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LifeVantage Corporation (LFVN)

Q4 2008 Earnings Call· Tue, Oct 7, 2008

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the LifeVantage fourth quarter and fiscal year 2008 conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to David Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer of LifeVantage Corporation.

David Brown

President

Today I am joined by Brad Amman, our CFO, and first he will provide a summary of our financial results for the fourth quarter and for the fiscal year 2008. I will then provide an update on the company’s other activities and afterward, time allowable, we will answer any questions anybody may have. But I would ask you all to hold your questions until the Question & Answer period at the end of the call. So with that, Brad, would you please proceed with the financial summary.

Bradford K. Amman

Management

I am pleased to be joining David this morning to discuss the financial results for LifeVantage Corporation. First I would like to review the risk language. In this presentation statements that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable common law. These statements may be referred to by terms such as anticipates, believes, continues, intends, estimates, expects, plans, and other similar terms. Such statements are based upon our current expectations regarding market and economic conditions, product plans, product pricing, and other factors. In particular, these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the company’s future financial operating performance, statements regarding revenue, earnings, customer growth and retention, competition, technology, as well as trends in our business and market segments in general. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those stated in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are more completely described in our registration statement and reporting documents filed with the SEC, including the most recently filed Form 10-KSB filed on September 23, 2008. In addition, our financial forecasts are inherently speculative and uncertain. It is our policy to provide no public guidance, however, should we do so we will update or reconfirm our public guidance only by issuing press releases or filing publicly-accessible documents with the SEC. Financial and operation guidance contained within the following presentation is as of June 30, 2008. We undertake no duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, or changes in our expectations. And now for the financial results. In summary, fourth quarter and fiscal 2008 financial results for LifeVantage are contained on Form 10-KSB filed with the SEC on September 23,…

David Brown

President

Well, as we look at fiscal year 2008, which ended June 30, 2008, I think it is appropriate to borrow a line that’s being bandied about in the political arena these days, about bringing about real change. The fourth quarter of 2008 was the first full quarter that I was on board along with new members of the management team. In fact, 2008 is the first time the company has had a CEO and management team with a proven track record in this arena. Some of the highlights that I will talk about today had initiatives that were begun in 2008 and are continuing now in fiscal year 2009, including the development of new sales channels, brand building and promotional programs, an aggressive public relations campaign, a negotiation 50% decrease in manufacturing costs, on-going scientific research, and then new product development. In particular I will talk about a revolutionary new skin-care product that is currently undergoing testing. Now, in 2008 I think if you talk about what real changes truly occurred, I think as Brad indicated, expenditures were finally contained. Historically the company had, mostly due to inexperience, not always gotten as much benefit from its expenditures as it could have or should have. And we have been able to contain those expenditures and for the first time, sales have been stabilized so the long history of eroding sales has ceased, and in fact, fourth quarter showed for the first time in a long time in the company’s history, a modest but real uptick over the previous quarter. In fact, the fourth quarter does show an increase in net sales and gross profit. Now, that’s a trend that we intend to continue, as a management team and the strategy that we’ve talked about in the past, but want to clarify…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Jim Galloway – Galloway Enterprises. Jim Galloway – Galloway Enterprises: First question on cash flow. I’ve got some options and warrants that are out of the money so I’m not going to exercise them but how do you see your cash flow carrying you through this fiscal year?

David Brown

President

That’s a good question, I appreciate that. Everything that we do is done with an eye to the existing resources that we have, including cash. I am very mindful of all of you existing shareholders and your concerns about dilution and other things. Other than the initial bump in expenditures during the fourth quarter for the development of the commercials and the television test marketing campaign, we have been keeping a very tight line on cash use. Our burn is down significantly and I do believe that the cash that we have is sufficient for our needs as we go forward. We certainly aren’t flush and it does limit us in terms of some things we might otherwise consider if we had more cash in the bank, and so it does have an impact upon the rate of growth and the pace that we might otherwise be able to attain if we had $10.0 million or $20.0 million in the bank instead of just under $1.0 million. But our cash, as we look forward to the future and pursuant to our budget and our projections, is sufficient to keep us going until we cross over into a cash-flow positive arena. Which we are projecting to be in the spring of the next calendar year. Jim Galloway – Galloway Enterprises: Two sales questions. Number one is domestically. I am wondering if you could give us a breakdown of direct sales versus sales through these various avenues that you are utilizing. For example, have we exceeded 10,000 a month people that are buying on the standard re-order program. Or where are we in these programs?

David Brown

President

I don’t have all those numbers at my fingertips but I know we don’t have 10,000 people a month on auto-ship. That number is growing but it’s not growing as quickly yet as we would like. The breakdown, in terms of revenue, is, and Brad may need to jump in and correct me.

