Food Revolution Group (ASX: FOD) could be the turnaround ASX story of the last 12 months.

Turnarounds usually occur when a new management team takes over an underperforming business and “turns it around” to become hugely successful for themselves and, within the investment community, shareholders.

FOD was an established business, with a valuable asset that previous management failed to maximise.

As such, its share price languished.

Problematically, while you would recognise FOD’s key brand if you passed it in the supermarket, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who could tell you that FOD is behind the brand.

FOD had an identity crisis and it needed a fresh approach to operations to pull it out of the sour patch it was in.

The FOD turnaround

The Food Revolution Group is a food and beverage manufacturing company, specialising in the development of innovative health-focused products including beverages, functional foods, nutraceuticals, and wellness supplements.

The wellness category in Australia is worth $500 million and FOD already has a substantial stake in this market through its flagship brand of juices.

That brand consists of the Original Juice Black Label (OBL) products.

While these products sell steadily through major and second tier supermarkets, FOD was experiencing several problems including bushfires and drought temporarily increasing fruit prices and supply, financial losses despite strong revenues and corporate issues with an investment tranche causing uncertainty.

These legacy issues pushed FOD shares to as low as 2.6 cents. However, the market seems to have picked up the story. This is in part due to CEO Tony Rowlinson, who was brought in last year to revive the ailing company. Rowlinson has a history in successful business resurrections.

He joined FOD in April 2020, bringing his experience in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) to the company. Rowlinson held roles with Simplot Australia, International Paper, the Coca Cola Company and Bristol Myers Squibb.

He was brought on board to revive the brand and launch new juice and wellness products into different markets. In his first 12 months at the helm, Rowlinson has achieved the following:

• Negotiations with large retailers - increased prices of flagship juice brand
• Reduced costs - negotiated fruit supply agreements
• Built a new leadership team
• Launched new brands
• Launched new strategy.

According to Rowlinson, FOD’s goal is now “To be a leading provider of beverages, nutraceuticals, functional foods and wellness supplements, that improve the quality of consumers lives, by the use of all natural ingredients”.

To prove this point, FOD recently launched its range of "Juice Lab Super Shots” – the first three variants are now selling in Coles.

The initial range includes:

• Juice Lab “Focus" which contains Ginseng, guarana, calamansi & ginger
• Juice Lab “Immunity” which contains Ginseng, turmeric & ginger
• Juice Lab “Digest” containing apple cider, acacia & wheatgrass

Just this week, the company announced sales of the Juice Lab Wellness shots are exceeding expectations and forecasts have had to be increased. The expected run rate when Coles launched the range was that the range would sell two units per store per week.

Following three weeks of the shots being available in over 160 Coles stores, the range of three variants are selling six to seven units per store per week. This is 200% higher than expectations. Forecasts are being reviewed between Coles and FOD management, the forecast cycle is updated monthly. This is part of the Coles integrated business planning process.

Rowlinson is excited by the rollout saying, “Being first to market with ‘all natural plant based’ product in the Wellness beverage category is a massive achievement.

“The US who lead the world regarding ‘better for you’ beverages has seen a dramatic growth of ‘all natural, pick- me up shots & tonics’ due to COVID -19 impact.

“Preventative foods and beverages is the fastest growing sector within the US$4.8 billion market.”

Revenue and market share growth

FOD’s roll out of products, including its Eridani Premium Marine Collagen and the roll out a range of wellness shots, beverages and plant-based wellness powder supplements across its Juice Lab Brand formulated from super foods and plant-based ingredients, has been the catalyst for increased revenue growth.

The company has also established a new state of the art ‘wellness centre’ that has the capability to supply all natural food supplements and will assist the company in accommodating increased volumes.

All this activity has led to stronger revenues.

FOD has continued to grow market share with a growth of 18% over the period H1 2021 period. OBL continues to outperform the fresh juice market, increasing FOD’s share to 13% of the $560M market.

In the six month period to 31 December 2020, the company’s total sales were up 24% to hit $22.2 million, delivering $2.2 million EBIDTA versus $0.2 million in the previous corresponding period  – an improvement of over 1000%.

New products accounted for $1.5 million in additional sales. The gross profit reached $5.69 million which equates to 31% of net sales.

