Investors

OptiBiotix Health plc (AIM: OPTI), a life sciences business developing compounds to tackle obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and skincare, announces its unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2023. 

Highlights

• Strong first half of trading with sales of £351k (2022: £119k), a 195% increase over H1 2022. Given H1 2022 included £19.5k from Probiotic sales up to March 30 2022, the ‘like for like’ increase is 251%. 85% of this sales income was received in Q2 2023
• A 154% increase in gross profit from £62k in H1 2022 to £158k in H1 2023
• A 17.3% reduction in administrative expenses from £1,108k to £918k
• Sales from existing partners slowly returning to forecast with new orders from both The Hut Group (THG) and Holland & Barrett
• Improved sales performance in H1 2023 by Apollo Pharmacies (up 500%) in India and Nahdi Medical (up 30%) in Saudi Arabia following more active account management. These increased sales are not reflected in H1 but impact on restocking requirements in H2 2023
• Three new partners in Asia who have all placed initial orders for SlimBiome®
• Strong sales growth of own brand products on e-commerce channel
• A large first order from a new partner of £116k for SlimBiome® from a contract manufacturer of a leading weight management and sports nutrition brand in the USA
• The listing of SlimBiome® Medical and Gofigure® products on Amazon UK in February 2023, and Slimbiome® Medical on Amazon Germany and Walmart USA in May 2023.  We anticipate further international listings on Amazon throughout 2023 including Amazon India, the Gulf States, and Amazon USA.  This is all part of a strategy to increase the internationalisation of our own brand products online in 2023
• Published the results of a third human study on SlimBiome® demonstrating statistically significant benefits to appetite and hunger regulation with a single dose of SlimBiome®
• The launch of our gut and digestive health WellBiome® product as part of a strategy to enhance our range of product offerings and to mitigate the seasonal variations in the sale of weight management products. The product has received excellent reviews on Amazon with growing month on month sales (125% increase July to August) and a high number of repeat orders (63% in August).  We will increase our marketing on WellBiome® and extend its availability to other Amazon international channels in Q4 2023
• Significant progress in the manufacturing scale up of our microbiome modulators: a range of second-generation products which selectively enhance the growth rate of specific types of bacteria and create the potential for targeted treatment of a range of human diseases
• Good progress from both partners in the commercial scale up and testing of our second-generation SweetBiotix® family of products offering exciting potential for future growth 
• No debt with valuable assets in SkinBioTherapeutics plc and ProBiotix Health plc providing a strong balance sheet

Post Period

• As announced on 29 August 2023, one of our partners has secured an international listing for products containing SlimBiome® with Costco, the fifth largest retailer in the world
• Q3 saw our first new customer in Canada, Prairie Naturals, who will launch a SlimBiome® based powder in Q4 2023
• We have reached agreement with Boots pharmacies to launch SlimBiome® products online in Q1 2024 (announced on 21 September 2023)
• A further 9.7 metric tonnes of SlimBiome® has been taken from stock held by distributors for our two largest partners up to August 2023.  Once this stock overhang is cleared this should have a material impact on reportable revenue

Stephen O’Hara, CEO of OptiBiotix, commented: “The focus for 2023 has been on moving the business to profitability by a reduction in costs, a focus on existing partners returning to forecast, bringing in new partners particularly in the USA and Asia, and expanding e-commerce channels to reduce partner dependency. Good progress has been made in each of these areas. This is all part of plans for each business unit (USA, India, Ecommerce, B2B) to reach profitability, at least on a monthly basis by the end of the calendar year.

“The aim for the second half of the year is to maintain our focus on managing costs, growing sales and closing out ongoing discussions with a number of larger partners across first and second-generation products to ensure a return on investment from the expansion of our commercial and business development teams. We are particularly excited about our second-generation products approaching commercialisation given their uniqueness in the marketplace. Our sweet prebiotic fibres, called SweetBiotix® create the opportunity to replace unhealthy calorific and cariogenic sugars with healthy fibres in a wide range of food and beverage products. With growing health concerns over traditional sugars and sweeteners, the commercialisation of SweetBiotix® meets a large global market need. After many years of hard work we are equally pleased at the significant progress we have made in 2023 in the manufacturing scale up our microbiome modulators which selectively enhance the growth rate of specific types of bacteria and create the potential for targeted treatment of a range of human diseases.  We believe these unique products, individually and collectively, offer shareholders the potential for a significant enhancement in the value of the Company.

“The Group has no debt, a strong balance sheet, and retains significant exposure to the considerable growth potential of the microbiome through its shareholdings in ProBiotix Health plc and SkinBioTherapeutics plc.”

This announcement contains information which, prior to its disclosure, was considered inside information for the purposes of the UK Market Abuse Regulation and the Directors of the Company are responsible for the release of this announcement.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts but rather are based on the Company's current expectations, estimates, and projections about its industry; its beliefs; and assumptions. Words such as 'anticipates,' 'expects,' 'intends,' 'plans,' 'believes,' 'seeks,' 'estimates,' and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, some of which are beyond the Company's control, are difficult to predict, and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements. The Company cautions security holders and prospective security holders not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect the view of the Company only as of the date of this announcement. The forward-looking statements made in this announcement relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. The Company will not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions or updates to these forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances, or unanticipated events occurring after the date of this announcement except as required by law or by any appropriate regulatory authority.

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