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Brakke Consulting’s
Animal Health News & Notes for September 27, 2002
Copyright © Brakke Consulting, Inc.
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COMPANY EARNINGS RELEASES
> Neogen Corporation announced that net income for the first quarter of its 2003 fiscal year, which ended Aug. 31, was 25% higher than the previous fiscal year’s first quarter. Neogen reported first quarter revenues of $10.9 million, a 12% increase compared to the first three months of fiscal year 2002. The Company’s first quarter operating income was $1.5 million, up from $1,235,000 in the comparable prior year quarter. Neogen’s strong growth in profit was driven in part by an increase in gross margins, to 53.4% of sales in FY 2003, from 50.3% in FY 2002. (company website)
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COMPANY NEWS RELEASES
> IBP Fresh Meats, a division of Tyson Foods, is offering consumers a new line of irradiated ground beef products. SureBeam Corp. will electronically irradiate the packaged beef. All packages will bear the “Irradiated for Food Safety” logo as well as the SureBeam logo. (Wattnet Meatnews)
> ConAgra Foods is getting out of the meatpacking business and is prepared to shed other farm-related companies as it concentrates on big brands and value-added foods. ConAgra is the nation’s second largest retail food supplier, behind Kraft Foods, and the largest foodservice manufacturer. Analysts have speculated that ConAgra will next sell its agriculture companies, including fertilizer, crop chemical and feed ingredient businesses. (AP)
> AUSTRALIA VectoGen Ltd. has acquired exclusive worldwide rights from Australia’s CSIRO to a suite of platform vaccine and therapeutic technologies for use in animals. The biologically-based treatments include alternatives to antibiotic feed additives and disease treatments for pigs and poultry. The products under development use adenovirus vectors to deliver proteins to the host animal. (Feedstuffs)
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BRAKKE CONSULTING, INC.
Look Before You Leap
Throughout the year, Brakke Consulting, Inc., performs marketing surveys and studies for client companies. If your firm needs help assessing the feasibility of a new product or technology, identifying the opinions and trends of product consumers, or determining the current market for products, Brakke Consulting, Inc. can build a market study to meet your needs. We have a database in place of several hundred small animal veterinarians and the ability to custom-tailor surveys of other animal health consumers. We also produce syndicated studies in specific animal health market areas. Further information can be found at our website: www.brakkeconsutling.com or by calling our Dallas office at 972.243.4033.
Brakke Consulting has the experience, insight, abilities, and contacts that provide our clients with the highest quality services in the animal health, pet, veterinary, and specialty chemicals markets. Please contact any of our offices for a confidential consultation on our range of services. Contact information for all offices is available on our website at https://brakkeconsulting.com and click on a starred location on the world map.
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ANIMAL HEALTH NEWS
> UK On Sept. 25, the first shipment of British beef since last year’s foot-and-mouth disease outbreak was exported in the United Kingdom. The shipment went to the Netherlands. (Meating Place)
> US Criticized for its handling of a large ground beef recall this summer, the USDA is toughening food safety policies and will begin randomly testing for E. coli at all meatpacking plants. The policy reverses a 1998 directive that allowed some plants to be exempt from such tests and gives the agency greater authority to shut down packing plants where contamination is found. (AP)
> US GeneThera, Inc announced that it is making available to State Animal Health Agencies, a field blood collection kit to test for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in both live and deceased animals. Working in conjunction with the blood collection kit, the actual testing for the presence of CWD will be done at the GeneThera labs. The Company will brand the kit as “CWDSignal.” To date, the Company has received and successfully tested a limited number of normal and contaminated CWD blood samples from Colorado, Minnesota and Wyoming. (AnimalNet)
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The American Veterinary Distributors Association (AVDA) announced that AVDA’s 2003 Conference will be held in San Antonio, Texas from April 27-29, 2003. The meeting will be held at the Westin Riverwalk Hotel, which is located along San Antonio’s famous River Walk. The conference is designed as an educational and networking opportunity for distributor and supplier members. The tentative schedule of events includes guest speakers, a business meeting, golf tournament and networking receptions. (press release)
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BRAKKE CONSULTING VIEWPOINT
Has your firm made any news this past week or month? If they have we sure have not been able to pick it up. It appears that the summer activities and 2003 budget process has kept many companies out of the press release business. Remember, that you need to let your customers and friends know that your business is moving forward.
With this week being the last full week of the third quarter, many of you have probably spent time closing that last order for shipment on Monday. Early indications of third quarter results from our sources in the field would indicate that sales are at best difficult and the pressure on the bottom line is limiting travel schedules for some companies. It will be interesting to read the final sales results in a few weeks.
Please remember that successful companies often invest year around in marketing and sales in order to have a harvest at the end of the year.
Have a great weekend. Get out and enjoy some this great fall weather.
[Ron Brakke]
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For more information about Brakke Consulting’s services and syndicated studies, visit our website at www.brakkeconsulting.com.
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