FOD’s entry into the beauty market with its Eridani suite of products taps into the collagen market worth in excess of $4.6 billion. This is a market set to exceed $10 billion by 2025 based on it being the best source of all-natural protein.

FOD is now on track to achieve or surpass its H1 figures in H2 2021 and is one of the turnaround stories of the year.

This article is sponsored content. The supplier of this content has a commercial arrangement with Switzer Financial Group.

Province Resources (ASX: PRL) has announced plans to acquire Exploration Licence Applications for a new green energy project located in Western Australia.

Formally Scandivanadium (ASX: SVD), PRL has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire a company that holds seven licence applications in the Gascoyne region of WA that are suitable for developing a renewable green hydrogen project.

PRL is aiming to develop Australia’s first truly Zero Carbon Hydrogen^TM project.

World on cusp of hydrogen revolution

There is a global push away from using fossil-fuel based hydrogen as an ingredient for industrial process to green hydrogen.

Green hydrogen, generated from wind and solar, could fast track the fight against climate change.

According to Bank of America, the hydrogen marketplace could reach $11 trillion by 2050, possessing the ability to supply our vast energy needs, fuel our cars, heat our homes, and also help to fight climate change.

On the back of climate commitments in Europe and Asia, nearly half of the globe has already embraced net zero policies; further, early statements from the new US Administration appear encouraging.

For climate experts, green hydrogen is indispensable to climate neutrality; featuring in all eight of the European Commission’s net zero scenarios for 2050.

Green & potentially zero carbon

Australia’s potential zero carbon hydrogen exports could reach $2.2 billion by 2030 and $5.7 billion by 2040. It should perhaps go without saying that companies targeting this trend early in their gestation, should be the ones to benefit long term.

PRL’s HyEnergy Renewable Hydrogen Project is proposed to generate 1GW (1,000MW) of renewable energy in Western Australia, using wind and solar, and to produce approximately 60,000t of green hydrogen, or up to approximately 300,000t of green ammonia.

The result would create a clean zero carbon Gas or Liquid Hydrogen Fuel that according to Andrew Twiggy Forrest “could power the world for all of mankind’s existence”.

According to Forrest, by 2050 green (renewable) hydrogen could be the most important green energy source in the world. “The green hydrogen market could generate revenues, at the very least, of $US12 trillion by 2050 — bigger than any industry we have now,” Forrest says.

Province is at the very beginning of its journey. Just like any resources project, it is all about scale, and a large project could generate extremely high economic returns on the back of minimal operating costs.

What are PRL’s fundamentals?

Province Resources sums up the imminent opportunities in the below infographic.

Along with this, PRLs fundamentals are:

• Chairman David Francis has a history of bringing companies into their next phase of life and turning them into highly sought-after acquisition targets. Winward Resources was acquired by the $4.6 billion capped Independence Group Ltd (ASX: IGO) in 2016.
• The rise of green hydrogen. According to Andrew Twiggy Forrest, “Green hydrogen (is) the purest source of energy in the world — and one that could replace up to three quarters of our emissions, if we improve the technology and have the scale.
• PRL’s project. The company aims to be the first significant West Australian producer and exporter of 100% renewable hydrogen and ammonia, making Western Australia’s market share in global hydrogen exports comparable to its share in LNG today.
• WA’s solar is among the highest irradiance in the world and, due to being on the western edge of the continent, it has excellent wind resources, which makes this project an excellent proposition moving forward.
• Adoption of ‘green economy’ strategies is accelerating rapidly with Australia pouring $300M into the Australian Government Advancing Hydrogen Fund. This is on top of UK PM Boris Johnson investing 12 billion pounds in green energy, and banning the sale of all fossil fuel engines by 2030. Europe allocating a trillion Euros to reach zero emissions by 2050. The US pledging $US2 trillion and China, Japan and South Korea combining to pledge to put almost 8 million hydrogen fuel cell cars on the road.
• Further to that, investment in ESG (environment, social and governance) focused companies continues to rise.

