Venture Life (VLG said it has appointed a new partner in the Chinese market for two of its oral care brands - Dentyl and UltraDEX - following the recent exit of its previous distributor.
The Group, which develops, manufactures and commercialises products for the self-care market, said its previous Chinese partner had disappointed against expected level of sales since the start of the pandemic. As a result, it has been exploring alternative opportunities.
During the second half of FY21, following the absence of any improvement, the Board of Venture Life made the decision to terminate the agreement with the previous partner.
This morning, Venture Life informed investors that it has now appointed Samarkand Group, a UK-based cross-border eCommerce company focused on connecting Western brands with China, as its new Chinese partner for an initial contract term of 5 years, on an exclusive basis.
Samarkand is a publicly listed firm with expertise in connecting UK brands to the Chinese consumer representing large brands such as Omorovicza, Temple Spa and Philip Kingsley.
‘With operations in Shanghai and London, the Board believes that Samarkand is well placed to emulate the success achieved by both Dentyl and UltraDEX in the UK, and the success achieved by the previous partner in the Chinese market before the pandemic,’ it reported.
CEO of Samarkand Group, David Hampstead, commented: “Dentyl and UltraDEX are market leading brands with established recognition and sales in the China market. Samarkand's on the ground capability in China, combined with our transparent and collaborative approach to working with our brand partners, has once again made us the winning choice for brands."
Commenting on the new partnership, Jerry Randall, Chief Executive of Venture Life, commented, "As Samarkand has other key brands under their stewardship, we are confident that our oral care brands will be properly exploited and managed by them in China.”
He added: “This partner brings two key benefits which I think will be paramount to our success; the first being a UK base that we will interact with directly, making communication quicker and simpler than with a partner direct in China, and the second being their own team in China directly interacting with the UK base. We expect this to make transacting business in China much simpler and more effective than it was with our previous relationship.”
Meanwhile, Venture Life told investors that its commercial team is starting to make “good progress” on exploring and exploiting the expected synergies following the months of “intense integration” since the company’s recent acquisitions of both BBI Healthcare and Helsinn.
Randall added: “A new distribution agreement has been signed for Pomi-T in Germany and good progress has been made in identifying other prospects in other key parts of the world. We will continue to update the market on this progress in due course."
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