Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The 2025 annual general meeting of Vita Life Sciences is its 39th annual general meeting, and it's 27 years since Vita Life Sciences acquired the business that it is in today. Welcome this morning, and welcome to shareholders who are online. I'm Henry Townsing. I'm the Chairman of the company. I declare that there's a quorum present, and I'd like to introduce, most of you know, Andrew. Andrew, okay? Do we got a problem, Andrew?
Yeah, let's go. Let's go and check the slides a little bit earlier. They're not moving.
Sorry, Henry. Introducing everyone here. I'm not sure online, but everybody, or anybody who doesn't know, it's Andrew O'Keefe, our Managing Director. Non-Executive Directors, Jack Teoh on the left, and Peter Osborne. Online also is our auditor, Stephen Fisher, who will be available to answer any queries or questions that shareholders may have. Shortly, we'll move to Andrew's presentation before the formal business of today. One little bit of business, because we have a number of shareholders online, is should you have any questions, this is addressed to those shareholders. Should you have any questions you ask, may wish to ask, please note resolution number that your question relates to before filling out your question online, and it will be then addressed at the appropriate time. Andrew, it's over to you.
Thank you, Henry, and a nice warm welcome to all of the shareholders that are joining us both in person and online. It is really pleasing to have all of you here in our new facility at Mascot. We have been here now for, I think, four or five weeks, and it is thrilled to be here. I think what this facility provides is obviously the infrastructure to meet our future growth aspirations. We are really excited by it. The feedback from our staff is exceptional, and hopefully you get an opportunity for those that are here in person to have a walk around and even engage with some of the staff if you get an opportunity to do so. It is my pleasure to provide you with an update on the company's performance and insights into the future direction of the company.
I must say from the outset that it's really pleasing to report that even despite challenging global economic conditions, the company has delivered once again a pretty consistent performance. Whilst we've done that, we've deployed a number of new initiatives across key segments and strategic partners across the total organisation. I think most of you by now are probably familiar with who we are and what we do, but just for those that are not so familiar with the business, I think it's important to just recap, just, I guess, the size and reach that we have across our respective markets. I think it's fair to say that the group now, with our brands, both Vita Health and Herbs of Gold, I think we're one of the leading healthcare organisations that have a proposition in the complementary medicine space.
The group enjoys distribution across six respective markets: Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and China. We're probably one of the, I guess, only companies now, or smaller companies that are still represented on the Australian stock exchange. All products within our portfolio are produced with the highest quality standards, both in terms of sourcing and manufacturing, supported by both scientific and traditional evidence. I think it's important to note just in terms of how some of our products do come to market, it's not as if we take existing products and just plonk them in each of those respective markets. There are regulatory requirements that are required, and it's easy to bring some products to market in some of those respective markets and harder in others.
What we have to ensure is that we do comply with the regulatory frameworks in each of the markets in which we operate. The one thing that is constant is the group purpose has never wavered, which is to provide consumers with trusted products and the opportunity to provide an improvement to their overall health and well-being. It is something that really drives our purpose and the values that we have as an organization. Just turning to the operational insights, we are pleased to report that the group has achieved another record revenue performance, underpinned by strong results in our key markets of Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Our strategic focus on expanding distribution channels alongside investment in brand and retail support has successfully stimulated consumer offtake.
I guess when you think about what's important to us, it's not necessarily what stock we're pushing into the market, it's how successful we are in pushing product, pulling product through. Some of the data is indicating and supporting the evidence that we're outperforming and outperforming our competitors, and that's the real measurement of success for us. What's coming out, not necessarily what's going in. In conjunction with the group's aspirations to expand its market presence, this year we had the, sorry, last year we had the opportunity to launch Herbs of Gold into Vietnam, and we signed a key strategic new partnership in China. I think it's important just to put some context around that.
In terms of the registered products that we now have in Vietnam, we have nine registered products, and we've done an exclusive relationship agreement through the mum- and- baby channel through Con Cưng. They have an extensive network of stores, around 600 stores, but it's still quite niche. Our aspiration for Vietnam is to take the brand more broadly and take it out to other channels such as mainstream pharmacy. We have quite an appetite to see that brand and portfolio expand outside of the general mum- and- baby channel. In terms of China, I guess I've always taken the view that we're not necessarily a China-centric business, but it does still play a role in terms of our future growth aspirations as an organization.