Renewable hydrogen a big ticket item

 The Gascoyne region in Western Australia has world class solar and wind resources and, significantly, those resources are perfectly complementary, with a high incidence of sun during the daytime and high wind speeds in the morning, evening and night. This enables competitively priced predictable and firm renewable electricity output, 365 days a year.

PRL is looking to become an Australian leader in green hydrogen production, through its Zero Carbon Hydrogen Project^TM.

What are the project plans?

In the next 12-18 months, the company will:

• Execute a heritage agreement with the Yinggarda Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) to govern the conduct of site resource monitoring investigations.
• Undertake numerous key stakeholder discussions, including, Carnarvon Shire and Community, WA government, Federal government and Indigenous representatives (YAC).
• Assemble a highly capable project team, including local & international experts.
• Commence feasibility studies for both renewable power generation and green hydrogen production.
• Execute a binding MoU with an IPP (Independent Power Provider) to develop the renewable power required for the H2 plant.
• Initiate discussions with potential offtakers and AGAIG – Australian Gas and Infrastructure Group (owners of the DBNGP).

PRL is an early stage play. However there is a real opportunity for it to take the reins in providing an all-Australian green hydrogen solution.

This article is sponsored content. The supplier of this content has a commercial arrangement with Switzer Financial Group.

The prices of precious metals (gold and silver) have experienced a slight pull back in recent months.

For many, particularly leveraged early-stage stocks, this suggests a possible return to form in the early months of 2021.

Silver stocks could be winners, as some analysts believe the price of silver is poised to run hot next year.

According to Kitco analyst Peter Hug, “Once industrial demand picks up, more tailwinds for silver will push the metal closer to the $35 to $40 an ounce range next year.”

Thomson Resources (ASX:TMZ) could be positioned to capitalise on this precious metal resurgence, with an existing Gold portfolio and the pending acquisition of two silver assets.

Thomson is a NSW focused explorer, set to acquire 100% of two transformational silver assets in the first months of 2021, with due diligence to be completed in January.

The Webbs Project is Australia’s highest grade undeveloped silver asset and will be complemented by the Conrad Silver Project.

Both projects have seen historic silver production and have a resource defined compliant with the JORC Code 2004 as follows:

• Webbs: 1.5Mt @ 345g/t Ag Eq – 16.5 million ounces Ag Eq
• Conrad: 2.65Mt @ 206g/t Ag Eq – 17.5 million ounces Ag Eq

Both silver projects are located in the New England Fold belt in NSW and combined, equate to an acquisition of over 30 million ounces of silver equivalent resources.

The projects will be acquired from the $207M capped Silver Mines Ltd (ASX: SVL), and as part of the acquisition, Silver Mines will hold ~ 19% of the issued shares of TMZ, which will be escrowed for 12 months. Silver Mines Managing Director Anthony McClure will take a board seat as a Non Exec Director.

The company is aiming to start aggressively expanding its silver resource base over the coming months, both organically and via acquisitions.

There is an experienced management team driving this agenda and it has been strengthened by the engagement of Global Ore Discovery, led by Stephen Nano.

Global Ore is assisting with running the due diligence process of on the silver assets and has a history of silver project generations that lead to takeovers.

Thomson stacks up

Thomson has a $30M market cap, and recently raised $6M, so appears well funded for near term exploration.

With the early-stage nature of TMZ’s silver ambitions, the company is provided significant leverage to this metal heading into 2021, and compares favourably with other ASX listed silver stocks.

Its closets peer is Investigator Resources (ASX: IVR), which is currently capped at $63M. IVR’s South Australian Paris Silver Project has a resource of 9.3 million tonnes at an average 139 grams per tonne of silver and 0.6% lead for a contained 42 million ounces of silver and 55,000t of lead.

Thomson’s peers also provide a pathway to growth, favourably indicating how the market values silver ounces in the ground.

Aside from silver, Thomson has a number of quality intrusion related gold systems in NSW and Queensland, where it is undertaking extensive rolling drilling programs that build on previous high-grade results.

Silver, with a side of gold

TMZ is focused on building a strong silver resource base in 2021, whilst being supported by existing gold assets.

In the coming weeks, the company is set to complete its due diligence to acquire high grade, undeveloped silver assets, with the acquisition to be completed early in 2021.

