Slaughter them all - drink beer! :D
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An interesting article here, from which I quote the most relevant paragraph
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/03/wate...n-dairy-scene/
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Most people don’t realize that soft, creamy Italian-style mozzarella di bufala (or buffalo mozzarella) is named quite literally — it’s cheese made from water buffalo milk. They also don’t realize how delicious and healthy it is. Despite the higher butterfat content, water buffalo milk is healthier in many ways traditional cow’s milk. Water buffalo milk has 11 percent higher protein than cow’s milk, as well as 9 percent more calcium and 37 percent more iron. Water buffalo milk is also lower in cholesterol.
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What the article doesn't mention is that all buffalo milk is A2.
Readers, including myself, may have imagined buffalo milk is 'super niche', even more so that A2 milk as promoted by ATM. You can imagine my own surprise then, when on a leisurely stroll through the Riccarton Market on a Saturday morning, here in Christchurch, there was a stall selling and promoting locally produced buffalo milk!
You A2 shareholders may think you have the intellectual property equivalent to a global money press. But the competition could be ramping up sooner than you think!
SNOOPY
Went to grab a2 milk today, 3 countdown stores but only one stocks the milk. However, only 4 bottles left. My question is why? Is a2 not well known so so they don't stock too much or a2 is experiencing shortage of a2 milk? Any ideas people?
It's obviously produced in relatively small quantities which, if demand increases, will mean more production will switch to a2. It's not like adding another flavour to a soft drink range. It takes time and until demand is established and looks to be constant, change over to production to a2 will be slow, and in the interim it will command a higher price.
Went into Countdown Mt. Wellington on 11/3/16 and they had about 7 bottles on shelf with expire date 17/3/16 ( 6 days to go). Told them this milk is a week old! I want the fresh milk, so they went out the back and got me 3 bottles of fresh milk with the 23/3/16 expire date. I find the a2 starts going off about 2 or 3 days before expire date. Not the first time it's happened. Took the lid off one a couple of weeks back with one day to go and made them smell it. They were very sorry and said they will keep an eye on it....pass me a tuis:)
a2 Milk Com. is not worried about a small market like NZ. Most off their money is made overseas. But when Fresha Valley's license runs out they will promote it more in NZ, but by that time it will probably be 90% owned by the Aussi's and could be over $5 per share. 62% has already gone.It's a shame about the big a2 secret in NZ, by the time everyone finds out it will be gone. And they will be thinking how come nobody told us about this wonderful product when it was a NZ company,and we could of bought some for 50c per share just like that strange man in a funny hat told us in Countdown last year:D. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Fair enough. Maybe because it takes me 6 or 7 days to drink a bottle on my weet bix. And the count down from opening the bottle starts when first opened. And it might only have 6 days life after opening, whether it was opened on 11/3/16 or the 23/3/16, so that would mean if I opened it on the 23/3/16 then it would start to go off on 29/3/16 which would be about 20 days since bottled. Do you know what I mean?
I brought a 2 litre bottle yesterday for the family to try. We enjoyed the taste a believe it will be a regular on the shopping list.. What I was disappointed about was the label! It was bland, small, Uninformative and didn't highlight that it was A2 milk... Surely it needs to stand out against the other brands as being different to the "normal" A1 milk products.. From 3 yards away I would have taken it any other run of the mill bottle of milk.. A2/Fresha Valley need to sort it out. Really disappointing.....
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU160...-suppliers.htm
Sounds like a few of the new suppliers are A2.....
Agree that A2 is hard to find and not well advertised in store. Have been buying at New World in Thorndon but had to go looking for it and worse the label was partly covered by the fridge front so no chance unless you are hunting for it. Worse still is wasn't there at all this morning and when I asked the attendant he knew nothing of A2 and said they had just "rearranged" the display. Not sure if this means it is gone altogether or not. In any event a very poor display and no marketing when it was there which is really disappointing. Will keep an eye out and may have to go up the line to management.
Interesting article SB. With the farmers up against the wall A2 could be an attractive strategy for those looking at their options. May be a silver for A2 supply by development of more A2 certified herds overtime. Not sure of the actual costs to convert though and it would not be an overnight thing.
Gunny
Gunny and Golfer,
Like you I'm miffed that ATM is not better marketed in NZ. However, as I understand it, the Fresha Valley distribution agreement was an early agreement prior to ATM's success in Aus, US and UK. If/when the NZ distribution deal comes to an end or is renegotiated, then we can expect much more in terms of ATM packaging and promotion. (Disc; long term holder. DYOR)
Have a visiting dairy farmer from old blighty staying with us.
