Contact Information: CONTACT: OurPet's Company Dr. Steven Tsengas (440) 354-6500 (Ext. 111) INVESTOR RELATIONS: SM Berger & Company, Inc. Andrew Berger (216) 464-6400
OurPet's Provides Operations and Marketing Update
| Source: OurPet's
FAIRPORT HARBOR, OH--(Marketwire - September 23, 2008) - OurPet's Company (OTCBB : OPCO ), a
growing designer, developer, producer, and marketer of accessory and
consumable pet products (www.ourpets.com), provides business and marketing
update.
Dr. Steven Tsengas, PhD, President and CEO stated, "Our business, which was
up nearly 10% for the first six months of 2008, continues to be strong as
we end the 2008 third quarter in a couple of weeks. Our confidence is
expanding in our near- and long-term outlook, despite current adverse
market and economic conditions and the current litigation that is pending
at the International Trade Commission. I want to provide a business update
to help current and potential investors understand our business and key
brands.
"Our sales activity is at an extremely high level, as our products continue
to answer the needs of the growing population of pet owners. During the
2008 first half, OurPet's market share grew despite significant reductions
from our two largest retail customers, as a result of lower retail sales
and inventory adjustments they are experiencing. So far in 2008 we have
added over 100 new customers that range from independent pet stores to
large national drugstores and supermarkets. Our distributor base continues
to expand and I am very pleased that our products can now be found
nationwide and in twelve foreign countries. Despite overall changes in
consumer spending, we are still experiencing strong consumer demand for our
products, as a result of our customer acceptance and product offerings. I
would now like to take this opportunity to discuss our key brands and
encourage everyone to visit our newly enhanced WebPages."
Play-N-Squeak® (www.playnsqueak.com)
"The Play-N-Squeak relaunch, with exciting new packaging and an extended
offering of products, has greatly exceeded our own expectations. We have
established many new customers and existing customers have significantly
increased the quantity of Play-N-Squeak products they sell. We are also
seeing a dramatic increase in the units being sold per store with the new
label. We will continue to develop new products for this category. Our
success and history of innovation with interactive cat toys, has allowed us
to expand into interactive dog toys, which we intend to launch in early
2009 under a new brand called Flappy™."
ecoPure Naturals® (www.ecopurenaturals.com)
"Our ecoPure Naturals brand, while still a relatively small contributor to
revenues, has also significantly exceeded our expectations since its launch
late last year. ecoPure can now be found in over 2,000 retail outlets
nationwide and we have established distribution agreements in three foreign
countries. We are continuing the work of establishing a strong brand and
the development of additional natural products for pet wellness and care.
This is an exciting category for us and OurPet's is one a few companies
that offers an all encompassing product line of natural solutions for dogs
and cats."
Healthy Feeding Systems
"We continue to see improved sales trends in both our raised feeders and
Premium Durapet™ Stainless Steel Bowls. We have successfully increased
prices on all our raised feeders to cover plastic resin prices. In
addition, we expect to reposition our brand of healthy raised feeders in
2009 that will include new materials, colors and appearances. Our Durapet
line continues to perform well with over eight million units sold since
2004. We continue to add new products to the brand and have had a very
good acceptance of our 2008 launched Slow Feed Bowls."
SmartScoop® (www.smartscoop.com)
"Despite some consumer setbacks, we continue to be optimistic of the
potential of our SmartScoop brand. We remain committed to refining the
product and the sales and marketing strategy of the SmartScoop
Self-Cleaning Cat Litter Box. Recently, we successfully sold the product
on a national home shopping television network and continue to sell into
existing and new retail outlets. Finally, OurPet's along with our
codefendant recently attended legal proceedings at the International Trade
Commission at the end of August. We anticipate a judgment by December 2008
and remain optimistic that justice will ultimately prevail."
Dr. Tsengas concluded, "This has been a challenging year for the Company as
a result of the lawsuit and weak consumer spending. Despite these
setbacks, I am delighted with how our employees have risen to the challenge
and continue to increase sales. We are well positioned for growth as we
enter the seasonally strong fourth quarter. I am pleased and grateful with
the confidence and patience our investors and Board of Directors have had
in OurPet's. So far this year the Board and certain share holders have
invested more than $1,000,000 into the Company to help fund the Company's
legal expenses. We are optimistic about our business prospects and hope
that OurPet's will return to profitability during the 2008 fourth quarter."
About OurPet's Company:
OurPet's designs, produces and markets a broad line of innovative,
high-quality accessory and consumable pet products in the U.S. and
overseas. The SmartScoop® product line offers the most complete solution
to cat waste and odor control and includes the SmartScoop© Self-Scooping
Litter Box (patent pending), activated carbon filters, no-touch waste bags,
litter box ramps (patent pending), no-stick litter box sprays (patent
pending), odor control litter box sprays and Scoop-N-Sift (patented)
Investors and customers may visit www.ourpets.com for more information
about the Company and its products.
Certain of the matters set forth in this press release are forward-looking
and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Among the factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: business
conditions and growth in the industry; general economic conditions;
addition or loss of significant customers; the loss of key personnel;
product development; competition; risks of doing business abroad; foreign
government regulations; fluctuations in foreign rates; rising costs for raw
materials and the unavailability of sources of supply; the timing of orders
booked; our ability to successfully defend the alleged patent infringement
actions against us and the other risks that are described from time to time
in OurPet's SEC reports.