Afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the LifeVantage presentation. With me today is Steve Fife, the CEO, and Carl Aure, the CFO. I think I won't talk about what the company does. I think I'll let you do that. But maybe what I'd like to do, Steve, is I think one thing I want you to touch on when you do talk about that is activation is a big theme. And that's where I think you get looped in with companies that are, I would say, in the broader wellness ecosystem, health and wellness ecosystem. And your go-to-market is a little bit different than some of those. But at the end of the day, what I always think of as distinguishes you is the activation story from the beginning, going way back. So, maybe just kind of give us an overview and then weave into that what activation is, how core that is to what you guys do.
Yeah, no, it's critical. Thanks, Reed. So LifeVantage has been around, publicly traded for over 15 years now on Nasdaq. We've got about an $80 million market cap. And it started with a single product about 20 years ago that was developed, obviously, prior to it going public, a product called Protandim Nrf2. And one of the things that really distinguishes LifeVantage from other companies in the health and wellness, or the supplements, or even the direct selling industry, all of which we participate in, really started with that product and how it is different than other products. And you used the word activation. We do use that word to distinguish us versus supplementation. And activation, to me, is when we're in our 20s, our teens, or maybe even into our 30s, our body knows how to produce what it needs to thrive.
As we age, as we probably don't eat as well as we should, as we don't exercise as much as we should, and then we're just exposed to the environment that causes aging, our body's ability to produce, I'll just say X, whatever it is, diminishes over time. Our products target specific areas in our body to help restore them to produce at a level that they were in their 20s when we were in our 20s and 30s. So in the case of that Protandim Nrf2, Nrf2 is a pathway in our body. It goes to being able to produce, and sorry, that pathway is responsible for the production of antioxidants. Antioxidants combat oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is responsible and tied to a number of diseases, especially inflammatory-type diseases.
The more antioxidants you have, the better chance you have of fighting these potential diseases. That product, Protandim Nrf2, has been clinically proven. We have over 30 peer-reviewed studies, including Harvard Medical School, the National Institutes of Health, all of which have pointed to the ability of it from a nutraceutical standpoint. Our products are all 100% natural but reducing the amount of oxidative stress. In fact, NIH did a study that said it's the only nutraceutical to reduce that and proven to reduce it by 40% within 30 days. It is so much more powerful when our body produces something. It is so much more powerful than anything that we could take into our body from a supplementation standpoint. When I think of oxidative stress, blueberries come to mind as an antioxidant.
And you could not consume enough blueberries in a day to have the same kind of impact of what our body can naturally do. And so that notion of targeting, improving our body's natural ability to do something is really how we frame our product strategy. And just to add on to our Protandim product, we have a collagen product that rather than going to Costco and scooping a powder into a drink and drinking collagen that has been added to your body, our product increases our body's ability to produce collagen by 100%. About a year ago, we launched the GLP-1 product. GLP-1 is a hormone that's produced in our bodies down in our lower intestines. We've done two clinical studies on that product. And in both cases, it increases by over 200% our body's ability to produce GLP-1.
Most recently, we acquired a company that had a product focused on the gut microbiome. I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about that more. One of the reasons why we acquired that company is because their product and studies that we've done increase the production of 14 peptides in our gut. Again, our little tagline and something that makes it easy to remember is you take our products to make something. Take it to make it. That definition, that really is what activation is to us. Again, very different than supplementation and something that has given us our differentiator, as well as provided us with a product roadmap in terms of all future products. What kind of guardrails are they going to fall into?
That's great. That's a great overview. And I like how you kind of shared how the product strategy has evolved and kind of a good segue back to the acquisition. Because again, the history is you really you've got a kind of a real good in-house team, whether it's R&D or just to kind of stand up new product and go to market. And so you do LoveBiome. I love biome. And so that's a little bit outside of that. It's a little bit of a shift. So talk about why did that make sense now? What's different about that opportunity? And what should we take away from that relative to the strategy going forward? Do you think you might do more of those? Or how do you think this evolves over the next couple of years?
