Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Bubs Australia Investor Briefing. If you wish to ask a question, please select the Raise Hand icon in the top right corner. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Reg Weine, Independent Non-Executive Director. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's webcast. My name is Reg Weine, and I am a non-executive director of Bubs. Over the past two months, I have been leading the Bubs strategic review on behalf of the board, working closely with the Bubs executive team, as well as our external advisors. Today, I will be taking you through the update on the strategic review that we have announced on the ASX this morning. Today's presentation will cover the Bubs board and management, the current state and how we ended up here, a bit about the strategic review and what it involved, and I will also highlight the strategic imperatives as the current board and management see them.
I will then bring it all together with an update on the outlook for FY24, as well as a reminder on how to vote at the upcoming AGM if you haven't already done so. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge our chair, Katrina Rathie, and my fellow non-executive directors, Paul Jensen and Steve Lin, who have all contributed to our strategic review that we are outlining to shareholders today. For more information on our highly experienced and capable board, please visit our investor website, where you can learn more about them and where you can find their details and bios. Also joining me on the call today is our very engaged and talented executive leadership team. A question and answer session will follow at the end of today's presentation, and the executive team will stay on to participate in the Q&A.
Given the number of people on the call, if you would like to ask a question, please submit your question via the Q&A box at the bottom right of your screen. I would like to encourage shareholders to ask questions that relate to the strategic review update. If for some reason we don't get to everyone's questions today, we will make sure we send an email response to those questions. You're welcome to submit your questions at any time. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. This graph and the bullet points above says it all, really. Seven capital raises since the IPO in 2017, AUD 240 million in accumulated losses. Our long-suffering shareholders are all underwater on their investment.
This significant destruction in shareholder value is ultimately why we are here, why an intervention was necessary, and why the strategy, execution, and governance of Bubs had to change. Over the past eight weeks, the strategic review has both been critical and far-reaching, and it commenced with an organizational design review, looking at our org chart and our capability to execute the strategy. On the positive side, I'm really pleased to say we have a very engaged and highly capable team who are all passionate about Bubs and who care deeply about Bubs' performance. On the negative side, I think it's fair to say there was a complete lack of accountability and focus, with no clear leadership in our key markets of the USA, China, or Australia. No one person in any of these markets was responsible for the P&L or profit and loss.
Senior leaders across the business were not consulted on many key decisions, nor were they empowered to make important decisions. Our new General Managers, Chris Lotsaris, USA, and Jackie Lin, China, both now have full P&L responsibility. An operational expenditure review was completed, and we have scrubbed every line in the P&L. Our observations are that there was widespread indiscriminate spending, and we were living well beyond our means. I'm pleased to say we have now reduced annual operating expenses by circa AUD 10 million, and we have reallocated above the line and below the line expenditure to better match our strategic priorities.
In early June, I had the pleasure of spending a week in the U.S., visiting stores, meeting with our employees and our key advisors, and reviewing our FDA pathway for permanent market access. Pleasingly, the company has retained very accomplished and well-credentialed advisors in the U.S. who are really an extension of the Bubs team and who all have a vested interest in our success. The existing sales and marketing plan, however, was not delivering to the company's expectation, which necessitated some changes to employees in the USA. As a consequence, Chris Lotsaris has now moved to the USA and will be residing in Santa Monica, the location of Bubs' U.S. headquarters, and he is already providing strong leadership to our U.S. team. There has been a lot of speculation on our China operations, as well as a lot of media coverage of late.
I think the China results and inventory impairment speak for themselves. Clearly, our China strategy has failed, and we have not had the right go-to-market strategy, the right partners, or the right focus, and we need to reset the China strategy urgently. We are very fortunate that at very short notice, we could second Jackie Lin, a highly respected Australian-educated Chinese national, who was working with C2 Capital to lead our China business. Jackie's initial observations on our Chinese business were stark. Sell-through was weak. Only 10% of the distribution points promised by our exclusive reseller have been activated. Pricing architecture is wrong, and our Daigou business was overly reliant on rebates and discounts. I think the biggest re- revelation was that very little of the stock sold into China at the end of FY22, and during the early part of FY23, has sold.