This article is sponsored content. The supplier of this content has a commercial arrangement with Switzer Financial Group.

Life360 (ASX:360) is a San Francisco-based IT company that connects and protects loved ones through a variety of safety features, all conveniently located in one app for a fraction of their traditional costs.  In addition to the free option, there are three membership plans that provide families peace of mind while on the go, on the road and online. Valued core offerings include: advanced location sharing on a private map, smart notifications when family members come and go from designated destinations, phone battery updates, driving reports to monitor safe driving behaviour, 24/7 roadside assistance, and crash detection with emergency response.

The company’s membership model launched in the US market in June 2020, expanding beyond Life360’s location-centric features to incorporate identity theft protection, SOS with emergency dispatch, and disaster, medical and travel assistance.  This suite of membership services now allows Life360 to meet the needs of every family lifestage.

As of June 2020, Life360 had 25 million monthly active users across 195 countries, in 13 languages, and 845,000 Paying Circles (subscribers).

The company listed on the ASX on 5 May 2019 and raised $145 million from its IPO with a market capitalisation above $600 million. Its share price surged 10.9% on the first day of trade. On 10 May 2019, the Australian Financial Review reported “the float was the ASX’s biggest tech raising since WiseTech Global’s 2016 float.”

The app was founded in 2008 by co-founders Chris Hulls (CEO) and Alex Haro (Non-executive Director).

As well as  co-founding Life360, Hulls has been an angel investor and advisor for a number of tech companies, including Tile, Credible, Ring, Automatic, Honk and Zendrive, while Haro worked on the Orbited project that allows real-time browser communication.

In 2019, Hulls told CNBC that Life360 chose not to list in the US to avoid Wall Street’s “swirl of noise”.

“People think of Australia as a small little country, but in terms of investable capital, it’s massively disproportionate to their population,” he said.

The company has five independent non-executive directors across the US and Australia. David Wiadrowski and James Synge are the Australian-based directors. Over the course of 2020, James Synge invested an additional $256,000 into the stock increasing his shareholding to 1.2%. Life360’s “insider ownership” is roughly 10%, according to Yahoo! Finance.

In July 2020, in an article he wrote in the Switzer Report, Tony Featherstone tipped Life360 (ASX: 360) as one of his “2 transport small caps that could benefit from COVID-19”. Featherstone shared his personal experience with the app, which he and his family have used for several years.  “Watch more parents register for Life360’s free and paid services during and after COVID-19. Parents will worry more about children using public-transport services that have a higher risk of disruption. Technology that shows when their children have boarded public transport appeals.”

Like all young companies, Life360 has had its hurdles, which Featherstone described in his article as “disgruntled young people who do not like their parents tracking them”. “After hearing teens vocalize their feelings very publicly about Life360 on TikTok, we decided to reach out to them and open a dialogue to really hear what they had to say,” said CEO Chris Hulls to BusinessWire. “Teens are a core part of the family unit - and our user base - and we value their input. After months of communicating with teens, I am proud to launch a feature that was designed with them in mind, continuing our mission of redefining how safety is delivered to families.”

This new feature is called “Bubbles” and, when activated, shows a general radius rather than exact location to respect privacy, while ensuring the app can still achieve its main objective of safely monitoring and connecting loved ones. The company has also committed to bridging the communication gap between parents, teenagers, and technology by producing content and offering resources from Life360 Family Expert, registered psychologist and parenting educator, Dr Vanessa Lapoint.

In June 2020, Life360’s annualised monthly revenue was up 26% to US$77.9 million and subscriber growth picked up post-COVID in April. In the CY20 H1 Results report, the company said this reflected its “resilient” business model.

As the chart below shows, this year Life360’s share price has rallied from its March 23 COVID-lows, when it dropped to around $1.50, to then reach a high of $4.49 on September 8.

This article is sponsored content. The supplier of this content has a commercial arrangement with Switzer Financial Group.

The most notable trend related to the transition to electric vehicles over the last 12 months is the acceleration in electric car sales in Europe.

EV car sales in Europe now outstrip China and other Asian countries that have been active in developing lithium-ion batteries.

In a recent article published by The Driven, European auto market analyst Matthias Schmidt was referenced in relation to his European Electric Car Report for the seven months to July 2020.

