BioLargo - Q1 2023
May 18, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Greetings. Welcome to the BioLargo First Quarter 2023 Earnings Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Brian Loper. You may begin.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to BioLargo's Q1 2023 quarterly results conference call. By now, everyone should have had access to the earnings press release, which was issued yesterday prior to market open, and the 10-Q report filed with the SEC. This call is being webcast and is available for replay. In our remarks today, we may include statements that are considered forward-looking within the meanings of securities laws, including forward-looking statements about future results of operations, business strategies and plans, our relationships with our customers, market, and potential growth opportunities. In addition, management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current knowledge and expectations as of today and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and may cause the actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.
A detailed discussion of such risks and uncertainties are contained in our most recent Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and in other reports filed with the SEC. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Just a correction, the 10-K was filed with the SEC. All right, with that, I'll now hand the call over to BioLargo's Chief Executive Officer, Dennis Calvert.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Hey, Brian, thank you. Thank you everyone for joining us. I appreciate it. We've got a lot to cover, so we're gonna dive right in. It's May 18th. BioLargo, we make life better. We've been inventing for well over a decade, multiple technology platforms, a number of commercial initiatives, and what we call catalysts for driving revenue and growth that we're very excited about. We're gonna talk about each of those briefly. Remember, in the company, we really have two groups. We have the environmental group and Clyra Medical. Don't count Clyra Medical out. In fact, it's coming alive in a very nice way, with its 510(k) clearance just before COVID, and now its first sales. It's building distribution with reps and channel partners. It's got three channel partnerships in negotiation. It actually has a really significant future.
Remember, in that asset, BioLargo owns about 58% of the equity, it's coming on strong in the near future. We think we're gonna start seeing results soon. We'll talk about what soon means in a bit. Environmental. The environmental group, of course, we have engineering, water, mostly R&D. ONM, formerly known as Odor-No-More, really concentrates on industrial and supporting the supply chain for our retail product called Pooph, P-O-O-F, pooph.com, pooph.com. Pooph, of course, is driving significant revenue for the company. We're gonna talk about PFAS real quick. On the PFAS solution, we have our first customer engaged. We've scoped and priced phase II. We are literally waiting for the go ahead from the customer. We've gotten a verbal. We're waiting for a signed contract to begin phase II. We've built a significant distribution channel here.
Remember, PFAS is per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are the contaminants called forever chemicals, often called now the contaminant of the century. The EPA has just published its testing limits down to four parts per trillion. Literally just about every industry that uses water in any way is gonna be impacted by PFAS, including food production, food processing, water, drinking water, industrial wastewater, leachate from landfills. There is a significant buzz, and we have really positioned ourselves as an expert in this space. We're anxious to get to a full-scale implementation. In the images that you see right now, This is a portable unit. There's the design on the left. There's the actual unit on the right. There's the electrode panels on the bottom right.
This system is actually being configured to go into the field as we speak. We've got a number of clients that wanna move forward as an early adopter. We do believe that the key to breaking open wide scale adoption is getting our first full-scale implementation done. Wanna remind everybody, full-scale implementation in this field can be $5 million-$20 million. It's a big number. We're on the march. I wish it was faster, our positioning as the solution of choice for economics, for ease of use, for a reduction in the waste stream. As far as we know, we're the only technology in the market that can actually achieve a non-detect status. That's a level at which science can't detect any residual. For the layman, that means complete elimination. That claim is substantial.
It's getting its attention all over the world. Now, of course, we're working on the scaled version to deploy to the marketplace. Still very excited about it. Slow, hard work, a grind. Very exciting though. We're gonna talk about that as well. Pooph. Of course, Pooph has led the company in its revenue growth. It is a wonderful product, based on our technology. Remember that we're the supply chain partner. We make a small margin on manufacturing. We get a royalty on sales. Our partner buys from us, we sell to them, and we bargain for 20% of the brand equity upon exit. Brand equity upon exit. Their stated mission is to get to $100 million, consider selling somewhere between 3x-7x. That would put that in exit somewhere around $350 million upwards of $700 million.
