Hello, and welcome to the VerifyMe 2024 Investor Day conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by 0. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions by telephone. To ask a question, you may press Star, then 1 on your telephone keypad, and to withdraw your question, please press Star then 2. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Nancy Meyers, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and thank you for joining us today. On the call, I'm joined by Adam Stedham, CEO and President, and Paul Ryan, Executive Vice President, Authentication. During this call, we hope to leave everyone with a clear understanding of our two operating segments, as well as our 2023 achievements, our 2024 objectives, and our five-year strategy. I would like to bring your attention to the note on forward-looking statements on slide 3. Today's presentation and the answers to questions include forward-looking statements. It should be understood that actual results could differ materially from those projected due to a number of factors, including those described under the forward-looking statements caption and on the risk factors of the company's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.
Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or correct any of the forward-looking statements made during the presentation. I would also like to note that this presentation includes 2023 preliminary, unaudited year-end financial results prepared by our management team. Our actual audited 2023 year-end financial results may differ materially from these preliminary financial results. Our independent registered public accounting firm has not audited, reviewed, or performed any procedures with respect to these preliminary numbers. Further risks associated with these 2023 preliminary year-end financial results are set forth on this slide. At this point, I would like to hand the call over to Adam Stedham.
Thank you, Nancy, and welcome everyone. During 2023, we primarily focused on creating the foundation for the company, and let's look at some of the major items of accomplishment. We assembled a new executive team. We added talent to the board of directors and reduced board costs, completed the Trust Codes acquisition, and vertically integrated the Trust Codes technology stack with all of our existing customers. We strengthened the capitalization of the company by completing a small convertible note purchase agreement, and we believe that that was on very favorable terms for the company. We improved the ongoing gross margin of PeriShip by over 300 basis points, and then we developed a go-to-market strategy tied to the food, agriculture, and beverage industries, as well as traceability within e-commerce.
We now have a clear focus on developing commercial relationships in over five specific industries, offering a well-balanced foundation for consistent growth, and we'll be discussing this later in the presentation. We believe that this strategy reduces our historical dependence on the alternative agriculture industry. So wrapping up 2023, our preliminary unaudited revenue is expected to be above $25 million. We affirm that we expect a positive Adjusted EBITDA. We expect to finish the year with no net debt, as we anticipate $3.1 million in cash and $1.4 million in outstanding on our term loan. Now, we did raise capital with our convertible note for about $1.1 million in 2023, but we anticipate a meaningful portion of that will be converted to shares and will not be repaid in cash.
So as you can see, we now have a very strong balance sheet and very positive liquidity. So I believe that's enough time on the past. So let's shift the conversation to the present and the future. And so I'd like to talk about the company's two operating segments. One is a mature operating segment, Precision Logistics, which generates over 95% of our current revenues. Our team provides customers with pre-transit, in-transit, delivery, and post-delivery operations. We'll discuss more details about these operations later on. The segment's in an industry that's expected to grow with a CAGR of about 8% over the next five years. We believe we have sufficient specialization to exceed that and deliver double-digit growth, and I'll explain more about this with the segment later in the presentation.
Now, our Authentication segment is an emerging technologies business positioned to benefit from two large and sometimes overlapping macro trends. The first trend is the increased regulatory and consumer demand for product authentication and traceability. And the second trend is the shift towards 2D barcodes, impacting retailers and improving consumer engagement. The Authentication segment provides traceability, anti-counterfeit, optimization of supply chain, and consumer engagement technology and services. Paul Ryan, the head of that segment, will discuss this in more detail in just a bit. Now, let's transition to begin looking forward. Both myself and several of our board members have a track record of successful acquisitions, and I believe the company has opportunities for both organic and strategic growth.
The timing of these deals can be difficult to predict, so I won't discuss more about this other than to say, I view a complementary acquisition as one that is at a desirable price, provides strong growth fundamentals, and enables smooth integration into our existing structure. Now let's return to 2024 and our objectives. We mentioned 2023 was focused on building the operating foundation of the company. 2024 is focused on strengthening the sales engine of the company. We intend to double the size of the sales and marketing teams for both operating segments in 2024. I previously mentioned that the company expects to have double-digit organic growth in 2024, and I'm reaffirming that statement.
I believe that we will be able to establish a sales engine that will enable the company to organically achieve revenues in 5 years between $50 million and $60 million a year. At that point, the company should achieve an adjusted EBITDA margin of 15%-20%. Obviously, any strategic growth initiatives can have a significant additive impact on those results. So at this point, I'd like to shift the conversation and discuss more details about our Precision Logistics segment. Precision Logistics segment was established with the VerifyMe acquisition of PeriShip, that was completed in mid-2022. PeriShip is a value-added, non-asset shipping and logistics company that was founded in 2001 and was managed privately by the same CEO throughout that time.
