Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLXT), a plant-based technology company
focused on healthy food ingredients, has released the following
letter to its stockholders from Jim Blome, Chief Executive
Officer.
Dear Fellow Stockholders:
2019 was an exciting year as we achieved several operational
milestones, entered the commercialization phase of our business and
recorded revenues for our high oleic (HO) soybean meal and HO
soybean oil. I wanted to provide my perspective from the CEO post
on our progress in 2019 and upcoming milestones for 2020 and
beyond.
The Launch of Our First Commercial Products
We are proud of the success we had in the commercial launches of
our HO soybean products during the year. I view 2019 as a year of
technology validation to the marketplace, as well as a year of
commercial foundation building for our soybean business – setting
the stage for continued execution in 2020 and beyond.
In February 2019 we completed consultation with the FDA for our
HO soybeans. This was the first gene edited food product to
complete the FDA consultation process and be commercialized in the
United States.
To further build the case for our HO soybean oil, we conducted
third-party validation testing against several commodity and
premium vegetable oils. Through these tests, we confirmed
performance benefits our oil has in foodservice and food
manufacturing applications – such as up to 3x the fry life with
less residue buildup and lower polymerization levels as compared to
competing oils.
Immediately upon launch, we signed on a popular Midwest
restaurant chain as an oil customer. Following this initial
success, we were able to place our oil into Sysco, the world’s
largest foodservice distribution company, who has now sold our oil
to over 60 of its foodservice accounts. We have subsequently added
additional multi-unit restaurant chains in the Midwest and
Southeast and have added another top-tier foodservice distributor
in the U.S. to our customer portfolio.
Additionally, several food manufacturing companies are
evaluating our HO soybean oil for use in cereals, granola bars,
nutritional supplements and more. This $4.7 billion market segment
is particularly appealing to us because of the extremely large
potential order size and the fact that our product can deliver key
characteristics like high stability and a longer shelf life. For
these reasons, our commercial team will continue to actively pursue
food manufacturing companies as customers.
Calyxt customer acquisition is powered by our identity preserved
supply chain. Our integrated business model – with hundreds of
farmers and three of the largest cooperatives in the country
covering seed distribution, seed treatment, agronomy, elevator
storage, crush plants and rail logistics – are an important part of
what we believe will enable us to be a reliable partner to our
current and future customers.
Building a World-Class Team
In the last 15 months there has been a dramatic change in
leadership in the C-level suite that commenced with my appointment
in September 2018. Our goal was to build out a world class
leadership team to support the commercial growth opportunities
facing us today and to drive our innovation platform in the
future.
In early January 2019, Bill Koschak was appointed as our new
chief financial officer. Bill’s extensive experience in the
consumer-packaged goods and foodservice industries at General Mills
brought a unique combination of skills that accelerated the
commercial ramp up of our soybean business as well as provided a
heightened level of financial acumen to the organization.
In February 2019, we named Debra Frimerman, a renowned legal
mind with deep industry knowledge, as our General Counsel. She has
proven instrumental as we navigate our rapid growth trajectory.
In May 2019, we appointed Dr. Travis Frey, a widely respected
plant biology scientist, to the newly created position of Chief
Technology Officer. Travis’ well-rounded background in the field,
in partnership with our Chief Science Officer, Dr. Dan Voytas, are
together responsible for delivering on the commitments in our
growing project pipeline.
In September 2019, we appointed Keith Blanks to the newly
created position of Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing
with a focus on driving sales growth of our HO soybean oil to food
manufacturers, foodservice distributors and operators as well as
other channels. Keith will also provide the framework and
relationships to launch our future products.
And finally, in December 2019, we appointed 35-year Agribusiness
veteran Vince Restucci as Vice President of Agronomy Services to
support our market entry into new crops and farming
geographies.
I am confident that our team has the breadth and depth needed to
grow Calyxt into a leading global AgTech company.
2020 and Beyond: Calyxt as an Innovation Platform
Company
We believe the successful commercial launch of our HO soybean
products proves there is demand for gene-edited products. The
potential benefits of gene-edited products to foodservice and food
manufacturing companies (performance), consumers (health) and the
planet (sustainability) are significant. We aim, through science,
to benefit both people and planet.
The ability to selectively and rapidly breed a plant based on
its natural genome, in a way like how farmers have bred plants for
thousands of years, is game changing for agriculture. As we move
forward with these new product concepts, it is important to note
that we view the launch of our HO soybean products as a proof of
concept – not necessarily a blueprint or model for the
commercialization of all our future products.
My long-term vision for future Calyxt products is a
capital-light model that leverages our core strength – editing
plant genes using our proprietary TALEN technology and world-class
scientific team – bringing innovative products to market alongside
industry-leading companies with established market access and
scale.