The key there is that the product has the capacity, the ability, the wherewithal to support international brands that can go to $1 billion in sales, and we certainly believe that's the case. Pooph is doing great. Remember that they recently launched to the nationwide in Walmart. We do have some clarity there. It looks like it's targeted to go into about 3,000 stores. That's the main Walmart stores, and that has been achieved in the last, to our knowledge, and our partners informed us that that's been achieved in the last 30 days. Now we're watching the sell-through. The sell-through historically has been three times the minimum expectation. It was adopted then by Walmart for a national rollout.
I think the most critical thing to note for everyone is not only is that marching forward and being successful, but there's also a number of other major retail accounts coming on board. Chewy is very excited. That's the number one online retailer of pet products in the world. I understand they do more revenue than the specialty pet like PetSmart, Petco combined. This is a major force in the retail buying of pet products. Relative to Pooph, I do wanna point out that as the model was built and successfully proven on a direct-to-consumer model, and now there's a migration, right? The migration means that now it's becoming a wholesale product into a retail channel with major retailers. The advertising campaign is intended to drive attention and steer customers into retail outlets to buy the product.
That is a shift. That means a couple things to us. The first it means is that, often, as they launch into these national retailer accounts, there's a stocking up of inventory. Of course, we witnessed an extraordinary Q1, which we're gonna talk about the revenue in just a minute. You know, massive 78%, you know, quarter-over-quarter growth. That is what we believe the representation of the stocking up of inventory that then leads to the sell-through. With the new large retail accounts coming on, we will likely see some lumpiness in that.
I think maintaining a 70%+ quarter-over-quarter growth rate is an extraordinary, difficult challenge. We know that in the long run, when we look at this over every six months to nine months to a year, we think our growth rate will continue in a very positive way. Everyone's very excited about the product. Revenues are expected to grow. Our partners tell us that they would generally forecast at something like 20% quarter-over-quarter growth for the next year. That's a loose estimate, a target. Historically, they've exceeded those numbers, we're optimistic about the future of Pooph. Of course, it's a game changer for the company. It's taken us to near profitability, near, certainly close to positive cash flow, near profitability, and I think the numbers are gonna continue to expand over time. The battery.
This is a sodium-sulfur battery, not to be confused with a sodium-ion battery. We've done quite a bit of work in this area. The response from the marketplace is pretty incredible. We continue to hear the same thing, that if the claims associated, the technical claims associated with this battery are true, which we certainly believe they are, then we believe that we'll sell as many as we can make. It just fits a niche in the marketplace that's unmet by lithium and by sodium ion, namely in their safety profile, 100% charge recharge, domestic supply, energy density that matches or beats lithium, and it's primarily designed for fixed site.
The other thing I want to point out is the Department of Energy just published an exhaustive paper on LDES, Long Duration Energy Storage, estimating that this massive number of $90 billion is required for the United States to keep up with the demand. You know, being in the battery business over the next decade is being likened to being in the chip business in terms of its magnitude of impact globally. We think this is a great way to enter into the market with a design that we believe should be commercially ready soon. We'll be manufacturing. We're actually deploying some capital, building out a prototype manufacturing facility in Oak Ridge as we speak. That means buying parts. We've got a team assembled. We are building equipment. We're building a line.
We'll be in the making battery business in the next few months. We had forecasted something like 4-6 months. Still, that's a good forecast, and we're on the march as we speak. Very exciting. Our response, again, our response in the marketplace to this is remarkable. It has a chance to be arguably the largest revenue asset in the portfolio. Financial performance is still pretty. Oh, Clyra Let's make sure we don't forget Clyra. We mentioned it briefly. I think the biggest news here is that the regulatory approval is in place to do what it's doing. It has a menu of product designs, but it's singularly focused on its BioClynse as a wound irrigation solution, fully vetted, cleared under 510(k) with the FDA for sale. Okay?
Got its first couple of customers, got a number of hospital systems that wanna adopt the product. It's got a menu of key opinion leaders literally the top physicians in the field. Now channel partners are coming on strong. We think this is a sleeper that's gonna be extraordinarily high growth and margin. It's in the works. I think meaningful sales are literally just in front of us. You know, there's a process. To give you an example, when we sign up a major hospital system, that process can take, you know, 90 days, and sometimes it can take nine months. It's quite a grind. That's what's going on.
