacturing accounts for 57%, while the remaining 43% is attributed to the firm's own brands.
The firm has a myriad of new products and lines being developed and also proprietary technologies for the extraction of high demand, healthy omega 3 and 6 oils from hemp.
It also has a distribution agreement for an extensive line of plant-based products with one of Australia's most popular plant-based manufacturers, BettaLife Global Food Solutions.
In response to the 2020 pandemic, the company is also developing a potential coronavirus (COVID-19) treatment, utilizing the target drug Cavaltinib.
How is it doing:
Naturally Splendid Enterprises has been making big strides over two fronts in the past few months.
At the start of November, the company announced that it had received a Notice of Authorization from Health Canada to proceed with a Phase 2 clinical trial for its potential COVID-19 treatment utilizing the target drug Cavaltinib.
Cavaltinib has been shown to inhibit cytokines, which are small proteins released by many different cells in the body, including those of the immune system where they coordinate the immune and inflammatory response against infection or other triggers.
The company believes Cavaltinib will show the same positive results in mitigating the 'cytokine storm' with COVID-19 patients.
Away from coronavirus, in September, Naturally Splendid signed its exclusive sales and distribution agreement for an extensive line of plant-based products with one of Australia's most popular plant-based manufacturers, BettaLife Global Food Solutions.
The company was also granted sales and distribution rights to access the US market. In North America, Naturally Splendid will market a product line under the brand NATERA Plant-Based Foods.
Naturally Splendid received the first shipping container of product from Australia in October, while a second shipping container had been processed and was on route to Vancouver, scheduled to arrive mid-November
At the end of November, the group revealed it has secured sales of its products via a leading Canadian foodservice distributor. The three products in question are entrees - the NATERA Plant-Based Schnitzel, Seasoned Tenders and Sweet Chili Tenders - which will be carried in the distributor's BC-based centres in Vancouver, Kelowna, and Victoria.
The move followed news at the end of October, that the company had appointed Summit Specialty Foods as the first distributor of NATERA.
Summit Specialty Foods, which has been in business since 1998, has distribution points at Save-On-Foods, Price Smart, Urban Fare, Quality Greens, , Whole Foods, Askews Foods, Buy-Low Foods, Choices Markets, London Drugs, Natural Markets Food Group including Mrs Greens & Planet Organics, Nature's Fare and many more.
At the start of December, Naturally Splendid announced the launch of the NATERA Plant-Based Foods e-commerce website -- www.naterafoods.com.
The company said consumers can now purchase NATERA Plant-Based Burgers, Schnitzel, Kiev, Nuggets and Sweet Chili Tenders from the site for home delivery. Products will be shipped frozen and it has secured preferred shipping rates to optimize value for its customers.
On the financial front, in November, Naturally Splendid reported reduced revenue in its latest nine-month results due to coronavirus (COVID-19) challenges, but narrowed its net loss and said it was well placed to benefit from the growing plant-based food market.
For the nine months to September 30, 2020, the group’s revenue came in at C$1.34 million, compared to C$2,36 million for the same period in 2019, while the net loss from continuing operations was C$3.3 million versus a loss of C$$3.6 million in the year-ago period.
The company put the reduced loss down to continued improvements in operational efficiencies over the same period last year and added that increased facility costs related to strict new standard operating procedures (SOPs) meant it could not reduce the loss still further.
In September, Naturally Splendid bolstered its balance sheet with an oversubscribed financing of C$1.05 million on Monday to fund laboratory and office space for its upcoming clinical trial of a potential COVID-19 treatment.
It said portions of the funds will also be directed towards the Vancouver-based 100% owned Prosnack Natural Foods, Safe Quality Food Level 2 certified food manufacturing facility.
And in the boardroom, at the start of November, Naturally Splendid announced the appointment of Larry Gilmour to its board of directors.
Gilmour has extensive sales and marketing experience with brands such as Libby's (Libby, McNeil and Libby), Playtex Corp., and Black and Decker. His track record also includes time with Independent Pharmacist Inc., where he was instrumental in increasing sales 10-fold from C$2 million to $22 million in just four years. With the appointment of Gilmour, the company has also accepted the resignation of Russ Crawford from its board of directors.
In the same month, the company also added experienced marketing and information technology specialist Kris Tarr to its advisory board to assist in e-commerce and online marketing. The group noted that Tarr's experience spans the high tech, pharmaceutical, tourism, online gaming and real estate sectors and he has worked for global organizations such as Coca Cola, Disney and Nickelodeon.
Inflection points:
- News on a Phase 2 coronavirus treatment trial
- Further NATERA deals, collaborations
- Further ramp-up of Prosnack facility output
What the boss says:
In a statement in October, Naturally Splendid CEO J. Craig Goodwin said: "The NATERA Key-To-Life bar was distributed in over 2,000 stores within 6 weeks of the initial launch. We believe that NATERA Plant-Based Foods will appeal to an even larger consumer base and we look forward to providing updates in the near future on the selected food brokers, distributors and retailers who will be carrying our exciting new product lines."