SkinBioTherapeutics plc (5KW.F) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the SkinBioTherapeutics plc. Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Given the significant attendance on today's call, the company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today, and will publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, as usual, we would just like to submit the following poll. And if you could give that your kind attention. I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I would now like to hand over to the executive management team from SkinBioTherapeutics plc., Stuart. Good morning, sir.

Thank you, Jack. Good morning all. We have a short presentation to walk you through the recent Superdrug announcement. For those of you who are asking questions about Croda, we will cover that and the operating divisions briefly prior to a later presentation, which we'll give post year-end once we've closed the accounts out where we will give a trading update. So as an investment case, as a single slide, as you can see, those of you who know the company know all of this, but we do have a number of attendees who are new investors to the company. So for their benefits, we are a strong science-rich company. The science initially came out of the University of Manchester. It's a proprietary technology, which takes live bacteria and turns it into lysate and I'll detail that in just a moment. And that's to give basically skin barrier, enhancement, repair, how the skin looks, how it feels and how it repairs itself. We are located in the Northeast Scientific Cluster in Newcastle upon Tyne. And we have sales operations and distribution worldwide through 2 sales pillars, which I will discuss in just a moment. The technology is applicable across several sectors, 5 separate research projects, which are ongoing, which I'll give a brief update to in a moment. We have a very experienced Board, who have been in life sciences and med tech for 20 to 30 years. We've also broadened the executive team in 2025, hence, the introduction of Simon Hewitson, who's our new Chief Operating Officer. We've also brought in new finance director. This is Emily Bertram. We have a mix of product lines and revenue streams, which cover, as I say, 5 strategic pillars and scientific pillars. And we have significant commercial and development partners, which I'll detail in just a moment. We are targeting multi-billion pound skin care markets and both in-house and with acquired bolt-ons, which we've executed 2 of them, which I will update on just a moment. And we're executing that dual strategy to accelerate scale, reach and profitability earlier, and we are seen very much now by the analysts as an industry consolidator. For those of you who are new to the company, we deal very much with the microbiome. So just as a brief explanation, the microbiome is a term that is used to describe the community all microorganisms that live in on and around the body and very much all connected. The human microbiome has extensive functions such as the development of immunity, defense against pathogens, hosting of nutrition, including the production of short-chain fatty acids that are very important in hosting energy metabolism. The synthesis of [indiscernible] and fat storage as well as having a direct and very important influence on human behavior. All of this kind of mix the human microbiome an essential organ of the body without which we would not function correctly. So in terms of our platform size of what we actually do, we can split that into 2 parts. On the left-hand side, the external applications where we talk about SkinBiotix. This is our proprietary cornerstone technology where we take live bacteria and turn that into a lysate, a more stable platform. We've got very strong global IP around these lysates and they're registered globally. We have applications in cosmetics, wound care and the professional cleaning sectors as well as potentially further down the line pharmaceuticals. We have a commercial and manufacturing agreement with Croda plc, which they market as Zenakine, which was launched in April this year, on the 8th of April, and I will talk about that on the next slide. Our platform was born out of the University of Manchester in 2016 based on the work of Professor Cath O’'Neill and Professor Andrew McBain. That focused on studies that suggested that bacterial strains could increase tight junction function by the modulation of protein components and the different pathways involved very depending on the bacterial strain. In our case, we chose a strain, lactobacillus rhamnosus, and that is our proprietary platform, and that's what the company was built on. Effectively, that's what brought the Croda deal to the market. We were IPO'd in March of 2017. But can I also just on this area emphasize that our primary technology revolves around the production of bacterial lysates and the process involved in that, and that's where our IP sits. We do not sell strains of bacteria. I think there've been some confusion, and I had received some questions from investors that we sell lactobacillus rhamnosus to Croda, and why would they buy from us? That is technically and very much inaccurate. We do not sell strains of the bacteria. We own a process for taking strains of bacteria and stabilizing through [ lysation ]. Secondly, we have scientific pathway that focuses on the gut-skin axis and this is the super highway that exists between the gut and the surface of the skin. And as I've said many times before, the best way to describe that in real terms is when we eat