UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): May 9, 2017
WHERE FOOD COMES FROM, INC.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)
Colorado (State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation) |
333-133634 (Commission File Number) |
43-1802805 (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
202 6th Street, Suite 400 | ||||
Castle Rock, Colorado | 80104 | |||
(Address of Principal Executive Offices) | (Zip Code) |
(303) 895-3002
(Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code)
Not applicable
(Former name or former address, if changed since last report.)
Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:
☐ | Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425) | |
☐ | Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12) | |
☐ | Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b)) | |
☐ | Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c)) |
Item 2.02 | Results of Operations and Financial Condition |
Reference is made to the Where Food Comes From, Inc. (the “Company”) press release on May 9, 2017, and conference call transcript, attached hereto as Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2, respectively, and incorporated by reference herein (including, without limitation, the information set forth in the cautionary statement contained in the press release and conference call transcript), relating to the Company’s financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2017.
Item 9.01 | Financial Statements and Exhibits |
(d) | Exhibits |
Exhibit No. | Description | ||
99.1 | Press Release issued and dated May 9, 2017 | ||
99.2 | Transcript for May 9, 2017 conference call |
SIGNATURE
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
WHERE FOOD COMES FROM, INC. (Registrant) | |||
By: | /s/ Dannette Henning | ||
Date: May 12, 2017 | Dannette Henning | ||
Chief Financial Officer |
Where Food Comes From, Inc. 8-K
Exhibit 99.1
Where Food Comes From, Inc. Reports 2017 First Quarter Financial Results
Revenue up 26% year over year to $3.1 million from $2.4 million
Net income up 32% to $115,400 from $87,200
Adjusted EBITDA increased 61% to $373,500 from $231,700
Cash generated from operations increased 8% to $795,400 from $734,400
$4.0 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments; 2.9:1 current ratio; no long-term debt
Industry tailwinds continue with consumer demand for Company’s services at all time high and China moving closer to reopening its markets to U.S. beef
CASTLE ROCK, Colorado – May 9, 2017 – Where Food Comes From, Inc. (d.b.a. IMI Global, Inc.) (OTCQB: WFCF), the most trusted resource for independent, third-party verification of food production practices in North America, today announced its first quarter 2017 financial results.
“Continued strong demand from across the verification spectrum, combined with sales of sustainability and MIS solutions following our acquisition of SureHarvest, resulted in strong revenue and earnings growth in the first quarter,” said John Saunders, chairman and CEO. “Revenue and net income increased 26% and 32%, respectively, and adjusted EBITDA grew by 61% year over year. Cash generation remained solid and we closed the quarter with a strong cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balance of $4.0 million. We’re pleased with all aspects of our financial performance and are focused on extending this trend through the remainder of the year.
“We entered 2017 with solid momentum in all areas of our business,” Saunders added. “Our solutions portfolio was greatly enhanced with the addition of SureHarvest, which brought tremendous opportunities for cross pollination of service offerings and customers with our other business units. Demand for verification solutions in non-GMO, gluten free, organic, animal welfare and sustainability has never been stronger. And China has indicated it may soon reopen its markets to U.S. beef, which is expected to result in a significant increase in domestic beef producers conducting source and age verifications through our IMI Global business unit.
“We will continue to explore other ways to grow organically as well as through selective M&A transactions that will enhance and expand our solutions offerings and geographic footprint. At the same time, we will remain intensely focused on providing our customers with superb customer service and innovative solutions that help them differentiate their products and better serve their consumers,” Saunders said.
First Quarter Results
First quarter revenue increased 26% to $3.1 million from revenue of $2.4 million in the same quarter last year. Verification services revenue increased 17% to $2.5 million from $2.1 million, reflecting the addition of new customers and the positive impact of the Company’s growing service bundling capabilities. Product revenue decreased 10% to $243,300 from $271,100. Other revenue increased to $36,200 from $27,300 a year ago.
Two new revenue categories added in the first quarter by virtue of the SureHarvest acquisition include software license, maintenance and support, which contributed $159,300 in revenue, and consulting services, which contributed $116,800 in revenue.
Gross profit in the first quarter increased 21% year over year to $1.5 million from $1.2 million. Gross margin was 48% compared to 49% year over year. Selling, general and administrative expense as a percent of revenue was 48% in the first quarter, up from 45% in the same quarter last year.
