Has anyone read Annual report at Sedar? It's 43 pages. What is your take? I didn't really see anything to make me think they were for sale, but I might have missed something
sedar.com
Yogen Früz
World-Wide Incorporated
Letter to Shareholders
Bar graph showing net earnings: 1994 - $755,604
1995 - $1,841,573
1996 - $5,182,519
1997 - $9,937,000
1998 - $12,941,000
The past year was a successful and exciting one for Yogen Früz World-Wide Incorporated.
While continuing to perform well on all major fronts and maintaining our position as the world's largest
franchisor and licensor of frozen yogurt outlets, we brought the long-term vision of
our organization sharply into focus.
Through a series of important initiatives this year we took the Company to a new stage of
development. We consolidated our position within the frozen dessert industry by branching
out from our core franchise business into the sale of consumer products in supermarkets
and other outlets in North America. At the same time, in our core franchise business, we
significantly enhanced our Family of Brands to meet our objective of materially increasing
our strength in the US market. We also expanded the reach of our products, in North
America, to millions of potential new customers through a number of innovative non-traditional
partnerships. We made great strides this year as a rapidly-growing global
enterprise poised to achieve sustainable shareholder value and strong growth well into
the future.
In this environment of expansion and change we continued to aggressively build our
revenue base with record results this year. With revenues of $89,979,000 for the year
ending August 31, 1998, we achieved 105% growth over 1997. This was fuelled by
strong sales results this year -- particularly for consumer products in North America –
which rose 161% this year, to $63,522,000. But while revenues exceeded our
expectations, our earnings were affected by a number of external factors, including a
dramatic increase in the price of butter fat, as well as financial crises in certain regions in
Asia. However, before-tax earnings grew by 57%, to $16,223,000 for the year. Net
earnings for 1998 were $12,941,000 ($0.33 per share basic and $0.31 per share fully
diluted) compared to $9,937,000 ($0.31 per share basic and $0.30 per share fully diluted)
for 1997. Gross profit increased to $30,151,000, up from $8,749,000 in 1997. Gross profit
percentage increased to 47.5% compared to 36% for last year. At year end, our balance
sheet remained strong with $37,538,000 in cash and short-term investments.
Without question, our most far-reaching initiative this year was the acquisition in March of
Integrated Brands. Our seventh and most important acquisition to date, Integrated Brands
has enhanced our core franchise business while strategically diversifying our activities
within the frozen dessert industry. It has also created new synergies and efficiencies within
our operations. As a wholly-owned subsidiary, Integrated Brands has significantly added to
our franchise networks and strengthened our Family of Brands, mainly by the addition of the
Swensen's Ice Cream franchise system. In addition, with exclusive long-term license
agreements for such brands as Tropicana, Betty Crocker, Yoplait, and Trix, Integrated Brands
has given us a solid foothold in the consumer products sector along with important new
distribution networks in retail food outlets across the US.
From March, 1998 to our August year-end, Integrated Brands' operations contributed 43% of our
annual revenues for 1998. With Integrated Brands' supermarket and convenience stores sales
accounting for 86% of our overall growth in sales this year, our consumer products activities now
constitute an important part of our business and source of growth for Yogen Früz moving forward. |