I've publicly talked about the fact that we completed a strategic review of our partnership in China, and at the back end of last year, we signed a new distribution agreement with RYC, who is a listed company on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, a reputable company that has a long history of experience within the e-commerce space. We're quite excited about the potential prospects that both of those respective markets bring, both in terms of future revenue and contribution to group overall performance. Just turning to the financial performance, the group delivered strong sales of AUD 79.5 million, up 8.3% from the prior corresponding period, and a pre-tax profit of AUD 12.6 million, up 1.5%. Our balance sheet remains strong with total equity of AUD 52.3 million, up from AUD 43.3 million, and a net cash position of AUD 28.6 million without any borrowings.
I think that's, as I said earlier, in a really competitive landscape in a marketplace globally that has some challenging economic parameters around it to produce that result, we think is a really strong indication of the stability of the organization. Based on those sustained margins and profit performance, we declared a total dividend payment of $0.10 per share, up 11.1%. What I wanted to do now is do something a little bit different. The financials speak for themselves, but I think the one thing that's probably been missing historically is to give shareholders a sense of our brands and our proposition. I wanted to introduce everyone to Melissa Pereira, who's the Head of Group Marketing, and she has control about what we do with our brands, tells me what to do every day, actually.
I think it's important for shareholders to get a real sense of what our brands are, what they represent, and how they're positioned in the marketplace. With that, I'll call on Melissa to give you some insights around that.
Thanks, Andrew. Hello, everyone. Today I'm just taking a few moments of your time to just really talk about some high-level intake of our brands, our key brands, Herbs of Gold and Vita Health, and how they're positioned in the market to meet our evolving needs of our consumers across the regions.
Starting off with our flagship brand here in Australia is Herbs of Gold. Herbs of Gold is premium priced and positioned to reflect the high-quality ingredients within our products and their therapeutic dosages. Herbs of Gold proudly has been a leader in creating this high-end space in the vitamins and supplements industry. Prior to this, we had no competitors really occupying that high-end sort of luxury space that we like to describe internally. In 2024, we focused on strengthening this premium strategy, but we also coupled it with an education-led strategy to our consumers and to our trade. As I previously mentioned, our complex formulas are complex, so we want our consumers to truly understand why they're paying such a premium price for our products.
An example of this, an initiative that we had, was advertorials across Channel Seven and Nine, where we educated consumers on the importance of magnesium, but then also followed through to show them to buy, obviously, the comprehensive magnesium range that we offer at Herbs of Gold. Moving on to our Southeast Asian powerhouse, which is Vita Health. Vita Health has a long-standing history, over 50 years, and it's really always been people and consumer-focused. We have very innovative products that really meet local consumer needs. With that, we've really positioned the brand as a brand that genuinely cares, and we evolve with the consumer's needs.
In 2024, we really pushed this positioning more, and we had nine major marketing and community events across Malaysia, and we also entered into four new corporate partnerships, those being Penang State Sports Council, Anytime Fitness, D Swim Academy, and Sports Nutrition Academy, all affiliations that are aligned to health and well-being. 2024 was another proud year for us as a group. As you know, across the Vita Life Sciences group, we had over 350 products registered, and 2024 saw another 16 products, an achievement to a very saturated market. With that, we like to have a product roadmap that's really designed to go towards emerging health trends amongst our consumer needs.
To really give you a sense of some of our products, it's very hard to go into 350, but we've decided to showcase two today just to give you a sense of the direction that we're heading with product innovation. Starting off with Herbs of Gold Sea Buckthorn Oil. It contains Omegia, which is a high-grade, sustainably sourced sea buckthorn that provides a balanced profile of Omega 3, 6, 7, and 9. It's a vegan and vegetarian source for a lot of consumers that can't take your fish oils and sources that include fish. It's positioned for dry eyes and skin hydration, but what we're proud of is that Herbs of Gold was the first brand to launch sea buckthorn oil over the counter in capsule format in Australia.
Because of this unique and competitive advantage, it will be a focus product for us and with a major marketing push in Q3 2025. Vita Health Charge-Up Ashwagandha Plus, positioned for stress and anxiety relief. It's a synergistic combination of KSM-66 and saffron extract, very trending ingredients currently amongst consumers. The Ashwagandha Plus is part of the Charge-Up series, which is quite an accomplishment for us as a series, as it was the very first range that was in Malaysia for mental health and well-being. Again, another first marker for that. In 2024, we launched another range in Malaysia called V-Style. Similar to Charge-Up in the previous slide, it has a very differentiated product packaging proposition for the consumer.
