Meredian January 2014 Newsletter

JANUARY 2014 NEWSLETTER
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN’S LETTER
The past year has been extremely challenging for both Danimer and Meredian. Both companies have had
growing pains and faced with obstacles.
Mid year 2013 was a turning point for Meredian as the Board of Directors stepped in to save the ailing
Meredian. The intervention was highlighted by a newly engineered plan to redistribute the control of the
company from a couple of shareholders to a more even distribution across the board and an injection of
capital. With this move came a fully operational and functional board of directors with all the fiduciary
responsibility that a BOD should be empowered with. The business acumen and savvy of several successful
local Bainbridge directors on the board has allowed Meredian to revive itself into a potential tremendous
growth opportunity.
Fiscal control has been injected with accountability and responsibility for performance within the company
and Meredian has began its journey from being a world leading innovative laboratory to a truly global
player commercializing their 150 plus portfolio of patents.
We must mitigate the risk as much as possible and manage the cash flow whilst bringing Meredian to a
stable and breakeven/profitable position in the near short term during 2014.
In pursuit of this we have built new strategy in order to generate three simultaneous revenue streams
namely:
1. Income from Lab Research & Development.
2. Income from delivery of PHA samples.
3. Income from the activation of reactor #1.
We expect these three revenue streams to be significant enough to turn Meredian to a stable and
profitable position in 2014.
MEREDIAN INC. 140 INDUSTRIAL BLVD, BAINBRIDGE, GEORGIA, 39817
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MEREDIAN INC. NEWSLETTER, 2JANUARY 2014
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The natural path forward has been for the combination of the strengths of both of these companies under
a group holding company and a sharing of resources and IP.
Hence today I share with you our vision for moving these two great companies forward in a collective and
cooperative manner. The future looks very promising for both companies now being able to offer a wide
range of products and services in the biopolymer and performance materials space.
MEREDIAN INC. NEWSLETTER, 2JANUARY 2014
Danimer has had steady growth in the second half of this year and we expect that with the expertise in
the extrusion coating and aqueous coatings to continue along this path into 2014 and beyond.
Our greatest revenue streams will be realized as we move towards full market growth for our customers
and provide “license and royalty” agreements under which they can build operate their production
facilities. Just as Coca Cola’s model to license the IP of the liquid in the bottle so will be ours to follow suit
and not invest scarce capital into iron and steel infrastructure but rather utilize our competitive advantage
of innovative products and materials to replace petro plastic in a myriad of applications.
There is great energy to be found in MEREDIAN INC. Our employees have a strong sense of identification
with the company. My heartfelt thanks go to them, for our success is only possible through their
competence and high level of commitment.
To this end we have been successful thus far despite the numerous setbacks but have engineered a risk
adverse and modular execution of our ramp up to commercialization.
Special acknowledgement to the Board of Directors as they have been paramount and relentless in both
their support and capital injection to ensure that the Meredian dream becomes reality.
I would also like to thank you, THE SHAREHOLDERS, for your patience and trust over the past years. I hope
you will continue to place your trust in us as we forge ahead with our strategy for commercialization.
Paul Pereira
Executive Chairman
Danimer /Meredian
MEREDIAN INC. 140 INDUSTRIAL BLVD, BAINBRIDGE, GEORGIA, 39817
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By Scott Tuten
2013 has been a very
successful year for Danimer.
We are expecting to end the
year with a profit around
$1,500,000 EBITDA.
2013
resulted in two very large
accounts that were landed
during the year.
IMS is now
producing a single serve
coffee pod for many large
brand owners that is around
$5,000,000 in annual sales to
D a n i M e r.
Penford has
launched a line of dog treats
that are now being produced
at DaniMer which represents
over $3,000,000 in annual sales.
With this new additional
business and our growth with
MEREDIAN INC. NEWSLETTER, 2JANUARY 2014
Danimer Year in
Review:
our current customers, Danimer be found in all Costco’s and
had sales in 2013 of over Krogers.
$12,000,000. We were able to
increase this business with very
little to no capital cost nor
extra teammates.
Danimer
currently has numerous large
scale projects underway and
we look forward to growing in
2014 by at least 50%. Please
note pictures of our facility and
the IMS coffee pod that can
allow for effective interaction
between representatives from
strategic customers, who will work
By Sean Schyler
with the team at Meredian to
Meredian recently completed
construction on the new research engineer Biopolymers specifically
to meet their respective needs.
and development labs. The
The Incubation Client Model
renovated area boasts nearly
allows Meredian to take clients
8,000 square feet of lab and
product specifications with our
related space. The labs will
R&D and go through the product
effectively accommodate the
development cycle and
talented staff of doctors and
complete product trials to market
research scientists and enable
trials to market entry. This
Meredian to meet the needs of
incubation process allocates
our customers more efficiently.
dedicated staff and private
January 2014, Meredian will
office space for the visiting
complete the new guest offices.
scientists and cycles through in a
These offices are in close
fast and efficient timeline to
proximity to the labs and will
market entry.