The Company reported net income attributable to Where Food Comes From, Inc. of $115,400, or less than one cent per share, compared with net income of $87,200, or less than one cent per share, in the same quarter last year.
Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter increased 61% to $373,500 from $231,700 in the same quarter last year.
The Company generated $795,400 in net cash from operations in the first quarter of 2017, up 8% from $734,400 in the same period last year.
Balance Sheet
The Company’s cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balance at March 31, 2017, increased 24% to $4.0 million from $3.2 million at 2016 year-end. Working capital was $3.6 million and the current ratio was 2.9:1.
Conference Call
The Company will conduct a conference call today at 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time.
Dial in:
Domestic Toll Free: 1-877-407-8289
International: 1-201-689-8341
Conference ID: 13661248
Phone replay:
A telephone replay of the conference call will be available through May 23, 2017, as follows:
Domestic Toll Free: 1-877-660-6853
International: 1-201-612-7415
Conference Code: 13661248
About Where Food Comes From, Inc.
Where Food Comes From, Inc. (d.b.a. IMI Global) is America’s trusted resource for third party verification of food production practices. The Company supports more than 12,000 farmers, ranchers, vineyards, wineries, processors, retailers, distributors, trade associations and restaurants with a wide variety of value-added services through its IMI Global, International Certification Services, Validus Verification Services, SureHarvest, and Sterling Solutions units. In addition, the Company’s Where Food Comes From® retail and restaurant labeling program utilizes the verification of product attributes to connect consumers to the sources of the food they purchase through product labeling and web-based information sharing and education. Visit www.wherefoodcomesfrom.com for additional information.
*Note on non-GAAP Financial Measures
This press release and the accompanying tables include a discussion of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, which are non-GAAP financial measures provided as a complement to the results provided in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). The term “EBITDA” refers to a financial measure that we define as earnings (net income or loss) plus or minus net interest plus taxes, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA excludes from EBITDA stock-based compensation and, when appropriate, other items that management does not utilize in assessing WFCF’s operating performance (as further described in the attached financial schedules). None of these non-GAAP financial measures are recognized terms under GAAP and do not purport to be an alternative to net income as an indicator of operating performance or any other GAAP measure. We have reconciled Adjusted EBITDA to GAAP net income in the Consolidated Statements of Operations table at the end of this release. We intend to continue to provide these non-GAAP financial measures as part of our future earnings discussions and, therefore, the inclusion of these non-GAAP financial measures will provide consistency in our financial reporting.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT
This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, based on current expectations, estimates and projections that are subject to risk. Forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and actual events could differ materially from the Company’s predictions. Important factors that could cause actual events to vary from predictions include those discussed in our SEC filings. Specifically, statements in this news release about the Company’s ability to continue producing financial results similar to those described in this press release; the Company’s ability to capitalize on organic and acquisitive expansion opportunities; ability to sustain momentum and capitalize on opportunities with SureHarvest; continued demand for verification services and potential for China to open its markets to U.S. beef; expectations for increased source verification activity among beef producers; and demand for, and impact and efficacy of, the Company’s products and services on the marketplace, are forward-looking statements that are subject to a variety of factors, including availability of capital, personnel and other resources; competition; governmental regulation of the agricultural industry; the market for beef and other commodities; and other factors. Financial results for the first quarter are not necessarily indicative of future results. Readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect new information or developments. For a more extensive discussion of the Company’s business, please refer to the Company’s SEC filings at www.sec.gov.
Company Contacts:
John Saunders
Chief Executive Officer
303-895-3002
Jay Pfeiffer
Pfeiffer High Investor Relations, Inc.
303-393-7044
Where Food Comes From, Inc.