Yeah, I think it's the start of something that we'll continue to look at and explore. It was the first acquisition the company's ever done. And it's 15-plus- year experience. And being in the space that we're in, the direct selling space, it's largely a people business. And when you acquire people businesses and your assets ride up the elevator every day, it becomes a challenge to integrate two companies like that. And so a lot of companies in our space don't go down that path. But we were fortunate. Carl actually worked in a previous company with the two founders of LoveBiome. And they reached out to him in June.
Yeah, June time frame.
June time frame, and as we explored the opportunity, what we found was an incredible leadership with the two of them, the two founders of the company. We found a consultant and customer base that was very cohesive and diverse from the LifeVantage consultant base and customer base, and so it brought to us a diversity that I thought was going to help the company. They had spent about three years exploring and developing this gut microbiome product, which is in a very, very hot and focused area right now, and we're finding tremendous success with it, so they had people, they had products, they had geographies that they were in that we were not in, and vice versa, and so it became kind of a no-brainer from that standpoint, and then the challenge really was now in the integration. The success comes post-acquisition. It's easy to identify the risks and the benefits while you're going through diligence. But the proof is in the integration.
Yeah. And so let's talk a little bit about that. Because I think from a timing standpoint, you closed the deal very quickly. And I think it was around some time when you had some of your events, that kind of thing. So talk about what you did. And where we sit today, do you feel like kind of the existing core base has embraced the product and you feel like we're moving forward? What does that roadmap look like?
Yeah, yeah, so first conversation, I think, was on June 30th. We signed a definitive agreement on September 1st, so just two months later. We closed the transaction on October 1st, and then during the month of October, we ran on parallel systems, but then on November 1st, we were able to cut over and fully integrate from a systems standpoint, and not just our accounting systems and the like, but a big part of our system infrastructure ties to our commissions and how we pay our independent consultants, and so we were able to integrate all of the LoveBiome consultants into the LifeVantage compensation plan and into the LifeVantage systems, and that's really fast, and you're right. We were fortunate that we had an in-person event previously scheduled at the end of October in Dallas, and we had, I don't know, 1,500 people.
And we were able to invite the LoveBiome people. And it was really kind of the coming out or the celebration of this acquisition. And it wasn't intended to be that when we scheduled the event six months earlier. But it turned into that. And how the integration is taking place or is taking, I couldn't be more proud. The real value and upside of this comes from LifeVantage retaining as many of the customers and consultants that existed prior to. And I think at this point, we're now three months into this. We can check the box that we've had a very, very high retention rate of those initial consultants that came over to us.
And then I look at the cross-selling. P84 is the name of this gut microbiome product that LoveBiome had established. And so the power comes from LifeVantage consultants selling that product and conversely, the LoveBiome consultants selling the LifeVantage products. And we projected, we forecasted where we thought that would be. And right now, again, a few months into it, it is exceeding my expectations on it. So that's another indication of success of the integration.
That's good. And just to kind of put a bow on this whole acquisition, et c., but just gut health in general. Again, it's kind of a new area for you. It's been hot, but it seems like it's still very early. What is your view of the market, kind of the opportunity, and then more specifically, just how you are approaching that?
Yeah, yeah. So the gut health market, I think the industry analyst would say it's an $8 billion industry growing to about $32 billion over the next eight years, I believe it is. So just under a 10% CAGR. So it's a large market for us. And it's really one of our strategies is for years, LifeVantage was really built on Protandim Nrf2. And most people, if you've heard of LifeVantage, it's probably because of that product. It still represents over 50% of our revenue today. It is, I guess, classified as an anti-aging type of product. So the demographic of our core base tends to be older, 45 years and above individuals.
What I think is really important as we launch new products, I want to make sure that we are opening up new white space, new customer base, new consultant base that might not be that are looking beyond just anti-aging. We did that when we launched a collagen product. There are people that are interested in collagen that might be on that other spectrum of trying to really stay young while they're young. Our GLP-1 product opened up white space for us in the weight management industry.
The same thing is true with P84. It opened up now another white space for us in the gut microbiome. The common different industries, different products, philosophy. But that's why it was so important that we can connect all of these through our activation philosophy and that each one of those we can tie back to the core science, that differentiator that really started from the company's roots, even though we're expanding now into other areas.
Yep. That's good, and so then I'm going to pivot a little bit because we've spent most of the time talking about products and markets and things like that, but really, at the core of what you do is you offer a business opportunity.
Absolutely.