As it relates to Bubs A2 Supreme, we estimate there is 5 years' worth of inventory at the current rate of sale. Finally, on this slide, and to give some reassurance that we won't get burnt with obsolete stock and major inventory impairments moving forward, I can report that Bubs actually has a robust integrated business planning and sales and operations planning process, but unfortunately, it was often ignored or overridden. What are Bubs' strategic imperatives? Well, we have developed a simple but achievable 5-point plan to responsibly manage capital and maximize shareholder value. The USA is going incredibly well. It is our growth engine, and we expect to see sales more than double in FY24. The China reset has commenced, but it will take time as we change partners, reposition the portfolio, and clear the excess inventory in channel.
Despite these challenges, you can expect growth in net sales in FY24 over FY23 in China. Our portfolio has become a little cluttered as we have tried to be all things to all people. You can expect us to now focus on our competitive advantage and double down on all things goat. Bubs paid good money for what is a world-class, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, Deloraine, here in Victoria. We intend to increase the volume through this facility and sweat this asset. Improvements in working capital are one of the quickest ways we can restore value and improve the returns for Bubs shareholders. You should expect us to be more disciplined, have a tighter focus on costs, carry less inventory relative to our sales volume, and deliver improved stock turns from here on in. Moving to slide 8.
The best news I can share today is that the USA is going better than expected. As you know, Bubs were granted a unique opportunity under the U.S. Enforcement Discretion and Operation Fly Formula, the company has made the most of this opportunity with broad distribution across the U.S. What's really critical now is that we deliver for our retail partners across the U.S. and achieve a rate of sale that will ensure our ongoing ranging in these major retailers. We have increased our trade spend to support our U.S. customers and to drive velocity or sell through. As previously announced, Bubs achieved its first $1 million sales month in Amazon in May, I'm thrilled to report that our sales in Amazon in June have accelerated further. Our Bubs direct-to-consumer business is growing nicely, albeit off a low base.
We do need to review our cost-to-serve model and the role of D2C in our U.S. business, as the customer acquisition cost and the last-mile delivery cost is hurting us. While we will never achieve the scale of Amazon or achieve anything close to their freight cost, D2C plays an important role in our marketing mix, and we have the opportunity to have a direct relationship with consumers and to become a trusted source of information for bottle-feeding parents. We are currently getting in excess of 100,000 visitors to our website a month, and we already have 15% of our D2C sales on a subscription model, so there's real potential. As I said, we expect our FY24 net sales in the U.S. to be at least double last year, FY23.
Moving to the bottom of this slide, the single biggest initiative that will create sustainable shareholder value for Bubs is the FDA granting us permanent access in the US. As you can see, we are making really good progress on all key milestones and remain very much on track. We recently had our Deloraine facility audited, which went better than we could have ever expected, and we have just received notification from the FDA that our Protein Efficiency Ratio has been approved. We are about to enter the clinical trial phase and Growth Monitoring Study, and we remain very confident that we will achieve permanent access by the end of 2025.
To illustrate just how big an opportunity the FDA approval and permanent access in the USA is, we have been inundated with inquiries from global brand owners and US retailers wanting to co-pack or partner with them on private label as we move along the FDA pathway. We have a new capable leader on the ground in China, in Jackie Lin, who has deep knowledge of the China market and also the CBEC ecosystem, online to offline, and Daigou channels in China. We have already commenced the China reset. It is going to take some time. We have some commercial arrangements that have recently come to an end, like Willis Trading . We have others that will take a little bit more time to resolve.
As you can see from the graph on the right, our sales into China in the past few years have been quite patchy. FY22 looks like an obvious outlier. The good news, however, is that we are forecasting growth in China net sales this year. We are confident there is a market opportunity that we can grow into in the coming years. To do that successfully, we need to focus on premiumization, focus on our goat portfolio, we need to maintain disciplined trade spend, maintain our pricing architecture, and have a much tighter focus on inventory. I've spent a fair bit of time talking about China and the US markets this morning, and I haven't mentioned Australia or the rest of the world. The reason for this is if we get the FDA approval and execute well in that market, Bubs is probably worth 7x.
