NPRI translates business initiatives into 1Q sales
quarter 2006, with sales of its oil powders up 45 percent on last
year's period to $421,000 as business development initiatives pay
off.
The Nevada company offers more than 50 powdered oils for use in products including dietary supplements and functional foods. These powders are produced using its patent pending O2P (oil to powder) technology, a gravity seed-type process carried out at room temperature and in a nitrogen-rich environment to preserve stability and the nutritional profile of the oil.
CEO and president Godfrey Yew said: " We have negotiated more favorable contracts and have been able to reduce our overall operating expenses."
Operating expenses for the quarter were around $281,000 as compared to $179,000.
In January NPRI announced a new range of products with higher bioavailability thanks to a technology based on aloe vera.
Recent research on aloe vera has shown that certain extracts of the plant can slow down the body's absorption of vitamins E and C and keep the nutrients in blood plasma for longer.
A small clinical trial reported in the November 2005 issue of Phytomedicine found that use of aloe vera improved the bioavailability of vitamin E by over 200 percent. Vitamin E is one of NPRI's top ten products. The technology uses an aloe vera crystal flake supplied by Aloecorp as a carrier matrix.
Last August the company announced the dramatic expansion of its oil-to-powder conversion capacity with the construction of a new facility in Las Vegas. It was also searching for suitable manufacturing premises in Europe, envisaged to be operational by the end of this year.
The company, which began life as a contract manufacturer in 1994, initially developed O2P as an in-house manufacturing tool to cater for the needs of clients who wanted to use nutritional oils in tablet and capsule formulations.
In early 2004 NPRI decided that the technology had business legs of its own. The decision was taken to move away from contract manufacturing and make the technology its core business.
Before the switch to O2P as the core business, NPRI recorded losses of $157,283 ($0.015 per share) for the full year ended December 31 2003 and $7,250 ($0.0025 per share) for the prior year.