We've done this purposely not only to stand out amongst our current ever-growing range, that is Vital Health, but to stand out amongst our competitors and talk directly to the consumers. This range is exclusive to Watsons in Malaysia. It consists of four products, and it's a fitness and post-workout range. We came up with this range to essentially meet consumer needs. As per the Euromonitor report, sports nutrition is in dynamic growth in Malaysia, and the retail sales value is rising by 17%. To really celebrate this launch, we engaged with Pearly Tan, who is an Olympic badminton player, and she was our official ambassador and went to all our community events and our feature and all our above-the-line advertising, which includes TV and awards and such and such. Yeah, a very exciting launch for us in 2024.
With this, we already have, as you probably saw in the flyer, quite a lot of awards under our belt. In 2024, we saw an additional 13 prestigious industry awards added to our blade. We are very, very proud of this achievement, and it really reflects on our integrated approach towards product development, service, operations, and marketing. It really validates that our strategies inspire us to push boundaries in the health and wellness sector. Power with that for us. Over to Andrew. Thank you, everyone.
Thanks, Melissa. Just before we move on from that, I've always taken the view that we're our own biggest advocates, but really the measure of success is what your customers are saying about you. I touched on the fact that it's a really competitive landscape that we play in, but we're actually starting to stand out. Customer recognition, to me, is the greatest validation around what you're doing and how you're going about your business. For me, that's a superstar performance, and I think that we should be really proud of the acknowledgement from our customers and continue doing what we're doing because whatever it is that we're doing, it's working really well. Customers are recognizing us on the basis of that. I want to touch on just our social impact and corporate responsibility around ESG.
As a board and as an organization, we feel quite strongly around this. Whilst we're still at the infancy stage of our ESG journey, it's important to note that we want to be respectful of the fact that when you consider the business that we're in, we're heavily reliant upon natural resources, and we feel that we have a corporate responsibility to make sure that we have a role to play to minimize the impact that we have on the environment. It's quite critical to us, and it goes to our core values. Now, it doesn't mean that we're going to be radical in terms of our approach.
We're going to be moderate in our approach, but it's important to note that we're going down this journey, not only just because some elements will be mandatory reporting for listed companies, but it's deep-seated in the value proposition of who we are culturally as a business. Again, it's at the early stages. We'll be very mindful of the fact that we have to be financially responsible about it, but what ESG provides is a framework around good governance and practices within your organization. When you're making decisions about sourcing, packaging, how you go to market, these types of corporate frameworks around ESG keep your northern star real. It's an important part of our ongoing assessments of how we go about our business and what we implement and the decisions that we make around that.
Just in terms of our strategic priorities, I think there's not a lot of change to it because, as I said before, we're doing a lot of things well, and we're just going to continue to build on that, whether it's brand building, education, innovation, strategic expansion, or operational leverage. I think they're the pillars that have held us true over the last few years, and we're going to continue to build on that as part of our evolution. The company continues to demonstrate prudent financial disciplines. Our business maintains a strong balance sheet and even stronger cash position, but we want to continue to invest across key strategic pillars and leverage that market potential. The business has had a consistent history of delivering on long-term strategic goals, but we want to remain focused on these primary four pillars.
Just in terms of brand building, we want to leverage that community-led marketing campaigns that Melissa touched on earlier. We think there's a real niche in the market around that, and what we're finding is that the consumers are really relating to us and connecting to our brand. We want to leverage that and continue to push that angle. It doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to do massive above-the-line campaigns around that. We're very prudent around our A&P investment. In fact, it's quite minimal, really. What we do is we get good bang for our buck, and we do that exceptionally well in Asia. In fact, last year, we held over 142 community-led events that were attached to retail stores, which in turn were attached to sales.
Getting the basic fundamentals of grassroots marketing, I call it, seems to be working exceptionally well, particularly well in Asia, and we're seeing strong results now coming through, particularly out of our Malaysian business. Education and training. We are a high price point in the market. The thing that differentiates us, I guess, from our competitors is education, and we think that we've done that really well. We have a dedicated training team that are in market all day, every day. What we're really relying upon is in-store recommendation. Where we're winning is through strong education where people are confident to recommend our brands and recommend them over our competitors and point out the reasons why we're a high price point. There has to be a rationale for the consumer to purchase something that's more expensive than our competitors.
