(Duplicates Omitted)
Question 1
Are you planning to get current and unlocking shareholder value?
Answer 1
Recent SEC rule changes will prevent all OTC quoted companies that do not provide current information that conforms at least to the OTC Alternative Reporting Guidelines from being traded until this standard is attained. This will have an impact on the OTC marketplace toward the middle to end of 2021. Winning Brands must and will achieve this reporting requirement ahead of that deadline.
By shareholder value, if you mean share price and its aggregate dollar value in investors’ hands, the key to unlocking it in our case is to become profitable in real cash terms. We are being conservative by not discussing long term possibilities beyond what has already been described previously in this weblog. We are ambitious but are keeping it real. Things are looking up for 2021. The fact that the company has cruised through enormous COVID era disruptions is, hopefully, encouraging to our shareholders, and sends a message.
Question 2
Any plans for R/S?
Answer 2
The are no plans for a reverse split presently. No arrangements have been made or even discussed with anyone about a reverse split at this point.. That is not saying “never”, however a reverse split is not lurking in the bushes as people (understandably) fear.
Question 3
Have you put any thought into a Form 4 would be a huge shareholder moral boost
Answer 3
For the benefit of other readers, the following is a common definition of “Form 4″ (Credit: Wikipedia) ” Form 4 is a United States SEC filing that relates to insider trading. Every director, officer and owner of more than 10% of a class of equity securities registered under Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 must file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission a statement of ownership regarding such security“.
Management of Winning Brands is not aware of any person who holds more than 10% of the common stock of the company. If they do, through online purchases in their investment accounts, this is not visible to Winning Brands presently because the vast majority of shares acquired through online trading are held in street form, and not separately disclosed on the “NOBO List” (Non-Objecting Beneficial Owners). Technically, such persons have an obligation to contact the company either directly or through a public filing, to disclose this fact. The only other class of stock at Winning Brands is a non-trading preferred share class A, without a CUSIP number. This class has already been disclosed in all previous OTC filings, as well as the fact that I control the preferred stock as an anti-takeover tool. The preferred shares provide voting continuity to prevent a hostile takeover by parties who fail to disclose their common share holdings exceeding 10%. This works because my preferred shares would match and exceed by a nominal amount their in-market accumulation. I have never sold stock in Winning Brands personally or beneficially, and have thus never benefited from any Winning Brands stock promotion. This is true for my friends and family as well.
Question 4
Are all your products sold in the same stores as 1000+? When do you plan to have 1000+ industrial ready for distribution?
Answer 4
1000+ Stain Remover is the lead consumer product. The others are specialty in nature or geared to service industries. We do have industrial clients already for 1000+ Stain Remover. We have not yet launched a formulaic variation of 1000+ (i.e. “industrial”) although it has been considered. So far it has not been necessary and would split available resources. We are also reluctant to do anything that would cause 1000+ for consumers to be perceived as second rate (i.e. compared to a separate industrial version of the same brand).
Question 5
Is your company SEC filing?
Answer 5
Winning Brands filed a Form 15 (12g) many years ago to replace SEC reporting with OTC Markets reporting under the Alternative Reporting Guidelines.
Question 6
Does your company carry convertible debentures or any other toxic funding that could affect shareholder value?
Answer 6
Most of the convertible promissory notes issued by Winning Brands over the years are past their enforcement period under the Statute of Limitations. In those cases, we transfer them to a contingency category in Accounts Payable with the intention of re-visiting them in the future for an alternative form of settlement that is “shareholder friendly” (as opposed to toxic). The accepted wisdom is that a promissory note is not toxic merely by virtue of existence, but rather becomes toxic if its conversion feature has no minimum price limit, or is expressed as a percentage of the trading price without a floor. The only promissory note remaining that could be considered “threatening” in that sense has been mostly repaid already, down to approximately $28,000. The holder of that note in New York has already accepted Winning Brands’ request to make a cash repayment arrangement instead of conversion. We have not heard back from that party with any request to the contrary since the agreement in principle was reached earlier this year.
Question 7
I read on your blog about expanding your distribution line, how is that coming along?
Answer 7
Winning Brands has 3 tiers of customers – distributors, dealers and end-users. Distributors purchase by the skid, dealers purchase by the case and end-users purchase single units. Most of our transaction volume occurs at the distributor level. The margin is lower, but the quantity is higher per transaction. This makes the paperwork and transportation more efficient. Our goal presently is to help our existing accounts move more product through their distribution channels, rather than adding new distributors to compete with them. This is to prevent an accumulation of unsold inventory in distributor warehouses after a temporary sales spike. If sufficient consumer demand is not cultivated to pull the inventory through the distribution pipeline and out the other end, then clear-out liquidations will happen, causing a sales slump and a loss of reputation with the distributors. Winning Brands’ current focus is on increasing consumer demand. This will stimulate more movement of inventory through the existing distribution channels and will restore confidence in our lead product 1000+ Stain Remover as a good performer commercially.
In an upcoming post to this weblog soon, I will describe a new sales strategy for 1000+ Stain Remover directed to consumers to reach a wider audience than before. Recent updates have described a proposed communication mechanism – Neighbourhood Mail Program brochure distribution to homes around participating retailers. The next update, however, will describe the revised positioning of 1000+ Stain Remover, i.e. its “premise”, and why a consumer would be interested in this product over others.