If we reset China and build it out consistently over the next few years, and can therefore demonstrate growth in the two biggest infant formula markets in the world, we will be worth 10x. Having said that, Australia is important and we are growing our sales and share, and we do expect double-digit growth next year, but it won't move the dial in terms of shareholder returns. The rest of the world is also growing very strongly, albeit off a low base. It is already profitable and we will plant a few seeds into emerging markets. Again, it's not going to dramatically change our valuation in the medium term, unlike the U.S. and China. The key takeout from this slide is that we have a huge global opportunity in front of us in all things goat.
The total addressable market is estimated to be $4.5 billion. We can win in this space. Bubs' DNA is in goat and not cow. The bovine market has much greater competitor intensity and is far more commoditized. We need to focus in on our hero goat brands, Bubs and CapriLac, and maintain our premium positioning and continue to innovate and ensure our brand positioning and formulations remain relevant. A2 Supreme hasn't worked in China. It's not performing domestically. The US consumer doesn't understand A2 protein and why it's different or important. We need to be very clear on what role each brand plays in our portfolio, the category, and in the eyes of consumers. Not try and be all things to all people. Our food range is too broad. We have far too many SKUs. It's not contributing to the bottom line.
It does play an important role in deepening and extending consumers' engagement in the brand, but we need to trim the tail and we need to improve our margins in food. With a much clearer portfolio and brand focus, we will increase our advertising and marketing investment behind our core brands. Today, I'm sitting at Deloraine here in Melbourne, in our state-of-the-art and world-class manufacturing facility. I would love to see this plant running at its optimal level and pumping out many more tins of our high-quality, clean label, infant formula, and exporting it to the world. We are currently running at just 31% capacity or utilization, which is terribly inefficient from a cost and overhead perspective. We will revisit the SAMR registration for Deloraine, which we know will not be easy or certain.
With geopolitical tensions subsiding and the considerable investment we have already made in our manufacturing site, we owe it to our shareholders to explore the registration so we can tap into the 80% of the China market that we are not currently in. As I mentioned earlier, on the back of our success in the U.S. and our progress with the FDA, we have been inundated with opportunities to co-manufacture or toll process for others. We will consider this if it makes good commercial sense and if it doesn't take up capacity needed for our own branded products. You can expect the current board and management team to be far more prudent with shareholder funds. The good news is that our current plans are fully funded, and we have already reduced our annual operating expense run rate by circa AUD 10 million.
We know many of our shareholders are concerned about how much cash we burn each month, and so are your board of directors. We are confident we can more than halve our monthly cash burn rate from AUD 5 million to approximately AUD 2 million, but please don't expect to see that until Q2 of FY24, as we will have significant legal bills and costs associated with the EGM, which is very disappointing. Based on the reduced OpEx, the current forecast, and plans to liquidate excess inventory, we should have at least 12 months of cash flow funding. I've included a bullet point at the bottom of this slide just to highlight that it's not all about cost out.
We are going to continue to invest in our core brands and our core growth markets, in fact, we'll invest 15% of net sales in FY24, which is more than the leading global FMCG brands would typically spend. In the U.S., it's more likely to be 18%. Bringing it all together, we have a clear five-point plan that we are very confident we can execute, that will set us on the path to profitability and will deliver shareholder value. We are forecasting AUD 80 million in net sales, or roughly AUD 100 million in gross sales. While our net sales will still reflect sales into country and export markets, our forecasts are more closely aligned to the true demand in each market. Gross margins should come in at around 40%, and we will remain focused on improving our gross margins steadily over time.
FDA progress is critical to our long-term success, and we will remain focused on delivering this outcome. As I have said a number of times already, it's all about goat and just not IMF. Adult goat nutrition also offers good upside for the Bubs business. Working capital is critical to Bubs, and to fund our growth and extend the runway, and we are very focused on liquidating the excess inventory and converting it to cash. Your board is committed to greater transparency, appropriate governance standards, and restoring shareholder value, and we are very confident that Bubs business will be cash flow positive in FY25. I would now like to take this opportunity to remind shareholders to vote at the upcoming EGM. Bubs is a company owned by shareholders, and I want you to have your say.
The voting process is very straightforward, and you can vote in three ways listed on the slide: by way of proxy, online, or in person. If you have any difficulty voting, please call the 1300 line or visit our investor website, and please remember that your board recommends you vote against each resolution. That completes the strategic review update, and we will now open it up to Q&A.