The only way that you can do that is for them to understand the nuances of the formulations. We feel quite strongly about that. We are going to ramp that up even further in terms of the launch of an online training portal. What we are working towards is best in class when it comes to education and training. We are hell-bent on pushing this barrow. We think that it does differentiate, again, from our competitors and puts us in a really strong position for them to recommend our brands over, what I said, Blackmores or Swisse or whoever it might be. In terms of strategic expansion, I have touched on Vietnam and China, and I think to round that out, the other market that I do want to touch on is Indonesia.
Whilst we've got a small presence in those respective markets, they will need ongoing investment, and we want to do that for a couple of reasons. We want to build on and leverage our positioning in Asia, but we also want to make sure that we have a balanced approach to where our growth is coming from. We've talked about China. We've talked about Australia and Malaysia being strong, but we think there's some real market opportunities coming through from Vietnam, China, and Indonesia. With the right level of investment, with the right go-to-market strategy, we're quite optimistic about the future prospects of those markets. Operational leverage. The bloodline of future growth does come through from NPD. We need to make sure that we are constantly looking at how we can bring new products to market.
Just because you're bringing 20 products to market does not necessarily mean that you're going to be successful. Sometimes less is more. We are going to focus quite heavily on how we can bring differentiated products to market, but also make sure that we have the resources and infrastructure and strategy to support them and ensure that they are successful products in terms of two, three, four years' time. Sometimes less is more, and that is the attitude we are taking towards our NPD pipeline. We can leverage that and scale that up through our respective markets. Over the next 12 months, we will continue to build on our key strategic pillars and reinvest into those businesses to positively impact on our overall performance.
In closing, I'd just like to thank all of our shareholders and customers once again for your ongoing support because we wouldn't be where we are today without that. I'll now hand back to the Chairman.
Thanks, Andrew. We'll go to the formal part of the business. General questions will be at the end of the formal part of the business, and for each specific resolution, of course, questions will be invited from shareholders. I've appointed Automic, the company share register, as the company's returning officer, and they will conduct a poll at the end of dealing with each of the resolutions on today's agenda. Proxies have been received for approximately AUD 35.5 million shares or 63% of the company's share capital. Any undirected proxies appointing me as Chairman will be voted in favor of each of the resolutions. Financial statements, reports, directors, and auditors. The financial report and the report of directors and of the auditor are laid before the meeting. There's no vote on this resolution. The company's auditor, Mr.
Stephen Fisher from Nexia is available to take questions on anything concerning the company's accounts and its audit. I invite questions from shareholders on the accounts and auditor's report. Are there any questions? People online or shareholders online, you can complete your questions and send them through, and they will be addressed at the end of dealing with all of the resolutions. Are there any questions, Mr. Reed?
Chair, inflow for the year was half of the prior year in operations, mainly as a result of an increase in inventory of AUD 5.5 million. Has that inventory increase been reversed in the current period?
No. Inventory will continue to build in line with increasing cycles. There are long lead times. Lead times are running at what, Andrew?
Yeah. You're probably not going to answer that, Henry. Yeah. I think there'll be a continual build-up of some inventory off the back of that. Lead times have normalized in today's market. Generally speaking, in Australia, it's sitting somewhere between three months and six months, depending upon the range. We're also factoring in stronger conditions coming through from markets like China for the second half of the year. You'll find that the strongest promotional periods coming through from China is backed off sort of around October, November. You're building your inventory around that potential demand. You'll find that the first-half inventory holdings are always a little bit higher.
The other point I'd make, John, is if you go back and have a look at, say, four years, you'll find the swing. Last year was a down year in terms of cash conversion. This year, notwithstanding building stock, there will be some reversal, and there will be an upswing. In fact, Mr. Khoo, I think you could go back, you go back 10 years, and you would find exactly that pattern.
Any other questions?
I've got a further question. Again, in the period, return on equity fell 20% compared with the prior period. Again, seems to be a drag because of higher working capital, predominantly cash and inventory during the period. The company paid a full 31% tax rate. Is the board considering a special dividend to return excess working capital to shareholders at the half-year?
No. The board is not considering a special dividend. The policy on dividend has generally been to pay around a third or perhaps a little more in some years, generally not much less in terms of dividend. I think that how we view dividend is you get a one-time hit from a special. It is better to build a steady record of increasing the dividend year after year.
How does the company go to address the declining return on equity?
Mr. Khoo, can you just speak to why the company's equity increased by AUD 10 million? It's about AUD 10 million last year.
Yeah. We basically had a strong conversion of the stocks in the previous years, so that resulted in a strong equity, although our profits have remained not significantly much higher. The conversion resulted in a stronger equity from the cash. Our strong cash flow is what resulted in that.