something that disagrees with us, we come out in [ ritual blotches ] and our skin gets red. It's that action that we exploit by delivering complex and very specific probiotic formulations into the gut that then our beneficial activity is reflected on the surface of the skin using that super highway. And the Superdrug agreement that we're going to talk about in more detail very much exploits that science and just much greater leverage with multinationals. So let's talk about Croda. I know that many of you here have a lot of questions about that. Let's just remind ourselves of the relationship here. So this product Zenakine, as it's now known globally, was launched on the 8th of April, 11 weeks ago in the Netherlands at the [ in-cosmetics ] show in Amsterdam to global applause, standing ovation within the auditorium. It had all of the highlighted features that we expected, the enhancement of skin natural barrier, the antiaging, the increased hydration, all of the claims that we were looking for. And then very unexpectedly, and under a great veil of secrecy, they announced that it increased melatonin, had advanced repair during sleep. It also enhanced sleep and therefore had stress reduction, and this was all clinically proven. This is a newly created category. It was a -- plus an advanced cosmetical [indiscernible] one of the science needs called it a Swiss Army knife of cosmetic ingredients. We are bound by strict confidentiality on this. And let me just be very clear about this. This is a section of the agreement that we have that talks about confidentiality and the sharing of information. And the customers are very conscious of confidentiality. Croda's customers are very conscious of that confidentiality. And if Croda breached that by leaking numbers or anything else, nobody would deal with them again. So they keep this information very close to their chest. They can't talk about volumes, about formulations, concentration levels, formats, packaging, launch dates, geographical regions and Croda cannot talk about which particular customers are doing what. If they did, then all those customers wouldn't deal with them again. So every company wants to know what the other is doing. Every one of their customers wants to know what they're doing. And all of Croda's direct ingredient competitors want to know what Croda is doing. They keep talking about loose lips sink ships, and they're very cautious. Let me describe this. This is a very delicate balancing act because Zenakine, we now know it, is the next-generation multipurpose product and pretty much every Sederma and Croda Beauty customer have lots of products that contain [indiscernible] hundreds of millions of pounds worth of product sales. They're all with the customers that are out there, and they also have retinol-included products, which are under the EU retinol initiative. So therefore, all those products are at risk and therefore, transition to the Zenakine needs to be handled with extreme delicacy. Just -- if you could just think about that for a moment. There are hundreds of millions of pounds worth of sales at risk here. So nobody is going to come charging in and issuing numbers and strategic plans and announcing which customers doing what and where and at what price and at what concentration level. All I can say is this launch is done, the hard yards are behind us. Just check out the Internet activity. 11 weeks ago, the world had never heard of the word Zenakine, it's a made-up word, and now it's everywhere, very high levels of activity indeed. The sales are progressing very much as we expected. We are extremely happy with the commercial progress of our partner. But let's be clear about this. We do not sell this product. We've handed that responsibility to product. We were very, very disappointed not to be able to issue the numbers. That doesn't mean that I lied, that I misled the market in any way. It means that Croda aren't ready to release that information yet because their partners aren't ready for that information to go to the market. So we are disappointed that we can't give you that information. It would make my life considerably easier. Silence like with everybody within the company, our lives would be so much easier if we could release that information to you. But let's not think that this is the team that built Matrixyl and Matrixyl 3000 from the ground up. We could not have chosen a partner. They are experts at this. The timings might be off, let's face it, they always have been with this project. But please don't shoot the messenger. The destination is very much worth the journey here. This product is seen as a raging success, but I think we're all going to see that in the long run. There are certain things that I can say, certain things that I can't. And I dearly wish that I could tell you all of the details of this, but I simply cannot. And to breach that confidentiality would be catastrophic for the fortunes of this company. They really would. It doesn't mean that we've misled. We very much haven't. I said that we will release numbers by the end of June because I absolutely believe that, that was the case. That was what I was led to believe 3 months post launch, which I took to be end of June, early July. That's not the case. As soon as I have sight of these numbers and I have a green light, I will shout it from the highest mountain. You have my [ solid ] word on that. Talking about journeys with great -- journeys that have great destinations. So I hand you over to Simon, who will talk about the exclusive distribution agreement that we've just signed with Superdrug.

