Here is the info that I got from the call.
I have listened to my recording a few times and wrote down all relevant info. While the call itself has an unprofessional feel to it, especially with the technical issues, it was very informative. Here are the highlights that I got:
- No agreement with Vietnam yet, but is very close. Someone is there currently shepherding the agreement.
- They plan on starting up a Kraig Labs subsidiary in Vietnam.
- They have signed a lease on an office in Ho Chi Minh City
- Kraig Labs has been having issues with their silk quality and quality control. Vietnam should solve this with their current infrastructure.
- They have 11 stable genetic strains of silkworm, 7 in development.
- Dragon Silk is not longer in development stage, it is ready for "Scale and Sale"
- They have partnered with a clothing manufacturer and produced the first test textiles in November.
- In partnership with Warwick Mills, they have produced their first hybrid woven fabrics with Monster Silk combined with synthetics.
- They are in the process of creating pure silk fabrics and will evaluate them for ballistics performance.
- The CEO still feels that the silkworm approach to Spider Silks is the best, but he is not opposed to using other methods in the future.
- The CSC agreement is sufficient for current financing, but they plan on up-listing to a higher exchange post commercialization should should allow access to larger potions of capital allowing a significant upscale in operations.
- There are no merger or buyout discussions currently, but they will consider buying an asset in the future.
- The lab space at Notre Dame has become more efficient which caused under-utilization of their second lab, so they discontinued the lease agreement.
- They are using a new genetic engineering protocol which allows for advanced editing of silkworm DNA. They believe they can achieve pure spider silk with this technology.
- They did not send a representative to the ITMA Future Materials Awards due to the timing and cost. They do plan on attending any future ceremonies.
- The reason that they stop scaling up to the metric ton milestone is due to the fact that the quality control at their pilot production facility's local infrastructure is lacking.
- The reason that the agreement to start up the facility in Vietnam has yet to be approved is due to bureaucracy.
- They are looking into improving infrastructure at the pilot production facility.
- They are looking into other countries in addition to Vietnam as well, but there would be bureaucracy at those locations as well.
- While many strides have been made scientifically, a major issue for the company has been lack of quality production. The CEO feels that this issue needs to be corrected before he will move forward with commercial production and sales.
- Many of their current silk strains have properties that outperform standard spider silk. They are focused on improving these properties further moving forward.
- Dragon Silk's average tensile strength has been improved through selective breeding and they have seen it exceed 2 GPa.
- They plan on starting Dragon Silk batch production early 2016.
- The company feels that it has been good at putting out info, but they feel that some info would be used against the company. Despite this, they do feel like they could do better and plan on putting out more info to shareholders in the future.
- The agreement with Warwick Mills is a development agreement for new textiles. They will see where it goes in the coming months.
- The call was dropped at this point, but should be continued in the future.