You denominate increase in your profits and increase at the same rate?
Yes. Correct.
That's correct.
Yeah. That's correct.
You've got surplus capital. What are you going to do with the surplus capital?
Surplus capital, cash at balance state, was AUD 28 million.
Yeah. Correct.
We are continuing to look for opportunities. At the present time, I think, when I look at my co-directors, we see the best opportunity from within growing our own business, than organic growth. We are building a plan. We have been building on the plan that we have had for some years to invest more capital back into our own business. What that does, of course, is it hits the profit line. Your profit actually declines. It is this choice. We want to invest, for example, AUD 5 million, to invest AUD 5 million in marketing promotion in the Indonesian market, which would be a small amount, but it is small, is it not?
In relative terms, but we want to try to achieve that.
Yeah. In the last year, the investment into Indonesia would have been in the hundreds of thousands, Mr. Khoo?
Sorry?
The investment in Indonesia would have been in the hundreds of thousands.
Easily AUD 300,000 . AUD 300,000-AUD 500,000.
Yeah.
Easily if you wish to invest.
We step up to AUD 5 million. Just for your not saying that's what we're actually doing, then the profit that we produce would be impacted by the same amount. It's this balancing act.
I think just to add to that, Henry, if you do not mind, I think we have got a really stable core business in Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and we can just rest on our laurels there. The important thing to note is if we have an appetite to go into markets like Vietnam, Indonesia, and to continue to support aspirations in China, you have got to feed that market with investment. I think anyone would realize sort of look at it like a bit of a startup. In most competitive landscapes that have gone into those respective markets, they have been prepared to invest heavily upfront. As you would appreciate, there is not always that correlation between investment and revenue flowing through. There is sometimes a bit of a lag. I think there is a combination of two things that Henry has alluded to.
One is we've made it really clear our appetite to invest in those new and emerging—we call them emerging markets. I'm not sure if that's the right terminology, but we've identified them as markets that we want to really ramp up our investment and get revenue contributions coming through at a faster pace. We've always taken the view that if an opportunity comes across the desk, we'll look at it. It has to make sense. Danny's heard me say this, probably the same rhetoric for probably two years now, that we are open to opportunities if it makes sense and if it is accretive to the organisation. Now, those businesses do not always appear quickly. Opportunities are out there, and we'll strategically evaluate them on their own merits. If there's something that makes sense, then we'll go after it.
One thing that we won't do on that is add another brand. That is a perfect goal.
We can't dilute our current proposition. We've got a pretty stable brand proposition across two markets, across two brands, 350 SKUs. That's a big enough portfolio to manage. If anything, we probably need to scale the range back in a little bit, look at product life cycles, look at how products are in the market, and be a little bit smarter about how we manage our portfolio, broadly speaking.
Mr. Chair, a supplementary question. You talked about incremental investment in geographic markets. Are we seeing our first quarter's pass fully integrated? Have they met their sales forecasts? What are the sales forecasts for China for CY 2025?
It's a bit premature to answer that question. I'm not being sort of evasive. The integration has been slower than we anticipated. I think everyone would appreciate that changing from one distributor to a new one sometimes has its challenges. We would have liked to have seen all of the flagship stores up and running by January. That did not occur until sort of late February, early March. We are only now starting to get a real sense of their performance in general. The other challenging component to that is that we do have a strong Daigou presence in China. Our view is to try and mitigate some of that by making sure that we are mindful of the fact that our genuine partner in China and our long-term partner in China has to stay in China.
Daigous have a role to play, but they can also play a disruptive role. What we're keen to do, what we're committed to doing, is making sure that we've got a sustainable business in China. I'm not prepared to sort of disclose, I guess, what our full-year aspirations are, but we'd be disappointed if the contributions were not stronger than what they were through Nanjing last year. To give you a sense of that, the Nanjing contribution for last year was around AUD 6 million in revenue.
Are there any further questions?
I've got three online questions, but they are generic questions. Do you want to address them now or after the resolutions?
At the end.
They don't relate to the financial report.
No. They do relate some to the financial report and future businesses.
Give us the financial report one.
What is the nature and purpose of the land and building of about AUD 9 million that's held in Malaysia? That's question one.
I will deal with that. Last year, we reviewed the requirement for the land and buildings, AUD 9 million investment in Malaysia as to whether we need it or do we not. For those who have been to the Malaysian facility, it is much larger than what we physically use. At the end of that review, we decided that it was very important for our Asian business as a whole, that the business had a home. For the stability, how many people? We have 70 or 90 people. I think maybe nearer 90 people, 90 staff in that facility. We are keeping it. I think that sums it up, does it not?
