EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – MamaMancini’s Holdings, Inc. (the "Company" or "MamaMancini’s") (OTCQB: MMMB), an emerging manufacturer and marketer of specialty pre-prepared, frozen and refrigerated "all natural" food products (as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture), issued the following shareholder update from Carl Wolf, the Company’s CEO and Chairman.
Dear Valued MamaMancini’s Shareholders,
On behalf of our entire management team, I wish to thank you for your continued support. As CEO of MamaMancini’s, I am pleased to provide you with this update on our progress and share my vision for our Company’s future. MamaMancini’s has achieved meaningful progress, especially within the last six months, as we continue to make measured gains toward implementing plans to create and capture shareholder value. To that end, we have established an expansive growth plan with a goal to place our products in 50,000 locations by year-end. We expect the next six months to mark a major inflection point in our growth as we bring a customer-driven mix of well received All-Natural, Gluten Free and Antibiotic Free Meatballs and Pasta products to more stores shelves across the country. We believe that our best days are ahead.
Newly Expanded Sales Force Penetrating National Retail, Supermarket and Box Chain Stores with Growing Distribution
Over the course of the past 4 months MamaMancini’s has employed new broker sales representatives, vastly expanding its U.S. sales network. This new sales force is organized around specific geographic territories targeting the expansive national and regional supermarket and box store trade. The Company’s new sales appointments now cover the following distributors/territories:
Southern Food Brokers: Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
Try Angle Foods: BJ Club Stores
Marketing Management Inc.: Target Stores, including but not limited to, National Supermarkets and General Merchandise Stores.
R&R Sales and Marketing: Michigan, Ohio and select accounts from Kentucky to Nebraska.
Absolute Sales: Southern California, Oregon and Washington State.
Chairman's Advisors: Chain Restaurants and select National food service distributors.
W J Brader and Associates: Rochester, Buffalo and Upstate New York,
Daymon Associates: Select accounts in the New York Metropolitan area.
Amazon: Amazon Direct
Distribution growth from the additional sales force has already yielded measurable results. As we recently announced, MamaMancini’s products are now proudly carried on over 29,000 shelves in supermarkets and club stores throughout North America, compared to 12,000 in the third quarter of 2013. Further, the Company has received commitments of 4,000 more locations, which would include several Costco divisions that intend to conduct roadshows and full merchandising. We believe that the Company’s products will be on approximately 37,000 shelves by Sept 30, 2014 with a goal of 50,000 shelves by year-end.
Robust and Innovative Merchandising and Advertising Expanding Brand Reach
We have expanded our aggressive product and promotional advertising strategies across a number of platforms and mediums. We are very pleased to announce that on August 4, we will be launching our National Consumer radio advertising on SiriusXM and Political Talk Radio and featured commercials on Bloomberg and CNBC. In addition, MamaMancinis’ social media presence has continued to expand, with Facebook likes growing to over 100,000 versus a mere 800 in August 2013. We estimate that an individual recipe post can have as many as 250,000 impressions per post and we are aggressively pursuing our outreach strategies to achieve this level of traction through aggressive local merchandising and events through Coupons.com, Facebook and Ibotta.com, among others. We also continue to market our Sunday freestanding coupon inserts, as well as on-package coupons and special offers.
Financial Strength and Adequate Working Capital
We achieved record revenue for fiscal 2013 at $8.7 million, an increase of 89% compared to $4.6 million in the prior year, while we successfully raised $5.8 million in equity financing in the 2013 fiscal year. Additionally, the Company also secured a $1.5 million credit facility to increase production on inventory and finance accounts receivable for orders from existing and new and potentially large accounts. As we continue to increase our product distribution and account penetration, we remain highly confident that we have the appropriate facilities to sustain our near- and mid- term working capital needs. With a net loss for the 2013 fiscal year end of $2.95 million or $(0.13) per basic and diluted share, the company continues to invest in the resources and infrastructure it believes will enable it to achieve profitability in a reasonable timeframe.
Multifaceted Growth Strategies
Our vision for the future success of MamaMancini’s is predicated upon a blend of strategic initiatives. We remain steadfast in our commitment to increase retail distribution and are currently pitching and winning big-box, club retailers and a growing roster of supportive and dedicated Supermarkets and Grocers. We envision our strategic path will yield growth from a current 25% penetration to our goal of 80%. We believe that we will accomplish our goals by expanding SKU’s per retail location through multiple product placements per store (currently at 3.25 with potential for up to 10). We continue to build brand awareness and loyalty, which is leading to incrementally higher sales. We believe our current brand awareness of 15% will continue to grow, with a goal of 50% or more. Our product development strategies are focused on delivering high consumer demanded products; including new "Fresh Deli" offerings and creating new products, as well. We will also continue to expand upon and execute aggressive marketing with a near-term focus on radio, social media and engrossing contests.
Investor Communications and Outreach
MamaMancini’s is committed to establishing an open and transparent channel of communications with its shareholders, while providing the investing public with the means with which to explore our company and all we have to offer. To that end, the Company has recently expanded its Investor Relations website through IR WebKit Inc., and will be unveiling an improved structure within a matter of weeks, to include a host of new and innovative aspects such as the ability for visitors to signup for automated news, filings, event alerts as well as a completely remodeled investor portal with complete management and governance information, SEC filings, chart information, multimedia, investor and corporate event calendars and much more. The Company has also retained the services of CorProminence, a boutique Investor Relations Firm with an exceptional track record of shareholder outreach and communications success. Look for announcements in the near future as the Company embarks upon aggressive investor and institutional outreach activities including, but not limited to, corporate roadshows and participation in financial industry conferences and events.
In Conclusion
We are very pleased with our distribution growth. This is a testament to the effectiveness of our newly enhanced sales force that are now actively seeking to distribute the Company’s products in territories around the country. We believe the Company will achieve significant traction in all sales channel categories throughout the U.S., through the execution of our integrated model. We are more encouraged than ever that the strategies we are implementing will lead to growth and substantial shareholder value creation.
Sincerely,
Carl Wolf,
CEO and Chairman
About MamaMancini's
MamaMancini's is a manufacturer and distributor of a line of all natural, beef meatballs with sauce, turkey meatballs with sauce, chicken meatballs with sauce, pork meatballs with sauce, and other similar Italian products. The Company's sales have been growing on a consistent basis as the Company expands its distribution channel, which includes major retailers such as Costco, Publix, Shop Rite, Price Chopper, A&P, Waldbaums, Food Emporium, Whole Foods, Shaw's Supermarkets, Kings, Key Foods, Giant Eagle, Stop-n-Shop, Giant Stores, Food Town, Kroger, Winn Dixie, Albertsons, Shoppers, Wal-Mart, Marsh's Supermarkets, Bashas, Bi-Lo, Central Markets, Weis Markets, Ingles, and The Fresh Market. For more information please visit the company’s website at www.mamamancinis.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may," "future," "plan" or "planned," "will" or "should," "expected," "anticipates," "draft," "eventually" or "projected." You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in the Company's 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 and other filings made by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Source: MamaMancini’s Holdings, Inc.
