US bad breath is good for Blis

By Mark Peart

Friday 13th August 2004

Blis Technologies hopes a fledgling association with an American distributor of products for chronic halitosis sufferers will catapult its balance sheet into the black.

The listed Dunedin-based biotech company has developed an expellable mouthwash formulation of its K12 Throat Guard lozenge and hopes to sell it to 350,000 customers of US distributor TheraBreath.

Blis shareholders attending the company's annual meeting in Dunedin recently were anxious for an update on progress with the international rollout of company products, as until now sales have been limited to the domestic market.

The company lost $2.8 million for the year to March, higher than the previous year's loss of $2.4 million and this year's first-half loss of $1.4 million.

Blis signalled in its most recent annual report that the international rollout would be "aggressive" but also that a further full-year loss was likely, albeit reduced when increased revenue and continuing cost savings were factored into the balance sheet.

Later, Blis chief executive Kelvin Moffatt said the company's focus was on bad breath prevention as its major supplier of revenue during the next few years.

Moffatt said while from a research standpoint bad breath prevention might not be as sexy as a cancer cure, or even preventing sore throats Blis' original claim to fame the market for chronic halitosis sufferers was unsatisfied.

TheraBreath sells its products only to people with chronic bad breath through direct marketing.

"Potentially each one of those [people] is going to use 12 lots per month, every year. We only have to get a small percentage of 350,000, who are exactly our target market, using the product every month."

Moffatt said Blis could have tried to launch its own brand in the US.

"It would have cost us an arm and a leg and quite honestly we don't have the money to do that.

"We want to retain some recognition of the Blis brand, but at the end of the day getting sales is most important."

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