We're signing up hospital systems going through the QAQC and what they call a formulary to have these products approved for purchase while physicians are asking for them for the purposes of helping keep people safe from infection in the surgical suite. Of course, our data continues to stack up, support our patent estate, and it is extraordinarily unusual and unique value proposition to be able to achieve extraordinary results as a leave-in product, high performance with no toxicity and no systemic and no sensitivity, cleared to the bone and tendon. It's a leave-in product, very unusual, matching with the best antimicrobial killing agents known to the industry and yet gentle. That's a value proposition that's unsurpassed at the moment. Clyra is gonna have a great future.
Remember on Clyra, we own 58% as well, 58% of the equity. Other direct investors and management at Clyra own the balance. Okay. 78% quarter-over-quarter is pretty dramatic. If you look at that on an average, it's about 29% quarter-over-quarter. That would kinda match what Pooph is also forecasting generally, right? As a 20% quarter-over-quarter for the foreseeable future. The balance then is gonna be the lumpiness of inventory, right, and launching into big national brands. When we look at the annual at 132%, you know, year-over-year, it's extraordinary, and the financial implications to the company are dramatic.
We think that this rate generally can continue, although we don't expect to be able to maintain a 78% quarter-over-quarter growth rate. A little bit of grace will be required, but the optimism for the long haul is just off the chart. You know, we're confident where we're going. What does this do to the company? Well, of course, we've mentioned this before. At one point, our debt had reached a maximum of $7.2 million. All of that's been long since retired. We now have just a few SBA PPP loan in dispute, wrangling with the bank and with the SBA to make sure that we get it handled properly. And then the long-term 3% SBA loan. That's it. No convertibles, certainly no toxic debt, almost none.
Revenues are continued to climb, which means cash flow. Net loss, right? Net loss is shrinking. We mentioned in the press release it's about a 75% reduction this quarter over a year ago. Pretty dramatic. Our SG&A is pretty static as well. Notice that we're heading into that zero mark towards profitability. Our net loss for the quarter was about $475,000. I'll just point out a lot of that is, most of that is also non-cash. Non-cash. So that's a P&L loss but not a cash loss. Very close to positive cash flow. Revenue versus SG&A. We include this really just to point out that we're not dramatically increasing our SG&A. That's important. It's also hard to do. I just wanna point...
You know, throughout the company we have massive plans and visions about what we can accomplish. We try to leverage our partnerships very aggressively, and we do it in a lean operating style so that we don't ramp up significant infrastructure and staffing until we have contracts to pay for them. That is the hallmark of the company. It's why we're here, why we survived. And we're testing it as we grow because I think the demands on our team is impactful and dramatic. We're gonna need to increase SG&A. It can't stay static, but we're extraordinarily careful 'cause we're looking at the potential of the near term profitability, and we think that's a very important mark. That's what we're doing. Net cash using operating activity. There you go, right at the line, right?
Very, very close to net positive cash flow. I'll point out that in that cash flow item we are making some significant investments as well, right? That was a big part of our accounting and our reporting this period is to deal with internally constructed assets like the machines that are going into the field for PFAS, how to properly treat those. As a result, we're incurring R&D. We're also building assets. We're using cash to build tools on the infrastructure that we think are critical for commercial success. The demands are still there, right? We're putting money to work for the company, very, very close to positive cash flow. We also think R&D is just super critical for the business.
I mean, think about that. The all of these innovations just have a continual refinement. Last year, that number was about $1.5 million in R&D. I don't see that number going down much. We're careful, and we're trying to focus on the things that can bring us near-term revenue. There's some things we just can't avoid. It's just the nature of our business to continue to advance science and engineering to remain competitive with our assets. $3.55 net shareholder equity is a big number. I'll just remind everyone that for a NYSE listing, the number's $4 million minimum, and for a Nasdaq listing it's $5 million. Notice that we've done that sort of organically.
We've done it with a combination of growth and small investments here and there to build that net shareholder equity over time. Also deploying some of our capital into assets that can be deployed for income-generating purposes on the commercial strategy. That combination over time and a persistent focus on that agenda has created net shareholder equity of significance. You may not realize it, but in the micro-cap world, we stand out as literally one in 10,000. It's an extraordinary feat. Now, of course, we think we're marching towards the potential significant success and profitability. That's ultimately where we need to get to. A couple highlights are very important. We'll also break them down just a little bit. 78%... 288%, you know, year-over-year for the first quarter, big number.
