Attached files
file | filename |
---|---|
8-K - CURRENT REPORT - Youngevity International, Inc. | ygyi8k_jan142021.htm |
Exhibit 99.1
Youngevity International, Inc Provides Business Update in Open
Letter to Shareholders
San Diego, CA – January 14, 2021 – Youngevity
International, Inc. (OTCMKTS:
YGYI) (“YGYI”
or the “Company”), a
multi-channel lifestyle company operating in three distinct
business segments, including a commercial coffee enterprise, a
direct marketing enterprise, and a commercial hemp enterprise,
today issued an open letter to shareholders.
Dear Shareholders,
First, the management team at YGYI would like to extend well wishes
for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2021. We entered 2020 with a
great deal of optimism and we were confident that we had the
Company well positioned for a solid year. Although COVID-19 has
negatively impacted so many of us, our Company included, meeting
our financial reporting requirements became a challenge we were
unable to overcome in 2020. On November 19, 2020, as you know, we
issued a press release announcing the delisting of YGYI’s
securities from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”).
The delisting was based upon our non-compliance with the filing
requirements set forth in Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250 (c)(1) for
failing to file our Form 10-K for the year end December 31, 2019,
and Forms 10-Q for the periods ended March 31, 2020, June 30, 2020
and September 30, 2020. We understand and shared in the
disappointment this announcement caused our team and our
shareholders. Our intention, as stated in the press release,
continues to be our drive to get current in our financial reporting
and relisting on Nasdaq or another national securities
exchange.
As promised, we are issuing this shareholder communication letter
to provide an update on our progress. We greatly appreciate your
patience and understanding as we are working through this important
process.
Restatement & Listing Update
As previously announced YGYI has engaged MaloneBailey, LLP as our
auditors and we have been diligently working to complete our 2019
and 2020 quarterly and annual financial statement filings. The
challenge we faced delivering our financial statements timely was
due to a revenue recognition issue related to our green coffee
distribution business with a related party. This revenue
recognition challenge was isolated to our operations in
Nicaragua.
We are proceeding as expeditiously, and thoroughly, as possible
with our new auditors to complete any restatements that may be
required and remain focused on becoming current on our financial
reporting. Our goal is to complete this process as quickly as
possible, filing our 2019 financial reporting on or before March
15, 2021.We anticipate completing our 2020 quarterly and annual
reports by May 15, 2021. The Company and its auditors have set a
goal and anticipate being on a current reporting cadence by July
15, 2021.
The Company’s common stock is expected to trade on the OTC
Pink Market until such time that the Company may apply for
relisting to a national securities exchange. To that end, we intend
to ramp up its efforts to strengthen its internal controls and
financial reporting to expedite the relisting process.
Business Update
YGYI continues to operate in three distinct business segments:
Direct Selling (“DSS”), Commercial Coffee
(“CC”) and Commercial Hemp Segment (“CHS”).
On March 12, 2020, we announced plans to consider the divestiture
of its Direct Selling Segment, however, at this time, we remain
committed to leveraging the full capabilities of all three business
segments to maximize revenue growth and profits. We may explore
divestiture discussions after we become current with our financial
reporting, have addressed any material weaknesses in its financial
reporting, and fully evaluated our opportunities to move back to a
national exchange.
All of our segments have been employing cost-cutting measures,
including staff reductions, limits on travel, reducing fixed
overhead, and eliminating unnecessary expenses. Although staff has
been reduced across the enterprise, the remaining team members are
picking up the slack by doing whatever it takes to make the
business run as efficiently as possible, and we are fully
operational.
The Direct
Selling Segment, due to
COVID-19 restrictions, was forced to eliminate many marketing
initiatives including annual conventions, incentive trips and
quarterly road shows. However, the business has been implementing
virtual events wherever possible to keep the field engaged and
active. DSS added exciting new products in 2020 including a host of
products that have been keenly focused on current consumer
interests and demands including,
Beyond Tangy Tangerine 2.5 (BTT 2.5), Beyond Immune FX, Collagen
Peptides Joint Support, and Ultimate Zinc and Ultimate Iodine
Tinctures. Additionally, the Company
has drastically improved both the functionality of its
Youngevity.com and hempfx.com web sites, which is making the buying
process easier for our distributors and customers. DSS will
continue to enhance and streamline its product offering wherever
possible.
The Commercial Coffee
(“CC”) Segment has
faced a challenging year in 2020 predominantly due to COVID -19 and
its impact on the cruise line industry, as well as the delays it
caused in getting its new mill operations up and running for the
2021 season. Significant reduction in revenue from our cruise line
customers, which represented approximately 16% of CC’s 2019
gross revenues, has negatively impacted the Company. Fortunately,
CC has seen a pickup in its private label and branded business with
more consumers drinking coffee at home due to the pandemic. This
helped to partially offset some of the negative impact from the
cruise line industry.
