In a close-run vote, shareholders, including proxies, elected former chief executive Dr Barry Richardson as a director, with 54.34% votes for him. More than 40 shareholders attended yesterday’s meeting, held in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Dr Richardson was nominated by a shareholder for one of two board directorships. The other was also approved by shareholders and went to former Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket, who was roundly endorsed by the board.
Board members Peter Fennessy and Alan McKenzie both retired by rotation yesterday.
In Blis’ NZX "notice of meeting", the board said of Dr Richardson: "The board does not believe that the appointment of Dr Richardson will sufficiently add to the board’s capability and does not support the election of Dr Richardson."
After the meeting and vote count, chief executive Brian Watson acknowledged that while Dr Richardson had not been endorsed, he had worked alongside him when he started with Blis, recognised his experience and he had been "open and forthcoming".
However, he told shareholders he was "deeply concerned" at Blis’ current share price, which was languishing around 1.9c and 40% down on a year ago, the limited working capital available of around $1.2 million, and the company’s "fluctuating sales".
He also raised concerns, as did shareholders during question time, about the expiry of some patents, including its mainstay Blis K12 product, which runs out in October 2020.
Mr Watson said after the meeting the lapsing of patents was "critical" to the company.
However, he stressed Blis had its brand and high quality already established. In addition, new intellectual property was in the pipeline, although there could be "pricing pressure" if more competitors entered the probiotics market.
A shareholder had asked if an agreement was in place between Blis and Fonterra, which had been manufacturing Blis products through fermentation for the past 15 years.
Mr Watson confirmed there was an agreement, meaning the product could not be sold to competitors.
For his presentation, Mr Watson reiterated Blis was focused on delivering revenue of "more than $7 million" during the current financial year, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of about $600,000 and "a small profit". Blis has yet to post a full-year profit, having gone through about $37 million of shareholder funds since 2001.
