Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the 2024 Me Today annual online shareholders meeting. My name's Grant Baker, and I'm the Chair of the Me Today board. So, a few housekeeping matters before we start. Proxies have been appointed relating to 35,726,679 shares. That represents over 65.77% of the total shares on issue. As stated in the notice of meeting, the directors intend to vote all discretionary proxies in favor of the resolution. The quorum is present, and therefore I declare the meeting open. To effectively manage this online meeting, we have all participants on permanent mute. If you have any questions during the meeting, please email vote@metoday.com. That's vote@metoday.com. I'd like to introduce my fellow directors. Online is Antony Vriens. In the room with me are Hannah Barrett and Roger Gower, also present are CEO and Director Stephen Sinclair, and Founder and Director Michael Kerr.
In attendance online today are the company's auditors, BDO, our legal advisors, Chapman Tripp, and share registrar, Computershare. Thanks to all those firms that provide valuable services to Me Today. On the agenda, first we'll provide an update on the business, and then following this update, we'll answer any questions that have been emailed to vote@metoday.com. We'll answer any questions on the resolution at the time that it's proposed. At the end of the meeting, we'll answer any further questions that have been raised by email. Over the past year, the group has completed a capital raise and restructured the group debt to separate the King Honey business from the Me Today brand. Both business units are being managed more independently as a result of the restructure.
As signaled previously, the group's made the decision to sell the King Honey business, given the amount of debt that's been carried on the balance sheet relating to the King Honey acquisition. The group remains in discussions with one interested party in respect to the sale. The prospective purchaser is in active discussions with the group and has completed due diligence. The board hopes to conclude the transaction shortly. Should the sale not proceed, further discussion will be required with the lenders to determine an appropriate restructuring plan for the future operations. We'll provide further updates relating to King Honey as discussions are finalized. I'll now hand over to Steve Sinclair for your update in respect to performance of the King Honey and the Me Today businesses.
Great. Thanks, Grant. I'll firstly update in respect to King Honey. Whilst funding and business sale discussions are taking place, management are focusing on the following three strategies to grow sales of Manuka Honey: the Access Corporate Group and the Bee+ brand, branded opportunity through Me Today and SuperLife, contract pack and OEM opportunities. In addition to the sales strategies, the business has continued to focus on cost cutting. As advised previously, the King Honey beekeeping operation has been closed completely. It holds beekeeping equipment and storage, and the decision be made to continue a beekeeping operation in the future. Other costs within the business also continue to be reviewed. King Honey continues to engage in partnership with ACG in respect to the Bee+ brand.
Michael and Antony attended the event for a new product that had been launched as part of the strategy to expand the Bee+ brand wider into the wellness category. The launch event was held in Hangzhou in front of an audience of 500 people with an online reach into the millions. ACG are continuing to add additional new products into this wellness range. A purchase order of NZD 1 million was confirmed with ACG recently, with half this order to be delivered in December and the remaining half in February 2025. The next quarterly meeting with ACG is scheduled for January to discuss the forecast for the coming year. The most secure opportunity to create sales in Manuka Honey is through established brands. The Manuka Honey industry remains competitive, meaning a point of difference through brand is even more important.
Outside of Bee+, the King Honey business has access to two brands in the group, both Me Today and SuperLife. Under the new operating structure, Me Today purchases Manuka Honey products from King Honey for sale through its network. SuperLife sales are made direct from King Honey to SuperLife distributors. King Honey continues to provide contract pack and OEM services to a number of customers. It receives regular inbound inquiry in this area. The focus of this customer is price, and King Honey will be price competitive whilst ensuring it can recover the carrying value of Manuka Honey inventory. The Manuka Honey industry remains in a position of oversupply, with excess honey stocks built up from an increased production and lower demand through COVID. Certain parts of the market are seeing an improvement in wholesale prices, especially in the lower rating blends and UMF 5+.
We still see the recovery in price taking up to a further two years across the other UMF bands. Now moving to the Me Today brand, the New Zealand market remains important to the strategy. A strong New Zealand business enables us to take the story of the brand offshore. It is also a market where we test strategy and product development. As we advise, there's been increased activity in the New Zealand market. The brand presence has been expanded through a new above-the-line marketing campaign, which went live in June. The brand has launched a range of seven new premium supplements into New Zealand pharmacies. In October, the range further expanded, adding 11 products across different formats, which will see increased shelf presence within the New Zealand pharmacy channel. Initial data shows an increase in sales as a result of the additional shelf space in store.
The performance of the new space will continue to be monitored over the coming months. Outside of New Zealand, the near-term strategy will focus on Greater China, Southeast Asia, the US, and Australia. As advised on the 1st of July, Me Today signed an agreement with a large Chinese sports nutrition company for a licensing arrangement, which would see Me Today included in its extensive product portfolio. The agreements provide for payment of a licensing fee over a 10-year period to Me Today based on revenue earned in Greater China by the licensor. The agreements also allow for the licensor to progressively own up to 50% of the Greater China trademark should they achieve certain targets.