Bradford K. Amman

Management

No, the direct sales have been about 80% of our revenue and retail 20%.

David Brown

President

Yes, that’s what I was going to say so I’m glad we’re at least on the same page there. And, frankly, I don’t really see that changing drastically. I still believe that the greatest potential for increased sales is on more of a direct-to-consumer basis as opposed to retail. And that’s based not only upon the fact that we have a fairly small product line, the fact that retail has become increasingly difficult for any participant because it’s getting so hard, and them primarily because we have a product that requires a story to tell. And whenever you have a story that is required to sell a product, that becomes a product that is well situated for a direct campaign and less well situated for retail. So while we will continue to expand through our programs the retail sales, I fully anticipate that the biggest gains will be had in the direct market place. Jim Galloway – Galloway Enterprises: My last question regards Japan and Asia. I was on the NutraNomics website this morning and I had spoken to them back in June, just doing a little due diligence. And I’m wondering, are they still talking about a capsule reformulation? Because when I talked to them once, they thought that was best-suited for the Japanese market and I’m wondering if it’s still Tracy Gibbs and NutraNomics that you’re working through or are you working through other people? A little more enlightenment, please.

David Brown

President

If you spoke to NutraNomics, they are, and Tracy Gibbs, we are still working with them. And they have great experience and I and Ben Sieman have used them with other companies, as many other companies have, particularly in the Utah area where I mentioned the multi-level companies and networking companies, many of which are based in Utah and many of which have 90% of their sales. For example, Nuwaves, which is approximately a $500.0 million company, has about 95% of their sales in Japan and so that market has been very amenable to products like ours and Tracy has been very instrumental with almost all those companies in helping them obtain registration in Japan. The Japanese consumer has different tastes than the American consumer does. Actually, that’s not, I was going to say they like capsules and powders better than tablets. Increasingly, American consumers are kind of the same. I wouldn’t say the capsules will be the only delivery mechanism that will be utilized in Japan. Powders, in terms of individuals sachets and other things could potentially be used as well for certain customers that have expressed that interests. But tablets will probably not be the delivery system, again, because it’s not one that particularly meets the palate of the Japanese consumer, who doesn’t like to swallow those things, as well as some of the excipients, which are the binding agents necessary to keep the ingredients together in a tablet, it’s not easy to obtain registration for products that contain those in certain of the Asian countries, including Japan. So it probably will be a powder and encapsulated form. Jim Galloway – Galloway Enterprises: And have you already developed that?

David Brown

President

Yes. That’s what’s been submitted to the Japanese government. And let me add just one note. The only thing that really changes there, the formulation of the product doesn’t change in terms of the five ingredients and the ratio that those ingredients exist in the capsule, it’s just the additional fillers that are used as both binding agents and flow agents to help the ingredients flow on a tableting machine are taken out.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Jim Sanran.

Jim Sanran

Analyst

You made mention of the fact that various magazine are asking for updates on our product. I forget the name of the news magazine that covered us and drummed us into big fame years ago. Was it 20/20? But have we done anything to solicit their interest back in us? Or have they approached us yet?

David Brown

President

Yes. ABC Prime Time, which is what the original piece that shot the company into the product of fame was, that producer, Carol [Forchuck], I think her name, actually has been contacted. Their main interest in the product, in fact, anecdotally, I haven’t been able to confirm this myself, but anecdotally I have heard that John Quinones, who was the ABC correspondent featured on that piece, continues to take the product to this day. He remains a real convert, an adherent of the product. The basic response of ABC Prime Time, as well as some of the other ones, has been let’s not talk about the same study that we based our earlier piece on but we would like to be able to talk about new science and new studies that have come out. And so that’s why I am very excited about these new studies that I mentioned a little while ago, and in terms of being able to circle back around with those media outlets, including ABC, that have maintained a high level of interest.

Jim Sanran

Analyst

I’m excited about the fact that we’re getting new products out there. One thing that wasn’t mentioned, I received an e-mail about us putting out a fish oil product, besides the hand creams. What’s going on with that fish oil?