Thank you, Stuart. And thank you very much for this being my first investor meet company. I'm delighted to be talking to you about looking at expansion of AxisBiotix reach. This is an exciting opportunity for the company and one that we are looking forward to very much. As you are aware from previous conversations, Stuart has had and the team multiple conversations with high street operators, and we've been looking at assessing which is the best partner for us to go with. It is worth, I believe, highlighting at this point that actually a lot of these conversations were facilitated and accelerated through our acquisition of Dermatonics, highlighting one of the many other benefits of the M&A strategy that the executive team has taken on board. We chose Superdrug for multiple reasons. It's got a fantastic national footprint. It is a dedicated company focused very much on the skin care products market. And this is where we will be launching for the first time, AxisBiotix Acne. That is a product which we believe has an excellent demographic fit with a Superdrug customer base, and that was a key reason for us looking at this. We also have an ability to control the marketing support and the promotions that we do with Superdrug and very much feel that this is an actual partnership that we are entering into. And that is something that we thought was a differential for us. They also were very keen to partner with us and had a very strong interest in the microbiome, the growing interest in the gut-skin axis and that was an area, again, where we felt there was a real strong connection. We will be looking to do this launch in a phased rollout alongside Superdrug. Initially, we will be looking at circa 200 stores for rollout. Those stores have been specifically selected by Superdrug for the customer base that are looking at medicated skin care, which is where they will be looking to place this. So they are working with us to give us the best opportunity to position that product to make maximum success. We will be looking to support the rollout with heavy promotions or certainly from a marketing perspective because we are keen to work alongside them to accelerate the rollout to the rest of the stores in the U.K. We have signed an exclusivity agreement for 2 years, and we believe that is an absolute sweet spot for us. It allows us to really partner with Superdrug and work alongside them, and then look at our commercial options thereafter. But as the RNS clearly states, we also have the ability to control and keep our existing online presence, which is predominantly through our own website and from Amazon in the U.K. As far as where we are at the moment, we have placed orders for stock with Winclove who, as you're aware, is our partner. The lead times for those stock is significant around the 12-week period. So we need to look and have placed those orders now, and we need to put a sufficient order in there to cover not only initial launch, but also look at making sure we have stock for the accelerated process that we're hoping for. There's been a significant amount of work already undertaken by the team. We've done a fantastic job on looking at building this retail offering as we transition from an online-only provider. We're continuing to plan and execute the launch strategy alongside Superdrug, and that's a phenomenal opportunity for us. As we previously mentioned, we will be continuing to look at the opportunities for the format of delivery of this product. As you're aware, capsules, gummies and tablets are all under consideration. We will -- there's a detailed process that needs to be undertaken there, given the complexity of the product, and we will be working alongside Winclove on that. We will also be looking where possible to utilize Bio-Tech Solutions or BTS in that process, and certainly looking to get them involved in order to enhance margins as best as we can during that position. But certainly, we see this as a major milestone for the company, our first National High Street agreement, and it's certainly something that we're excited about. Go to the next slide, please, Stuart. So as far as the fund raise is concerned, this is basically to drive AxisBiotix to the next level. The Superdrug deal does require investments, and that's the principal driver for the activities that we've done. We are looking to enhance AxisBiotix for not only the Superdrug opportunity, but also drive other opportunities in wider markets. As we've touched on, the delivery format is something that we are looking at and we do feel it allows us to look at enhancement of the customer retention, which is already high from what we've seen in our online subscription model. As far as other areas, we will be looking at undertaking additional and more extensive trials. We feel that this is a really important area to provide stronger claims and wider validation of both the PS product and the AC products. And we also feel that will definitely give us an opportunity to be able to explore not just different geographical markets, but also potentially different segments of the market, which potentially increases our span and appeal in multiple areas. As the RNS has stated, the gross proceeds raised was GBP 4.2 million. And at this point, I'll hand you back to Stuart to talk over a couple of the extra areas he wants to touch on here.