The company primarily operates in the $4 billion US perishable goods transportation market, that is projected to grow at an 8% CAGR over the next 5 years. However, PeriShip has a stronger concentration in the residential shipments rather than business-to-business shipments. This market benefits from the shift towards e-commerce, and we believe supports growth rates that exceed the growth rate for the overall perishable goods transportation market. Now, PeriShip customers typically ship perishable items. These are items with time, temperature, and criticality parameters, and they have specific service requirements. Delivery disruptions of these shipments can generate significant financial impact due to product spoilage and brand impairment. This situation creates an opportunity for a purpose-built provider to pursue and service this market, and we believe these customers are underserved due to the specific complexities and operating costs of their requirements.
However, PeriShip has the experience, technology, and processes to meet the needs of these customers at favorable commercial terms. So our services fall into three main areas. Firstly, proprietary weather services to alert customers of risks to shipment delivery time. Secondly, an outsourcing capability to track and monitor packages en route. And thirdly, communication services with the end customers to alert them of package delays. So let me explain each of these areas in a little bit more detail. Our proprietary weather service alerts customers to impending weather patterns that might exist in major hub areas, that may lead to flight delays and hence delays getting the package to the ground transportation to complete the final delivery. This may result in us recommending delaying the shipment or suggesting alternative routes.
Once the package is on its way, our proprietary PeriTrack customer dashboard provides an integrated tool that gives an in-depth look at the shipping activities and allows us to communicate critical information to the customer in support of all of the needs of getting that package delivered. This dashboard, it's available to our customers through the PeriShip portal. In addition, we monitor these packages for our customers and provide them with regular updates. After the package is delivered, we provide summary customized reporting for trend analysis, system performance reports, power outage maps, and other tailored reports. And then lastly, when delivery issues are detected, we reach out to the end customer to alert them to the package delays, and in some cases, we can intervene with last mile delivery options.
This last service is critical in providing a degree of brand protection for our customers to ensure repeat business opportunities remain open for them. Currently, the majority of PeriShip's customers primarily fit into two categories: life sciences and high-value products, predominantly in the food arena. These types of products have a combination of shipping requirements and customer expectations that are well aligned to PeriShip's specialized tracking, service, and communications capabilities. The company has three different types of commercial contracts. Two of these contracts are classified as Premium contracts, and the third type of contract we refer to as a Proactive contract. Now, the biggest difference is that in Premium, we charge a service fee to monitor the package, and that comprises the total invoice value, whereas in Proactive, we offer competitive freight rates, and the invoice represents both the freight and service component.
For 2023, approximately 80% of PeriShip's revenue was generated from Proactive contracts and 20% from Premium contracts. I want to spend a few minutes reviewing these customer contracts in more detail, starting with the Premium customers. I'll start with a specific example, Sanofi, one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the U.S. Now, please forgive the slightly complicated slide, but I wanted to highlight all of the areas that we help Sanofi in their distribution process. It's important to note that in this category, FedEx, with our involvement, has the contract with Sanofi, and FedEx integrates our white label service along with their freight into the contract with Sanofi. Essentially, FedEx outsources the execution of these customer service tasks to us. As a purpose-built organization, we provide FedEx with a more efficient and effective way to offer non-standard services to their customers.
As you can see, we provide weather services, we monitor the packages en route, we communicate with Sanofi at all steps, and then, as necessary, we communicate with the end customer. We're made aware by Sanofi of the time and temperature parameters of the specific vaccine in question, allowing us to ensure it is delivered within this time frame, and in cases when it is not, we ensure return of the product for safe disposal. Because of the critical nature of the product, we communicate with the end customer to ensure both smooth delivery if problems arise, such as signature requirements or delivery window changes. Now, PeriShip has a second type of Premium customer, which is very similar to the Sanofi example we just went through. But in this case, the customer has contracted directly with PeriShip for our services rather than having them integrated into their FedEx arrangement.
The revenues for PeriShip, therefore, come directly from the customer rather than through FedEx. This type of commercial arrangement represents a very small portion of the overall company revenue, and we refer to it as direct Premium. So to understand this relationship better, we can review a specific example. This customer is a large pharmaceutical client. Like our other Premium customers, they contract directly with FedEx for shipping, but they contract directly with PeriShip for the execution of customer service tasks of specific elements of their business. PeriShip's unique technology integration with FedEx is what allows us to meet the needs of our direct Premium customers. In general, these customers depend on PeriShip's tracking, weather, and customer engagement services in combination with having their freight delivered by FedEx. So the last type of commercial contract I'd like to review is our Proactive contracts. These represent a majority of PeriShip's revenue.
The example I'm sharing is Giordano's, which is a specialized Chicago-style pizza. This customer contracts directly with PeriShip for shipping, as well as the weather and package monitoring and customer engagement services. PeriShip engages FedEx to manage the operational execution from pickup to delivery. These customers also benefit from savings that's associated with our shipping services due to our favorable pricing as a freight aggregator. Therefore, the price that the customer pays, and which is reflected in the PeriShip revenue line, is a bundle of both freight and services. Now, we believe each of these types of commercial contracts represent meaningful growth opportunities for PeriShip. And I want to spend a few minutes sharing with you some key initiatives that we've started that will help lead us to realizing strong growth in this segment. There are four key areas that comprise our 2024 strategic plan for PeriShip.
