LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwired - April 17, 2017) - Plandaí Biotechnology, Inc. (OTCQB: PLPL) (“Plandaí” or “the Company”), producer of the highly bioavailable Phytofare® Catechin Complex, today released a statement from its new President and Chief Operating Officer, Callum Cottrell-Duffield, providing an overview of the coming twelve months and setting forth the major milestones the Company expects to achieve.
Mr. Cottrell-Duffield stated, “Our first agenda item was for Plandaí to once again become ‘current’ with its financial statement filings. We understand that shareholders need the latest information in order to make knowledgeable investment decisions. To this end, as of last week we have successfully uploaded our financial and disclosure statements through December 31, 2016. In the longer term, our intention is to complete the audit process for FY 2016 in conjunction with FY 2017 so that we can recommence filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“With respect to production and sales,” Mr. Cottrell-Duffield continued, “We are aiming for the company to be cash-flow positive and profitable by the end of 2017. Achieving this goal involves increasing both production volume and sales. The factory and farm, as currently constituted, can produce approximately 30 tons of extract per growing season. During the offseason, when the tea is dormant and cannot be harvested, we plan on installing some additional equipment that will allow us to double our manufacturing volumes by removing more residual water prior to final processing.
“With respect to sales, this remains the Company’s top priority. I believe we initially underestimated the educational curve that was necessary for customers to appreciate the importance of bioavailability as it relates to product performance and dosage. Convincing a large nutraceutical company to swap out their main ingredient for Phytofare® is a huge ask and takes time. We are essentially asking each new client to swap out all of their packaging and burn through existing inventory -- after running their own testing and trials using our product. Fortunately, we’ve had overwhelming enthusiasm from customers and distributors, recently adding Cambridge Commodities for Europe, expanding Coyne Healthcare into the U.S., and are in final stages of adding a distributor in Canada. We believe that sales will continue to grow over the next several months as our existing customers gain traction in the market and we add new customers so that by the end of 2017 we will be profitable.”
Addressing new products and ongoing research, Mr. Cottrell-Duffield stated, “The Company has several major studies taking place in 2017. Our subsidiary, Protext Mobility, will soon begin a human study on the island of Mauritius using Phytofare® to regulate glucose levels in Type 2 Diabetics. Mauritius was selected as the trial site because, according to the World Health Organization, the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes in Mauritius, in 2015, was a world-leading 16.28%. Worldwide, as of 2013, 382 million people, or 8.3% of the adult population have diabetes. The trial protocols are being finalized with a goal to commence the study by mid-summer 2017.
“Protext Mobility, through its subsidiary Cannabis Biosciences Inc., is expecting to shortly receive a research and development license to establish a platform for producing non-psychoactive cannabis. The company plans to produce a Phytofare® complex containing bioavailable cannabinoids, cannabinoid acids, and polyphenols that will be formulated into an oral delivery system. Part of the protocol will be to establish that the Phytofare® complex is non-psychoactive and thereby seek a change in the classification that will allow open and global availability of the product.
“In the coming weeks, we will finalize the production protocols for both tomato and citrus Phytofare® extracts. Fortunately, the research we’ve conducted on these extracts involves similar processing techniques as Cannabis, so the transition should be seamless. Once the Cannabis project is underway, we will turn our attention to building an extraction facility to produce our Phytofare® Bioflavonoid Complex and our Phytofare® Lycopene Complex with a goal to start and finish this facility sometime in 2018.
“Plandaí also just completed the second phase of its in vivo study involving broiler chickens and will announce those results soon. These clinical investigations are seeking to establish that Phytofare® catechins delivered in chicken feed inhibits and protects poultry against salmonella and gastrointestinal infections, improves food conversion rates, reduces mortality, and promotes stronger bones. The third and final stage of the study will involve 100,000 chickens at a commercial farm.
“The commercial market for this application is enormous with over 20 billion chickens consumed annually. Several companies have already expressed an interest or have given Plandaí purchase commitments pending the results of the final trial.”
Addressing the Company’s future capital needs, Mr. Cottrell-Duffield concluded, “Plandaí was reluctantly forced to resort to debt financing over the past several years and we are now in the process of paying that down and restructuring these obligations. We’ve recently signed a financing agreement that will provide the necessary capital to see the company through until it becomes cash flow positive. We are working with creditors and investors to minimize dilution to our shareholders and maximize shareholder value. As a management team, we believe that the best strategy to achieve these objectives is to achieve short and long-term profitability, milestones that every day we are growing closer to achieving.”
Please send all inquiries to hmerrill@plandaibiotech.com.
(435)-881-3611
About Plandaí Biotechnology, Inc.
Plandaí Biotechnology, Inc. and its subsidiaries develop highly phyto-available™ extracts. Plandaí Biotechnology controls every aspect of the process, from growing green tea on its farms in South Africa, to producing its proprietary Phytofare® extracts in-house, allowing the Company to guarantee the continuity of supply as well as quality control throughout the entire process. Targeted industries for the Company’s products include beverage, cosmeceutical, wellness, nutraceutical, anti-aging, and pharmaceutical. For more information, please visit http://www.plandaibiotech.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, we can give no assurance or guarantee that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of words like “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “intend,” or “project” or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to: adverse economic conditions, competition, adverse federal, state and local government regulation, international governmental regulation, inadequate capital, inability to carry out research, development and commercialization plans, loss or retirement of key executives and other specific risks. To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions, goals, future financial conditions, events conditioned on stockholder or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. Readers are advised to review our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that can be accessed over the Internet at the SEC’s website located at http://www.sec.gov.
Plandai Biotechnology, Inc.
Hannah Merrill
435-881-3611
info@plandaibiotech.com
