EnWave Keeps Momentum Going With Gay Lea Foods Commercial Startup
April has been extremely busy for EnWave Corp (TSXV:ENW – $1.05 CAD & OTC:NWVCF – $0.89 USD). Earlier this month, the Company, which offers revolutionary dehydration technology for the food and pharmaceutical industries, signed a technology evaluation agreement with Perdue Farms and a royalty-bearing commercial license with Umland LLC.
And this week, it installed and started up a 10kW commercial Radiant Energy Vacuum (REV) dehydration machine at Gay Lea Foods’ production facility in Ontario, Canada. First royalties from Gay Lea are expected in the early fall of this year.
After an extensive technology and market evaluation phase, Gay Lea, an industry leader in the production and processing of dairy products in Canada, signed a commercial royalty-bearing license and a 10kW machine purchase order in November 2014. That license gave Gay Lea the exclusive right to process certain types of cheese snacks in Canada, using REV technology. Interesting to know is that in order to retain the exclusive license, Gay Lea must submit an additional order for at least one 100kW nutraREV machine within the next 13 months. This obviously puts pressure on Gay Lea to launch the new products as fast as possible.
The dairy products company will immediately commence production with its 10kW REV unit, which can produce about 30 pounds of finished cheese snacks per hour. The snack is believed to be launched at retailers in Eastern Canada as a market test. If successful, Gay Lea will purchase a full scale 100kW unit in order to expand its production and distribution.
Gay Lea Foods
Gay Lea Foods is the second largest dairy co-operative in Canada, owned by over 1,200 dairy farmers. In production facilities across Ontario and Quebec, Gay Lea manufactures a wide range of dairy products including milk, dips, butter, yogurt, sour cream, whipped cream, cheese, cottage cheese, and dairy ingredients. With the Ivanhoe and Salerno brands, Gay Lea already has a strong cheese division.
The company sells its products to large distributors as well as directly to retail chains such as Sobeys, Metro, Loblaw, Fortinos, Real Canadian Superstore, Zehrs and Bulk Barn.
ASTA Conference
In other news, we heard that the American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) conference, held last week in Charleston, South Carolina was successful for EnWave. With 350 representatives that control about 90% of the spice trade in North America, ASTA is by far the largest annual event for the U.S. and Canadian spice industry.
The Company met several qualified leads from the spice & herb industry, which hopefully can be developed into actual customers in the near future.
Conclusion
EnWave’s share price and volume don’t reflect the announcements made in the past month. We believe it’s a matter of time before the market realizes the progress EnWave has made over the past quarters and what a bargain it truly is.
The Company will earn a 5% royalty on all products sold by Gay Lea that are processed using REV technology. In addition, Gay Lea must purchase a 100kW REV unit within the next 13 months in order for it to maintain it exclusivity rights.
Moreover, Bonduelle’s full scale 120kW production unit is scheduled to come online in the following weeks as well. This unit will also generate an attractive production-based royalty for EnWave. And finally, don’t forget that in June a sixteen week program will start in which the Company’s Moon Cheese snacks will be sold at 3,500 locations of a major coffee chain.
These sure are exciting times for EnWave and its shareholders. New research and commercial deals are being signed. And more REV machines come online. With EnWave’s Radiant Energy Vacuum technology, we’re witnessing a shift in the global dehydration market because it’s faster and cheaper than freeze drying, and has better end product quality than air drying or spray drying.
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