Thank you. So, it was never our intention to raise more working capital. I made that statement some time ago, and we actually very much believe that. And I think when you see the year-end numbers and you see the cash flow and the cash that we have, that statement is still ringing true. However, we've had an opportunity to get to launch this product. It was always intended that we would do this in 2026. We were dealing with 2 high street retail organizations. Superdrug were very much ahead of the pack. And that's because they are the experts in Gen Z, as it's called Generation Z. These probably the teenagers through the 21, 22-year-old. They don't shop at the other store or the other stores, they tend to shop in Superdrug. That's why we need to look at format. We need to look at gummies. We need to look at tablets. We need to look at capsules to make it easier. That format needs to be very, very handy indeed. That launch was brought forward from '26 to '25 and it was brought forward very, very quickly indeed. We tried to delay this next year, but Superdrug as with all of these retail outlets, for them space on the shelf is money and time is money, as it is for all of us. We were very much told you can delay this a year if you like, but we can give no guarantees at all that, that shelf space will still be there this time next year. It was our intention to sit and wait until Croda funds have continued to flow to the level that we could fill this demand and time was not on our side. The manufacturing lead type for this product is about 12 weeks. They want to launch this product in week 37, and it needs -- in order to launch in week 37, it needs to be on their shelves in their warehouse by week 35. And if you count back 12 weeks from that, that means we placed the order some time ago. In order to do that, we need to make sure that we have reserves of cash in order to meet the demand. As with all high street retail opportunities, there are punitive measures in place for going on back order. Nobody wants to see empty shelves. The day that we cannot provide them with profit, we get fined. So we cannot be in a position where that happens. So we have to have sufficient stock to meet demand. That's why we needed to do the placing. In order to do that placing, I have to do it very quickly, and I mean very quickly. There's no way that we have time to do a roadshow, a traditional roadshow. We had just changed NOMAD and brokers. The new sales team did not know the story. We didn't have time to do traditional financing methods. This needed to be done very swiftly indeed. We took a select group of investors who have a history of moving very quickly indeed. And we spoke to them very limited, and they were only brought inside once the appetite was fully established and the subscription notes were issued. That was the only stage that it came inside. No discount was given. It was offered exactly the same price to retail investors who I must thank most sincerely for their continued support. We didn't do a roadshow. We didn't ask some of our institutions. And I got in quite a lot of trouble from some of our long-standing institutions for not approaching them, for not asking them to participate. I simply did not have the time to do this. This wasn't done through the traditional broking methods. We didn't have the time to do the roadshow either. I needed to do this quickly in order to be able to sign a contract with Superdrug. The placing was done at exactly the same time we signed the contract. Only once I knew that the demand could be met, could I sign that contract. That's why it was all in the same RNS legally, I would not have been able to separate two. So I want everyone to be aware, there was nothing down and dirty about this raise or about this contract. This was needed to have must. It was a strategic opportunity. We saw the opportunity, and we took it. That's what we are paid to do to seek out opportunities and to seize them. [indiscernible] if you like, whatever phrase you wish to use, but that's what we've done. And we firmly believe strategically, this is the right move forward. Not only it's a great platform for us to launch Acne into the right market and also continue the success of the psoriasis product, it also is a great attraction for the multinationals who we continue to talk to. We'd like this product to be sold on a global basis in the right format. We are now making strides. It is now on the shelves of 200 stores, and that will rise. There's a phased rollout. We could end up on the shelves of the all 800-plus stores Superdrug. Right now, it's the top 200 in [ Medik8's skincare ] because that's the right place to launch them. Quite frankly, we wouldn't want to launch with 800 because the amount of stock required is very large indeed. We are prepared for that now, and we're prepared to put this in the right format. Again, the right deal, was it done at the right time? No, I'd rather have done it next year, but we're not going to lose the opportunity to get this product into the hands of the people who need it and to advance our strategic and our commercial goals. Just a word now about the National Psoriasis Foundation, that was in the same RNS. People will say that was by design. No, it wasn't actually. And do we need the National Psoriasis Foundation accreditation in order to get Superdrug? No, but let's say