Hello. I'm Hamutal Yitzhak. I am the CEO of Else Nutrition, and I just wanna give you a heads up that I'm based in Tel Aviv, and there might be a siren at any moment, so I might have to go to the shelter. In that case, we'll have to stop, and maybe I'll return later. And then I'd like to start my presentation. Please could you instruct me how to share the screen?
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Okay? Okay, I'll put it on presentation mode. Hi, everyone. As mentioned, I'm Hamutal from Else Nutrition, and I'd like to present a strategic U.S. market turning point for Else. We are the next generation early life nutrition. Globally, we are leading the plant-based home nutrition revolution as the world's first whole plant-based dairy and soy-free early life nutrition range in the world. I'll start with some kind of a company ID. Else is a game changer in global early life nutrition. Historically, infant nutrition relied on merely two protein sources. They were dairy and soy, and this is the situation so far. We are a global pioneer and the first mover to market in plant-based infant nutrition. We're introducing the third option after dairy and soy, made from two core plants, almonds and buckwheat.
It's a dairy and soy-free product, those are very major allergens, and it's free of both of them. We are delivering improved health benefits, and we are removing the allergy risks from babies across the world. We are addressing about 40% of the $100 billion infant nutrition market globally. We're the world's first 100% whole plant-based formula, which are using real whole food ingredients, which are not ultra-processed ingredients, and that's a major change in terms of your health. We are modeled to meet the human milk nutritional golden standard benefits and supported by a world-class scientific advisory board with leading key opinion leaders in the infant nutrition space. We're backed by global IP and proprietary technology to scale the growth. Our products are the most sustainable in the industry.
We got over 60% lower carbon footprint versus any dairy product, and we are founded by senior industry executives, which bring decades of expertise in infant nutrition and global markets. I want to present a financial turnaround that has been made in 2025 with a significant margin and cost improvement and solid plan to reach bottom line profitability by early 2027. Another turnaround, which might be even more significant, and this is a strategic FDA turnaround that has been going on since 2025 and now getting into a significant turning point in 2026. I wanna start with showing you what we are selling today. Today, we are focusing at this stage on nutrition for ages above one year, and that's the reason we are not eligible for an infant product yet by the FDA.
We are in a process. We're selling baby cereals. We are selling toddler nutrition for 12 months to 36 months. We are selling kids nutrition in powder and liquid forms, and we're entering the adult nutrition space as well. We used to sell internationally also in the U.K. and in Australia. In Australia, we already were eligible for an infant product, so we had these products there. In North America, which is our core market, we have partnered with the largest distributors, such as KeHE and UNFI, which cover together 16,000 doors. We have partnered with major retail partners such as Walmart, H-E-B, Meijer, Sprouts, Giant Food, and many others.
In Canada, we have revived our revenue flow in Loblaw and Avril and getting into more and more retailers after having 0 revenues in Canada during 2025 from out-of-stock issues. Currently, we're returning in much better terms, with much better terms and directly. Of course, we are selling very significantly also online on amazon.com, walmart.com, Walmart Marketplace, Vitacost, and many others. What would be a pivotal milestone for Else in terms of the FDA, in terms of the product portfolio? FDA approval for an infant product, which aims to 0 to 12 months, would mark a real transformative moment for us, and not only for us, but for the entire industry.
This would represent the Holy Grail, positioning the company as the global leader in plant-based alternatives to the dairy and soy ones. This would unlock a significant commercial and financial and scientific opportunity, cementing us as a category-defining innovator. This moment is now closer than ever, and I will speak to that later, just a little bit later in the presentation. I'll start with the financial turnaround highlights. Over the past year, and you will see it also in the upcoming financial filings that we are about to submit at the end of the month. Over the past year, we had limited liquidity that led to occasional out of stock issues and constrained marketing budgets, which caused lost sales and tempered revenue growth.
Despite these challenges, we maintained stable sales while significantly reduced the cost and improved the margins. This is a strong turnaround, which positions us for sustainable growth and long-term value creation. These are the key metrics. First of all, we improved the gross margins. I'm talking about the Q3 results because the annual results are about to be published. In the Q3 results, we improved gross margins to 34% that were reversing previous negative results. That was done through cost reduction and supply chain efficiencies. We reduced the operational expenses by almost 70% year-over-year, from $3.6 million to $1.15 million, reflecting streamlined operations and disciplined management. We reduced the cash burn from $1.15 million to under $200,000.
