EnWave Corp Signs R&D Agreement With Large Chicken Processing Company
EnWave Corp. (TSXV:ENW – $1.08 CAD & OTC:NWVCF – $0.86 USD), which offers its proprietary Radiant Energy Vacuum (REV) dehydration technology as the new dehydration standard in the food and biological sectors, has signed a Technology Evaluation and License Option Agreement with Perdue Farms Incorporated.
The agreement grants Perdue, a leading food and agricultural products company, the right to evaluate EnWave’s technology. If the results are positive, Perdue can license the use of REV technology, on an exclusive basis, in the U.S. for a variety of food applications. It wasn’t mentioned in the release, but it’s safe to assume that, similar to previous R&D agreements with other companies, Perdue will lease a smaller scale REV unit from EnWave to do the R&D work.
Although at first sight this is nothing more than an R&D agreement of which we may see a positive outcome in a few quarters, it is an important event for a number of reasons.
First, it’s another research agreement with a major player (see below). The fact that these industry leading companies are willing to spend time and money on testing EnWave’s equipment is both a recognition and validation of the technology. EnWave also has ongoing R&D agreements with Nestlé, Kellogg’s, R.J. Reynolds, Merck Pharma, and many others.
Second, and more importantly, it urges other meat companies with which EnWave has a research agreement, such as Jack Link’s, Campofrio and Hormel, to finish their R&D work and sign a commercial license. A company that enters into a commercial agreement with EnWave can get an exclusive license to use REV for a certain product or market territory, so it’s vital for them to move forward with their decision.
In the past, the technology and market evaluation phase could take 24 months or more. Since Mr. Budreski joined EnWave in June 2014, one of his major goals has been to shorten the time between the initial contact with a company and the signing of a commercial license agreement.
This is successfully being implemented. So we’re pretty sure the evaluation phase for Perdue has been set at much less than 24 months.
Perdue Farms
Perdue Farms is the third-largest chicken processing company in the United States. The Salisbury, Maryland based company generates annual sales in excess of $6 billion and employs approximately 19,000 people.
The company was founded in 1920 by Arthur Perdue and started out by selling eggs. It soon built its first hatchery and later expanded into agribusiness and introduced the PERDUE brand of chicken and turkey.
Today the Company remains family owned and family operated. Its offerings include some of the leading names in natural chicken and turkey, such as the Perdue, Harvestland, Coleman Natural, Coleman Organic, Rocky, Rosie, And The Original Brat Hans brands
American Spice Trade Association
In other news, during the past week, EnWave representatives have exhibited at the annual American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) conference in Charleston, South Carolina. With 350 representatives, that control about 90% of the spice trade in North America, this is by far the largest event for the U.S. and Canadian spice industry. ASTA was founded in 1907 and represents the interests of approximately 175 members including companies that grow, dehydrate, and process spices.
Similar to the Anuga FoodTec show, a couple of weeks ago, this event was an excellent opportunity for EnWave to showcase its advanced technology. Even more so as the Company already has a client in the industry called Napa Mountain Spice Company.
This way, the success of Napa Mountain can be leveraged into additional relationships with other companies operating in the spice & herb market. They don’t have to be convinced anymore that the REV technology works for their products as they can immediately see, feel and taste the difference.
Napa Mountain, a seasoned spice manufacturer with over thirty years of operational experience, has been using an EnWave nutraREV unit for the processing of dehydrated spice products since February 2014. The key product enhancements created by the use of Radiant Energy Vacuum technology include an enhanced flavor profile, brighter natural color and the increased preservation of nutritional properties. Napa Mountain is also using REV technology to achieve the highest food safety industry-standards.
2015 TSX Venture 50 “Pick of the Street”
A few days ago, representatives of Canada’s financial community selected EnWave as the 2015 “Pick of the Street” in the Clean Technology sector.
In February 2015, EnWave was already named a 2015 TSX Venture 50 company, an annual ranking of the top 10 performing companies in five industry sectors: Clean Technology, Diversified Industries, Mining, Oil & Gas, and Technology & Life Sciences. The companies are ranked based on the following four equally-weighted criteria: market capitalization growth, share price appreciation, trading volume and analyst coverage. It basically identifies emerging companies that have shown strong results in key measures of market performance.
Following the announcement of that ranking, a selection of Canada’s professional investment community was polled for their number one choice in each sector. EnWave came out on top and was named the “Pick of the Street” for 2015 in the Clean Technology sector.
Conclusion
At this moment, EnWave has twelve commercial customers under contract. Bonduelle and Hormel Foods are scheduled to start using their REV units shortly, which will generate additional sales and royalties for the Company.
EnWave also has commercial license negotiations ongoing with many leading food and pharmaceutical companies that could lead to license and purchase decisions over the next quarters.
Armed with success stories from existing customers, EnWave now actively approaches companies that can benefit from its revolutionary dehydration technology. So many more dialogues are ongoing with potential partners in the huge dehydration market.
EnWave’s progress is being recognized by more retail and institutional investors, hence the Pick of the Street award. Buy Recommendation.
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