it didn't harm things. It certainly helped. As far as Superdrug were concerned, we were still pursuing the National Psoriasis Foundation accreditation. It just so happened that it came in the same week. You could call that coincident, you could call it luck, but that's exactly what happened. They are facts. The National Psoriasis Foundation accreditation is something that we've been pursuing for a number of years. It's extremely difficult to obtain. We have to go through significant safety and performance testing. Customers can buy this product through the Amazon's site following the link of National Psoriasis Foundation website. This is the largest psoriasis organization on the planet. We've jumped through all sorts of hoops to get this. We're extremely proud of. And I must thank our marketing team, and in particular, our marketing manager, Vicki Turner, who's done an outstanding job pursuing this recognition. It allows us to focus on packaging, it allows us to focus us on our website, and it allows U.S. citizens and people in the U.S. who are members of the National Psoriasis Foundation to click on that link. We are the only food supplement listed there and some very prestigious products, and they can then be led directly down the purchasing platform. It opens the doors in the U.S. to us, and that [ wouldn't be lost ] on many of our investors and many of our customers. This is the Holy Grail for us. It's the biggest market in the world. We struggled to sell product there in the past because we don't have this recognition. Now we do, the gates are open, and the packaging that we're using is international. So some of the stock that we're now pushing through can be sold in the U.S. as well as the rest of the world. So very, very proud indeed of that particular accolade and that particular award. So well done team and yet onwards and upwards. Simon?

Thank you, Stuart. So yes, a brief overview of the 2 acquisitions that we have concluded to date. So Dermatonics was acquired in January 2024. That has now had a full year of being within the group. It is a foot care specialist with a global reach. The key attractions for that business were the very high-quality products that they have and a very strong and loyal customer base. There's excellent traction that they have, particularly in the podiatry market, where continuing to see podiatrists switch to the Dermatonics products, where trusted professionals are seeing the absolute quality of that product, which is a fantastic position for us to be in. In October 2024, the business Bio-Tech Solutions, or BTS was acquired. That is a contract manufacturer and provides opportunities for us to keep business inside the group from Dermatonics and the process is going on there. It also allows us to look at future acquisitions to bring product into Bio-Tech for that as well, to enhance not only margins but also quality. There is a strong relationship now between those 2 businesses, not only looking at the transfer, but also looking at new product development opportunities as well as other cost initiatives between the 2 businesses. So we're very pleased how that is now starting to come together. The businesses have been integrated into group systems and further work is being done to drive the synergies and opportunities out of that. As far as the year-end is concerned, we are obviously just starting that process now, and there'll be a more detailed update from a trading perspective during the summer once we've got the books closed off from that perspective.

Just a word now on our R&D programs. We are a science-backed business, and we continue to innovate. We have an accelerated wound closure program, which is a med-tech application. This was done through the University of Manchester with Professors Cruikshank and McBain, Andrew McBain obviously being one SkinBio's cofounders, cofounding scientist. And then the aim there is to license this out to experience multinational partner, very much [indiscernible] can use that phrase, type deal. I've stressed this before this is extremely complex science. We're talking about putting [ lysed ] bacteria into an open wound and around hard-to-heal wounds. So this is complicated to say the least. We are in discussion to continue to be in discussions with multinationals, but these things are going to take time. I thought we would have got a deal done last year. One of our chosen partners hit a bump in the road, and we were put on pause. That project is moving again, albeit slowly. As well as that, we have the oral health program, which is with Professor Andrew McBain that looks at protecting the oral cavity for blocking of things like gum disease, tooth decay and [ halitosis ], et cetera. First phase was complete last year, and we're looking to complete the second phase in due course, but there is a bit of a backlog on that, but we'll report back as and when we can. And then the inflammation program, which is Professor Cath's program at the University of Manchester, which is how the microbiome could influence and balance body's response to harmful UV light as well as inflammation in general, and that program is ongoing and we'll report as and when we can. Just a note on Investor Relations, you will note that in May this year, we changed over to a broker NOMAD over to Singer Capital Markets were appointed as our sole NOMAD advisor and