That is, again, kind of core to your, it's in your DNA. And around that, what I think has helped you a lot in the last couple of years is you've kind of tweaked or optimized the compensation system. So maybe let's talk about that as what's very attractive to you, things you've changed there, and how important that is to your business model.
Yeah, yeah, so we use the word activation around our products. I use that same word around the business opportunity for our independent consultants. We operate in about 20 countries throughout the world. North America is 78% of our overall revenue, so we're dominant in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, but we still operate throughout the world, and we have 50,000 independent consultants who sell our products, and there's a very traditional aspect to the direct selling model. And as we, over the last several years, as we looked at growth opportunities within this channel, we concluded that our compensation plan really needed some enhancements, enhancements to take advantage of how people were buying and selling products, and a lot of this was accelerated through COVID and how the advent of social media, social selling really accelerated, and so we looked at our compensation plan.
Three years ago, I guess it is, we launched a new plan. I believe our goal, and I think we've accomplished that, is take the best of what we had from a traditional network marketing compensation plan, but enhance it with the ability to attract influencers, social sellers, affiliates, whatever you want to call them, and make a plan attractive to individuals who just want to sell product. Maybe they're not interested in building a big team. We've been able to do that quite successfully. We don't have any paid social sellers. So our target is, I guess, in the vernacular, more micro- influencers, people that have 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 followers.
But people like that that are looking to be able to monetize their name, their brand behind products that they can get behind, while also have the opportunity to maybe attract some other like-minded people who do the same. And so they can leverage the efforts of others as opposed to just being dependent solely on them for that source of income. But you're right. Behind all of these great products is a business opportunity. And our consultants, those 50,000 consultants, it ranges from, I guess, the traditional soccer mom who wants to earn $500, $1,000 a month to people that are earning six-figure incomes. And it's a full-time thing. And as the side hustle and the gig economy really continues to thrive, this industry provides a very, very viable option for those kinds of individuals, any entrepreneur.
Yep. I don't want to leave Carl out of the whole picture. It's not fair to you. So you've been monopolizing the scene. So let's work you in here. So we've been talking, again, we've been talking about products and all the areas you're growing and consultants. So how do you think about what sort of investments do you need to do, whether that's technology and kind of how much of that is kind of your priority, but also just overall? I mean, you've always had a very clean balance sheet. How are you thinking today post an acquisition that you've never done an acquisition for about allocating capital either to these internal growth areas or to others or repurchasing shares, et c.?
Yeah, no, that's a good question, and yeah, we spent a lot of time thinking about capital allocation and what is the best way to really drive value for our shareholders at the end of the day. As we've talked about this, the beauty of this model is it generates a lot of significant free cash flow. It's always been very profitable, and number one, we've always wanted to reinvest internally into our business. That's where we believe the biggest investment has been. We've also been focused from a share repurchase standpoint. Historically, we've been very active on repurchasing shares. We've also implemented a dividend program as well just to supplement that, but when I look forward to future internal investment, I think technology is an area that we're really going to be investing in over the next couple of years.
We've talked about in a couple of our previous meetings and press releases about our partnership with Shopify. So that we're implementing a new e-commerce platform that we really believe is going to be beneficial to our business overall. We look forward to the improved conversion and just the ease of shopping and being able to get our products out there into consumers' hands. So I think technology for sure is an area that we'll be investing in over the course of the next couple of years as we look forward.
And I'd add on to that international expansion.
Yeah, that's right. Because you're still largely a domestic business.
Yeah. And we've got bits and pieces throughout the world. But just this last year, we launched into Iceland and Canary Islands. And those might not sound like huge revenue-driving markets. But both of those markets we launched into because of consultants in other countries where we have a large presence and we attract new consultants who have teams in those countries. And we evaluate them. And again, one of the real benefits of this model is we can launch in a country like that. And really, it costs us product registration and business registration. There's a very low cost to entry. We don't have any physical footprint. We service all of that from existing hubs, in that case, from hubs in Europe. All of the accounting and activity is done in the U.S. And so it's really relatively low cost to drive some incremental revenue like that.
That's good. Well, I think we're close to time. So I think we'll leave it there. Thank you both very much.
Great.
Thanks, everybody.
Thanks, Reed.