Asked him about A2
He said there was a lot of excitment a while back but now it is pretty much 'meh'
Chinese after our apples through Scales
I reckon A2 next up
Some of these issues have been pretty thoroughly explained on this forum several times in the past. So just briefly:
Yes Fresha Valley got a licence over ten years ago, and it will expire next year. ATM says it won't be renewed. ATM has plans to become active in NZ at that point. But we have no details.
Fresha Valley's licence agreement said nothing about who would do the publicity and advertising, so no one did it. In my view it's largely a2MC's fault that no one in NZ knows where to find A2 milk and public information about A2 milk is non-existent here. a2MC's head office is officially in Auckland, but actually the head office staff are all in Sydney.
Fresha Valley is a major milk supplier to the Countdown chain in the Auckland region and has a very close tie-up with Countdown. Fresha's boss has said he will make sure any Countdown branch that asks for A2 will get it - just tell the local store manager you want it stocked. But if you do that, make sure you buy some.
Re the use-by date: Fresha Valley a2 has quite a long use-by time and personally I usually chuck out any that's left after about a week, as I do with any other milk. But as with ANY milk, if you leave it out on the kitchen bench receiving daylight, it will go off very quickly. We've had no problems if you just keep it in the fridge (to exclude UV light more than for temperature reasons). It lasts well over a week.
New World in Thorndon is one of the few non-Countdown supermarkets that stocks A2 milk, but it's been charging a dollar more than the Countdown price per bottle. I also found A2 stocked in New World in Porirua a year or so ago. All the Countdown stores in the Wellington region are usually well stocked with Fresha's A2. Some, like our closest ones in Crofton Downs and Karori, where customers are probably better informed than in some other suburbs, have up to four rows on the shelves, well displayed since some of us put pressure on the store managers a couple of years ago.
But Fresha ships its A2 milk in sealed lightproof cartons rather than open crates. These are kept out in the coldstore room and are a bit of a hassle for staff to tear open to reload the shelves. Not like other brands which are in spare crates out under the shelves ready to reload the shelves. I heard they might change this system. There's rapid turnover of A2 on the shelves, so occasionally you have to ask the staff to re-load the shelf.
The story about cash-strapped farmers being unable to find buyers for their unwanted cows struck me as pretty interesting too, so I emailed it to the company just to be sure they were aware of it.
Many thanks NT001. It gives me a much better understanding of the situation in NZ. In reality the fresh milk side in NZ for A2 is low priority. One would think that several thousand litres of fresh milk sold daily/weekly in NZ is insignificant (revenue wise) compared to hundreds of thousands of infant formula cans to Ozzie, Hong Kong and China. The marketing focus and product exposure for fresh milk is being concentrated in USA and the UK which is where the volume sales need to be. I'm off to the UK in several weeks time and then the US (CA) in a few months so I'm going to see how readily available the product is.
Thanks for your post NT001. I followed up with New World Thorndon this morning. They get a delivery every Wednesday so should be in later today but as you say is more expensive there.
Having said that this branch is generally more expensive even than their other branches. For example a whole pineapple is about $5.50 there and a $1 cheaper at Porirua. Location location location it seems.
Gunny
Having said that this branch is generally more expensive even than their other branches. For example a whole pineapple is about $5.50 there and a $1 cheaper at Porirua. Location location location it seems.
Gunny[/QUOTE]
More like demographic, demographic, demographic. :)
Demographics gunny - Thorndon (and catchment area) full of rich dudes who don't mind paying more
That's right eh golfer (who made same comment)
Very strange to see such a low turnover day in months...
I am just back from 10 days in Tasmania. I noticed that many many coffee shops are using a2 milk. It just seemed like main stream and readily accepted product. That café owner in Lyttelton who doesn't do trim milk should get on to a2 milk. You can definitely taste the flavour in coffee.
Very solid close $1.91 and looking at a very strong Monday., it will be very interesting to see how Aust closes tonight.
Looks like a2 on the move again:t_up:. $2 here we come. It feels like a silent t/o. And $3 by years end.
https://www.nzx.com/companies/ATM/announcements/279695
Is it a bit unusual that the Chief Executive of Australia & New Zealand for ATM sold 93% of his fully paid ordinary shares????
I think I hear the alarm bells in the distance...
Perhaps he has decided to buy an Island!! I would have thought that he would have to provide "a please explain" to some share market watchdog?