Meredian Client Incubation
Model
R&D$Lab$
Product$
Acceptance$
Client$Owned$
Facility$
Reactor$
Mobiliza9on$
Contract$
Commercialize$
Client Incubation Model
MEREDIAN INC. 140 INDUSTRIAL BLVD, BAINBRIDGE, GEORGIA, 39817
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Past Four Months
By Michael Smith
Meredian accomplished many things over the last half of 2013
including developing a NEW STRATEGIC PLAN and executive
summary with our focus on incubating customer ideas from
inception through to full commercialization. Highlights of the plan
are the completion of the pilot plant expansion to include a
20,000 liter fermenter, the installation of one 130,000 liter
fermenter in the main manufacturing facility and the completion
of the largest biopolymer lab in the world.
During the process of developing the plan a consortium of
engineers and builders was assembled to blueprint the existing
facility and the parts of the process yet to be completed.
MEREDIAN EXPANDS
PILOT PLANT
BY PHIL VAN TRUMP
Meredian is in the process of
completing a $1.3MM expansion
of its pilot plant to increase output
of PHA to 2000 pounds per week.
This includes upgrading utilities
infrastructure as well as addition
of a new 20,000 L bioreactor. The
enhancements will allow greater
flexibility in meeting customer
demands while accelerating the
product development cycle with
our partners.
MEREDIAN INC. 140 INDUSTRIAL BLVD, BAINBRIDGE, GEORGIA, 39817
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MEREDIAN INC. NEWSLETTER, 2JANUARY 2014
MEREDIAN INC. NEWS
MEREDIAN INC. NEWSLETTER, 2JANUARY 2014
Our Meredian and Danimer Sales Activities
By Blake Lindsey
Our DaniMer business finished the year with a flurry of
orders and steady activity. The extrusion coating
business remains strong with growth in the areas of
injection molding and our “pet treat' product which is
a unique addition to our portfolio. We have
completed our latest development activities relating
to the "energy stimulation" polymer work with
Halliburton and see significant growth potential in this
industry
segment.
The progress continues in our renewable hot melt
adhesives and we expect that with final stage
validation completed in Q1 2014, our partners
at Henkel will be going commercial with Danimer
Meredian's strategy in the second half of 2013 has
been to focus our efforts with our customer/ client
partners to enable research & development activities
supporting a range of commercial applications that
are strategic to our brand owner partners. While we
are under confidentiality agreements that prevent us
from identifying our partners
who are engaged in joint R&D efforts today, we can
say that we have met with: Dart Container, Procter &
Gamble, BASF, Abbott Labs, Halliburton, SC Johnson,
BASF, Fkur, Kimberly Clark, MeadWestvaco,GenPak,
NatureWorks, Ferrero, Honeywell, International Paper,
Henkel, PepsiCo, RJ Reynolds, Rock Tenn and others
over the last 90 days.
In October, our team participated in the K Show in
Dusseldorf, Germany which is the largest plastics
exhibition in the world with over 250,000 decision
makers in attendance. Meredian and Danimer were
featured in an article in Plastics News during this
exhibition. Finally, we were approached by Fortune magazine for
a feature article for their December investor guide
special issue. This article has gotten the attention of
our present and targeted clients which was our hope
for further confirmation of our global leadership in the
biopolymer industry.
MEREDIAN INC. 140 INDUSTRIAL BLVD, BAINBRIDGE, GEORGIA, 39817
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MEREDIAN INC. NEWSLETTER, 2JANUARY 2014
MEREDIAN INC. MERGER
THE RATIONALE FOR MERGER
The restructure plan is to form a holding company being Meredian, Inc. Ownership under one
holding company would improve the prospects of raising capital. This has been confirmed by
market responses to previous fund raising efforts.
The restructured entity would be a more attractive candidate for acquisition of capital injection.
Provides cost savings through streamlined operations, shared resources and improved efficiencies
while supporting the existing biopolymer companies to commercial scale production.
Removes the liability of multiple share returns. No one wants to invest with this liability out there.
CREATES one of the largest and most advanced Biopolymer and extrusion labs in the world.
Over 150+ Global patents and applications and a Portfolio of Fortune 500® Companies as clients.
Provides a broader set of differentiated services to offer clients.
Danimer products are bioresins that are produced in steel and glass reactors, while Meredian
products are bioresins that are produced in living cells of micro organisms. The two companies
compliment each other.
An improved financial outlook for the combined entity where there is potential to be more
profitable and the capital investment in Meredian represents a good business opportunity for
Danimer shareholders to participate in Meredian’s future growth.
OUR FEBRUARY ISSUE:
- THE MAIN FACILITY BUILDOUT
- PILOT PLANT PRODUCTION PROGRESS
- THE NEW R&D LABS
- SALES TARGETS AND INDUSTRY FOCUS
- MILESTONES FOR 2014
- THE NEWLY RESTRUCTURED COMPANY
MEREDIAN INC. 140 INDUSTRIAL BLVD, BAINBRIDGE, GEORGIA, 39817
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