Thanks, Reg. As a reminder for all participants, if you'd like to ask a question, please raise the hand icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen. We've got a lot of questions which are coming through from shareholders, which is obviously terrific. In the interest of time, what we'll do is we'll consolidate as many questions where there is repetition, to try to answer as many as possible. As Reg said at the beginning of the call, if we run out of time, we've got about half an hour, we will get back to all shareholders on email in regards to any questions that we can't specifically get to. There's obviously a lot of interest in what's happening offshore with the company, particularly in regards to China and the USA.
We might start with some of the questions coming in from investors regarding China. Reg, the first question is, it's coming from a retail shareholder, "Can you outline in some further detail what a multi-channel distribution strategy looks like in China?
Yeah, great question. Thank you, Peter. Multi-channel is exactly what it says. We want to have multiple routes to market, so that could be feedback, e-commerce, and the ecosystem. It's online to offline mother and baby stores. You know, I think where we've come unstuck is relying on one reseller exclusively into the China market. We wanna be on all of the major platforms, we wanna have multiple trade partners, and we wanna have multiple distributors who can give us access to those key channels. I might actually ask Jackie, who's our GM, China, just to add some comments to that question, if I could?
Hi, everyone. Thanks, Reg. As Reg says, you know, our multi-channel strategy covers from online and offline, and most importantly, with the multiple experienced partners in each channels. With the research of the feedback development and also explore more offline opportunities through different product range. I think most importantly, with that, I know underlying strategy, the channel team is on the ground. We are in a better position to support and in direct contact with the key channels, and help the management with the channels and help with the potentials that we can have incremental development in those channels and provide transparency of the continuous business development.
Thanks, Jackie.
Thank you, Jackie. Reg, there's also some questions coming in regarding Alibaba. One of the, our retail investors has asked a question: What role will Alibaba play in the Chinese distribution strategy for Bubs going forward?
Yeah, another great question. You know, Alibaba is one of the biggest, most sophisticated e-commerce retailers in the world, and we're very fortunate to have their support. We need, I think, as a business, to leverage that relationship much harder and to our advantage, but they are just one of our customers and one of the go-to-market channels in China that's open to us. Again, I'll throw to Jackie to add some more color to that comment, if I could.
Thanks, Reg. Like Reg said, Alibaba is one of the channels in our feedback development. Also, being a key one, for brand exposures and awareness, which, you know, it always been. With a strong relationship with Alibaba, we build through the years. Bubs position itself strongly in the relationship. Alibaba provide in-depth consumer insight and strong corporations within its ecosystem with Bubs. Which will continues to strengthen Bubs team, online operation expertise, and that provide, you know, Bubs the advantage to leverage and build awareness and continue to expand and grow in those other channels. Having said it, we're still seeing new products, and new development for Bubs. We've seen that ecosystem. We try to cover more channels and increase the profitability and efficiency in those channels in the coming FY24 and 25.
Back to you, Reg.
Thanks, Jackie.
Another question from a retail shareholder regarding China is: How complex is the registration process in the Chinese market?
I think that's a question that I might throw to Richard Paine, our Chief Operating Officer. Richard?
Sure. Thanks, Reg. Thank you for the question. In terms of, I take it that the question relates to the SAMR process more specifically. The process for that is somewhat complex and time-consuming. It's also quite expensive. Without going into the costs, it's certainly in the order of probably AUD 1 million or more in order to undertake a registration process for each individual slot. Three slots are available for each manufacturing site. That would be something that the board will need to consider very carefully because that obviously involves a considerable outlay of investor funds, the timeline also is quite significant.
Needless to say, that there have been very few cases in recent time, where approvals have been granted outside of China or direct Chinese ownership. All of these aspects are something that management will look to put together and work with the board to work through over the coming months. Thanks, Reg.
Thanks, Richard. Reg, some questions come in regarding the Australia-China trade relationship. One shareholder is asking, the question reads: Given the issues around Australia's trade relationship with China, how confident are you that Bubs won't be blocked from the market?