Thanks.
This presentation has now finished. Please check back shortly for the archive.
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the LifeVantage presentation. With me today is Steve Fife, the CEO, and Carl Aure, the CFO. I think I won't talk about what the company does. I think I'll let you do that. But maybe what I'd like to do, Steve, is I think one thing I want you to touch on when you do talk about that is activation is a big theme. And that's where I think you get looped in with companies that are, I would say, in the broader wellness ecosystem, health and wellness ecosystem. And your go-to-market is a little bit different than some of those. But at the end of the day, what I always think of as distinguishes you is the activation story from the beginning, going way back. So, maybe just kind of give us an overview and then weave into that what activation is, how core that is to what you guys do.
Yeah, no, it's critical. Thanks, Reed. LifeVantage has been around, publicly traded for over 15 years now on Nasdaq. We've got about an $80 million market cap. It started with a single product about 20 years ago that was developed, obviously, prior to it going public, a product called Protandim Nrf2. One of the things that really distinguishes LifeVantage from other companies in the health and wellness or the supplements or even the direct selling industry, all of which we participate in, really started with that product and how it is different than other products. You used the word activation. We do use that word to distinguish us versus supplementation. Activation, to me, is when our bodies, when we're in our 20s, our teens, maybe even into our 30s, our body knows how to produce what it needs to thrive.
And as we age, as we probably don't eat as well as we should, as we don't exercise as much as we should, and then we're just exposed to the environment that causes aging, our body's ability to produce, I'll just say X, whatever it is, diminishes over time. And our products target specific areas in our body to help restore them to produce at a level that they were in their 20s when we were in our 20s and 30s. And so in the case of that Protandim Nrf2, Nrf2 is a pathway in our body. And it goes to being able to produce and sorry, that pathway is responsible for the production of antioxidants. Antioxidants combat oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is responsible and tied to a number of diseases, especially inflammatory-type diseases.
The more antioxidants you have, the better chance you have of fighting these potential diseases. That product, Protandim Nrf2, has been clinically proven. We have over 30 peer-reviewed studies, including Harvard Medical School, the National Institutes of Health, all of which have pointed to the ability of it from a nutraceutical standpoint. Our products are all 100% natural, but reducing the amount of oxidative stress. In fact, NIH did a study that said it's the only nutraceutical to reduce that and proven to reduce it by 40% within 30 days. It is so much more powerful when our body produces something. It is so much more powerful than anything that we could take into our body from a supplementation standpoint. When I think of oxidative stress, blueberries come to mind as an antioxidant.
You could not consume enough blueberries in a day to have the same kind of impact of what our body can naturally do. And so that notion of targeting, improving our body's natural ability to do something is really how we frame our product strategy. And just to add on to our Protandim product, we have a collagen product that rather than going to Costco and scooping a powder into a drink and drinking collagen that has been added to your body, our product increases our body's ability to produce collagen by 100%. About a year ago, we launched the GLP-1 product. GLP-1 is a hormone that's produced in our bodies down in our lower intestines. We've done two clinical studies on that product. And in both cases, it increases by over 200% our body's ability to produce GLP-1.
And most recently, we acquired a company that had a product focused on the gut microbiome. And I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about that more. But one of the reasons why we acquired that company is because their product and studies that we've done increases the production of 14 peptides in our gut. So again, our little tagline and something that makes it easy to remember is you take our products to make something. Take it to make it. And that definition, that really is what activation is to us. Again, very different than supplementation and something that has given us our differentiator as well as provided us with a product roadmap in terms of all future products. What kind of guardrails are they going to fall into?
That's great. That's a great overview. And I like how you kind of shared how the product strategy has evolved and kind of a good segue back to the acquisition. Because again, the history is you really, you've got a kind of a real good in-house team, whether it's R&D or just to kind of stand up new product and go to market. And so you do LoveBiome. And so that's a little bit outside of that. It's a little bit of a shift. So talk about why did that make sense now? What's different about that opportunity? And what should we take away from that relative to the strategy going forward? Do you think you might do more of those? Or how do you think this evolves over the next couple of years?