Yeah.
The second question, why are profit margins significantly high in Malaysia, and are they sustainable?
The second part, the question. Vitamins, minerals, and supplements are expensive for any Malaysians that are there. They're expensive in ringgit terms. If we think that we're paying $25 for whatever it might be, a bottle, that would convert roughly to MYR 75. Short is 103, 5, 10, 20, 130. That is the market. Just one further point, margins that we enjoy both at the gross profit line and at the EBIT or EBITDA line are similar to what they've been achieved for the—I should be addressing the gentleman or lady who asked that question. They're similar to what they've been for many, many years. Yes, we expect to hold the margins.
I think also just to add to that, Henry, there's a slightly different way in which we account for gross margins in Malaysia and how we allocate the trading terms to customers and what happens below the line. We have a lot of product advisors that are captured in OPEX, and that's different to how we manage the financials here in Australia. You have a much higher gross margin in Australia, but where it does come back is through an increase in the OPEX contribution because of the higher cost-related. It's just the way that we are capturing and how we account for gross margins in those respective markets.
Does that fully answer the questions?
Yes, that's right. Yeah. That question is comment on the current trading conditions in Australia and Malaysia, noting that the IQVIA figures indicate pharmacy retails are still strong in Australia. Just a general question.
Quite good answer.
That's a good question. I think I said during my presentation is that there's enough evidence now that consumers generally continue to look after their health and well-being, even in tough economic climates. Where they may forfeit other luxuries in life, they're not prepared to compromise on their health and well-being. We actually looked at some scan data yesterday from IQVIA, and some of you in the room may or may not be familiar with IQVIA, but it's real scan performance. It's not what we're pushing in. It's what's actually coming out of the till. It's done through an independent company. That has the category over the last 52 weeks—I think it's 52 weeks or quarter; I think it's 52 weeks—scanning at 10.1%. Our scan rate is 40 percentage points or higher in most cases over the last 52-week reporting period.
Now, yes, our base is low and our market share is low. It's less than 1% in pharmacy, but it's the bigger category number that I think you need to hone in on, which is the category is growing at 10%. To me, that's a fairly buoyant number, and it's been stable now for at least three years, around about that double-digit growth rate. To me, you should be walking away confident that the category is holding up exceptionally well.
Does that answer the question?
Yeah. Perhaps also a little bit about Malaysia's performance in general.
Yeah.
A wet pot marketplace.
Yeah. It's a really competitive marketplace in Malaysia. We're not just competing with the big known brands. What we're seeing is a big emergence of OEM brands in market. Where we're differentiating is that we're increasing our points of distribution through what we define as modern trade pharmacies, so the Watsons and the Guardians and the big retail propositions. We're exploiting, and what we're seeing is a really strong performance coming through from our e-commerce business, direct-to-consumer. That's sort of been the case now pretty consistently for the last 12 months. Even in a really competitive landscape, our performance in Malaysia and Singapore to a lesser extent, but still similar trading conditions, highly competitive, but the general market is growing anywhere between 5%-10%, but we're again outperforming the market category growth. Certainly have done for the last six months.
Thank you. Any further questions on the financials or anything for the auditor? We have moved to the remuneration report. The resolution is to consider and, if thought fit, pass with or without amendment, resolution one, adoption of the remuneration report for the financial year ended 31 December 2024 as an ordinary resolution. I note that this resolution is on an advisory basis only and any outcome does not bind the company, its directors, the remuneration, or the remuneration committee. An explanation of the resolution can be found on page nine of the notice of meeting. The number of proxies are there on your screen. In favor, 19.7 million; against, 85,000. Proxies discretion, 6.3 million; excluded, 8.6 million votes. Are there any questions on this resolution from shareholders, either online or in the online from shareholders? No further questions. I'll hand the chair to Mr.
Osman because the next resolution concerns me.
I might just say, sitting in, it's okay. This is my eyesight. I'll stand up and hold it along my way. I put forward resolution two to consider any thought fit to pass with or without amendment resolution two as an ordinary resolution that Henry Townsend, a director retiring by rotation in accordance with clause 14.4 of the constitution, being eligible and having consented to act, be re-elected as a director of a company. An explanation on resolution two, an information on Mr. Townsend, is found on page 10 of the notice of meeting. The number of valid proxy notes that have been received on this motion are shown on the screen. In favor, 29.18 million against 48,144. Proxies discretion, 6,298,540. If you have any questions or wish to discuss the resolution, please raise your hands or submit questions via the Q&A.