Schmidt noted that during this period there were more plug-in electric car sales in Western Europe than in China, a country that in previous years had been considered the world’s largest electric car market by volume.

It should be noted China's electric vehicle market is still strong. EV sales in China grew for the first time in 13 months in July 2020, due to a government extension of financial incentives and Tesla's local production.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported sales of EVs last month jumped 19.3% on the year to 98,000 units.

However, sales of EVs in Europe are projected to exceed one million units in 2020 and to grow rapidly in the years to come. Europe has increased its market share to 26%, growing by 44% since 2019.

Part of this growth can be attributed to Europe’s policy initiatives that have the overarching aim of making Europe climate neutral by 2050.

Government, corporates and consumers are all on board and focused on making the switch. Euro governments have introduced stimulus plans to provide momentum for electric vehicle adoption. This means tightening emissions standards and subsidies to drive consumer demand. 

Over €24BN (AU$39.1BN) in investments in European EV and battery supply chains are underway right now, and the continent has emerged as a major electric vehicle production hub.

Furthermore, the likes of Shell has called on the UK to “make a bold move to ban petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030”. Even Australia is being urged to follow in the UK’s footsteps to ban fossil fuel cars by 2035.

While we know lithium is a major driver of EV growth, high purity manganese is another battery metal that will play a key role in the transition.

EuroManganese Ltd. (ASX | TSX.V EMN), a $15M capped company is capturing investor attention by developing a waste recycling operation to extract high purity manganese (HPM) products for the manufacture of lithium ion batteries.

These batteries are being produced in increasing quantities in Europe and EMN could be the only primary producer of these materials in this region.

Effectively, EMN will be waste recycling from historic mines, delivering high purity manganese to EU battery makers, whilst at the same time cleaning up what is currently a polluted site for the local community. 

Put simply, EMN will be recycling waste to produce highly refined manganese metal and salts. These are the finished products that producers of lithium-ion battery cathodes require.

The company recently raised C$4.1M (AU$4.2M) and will be investing this to advance permitting and to continue advancing the project.

It also plans to get its Demonstration Plant (DP) up and running, which will showcase the quality of EMN’s manganese to customers. This is expected to cost ~ US$2.5M (AU$3.4M), plus US$1.5M installation and commissioning costs.

Most of the output for the first year of production has already been allocated to several Tier-1 customers, as a prelude to potential offtake agreements.

Of further note, thepreliminary economic assessment of its Chvaletice Manganese Project (CMP) indicates the net present value after-tax of nearly $600 million.

EMN ideally located

The European location of the Chvaletice Manganese Project is of high importance.

EMN noted that 30 battery and battery precursor and cathode factories, with no fewer than 25 electric car factories are already operating, under construction or have been announced in Europe recently. Europe currently imports 100% of its manganese requirements.

Europe is expected to become the second most important centre (after China) of the global electric car and battery industries.

At least six large battery factories that will consume manganese inputs are located between 200 kilometres and 500 kilometres of the Chvaletice Manganese Project. Others are being built across Europe.

Several prospective customers have expressed interest in procuring high-purity manganese products from the Chvaletice Manganese Project, and in conducting supply-chain qualification of the products of the proposed Chvaletice demonstration plant.

Euro Manganese has already signed five memorandums of understanding with major customers, which are intended to evolve into long-term offtake agreements.

EMN has reported that these customers are attracted by the strategic European position of Chvaletice, by the incomparable environmental footprint of the project (no mining or new solid waste generation) and by the exceptional purity of the products that Euro Manganese has produced in previous pilot plant trials.

EMN sees the Chvaletice Manganese Project as becoming an important and environmentally-sustainable part of the international and European lithium-ion battery supply chain.

The company expects to become the only primary producer of high-purity manganese in the European Union, where 100% of manganese requirements are currently imported. That would be a significant achievement as investors begin to focus on the growth of the electric vehicle manufacturing and related battery industry, especially as countries such as France and Germany become central to a multi-billion post-COVID Euro economic recovery based on sustainable action.

This article is sponsored content. The supplier of this content has a commercial arrangement with Switzer Financial Group.