Today, it's about 50,000 supporting the company's path to financial sustainability. These parameters keep improving all the time, so you will see the results. Stable revenue despite constraints. We maintained the revenue more or less stable despite limited marketing resources and the inventory challenges, which demonstrated the business resilience. We've seen and we are experiencing constantly strong demand despite the temporary out of stock and the minimal marketing spend. The demand to our products, which are so unique, remains robust. As I mentioned before, the Canadian revenues transitioned to a direct-to-retail model, skipping the distributor that we had previously. Revenues resumed in January of 2026 after nearly zero revenues in 2025.
I want to tell you now a little bit about the market challenges in the United States, and that goes back to 2019, almost where at the point that we've launched or the point where we were actually listed in the Toronto Stock Exchange. This is actually telling a story that needs a change, that needs an immediate change, and this is what happened. First of all, historically, FDA has been relying on outdated regulations, and that caused slow approval timelines for innovative technologies such as Else. That was also compounded by a highly centralized industry with very few dominant players such as the Abbott, the Mead Johnson, the Perrigo of the world, but these were the only players at this time. The second thing was the allergen protein risk. This is something that goes over the...
I mean, this is a global phenomenon. Dairy and soy offer no viable alternatives around the world, and they are causing widespread feeding-related issues. Everybody who has a child may know this. There are contamination concerns that have been occurring multiple times over the past 6-7 years. These were life-threatening bacterial contaminations, heavy metals contaminations, pesticides, and repeated recalls that undermine the safety of the babies. This happened throughout the years 2019-2026. There's another concern, ultra-processed and chemically treated ingredients. This is something that actually happens everywhere, not only in the U.S. market. Formulas often contain fractions, derivatives, fillers, gums, and soy. Our soy proteins are processed with hexane and with solvents. All these things are not healthy for our babies.
There are many nutritional gaps between the label and the standards, and there are environmental impacts surely and generated by the dairy-based formulas that carry high carbon footprint and of course, the animal welfare. There's much to say about the challenges, especially in the U.S. market, but not only. I'll just take you through a few of them. In 2019, there was a big media shout-out about heavy metals and contaminants that were found by a study, an independent study in almost 95% of the baby foods that were tested.
In 2022 to 2023, everybody knows there was a severe shortage that was driven by multiple product recalls by Abbott and then by Mead Johnson, so the shelves were kept empty for almost two years, and that was the most severe crisis ever happened in the infant formula industry in the United States. Back in August 2024, another thing happened. A study showed that unhealthy ultra-processed baby foods were full of. They failed to meet the World Health Organization nutritional guidelines, and they're unhealthy. There was another shout-out by the media. The last one that we recall is in November 2025, there was an outbreak of infant botulism, which is a bacteria, and there was an overall brand recall for a brand named ByHeart.
There was a new brand that entered the market more or less when we did, but that was another major challenge faced by the industry. What do we have as a company to offer with regards to those challenges? What is our unique value proposition? We are elevating the infant formula market with clean, safe, allergen-free nutrition, solving systemic industry failings. How do we do that? We are meeting emerging consumer demands like healthier whole foods ingredients, transparency, and sustainability. Of course, as we said, we are free of the two major allergens, which are dairy and soy. They are the only ones who actually have over 85% of whole food complete nutrition or whole food ingredients, which are powered by nutrient-rich superfoods like almonds and buckwheat.
We have developed a novel minimal processing method that keeps our ingredients and our proteins whole and intact. We are Clean Label certified, so that means that we are safe from ultra-processed ingredients, heavy metals, pesticides, and our carbon footprint is lower. We are actually attracting a broad consumer base of allergic families or allergic babies, sensitive babies, which is about 25%-30% of the market, babies needing alternative to the dairy or soy. These babies definitely need that. We're talking to families that are prioritizing clean and healthy nutrition, not necessarily dairy and soy-free, but better-for-you products, embracing vegan and vegetarian or flexitarian lifestyles. These families are also part of our clients. Families that are committed to environmental responsibility.
Of course, we have long-term validated that commercial presence since 2020, with premium toddler nutrition, baby cereals, kids products, that are sold across North America online and in retail. As mentioned before, we have a proprietary IP and patented technology and clinical and scientific verification of our claims demonstrated efficacy through preclinical and clinical validations. I'll speak to part of them. We've seen multiple customers' reviews reporting on recovery from all the major symptoms that we have ever experienced with dairy or with soy as market experts. That includes allergies and failure to thrive and digestive symptoms. Any kind of symptom was reported by clients. We took a step, and we have made a post-marketing real-life clinical study.
