NAI's beta-alanine sales growth outpaces overall results
Many sports nutrition ingredients have backing for results at the very high end of the sports performance curve. These kinds of studies measure results for marathon runners, highly trained cyclists, strength athletes lifting heavy weights and the like. But recent beta-alanine research has improved the ingredient’s prospects for sports participants who are not highly trained, which could help account for the ingredient’s recent meteoric rise in popularity. One study in 2014 found it boosted cycling performance for both trained and non-trained individuals. Another in 2016 found that beta-alanine supplements might help middle aged people to sustain athletic performance for longer.
NAI recorded $30.6 million in net sales for its second quarter of fiscal 2017 ended Dec. 31, 2016. Of that total, $6.7 million came from beta-alanine royalties, licensing and raw material sales. NAI said that the increase in CarnoSyn revenue (the company’s beta-alanine brand name) came from “the addition of new customers and increased material shipments to existing customers.”
CarnoSyn still the star
NAI said that net sales for CarnoSyn are rising at close to double the rates for the company’s overall sales increases. Net sales during the three months ended December 31, 2016 increased $3.6 million, or 13.6%, from $26.9 million recorded in the comparable prior year period. For the quarter ended December 31, 2016, private label contract manufacturing sales increased $2.2 million, or 10.4%, from the comparable quarter last year.
NAI did issue a cautionary note: “On an annualized basis, we now expect our consolidated fiscal 2017 revenue growth percentage to be approximately 5% to 10% due to reductions in contract manufacturing orders and customer forecasts from Australia, Asia, and Europe. We expect a majority of this decline to occur in our third fiscal quarter ending March 31, 2017 and to a lesser extent in our fourth fiscal quarter. We believe this international revenue decline will be temporary in nature and will reverse as we enter fiscal 2018 beginning July 1, 2017,” the company said.
“ With respect to our CarnoSyn beta-alanine business, we expect our current sales growth rate to continue for the balance of this fiscal year as we continue to expand our research, our patent estate and our client base,” the company stated.
Stock traders were less sanguine than company is about future results, however. After the earnings release last week the company’s share price plunged from $11.75 a share to $9.15. The company’s 52-week high was $14.29 a share in April of 2016.