Statements of Income
(Unaudited)
Three Months Ended March 31, | ||||||||
2017 | 2016 | |||||||
Revenues | ||||||||
Verification and certification services | $ | 2,518,445 | $ | 2,147,402 | ||||
Product sales | 243,266 | 271,075 | ||||||
Software license, maintenance and support services | 159,264 | — | ||||||
Consulting services | 116,783 | — | ||||||
Other revenue | 36,190 | 27,275 | ||||||
Total revenue | 3,073,948 | 2,445,752 | ||||||
Costs of revenue | ||||||||
Labor and other costs of services | 1,329,983 | 1,109,138 | ||||||
Costs of products | 153,866 | 129,499 | ||||||
Costs of software license, maintenance and support services | 127,462 | — | ||||||
Total costs of revenue | 1,611,311 | 1,238,637 | ||||||
Gross profit | 1,462,637 | 1,207,115 | ||||||
Selling, general and administrative expenses | 1,470,829 | 1,103,162 | ||||||
Income (loss) from operations | (8,192 | ) | 103,953 | |||||
Other expense (income): | ||||||||
Interest expense | 162 | 295 | ||||||
Other income, net | (1,328 | ) | (1,932 | ) | ||||
Income (loss) before income taxes | (7,026 | ) | 105,590 | |||||
Income tax expense | 3,000 | 49,9508 | ||||||
Net income (loss) | (10,026 | ) | 55,640 | |||||
Net loss attributable to non-controlling interest | 125,405 | 31,605 | ||||||
Net income attributable to Where Food Comes From, Inc. | $ | 115,379 | $ | 87,245 | ||||
Net income per share: | ||||||||
Basic | $ | * | $ | * | ||||
Diluted | $ | * | $ | * | ||||
Weighted average number of common shares outstanding: | ||||||||
Basic | 24,648,036 | 23,753,000 | ||||||
Diluted | 24,781,511 | 23,904,880 |
* Less than $0.01 per share
Where Food Comes From, Inc.
Calculation of Adjusted EBITDA*
(Unaudited)
Three Months Ended | ||||||||
March 31, | ||||||||
2017 | 2016 | |||||||
Net Income | $ | 115,379 | $ | 87,245 | ||||
Adjustments to EBITDA: | ||||||||
Interest expense | 162 | 295 | ||||||
Income tax expense | 3,000 | 49,950 | ||||||
Depreciation and amortization | 209,921 | 64,625 | ||||||
EBITDA* | 328,462 | 202,115 | ||||||
Adjustments: | ||||||||
Stock-based compensation | 45,057 | 29,612 | ||||||
Adjusted EBITDA* | $ | 373,519 | $ | 231,727 |
*Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures: Non-GAAP results are presented only as a supplement to the financial statements and for use within management’s discussion and analysis based on U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The non-GAAP financial information is provided to enhance the reader’s understanding of the Company’s financial performance, but non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of the most directly comparable GAAP measures to non-GAAP measures are provided herein.
All of the items included in the reconciliation from net income to EBITDA and from EBITDA to Adjusted EBITDA are either (i) non-cash items (e.g., depreciation, amortization of purchased intangibles, stock-based compensation, etc.) or (ii) items that management does not consider to be useful in assessing the Company’s ongoing operating performance (e.g., M&A costs, income taxes, gain on sale of investments, loss on disposal of assets, etc.). In the case of the non-cash items, management believes that investors can better assess the Company’s operating performance if the measures are presented without such items because, unlike cash expenses, these adjustments do not affect the Company’s ability to generate free cash flow or invest in its business.
We use, and we believe investors benefit from the presentation of, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA in evaluating our operating performance because it provides us and our investors with an additional tool to compare our operating performance on a consistent basis by removing the impact of certain items that management believes do not directly reflect our core operations. We believe that EBITDA is useful to investors and other external users of our financial statements in evaluating our operating performance because EBITDA is widely used by investors to measure a company’s operating performance without regard to items such as interest expense, taxes, and depreciation and amortization, which can vary substantially from company to company depending upon accounting methods and book value of assets, capital structure and the method by which assets were acquired.
Because not all companies use identical calculations, the Company’s presentation of non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies. However, these measures can still be useful in evaluating the Company’s performance against its peer companies because management believes the measures provide users with valuable insight into key components of GAAP financial disclosures.
Where Food Comes From, Inc.