The CC Segment, as documented in its public filings, faced revenue
recognition challenges for its green coffee distribution business
in 2019 due to related party transactions and the materiality of
same. This impacted the timely financial filings of the of the
Company’s financial statements. This challenge had a negative
spillover effect into 2020.
Moving into 2021 the CC segment has contracts for $35 million of
gross revenue for green coffee distribution to ship throughout the
year and we are optimistic that the cruise line business will begin
sailing again the summer of 2021.
The Commercial Hemp Segment
has faced a number of challenges and
beginning in the 3rd
quarter of 2020 began a process to
change over its management team. This changeover was completed by
the end of 2020 and the Company believes it has strong leadership
in the right positions to drive future growth. CHS added a new
Division President that has over 30 years of experience running one
of the premier manufacturing companies in supplements and
hemp-based product and has senior executives in place focused on
sales as well as R&D and formulation.
The CHS segment obtained its cGMP certification at the end of 2020.
The segment has shifted toward finished goods manufacturing and now
manufactures a number of finished products for white label and
private label including Soft Gels, Tinctures, Gummies, Creams, and
Ointments featuring hemp derived ingredients.
CHS, with the expertise of its new division President, is in the
process of examining whether its cGMP certified facility can be
leveraged to produce products that are currently manufactured by
third parties for our DSS segment.
Enhancing the Board and Senior Leadership
We have substantially strengthened the YGYI management team and
Board, improved controls and coordination within the Company, and
enhanced our governance. Since mid-2020, we have made the following
updates to our leadership team:
●
Bill Thompson was
appointed CFO of the Company with a 100% focus in this
area.
●
Dave Briskie
retained the position of President and Board Member and has added
the role of Chief Investment Officer relinquishing his part time
role of CFO to Bill Thompson.
●
The Board has added
Dan Dorsey who also is on the audit committee. Dan Dorsey replaced
the board seat vacated when Bill Thompson became the CFO of the
Company.
●
The Company has
added a new division President to the Commercial Hemp/Supplement
Manufacturing Segment as well as a Director of
R&D.
Moving Forward
In summary, despite the disappointing challenges that we faced at
the end of 2020, we have continued to move our business forward,
expanding our management team capabilities, and building a more
efficient enterprise while implementing additional governance best
practices, oversight, and control measures.
We will continue working towards completing the restatement and
implementing measures to improve day-to-day operations, and work
tirelessly to transform our Company in a manner that better
leverages our core assets and capabilities and works toward
delivering long-term value for shareholders.
We would like to thank you for your continued support of YGYI.
Additionally, we would like to thank our employees, their families,
and our customers for their faithfulness, incredible loyalty and
support during what has been a challenging time for the Company and
in consideration of the pandemic. We pledge to do all that we can
within our control to put the Company back on track with
transparency and timely current filings of its financial
information.
Stay safe and healthy.
Steve
Wallach Dave Briskie
|
Bill
Thompson
|
CEO,
and Chairman of the Board President and CIO, Board
Member
|
Chief
Financial Officer
|
About Youngevity International, Inc.
Youngevity International, Inc.
( NASDAQ : YGYI ),
is a multi-channel lifestyle company operating in 3 distinct
business segments including a commercial coffee enterprise, a
commercial hemp enterprise, and a multi-vertical omni direct
selling enterprise. The Company features a multi country selling
network and has assembled a virtual Main Street of products and
services under one corporate entity, YGYI offers products from the
six top selling retail categories: health/nutrition, home/family,
food/beverage (including coffee), spa/beauty, apparel/jewelry, as
well as innovative services. For investor information, please visit
YGYI.com. Be
sure to like us on Facebook and
follow us on Twitter.
Safe Harbor Statement
This
release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some
cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology
such as "may," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects,"
"anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and
similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on
management's expectations and assumptions as of the date of this
press release and are subject to a number of risks and
uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict that could
cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations
and assumptions from those set forth or implied by any
forward-looking statements, and include statements
regarding
plans to become current in our financial reporting, strengthen our internal
controls and financial reporting, and relist on Nasdaq or another
national securities exchange. Important factors that could cause
actual results to differ materially from current expectations
include, among others, our ability to become current in our
financial reporting, our ability to implement additional governance
best practices oversight and control measures, our ability to
relist on Nasdaq or another national securities exchange, our
ability to continue our coffee segment and hemp segment growth, our
ability to continue our international growth, our ability to
leverage our platform and global infrastructure to drive organic
growth, our ability to improve our profitability, expand our
liquidity, and strengthen our balance sheet, the acceptance of the
omni-direct approach by our customers, our ability to expand our
distribution, our ability to continue our financial performance and
the other factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 2018 and our subsequent filings with
the SEC, including subsequent periodic reports on Forms 10-Q and
8-K. The information in this release is provided only as of the
date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update any
forward-looking statements contained in this release on account of
new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by
law.
Contacts:
Youngevity International, Inc.
Dave
Briskie
President
and Chief Investment Officer
1 800
982 3189 X6500
Investor Relations
YGYI
Investor Relations
investors@ygyi.com