Ann: LON 1H18 Results Announcement, page-11

Personally I thought the commentary was solid. It’s going to take time for Laura to build the company, but all signs suggest she’s laying the foundations for a strong future, by building a capable team around her and focussing on the pressing tasks of branding, marketing and development of new distribution channels.

Paris Creek is particularly exciting, with 75% of its sales ($19.8m FY17) derived from South Australia alone, a state with a population of only 1.7 million. This compares to the eastern seaboard states of NSW (7.9 million), VIC (6.3 million) and QLD (4.9 million) (which the company stated it’s planning to target) which have a combined population of 19.1 million (over 10x the population of SA). Focusing on this market alone should deliver huge growth for the company over the short to medium term. Combine this with McBain’s expertise in branding & marketing and there’s no telling how high sales will go in the coming years.

Some may have felt disappointed there wasn’t more detail around overseas growth (which was touched on) but she is clearly (and quite rightly in my opinion) focusing on laying the foundations domestically first before pursuing offshore growth. Doing it this way she can perfect the formula here before applying it overseas, just as she did at BAL.

Just my two cents..