REG - Venture Life Group - Business Update

Venture LifeAnnouncement

10/01/2022 07:05

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RNS Number : 8464X  Venture Life Group PLC  10 January 2022

10(th) January 2022

 

VENTURE LIFE GROUP PLC

("Venture Life" "VLG" or the "Company")

New partner appointed for Chinese market for oral care brands, following
recent termination of previous distributor

 

Venture Life (AIM: VLG), a leader in developing, manufacturing and
commercialising products for the self-care market, today announces that it has
appointed a new Chinese partner for two of VLG's leading oral care brands -
Dentyl and UltraDEX.

As communicated in August and December 2021, the Company's Chinese partner had
disappointed against expected level of sales since the start of the pandemic
and the Company was exploring alternative opportunities. In the absence of any
improvement in the second half of 2021, the VLG Board made the decision to
terminate the agreement with the previous partner and the Board is pleased to
announce that the Company's new Chinese partner will be Samarkand Group Plc
("Samarkand") for an initial contract term of 5 years, on an exclusive basis.

Samarkand is a UK based, publicly listed company with expertise in connecting
UK brands to the Chinese consumer representing large brands such as
Omorovicza, Temple Spa and Philip Kingsley.   With operations in Shanghai
and London, the Board believes that Samarkand is well placed to emulate the
success achieved by both Dentyl and UltraDEX in the UK, and the success
achieved by the previous partner in the Chinese market before the pandemic.

 

David Hampstead, CEO Samarkand Group Plc, commented, "We are delighted that
Venture Life Group Plc has chosen Samarkand as their new go to market partner
for China. Dentyl and UltraDEX are market leading brands with established
recognition and sales in the China market. Samarkand's on the ground
capability in China, combined with our transparent and collaborative approach
to working with our brand partners, has once again made us the winning choice
for brands."

 

Jerry Randall, CEO of Venture Life, commented, "Further to the challenges we
have documented and faced with our previous distributor in the Chinese market
for both Dentyl and UltraDEX, precipitated by the pandemic, we are pleased to
have appointed a new partner - Samarkand, a UK based company with both
experience and infrastructure in the Chinese market.  As Samarkand has other
key brands under their stewardship, we are confident that our oral care brands
will be properly exploited and managed by them in China. This partner brings
two key benefits which I think will be paramount to our success; the first
being a UK base that we will interact with directly, making communication
quicker and simpler than with a partner direct in China, and the second being
their own team in China directly interacting with the UK base. We expect this
to make transacting business in China much simpler and more effective than it
was with our previous relationship.

 

Further to this and following the months of intense integration since the
acquisition of both BBI Healthcare and Helsinn, our commercial team is
starting to make good progress on exploring and exploiting the expected
synergies.  A new distribution agreement has been signed for Pomi-T in
Germany and good progress has been made in identifying other prospects in
other key parts of the world.  We will continue to update the market on this
progress in due course."

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 

 Venture Life Group PLC                              +44 (0) 1344 578004
 Jerry Randall, Chief Executive Officer

 Daniel Wells, Chief Financial Officer

 Cenkos Securities plc (Nomad and Joint Broker)      +44 (0) 20 7397 8900
 Michael Johnson/Russell Kerr (Sales)

 Stephen Keys/Camilla Hume (Corporate Finance)

 Singer Capital markets (Joint Broker)               +44 (0) 20 7496 3000
 Jonathan Dighe (Sales)

 Shaun Dobson/Alaina Wong (Corporate Finance)

About Venture Life (www.venture-life.com (http://www.venture-life.com/) )

Venture Life is an international consumer self-care company focused on
developing, manufacturing and commercialising products for the global
self-care market. With operations in the UK, Italy, The Netherlands and
Sweden, the Group's product portfolio includes some key products such as the
UltraDEX and Dentyl oral care product ranges, the Balance Active range in the
area of women's intimate healthcare, the Lift and Glucogel product ranges for
hypoglycaemia, products for fungal infections and proctology, and
dermo-cosmetics for addressing the signs of ageing. Its products are sold in
over 90 countries worldwide.

The products, which are typically recommended by pharmacists or healthcare
practitioners, are available primarily through pharmacies and grocery
multiples. In the UK and The Netherlands these are supplied direct by the
company to retailers, elsewhere they are supplied by the Group's international
distribution partners.

Through its two Development & Manufacturing operations in Italy and
Sweden, the Group also provides development and manufacturing services to
companies in the medical devices and cosmetic sectors.

 

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