Sure a little disconcerting but they are still pumping out the product to Ozzie and Asia. Certainly demand is still there..
PEB was my last experience with Director/Exec selling. I ignored it to my detriment. :scared: Not saying its the same here at all, but its worth trying to find out a little more if possible. I have emailed my broker to see if they have made any enquiries. I will post the response if I get anything useful back - not holding my breath though.
Like blobbles says, it's worth pausing to have a think. Most of us would have been thinking that guidance is imminent. If its all going gangbusters, why sell now?
Discl: ATM is my largest holding.
........maybe just a case of selling the fully paid to convert the partly paid??
Aren't these jokers shares the bulk of his salary?
Needs to pay the bills
Mr Market doesn't see it as a problem - paying 5c more than yesterday.
2nd insider selling down, market not impressed...
Sorry ... What's on second.. Who is on first !!..
Followed by...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS2a...-27Dqoi6duc8Dg
I don't know, but I think I was the third.
See weed..
Do not be so delicate .. :-))
It is a brutal world out here
And you are old enough to know better :-)))
Oops My mistake :-)))
Chillex.....people! An announcement just came on ASX...appendix 3 B, it looks like Geoff Babidge sold his shares earlier to fund the final payment of his other partly paid shares.
Assuming that it is Mr Babidge who has paid up the necessary $406,890 for all of those partly paid shares then he still has more than $1,500,000 from his sell down left.
Maybe he is going to buy himself a new deck.
Best Wishes
Paper Tiger
As long as Mr Babidge keeps selling increasing quantities of his milk he can buy a berthing to go with his yacht for all I care, at this point he just looks like a cat that got himself a nice bowl of A2 cream.:cool: PS-If he had of sold his shares at the high of $2.61, he could have bought himself a lovely exotic sports car to go with his yacht and bowl of cream.
Rest assure people....a2 will do well in China...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11613544
Implied for a2 but Danone is just exercising a rebranding for something losing the respect of the consumers Or maybe just to further prove their case against Fonterra :cool: This is not the impetus you would want to read about a2 going espledidly well on that market.
An excerpt from Synlait announcement yesterday.
Nutritional product sales for the period were 7,498 MT, a 155% increase on
HY15's 2,946 MT, and accounted for 16% of total sales volumes in HY16.
"The result we're expecting is an almost fourfold increase in canned infant
formula sales in FY16, compared to FY15.
In my opinion, this is a sure indication of what volumes A2 are exporting...
I didn't comment in the SML thread yesterday but I'm quite happy with their result. From SML point of view, their business has plenty of growth ahead but I expect it to be steady year on year stuff in the range of 10-15% growth. Boring in comparison to the ATM story but I think if I was holding ATM at these levels, I would take some profits at around $2 and buy SML which I think has more room to move.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/3...boost-possible - SML might have greater growth potential than 10%. I can't see that've got the debt ceiling space so it's got to be odds on for a share issue now.
Oops.......i thought my mouse jumps from ATM thread to Synlait milk and then suddenly to Bunnings :p But carry on as I now got my bearing. Must be a "cannot do something outside due to weather" day.
ATM is going big people! Big marketing and high demand in UK and USA. Check out thier Facebook page, heaps of good comments.
https://www.a2milk.co.uk/food-unwrapped/
Chinese A1 vs A2 study - published 2/4/16: http://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/...937-016-0147-z
I can't really comment on the quality of the science, and the trial numbers look a bit skinny (45), but what I like about this is that it's research that has come out of China itself - a population whose health, if you are a believer, stands to benefit from the consumption of pure A2.
Thanks for posting Ginger. And great to see you fighting the good fight on HC from time to time.
I guess we all expected this trial to show once again that essentially the standard supermarket mix of A1 and A2 milk causes digestive discomfort whereas pure A2 milk doesn't. That was shown by the Curtin University trial, and is even more evident using this larger cohort of Chinese subjects.
But there were also some other interesting and perhaps surprising findings that emerged, particularly that drinking milk containing A1 causes a loss of brain functioning - not a lot, but enough to have significant effects. This is what the trial report says:
"This minor impairment of cognitive function can have a considerable impact in situations where rapid stimulus detection and/or rapid decision-making are required. This finding demonstrates that consumption of milk containing the A1 β-casein type affects more than just the gastrointestinal system; there are also effects on neural function. "
I would hope this will be picked up by the news media. It could lead to an interesting new direction in research and understanding into the problems associated with A1 and the benefits of therefore switching to pure A2. Of course, it ties in with the already known fact that certain neural diseases including autism and schizophrenia are connected with A1 milk.