I think that's a reasonable question. You know, clearly, we're not currently blocked through our cross-border e-commerce channels. They'll remain open, that is certain. As it relates to the SAMR registration and some of those sort of relationships and bilateral trade issues, you know, I think there's always a risk that, you know, that context could delay or prevent registration. Look, I'm confident that those relationships with China are starting to thaw. I think we've seen with the FDA process around our site, there's absolutely no reason why this site shouldn't be approved and achieve registration. As Richard said, the process takes some time.
It's costly, but I think it's an investment worth making, and it's certainly something that we owe to our shareholders to investigate fully.
Thanks, Reg. A follow-on question is, what are the updates on the Willis legal issue, and how confident is Bubs that they can win the case? What are the financial impacts should Bubs win or lose?
Well, there's a great question. I think just to remind our shareholders that there are two entities, Willis and Alice, loosely related to AZG, our reseller into China. The Willis agreement has actually come to a natural end at the end of June 30 last year, so that's no longer on foot. The Alice agreement, which really relates to A2 Supreme, remains on foot. Then, of course, we've got this letter that arrived somewhat surprisingly a week or so ago, where there are a number of claims made by those parties, which we would say, prima facie, are baseless. We have good legal contracts in place. The board of management are very confident of our position.
Therefore, I think to contextualize it, I think the risk to Bubs is that we don't get paid. Yeah. We're owed AUD 5.7 million by these entities. Let remind the audience that these entities are part of the requisitioner group, trying to spill the board. I think the risk is we don't get paid.
Reg, there's also several questions coming in regarding the U.S. market. One of the investors has asked a question: What is the pathway to FDA in the U.S., and how long should we expect that to take?
Yeah. Okay. I did talk a little bit about the pathway in the U.S., which I think was on slide 8. What I did highlight is that we've known what the key milestones were, and are from the outset of this journey. The really good news and exciting news is we're ahead of schedule. We haven't skipped a beat. We're very much on track. There's a couple of key milestones ahead, being the clinical growth study, but we do expect to get to a registration outcome by the end of 2025.
Another question regarding the U.S. is: How big is the opportunity in the U.S. market for Bubs?
Sorry, I missed that question. Peter, could you repeat it, please?
How big is the opportunity in the US market for Bubs?
The opportunity is massive, but it's probably a good opportunity to throw to Chris Lotsaris, who's in the U.S. Maybe he can offer his insights around the opportunity and the size of the prize in the U.S. market. Chris, are you on the call?
I am. Good morning, everyone, from the USA. Great question. Look, the US has a huge total market, worth about $3.9 billion. If you break it down to the premium sector, we're looking at about $600 million opportunity that we're specifically claiming at the moment. As Reg said, there's great opportunity as we grow the brand, and grow our retail presence in the USA.
Terrific. Thank you. There's also some more financial-related questions coming in. One of the shareholders asked the question: When will Bubs be cash flow positive? Is the team able to give further detail, which quarter of FY25 will the company be cash flow positive?
Great question. As I said in the presentation, FY25 is when we'll be cash flow positive. We haven't broken it down in a sort of quarter-by-quarter sense, but I would imagine, right from the start, Q1 of FY25 will be cash flow positive.
Another shareholder asked a question, Reg Weine: When do you expect to record the first full year net profit? Do you expect to raise any further capital before becoming profitable?
Okay, a double-barreled question. Again, you know, we'd expect to return to profitability in FY25. In terms of capital raise, no immediate plans to raise capital. As I said, our growth plans are well-funded. We've got 12 months of cash flow based on the current forecast. No immediate plans to raise capital.
Another question comes in: How are you halving the monthly cash burn?
Yeah, well, that's a good question. As I said, we've already taken about AUD 10 million out of our annual operating expense run rate, so that's obviously a strong contributor to the cash burn. This is an opportunity for me to introduce Robin Johnston, our interim CFO, and I'll get Robin to provide a bit more color to that.
Thanks, Reg.
Thanks for the question. As I think Reg touched on, the main focus for returning to cash positive situation for FY25 is we get a strong runway heading through FY24 into that. Key aspects of that are the AUD 10 million in OpEx that was mentioned during the presentation. The second piece is, as been mentioned a number of times, we have significant inventory reserves. As we start to realize the release of that inventory, that will introduce cash and build those cash reserves. Along with the operational and profitability improvements we see in the markets that we've mentioned, we expect to deliver that result throughout the year. Thank you.