A $3.742 million. Net loss reduced to 68%. Huge improvement in our cash position over the course of a year. $302.2 million, $3.264 million in cash. you know, that's whatever, three to 3+ times, you know, a year ago. That's important. It also raises questions about, you know, when and what's it gonna take for us to be able to position ourselves without a going concern. Very important. We see that in our future. It's time will be required, time of proving over and over, building the cash reserve, showing that our income opportunities have consistency and cash flow. All of those required to really go into analysis of that test.
We'll be looking to test that theory quarterly for the foreseeable future to see if we can position that for that important feat. ONM Environmental, of course, leading the way big time, 491%, 5X on Q1, 86% versus Q4 2022. Pretty dramatic. Of course, Pooph is really the shining star in that growth. It's remarkable what they're accomplishing, and we're so proud to be their partner and support them with a product that has that capability. We always believed it could, and now we're proving it can and does have that potential to really be a national brand of a billion-dollar range.
Now, we haven't proven $1 billion yet, but I think anybody that's a critic can look at it and say, "Does it have a chance to do that?" I think with the combination of marketing and its unique value proposition, I think many people would conclude, yes. BioLargo Engineering. BioLargo Engineering, couple things there, and I know there's a lot of questions that come out about this. The first thing is, you know, how's the engineering group? Well, they have a net loss, and there's a couple reasons. We should talk about it real quick, and I'm sure we'll have some detail. The first is that they have a number of very large contracts that have been promised but not executed yet. Promises don't work, contracts do.
We believe that those promises from the CEOs and our customers are real, and they will come to bear. It makes me pause and ask questions about macro, you know, impacts of the markets, credit markets, capital expenditures could possibly have some impact. We have so many that have said, "We're, we're in, we're in, we're in," that we just rest with that for a moment and know that the volume of business and staffing that will be required to fulfill those contracts is so substantial that we should consider ourselves fortunate to have a moment to catch a breath. What do we do when we catch a breath? Well, we advance our PFAS. We build trailers. We focus the team on doing internal things to advance our commercial viability. Time is not wasted.
As a result of having a significant R&D budget component of their expense line, that shows up as a net loss because, of course, they can't record intercompany revenues. It does show up as a net loss. The other thing to remember is that for BLEST, a year ago, we had very large contracts, very significant rapid growth and very large. By comparison, of course, we suffer. I just wanna reiterate that the engineering group are esteemed professionals, and our confidence in them is extraordinarily high, and we intend to continue to build around them for success. No real change in BioLargo Water. There's an R&D component there. I know some of the questions come up about the AOS, and we'll talk about them in the Q&A.
Clyra's revenues are kind of not meaningful. I want you to notice that the infrastructure build to be able to offer a high, you know, a qualified FDA-certified, you know, checking all the boxes product in a highly competitive field, are being done and have been done. I, again, I just wanna encourage everyone that Clyra has a future that is extraordinarily bright, and it will be a shining star in the portfolio. I think it's coming. I think it's coming soon. Okay. I think we stop there.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Excellent.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Open up for Q&A. Go ahead.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
All right. Thank you, Dennis. A lot of exciting things going on, clearly. Yes, thank you for talking about Clyra, today. We have some questions around that.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Sure.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
First one here, are there any regulatory approvals that BioClynse is waiting on? Do you believe we will begin recognizing income from it in Q3?
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Yeah. Yeah. No, there are no. The regulatory approval requirements have been met. Certainly it's a highly regulated product, but we've already done all this. It is qualified with the current approvals to do what it's doing in the marketplace. That's number one. Number two, yeah, Q2, Q3, yes, we believe that we will begin to see revenue increases. It's hard to predict the exact timing and date, but given the volume of interest from the market and strategic partners, we know that it is at near at hand. Whether that's one quarter or two quarters, we're in the march, the response from the marketplace is so encouraging that we know we've got a winner. We're not afraid. We're excited.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Excellent. Can you talk a little bit about the distribution for BioClynse, how it works with the hospital systems? We mentioned in the K that we're in the process with two of those systems.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Right.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
-for purchasing BioClynse.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Yeah, what happens...
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Talk about...