First, we plan to expand our sales capacity and implement a targeted marketing effort. In 2024, we plan to double the size of the sales force, as well as invest in key marketing activities. This expansion is primarily focused on growing the Proactive customer base. We believe there's a growing need in the market for PeriShip services, and increasing the sales team will enable us to improve our conversion of incoming opportunities, expand our boots on the ground to actively search for new relationships... and engage in new marketing initiatives to exist or to assist with both of those endeavors. Secondly, we plan to enhance our technology stack to improve efficiencies and better integrate with the e-commerce marketplace. PeriShip enjoys a unique technology integration with FedEx, but we also have a standalone technology stack that includes back-end functionality and our proprietary PeriTrack customer dashboard.
This technology enables our customers to receive maximum value from our weather, tracking, and end customer engagement services. As the e-commerce space is growing rapidly, we believe there is a significant opportunity for services companies dependent upon, or to service companies, sorry, that are dependent upon an effective engagement with the increasing number of consumers that are shopping from home. We've been investing in this technology stack throughout 2023, and as a result, I'm pleased that our software stack has recently been approved as a FedEx compatible solution. This designation represents a significant enhancement in our relationship with FedEx, and it should allow smoother operations with our customers, as well as providing additional marketing edge. So third, I'd like to discuss. We plan to expand our contractual relationships in the e-commerce marketplace.
The enhancement of our technology stack is a key element of our strategy to engage with the e-commerce marketplace. Multiple software companies have purpose-built applications to enable efficient shipping and logistics services for the growing e-commerce company. However, these companies are not necessarily focused on the specific service requirements associated with the needs of time and temperature-sensitive products. And the integration of PeriShip's technology stack with their e-commerce technology providers can help create multiple efficient paths to deliver PeriShip services to the marketplace. And speaking of paths to market, this brings me to the last focus area. We believe we can improve our strategic alignment with FedEx to enable a go-to-market strategy, which will accelerate our organic growth. We're working with FedEx to define a broader relationship that will better enable PeriShip to work directly with the FedEx sales teams.
This model would significantly increase our sales leverage by allowing PeriShip to benefit from the size and reach of the FedEx sales and business development network. This would act as a major positive thrust to our existing sales capabilities, and we believe that by working closer with FedEx, it can also bring substantial benefits to FedEx as they capture more of the small and medium-sized business activity in the perishable marketplace. Now, I'd like to transition the conversation to the Authentication segment, which currently represents less than 5% of total company revenues. But we believe it has the capability to grow strongly over the next 5 years. As a result, we're gonna spend a little bit longer discussing this segment.
While we believe the opportunity to create shareholder value in this segment are very significant, the regulatory marketplace and technical aspects of the business can be complex and a bit unpredictable. Therefore, we want to go into enough detail to ensure shareholders understand why we're excited and optimistic about the investments we're making in this segment. The foundation of the business has been strengthened by the acquisition of Trust Codes in March 2023, which radically changes our competitive positioning. We believe there are numerous opportunities in this rapidly evolving marketplace, and we'll prioritize and invest in those areas as the commercial opportunities develop. Trust Codes, they've shown over the past many years that it's provided solutions to customers in some of the most challenging areas of the world, mainly in Asia.
The goal now is to take this experience and broaden it across the U.S. market. Now, I want to pass the call over to Paul Ryan, the head of the segment and co-founder of Trust Codes, so he could share with you more about this exciting opportunity.
Thank you, Adam. Let's start with revisiting the slide from earlier in the presentation. We've created an end-to-end capability that offers numerous benefits to our customers. We provide both digital and physical solutions to the market, targeted at monitoring an item's journey through the supply chain, and to provide brand protection and enhancement solutions to reduce counterfeit and increase end consumer engagement. This is a growing need, particularly within the consumer packaged goods industry and the food and beverage segment. We have experience in developing and providing a product cloud, connecting physical items to the digital world based on a unique digital identity or license plate per item. This is referred to as a digital twin of the physical item.
Once that digital item or digital twin is created in the cloud, it allows us to apply an ever-increasing amount of machine learning and business logic, both programmatic and predictive, to that digital twin. We can then connect the data collected across the value chain for traceability, visibility, validation, real-time intelligence, and at the end, create a connection to the final end consumer, who can check the authenticity of the product, engage with the producer or the brand of the product, and learn about things such as recyclability of packaging. Let me spend a minute sharing with you, where we see our main areas of competitive advantage. The concept of a digital twin has been around for a long time in technology circles, but we've been at the forefront of using the idea to track each item in a supply chain.
Our experience in machine learning and predictive analytics to combat product fraud and counterfeiting gives us an advantage when marketing our solutions, and we've developed models and solutions that have been well received by our customers. In this slide, we touch on a few categories where we feel we have a competitive advantage. Importantly, a code like a QR code is just a data carrier, so we've developed machine learning models to detect phishing websites, as it's known in the industry. It spoofs or mimics a real customer product website. That helps us identify counterfeiters using QR codes to divert product, and we use the domain registration details to do that. We also integrate with production systems so that codes are only activated when used by a verified customer. This means we're not only deeply connected with customers' operations, it means labels can't be diverted through other means.
