YPB Group lays foundations for “much greater progress” in 2021

YPB Group Ltd (ASX:YPB) is looking ahead to a year of “much greater commercial progress and improved financial results” after laying the foundations for its future during a rocky, pandemic-hit 2020. The company released its 2020 annual report to shareholders on Thursday, outlining its mission to reduce the harm of counterfeiting and enhance the engagement of brands with their consumers. And though its bottom line was impacted by COVID-19, YPB chairman and CEO John Houston assured shareholders its technical advancements would hold the company in good stead. Progress despite pandemic “COVID-19 was a major impediment to our business development plans in 2020 but valuable progress was made nonetheless,” he said. “Our commercial thrust was to elevate existing and develop new channel partner relationships and considerable success was achieved on both fronts in Australia and China, and new partners were also added in Thailand and India. “Numerous joint business development programs and product innovation ideas to take to specific clients were created and advanced. “2020 laid solid foundations for much greater commercial progress and improved financial results in 2021.” Key recent developments YPB Group had a steady stream of newsflow relating to its unique anti-counterfeit and tracing technology, which is smartphone readable, allowing consumers to confirm product authenticity and brands to trigger consumer engagement. The company hopes to be a solution to a global counterfeiting headache estimated to be worth US$2.3 trillion in economic losses by next year. With media fragmentation damaging brands’ abilities to know and engage with their consumers, and product authenticity scepticism from consumers on the rise, YPB’s suite of products aim to restore trust between the two. In late March, YPB developed an ‘evaporating tracer’ to identify disinfectant presence on a surface, just one example of how YPB pivoted to meet the needs of a COVID-19 world. “We are excited that our long history in tracer development could now impact the world in a way that we never envisaged when we commenced our quest to fight counterfeit,” Houston said. “I believe that the world has changed due to COVID-19 and that the certainty of a disinfected surface has become critical in many more situations than prior to the pandemic.” Last week YPB signed a three-year master service agreement with Australian natural health and products company Phytologic to supply an integrated product authentication, track and trace, and consumer engagement solution to the Australian natural health and products industry. And just yesterday YPB was awarded seven new SKUs and added advanced analytics to its proprietary CONNECT platform, which allows consumers to confirm product authenticity and brands to view their consumers’ engagement. Importantly, the company is also within sight of completing its revolutionary breakthrough, forensic-standard, business-to-consumer product authentication technology MotifMicro™ app ahead of schedule, which Houston told investors would be in-market with its first client by June. It is these consistent wins that give YPB’s board renewed confidence heading into the next three quarters of 2021, according to Houston. “These factors support my optimism as to further significant improvement in financial results in 2021,” he said. “Our whole team is intent on driving YPB to profitability and becoming a self-funding, notable shareholder wealth creator.” - Daniel Paproth