To realize on this vision, in 2020 we plan to expand our
go-to-market strategy and monetize multiple collaboration projects,
which we expect will deliver upfront payments, milestone payments,
and royalties. The nature, timing and amount of these payments will
be driven by the size of the opportunity and what we and our
collaborators each bring to the solution. Our product innovation
cycle is generally three to five years, giving us the ability to
solve unmet product or commercial needs in an accelerated
fashion.
Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG)
Food is an integral part of our culture and our well-being. Our
mission is to produce health-conscious, sustainable ingredients for
healthier foods so you can feel good about what’s on your plate.
Today, we have the opportunity – and the responsibility – to
address these issues head on, making the food you love healthier,
more sustainable, and traceable from concept to fork.
To complement our mission, we believe providing non-financial
metrics with respect to our ESG impact is important to help measure
our progress. We look forward to sharing more details on our ESG
commitments in 2020.
Enhanced Investor Relations Initiatives
In 2020, we will be expanding our investor relations initiatives
to increase market awareness of our successes.
To spearhead these efforts alongside the executive team, we have
engaged MZ Group to lead an investor relations and financial
communications program across all key markets.
Since engaging MZ, we have completed a comprehensive revamp of
our investor relations website and a new investor presentation –
viewable by clicking here – which we would encourage all investors
to review.
In 2020, we intend to expand our presence at certain investment
conferences and in one-on-one meetings. In addition, we are working
on scheduling an Investor Day for Calyxt stockholders at our
Minnesota R&D facility and corporate headquarters in April
2020.
We will provide additional details on these initiatives
throughout the year. In the meantime, I want to personally invite
you to sign-up to receive notices of upcoming events and press
releases, such as our earnings release for 2019 that will provide
more detail on our achievements in 2019 and our expectations for
2020. Please visit the Investors section of our website at
www.calyxt.com.
Conclusion
Together, I believe we have positioned Calyxt to revolutionize
the agricultural landscape as we know it – an endeavor well worth
pursuing. Our gene editing technology enables us to deliver
healthier food and other products, such as heart healthy oils, high
fiber wheat, or alfalfa that is more easily digested by livestock,
using a process that mimics how plants could have developed in
nature. We have a broad IP portfolio and strong product pipeline as
we are developing nearly 10 innovative new products, and we expect
to generate more than 25 stage advances through our development
pipeline over the next two years.
In 2019 we built the team, streamlined our operations and
refocused our efforts to commercialize our TALEN technology. In
March 2019, we launched our HO soybean products including a heart
healthy HO soybean oil and we expect to launch five new soybean
varieties for the upcoming planting season supporting geographic
expansion and diversifying weather risk. To accelerate our
commercialization, we established agreements with supply chain
leaders Agtegra, Landus and Central Valley Agriculture to enable
scale to address our growing demand.
In January 2020 we will celebrate our ten-year anniversary as a
company, an important milestone for any young company. In 2020 we
are positioned to execute on our transformation with a line of
sight to multiple revenue streams that include direct sales of food
ingredients and animal nutrition products, collaboration
arrangements, and the out-licensing of traits we develop to others.
I believe this positions Calyxt to drive meaningful, long-term
stockholder value. I am extremely proud of our team’s
accomplishments and look forward to reporting upon their future
successes in 2020.
On behalf of the entire team at Calyxt, we thank you very much
for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Jim Blome Chief Executive Officer
About Calyxt
Calyxt (NASDAQ: CLXT), based in Roseville, Minnesota is a
plant-based technology company that utilizes our patented breeding
technology to make the food you love a healthier choice. The care
we take extends beyond nutritional value. We partner with farmers
and food companies to deliver traceable plant-based products
developed to be healthier and more sustainable than their
conventional counterparts. We use cutting edge plant breeding
techniques to develop products that help improve diets by reducing
bad fats, allergens and toxins. We continuously pursue innovation
to deliver good food that is good for you. For further information,
please visit our website at www.calyxt.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This stockholder letter contains “forward-looking statements”
within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S.
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases,
you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as
“may,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,”
“anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or
“continue,” the negative of these terms and other comparable
terminology. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to
risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include
projections of our future financial performance, our anticipated
growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These
statements are only predictions based on our current expectations
and projections about future events. There are important factors
that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance
or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of
activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the
forward-looking statements, including those factors discussed under
the caption entitled “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form
10-K, along with our other filings with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission. We do not assume any obligation to publicly
provide revisions or updates to any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future developments or
otherwise, should circumstances change, except as otherwise
required by applicable laws.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200121005409/en/
Calyxt Media Contact: Trina Lundblad, Director of
Corporate Communications (612) 790-0514 media@calyxt.com
Calyxt Investor Relations Contact: Chris Tyson Managing
Director MZ Group – MZ North America (949) 491-8235 IR@calyxt.com
www.mzgroup.us
Calyxt (NASDAQ:CLXT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Calyxt (NASDAQ:CLXT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024