Generally, the biggest risk to product data is either bad actors or bad process, and we use our data intelligence to offset those risks. We've also embedded GS1 standards from day one of our product development, and I'll come to GS1 soon in another slide. So we're ready for the two-dimensional barcode migration and retailer integration called Project Sunrise, which I'll also expand on in another slide. And finally, anti-counterfeit solutions need consumers to engage, so we've developed capability to delight and enthuse consumers all over the world. A good example is gamification, which I will expand on in a later slide, which helps us get more data to improve the effectiveness of our anti-counterfeit and traceability algorithms.
We have relationships with global customers in certain key product lines, and we have a proven solution with many of them that addresses challenges of brand protection, traceability, and consumer engagement. These product areas include infant nutrition, nutritional supplements or vitamins, meat, appliances, honey, fruit packing, to name just a few. Now let me turn to the tailwinds that are fueling so many opportunities in this space. One of the key drivers is that we're in the midst of a once-in-a-generation shift from the linear or one-dimensional UPC barcode, to a two-dimensional barcode format, for example, a QR Code, which can contain a lot more information. This fundamental shift in technology will improve consumer engagement, safety, and traceability outcomes. Our platform is built to fully conform with GS1, and GS1 is the global barcode and supply chain data standards organization. They are the ones that issue UPCs, for example.
The move away from one-dimensional to two-dimensional barcodes is a generational technology shift that should result in literally billions of new digital identity sets. Now, not every product will need individual item marking, but we believe the food industry and any business that is exposed to counterfeiting and regional division will likely choose to identify each item uniquely to comply with regulatory requirements and minimize fraud and safety concerns. The second key driver of demand in the United States is the imminent requirement for traceability recordkeeping found in the U.S. FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, Section 204 requirements. This is commonly referred to as the Food Traceability List. The underlying driver of these new regulations is ensuring the safety of the food supply in the United States, and with improved end-to-end traceability, it will allow for more speedy and targeted recalls if problems are encountered.
The food groups that regulations cover include soft cheeses, nut butters, different types of fish and seafood, some fruits, leafy greens, and the standards for recordkeeping are aligned with those global GS1 standards I've already mentioned. We have a proven platform in this area which intersects technology, regulation, and consumer expectations, and we've had our technology validated by GS1. We believe we're one of only a few providers that could make that claim. Lastly, a significant related tailwind that I wanted to highlight relates to the adoption of QR codes by retailers at point of sale. As we've discussed already, the increasing amounts of information that can be gained from scanning a QR code versus the traditional one-dimensional linear UPC code is substantial. That enables retail checkouts to identify aspects such as expired foods, counterfeit products, or, for example, recall products.
That allows the retailer to intervene and prevent sale of a recall product, for example. Project Sunrise, as it's known, targets the move to two-dimensional QR codes by 2027. As Adam's already mentioned, we have a refreshed U.S. sales team who are actively targeting the areas that benefit from the tailwinds I've just mentioned. We look forward to sharing their successes with you as the year develops. Now, let me shift quickly to discuss the size of the market we believe is out there to be tapped. This is probably on your mind as you try and quantify the runway ahead of us for the authentication market. Due to the fragmented nature of this business, getting one's arms around a clear, total addressable market is difficult, but several consultants have tried.
On the slide, you can see two such estimates, each suggesting a market more than $10 billion and growing fast. We believe there is a large and mostly untapped market to pursue driven by macro factors such as increasing consumer expectations, but also regulation and increasing complexity of managing the digital supply chain. You might be wondering how big each customer could be in this business. Of course, it depends on production quantities, but given our broad range of services, we are targeting customers who produce at least 5 million units and above. This should lead to customer revenues of between $50,000-$500,000 annualized recurring revenue, and potentially much higher based on volume and value-added services. We've discussed our capabilities, our competitive advantages, the numerous tailwinds and potential market size.
Now, for the rest of the presentation, I wanted to share with you some real examples so you can see how this all comes together with our customers. The first example I want to share with you is our partnership with Amcor. Amcor is one of the largest packaging companies in the United States. The focus of our relationship there is towards meatpacking customers initially, and I was with Amcor last week at the 2024 IPPE Conference in Atlanta, promoting our traceability capabilities. We have fully integrated our technology with the Amcor Moda meat packaging solution, which allows Amcor's customers to seamlessly print codes, unique codes, on every meat bag or package without changing their line configuration. The drive for improved efficiency in the meatpacking industry is leading to substantial new investment in this area. We are very optimistic about this partnership as 2024 unfolds.
Now, let me shift gears to a different kind of customer. In collaboration with the state government of Victoria, Australia, CherryHill Orchards implemented our unique per item GS1 formatted QR codes to assure brand trust and product protection in their export markets, mostly in Southeast Asia. They also wanted to leverage consumer engagement in the form of a digital game to build a trusted following of loyal consumers. And in the industry, that's called gamification, which I mentioned earlier. So the consumers play a fun and low-skill game, and they get to share those results on their relevant social media. We track counterfeit activity. Yes, believe it or not, product substitution is common in the cherry industry, and with that, we provide end-to-end traceability. I mentioned we have real strength in the infant nutrition industry.
