Ow! Yowie … Exec Director Wayne Loxton resigns

Confectionary manufacturer Yowie has seen its executive director - and main promoter - Wayne Loxton resign unexpectedly from the company.  Whilst he will stay on in the interim as non-exec Chairman, with just two other directors, the company will be rapidly looking for a replacment as the Corporations Act requires a minimum of three public company directors.

The company raised an astonishing $32m (at 90c per share) from investors in May 2016 proclaiming their extraordinary US store rollout. The June 2016 Annual Report cited an impressive retail footprint of more than 40,000 outlets including major US retailers such as Walmart, Walgreens and Safeway.  

And yet the sales never quite added up. Reported sales revenue of US$9.6m in the 6 months to 31 December 2016 amounted to a miniscule $1.32 per outlet/per day. One might expect US citizens to be eating more chocolate treats than that. 

With an associated loss of US$3.7m there is certainly a bitter aftertaste to the result, although with almost US$29m in cash on the balance sheet, the company does have a hefty safety net.

Yowie is a day-trader special with only Fidelity as a substantial shareholder.  But negative momentum (the current shareprice is less than half their 2016 capital raise) it would appear this company is going to be a difficult investment to digest in the coming months.