Agri-Food Industry: Update on H2O Innovation’s Maple Business Line
19 Setembro 2023 - 10:17AM
Business Wire
(TSX: HEO) – H2O Innovation Inc. (“H2O Innovation” or the
“Corporation”) is providing an update on its Maple business line
given challenging market conditions during the fiscal fourth
quarter 2023. The Corporation is pursuing its strategy to diversify
and expand its Maple business line within the agri-food market.
Three years ago, the Corporation released its three-year
strategic plan, which outlined 10 distinct strategic objectives. At
that time, the prospect of exploring new markets for the Maple
business line had been identified as a means of diversifying the
product offering and offsetting the impact of the seasonality
inherent to this business sector. The basis of this strategy was
premised on weather volatility and its potential impact on maple
syrup production. This was clearly illustrated during the 2023
maple syrup season in the Province of Quebec, which got off to a
late start and was soon exposed to above-average temperatures,
resulting in a 60% decrease in production compared to last year.
Therefore, as the Corporation experienced poor maple seasons in the
past, they believe that the latest maple season may impact its
business for a short and specific period of time, without affecting
its objectives as set forth in its Three-year Strategic Plan. With
that in mind, H2O Innovation has in recent years been developing a
range of products and equipment dedicated to other segments within
the agri-food market.
The current North American distribution network of the
Corporation’s Maple business line has over 100 points of sale,
which allows H2O Innovation to offer this new range of products
while maintaining its cost structure. “With our manufacturing
expertise in agri-food systems, long-distance wireless
communication technologies, and our knowledge using membrane
filtration for sugar and mineral concentration, we are well poised
to expand our product offering to companies in the agri-food
sector,” stated Frédéric Dugré, President, Chief Executive
Officer and co-Founder of H2O Innovation.
Since the release of our three-year strategic plan in fiscal
year 2021, the Corporation has been awarded several contracts
involving whey concentration, cranberry juice concentration, beer
wort concentration and apple cider clarification. H2O Innovation
has developed new patent-pending technologies that can be adapted
to various applications within the agri-food sector. These include
the Smart Sprinkler, an automatic irrigation system designed to
prevent frost in vast fields, and the Hypermash, a system used to
concentrate beer wort. With the Hypermash technology, brewers can
improve their cost structure and produce a final volume up to 25%
higher than the traditional method. “This technology has already
been in use for a few months at the California-based Bottle Logic
Brewing microbrewery and has allowed their team to optimize
production while achieving savings in terms of energy, time, water,
and even raw materials — grain,” added Frédéric Dugré. In
the United States alone, there are more than 9,000 craft breweries
with an overall value estimated at $27 B (source: Brewers
Association, 2022). The Corporation has also been exploring other
potential agri-food markets, such as apple cider, which is a $500 M
market annually in the United States (source: IBISWorld, 2023).
“In light of these success stories in diversifying our offering
and the magnitude of the potential market, we remain fully
committed to the task of building our Maple business line towards a
vision focused on the agri-food market, which will also limit the
impact of the inherent instability associated with maple syrup
production and improve our long-term profit margins. As such,
should our efforts to integrate the agri-food market continue to
prove successful, our Maple business line could, in due course,
become a new business pillar within the Corporation," said
Frédéric Dugré.
Prospective disclosures Certain information and
statements contained in this press release and in other
Corporation’s oral and written public communications regarding the
Corporation’s business and activities and/or describing
management’s objectives, projections, estimates, expectations or
forecasts may constitute forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking
statements include the use of words such as “anticipate”,
“believe”, “continue”, “could”, “estimate”, “expect”, “if”,
“intend”, “may”, “plan”, “potential”, “predict”, “project”,
“should” or “will”, and other similar expressions, as well as those
usually used in the future and the conditional, although not all
forward-looking statements include such words. H2O Innovation would
like to point out that forward-looking statements involve a number
of uncertainties, known and unknown risks and other factors which
may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the
Corporation, or of its industry, to materially differ from any
future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by
such forward-looking statements. Major factors that may lead to a
material difference between the Corporation’s actual results and
the projections or expectations set forth in the forward-looking
statements include, without limitation, poor performance or
reliability issues of such new technologies, the disruption of the
Corporation’s activities due to climate change and unpredictable
weather conditions, the Corporation’s ability to expand its
activities in the agri-food market, the Corporation’s ability to
reach its objectives and goals as per its Three-Year Strategic Plan
and to improve its long-term profit margin and such other risks as
described in the Corporation’s Annual Information Form dated
September 27, 2022, which is available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).
The forward-looking information contained in this press release is
based on information available as of the date of the release and is
subject to change after this date. Unless otherwise required by the
applicable securities laws, H2O Innovation disclaims any intention
or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
About H2O Innovation Innovation is in our name, and it is
what drives the organization. H2O Innovation is a complete water
solutions company focused on providing best-in-class technologies
and services to its customers. The Corporation’s activities rely on
three pillars: i) Water Technologies & Services (WTS) applies
membrane technologies and engineering expertise to deliver
equipment and services to municipal and industrial water,
wastewater, and water reuse customers, ii) Specialty Products (SP)
is a set of businesses that manufacture and supply a complete line
of specialty chemicals, consumables and engineered products for the
global water treatment industry, and iii) Operation &
Maintenance (O&M) provides contract operations and associated
services for water and wastewater treatment systems. Through
innovation, we strive to simplify water. For more information,
visit www.h2oinnovation.com.
Source: H2O Innovation Inc. www.h2oinnovation.com
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230919713059/en/
Marc Blanchet +1 418-688-0170
marc.blanchet@h2oinnovation.com
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