In the US, for example, you can see our technology on the bases of infant milk, infant milk formula cans, such as, used by our customer, Bubs. And you can go to a Walmart store or Target, for example, and see Bubs cans on the shelf. We help Bubs defend their brand, trace their product into market, and contextually engage consumers based on where the consumer is. Bubs is leveraging our innovation. And so I also wanted to share a recent innovation that we call the Connected Can. Now, this is a can that has two consumer codes, hidden, a hidden QR under the foil and a blue dot, white dot QR, marked, with a laser coder on the base. And normally this would be animated, this image. It's not moving, so, there's a technology issue there.
I can't help it right now. The machine code, what we're doing there is, marking a blue dot base. So if you go, if you get a chance to go to a Walmart store and look at a Bubs can, you'll see it's marked with a blue dot on the base, and we laser mark a QR code on the base. And those are very common, in fact, standard in the rest of the world, and we'll believe -- we believe it'll be adopted in the U.S. very soon. The machine code on top of the foil provides for reliable scanning during production and packing to assure data quality, and to associate each code with another secure data pair that we can match together.
The use of that hidden or secret under foil QR code provides an avenue for loyalty engagement and improves significantly anti-counterfeit features. This is a feature designed by VerifyMe needed to be implemented on almost any production line with minimal changes and no loss of throughput. Let me now switch to a product many of you will be familiar with: covert ink. Now, this ink is virtually impossible to see, alter, or remove, and it acts as a determinative marker to check authenticity. All but invisible to the naked eye, VerifyMe Ink, highly secure taggant, is added into product packaging, for example, a product label or on the Connected Can example I shared with you. The use of the authenticator to detect a patented dual code marking is a very powerful authentication tool....
and the worldwide geolocation of all those authentication checks on our product cloud by brand inspectors, for example, are integrated with the brand's reporting, so the brand knows who, when, and where the product is being scanned. We have a partnership for this ink with Hewlett-Packard, HP, and it's used widely in Indigo Digital Presses, or it's used in the widely used Indigo Digital Presses. HP lead the market for digital printing, used for labels, cardboard, packaging, film, et cetera. We have recently refined our go-to-market strategy for the ink product, and we've been fortunate to be alongside HP at important trade shows, and we expect this to continue this year. We are starting to see green shoots develop from these initiatives. Before I leave this ink slide, I wanted to reinforce that this technology is not intended for consumer use.
It is designed with a secure supply chain and proprietary patented hardware checkers to provide that deterministic validation for brand inspectors and customs agencies, for example. Turning to the specific goal of targeting counterfeits, we use our cloud platform to identify counterfeit products and identify those involved using data intelligence. We authenticate whether products are genuine using advanced, our advanced algorithms and our online phishing and copy content detection process. This is a really important feature of our technology because customers need to defend against those spoof websites that I mentioned earlier, and we have the technology to defend against that. Using our digital twin, we also track the origin of every item, laying, layering data on the digital license plate as the product makes its journey all the way through to the consumer.
This provides a roadmap for traceability that satisfies regulatory compliance, but it also allows brands to engage with their consumers to authenticate the product and educate and provide follow-up on potential sales. This slide shows the comparison of an authentic label alongside a counterfeit one. It's identified real time using our process. In closing, I want to quickly share two other customers who are representative of how we solve customer needs and problems. The first is the Silver Fern Farms meat, major meat processor in New Zealand, and they have global operations as well. They've been using our two-dimensional GS1 QR codes in the United States for nearly three years now, improving traceability from the farm in New Zealand to a cutting room here in the United States, and all the way through to the retailer and consumer.
Silver Fern Farms were an early adopter of GS1 Digital Link standards. This is the 2D migration that we spoke about earlier, as they saw the benefits that a two-dimensional QR code can bring. The second slide, customer on the slide is Manuka Health, a honey customer also with global reach. Some of you will be familiar with high-value Manuka honey products. Manuka Health uses our product cloud to defend against counterfeit. Anti-counterfeit is very relevant to the honey market globally and here in the United States. Numerous studies over the years have identified high levels of counterfeiting in the global honey market, and a study in 2023 by the European Commission identified 46% of samples analyzed were suspected to be non-compliant. Brands like Manuka Health seek to protect and engage with their consumers and protect their brand using our technology.
That's the end of the few examples I wanted to share with you. I hope it's given you a flavor of all the significant opportunities that lie ahead for us, and as we ramp up our sales and marketing efforts in 2024, we are hopeful we can deliver commercially attractive contracts that supply regular and growing revenues. Thank you, and now let me pass back to Adam for some closing remarks.
Thank you, Paul. So everyone, I hope that you now have a better understanding of our two segments. As I mentioned earlier, 2023 was a year of improving operational efficiencies, establishing a stronger technology foundation, and critically sharpening our go-to-market focus. Our two operating segments, they have very different revenues at this point in their growth cycle, but they both present significant opportunity to create shareholder value. This year, we're expanding our sales and marketing efforts across the company to capitalize on the significant opportunities we believe that we have ahead of us. Now, earlier, I said that I believe the company can organically achieve revenues in five years, between $50 million and $60 million, with an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 15%-20%. But I believe it's also important to note a key factor about the benefits of this growth.