No questions on the Q&A.
Questions from the room? If there are no further questions, I shall move. I won't move to the next resolution. I will move to handing the chair back to Henry.
Thank you, shareholders. I guess the votes will be carried once the returning officer tell us that our provisional resolution through three, which is aggregate annual remuneration payable to non-executive directors, be increased to a maximum of AUD 300,000 from the year beginning 1 January 2026. That resolution reads that in accordance with listing rule 10.17 of the official listing rules of the ASX and clause 15.4 of the company's constitution, the total aggregate annual remuneration payable to non-executive directors of the company be increased by AUD 100,000 per annum from AUD 200,000 per annum to a maximum of AUD 300,000 per annum effective 1 January 2026. An explanation of this resolution can be found on page 10 of the notice of meeting. We have a number of proxies. In favour of that resolution is 20.1 million, against 90,000. Proxies discretion, 6.3 million, and excluded 8.4 million.
Are there any questions on this resolution?
Not online, Mr. Chair.
From shareholders in the meeting today? Paul, you usually get a little jumpy when you see directors' remuneration going up.
I do indeed, Henry, but unfortunately, I can't vote on this matter.
Oh, fortunately.
Fortunately.
Very lucky. Any questions? We move to resolution four, which shareholders have been holding shares for some time. It's been on the notice of meeting, which is the share buyback for, as long as I can remember, a long, long time.
That resolution is that pursuant to and in accordance with section 257C of the Corporations Act 2001 as amended, rules 7.29 and 7.3 of the listing rules of the ASX Ltd., and for all other purposes, the shareholders approved with effect when directors make the relevant announcement to the ASX, the on-market buyback of up to 15% fully paid ordinary shares in the company expiring on whichever is the earlier of the anniversary of the passage of this resolution or the 2026 annual general meeting and otherwise on the terms and conditions set out in the explanatory statement accompanying the 2025 annual general notice of meeting at which this resolution is to be put. An explanation of the resolution can be found on page 11. We have proxies 13 million in favour, 13.3 million in favour, 32,000 against proxies discretion, 22.2 million.
Are there any questions on this resolution?
None online, Mr. Chair.
No questions? I'd ask then that Mathew Hunter of Automic, being the returning officer, now conduct the poll. If you're a shareholder, you will have received and have voted already by proxy. Received a yellow card, which you can fill out. Thank you. Were there votes being cast? Oh, anybody online doesn't vote online, do they? They send in their proxy. Are they clear that the voting is now closed? And you'll do your good work. Thank you. General business, is there any other matter that shareholders would like to raise? Just the general business of the general business nature, and then we'll move to open questions on any matter.
Any general business?
Just a short question. Danny Colbert. Last year, there was a trading update at the AGM, and I've noticed that in the commentary today, it's more broad that there is an absence or an omission of a trading update. Is there any reason why you chose that?
Yeah, I think last year, from memory, Danny, and I stand corrected, but I don't think we provided formal guidance. We provided some outlooks of sentiment. Our position at this stage is that we'll provide formal guidance in line with what we did last year, which was in quarter four. That way, we've got a pretty good handle on what's happened during the course of the year. That's sort of been our general approach. That's what we did last year, and we'll certainly reflect that this year, the same process.
Having said that, the company's trading in line with the board's expectations, meaning its budgets and targets. Yeah, so the company's doing what we expected it to do so far this year. That's revenue, profit, costs, etc. I'll close the formal part of the meeting now, and we'll just move to general discussion. It's over to you, ladies and gentlemen, to ask any of us any questions or queries or what you'd like to raise. Paul, you're usually jumping up by this time.
I am, but I'm very satisfied this year. Thank you very much, Henry.
What about you, Danny? You're happy, unhappy?
Can you tell us a little bit more about what's happening in Indonesia and some of the expansion strategies you have there? I think some of the expansion in your other Asian markets is relatively well articulated. In Indonesia, it's more aspirational.
It's been tricky, Danny, to be honest, because if you go back in time, we had our own business unit in Indonesia, and we had our teams in market. We just found that it wasn't any ongoing offers. We just couldn't get any cut through. The benefit that we've got is that we already have established registered products in market with the Vita Health range. We want to find a generic halal important. In most cases, yes. Not in all, but in most. There will be a transition to all products that will require halal certification. I think the key to Indonesia is sometimes you've got to learn from what your competitors have done well. Really, the best way to go to market in Indonesia is to do it through some type of, whether it's a JV relationship or a formal distribution relationship.