Balance Sheets
March 31, | December 31, | |||||||
2017 | 2016 | |||||||
(Unaudited) | ||||||||
ASSETS | ||||||||
Current Assets: | ||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 3,247,421 | $ | 2,489,985 | ||||
Accounts receivable, net | 1,283,549 | 1,344,646 | ||||||
Short-term investments | 733,447 | 733,104 | ||||||
Prepaid expenses and other current assets | 304,898 | 203,744 | ||||||
Total current assets | 5,569,315 | 4,771,479 | ||||||
Property and equipment, net | 1,169,518 | 1,229,350 | ||||||
Intangible and other assets, net | 4,098,100 | 4,228,228 | ||||||
Goodwill | 2,652,250 | 2,652,250 | ||||||
Total assets | $ | 13,489,183 | $ | 12,881,307 | ||||
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY | ||||||||
Current liabilities: | ||||||||
Accounts payable | $ | 375,038 | $ | 333,784 | ||||
Accrued expenses and other current liabilities | 422,560 | 480,047 | ||||||
Customer deposits and deferred revenue | 1,152,205 | 524,396 | ||||||
Current portion of capital lease obligations | 4,101 | 4,067 | ||||||
Total current liabilities | 1,953,904 | 1,342,294 | ||||||
Capital lease obligations, net of current portion | 14,697 | 15,735 | ||||||
Lease incentive obligation | 155,316 | 158,025 | ||||||
Deferred tax liabilities | 31,440 | 49,440 | ||||||
Total liabilities | 2,155,357 | 1,565,494 | ||||||
Contingently redeemable non-controlling interest | 1,762,730 | 1,888,135 | ||||||
Stockholders’ equity: | ||||||||
Common stock | 24,899 | 24,890 | ||||||
Additional paid-in capital | 10,103,145 | 10,052,597 | ||||||
Treasury stock | (547,410 | ) | (524,892 | ) | ||||
Accumulated deficit | (9,538 | ) | (124,917 | ) | ||||
Total Equity | 9,571,096 | 9,427,678 | ||||||
Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity | $ | 13,489,183 | $ | 12,881,307 |
Where Food Comes From, Inc. 8-K
Exhibit 99.2
WHERE FOOD COMES FROM, INC.
2017 First Quarter Conference Call Script
Call date: Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Call time: 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time
Executives
Jay Pfeiffer – Investor Relations
John Saunders – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Analysts
Ian Cassel – MicroCap Club
Terry Thompson – Private Investor
Operator
Greetings and welcome to the Where Food Comes From First Quarter 2017 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions]
As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Jay Pfeiffer, Investor Relations. Thank you Mr. Pfeiffer. You may now begin.
Jay Pfeiffer
Good morning and welcome to the Where Food Comes From 2017 first quarter earnings call. During the course of this call, we’ll be making forward-looking statements based on current expectations, estimates and projections that are subject to risk. Statements about future revenue, expenses, profitability, cash, growth strategy, new customer wins, business opportunities, market acceptance of our products and services, and potential acquisitions are forward-looking statements.
Listeners should not place undue reliance on these statements as there are many factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. We encourage you to review our publicly filed documents as well as our news releases and website for more information about the company.
Today we’ll also be discussing EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, which are non-GAAP financial measures provided as a complement to the results provided in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. We use and we believe investors benefit from presentation of EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA in evaluating our operating performance because it provides us and our investor with an additional tool to compare our operating performance on a consisting basis by removing the impact of certain items that management believes do not directly reflect our core operations. It is the Company’s policy not to provide specific guidance with respect to future revenue and earnings expectation, more new customer wins.
I’ll now turn the call over to John Saunders, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. John?
John Saunders
Good morning, everyone and thanks for joining us again today.
I’ll start by touching on a few first quarter financial highlights. First of all revenue increased 26% to $3.1 million from $2.4 million. This was a combination of organic and acquisitive growth. On the organic side we had growth in all of our business units. And you’ll notice we had two new revenue lines on the phase of our income statement to show new revenue streams from our SureHarvest acquisition.
GAAP net income was up 32% year-over-year. And this was in spite of some additional costs incurred following the SureHarvest acquisition in late December. Adjusted EBITDA increased 61% year-over-year, cash flows from operations increased 8% year-over-year and we maintained a solid cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments balance of $4.0 million range and we remain debt free.
The tailwinds that contributed to our continued growth in the first quarter show no sings of dissipating. To the contrary you don’t have to look too far to see near coverage of accelerating trends around verification of all kinds of standards in consumers growing interest and sustainability.
With our growing family of operating units and the ever increasing number of services we are now involved in virtually all aspects of one of the biggest consumer trends around food that has ever existed.
