Yesterday's announcement would appear to have been planned a long while ago and imo would not have taken place if Mr SS didn't successfully renegotiate exclusivity from P&G in three subcategories.
Timeline to Consider:
April 2016 - SS Founder of London Labs "Skincare for Hair"
August 2017 - SS joins the board of OBJ
March 2018 - OBJ announces that "specific beauty subcategories have been released from P&G exclusivity. The amended agreement allows OBJ to market the technology in several subcategories, including colour cosmetics, haircare and shaving (specifically the cutting of hair rather then the associated skincare) to other potential partners. The negotiation of these changes forms part of OBJ's strategy to develop its own products for distributors into markets outside of skincare". (Enter London Labs? whose slogan is "Skincare for Hair", interesting connection as the word haircare was used above????).
October 2018 AGM presentation: "new scalp careapplicator developed and under review' AND "new oral healthcare device POP completed under review"
February 2019 - SS says on LinkedIn "Sometime this year our new venture 'London Labs. Skincare For Hair' will be releasing a CLINICALLY PROVEN product that reverses male pattern baldness in 6 months. To say it is breakthrough tech is an understatement. Hold on tight!"
June 2019 - OBJ Appoints Paul Peros to lead Device Division
It would appear that the first order of business for Mr Peros will be in the "scalp care" sector, which is IMO another fluffy word like "haircare" because P&G still hold exclusivity over "skincare" with regards to this technology. Is London Labs the ready made "distributor" referred to in the March 2018 announcement? It looks like it.
Unless little London Labs have found some kind of breakthrough in their chemistry formulations that other global companies haven't managed to discover yet, then they will be relying on some physics to help with SS claim of "clinical proven product that reverses male pattern baldness in 6 months" To say this is breakthrough tech is an understatement". I don't think you would usually associate the word "tech" with a breakthrough in chemistry reformulations. Time will tell.
This scalp care applicator was already developed in October 2018 and so 8 months has gone by since, it's probably all but completed already and just needs the branding, marketing, distribution & of course a chemical product to go with it. Enter London Labs secret new release "sometime this year" ??
Second cab off the rank for Mr Peros seems to be the oral healthcare device, followed by color cosmetics and the shaving device. Remember shaving for us refers to the cutting of hair and not the associated skincare (i.e. shaving cream) because the skincare component is still exclusive to P&G.
Of course when you refer to the physical cutting of hair and not the associated skincare, you are referring to a device (i.e razor blade) of some sort and not a cream.
Hello, Mr Peros the CEO of our new Device Division.
Almost certainly the order that Mr Peros will tackle / launch devices will be:
1) Scalp care applicator (as long as it's not called skincare then it's fair game) 2) Oral care device (this category wasn't released from P&G exclusivity, only the other 3 categories were). 3 and 4) color cosmetics & shaving device - we don't know yet which of the two are more advanced, we only know what Mr SS said back in March 2018, less than 9 months after joining the OBJ board, when he led the renegotiation with P&G to release exclusivity. The last statement he made in the March 2018 announcement was:
"This is a major breakthrough for us commercially. After months of negotiation, the carve out of these sub-categories, enables us to commercialize this technology internationally across three critical subcategories, within which we can see a substantial amount of potential."
Over to your Mr Peros and welcome to OBJ!
OBJ Price at posting:
1.6¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)