David Brown

President

Yes, the company actually, prior to my arrival, I think it was in late 2007 or early 2008. Actually it was right about the time I was getting there but they had a product in development, an Omega 3 fish oil product. A very good product, as a companion product. You know the interesting thing about Protandim is that in and of itself it doesn’t provide nutritional support, while it does increase anti-oxidant enzyme production. And so there are other things we should consume in our diet to maintain proper health and nutrition. And Omega 3 fish oil is one of those things that has been proven to help in a variety of ways, in terms of nuero transmitters, joint health, heart health. A whole number of things. And so the company formulated that product in connection with Kemmons, our current manufacturer, and it’s a very good product. And it’s priced very competively to other fish oils out there in the market place. And it’s an example, I don’t anticipate following what I think is a mistake by other companies, which is throwing a bunch of products against the wall and see what sticks, but to come up with real positive products that have a cutting edge differentiation to them and that will be our hallmark and goal as we go forward.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Alan [Evright] - MCS Corporation. Alan [Evright] - MCS Corporation: Did you disclose the amount of unit volumes you sold in the quarter and give any guidance for the out quota on what you expect to ship?

David Brown

President

No and no. We did not discuss unit sales directly or give any guidance in that regard. And frankly, I don’t have those numbers. Typically it’s been our fashion not to provide guidance. I will say, for the benefit of everyone, is that we have been having internal discussions about whether or not we would like to do that because I can say that we have been able to, our own internal budget projections, that we have not made public, have been something that we have been very pleased with our performance against. And so that is something that we will take into account as we consider what to disclose going forward. But we have not done that to date. Alan [Evright] - MCS Corporation: Well, okay, forget the guidance. Give us some metrics to monitor on a go-forward basis, how you’re progressing, other than just looking at the revenue line.

David Brown

President

Actually I think that’s a great question because some of the efforts that we undertake to do are what I would call in some respects a priming the pump type of effort. An example of that is when we do such things as have campaigns where we will give a particular promotion to a 6-pack of product at a very good rate in order to provide an incentive for people to really jump on board and pass it out to other people and do those types of things. And so we believe that our greatest opportunities for unit sales going forward, as well as revenue overall, remains the direct-to-consumer category and so I think, I will talk about that with Brad after our call, but I think it’s something that, frankly, I don’t really have an aversion to talking about unit sales going forward and I think it is something that is a reasonable metric to be measured by, with sales overall as well as in specific channels, and I’ll take that into consideration because I think it is a decent metric to show growth because sometimes those unit sales are expanding even though the margin at each of those sales might not always be the same because of promotions that are going on. So we certainly measure those things. And we will provide some additional information about going forward.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Lynn Goldberg - Goldberg Capital Management.

Lynn Goldberg - Goldberg Capital Management

Analyst

If you were to crank up sales would there be any problem on the manufacturing side?

David Brown

President

No. In fact, Cornerstone, and this is true of NextGen as well. And I would like to say something about NextGen, formerly known as Kemmons, the manufacturer in the past for the company, they are a good manufacturer and they supported the company very well. And I’ve used them in the past myself, with other companies that I’ve been associated with. But the fact of the matter is that we were able to obtain a drastically lower cost of manufacturing with Cornerstone. And frankly, Cornerstone’s capabilities are even greater than the expertise that NextGen brings, even though that’s very good, also. Cornerstone is a very large company owned by the Mitsui Corporation out of Japan. They are very much involved in manufacturing for other companies in this space, much larger than us. But they have tremendous capacity. And we have talked about that very issue. So there’s really two questions, whether from a manufacturing standpoint and a fulfillment standpoint, because we fulfill orders out of a separate facility, again using another third party so that we don’t have to bear the cost of building that infrastructure ourselves, and on both sides of that equation I am very confident that those companies will be able to fulfill and meet the requirements that we have, even with a tremendous uptick in sales.

Bradford K. Amman

Management

The contract manufacturing model really doesn’t allow for a quick ramp up. And that’s really why it was chosen in the first place, is to be able to ramp up quickly.

David Brown

President

One final note, is going back to NextGen, is that they will remain a secondary manufacturer. So in case there was ever, for some unforeseeable reason an issue with Cornerstone, either in terms of capacity or catastrophic breakdown or something like that, so that we actually have two manufacturers that we feel comfortable can meet the needs of the company.

Lynn Goldberg - Goldberg Capital Management

Analyst

Does GNC do anything to help you promote the product?

David Brown

President

Not without urging. But they are willing to engage in programs that we participate and the one thing they have been able to do with us, through the involvement of Ben and Scott Intel, our broker there, is to help put in place promotional programs that are not always well-known or available to smaller companies, and as importantly, not rely upon the company solely for the funding of those promotional efforts. As you probably know, many, many retailers use merchandising and promotional campaigns on an in-house basis as a real revenue source for themselves. And they can often charge exorbitant prices and fees for participation in those in-store promotional programs. And fortunately GNC is working well with us as we put those promotional programs in place that are already helping us to see an uptick there. So I would say they have been a good partner in the past but because of the relative inexperience of the company and the people associated with that particular account, we haven’t always taken as good of advantage of those promotional vehicles that were available to us as we are not beginning to.