Thank you. The question's come in regarding, sort of more of, a sort of global operations for the company. Has the board looked at opportunities in Africa? Another shareholder has also asked about other Asian countries apart from China, in terms of possible growth avenues for the company.
Okay, thanks, Peter. I'll throw to Richard, our COO, in just a moment, but as I said in the presentation, we are planting a few seeds. We will be able to announce some opportunities in the medium term around some new markets. But I might just hand over to Richard. Richard, you might wanna just sort of, make mention of North America and an opportunity in Canada, perhaps.
Yeah, sure. Thanks for the question, thanks, Reg. We do get inquiries periodically, and I guess I would say that it's really management's focus to deliver on the current strategies and the main markets in play that are going to drive the value for the company in the future. We talked about really the US as the first pillar for the company's growth moving forward, and that's very much been the focus of management since the Fly formula piece. I think today's presentation is really showing how we really see that growing out and becoming a real key growth pillar for the company.
Tied up with that is, of course, the U.S. FDA registration process that the company's deeply committed to. I think in Reg's presentation, he did touch on some of those white label inquiries for contract manufacture that the company's been received and is working through. I would point out that they're coming from not only continental USA, but also Canada as well. I think that's all really as a direct result of the company being able to have the Enforcement Discretion in place. That just highlights the very unique opportunity and the size of that North American market in totality.
I guess, yeah, we're aware of other markets and other regions of the world where, you know, there might be high population bases, but, you know, I think our eye is very much on the task at hand and making sure that we succeed in the markets in which we need to. Thank you.
Just to build on Richard's comment, we are well advanced in our rest of the world team, exploring opportunities into the Middle East, into some other, smaller Southeast Asian markets, and we'll be able to provide an update to the market when those opportunities become a little bit more firm.
Thank you. There's some concern being expressed from shareholders, given the inflationary environment that we're experiencing at the moment. One of the shareholders says: In your forward forecasts, what, if any, considerations have you given to inflationary costs on raw materials? Secondly, what do you see happening with demand based on consumer reaction to the cost of living increases?
Sorry, Peter, for the short pause there. We've had a fire alarm go off in the background. Nothing to worry about.
You want me to repeat the question, Reg?
Yes, yes, please. That'd be great.
The question is, in your forward forecast, have you given any consideration to inflationary costs on raw materials? Secondly, what do you see happening with demand based on consumer reaction to the cost of living increases?
Yeah, okay. Great questions. The first one in regard to inflationary cost pressure, look, we've seen a fair bit of that sort of come down through the value chain, you know, be that packaging, freight, labor costs. In regards to dairy raw material, we're coming into that sort of annual contract negotiation period of time. The most important thing to communicate is that our brand has pricing power. You can be confident that any inflationary cost pressure that flows through to our COGS, we'll be able to capture that through price rises with our major customers. Can you remind me the second part of the question?
Sorry, just pulling the question back up. Well, just regarding the impact of the cost of living that you're seeing, coming through in regards to-
That's right. Thank you. Thank you, Peter, and apologies. I think what's more pertinent is actually birth rates, and we're seeing some declining birth rates in some of our major markets. The markets are so immense and so big that we see a long-term runway for growth to this business and our brands. You know, cost of living pressures probably don't impact dramatically on our portfolio and the categories in which we play.
Thanks, Reg. There's a question coming in regarding the refund of unsold goods that have been reflected. What is the company's view regarding these refunds?
Peter, it's Reg. I'm not sure I understand that question. Do you know whether it relates to a specific market?
I think it's specifically relating to AZ Global.
Well, look, our contracts don't allow for the return of goods. The contracts aren't on a consignment basis. We've sold that product to our reseller in good faith, we will collect on the debt.
Thanks, Reg. Some questions coming in regarding management. What is happening regarding a search for the new CEO?
