This is the post: Three weeks ago I was invited for coffee in...

This is the post:

Three weeks ago I was invited for coffee in Midtown with Trish, who is one of the executive directors. We met at Starbucks on 50th and Lexington. Craig, another guy from the company was also present (to my surprise). I wanted to post this on the day of, but have not found the time until now.

It was a great, casual meeting and they were very happy to answer my questions as best as they could without giving me anything confidential.

They had spent the day at the new factory and arrived in New York from the candy expo in Chicago just the other day. I could have talked for hours but I asked the questions I was most curious about before our time was up.

Yowie and returning to Australia
They have been trying to get Yowies back on Aussie shelves but Coles is asking for too large of a cut leaving Yowie with very little margin. They made some progress with Woolworths but the guy they were dealing with left and now they are back to square one. They are in talks with Aldi now and they may be the first Australian store to take on Yowies.

There are just as many headaches dealing with Australian retailers as Americans ones, I was told, and they are trying to focus their efforts on land grab and developing the Yowie brand in the United States.

One of the things holding back Yowies returning to Australia was Whetstone wanting a royalty for the patent even though a patent wasn't required for the Australian market. Expensive manufacturing costs in Australia are also playing a large factor.

The new Madelaine chocolate factory
They were VERY happy with the new factory - a huge improvement in all areas over Whetstone's factory. They were looking for a new factory for two to three years prior and told me they inspected all possible factories in the US and carefully selected this one. They have not regretted their decision one bit. Everyone working there was very knowledgeable of the manufacturing processes. From managers to floor employees.

The candy expo in Chicago
The Yowie stall was insanely popular. They had sales representatives from all over the country from open to close enquiring about Yowies. Some aisles at the expo were completely dead - Yowie was a hit. It was all hands on deck with Wayne (CEO) also manning the stall. The Nielson data was used extensively.

Wrapping machines
Even though they just purchased a new machine, they are now looking at buying one of the larger ones very soon that has a 400 Yowie/minute capacity. This is hinting at another huge retailer coming on board.

The Yowie brand
The books are finished and they are getting excited to release the all-American Yowie series with the 'American Eagle' being the rare toy in this series.

The website and app
We were talking about the longevity of the Yowie brand and how there was no toy to build. Trish told me that many people told them in the early days that Yowie would be a failure because the toy was already pre-built. They were wrong, she said. They plan on improving the website and app to help develop the Yowie story further. I told them I would like to see the 'Where to Buy' page updated and they informed me of the restrictions they have about listing individual stores - they are looking at moving to a new system that updates new stores automatically.

The litigation with Whetstone
They are trying to secure a final hearing in August. They are hardly worried about him and consider him in the past. They are prepared for any outcome.

The Middle East & Puerto Rico
Didn't get any information about the Middle East and there is a distribution agreement in Puerto Rico with Coca-Cola that is having its kinks worked out. Again, they are fully-focused on the American market and are not too fussed with these other markets at the moment.

Trials with 7/11, CVS etc
No specific information here - just told me to look out for the upcoming announcements.

The capital raising
They were offered $100m but could not accept that much. $32m was taken and the interest they received from institutions was incredible. What they liked the most was that many retail investors were now stepping in because these large financial institutions had come onboard. The ADR (American Depository Receipt) is now trading regularly.

The talent
They are happy with the manufacturing team in New York, the logistics team in Missouri, and the sales team in Arizona. No complaints at all.

The shelf space
I asked them about how we were on the bottom shelves of all stores and they explained that they always wanted to be on the bottom shelves as it was the perfect height for their target market. When they were offered only the bottom shelf they were very happy to accept it from Walgreens and Walmart and have no intention of climbing up shelf space.

Shopkins
I told them that the feedback I received from managers and store employees from the specialty candy stores was excellent, but there was one candy selling better than Yowies in some stores and that was Shopkins. They were well aware of Shopkins and in fact have been coming to Yowie to discuss licensing agreements of some kind. Didn't quite get all the details but this could be yet another agreement to be announced in the coming weeks. Very interesting spin on things.

They did not try to sugar-coat anything throughout the conversation and were very open with me. A very pleasant experience and definitely the kind of people you would like behind the Yowie brand and message.