anything heard camden55?

G'day CAMDEN55. My memory is of one of your recent posts where you said you had contacted SDI to discuss the Brazilian arm of the business but the CEO had been overseas at a dental conference. And that you were hoping to hear back from them. Not that I can now find that post. However, did you hear from them at all? I note the following from the latest report; "The Company continues to maintain its new product pipeline and will be launching several new
products at the International Dental Show (IDS) held in Cologne Germany in March 2013. The IDS is the largest dental show in the world". So perhaps he is not back in Aus yet.

I had happened to write to them on the same theme- asking whether they could shed any light on the plan for "returning" the Brazilian business to profit and any timeline for such an improvement. I have had no reply.

I note that Brazilian sales decreased by 4.6% in the Dec half compared to the previous year.
The following is also lifted from the last report; "The weakening of the Brazilian currency against the Australian Dollar and the relative high cost of
silver is continuing to adversely impact SDI’s Brazilian subsidiary. The Brazilian market is price
sensitive and the economic environment favours local Brazilian competitors. The introduction of
cheaper product into the Brazilian market from SDI’s offshore packing and the release of new
products into the market should start showing positive results in the next six months. The Company
is constantly evaluating all aspects of this business to ensure that its sales and marketing strategies
are tailored to compete with local manufacturers".

I note from the above that they expect the results from offshore packaging, release of new products to "start" to show positive results in the "next" 6 months. However they were able to stem the losses to a large degree in the past 6 months. Difficult to know how that was done. That is what I wrote to them to ask for clarification of. You suggest price rises in one of your recent posts but the company continues to point out that Brazilian market is price sensitive. Perhaps improved margins (that is cheaper production) but they state the benefits of offshore packaging and new products to flow in the next six months.

The other possibility is a change to product mix. That is improved sales of those products with a better profit margin. Avoiding expensive silver amalgams perhaps.
Interested to know if you have heard back from them and your thoughts on the above.

On the positive side of things.. Both the silver price and the exchange rate with the Brazilian Real have been relatively stable (slightly improved) in the last few months. And looking forward to savings flowing from offshore packaging and improved profits from the release of new products.
Cheers.