So today I want to give shot out teams at IMI Global, Sterling Solutions and Validus, who are growing their businesses around source certification, animal welfare and sustainability. The ICS team that continues to win new customers for organic, gluten free, and non-GMO project and our newest member of the family, SureHarvest, which is setting the standard for sustainability in farming MIS and high value speciality crops and which has integrated very nice into the work and comes from team over the past four months.
These individual business units have come together to form naturally unique business enterprise that covers virtually all food groups and has the potential to grow and grow profitably on the strength of increasing consumer demands and know more about Where Food Comes From. And by the way we are not stopping here. We continue to evaluate additional acquisition candidates that share passion for excellence and want to be a part of the much larger vision.
As you probably know one of the fastest growing verification standards going today is non-GMO project. Over the last few months we’ve been in a couple of new – excuse me customer announcements that illustrate the range in non-GMO opportunities that are available out there. The first was in March when we announced our selection by Country Natural Beef as non-GMO project technical, administrative for their new Oregon Country Beef farm. Country Natural Beef is a cooperative about 100 family ranches raising up to 100,000 head of cow annually at any particular time.
Their products are sold in retailers and restaurants nation-wide and Where Food Comes From always conducts audits for co-op members where standards of such a Source and Age, Non-Hormone Treated Cattle, Verified Natural Beef and the Global Animal Partnership 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating. The addition of non-GMO standard to this lineup gives us further opportunities to bundle audits and save the customer time and money.
Also in April we announced another interesting non-GMO customer win in the form of a global dairy powerhouse Fonterra. Basically Fonterra is a dairy nutrition cooperative owned by 10,500 farming families that together form the world’s largest milk processing company. Their NZMP Dairy Ingredients are sold in more than 130 countries and can be found at the heart of some of the world’s most famous food and nutrition brands. We are supporting NZMP’s North American launch of its non-GMO diary ingredients. Our IPS team is handling the work in New Zealand on this project.
Switching gears now I want to update you on China’s impending decisions to reopen its market to U.S. beacon pork. Markets that have been closed since the 2003 BSV outbreak. What we now know now at this point in time is expected to begin accepting U.S. beef sometime this year with requirements around source verification still to be finalized. We anticipate thousands of U.S. beef producers would then take the steps necessary to follow-up by their for export, needless to say, this would have quite an impact on our IMI Global unit which is currently evaluating what level of resources would be required to meet the increased demand. We had no trouble meeting similar demands for the Japanese market in years or administering their restrictions.
You might recall when that happened back in 2013 we lost current outsourcing certification business and it was one of our slower growth years. Now it seems we’re coming full circle and potentially in line for site and source verification revenue, if and when China comes to pass. Of course, higher source verification volumes would translate into increased sales for our higher margin RFID tags.
China is the world’s second largest and the fastest growing consumer of meat. They import [indiscernible] from Brazil, Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina respectively. There’s no question, however, that Chinese consumers will be eager to consume American beef again. Right now we view about $4 million in annual revenue on services related to beef. We think that could double overtime once we presume exports to China.
In preparation for this we have been communicating with our beef producer and [indiscernible] customers about anticipated requirements and our commitment to meeting their needs for timely verification services. In this regard, we are addressing our own staffing requirements to ensure we have enough feet on the ground to meet the need. But keep in mind once the source certification program is put in place a high percentage of the audits are outside the [indiscernible], which are easier to perform and generate a higher margins than on site audits.
And while we are on this subject we still have Animal Disease Traceability or ADT moving in through the background. Remember this program is expected to impact at 800,000 cattle producers who don’t currently conduct traceability audits. We’ve got our work spread out cost by IMI Global subject to past, which has geared me into reminding me of another first quarter highlight, the presentation time my global of 2017 National Beef Quality Assurance Marketer Award at the 2017 Annual Cattle Convention and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Trade Show in Nashville.
With that I’ll open the call for questions. Operator?
Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] One moment please while pole for questions. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. Our first question is from Ian Cassel of MicroCap Club. Please go ahead.
Ian Cassel
Hi morning John. My question is really to SureHarvest and you mentioned the low-hanging fruit there I know you were intended with acquiring that business is the ability to perhaps bundle non-GMO with their current 2,200 customers. And I’m just wondering how that process is going?
