We’re here today with Justin Miller, CEO and Co-Founder of Nuheara. Justin, thanks for your time.
Thank you.
Nuheara is an advanced technology company. Are you able to share some of the history of Nuheara and where you are now?
Sure. We listed on the ASX just over two years ago. And in that time, we’ve seen some dramatic increase in our profile and in reaching out to what is a global market with pretty much an early stage product. In fact, when we listed, it was a prototype. So we’ve come a fairly long way over the last two years from prototype to our products being available in global retail around the world.
So we’ve had to not only build a product, we’ve had to build a channel. And now we’re seeing the maturing of that channel and maturing of that business with multiple products now in market.
And people think of me here as a single product, and that’s not the truth.
No, it’s not. I mean, that product allowed us to get some exposure globally. But more importantly, what it’s enabled us to do is to really create a hearing ecosystem, and hearing is the market that we’re in. Smart hearing is how we categorize ourself within that market today. And that’s very simply a wedge between what we regard as premium headphones and the hearing aid market and providing products that fit within those that provide some hearing assistance, but still do all the things that people want from a headphone perspective, which music, phone calls, and the like. So we’ve really morphed those two categories into what we’ve now deemed as smart hearing.
And has there been legislative or retail changes that have aided that growth?
Yeah, absolutely. So as much as it’s about our product and our technology that we’re bringing to market, there’s legislations changing at the hearing end, which is making it easy for us to get into market. And from a retail perspective, we’re seeing our ability to provide a consultative sale, which is very important for our product and something that hasn’t necessarily happened at the pure consumer electronics retail end. And the ability for other types of retailers to get into the hearing space.
And an example of that is the optical chains. So we’re working with optical chains globally that are seeing this natural progression from pure eyewear into also providing forms of hearing assistance. And there’s a national crossover there with people that are wearing these with people that need some form of hearing assistance. And it’s that mild to moderate end, that very low end of hearing loss, which is our target and a very under-serviced part of the market today.
75% of all hearing loss actually is mild to moderate, and there’s less than 10% penetration rates for assistance at that end of the market. So a huge opportunity representative for us, but very difficult to actually access that market. So these new types of retailers are providing us with an enormous opportunity to service that market today.
In terms of scaling and growing both the company and the product, how have you fit in what is a competitive global market but a large market to enter into?
Look, for us, our initial product was to gain traction and to take on retail and open a number of retail doors. And in that, we’ve gone from sort of 40 retail doors to over 1,500 in the space of 12 months. But opening the doors, or creating the sale in as we call it, doesn’t necessarily translate to sell through. So our focus now is on those particular retailers that enable us to create the sell through.
We can keep opening thousands and thousands of doors, but it doesn’t ultimately solve the problem of this ability to create a sell through. Another product on another peg in another store is not where we want to be. Our product does take some consultation in selling. It’s a higher priced item. And so we’ve had to find the retail that ultimately helps us with that. So it’s very important for us, as we mature, our business and our products get a little bit more complex, that we’ve got a path to market that actually supports that.
So looking at your last quarterly, just released, what are some of the key takeaways that investors may not have seen or understood clearly from the quarterly?
Yeah, good question. We ultimately released our second product to market in May. We very quickly sold out of that product at the back end of last quarter. And a lot of those were about sales that were ultimately paid for. So when it came to this particular quarter, we very quickly, in the early part of the quarter, were manufacturing more product, having sold out that product, ultimately.
We got out to a fairly core base of new retailers with this new particular product. And having said that, the development that we’ve done hasn’t necessarily been trying to scoreboard in that particular quarter. The quarterlies are frustrating in some instances, in the sense that they only actually record cash receipts. So it’s the cash that actually comes in the door and cash outflow. So it doesn’t allow you to detail, necessarily, the projected forecasts related to those cash outflows or necessarily the orders taken within that particular quarter, as well.
So they’re very narrow in their context. And for us, it doesn’t represent what’s happening on a grander scale. So in isolation, it’s a very limited document.
And it’s a hard to educate shareholders and potential investors of that time lag from investing in product and the sale of and the receipt of that product sale at a future point in time.
Yeah, look, I mean, the ASX is a very public platform, ultimately. And for us, it has its frustrations. We’ve got to detail everything that we do. And as a business that two years ago had a prototype and now is in this very public domain in terms of releasing of information, yeah, it does provide some problems in communication. Because we’ve actually got to put it all out there. And some of our competitors are very, very large companies, so they actually enjoy that window and being able to look at what we’re doing.
So in that regard, there is some frustration in what we have to put out to market. But by the same token, it provides us with a platform to also reach that market.
And looking forward, what should investors be focused on over the coming quarter from the company?
For us, we’ve rapidly grown from prototype to in a global retail market. And we do have a leadership position within this new category of smart hearing. And for us, it’s about consolidation of that. And that’ll come through, obviously, an increasing in revenue numbers. But for us, it’s all about creating these stable retailers that we can actually consistently grow on and not continue to just open doors and open new retailers.
It’s about providing the limited resources that we have from a marketing and sales perspective to develop and nurture those. And that’ll evolve over the coming quarters. And we’ve got to be conscious about growing a complete business here– not taking the sugar hit of opening more retail doors, but developing those retailers that will ultimately be here for the long term for us. And that should be some comfort to shareholders looking in.
A great company with a world-class product and a clear direction on how it’s going to grow its business with those retailers and its product mix. Justin, thanks for your time.
Thank you, David.