In the Chinese trial, they didn't just test pure A2 milk against pure A1 milk, because pure A1 isn't commercially available and is therefore irrelevant. The real issue is how badly consumers are affected by standard supermarket milk that is as low as 40% A1, with A2 making up the other 60%. So that's what they used, and even with that low proportion of A1, the bad effects were very clear.
Another research underway...
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/a2-milk...ators-b-187172
Attachment 7966 For those who havent seen the mini a2 tins - far left of the a2 shelf. They are 400g. I think this is a great strategy for familes in our situation who prefer breast feeding, but might have a day here and there where formula is the only option (and dont want a 3qtr full tin that is out of date etc)
A lot of the organic product gone GS.
Another thought Bob, I have noticed that a2 and Bellamy's predominantly command the premium shelf space throughout the big supermarkets, but it varies at each store. I assume the one moving the largest volumes on a store-by-store basis gets the premium shelf space. So in the case of the above photo it would make sense that Bellamy's looks to have moved more. Of course the back story of supply issues could be a big factor too.
not looking good this morning. both blackmores and ballemy are down quite a bie and ATM is down 6%
Irrational moves down tend to occur when there have been irrational moves up. Its still sky high right now in my opinion and if you have been along for the whole ride, enjoy but its the new investors who will be running for the hills on bad news, rumors, breakdown of the chart etc. $1.70 is a critical support level, lots of stop losses will be in place under this level.
I think I read that too on the XRO thread.
Market assumes there will be less gray market activity (eg, sending to China after buying from the self ect). Might damping demands.. So there are a few instos taking profit or reduce their holdings. Same as BAL, CZZ, and Blackmores.
:t_up:up up an away:D
UBS have them as a Buy, according to FN Arena.
I'm sorry, can't agree with this totally. A large (large) percentage of product is exported to Hong Kong, with a smaller volume being sent direct to China. The volume going to HKG is predominately sold in HKG. In the main it is purchased by Mainland Chinese who make daily trips across the boarder to purchase in bulk and take back across the boarder. This occurs over a vast array of goods...HKG has no import restrictions or labelling requirements for infant formula currently and likely, never will. The Grey Channel will only increase should there be any unusual restrictions applied by the Chinese Authorities for shipments sent direct to China.
Still, I wish there wasn't as much volatility in the share price......
If I was a betting man I would have put money on an update from the company in mid April. My logic for the timing was simply that they would have the volatile first calendar quarter behind them (Jan holidays and CNY in amongst it all) and a clearer view of what any regulatory changes might mean for trading conditions for the final three months of the year.
Now halfway through the month, does anyway have a similar/different view?
Are u guys ready for news?
http://business.scoop.co.nz/2016/04/...ina-bolstered/
Checky management....waited till our delegates went to China and push the trade then release the result!:t_up: Good job management!
Good news, although they still cannot really make the claim with only 40 people. With 600 people and double blind test, they can.
Yep, anyone who has the slightest comprehension of a proper scientific study would laugh at a 45 person trial in order to make sweeping statements. Wait until the 600 person trial comes out before getting excited. Better if it was in the 1000's and run by a reputable, independent, Western science team.
Anyone know who is conducting these trials? If it is a Chinese "research institute", I would be highly skeptical. I knew a western food nutritionist in China who was working in a university there and the lying/cheating/back stabbing/lazyness and idiocy that came from his workmates drove him away. Very few were interested in actual science, most were just more interested in climbing the ladder (up the communist party which is deeply involved in Chinese universities). I would not trust anything they published as they will simply find whatever the company who is paying for the study wants them to find. As fonterror has deeper pockets, they could fund much bigger "trials".
I think you miss the point. Corruption is normal in China, and a requirement of success. Getting the govt to say that ATM's milk is good for you is a path to enabling exports to China. It seems ATM is lining the correct pockets.
My ex girlfriend was Chinese. Her grandma was quite high up in the govt. Her mum knew lots of people in the dept that decided which companies get the allocation of export quotas from China. Basically Chinese companies would have to pay her to be allowed to do business outside of China. That's just how it is there.
Yup. And worry not, the americans maybe the best marketers in the world but Kiwis can market good products to the vast land that is China. As my chinese friends had accepted, they love this Middle_earth and all that it represent but never never NEVER EVER tell them that those "contested islands" are never theirs to own. And yeah, corruption is always there on offer too.