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
I'll give you the short version because it's a really complicated one, and it's fascinating because it kind of illustrates how difficult it is to launch a product into that market. The simple version goes like this: It starts with a physician who wants to use it. That's how it starts. A clinician who says to an administrator or a purchasing agent at a surgery center or a hospital, "I wanna use this product. I think this is better, and it can help me with my patient quality to manage infection." That organization, there's a contact made, whether that's through a rep or through a distributor or direct, either one, and we go through a quality assurance process in which they verify regulatory. They check all your FDA compliance, your supply chain.
They basically check all the diligence boxes, that process goes through a committee. That's a clinical committee, by the way. They also are gonna be looking for economic rationale to justify bringing this product into the portfolio for use. That's a process. Some systems do it very fast because maybe 'cause physicians pressure them or they're cutting edge and they've got it down. Some are very slow. Those committees might not meet but every, you know, two or three times a year, so you have to get on schedule. That's what's going on. That's what's going on. Once that happens, then the physicians in the network who are affiliated with those facilities can choose the product, and the hospital will begin stocking inventory. That's where we're at. That's why it's so slow.
It's a really significant burden of time and labor. Again, what's happening is we're establishing group customers that will purchase that product every week and every two weeks and every month for the foreseeable future. I do wanna point out, I think the thing that people don't often recognize about Clyra that's of dramatic value, you know, we've had a chance since this has taken us a decade, right? To get this product positioned and now seeded in the market for its first adoption. We've had a chance to watch all the competition do what they do, and there's been some really big competitors who've carved out market share and spent small fortunes, I mean, big money to establish a market.
In each case, as they've established their position in the marketplace, they begin to lose sales over time, like 5-10 years. Why do they lose sales? Well, it turns out that they're all toxic. They're all toxic. We're the only one that's not. Okay? The value proposition is significant. What's unbelievable is that you can achieve this capacity for killing bugs, this great efficacy, right? In situ, in the body and in an open wound, and you can do so without destroying tissue. That required significant investment to prove, which we've done. Now the gap in the market is getting wider and wider because other products that have significant market share are being terminated because they're toxic. Think about that from selling.
One way to sell is to create a market. Oh my goodness, we've done that. It's really hard. The other way is to sell by comparison with a market that's established with an alternative that's better. That's what we're doing now. The market opportunity is, as one of our guys says, it's like a truck can drive through the gap. It's a big gap, and we're filling it. We're very encouraged because what's really happening is there's a little bit of a buzz going on at the clinical side, talking about Clyra's BioClynse product for these claims that are so astonishing. Astonishing meaning that they literally, with the claims, make it number one in the world. I mean, it's. That's what we have.
We always believed it to be true, and now we've proven it, and now we have to take the market, which is what we're doing. I think that this is the kind of product that not only will it find traction, it will be one of the leading products in the world. That's the opportunity. That's Clyra.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Yeah. Yeah. On that note, we have another final question about Clyra on here. How many doctors are becoming aware of BioClynse, the efficacy? Kinda what's the marketing program around it?
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Well, I think, I don't know exactly. I think we have 12 or so key opinion leaders who are listed on our website. Be sure and take a look at that. In addition, I want to say we've got about 40 reps now, 40 reps signed up. A lot of these are independent reps, and they have a portfolio of customers. Imagine a rep might call on 100 doctors, right? How many have they presented to? I don't know yet, okay. But this is the way it's done. The other thing is, marketing in this field is done primarily through what they call professional meetings. A meeting is an event like a wound event or a burn event or an orthopedics event or a biofilm event, where key topics are chosen.
Physicians will come in from all over the world, all over the country, to get their continuing education credits and then also participate in these very high-level talks about the cutting edge of science and results. We're attending those now, right? Part of that's budget. We have national sales people number. We also have reps, we're out in the field attending meetings and participating in the education to physicians. How many is that? I don't know. It's, it's gotta be-- I mean, it's more than hundreds. It's probably pushing 1,000, but I don't know. Again, the way this works is when the physician says, "I like it," you still have to go get the approval and the vetting for the formulary to be assigned into the hospital. It's, you know, the setup is a grind.
The fruit on the back end is awesome.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Yeah.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
That's what we're doing.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
All right. Let's change gears here. I got a 3-part question. It's a pretty big question, but let's see how we can do.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Sure.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
We have a shareholder wondering, can you provide a status update, specifically on the waste-to-energy project in South America?
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Sure
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
... Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. work and MLD sales?