Lynn Goldberg - Goldberg Capital Management

Analyst

If you were to take a wild guess at GNC, how many product would you say?

David Brown

President

Well, that’s an interesting question, because you know, everybody likes to say about their product, well, there’s really nothing like us, when in fact there usually is. But the fact of the matter is that given the unique mechanism that Protandim works by, in terms of increasing the cells production, turning on the switch in the very mitochondria of the cell to increase the production of SOD and catalase, there simply is no other product that does that. However, there are other products that try to attack the problem of oxidative stress in a different fashion, through consumable anti-oxidants, such as vitamin C, and vitamin E, or any of the plethora of berry products like bilberry, blueberry, you know, acai berry, all those types of things, which are exponentially less effective in reducing oxidative stress than Protandim. Nevertheless, one of the challenges we have at retail is there’s not a category, I mean every spot on the shelf within the stores is viewed as real estate, if you’re on a particular plan-o-gram, they have to plug you in somewhere. And so we generally find ourselves put into the anti-oxidant section and so for people who are the uninitiated or the uninformed, we might simply appear to be an expensive anti-oxidant product when in essence what we are talking about is anti-oxidant therapy, it does something that nobody else can do. And so that’s a challenge at retail, and particularly at GNC, as we find ourselves in that particular section. And our strategy to deal with that hurdle is the training of employees and particular promotions that allow us to put a placard right on the shelf, where the product is featured, what we call a shelf talker, which more succinctly and more accurately explains the benefits in terms of slowing down the cell aging process as well as promotions that involve the very clerks themselves in an effort to help push the product. And so that’s the strategy we’re utilizing at GNC.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is a follow-up question from Alan [Evright] - MCS Corporation. Alan [Evright] - MCS Corporation: You talked about some of those other things out there, berries, the Acai berry and all the stuff that’s gotten a lot of attention. I’m just throwing this out there because I see countless corners around town with the whole Mona Vie thing and it seems like that even though the MLM channel isn’t the greatest thing for a lot of products, that might be the right channel for a product like yours. As a compliment to your direct and retail business. Have you guys thought about pursuing this angle?

David Brown

President

The short answer is yes. And I know you said earlier in your first question that you were unable to hear all of the presentation but one of the things that I talked about was our intention, and our efforts right now, to put the product in multiple sales channels. And I spent a little bit of time talking about the networking marketing, or MLM, or direct-to-consumer through independent distributor channels, and specifically mentioned Mona Vie. And further, you’re right on target. When you have a product like, well a good example of that is when we were at this Edgewater conference and about 70 people in attendance when I was presenting and Dr. McCord was presenting, a couple of weeks ago in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, an audience with people primarily who, you know, were active in the micro cap space, investors, fund managers, individuals, most of whom didn’t have very much knowledge of the nutritional supplement space at all, let alone a product like Protandim. I think very few, if any, outside of David Levine and his family members who happened to be in attendance, had even heard of the product. And yet, in that setting, in a 20 to 30 minute format of presenting the science, presenting the promise and the benefits of Protandim, it really elicited a great excitement such that afterwards both Dr. McCord and I were beset by a number of people asking for further information. Not just about the company, but about the product. And another example of that is I had, on a table in the back of the room, had put out about 50 bottles of Protandim and then with another 50 or 60 in a box underneath the table. When I turned around at the end of the presentation, all 100+ bottles had been scammed by people, had been grabbed because they were so interested in the benefits. And that underscored exactly what you’re saying, that when you have an opportunity to tell people directly, fact-to-face, about the benefits of this product, they, like all of you who got interested in joining this company as investors because of what you heard and what you thought and the excitement that you thought about in terms of where this product could go, that lends itself very much to that channel. And that remains something that you will hear more about in the days, weeks, and months ahead. It’s something that’s very much on our radar screen.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions in the queue.

David Brown

President

Again, I appreciate your attendance and the attention that you paid today, taking time out of what is always a busy day, particularly at this time of a lot of turmoil in the markets. We remain very, very optimistic and excited. I hope you can tell that when you hear me talk about this product, about the company, that while the growth and things that we’ve been able to obtain from the revenue standpoint have been fairly modest, I think that we stand poised to really accomplish some great things. And finally how Protandim achieved the promise and the potential that everyone has known it has had since they have been first introduced. I appreciate the questions that were asked. I don’t shy away from those. We don’t claim to be perfect and don’t claim to always make the best and the brightest decisions, but what I do know is that my team and I have got a plan. We are sticking to that plan. It’s been a plan that’s been successful in the past with other companies we’ve been able to build and achieve significant sales and revenue growth and profitability growth. And I’m excited about the future and look forward to working more with you in the days and months ahead.