Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, usa
May 7, 2018
- Calyxt exceeds acre target for high-oleic soybean product launch, contracting over 16,000 acres for planting
- Planting of high-oleic soybean crop started
- High fiber wheat became Calyxt’s 7th product deemed non-regulated by USDA
- After 66% growth in new potential customer engagements, twenty food companies are engaged to evaluate Calyxt’s high–oleic soybean oil
- New concept-to-fork facility in Roseville, Minn., on track for completion in the second quarter of 2018
Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLXT), a consumer-centric, food- and agriculture-focused company, today announced its results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2018.
“We continue to advance our mission to deliver good-for-you foods in a good-for-everyone way. We are proud of our progress towards evolving the nutrition of food to deliver high quality, trusted ingredients, that are traceably produced for complete transparency. We are transforming the Company, as we transition into a commercial entity with a powerful R&D engine that will expand once we move to our new state-of-the-art concept to fork facility. We have received USDA non-regulated status for seven products and prepared our first product for commercialization. We look forward to continued commercial and supply chain successes for the rest of 2018 while we continue to grow our capability to deliver healthier food to consumers,” said Federico Tripodi, Calyxt Chief Executive Officer.
Corporate highlights
Expansion of total acreage for high-oleic soybean product launch
Calyxt announced on April 5, 2018 that the Company has further expanded its total acreage with farmers across the northern United States for its high-oleic soybean variety. Calyxt has contracted over 16,000 acres with 75 farmers in the Midwest. Overall, these growers collectively farm over 200,000 acres, half of which are expected to produce soybeans. Around 17% of the soybeans that are anticipated to be planted consist of Calyxt’s high-oleic variety. Over 90% of farmers that planted Calyxt’s high-oleic soybeans in 2017 have renewed their Calyxt high-oleic soybeans contracts this year. Furthermore, on average, each repeat farmer is more than doubling his or her Calyxt acres year-over-year. Calyxt successfully launched a Brand Ambassador Program which enrolled progressive, high-quality growers to be early adopters and advocates of gene editing technology.
Planting of high-oleic soybeans
Farmers enrolled in the Calyxt high-oleic soybean program have started planting. The planting will pick up speed over coming weeks and likely to be completed by mid-June.
Calyxt’s high fiber wheat deemed non-regulated by USDA
Calyxt announced on March 21, 2018 that the Company’s high fiber wheat product has been declared a non-regulated article under the “Am I Regulated?” process by Biotechnology Regulatory Services of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This is Calyxt’s first consumer-centric wheat product and second wheat product (following Calyxt’s powdery mildew resistant wheat, which received non-regulated status by the USDA in February 2016), and seventh product overall, to be given this designation. High fiber wheat may be the next product to market with anticipated commercialization as early as 2020-21.
Twenty small to large food company customers engaged across food services and food ingredient applications
Engagements with food company customers continue to grow. In the first quarter of 2018, Calyxt added 8 more customers taking the total number of customer engagements to 20. These customers are evaluating Calyxt high-oleic soybean oil for end-use applications such as frying potatoes (chips, french fries), meats, snacks (salty and healthy), baking, nut butter and vegan products.
New concept-to-fork facility in Roseville, Minn., on track for completion in the second quarter of 2018
Calyxt will soon open its nearly 40,000-square-foot concept-to-fork facility on an 11-acre site that will house a test kitchen, state-of-the-art research labs and the Company’s headquarters. The new facility is being constructed adjacent to Calyxt’s recently completed 11,000+square-foot greenhouse facility and existing outdoor demonstration plots.
Financial Highlights
Cash and cash equivalents were $50.7 million at March 31, 2018. We intend to continue to judiciously manage the use of cash and expect to have sufficient cash to fund the business for a significant portion of 2019. Cellectis remains our majority shareholder with 79.1% of our common stock as of March 31, 2018.
For the three months ended March 31, 2018, we incurred losses from operations of $4.4 million, and used net cash in operating activities of $6.6 million. Net decrease in cash for the first quarter was $6.0 million. The first quarter cash spend includes spending on high-oleic soybean seed production to support our expected Spring 2018 planting of high-oleic soybeans.
Looking forward for the rest of 2018, we anticipate that our operating cash spend will be in the range of $2.0 to $2.2 million per month excluding working capital for grain purchases in the later part of 2018. Cash will be used to expand our R&D team to advance key products in the portfolio and continue to build our commercial capabilities.
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