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
That's a lot. Yes. Okay. The South American project is on a momentary pause. We finished phase I. We've been, again, given a verbal for phase II, and I believe our client, given the, some of the political unrest that's going down there, is on pause for a moment, subject to financing and wants to begin, but we don't know. We don't know when that's gonna happen. We know they're serious. They've invested almost 10 years getting that project positioned for success, and there's a lot of money at stake. We'll know more soon.
We continue to communicate with the client, and they've also brought us to an additional four opportunities overseas, and they've also given us a verbal on those for phase I, which will be quite significant, you know, in the multiple millions of dollars of services range. They literally have said any minute, so we're waiting. That's that. Second part of that question was? What was the second? Give me the three parts again.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Yeah. Ultra Safe Nuclear has agreed to engage us on the next phase. Very similar. We might have actually received a contract. I'm not sure. I need to verify again. Phase II was additional work, so the relationship there is really good. Again, very similar kind of situation where companies are holding onto capital, slowing down the process. They need to do it. We've been assured of our position, and so we're confident in the next step. So there you go. The third was?
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
MLD sales.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
There's a lot of activity going on with Garratt-Callahan. Garratt-Callahan, a member, for those who don't remember, is the largest privately held water company in North America. We've been together with them now coming on II and a half years and have built a fully, you know, commercialized design and gone through the paces to make sure it's supposed to do what it's supposed to do, and it works. The selling channel is now in their hands. We had a little bit of lull, of course, we were originally projecting first commercial success about nine months ago, and it has been delayed. I can tell you that the scope and magnitude of the attention within the organization of Garratt-Callahan has increased about tenfold.
You know, where we had maybe one or two, we've got dozens of prospects now being positioned in an evaluation and scoping process. I'll also say that they're aiming very high for the, for the size and magnitude of these accounts. It's a very similar situation. It's hard to be patient, but we have no question that we will launch commercially with Garratt-Callahan and that the product has a home for recycling water primarily associated with heat exchange and water cooling towers. It's patented, and it is a somewhat of a breakthrough, and it fills a void in the market that's been unmet. We're, again, no lack of confidence, lots of activity, many accounts. The other thing we should mention too is Garratt-Callahan has also begun selling our PFAS solution.
That's a very important thing. You know, remember Garratt-Callahan came to us with their idea. Now they're adopting our idea, which is awesome. Of course, we're adopting their prowess in selling product into the marketplace, which they, of course, they've proven for over 100 years. It's a very good situation. I wish it was faster. I think it's, again, another rude awakening of the complexity and the difficulty in breaking into the market, you know, we're gonna win. There you go.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Yeah. Excellent. Yeah, let's switch gears here to water. On that train of thought with Garratt-Callahan, AOS client, using AEC to clear PFAS. All right. Does that give us a referenceable PFAS client? Can we use them as a case study?
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
It will.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Testimony.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
It hasn't yet, it will. Yeah. It hasn't yet. We've got a number of early adopters, is what we would say, right? Our first account is a very, very large industrial account. Phase I is done. PhaseII is proposed. They've given us a verbal. We're waiting for the go ahead. There's a number of others, really three or four, that we believe have a chance to go. The clients are saying, "Let's do it. We wanna go." They're smaller in scale, which is fine. They're not as big. That's fine. Proof of claim is really critical. The more we stack up that, the better it is for everyone. We think that we'll have some of those early adopters move forward with us. A number of those are coming from Garratt-Callahan, so that's important as well.
So-
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Yeah.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Yeah, the key is they're not signed contracts yet, but they're in the process.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Yeah. Now, we reported with Montreal.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
I forget. It's Quebec Innovation Center or something like that. They have the AOS.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Will there be sales coming out of that, or is there business development efforts around that project?
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Sure. The AOS, of course, remember, is Advanced Oxidation. Advanced Oxidation and what the AEC does are very much hand in hand. One of the things, for example, is that we've discovered is how efficient the AEC is at removing chlorides, which is a big deal, chlorides. We have customers who like it for that reason. All right? That's interesting. The other is that the AOS is an antioxidants machine focused on extraordinarily difficult tasks like micropollutants or in a turbine environment, competing with UV. That's basically its value proposition. In our lingo, in our world, our focus is to bring solutions to customers. Wherever those tools can be plugged into a treatment train as a full-blown proposal for a solution, that's what we're doing.