Yeah, I think it's the start of something that we'll continue to look at and explore. It was the first acquisition the company's ever done, and it's 15-plus year experience. And being in the space that we're in, the direct selling space, it's largely a people business. And when you acquire people businesses and your assets ride up the elevator every day, it becomes a challenge to integrate two companies like that. And so a lot of companies in our space don't go down that path. But we were fortunate. Carl actually worked in a previous company with the two founders of LoveBiome. And they reached out to him in June.
Yeah, June time frame.
June time frame. And as we explored the opportunity, what we found was an incredible leadership with the two of them, the two founders of the company. We found a consultant and customer base that was very cohesive and diverse from the LifeVantage consultant base and customer base. And so it brought to us a diversity that I think I thought was going to help the company. They had spent about three years exploring and developing this gut microbiome product, which is in a very, very hot and focused area right now. And we're finding tremendous success with it. So they had people, they had products, they had geographies that they were in that we were not in, and vice versa. And so it became kind of a no-brainer from that standpoint. And then the challenge really was now in the integration. The success comes post-acquisition. It's easy to identify the risks and the benefits while you're going through diligence. But the proof is in the integration.
Yeah, and so let's talk a little bit about that. Because I think from a timing standpoint, you closed the deal very quickly, and I think it was around some time when you had some of your events, so talk about what you did, and where we sit today, do you feel like kind of the existing core base has embraced the product and you feel like we're moving forward? What does that roadmap look like?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So first conversation, I think, was on June 30th. We signed a definitive agreement on September 1st, so just two months later. We closed the transaction on October 1st. And then during the month of October, we ran on parallel systems. But then on November 1st, we were able to cut over and fully integrate from a systems standpoint. And not just our accounting systems and the like, but a big part of our system infrastructure ties to our commissions and how we pay our independent consultants. And so we were able to integrate all of the LoveBiome consultants into the LifeVantage compensation plan and into the LifeVantage systems. And that's really fast. And you're right. We were fortunate that we had an in-person event previously scheduled at the end of October in Dallas. And we had, I don't know, 1,500 people.
We were able to invite the LoveBiome people. It was really kind of the coming out or the celebration of this acquisition. It wasn't intended to be that when we scheduled the event six months earlier, but it turned into that. How the integration is taking place or is taking, I couldn't be more proud. The real value and upside of this comes from LifeVantage retaining as many of the customers and consultants that existed prior to. I think at this point, we're now three months into this. We can check the box that we've had a very, very high retention rate of those initial consultants that came over to us. Then I look at the cross-selling. P84 is the name of this gut microbiome product that LoveBiome had established. The power comes from LifeVantage consultants selling that product and conversely, the LoveBiome consultants selling the LifeVantage products. We projected, we forecasted where we thought that would be. Right now, again, a few months into it, it is exceeding my expectations on it. That's another indication of success of the integration.
That's good. And just to kind of put a bow on this whole acquisition, et cetera, but just gut health in general. Again, it's kind of a new area for you. It's been hot, but it seems like it's still very early. What is your view of the market, kind of the opportunity, and then more specifically just how you are approaching that?
Yeah, yeah. So the gut health market, I think the industry analyst would say it's an $8 billion industry growing to about $32 billion over the next eight years, I believe it is. So just under a 10% CAGR. So it's a large market for us. And it's really one of our strategies is for years, LifeVantage was really built on Protandim Nrf2. And most people, if you've heard of LifeVantage, it's probably because of that product. It still represents over 50% of our revenue today. It is, I guess, classified as an anti-aging type of product. So the demographic of our core base tends to be older, 45 years and above individuals.
What I think is really important as we launch new products, I want to make sure that we are opening up new white space, new customer base, new consultant base that might not be, that are looking beyond just anti-aging. We did that when we launched a collagen product. There are people that are interested in collagen that might be on that other spectrum of trying to really stay young while they're young. Our GLP-1 product opened up white space for us in the weight management industry. The same thing is true with P84. It opened up now another white space for us in the gut microbiome. The common different industries, different products, philosophy, but that's why it was so important that we can connect all of these through our activation philosophy and that each one of those we can tie back to the core science, that differentiator that really started from the company's roots, even though we're expanding now into other areas.
Yep. That's good. And so then I'm going to pivot a little bit because we've spent most of the time talking about products and markets and things like that. But really, at the core of what you do is you offer a business opportunity.
Absolutely.