John Saunders
Hi, Ian. Thanks for the question. Yeah that that process has been going pretty much before we closed the transaction. So we looked at their customers from a vineyard, on-grain and other crops that that they’re working with. So, yeah, we see great opportunities for continue to bundle those services. And there are some unique auditing opportunities based on the standards that they’re growing customers are already using. So we’re pretty excited about how that’s going to start to materialize over the next couple of quarters.
Ian Cassel
And I guess maybe a follow up question with SureHarvest. I mean they seem to be sort of in the [indiscernible] with the sustainability trend and we see how volumes coming down almost daily on that? How do you kind of envision seeing SureHarvest grow into the future and really being able to monetize on that?
John Saunders
Well, we reach on opportunity initially for SureHarvest to address some of the needs that we’re seeing in our work traditional industries that we work in and that’s being beef and pork and dairy industries. So, sustainability is something that’s probably at least five or ten years behind some of the customer groups that SureHarvest works with. So we’re looking at expanding SureHarvest’s footprint into those industries that we already work in. And there are some really great opportunities for us because it is such a topic of mine and half topic for those producers and associations that represent the producers that we traditionally work in.
Ian Cassel
Okay. And so when you look at the platform that they have, is it really the ability to – for them and yourselves to almost benchmark across several different product categories? What sustainability really means to – to either the retailer or consumer? Is that really the end goal?
John Saunders
Yes, the tools that they have built are so customizable and so flexible that we believe it gives us a great platform to introduce the terms of that sustainability and being able to benchmark producers against the standard utility in very flexible way. So, yes.
Ian Cassel
Okay, all right. Thank you.
John Saunders
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from Terry Thompson, a Private Investor. Please go ahead.
Terry Thompson
Hello, John. Congratulations on your another stellar quarter. Two questions on two different subjects, one on the China importing. Do you expect that to facing slowly or do you expect it will be a flood gate once it starts?
John Saunders
That’s a good question. When we initially introduced the verification tools into the Japanese market, it was – I would describe it as a controlled explosion. So we did have a rapid uptake of producers. Over time that grew, but I think what we would see with China is the media probably 50% of the market would initially move to become compliant and then over time we would see a more steady progression of producers that come onboard. So I think there is no question with an announcement specific to China and what some of the premiums associated with that market. We would see a definite immediate growth.
Terry Thompson
Wow, that’s great, great. And then on your recent acquisition, how important was there software aspect of their business in your decision to acquire to them?
John Saunders
Extremely, as we have talked about both in the press release and I mentioned on our last conference call, so we have software as a service and the revenue associated with more of a consulting service based on information regarding the sustainability of an overall industry is something that we have seen as an very obvious compliment to our verification and traceability services. So as we have seen sustainability continue to become more top of mind for consumers, we think that that the tools and the services that SureHarvest built, it overlapped decade plus time will be extremely valuable for existing industry that we work in.
Terry Thompson
Yeah, I admit. A little research I did on that. It sounded like quite an impressive package that they put together and I had a little bit of time to research at. So I am just curious about it. Again, congratulations and I look forward to seeing everybody next week in Denver and keep onward and upward. Thank you sir.
John Saunders
Thanks, Terry. And I will just follow up a little bit with the SureHarvest team. I think the time that I spent researching their company, their customer relationships and the individuals that work at SureHarvest. There are literally hundreds of years of experience in sustainability and addressing those issues from measurable standpoint and something that’s quantifiable. So I really believe that that SureHarvest and the team that they have assembled there will be critically important for production agriculture moving into the next ten to 20 years and really understanding what it means to be sustainable. And probably what sustainability really even means, so it’s very, very claim.
Terry Thompson
Good, thank you, sir and see you next week.
John Saunders
All right, Terry. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Okay, we have no further questions in the queue at this time. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Saunders for closing remarks.
John Saunders
So I would like to – just a few things I would like to remind everybody that next week May 16 at 10 p.m. is our Annual Shareholder Meeting here in Denver. I would like to invite everybody to come. Again, this is a very exciting time for Where Food Comes From and both with our recent SureHarvest acquisition with a lot of other things that I have mentioned that are going on. So should be very interesting meeting, I would like to have many of those that you’d be interested and being there and make sure that you come. And thank you all very much and we look forward to seeing you next week and have a great day.
Operator
Thank you. ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.