The arrangement is an exciting partnership for the Me Today brand, which, as well as creating new revenue, will increase global brand visibility, provide access to new product development concepts, and potential manufacturing benefits from economies of scale, including potentially more competitive pricing on bulk raw materials. Our Chinese partner is underway with brand activation activity. A Me Today office has been established in Hangzhou, China, in which a team of 20 new employees have been employed to focus solely on the Me Today brand. The go-to-market strategy is predominantly focused on Chinese TikTok channel Douyin, through which our Chinese partner has a large amount of experience. Since commencement of the relationship in April, our Chinese partner has held a large number of selling events on Douyin. This has been driven through an association with key opinion leaders.
This activation strategy is continuing, with two live stream events being held in Auckland during December, with the strategy set to continue into 2025. The license agreement provides for a fixed fee of NZ$350 in year one of the partnership. Thereafter, the fee is payable as a percentage of revenue to the trademark owner, Me Today China Limited. We are currently reviewing sales performance from the first nine months of the partnership to determine if our partner will qualify to exercise part of their option to gain ownership of the trademark. We've not had formal notice of exercise from our partner at this point. Looking at the U.S., the strategy in the U.S. is threefold across online, offline, and social. We have presence in offline traditional retail through Manuka Honey and skincare. As we've advised previously, the Manuka Honey category is competitive and price-driven in the current environment.
Our grocery partner has moved to a more selective purchasing strategy based on price, which results in less certainty around sales for this channel. Online sales are building through the traditional channels, and we continue to add online retailers into the customer mix. We continue our discussions with our Chinese partner around looking to replicate the social media opportunity in the US. Our partner has considerable experience in the channel in China, and we are considering structures to take this model into other markets. In respect to other markets, Australia continues to be important given its proximity to New Zealand. As the New Zealand business grows, leverage opportunities arise in Australia. We've been cautious about these opportunities to date, but we'll look to invest more as the right opportunities present.
While not listed as focus markets, we still have strong relationships in Japan, Ireland, and the UAE, and we'll continue to work with our partners in those markets to grow the Me Today brand. In Japan, we've received increased orders for our Super Honey products, and with our partner, we are pitching for entry into a Japanese retail chain with these products. The last part of my update relates to trading for the six-month period to 31 December 2024. Group sales for the six-month period ended December 2023 were NZD 2.8 million before marketing costs paid to a customer. The group expects sales for the period to 31 December 2024 to exceed NZD 4 million, so growth of 42%. While the group continues to cut costs, it's expecting EBITDA trading losses in the year to December 2024 to be less than the NZD 2.2 million recorded in the same period last year.
Cost-cutting measures continue, and the operating EBITDA losses are expected to continue to reduce during FY25 and beyond. The full-year results will depend on the outcome of the sale of King Honey and a more detailed update in respect to the full year ended 30 June 2025 will be given as part of the half-year results announcement due at the end of February. That's my update, and I'll now hand back to Grant.
Thank you very much, Steve. Once we understand more fully the pathway for the King Honey business, we'll provide further updates. In the meantime, management are committed to continuing to grow both the King Honey sales and the Me Today brand. The Chinese partnership provides significant opportunity for the Me Today brand, and alongside progress in New Zealand and other markets, the board are excited by the opportunities for growth within the Me Today group. In the new year, the board will assess further our growth strategy, and it will provide further updates in respect to capital structure and whether it is appropriate for the group to seek additional capital to support the growth strategy. Now is the time that we can answer any questions that have been raised through vote@metoday.com. Do we have any?
[Kevin], do we have any questions?
Just checking.
Just bear with me. We're just checking.
It's about now we need music on hold.
None have come through as yet.
Okay. No questions so far. So now on to the resolution. I'd now like to move to the resolution notified in the notice of meeting and the explanatory notes. So voting on the resolution is by way of poll. So for anyone who's still wishing to vote, you can email vote@metoday.com before the meeting closes by providing your full name and shareholder number and stating how you wish to vote for the resolution. Only shareholders, proxy holders, or corporate representatives of a shareholder may vote on today's resolution. The resolution relates to approval for the directors to set the auditor's remuneration. BDO is automatically reappointed as the auditor of the company under Section 207(t) of the Companies Act 1993. I don't think we have any questions on this either.
No questions on that.
So as mentioned earlier, further votes for those who have not done so can be received by emailing vote@meetoday.com. If you are still going to vote, please indicate whether your vote is for, against, or abstain for the resolution today. We'll just pause for a minute now just to allow time for any questions that do come through and for any votes that come through and for them to be verified. Again, if you do have any questions, please email vote@meetoday.com. Okay. Thanks, everyone. That was slightly longer than a minute, but we did have a question come through. And the question is, are you still needing to discount prices heavily in order to achieve sales? So Steve's going to answer that.
I would just say that, yeah, in terms of our promotional cycle, we're in line with the market as a competitive market. So we do, you will see the brand on promotion, but overall, the strategy is driving the brand and looking at the investment in the top line. As we talked about, we've got lots of activation, lots of events and activity that is resonating really well with people. So that's really our focus. Our focus is about growing the brand while ensuring we're at the right price point in the market against the level of competition.
All right. Thanks, Steve. No further questions there. So thanks very much, everyone. That concludes the formal part of the meeting. Thanks to those of you who attended, and I now declare the meeting closed.