Well, that's a very good question. The first thing I wanna say is that we have a very capable and engaged interim CEO in Richard Paine, who is our Chief Operating Officer, highly experienced, highly credentialed, and has been in the business for almost five years. We've got a very safe pair of hands in Richard, and we're very fortunate that Richard has been able and willing to step up after Kristy departed the business. The board had commenced a process, a very rigorous and robust process, to find a long-term CEO for this business. Of course, with the EGM now called, that process is on pause.
As soon as we get through the EGM, and on the basis that the current board remains the current board, obviously we will reengage in that process, and announce our new CEO shortly after the EGM, I would think.
Very good. Thanks, Reg. We've just got time for a couple more questions.
Sure.
There's interest in SAMR access. One shareholder has asked: Will Bubs be attempting to get full SAMR access to their Deloraine facility? If so, how long will that take to come through?
Sure, perhaps I can take that question. Thank you, Peter. Richard here. I think I probably spoke to this earlier, with a change in Chinese standard requirement for the submission of SAMR applications, that's a matter that the board will need to consider. As I mentioned before, that's costly. It's uncertain in terms of outcome, although there is a noted thawing of geopolitical tensions. That is a process that will require expenditure and time to implement, with a not certain outcome at this point. Probably not too much more to add than that. Thank you.
Very good. Reg, perhaps there's one here for Jackie to answer.
Sure.
There's a shareholder asking: Can you tell us what's unique about Bubs in China? What's happening on the ground? We would like to know.
I'll take that question. I think, you know, I've been spending some time in China recently, I believe the Bubs brand's awareness is very strong in the goat IMF category in the country. We want to continue the strength of that position for sure. With the stronger tailwind of the goat IMF market in China recently, I think both domestic, China domestic and imported brands will see more potential of growth in coming years. Compared to, you know, the traditional bovine IMF market, you know, that's an advantage that we can take. Obviously, Bubs is strong import players in the goat IMF market, so we will need to strategically invest in this and continue to strengthen the position.
I also hear a lot of, you know, good stories about Bubs on the ground, with the consumers and with the distributors. The quality and, you know, how helpful, with their babies' digestions and growth. With the brand, you know, has been through a tough period, in the last, you know, past 12 months or so. Chinese consumers still think Bubs is a very strong and good brand. It means the brand awareness is there, opportunity is there, and opportunity in developing in goat IMF, ahead is ahead for Bubs. Now also on the ground, you know, not surprisingly, we see Bubs goat toddler milk powder, Kabrita, already a leader in the market. The tailwind of the dairy products, particularly, for functional dairy, is very strong in China.
After COVID, you know, the self-awareness of general well-being, health, and food supplements, are awake in China. I think on the ground, I will continue to see Kabrita as one of the popular products in the toddler milk powder or elder milk products category in China. Then we also, or by expanding our product portfolios and acquiring more consumers, we'll strengthen that position. I think that's a general observation for the past few months I've spent in China. I hope that's helpful.
Thank you, Jackie. Maybe a question for you, Reg. A shareholder again on China saying: I'm a new investor. How is this China strategy different to what the company had in place previously?
I think fundamentally what's different is we're not reliant and beholden on one reseller, into the China market. As I mentioned earlier on in the call, we're talking about a multiple go-to-market channel strategy with multiple trade partners, multiple distributors, servicing the part of the China market that we can access. Having all eggs in one basket was a failed strategy.
Thanks, Reg. Then the final question before we hand back to you to wrap up is, one of the shareholders has asked: Are there any M&A activities being considered for scale and strategic reasons?
No M&A activity currently contemplated, that's because we've got to get back to basics. We've got to restore shareholder value, we've got to rebuild confidence and credibility in the markets. Once we do that, I think there'll be lots of opportunities for M&A. Having said that, the organic growth that this business is gonna generate in the next few years is immense. I think given our track record with the capital markets, we need to walk before we run.
Thanks, Reg. Then I might leave it with you to provide some closing remarks to shareholders.
Yeah. Thanks, Peter, and thank you to all of our shareholders who have joined the call today and listened in intently. We really appreciate it. I'd also like to thank our board, but also all of our dedicated staff around the world and our key stakeholders and advisors in the Bubs family for your continued support. To shareholders, your current board has the experience, we have the capability, and we have a clear plan. Bubs is a great brand, and the company has a really bright future. Thank you, everyone.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank You for participating. You may now disconnect.