The other thing that's important is that the distribution network we have for selling, which is now about 38 reps, covering the United States primarily, all of the products go into the catalog. We have a catalog, right? We got a lot in that catalog. We have some assets that we can sell that are made by other people because we're a solution provider. We're the expert that they call when they wanna get it right, and they wanna get it on time, and they wanna get it on budget. That's why they call us. It's that customization that allows for us to distinguish ourselves from very well-established companies because most of them are trying to sell widgets. Widgets in the water industry is extraordinarily difficult and fraught with problems. That's how we've differentiated ourselves.
The AOS is a tool in the toolkit. AEC is a tool in the toolkit. RO filtration is a tool in the toolkit, right? All of those things go hand in hand. We work with clients to design custom processes. I believe the first sales for AOS is gonna happen that way. We're gonna find spots where it definitely fits, can work, and we plug it in through the treatment train, and we find our first commercial adoption that way. The innovation is remarkable. It's ahead of its time, and selling as a standalone is gonna be very difficult. Not impossible, but very difficult. We continue to plow forward there.
The Montreal is a commercial proof of claim by esteemed researchers, and so that'll end up being peer review papers, which goes a long way in positioning yourself in a global market. The AOS is still, we believe, gonna find a home. What's happening for the company is we have so many opportunities. There's only so many hours in the day. Rather than say we're gonna be an AOS company, we say we're a solution company with an AOS. That fits with our mandate. Hope that answers the question.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Yeah. Thank you for that. All right. Let's move on to CupriDyne and odor control.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Sure.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
We launched a partnership with BKT.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Yep.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
That's gotta be maybe two years ago now. Folks are wondering about the success with that, any holdups.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Sure.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Kind of what have we learned from that whole process?
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Well, it's another testimony of how difficult it is, which we already knew. I mean, it took us years to get ourselves situated in the U.S. market. They're having some of the same difficulties we had in getting, you know, through the barrier to entry. They haven't quit, though, and they're excited and we're in constant communication with them. We're also in communication about expanding opportunities. There's a lot going on there. It has yet to pay. I'll remind everyone that they made a strategic investment in the company. We took some of that money, invested in a joint venture on a non-diluted 40% equity. It's a good deal for the company. Remember that it positions us to now have manufacturing capability in that region to support Southeast Asia, and that has become increasingly important.
In fact, just to think about Pooph by itself, that sourcing in the international markets will become increasingly important as Pooph grabs the international market. This is strategic. It's long-term. We don't measure it in terms of quarters. We think they're great partners, and we think they're gonna land well. I wish we were making more money faster, but I think it's a wise move, and we certainly think we've picked some winners there. The biggest testimony is just how difficult it is. It's a very difficult challenge to break into that market.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Got it. The deal with Ikigai, very positive. You shared a bit about that, in the presentation.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Sure.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
one question here: Are there talks with Ikigai to pursue additional licensing for CupriDyne?
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Sure
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
in other markets?
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Sure. Always. Yeah, always. I mean, that's a constant conversation. Notice that they're testing products here and there, to, with the industry we call the build out of what's called a brand block. A brand block would be multiple products that fit the Pooph brand in the pet category. There has been discussion about moving beyond pets, although Pooph, as you might expect, really wants to maximize its time, energy, and money to build the highest concentrated value in a category. They're primarily focused on pets exclusively, and that's where they're making hay. That's where they're building their brand, and they're having significant success. The idea that because they're skilled marketers, they could also branch out into other categories, maybe not. I think they could. Remember, in this endeavor, they're the capital.
You know, they're financing the rollout of a national and potentially international brand. How many times can you do that? What they're doing, we've always identified as an extraordinarily high-risk proposition requiring great capital and great skill, and they have both. They're doing quite well. The wish upon them, an expanded scope of high risk and high capital requirement, I'm not sure that's really in our best interest at the moment. The way to think about it is they've acquired the rights to the pet category. We have all other categories still controlled by the company. As they rise up, literally, all ships rise in the rising tide. That's what we're seeing. We do think additional strategic partners will come on board, as they already have, right?
They're not as big and flashy as what's going on with Pooph, but they're in place, and we've got more coming. We like it that way. Of course, the conversation's always open. They're great partners. We're thankful to be working with the team at Pooph. They're extraordinarily skilled at building content that allows customers to recognize the value proposition and make a yes buying decision intuitively when they watch that video, and they're good at it. I think that answers the question.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
It does. Thank you. I think we've answered majority of investor questions. We'll have to give you a tough one to end on here.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Uh-huh.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Folks are wondering, your reaction to shareholder reaction to the earnings release, current shareholder price, volume, you know?