As I said earlier, we have no net debt, and we anticipate that we will be cash flow positive throughout this five-year period. I'll point out that not only would this result in a company generating an Adjusted EBITDA of about $7.5 million or above, but the cumulative cash generated from operations over that period of time would meaningfully exceed the current market cap of the company. The use of this cash will be a focus of ours, and we will focus on maximizing shareholder returns using all capital allocation opportunities available to us. So at this point, I think we'd like to open up for questions and answers, and we'll move to that section of the presentation.
... Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question by phone, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Today's first question comes from Alfred Becker, a private investor. Please go ahead.
Hi, Adam. Thanks for taking my call.
You're welcome.
You've given a couple examples of how you plan to expand the business with FedEx. However, both UPS and FedEx have indicated the business was weak in the last part of 2023. UPS recently announced layoffs of some 12,000 employees. The question is: how should we think about this, particularly in light of your guidance of double-digit revenue growth this year at PeriShip?
I, I think that's a great question, Fred. Thank you very much, and it's a really good point to bring up. So if you look at our specialized service, which operates with a very niche in the overall freight business, I don't think you can extrapolate from that to the overall business. So in fact, I actually, in a strange kind of way, there's a positive aspect to it, because as the large freight providers, the UPS's, the FedExes, and others, are looking at pressure on their revenue, they're looking for partners who can bring revenue to them, bring solutions to them.
So the unique differentiation of what we do and of this, our attachment to the growing e-commerce space, in combination with the fact that the large freight carriers are very receptive to partnerships and in expanding engagements with companies like ours, it takes this overall negative trend and it turns it into a positive for us. So great question.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Mike Petusky with Barrington Research. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. And I know this is-
Hey, Mike.
Hi. I know this is primarily sort of, you know, setting a vision for the next several years, but since you did release preliminary results, I'm curious if you have a sense at this point, you know, sort of the segments and sort of the, you know, revenue growth or lack thereof, of each segment for the year? Thanks.
Now, great question, and I understand. Unfortunately, right now, we're not really at a position at this phase of our audit to share any specifics around one segment or the other. I would say that I look forward to our call in March around Q4, and that's where we're at. We can't really get into details at this point. Sorry about that.
So, in terms of your expectations for cash flows being positive across 2024, and that's the way it's sort of framed up in the presentation. Are you saying positive cash flows from ops each quarter, or are you saying for the year, or what's actually being stated there?
Right. So, so we expect it to be, we expect it to be definitely positive for the year, and we expect it to be positive throughout the year. Now, the reason I'm saying throughout the year, as opposed to every single quarter, is because there could be one specific quarter where there's something with AR or, or there's timing of different payments that cause one quarter to be slightly one way or the other. But throughout the year, we expect to be cash flow positive. This isn't a situation where we're expecting to be negative for multiple quarters, and then all of a sudden, an influx of cash. In general, throughout the year, we expect to be cash flow positive.
Gotcha. And then in terms of the, and I'll wrap up after this question. In terms of the Precision Logistics, I think you said 8% compounded annual growth on average over five years. Did I hear that correctly?
No, actually, actually, so the industry itself is projected to grow. The overall U.S. perishable goods freight industry is projected to grow at an 8% CAGR, and we believe that we can exceed that with a, with a double-digit CAGR over that period of time.
Okay. So the double, the double digit growth is not just for 2024, you're, you're expecting that over the five-year period?
That is our current belief, yes.
Okay. All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you may press star, then one. The next question is from Richard Greulich with REG Capital Advisors. Please go ahead.
Thank you. You had said, when talking about the recurring business revenues, you had mentioned that the Premium business in the PeriShip segment contributes about 20% of the revenues, and the Proactive business contributes about 80% of the revenues.
Correct.
Can you change that into what percentage, roughly, of the earnings each segment contributes to PeriShip?
So the gross margins of our proactive business are lower than the gross margins of our Premium business because the freight component is included in the invoice to that.
Mm-hmm.
So you're looking at a much higher gross margin for Proactive, or for Premium than you are for Proactive. So at that point, when you bring that down, it's hard to take that all the way down to a bottom line earnings, because that gross margin is free servicing labor for the team that service those accounts, and we don't allocate that labor.
Mm-hmm.
Across those. So what I would say is, although Premium is only 20% of the revenue, it's a significantly higher percentage of that for the profit than it would be for the revenue, because of the much higher gross margins for Premium than for Proactive.
Right. Would it be, would it be in the ballpark to, to suggest that the Premium gross profits would be about the same as the Proactive gross profits?
That would be, it would be approaching that.
Okay. Got it. And then, it's a little bit hard looking outside in to say, "Okay, the authentication business is about, what, $500,000 in revenues now?" And-
We haven't finalized the annual numbers to release, but it's a much smaller portion of our revenue, yes.
