Earnings Labs

Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SNOA)

Q4 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Jun 16, 2016

$1.08

+3.85%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+0.00%

1 Week

-14.43%

1 Month

-8.66%

vs S&P

-12.41%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Oculus Innovative Sciences Fiscal Fourth Quarter 2016 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dan McFadden. You may begin.

Dan McFadden

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Thank you, Latoya. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us. With me on the call today are CEO, Jim Schutz; and our CFO, COO, Bob Miller. We will open the call with Bob Miller’s review of our financial results for the quarter and fiscal year followed by Jim’s update on the business strategy moving forward. This afternoon, Oculus issued a press release detailing fiscal fourth quarter 2016 financial results and recent corporate developments. A copy of the release can be downloaded from our website, which is oculusis.com or you can call Investor Relations at 425-753-2105 and we will be happy to assist you. Before we begin, I remind listeners that this conference call contains forward-looking statements within the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are identified by use of words as expect, to expand, would and anticipate among others. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risk inherent in the development and commercialization of potential products, the risk that potential clinical studies or trials will not proceed as anticipated or may not be successful, or sufficient to meet regulatory standards, or receive the regulatory clearance or approvals. The company’s future capital needs and its ability to obtain addition funding and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the quarterly report on Form 10-Q and annual report on Form 10-K. Identified product applications and/or uses are intended to highlight potential applications for the investment community and does not infer that the company is marketing for these indications. The company does not provide any assurances that such applications will receive regulatory approvals. Oculus disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. So with that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Bob Miller.

Bob Miller

Analyst

Thank you, Dan. I will first discuss the financial presentation of our businesses; secondly, our key strategies to achieve strong revenue growth for fiscal year 2017; third, a review of the financial results for our derm strategy and our overall financial results for the fiscal year and fourth quarter ending March 31, 2016; and lastly, we will provide some revenue guidance for first quarter ending June 2016. First of all, we have provided the detailed financial presentation of our businesses compared to last year separating product revenues, which are shown on the last page of the press release into two categories: one, revenue from direct product sales, and two, revenue in the form of product licensing and royalty fees. This provides more transparency on the true sales growth of our continuing products in various geographic areas, especially as we focus on growing the sales in the U.S. with our direct dermatology sales force. Secondly, what are our key strategies to ignite revenue growth for fiscal year 2017? Our key strategies for growth for the rest of this fiscal year, which have been the same since the beginning of 2015 are the following. The number one strategy is to focus on growing revenue in the U.S. dermatology market with our direct sales force and a robust product line – product pipeline with both Microcyn and non-Microcyn products. The U.S. dermatology segment provides us with the largest potential growth and will lead us to overall breakeven. Our number two strategy is to continue strong unit growth in our international business with new product launches and stronger partners. The international segment was 66% of our product revenue for fiscal year 2016 and generates cash to help fund the U.S. derm growth. Jim will cover both completed and future action plans, which are designed…

Jim Schutz

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Thank you, Bob. We promised shareholders in late 2014 that we would execute on the strategy with four key steps that we continue to believe will transform the company. For my portion of today’s call, I will cover each of those four key strategic initiatives and then breakdown one, what we promised two, how we are doing to get that promise and three, take a brief look at the future. So first, we promised shareholders that we were going to pick U.S. dermatology as our core market, with our own direct sales force using our Microcyn technology as the cornerstone, building a pipeline of unique affordable and branded products. So how are we going in that first step, as Bob said, we now have 20-plus salespeople, selling seven prescription products and our U.S. derm sales revenue grew more than 120% in the last 12 months. So what’s the future of our U.S. dermatology efforts, we would eventually want to like to get to that 35 sales reps range covering 3,000 to 5,000 dermatologists in the United States and adding one to two new reps in new territories each quarter to get to that 35. Our sales team is enthusiastically looking for to our first product for the esthetic dermatology space. As you may remember, we just received an approval for Lasersyn a product for post lasers, chemical fields and derm operations. Something we believe will be great play in the aesthetic dermatology space. We forecasted our U.S. derm revenue is going to grow more than 50% over the next 12 months. So step two in our strategic plan is that we promised shareholders that all of our non-core markets, you may remember non-core markets are Latin America, Europe, Asia, animal health and our own advanced wound care businesses. We promised…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The first question is from Laura Engel of Stonegate Capital. Your line is open.

