Miners,
It has been a while and it seems we have fallen on hard times yet again. Lets take an honest and realistic look at what has been going on here.
- Scott Vanis has really locked down the hatch in terms of letting info out the past few months. In reality this is most likely a good thing because PR's have never done anything for the pps except give it a temporary increase. Also, I am sure Scott is sick and tired of all the hate mail he's getting and holding everyone's hand along the way. Can you blame him for going quiet?
- I am really surprised that there wasn't more planned for this summer in terms of advertising, events, and general promotion of FIZZ in California.
- The coming Quarterly Report. I am not expecting numbers to be all that great, and I am hoping that there is at least a little improvement from the last. What I am mostly worried about is the the amount of debt they showed last Q, and the negative cash flow. It costs a lot of money to make the product and keep the company going, and we are currently running at a deficit. This is a big concern. I believe we need somwhere around $5,000,000 to keep going.
- What has happened to New York City and Las Vegas? They have seemed to fall off the map.
- Comppetition in the space. There is no denying the competition in the sparkling water category is getting intense. In Chicago we have at least 5 varieties to choose between:
- Sparkling ICE
- FruitWater
- Fruit o2
- Nice
- VitaIce (Which was previously ICE, which was around before Sparkling Ice, but they have rebranded into VitaIce)
- Buy back. I wish this would just be put to rest already. There is simply no money to buy shares back, and there won't be this kind of money for a long time. Also, returning shares. Please be realistic here, I don't expect this to hardly dent the OS. If your thinking is based in reality, you will understand there is only one way to fix the share structure.
- On a positive note, I always use Lance Collins and his beverage 'Fuze' which was bought by Coca Cola, and is on tap at Subway. I suggest you look him up, but in short he spent 6 years saturating SoCal with Fuze before Coke bought. From the sounds of it, VitaminFIZZ has done the same work in one year, so we are ahead of schedule. Minerco is also working with Lance Collins as we are distributing his latest beverage 'Outlaw Energy' through Avanzar.
- We still have the connection to Gary Smith, CEO of Big Red who is distributed Nationally through Dr Pepper Snapple. He has an ownership stake in FIZZ, and surely has its best interests in mind. On a side note, he has increased revenues 100% since becoming the CEO of Big Red which is now a 200 million dollar company.
Minerco has accomplished a lot in its rookie year, and Vanis has done many unexpected things all to help grow the company. He has also missed the boat on a quite a few things too, and maybe mentioned things too early, but this is only the beginning and I am sure he is learning along the way.
If we can get the debt squared away, and the funding to keep moving forward with the business model, then there is a good chance that VitaminFIZZ will be a succesful product, but this is not going to happen over night, it is going to take time. Remeber, it took Lance Collins 6 years to get Coke to notice him. We are ahead of schedule.
The pps is brutal, but it has been stable the past month aside from the breakdown this week into the mid 002s. We need 4-5 solid Qs which show revenues.
I am invested here and have the patience to see this stock through. Charlie Munger says you buy, and hold through the ups and downs. The over all trend is usually up when you have a longer time frame.
I have lost a little faith in Vanis and the team, or maybe my outlook is maturing and the honeymoon phase is over. I keep in mind why I put my money here in the first place, the product is good, and they are moving along unlike any other OTC despite the obstaces we are facing.
There are big names and big companies connected here, and I am perfectly fine watching this grow for another year or two..
May the force be with you.....
