Venture Life Regulatory News (VLG)

10th January 2022

VENTURE LIFE GROUP PLC

("Venture Life" "VLG" or the "Company")

New partner appointed for Chinese market for oral care brands, following recent termination of previous distributor

Venture Life (AIM: VLG), a leader in developing, manufacturing and commercialising products for the self-care market, today announces that it has appointed a new Chinese partner for two of VLG's leading oral care brands - Dentyl and UltraDEX.

As communicated in August and December 2021, the Company's Chinese partner had disappointed against expected level of sales since the start of the pandemic and the Company was exploring alternative opportunities. In the absence of any improvement in the second half of 2021, the VLG Board made the decision to terminate the agreement with the previous partner and the Board is pleased to announce that the Company's new Chinese partner will be Samarkand Group Plc ("Samarkand") for an initial contract term of 5 years, on an exclusive basis.

Samarkand is a UK based, publicly listed company with expertise in connecting UK brands to the Chinese consumer representing large brands such as Omorovicza, Temple Spa and Philip Kingsley. With operations in Shanghai and London, the Board believes that Samarkand is well placed to emulate the success achieved by both Dentyl and UltraDEX in the UK, and the success achieved by the previous partner in the Chinese market before the pandemic.

David Hampstead, CEO Samarkand Group Plc, commented, "We are delighted that Venture Life Group Plc has chosen Samarkand as their new go to market partner for China. Dentyl and UltraDEX are market leading brands with established recognition and sales in the China market. Samarkand's on the ground capability in China, combined with our transparent and collaborative approach to working with our brand partners, has once again made us the winning choice for brands." 

Jerry Randall, CEO of Venture Life, commented, "Further to the challenges we have documented and faced with our previous distributor in the Chinese market for both Dentyl and UltraDEX, precipitated by the pandemic, we are pleased to have appointed a new partner - Samarkand, a UK based company with both experience and infrastructure in the Chinese market. As Samarkand has other key brands under their stewardship, we are confident that our oral care brands will be properly exploited and managed by them in China. This partner brings two key benefits which I think will be paramount to our success; the first being a UK base that we will interact with directly, making communication quicker and simpler than with a partner direct in China, and the second being their own team in China directly interacting with the UK base. We expect this to make transacting business in China much simpler and more effective than it was with our previous relationship.

Further to this and following the months of intense integration since the acquisition of both BBI Healthcare and Helsinn, our commercial team is starting to make good progress on exploring and exploiting the expected synergies. A new distribution agreement has been signed for Pomi-T in Germany and good progress has been made in identifying other prospects in other key parts of the world. We will continue to update the market on this progress in due course."

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About Venture Life (www.venture-life.com)

Venture Life is an international consumer self-care company focused on developing, manufacturing and commercialising products for the global self-care market. With operations in the UK, Italy, The Netherlands and Sweden, the Group's product portfolio includes some key products such as the UltraDEX and Dentyl oral care product ranges, the Balance Active range in the area of women's intimate healthcare, the Lift and Glucogel product ranges for hypoglycaemia, products for fungal infections and proctology, and dermo-cosmetics for addressing the signs of ageing. Its products are sold in over 90 countries worldwide.

The products, which are typically recommended by pharmacists or healthcare practitioners, are available primarily through pharmacies and grocery multiples. In the UK and The Netherlands these are supplied direct by the company to retailers, elsewhere they are supplied by the Group's international distribution partners. 

Through its two Development & Manufacturing operations in Italy and Sweden, the Group also provides development and manufacturing services to companies in the medical devices and cosmetic sectors.