broker, and I'm pleased to say that, that relation is progressing very well indeed. Our new analyst is Dr. Karl Keegan, who is very much a specialist in this field, and he will initiate his analyst [ role ] as when, that's pretty much out of my hands. That very much in the hands of the Singer. In terms of our strategy, our focus for Investor Relations for the remainder of this year -- last year and this year was to communicate regularly but only with quality contact and standardize on this platform on the IMC platform rather than some of the other platforms, which proved very expensive. And also we try to minimize our interviews behind paywalls. I know that there's a degree of sentiment behind doing interviews behind paywalls. We try to do that very selectively, and we do try to have the paywall lift very quickly indeed, and certainly the people that we deal with do accommodate that. We've put a review of our Investor Relations process for the coming year. And we'd like to maintain what we've just said previously, we'd like to increase our [ sticky ] profile. As we are seen by some of the institutions as one of the most active companies on earth. If you look where we were 2 years ago and you look at where we are now, we've gone from 0 revenue to north of GBP 5 million revenue and growing. The Croda deal is done. There's a Superdrug deal done. We need to talk about those things more openly. And as the numbers start to roll in, it's important that we do attract more investment. We have plans for in-depth Capital Markets Day to talk about our R&D and focus on the future prospects of the company. And then we are looking at how we process the questions that are asked by our investors. I do get somewhat bothered with questions from investors. We are very active, and I never take that lightly. We do try to respond in a timely manner. Last IMC that we did, we had nearly 400-odd questions that were asked. If each one of them takes 3 to 4 minutes to respond to, that takes an awful a lot of time. It took us quite some time, but we answered every single one of them, and they were published back on the IMC platform. I can't say that we can do that every time, but we will endeavor to as many questions as we possibly can. Some of the questions were asked, it's impossible to answer because they're material sensitive, and I'm simply not allowed to. Some of the questions asked are very hostile indeed. And quite frankly, some of them somewhat rude. Some of them are accolades and applauds and some of them are very genuinely good questions and very interesting questions indeed, which we're delighted to answer. We do try. Please don't think that we ignore your questions. We said we do not. So in summary, we've come a hell of a long way in the last 2 years. As I said, back then, we had minimal revenues, high R&D costs, huge losses as we continue to research and develop. Our project with Croda seemed to be never ending. It seemed to be getting kicked further down the road. But it came to a crescendo and what a crescendo it was. This product is an absolute game changer. You've heard it from not just me, you're probably sick of the sound of my voice, but you've heard it from Dr. Surinder Chahal, who headed the R&D team, and spent 37 years with Croda. I know in some of the social media circles, there's been ex-Croda employees who commented on this. And I know when some of the funded platforms that's been delved into in a very detailed and very well-done manner. So you can see from those on the inside, this is seen as a huge success of this product. I just wish I could tell you how big a success it is. And believe me, if I could, I would. Why would I not? To say, is it a failure? I can categorically guarantee you, it is not a failure. Croda would say that this is a very exciting time for them. It was launched 11 weeks ago. As I said, the name of that kind had never been heard. It is a game changer. It's been hugely accepted throughout the industry and everything is progressing very much to plan. If I could give you the details, I would, and I'm repeating myself again and again. Moving on to AxisBiotix. We've signed this exclusive deal with Superdrug, I told that we were talking to 2 high street retail teams. People were saying, where is the deal, Stuart? Where is the deal? Well, it came a little faster than we were expecting, to be honest. I preferred for this deal to happen next year where we would not need to done a raise or at least a bigger raise as we've done. I'm afraid that was out of my control. We saw the opportunity. We took it. My apologies for that. We have to seize the opportunities when they stand in front of us. This will launch in week 37, across 200 stores, the biggest stores for [ Medik8's skincare ]. We have negotiated very well indeed. We've reserved the rights to sell directly through our own website. We reserved the right to sell through Amazon. We reserved the rights elsewhere in the world. And we've also to top all of that off to put the cream on top of the whole thing, we got that wonderful National Psoriasis Foundation accreditation in the United States, and therefore, we've opened that market. So 2 commercial deals in 2 of the pillars that we have, big ticks in the boxes there. Yes, you've yet to see the revenue. But then again, 2 years ago, we had no revenue, and now we do. That revenue will continue to