The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
I guess you should only invest in a company if you both know the strengths and weaknesses. It's that simple. For me it's not about looking with rose tinted glasses at the positives whilst ignoring the negatives. That's how people end up losing all their savings
lol.
If the equity raise is a prerequisite to the launch, then it makes sense that they are vague about it. Time will tell.
"This means that outside of the wage bill very little else is burning the money"
I don't believe that is correct. R&D will be a sign expense:
From the AR:
"As part of the ongoing product development for the skincare range, the Company has also begun the next phase of testing which will include the gold standard user trial/consumer panel testing, in addition to a combination of quantitative and qualitative efficacy-based studies for its skincare products. Separately, travel sizes and sampling sachets are also being finalised to expand the range of skincare offerings and gifting options for Cellular Goods customers for next year
Development of the first three products in the movement range for sports recovery and daily body maintenance continues. The criteria for clinical trials have also been finalised and the trials will be initiated next year on completion of stability and compatibility testing."
So pretty clear to me that an equity raise is all but around the corner. My guess is that they will announce this together with the launch of the new products to "add some sugar to the bitter medicine".
All IMHO, but seems a fair assumption
thank you. I just read the AR: seems they are at a cash burn of roughly 1.16mn per quarter. At the end of Nov they had 9.15mn in cash left, so that would be 8mn by end Feb, not accounting for any increase in headcount. I believe the new CEO is a new FTE? So 6months from now they will have around 5mn left. That is not a lot of cash to invest in marketing. So hard to imagine how a new equity raise is out of the question. Certainly if you know that new product launches rarely deliver instant positive return. It's almost certain a raise is on the cards, and I think that if it provides the company with the necessary firing power to support the new range effectively, than this would be a good thing
Has anyone done the math, given monthly cash burn, how many marketing $ the company has at its disposal to support the (long awaited) launch?
historic baggage that could be dealt with provided the underlying (commercial) operations start to deliver. And again, here I see a massive challenge due to low gross margins, not leaving very much cash to advertise. Mind you they are in competitive categories.
It seems to me this is a business that one day had an strategy, and margins, like a private label business. They brought in some new staff to turn it into a proper branded business but despite their new 2025 strategy they don't seem have to the means to achieve their ambitious. They are in a catch22 and will need to have to crack
some hard nuts before this business will significantly start to perform better (and reduce their pension deficit).
I also worry when I see that the CEO seems to have no AIM experience....
has anything changed since that time when you used to get a response quickly? E.g. is this less a retail share now vs then or no change? Different management? Different CeO? Just wondering; seems odd to go from responsive to totally non responsive
where is the money for it. Effective campaigns, with decent ROIs require deep pockets. Certainly given the fact that they need to build the category as well as their brand. That's a huge task for blue chip companies, so I fear many on here have unrealistic expectations about the marketing muscle of this company. Certainly given the fact that, so far at least, they are selling rebranded existing stuff. Not the brightest strategy IMHO
True and thank you for your honest answers.
Has the company mentioned anything wrt IP for the new products?
Note I am not a trader (I may buy and sell once over 3-4 months so hardly a day job!)
thank you - diehards are the worst and usually end up losing a lot of money. Been there, bought the T-shirt (I keep my avatar as a battle scar to remind me of daft investments!). We live and learn, don't we?
In this case I am not going to approach CBX as a serious investment but potentially a trading opportunity. Each to their own of course. This is not investment advice, just all IMHO
thank you, guys but none of you answered my question. (forgive me!). Would like to understand if their technology is proprietary; do they have an IP that protects their investments. if not, anyone could in theory launch the same products, in which case the winner will be the one with the deepest pockets. And that is usually not the start-up. Others will have more marketing muscle. Hence my question around IP.
Hi guys,
Quick question from a newbie: with all the CBD(-like) brands pulling up like mushrooms, I wonder what it is that you feel CBX has to offer more? I understand the "made in a lab"-argument, but do they have any differentiated? Anything proprietary?
Many thanks
How though? Their gross margins do not allow for any meaningful investments. Private label has better margins ....just saying
sp is in a hopeless state
*half of what you would expect
you got to wonder though why their gross margins are so
low for a branded personal care business. They are almost have or what you would expect. In fact their margins look more like those or a private label business.
And that's a problem because it means there little room in the P&L to invest in marketing to drive topline sales. Feels like a poorly run consumer business to me
short term pain driven by CV-19 fears imho