That's the path that you need to take. I think if you go it alone in Indonesia, it's a hard, long slog. For me personally, I'm just not prepared to take any more sort of ongoing sort of deep losses without a really strong partner that's helping me go to market properly. Over the last six months, we've gone through a fairly rigorous process of evaluating distributors in market, and we're very close to formalizing an agreement. Hopefully, that will be announced certainly by the third quarter of this year. Just to sort of temper expectations, it's not something that we're going to see in the immediate future, like a big jump in revenue. We want to take a guess similar to what we did in China, a sustainable model. The big benefit is that you're not starting from day one with registrations.
We've got products registered in market. And for those of you that know, I sort of touched on the regulatory frameworks in some of those markets. Australia, you can bring a product to market pretty quickly. You're probably doing three months. But I wanted to get a product registered in Indonesia. It can take in the vicinity of 18-24 months. So we're at a real advantage from day one that once we finalise an agreement with a potential partner, we can generate revenue day one. That's what's happening in Indonesia. In terms of Vietnam, we've got a two-brand strategy. We have our Vita Health proposition in Vietnam. The distribution touchpoints in general pharmacies are pretty narrow, though. It's less than 500 stores in a market that has many, many, many pharmacies.
I think the opportunity there is significant, but we just do not seem to have the right path to market for Vita Health. That said, I think the opportunity is there because, again, we have got registered products in market. For those of you that have seen the news recently, there has been a bit of trouble in the regulatory approval process with some of the departments in Vietnam. I think what you will find is it will be very difficult to get products registered there over the next 12 months. People have gone to jail around anti-corruption. We have got a strong product registration pipeline for Vita Health, and we have also got, obviously, products officially registered with Herbs of Gold. My long-term vision for that market is to have Vita Health for our independent pharmacy proposition.
I think there is a real opportunity for Herbs of Gold to go into those bigger modern trade pharmacies. It will require, as I touched on earlier, a higher level of investment appetite. If you think about it, if you are a Pharmac ity or a Long Châu that has thousands and thousands of pharmacies, you have to prosecute a pretty solid case as to why I am taking your brand and not getting rid of someone else. You need to ensure that you have a pretty solid consumer pull-through strategy. Only then will they have an appetite to even engage with you. We took the view of, okay, let's create a little bit of noise around the brand. Let's go and partner with Con Cưng. We have made a commitment to maintain exclusivity with them for the mum- and-b aby channel only.
It does not preclude us from going broader and wider into those modern trade pharmacies. Our position will be to maintain Herbs of Gold in mum- and baby- on an exclusive basis, leverage the brand through more modern trade, bigger pharmacy banners, and continue to push an increase in our distribution for Vita Health. I think there is some real upside there. Hopefully, that clears it up a little bit and puts a bit of color around it.
We have one more question online. Is the company using online direct-to-consumer platforms in China?
It's all online. The way in which our China business works, it's cross-border e-commerce. You'll find all of our brand predominantly operating across all the major platforms, whether it's Alibaba, Tmall, JD.com, Xiaohongshu, TikTok. I've had to upskill my skills around e-commerce. I must say it's not my greatest strength. The way in which brands generally operate in China through cross-border e-commerce is that they don't have an offline proposition; it's all online through those major platforms.
No other questions, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Reed.
Mr. Chair, let me congratulate you on holding the meeting today at the new facility. I think that's a very good idea because shareholders have an opportunity to see what's actually happening at the business level. May I recommend that in future meetings be held in the city? I'm happy to host if you can't find a facility.
If you want to go back to the city, is that what you're saying? Yeah, but shareholders who haven't been here before, next year, will be able to come here and see it again. We're quite frugal on costs. By holding the meeting here, it's a lot cheaper than in the city, a lot.
As I said, I offered to host if the cost was the issue.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Any other questions? There's a sandwich and a couple of those.
Yes.
Yes.
I believe so, yes.
That concludes today's business. Thank you for your attendance. Please stay and have a sandwich, although some might want to rush back while the shower, while the rain's gone.
For those of you that'd like to have a look around the office, I'd be more than happy to just show people around. As I said, I'd encourage you to say good day to some of our staff that are in the office today and familiarise yourself with the business a little more.
Thanks, Andrew. Thank you, shareholders, online.