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Yeah.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
Are people-
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Well.
Brian Loper (Director of Investor Relations)
rising and having
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
There's a better way to do it. I think there's a better way to do it. You know, we're out into the marketplace talking all the time. We do presentations internationally. We're just in Puerto Rico, high net worth retail investors. I mean, some early-stage institutions. There's a dichotomy, right? Let's break that down. The way that works is when people look at the company, the first thing they say is, "You're way undervalued." That's pretty much uniform. You're way undervalued. Number one. Number two, congratulations, right? 'Cause you're on the verge of making positive cash flow. You're right there, and you're-- got profit in sights. That's a big deal. Took a long time, a lot of money, right? People say, "Congratulations." That's the second response.
They say, "You know, how quickly do you wanna uplist?" Because what they're saying is, right, trading on OTC is a tough place because you kinda get trapped in this, like we are now, in this $0.20-$0.25 range. We kinda have a bracket. Well, is it gonna go beyond that? We certainly believe it should. In many ways it already should have. Okay. Now we've got standard distribution of an investor base. We've got some overhang to sell through. It's common. We're gonna chip away. We're also gonna continue to increase our numbers in a dramatic fashion like we have. The combination will overpower it. I believe that to be true, and I believe the commercial opportunities that we are focused on are so significant that it just won't matter. It just won't matter.
Is that a situation that happens today? It depends on what happens with the market. I know that the capital markets in general are in an uproar, and, you know, we may have seen a tech rally in the last four or five days, but I think there's a general sentiment that, you know, there's caution to hanging on to dollars. That's gonna impact everyone, including us. For us, right, what do we represent? Well, we represent an extraordinary high level of return opportunity, right, where the core technologies have in many ways been de-risked to the level of acceptance. We've also demonstrated an ability to execute with some discipline, to generate now breaking the cash flow and opportunity for positive cash flow, leveraging a strategy, right, a strategy of invention, finding the market, leveraging through channel partners.
That's a tried and true process. It's the right process for us. Now you say, "Well, which of these assets are gonna find the market?" Well, they all are. That's the answer. Clyra is gonna go. The battery's gonna find a home. PFAS is gonna find a way, bundled into a solution provider's umbrella. That's what we're doing. Obviously, odor control's got a home, and it's got more home to find. This is a business that I believe at this stage is undervalued. On the optimistic side, of course. That's who we are. We believe in what we're doing. We're still trading on OTC market. We've got a lot of investors who've traded into the company in that $0.20, $0.17-$0.22, $0.26 range.
You know, if they're a seller at $0.21, you know, shame on them. We're bullish on the future, so we think it's a great future, and we're gonna continue to execute. In the long run, we don't think it's gonna matter. In the short run, we gotta work through that overhang, and we would encourage people to think long if they can, because really in terms of the status of the business from a year ago to today, it's like a new company. People need to view it as a new company ready to roll. We're pretty bullish. There you go. Excellent. What do you think, Brian? We covered it? Hey, Brian, you there?
Operator (participant)
It looks like Brian's line has disconnected.
Dennis Calvert (CEO)
Let's do this then. We'll take a minute. I'll just wrap up. We appreciate everyone staying in touch with the company, of course. Wanna remind everyone that we've got an annual stockholders meeting on the sixth. If you're a stockholder of record, you're certainly invited. We'd love to spend time with you. It's at 10:00 A.M. in Aliso Viejo. Reach out to the company if you haven't. If you're not on our mailing list, every once in a while somebody says, "I'm not on the mailing list," please reach out to us. You can send it to info@BioLargo or me or Alex@BioLargo, whatever it takes to get you connected. We're sending out, you know, content about once or twice a week at least, and there's a lot going on. If anybody's got questions, love to entertain them.
Again, thank you for the support, and we're really looking forward to continued push. I think for, just again, to reiterate, for Pooph, we're gonna watch sort of a settling in and then a big push retail. We're still figuring out what that means to us, but it's all, it's all very exciting. There you go. See you on the sixth. Operator, thank you very much.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.