LISA BERSHAN
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
The August 14th 10Q was a disappointment for one and all.
The less than anticipated reported revenue numbers are the result of unanticipated equipment failures which crimped our supply lines. The impact of these production problems significantly limited our realized sales for the quarter. Despite these difficulties, none of our clients discontinued our lines, in fact we are preparing for meetings in September to improve our current shelf placements, launch a promotion and gain shelf position for our new CHEWIES treat brand line.
We had been having major difficulties with our forming machine. The equipment wasn’t yielding the quality or texture of the bars we intended for the market place. With our filing in late April, we announced the purchase of a forming machine to work in conjunction with an extruder to manufacture NutraBars. More weeks had passed than anticipated by the time we had the unit successfully installed and tested production at K-State. The product quality of the replacement forming machine is excellent as is its thru-put and unit costs.
AAPT currently utilizes the installed extruder at Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas and has used it to fill orders for Walmart, Amazon and its other accounts. AAPT has scheduled a production run this Monday through Wednesday to produce fresh NutraBars that will fill both current purchase and backorders.
The K-State extruder is a lower production output unit than we have on order. The extruder ordered for our facility in Shawnee Kansas will triple the capacity of our NutraBar production enabling us to sustain the bar volume required to meet all the demands of current as well as new retailers carrying both the NutraBar and CHEWIES brand lines.
Currently, we are target marketing specific zip codes with both coupon and brand advertising to promote on shelf sales at the participating Walmart stores. We are also engaged in national brand advertising to support Amazon with directional advertising pushed from our social platform. We promote national NutraBar sampling to introduce the bars to consumers where there is no current street retail. Amazon has seen significant sales increases from this strategy.
It is also anticipated those that have sampled the NutraBar will become regular retail customers as we develop our convenience store, supermarket and other retailer network. We have received very positive testimonials from those that have sampled the bars. Their endorsements can be found on the brand’s Facebook pages.
We are as confident in AAPT and its products as we are confident of increasing the number of retail locations that will be merchandising the AAPT brand lines.
LISA
