Meet the Green Growth Machine

compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the entire FMCG industry.

Sustainable goods account for more than 22% of sales in this space and it is estimated to grow to 25% by next year.

Let’s take a deeper look at one intriguing small-cap Company engaged in the business of plant-based materials and packaging that is positioned to broadly address the consumer goods market with its own sustainable products.

Plant-based products and packaging Company good natured Products Inc. (TSX-V: GDNP, OTC: SLGBF, Forum) designs, produces and distributes products that are used by people in a number of ways in their everyday life. These products are as good as, if not better, than their petroleum-based counterparts and are sold at real-world prices. good natured Products declares to its investors, consumers, and the world at large that it is guided by its “North Star” – to become North America’s leading Earth-friendly product Company, by developing plant-based products and packaging, while also acquiring relevant companies that expand its wide assortment, customer base, and market reach.

This Company’s products are applicable in a variety of ways - From food packaging and restaurant / take-out containers, but also medical and industrial supplies that are desperately needed during these pandemic times under COVID-19. We will get into that opportunity more later in this article.


People want better products and packaging:

Boasting one of the widest assortments of better everyday plant-based products in North America, the Company’s wares are made with the highest possible percentage of renewable, plant-based materials and no BPAs, phthalates or other chemicals of concern potentially harmful to human health and the environment.

good natured offers an assortment of more than 385 products and services and it is growing its catalogue constantly to create even more eco-friendly home and business products, along with food and restaurant packaging, as well as medical and industrial supplies designed to do good for the planet, good for human health, and good for business by driving incremental sales, minimizing waste, and reducing environmental impact … all bundled up in a fresh and approachable brand.


(Chat via good natured Products Inc.)

An added bonus for the Company: Business customers deliver recurring revenue across three key customer segments – national, regional and small business – all of which are supported by a combination of inside and outside sales teams:

• Retailers
• Food producers
• Food packers
• Consumer product companies
• Restaurants
• Packaging manufacturers
• Other industrial processors

The Company also offers direct purchasing through Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and its own ecommerce platforms in the US and Canada.



(Chat via good natured Products Inc.)


This is a Company with a go-to-market strategy that is not reliant on a single product category or a segment of consumers who prioritize eco-friendly benefits. To make a real difference in the world and the stock market, the team recognized the need to deliver across three core fundamentals - ingredients, design, and approach. Being able to develop its value proposition across three core pillars is how this Company achieves such a unique competitive advantage that is often duplicated, but never replicated.


Ingredients:

good natured Products’ bio-based products are protected through composite intellectual property, as well as through unique supply chain agreements and / or trade secrets across three main ingredients platforms – fibre, bioplastics and biodegradables.

The product development team scours the globe to find the latest and most advanced plant and bio-based materials to make these products, as well as sourcing ingredients from bio-refinery companies.

The ingredients are then combined to meet specific performance characteristics using the highest possible annually renewable materials (up to 99%), with no chemicals deemed potentially harmful to human health or the environment, all the while lowering its CO2 footprint.

These materials have been sourced and designed specifically to work with standard manufacturing equipment, so that there is no retooling require, providing a capital efficient and scalable model for both external supply chain partners and the Company’s own manufacturing facilities.


Design:

There is an agile, collaborative approach to engineering and manufacturing at play here.

Collaboration is a serious value the Company holds, and its team works directly with brands and retailers to provide products and packaging from within its existing stock assortment. They also develop custom designs that meet the specific performance, operational, logistics and / or supply chain characteristics required to facilitate the customer’s transition from petroleum toward renewable plant-based materials.

Customers come to good natured directly to secure development agreements and activate purchase orders through the Company’s own facilities, outsourced supply chain partner agreements or through the brand or retailer’s preferred supply chain partners.


Approach:

good natured customers can transact and interact with the Company in several different ways, depending on what works for their specific operational requirements.

This ease and accessibility increases opportunities for customer acquisition, it also maximizes revenue and retention. Where others in this industry still conduct transactions offline, the Company engages its customers with an “omnichannel” approach that is a modernized, streamlined experience for sales, service, and support.

The Company has also secured trademarks internationally for its brand names in Canada, the United States and internationally through the Madrid Protocol, which secures protection in 122 countries.


Medical applications and beyond:

In March 2020; good natured Products acquired Shepherd Thermoforming & Packaging Inc., a leading thermoformer (a manufacturing process where plastic is heated to a pliable forming temperature, turned into a specific shape, and trimmed to make a product) for $9 million (CAD).

The assets of this 35-year-old business include its molds and a 42,000 square foot manufacturing facility, all located on 2.31 acres of land in Brampton, Ontario. This operates six different thermoforming lines, as well as two CNC machines (computer software that dictates the movement of factory tools and machinery) to fully integrate design, mold manufacturing, testing and manufacturing.

At the time of acquisition, Shepherd designed custom packaging including engineering, mold production and final product manufacturing for both thin gauge and heavy gauge applications. Their customers included several Fortune 500 companies located throughout eastern Canada and the northeast United States, including popular brands from Colgate, Advil, to Lindt chocolatiers and generated average annual revenue of more than $5.5 million (CAD) with an average annual adjusted EBITDA of $420,000 (CAD) in the three previous fiscal years,

In a news release for investors on this transaction, good natured Product’s Chief Executive Officer, Paul Antoniadis, noted that this acquisition marked another significant milestone in the Company’s growth trajectory, after nearly doubling revenues in 2019.

“Whether it be through existing molds available at the Shepherd facility, or the ability for us to expand on the development of custom packaging solutions, one of our largest growth sectors, our production capacity and assortment has now increased significantly.”

He added, “the strategic location of Shepherd's facility also provides good natured with a strong and easily accessible entry point into Ontario and eastern Canada, as well as the northeastern United States.”


Meet the team:

good natured Products is helmed by very strong leadership with years of experience managing household name companies.

Paul Antoniadis, Executive Chair & CEO

• Former CEO, Best Buy Europe.
• Former SVP, Int’l Retail Ops & President China at Best Buy
• VP of Sales Development for Best Buy US

Don Holmstrom, EVP/CFO

• Experience closing acquisitions/divestitures of 180+ business transactions, close to $1 billion value
• Raised close to $100 million in debt and equity

Stephanie Zahn, CMO

• Extensive multinational Fortune 500 experience building large-scale marketing campaigns
• Specific expertise in the design and execution of brand positioning, customer segmentation and market development

Dr. Michel Labonté, CTO

• Ph.D. in bioplastics packaging from École Polytechnique (Montréal)
• Bombardier: first to produce polycarbonate snowmobile windshield.

Investment summary:

Consumers across the board from all age groups, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, are calling for more socially and environmentally responsible products and packaging. They are becoming more and more aware of the negative health and environmental impacts that non-renewable products and packaging pose, such as hazardous chemicals. Here is a Company addressing this demand, while also producing something that is of an equal or higher quality as a business poised to grow.

The Company can advance its business with even greater efficiency after recently closing a brokered private placement of more than $3 million (CAD) and redeeming an outstanding convertible debenture. This should help reduce its interest payments and place extra cash on its balance sheet.

A number of new products are scheduled to be launched in 2021 that will expand the focus on the environmental friendly kitchen area, while the Company will delve deeper into current verticals, expand into new and adjacent verticals, gather new customers and execute further mergers and acquisitions. The next time we hear about good natured Products, it will be an even larger and more diverse business than it already is. Investors would be wise to keep this stock on their radar to see what develops in the near-term.

For more information about the Company, visit: investor.goodnaturedproducts.com.




FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.