Yet, you made, you stressed the capability to grow strongly over the next five years.
Correct.
I'm not quite sure where the biggest segment of internal growth will be in that business then. Is it... you know, I can't... is it because of the barcode migration to 2D or?
So the strategic partnerships that we have right now, that we talked about, and there's some others that we are optimistically looking to finalize and press release quite soon. So the strategic-
Mm.
Relationships really will provide the key path to market. And as their products, you know, we mentioned Amcor. As Amcor gets more traction in the marketplace with their smart packaging, as our other customers get, or our other distribution channels get more acceptance in the marketplace, that will increase our growth. So their acceptance, partly, is because of the adoption of the move away from your 1D codes. Their success is partly because of regulation. So there are multiple factors that are impacting the growth opportunities for our distribution channels. And to be able to predict right now for you, which one of those distribution channels is going to have the most success in the marketplace, would be very difficult for me to do.
Mm.
But there are multiple companies, much larger than ours, much with far more leverage than ours, who are reacting to the consumer and regulatory pressures, and they're embedding our technology into their offerings, and that's what gives us the optimism about the growth across those. We don't, we don't know specifically which horse is gonna win, but we have a lot of horses in the race.
So, you, I'm hearing you say that it's really the packaging companies that are gonna provide you the big opportunities, not so much going into a specific, like Manuka Health, you know, talking to that company, it's gonna be who they have as a packager?
No, no, a great question. Great, very good question. So the packaging company are one. We also work with the companies like the Manuka Health, right?
Mm-hmm.
That, and so the companies like Manuka, so you have companies with food products, they have relationship with packagers, so that's one-
Mm-hmm.
aspect to get to them. You have these same companies with food products, which they might can it, they may. They have their own operations, so we all have a go-to-market to go to them directly.
Mm-hmm.
And then lastly, there are different retail markets for verifying traceability, for verifying authentication of the product, and our technology stack allows the OEM, as well as these packaging companies, who want to potentially participate in these, elements of the marketplace, to leverage our technology in a way to do that.
Okay. And one, I have one final question, if I may?
Oh, no.
I'm assuming that PeriShip benefited considerably with COVID-19 vaccines because of the need for temperature control distribution. And I would also assume that that demand is withering away. Is that the case?
So, the specific one, the bulk of that business would have been pre-acquisition. Two, the specific companies who have the vaccines specifically related to COVID aren't necessarily the clients that we were working with at the time.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
So, you're spot on. As we grow, and none of us want another situation like that, but as we grow and we expand our customer base across a broader range of the vaccine and pharmaceutical marketplace, we would benefit; unfortunately, we would from something like that if it happened to society again. This particular one was primarily pre-acquisition and primarily with companies other than the ones that we have relationships with.
Okay. So, I was concerned that perhaps, you know, over the next year to two, that well, as the vaccine usage has plummeted, that would provide a headwind for PeriShip. It sounds like not so much.
No, our current revenue is not dependent upon any sort of tail associated with COVID, so that's not a risk factor for us.
Okay, great. Thank you very much for... And thank you for having this, Investor Day.
No, thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Jack Vander Aarde, with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.
Hey, Jack.
Hey, Adam. Oh, great. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Lots of info to chew on, so I'm gonna try to keep it short with questions. You know, with regard to your long-term targets, and given your comments on expanding the sales team, just looking at the five-year revenue target of $50 million-$60 million, just for some more context, can you break out that revenue mix based on your expectations, just roughly, between, you know, the different businesses and service offerings, maybe between Proactive and Premium versus authentication revenues?
So, not really, not at this point. What... And I understand your situation. So we don't have it. We're truly broken out in that way, and I know you're looking to model it. If I was you, and I was looking to model it, we've said that we expect double-digit growth for our PeriShip business, and we've said what we think that the cumulative growth should be. So that means the remainder of it would come from the authentication business. And so that's. And then inside of PeriShip, we are right now focused more heavily on Proactive than we are on Premium, and so we would expect our Proactive business to grow.
Over the long haul, we would expect our Proactive business to have a higher growth rate than our Premium business, although the Premium business has the potential to be a bit lumpy because it can be very large customers. And, for 2024, we're very optimistic about the Premium business. It's just hard to forecast that beyond 2024. So I know I didn't answer your question directly, but hopefully I gave you a path to the answer you're looking for. I know you're trying to model it.
Yep. Nope, that's helpful. You're right on. I guess another way to look at it, too, is if you take a look at the third quarter of this year, you guys, you know, you had a record gross margin. Gross margin really spiked up to, you know, just over 40, almost 41%. And, you know, the bulk of the revenue is still PeriShip, which is lower margin than the, you know, the core VerifyMe business or the ink business back in the day. So is that— Just help us understand that kind of gross margin results relative to how you envision your growth going forward with the between the segments and the gross margin mixes. Was that an anomaly, that 41%, or is there any more context-
No, I don't think—
about the range?