grow. R&D projects ongoing. I've just gone through them. They're very much alive and very much flourishing. And we will see the fruit of the labor there very shortly. In terms of infrastructure, we've got a very much an internal focus on efficiencies. We now have a Chief Operating Officer. We've got a new Head of Finance. We're looking at cost savings, looking at efficiencies. We do focus very much on business development and the extension of partnerships. People keep asking about M&A. When we did this raise, the first question out of the people that we spoke to is, is this for an acquisition, to which the answer is no, it's not. I told you we would not do acquisitions in the near term, and I meant what I said and I'll stand by that. Financial update, placing an open offer is very much to support the launch of this product and what we hope to be a significant success. We brought in a new NOMAD and that will bring new research with it, hopefully, to a depth that we've never had before. And then we will be issuing, as Simon just pointed out, a pre-closing trading update towards back end of July, early summer. Don't shoot us if it's not towards the end of July. We've got to close our entire group now for the first time. The accounts are more complex than they've been. If that drift to early August, please don't start blowing up the bullet boards by saying, he failed again. I'm not going to give you hard numbers anymore. I learned that lesson. I was given a date by Croda and I foolishly put that out and transmitted to you because I believe that that's my duty to do so. I will not be as liberal in the future. I will give you the information as soon as I possibly can. Why would I not? And I think that kind of brings us pretty much to the course. There's the pillars that we've talked about at the beginning, underpinned now by 4 revenue-generating operations. Jake, do you want me to move on to questions there?

Stuart, Simon, absolutely, if I may just jump back in there. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation this morning. [Operator Instructions] I'd just like to remind you that a recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A can all be accessed via your investor dashboard. Stuart, Simon at this point, guys, if I may just hand over to you to just read out those questions and give your responses where it's appropriate to do so. And if I pick up from you at the end, that would be great.

Not surprisingly, there are an awful lot of questions there, probably more so than last time. So there's no way we're going to get through all of these, but we will try to hit the headline ones as best we can. Thank you the team at [ Beagle ] for grouping them together so that we're not repeating ourselves. So first question, where are the hard numbers that were promised about Croda to before year-end? I think I've answered that. We were told that we would have visibility and permission to release those numbers about 3 months after launch. They asked for 3 months to be able to gauge the [ appetite ]. They have asked now not to do that until they've spoken to their trading partners because they sensitivity lies very much with their trading partners. We are under a very strict confidentiality about disclosing those numbers without their permission. We are only 11 weeks post launch. As I said, the world had never heard the word Zenakine 11 weeks ago. Once updated and once released, the analyst note would provide estimate of total revenues, including Croda's numbers, based on the analyst vast experience on what's happened elsewhere and he's very much chosen because of his expertise. Do you know which, if any, major cosmetics hubs are incorporating Zenakine into new products and where they will be launched? As I've said, we handed over the responsibility of selling to Croda Beauty. We have no visibility on who is doing what. It's very much down to Croda. We know who the customers are. We know who the major customers are. And indeed, all of you know who the major customers are. In fact, some of you who have gone as far as to contacting Croda directly to ask for samples and also to ask them who's buying what and who's launching where. And I would caution that method of approach. Croda have actually come back to us and complained that they are having investors reaching out to them. I can't stop you from doing that, but it does cause us some problems with our relationship. And indeed, those of you who've done so will also note that Croda have given you exactly the same answers they give everyone else. They cannot and will not divulge that information. All they say is that Zenakine is being widely accepted with great enthusiasm. So I can't answer that question because I simply don't know. Why do you choose to deal with Superdrug. Isn't Superdrug seen as more of a cut price budget retailer and not known for sophisticated products? I would disagree strongly with that. Superdrug is one of the leading health and cosmetic retailers in the U.K. with extensive national coverage. They've got in excess of 800 stores. They are particularly strong fit for Gen Z and that niche area where we need to exploit the acne market, more so than some of the other players in that market. We believe this is a great mix of protecting our own channels, direct and Amazon, coupled with the Superdrug reach, and it's a great deal for the group.