Heliospectra presented its Half Year Report for January-June 2020. Net sales amounted to KSEK 19 874 (16 744) which means an increase of 19% compared to last year. Of the period’s sales, the Mitra product group made up 33%. The operating loss amounted to KSEK -22 242 (-20 842) KSEK, signifying a negative operating margin (neg). The loss after tax was KSEK -22 190 (-20 945).
Cash flow, January – June
Operating cash flow was KSEK -28 285 (-19 295). Total cash flow was KSEK -28 371 (-17 879). Of the operating cash flow, 29% (-58%) was a change in working capital.
"With the first half of 2020 behind us, I would like to extend our appreciation to the entire Heliospectra team for showing true leadership, resourcefulness and strength to our community during these challenging times. I would also like to thank you, our shareholders, for your unwavering support and commitment to our people, our vision and our purpose", Heliospectra President & CEO Ali Ahmadian comments. "As governments around the globe are working hard to control the pandemic and keep its people safe, we are working on untiringly. While remaining fully operational, we have strengthened our relationships and provided support to our grower and customers through virtual avenues. These efforts combined with an enhanced marketing strategy have resulted in significantly more leads that we have seen in previous periods. Due to the Covid-19 crisis and travel restrictions, many of our customers experienced delays in their greenfield projects, such as Nectar Farms. Additionally, in the early stages of the pandemic, there was a spike in demand for food products. This forced growers to pause plans for expansion and instead focus on supporting day to day operations. As a resulting of these dynamics and headwinds, Q2 did not yield sales as we had expected.
"To compensate for the lower sales we took proactive measures to save on the bottom line. This includes restructuring our organization as well as using available government programs – specifically support from the Swedish Agency for Economic and a long-term government interest-free loan in Canada. We will see the cumulative effect of these initiatives in Q4, during which we expect to achieve a 10% reduction in operating costs.
"During this uniquely challenging period, we were able to drive positive results from our research and development efforts, specifically improvements to our product and service portfolio. Furthermore, we have greatly increased our brand recognition by launching our digital marketing strategy. The initial phase was the introduction of the by Growers for Growers webinar series, which resulted in half a million impressions and produced over 2,000 quality leads (300% increase from previous period). The second part of our digital marketing initiative included the redevelopment and launch of our new website. This allows us to prominently highlight the benefits of our products and services, better communicate our global reach, and further our goal of feeding and healing the world by facilitating knowledge sharing across the grower community. This quarter we achieved sales growth of 18% compared to last year with decline in our order intake due to the reasons explained above, which affect the industry as a whole. However, we are positive about the rebound in coming quarters.
"Lastly, we have strengthened our partnerships with resellers by providing virtual training and other tools that will help them effectively sell our products and services to the global community. This will help us generate new opportunities and customers.
"Heliospectra’s mission to redefine nature’s potential has never been more relevant and timelier. While there is still uncertainty in the market, we are confident we can deliver on the strong opportunities the team is working on in the near future and we remain committed to our mission to provide exceptional products, services and support to our growers."
Download the Half Year Report here.
Heliospectra