It's not a study, it was a survey, and this is something very customary in our industry. It was done in 665 patients, and 80% of them reported full or near complete resolution of the feeding-related symptoms that were previously triggered by what they consumed before, which were dairy or soy-based formulas. I won't take you into all the details of that. This was published in many conferences as well as in medical magazines. What is the strategic market turning point that is happening right now? First of all, following the unprecedented systemic industry failures and supply shortages, the U.S. government has launched Operation Stork Speed, reshaping the infant formula industry.
That operation was aimed to reshape and modernize the infant nutrition industry. This, these are several goals that I will mention as part of the overall goals, but these are the most relevant to ELSE. First of all, one of the goals was to conduct a comprehensive review of all infant formula nutrients and regulations which were outdated. They had not been reviewed since 1998, and the goal was to update them and modernize them. The second thing was testing for contaminants, including heavy metals and other environmental issues or contaminants. That was to increase that and to increase the scrutiny. Second, third thing was to support innovation and development of new infant formulas, including updated nutrient profiles and improved ingredient standards like ours. There's, that was in March of 2025, a year ago.
In April, there was a publication of a body named the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, NASEM. They recommended actually to replace the outdated protein evaluation methods, which blocked Else, with modern science-based methods to ensure fair evaluation of emerging plant proteins such as almond and buckwheat, in our case, and support new formulations. Actually they are enabling plant-based innovation. That happened in April 2025. Next thing, building on recent regulatory momentum. Actually, the stage was set for a pivotal shift in the U.S. infant nutrition landscape, and these changes, combined with over two years of targeted lobbying efforts that Else made, we created a foundation for this breakthrough. In November 2025, following those efforts, there was a major legislative breakthrough signed by President Trump.
He signed a pivotal funding package for the FDA that includes congressional directive to streamline regulatory pathway for non-dairy, non-soy, plant-based infant formula. That was published by Else and published elsewhere as well. Now, what's going on now? The status now is a regulatory breakthrough and high-intensity FDA engagement as a result of the legislation. In January 2026, we have entered a high-intensity, solution-oriented regulatory dialogue between us and the FDA. The engagement has been supported by new federal policies, updated scientific guidance that is in the background, and national interest in innovative formulas for food security. We are no longer navigating an undefined pathway like we did in the past, but FDA is actively modernizing the framework with us, and we are at the center of this.
Just going into the details, in January 7, we had a high-level FDA meeting with senior leadership in the Human Foods Program and Infant Formula Pre-market Review. The results of the meeting were that FDA acknowledged that there's no defined pathway that exists and confirmed they are building one for a plant-based, non-dairy, non-soy product. They've shown first-time openness to modern protein assessments beyond the PER study that we have already conducted, and this is aligned with the NASEM recommendations. We were invited into ongoing scientific dialogue reserved for products viewed as strong candidates, and we have already submitted all the formal scientific publications to them, and they responded and confirmed that we are scientifically robust and merits continued engagement, the submissions.
The most important part is that in March 2026, this month, FDA added a PER, which a PER is a protein efficiency ratio study. They opened this study from 1998 to a new guidance under development. They formally launched development for this guidance, and they are saying that they are actually rewriting the rules for protein efficiency. This actually directly supports our whole food plant-based protein approach, and it represents a major validation and alignment with our scientific strategy. My conclusion is that Else is positioned to become a leading candidate for the first U.S.-approved plant-based infant formula in the market.
The legislative and scientific momentum removes critical regulatory barriers for us, positioning us as a company that will initiate clinical trials probably in 2026 and pursue the FDA approval for our infant formula. This is a transformative milestone to us and the potential for us to redefine the global infant market, very soon. To summarize, the growth opportunity here is the FDA approval opportunity, the market demand trends, the profitability pathway, the funding in place that we have already secured. This is something that I haven't mentioned, but we have secured funds to support our operations until the point we're cash flow positive, and that is supposed to happen early 2027. This is an investment potential that actually converging, converting market trends and operational readiness to create a strong investment case at this pivotal growth stage. That's it.
I'm inviting you to talk to us, ask questions, reach out. We're ready to speak with anyone who has interest in the company. Thank you so much.
All right. Thank you. We'll now move on to a quick Q&A questions. If anyone from the audience have, you know, any questions, just drop your questions on the chat or on a Q&A button.
I don't have any questions. I don't see any questions.
Okay. Seems like everything was clearly presented. Thank you, Ms. Hamutal Yitzhak, and thank you to everyone. We really appreciate your engagement and your time. Have a great day.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Bye-bye.