That is, again, kind of core to it, it's in your DNA. And around that, what I think has helped you a lot in the last couple of years is you've kind of tweaked or optimized the compensation system. So maybe let's talk about that as what's very attractive to you, things you've changed there, and how important that is to your business model.
Yeah, yeah. So we use the word activation around our products. I use that same word around the business opportunity for our independent consultants. We operate in about 20 countries throughout the world. North America is 78% of our overall revenue. So we're dominant in the U.S., Mexico, Canada. But we still operate throughout the world. And we have 50,000 independent consultants who sell our products. And there's a very traditional aspect to the direct selling model. And over the last several years, as we looked at growth opportunities within this channel, we concluded that our compensation plan really needed some enhancements, enhancements to take advantage of how people were buying and selling products. And a lot of this was accelerated through COVID and how the advent of social media, social selling really accelerated. And so we looked at our compensation plan.
Three years ago, I guess it is, we launched a new plan. I believe our goal, and I think we've accomplished that, is take the best of what we had from a traditional network marketing compensation plan, but enhance it with the ability to attract influencers, social sellers, affiliates, whatever you want to call them, and make a plan attractive to individuals who just want to sell product. Maybe they're not interested in building a big team. We've been able to do that quite successfully. We don't have any paid social sellers. So our target is, I guess, in the vernacular, more micro- influencers, people that have 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 followers.
But people like that that are looking to be able to monetize their name, their brand behind products that they can get behind, while also have the opportunity to maybe attract some other like-minded people who do the same. And so they can leverage the efforts of others as opposed to just being dependent solely on them for that source of income. But you're right. Behind all of these great products is a business opportunity. And our consultants, those 50,000 consultants, it ranges from, I guess, the traditional soccer mom who wants to earn $500, $1,000 a month to people that are earning six-figure incomes. And it's a full-time thing. And as the side hustle and the gig economy really continues to thrive, this industry provides a very, very viable option for those kinds of individuals, any entrepreneur.
Yep. I don't want to leave Carl out of the whole picture. It's not fair to you. So you've been monopolizing the team. So let's work you in here. So we've been talking, again, we've been talking about products and all the areas you're growing and consultants. So how do you think about what sort of investments do you need to do, whether that's technology and kind of how much of that is kind of your priority, but also just overall? I mean, you've always had a very clean balance sheet. How are you thinking today post an acquisition that you've never done an acquisition for about allocating capital either to these internal growth areas or to others or repurchasing shares, et c.?
Yeah, no, that's a good question. And yeah, we spend a lot of time thinking about capital allocation and what is the best way to really drive value for our shareholders at the end of the day. As we've talked about this, the beauty of this model is it generates a lot of significant free cash flow. It's always been very profitable. And number one, we've always wanted to reinvest internally into our business. That's where we believe the biggest investment has been. We've also been focused from a share repurchase standpoint. Historically, we've been very active on repurchasing shares. We've also implemented a dividend program as well just to supplement that. But when I look forward to future internal investment, I think technology is an area that we're really going to be investing in over the next couple of years.
We've talked about in a couple of our previous meetings and press releases about our partnership with Shopify so that we're implementing a new e-commerce platform that we really believe is going to be beneficial to our business overall. We look forward to the improved conversion and just the ease of shopping and being able to get our products out there into consumers' hands, so I think technology for sure is an area that we'll be investing in over the course of the next couple of years as we look forward.
I'd add on to that international expansion.
Yeah, that's right. Because you're still largely a domestic business.
Yeah. And we've got bits and pieces throughout the world. But just this last year, we launched into Iceland and Canary Islands. And those might not sound like huge revenue-driving markets, but both of those markets we launched into because of consultants in other countries where we have a large presence and we attract new consultants who have teams in those countries. And we evaluate them. And again, one of the real benefits of this model is we can launch in a country like that. And really, it costs us product registration and business registration. There's a very low cost to entry. We don't have any physical footprint. We service all of that from existing hubs, in that case, from hubs in Europe. All of the accounting and activity is done in the U.S. And so it's really relatively low cost to drive some incremental revenue like that.
That's good. Well, I think we're close to time. So I think we'll leave it there. Thank you both very much.
Great.
Thanks, everybody.
Thanks.