Laura Engel

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Thank you. Appreciate all the detail. Love the U.S. sales ramp that’s looking great. I had just a few questions. So, tell us a little bit about the sales team as far as the numbers you have added, the performance you expected versus what you have gotten? And then, how they are penetrating these new markets with what’s currently in their bag for sale versus what the expectations were?

Jim Schutz

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

So, we initially started out with about 10 and as – we have been adding, periodically on average one or two a quarter and we are now up to 20. We have done an analysis of rate of return on our salespeople, which we do every quarter and for the quarter ending March, we were in a position to cover all of their cost, their direct cost. And so we feel like we have done a good job of covering that big expense item and we will continue to grow it to get that business to breakeven and then continue to grow that business to get to breakeven. Now, did you want a little more detail on the salespeople? Most of the salespeople are people that we initially hired. A couple of people that were not, that familiar with derm. And we fairly quickly replaced them with people that are familiar with derm and have a book of business and we – even though we have to pay them a little more we found that, that is far better approach and they go up to ramp. The sales ramp is generally in the 6 to 9-month period for a salesperson. It’s pretty quick in dermatology. That’s a little more color. Anymore specific questions?

Laura Engel

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Yes, no, no, no, that’s great. Just trying to get a feel for how that’s breaking up. And then related to the Latin American numbers as far as do you expect any additional issues with Sanfer and the warehouse closings? And going forward, how should – how should we and how are you kind of thinking about the Latin American segment?

Jim Schutz

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Well, we are very bullish on our partner. In fact, their Sanfer Laboratories, we have told them that this is public information. It is very interested in going public down in Mexico. And they are a 400, 500 and actually they maybe bigger than that now, because they acquired another company, a good company. They are our powerhouse. Now, when they acquired More Pharma, which was our partner, they acquired a number of warehouses, which they closed down in the quarter in March. And as a result of that, they didn’t need as much in the way of units, so they cut back on what they purchased. They have told us that, that’s over. They have given us reasonably good forecast for the rest of the year in local currency. Obviously, there is an impact of peso on our revenue growth down there, even though we are in a pretty square position overall from the peso perspective. So, we would expect it to see a return to normal, if you will and then over the years see unit growth in Mexico.

Laura Engel

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Okay. And then I am also interested and I didn’t hear you mentioned any update from the animal healthcare business?

Jim Schutz

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Well, we used to happen to have an animal healthcare guru on the line with us. Dan, you want to jump in?

Dan McFadden

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Sure, this is Dan. On the animal wellness, guru or czars as Jim refers to, we are very happy, we have if you have read previous press releases we partnered our U.S. and North American animal health care with Manna Pro out of St. Louis, great private company doing very well. And even though we don’t breakout our financials separately for the animal health, they are doing a great job, have placed us in a national farm and ranch chain with over 1,500 locations with 9 of our SKUs. So, it’s all looking great. We are seeing the numbers grow quarter-over-quarter. At the same time, we are now expanding our footprint into Europe. We just returned from Interzoo and then, in the U.S. we have Superzoo coming up in August. Also we are now starting to focus on the ethical market going after the North American veterinarians. So, number of opportunities there and we think they are all really robust opportunities.

Laura Engel

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Great. Well, I appreciate the information. I will hop back in the queue and let some others have a shot at it. Thank you and again great information and impressive sales.

Dan McFadden

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Thank you.

Jim Schutz

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] I am not showing any further questions in the queue. I would like to turn the call back over for any closing remarks.

Jim Schutz

Analyst · Stonegate Capital. Your line is open

Hey, thank you very much for joining us. We look forward to talking to you again in the earnings call in August for the quarter ending June 30, 2016. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference. You may now disconnect.