No, I don't think it was an anomaly. As we said, we spent 2023, we dedicated a significant amount of time and energy on the operational efficiency, and we feel as though we've made significant improvements to the margin profile of the PeriShip business. With that said, from a gross margin perspective, the margin profile of the authentication business exceeded substantially just because of the nature of the business. One being primarily a tech, you could think of it as a SaaS type of business, and the other one being more of a service business. So as you saw in 2023, our authentication business represented a much smaller part of our revenue than we would've hoped, right? And we're trying to get more traction there.
As authentication grows and becomes a larger and larger percentage of our revenues, it will have a positive impact to drive our gross margins up from that point. So we think our current gross margin levels represent the operational efficiency success we've had and are sustainable in and of themselves, and we think they will naturally only go up from there as our authentication business grows. With that said, that really comes down to relative product mix, right? If the Precision Logistics business grows faster than the authentication business, then mathematically, the margin wouldn't move as much. If the authentication business grows more rapidly, then it would move more. But we don't think it was a one-off.
Okay, great. I appreciate the color there. That's it for me. Thank you.
No, thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Russell Barnes with EPS. Please go ahead.
Oh, can you hear me?
Yes, sir.
Okay. So I bought a lot of these stocks from some guy by the name of, I'm sure you know him, what's his name? Norman Gardner.
Okay.
When I first bought it, I had this impression that eventually the stock price is gonna go up to $12 a share-
Okay.
so that I could live in a van down by the river. My question is, when, when do you think, when do you think that will happen? Or do you think I should just hold on to it for my son for 20 years from now?
I really wish I could answer that question with confidence. I would be in a very different line.
I know, I know it's an oddball question.
Right. So, I mean, what I would say is, you know, we've said that, we've said that, we think in five years, the company should be able to have an Adjusted EBITDA of $7.5. And if you just put a 10x multiple on that, then that puts you at a market cap that is more than seven times higher than our market cap where we opened up today. So I think, and now that doesn't factor in, you know, the price per share, because you have to look at the number of shares available related to that total market cap. But point being, I'm very bullish about the performance of our stock and our current value versus the opportunity that we have.
I can't really forecast when we would get to a number, any specific number, but I think at least I'm hopeful and confident within my own portfolio, which I've personally been investing in the company. Within my own portfolio, this will be one of the more positive aspects of the portfolio, and I'm excited about it.
So it's gonna be a big winner, 'cause that's what I thought it was gonna be, and I saw it go to $6 a share, and then now it's down to $1 again. I mean, I think the technology is great. I think you guys got a great thing going on there. One last thing. Do you plan on getting back in with the government at some point in time, where you can basically say... I think Art Laffer was involved in this at some point in time, to where you can have them write some legislation that says, "Okay, you're the guys. Everybody's got to use you, particularly when it comes to drug safety.
Well, so I could tell you, I'm sitting in Baltimore right now, and I spent a meaningful part of the day in a government agency building yesterday, and so we very much feel as though... One, we feel that the regulatory environment is creating tailwinds for us in the first place, and we're working as hard as we can to influence those regulatory requirements for the betterment of the consumer, by the way, but it would also-
Absolutely.
be good for us.
Absolutely, not just to make money, but to help people not, you know, take a pill out of a Tylenol bottle and then die.
Right. And I would also, I would point out that, obviously, the U.S. is the largest consumer market in the world, and we're very focused on that right now, as we said earlier. But we also have, meaningful relationships with the New Zealand government, with the Australian government and others. And those markets, even though they're not as large as the U.S. market, considering our current market cap and our current size, they still present meaningful opportunities for us.
Gosh, you know, each time you bring something, the last question. I... Do you guys plan on trying to infuse your technology into the American dollar?
We don't have-
For counterfeit, for counterfeiting purposes.
We don't currently have a technology path to being able to do something like that.
Oh, okay. I was under the impression, invisible ink or something, and, you know, so okay. Well, hey, thank you very much for your time.
All right. Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Thank you. The next question is a follow-up from Richard Greulich with REG Capital Advisors. Please go ahead.
Thank you. So your, the value of your net operating loss carryforwards, I guess, is around $24-$25 million. And I know you had mentioned that there, it's subject to annual limitations because of change of control. But given what you're hoping to achieve in terms of Adjusted EBITDA over the next 5 years, it looks like you'll be able to realize a significant portion of that $24 million. Is that fair?
We feel that we will, that our cash conversion from EBITDA will be very efficient going forward because of the NOLs that we have. Yes, I would agree with that.
Mm-hmm. And I guess, is that something that, let's say, if you have a successful 2024 year, you might review the adjustment you've taken against that or reserve against that?
Well, we'll have to review it every year, just as part of our normal accounting with our firm. So whether it would be impacted or not, I'm not sure, but yes, we'll have to review it every year.
Okay. Thank you.
Well, thank you.
Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.
So thank you for everybody attending. As we've said, our goal was to help everybody to get a much deeper understanding of the business and of the opportunities that we have in front of us. We're excited about the opportunity both segments have. We realize that they're at different phases in different parts of their life cycle, but both provide meaningful opportunities. So we look forward to having more conversations with you. Nancy and myself both have our contact information on the website. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions, and we look forward to more conversations going forward. Thank you.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.