Unima

Unima Soluciones Naturales SA de CV
Avenida San Francisco 3729
Colonia Jardines de los Arcos
44500 Guadalajara, Jalisco MEXICO
Tel: +52 (33) 1259 0802

Contact: Jose Luis Nuno (C.E.O.) at jose.nuno@unima.com.mx


Company Profile:

Unima develops biotechnology products for the control of food borne diseases in the food production chain, but as opposed to traditional chemical technologies our company uses the natural defense systems that can be found in nature, in plants, animals cells and bacteria.


The problem faced:

Food borne diseases are a growing public health concern. Most food borne diseases come from agricultural products, with very high incidences coming from poultry, swine and livestock products, as well as from vegetables. To control this problem, most producers use pharmaceutical or agrochemical products, like antibiotics or disinfectants. Statistics show that almost 70% of the antibiotics produced in the world are used in animals. The abuse in the use of the antibiotics has made that most food borne diseases have acquired an alarming level of resistance against antibiotics, limiting the capacity of these to control disease outbreaks in humans.

On the other hand, we find that consuming habits have evolved worldwide. The consumer is now more concerned about health and the relationship with the environment. Consumers are searching for healthier products: organic, fresher, more nutritious and less processed without the addition of toxic chemicals, and that in addition are safe for the environment. Consumer awareness of the negative effect of the abuse of certain
products like antibiotics or disinfectants in food production has increased the interest over new and more natural technologies for pathogen control and disease treatment. Driven by this trend, producers are shifting from traditional production systems to cleaner and more natural production procedures in order to cover these new consuming prerences. Therefore, there is a need for new natural technologies for therapy, food safety and biosecurity control in production.

Vaccination is the most important health management operation in the animal production industry because it prevents diseases to enter the farm and secures a certain level of productivity of the company. Vaccines are dosed to animals in the farm through the watering system so it can be drank or through spraying devices so it can be inhaled, normally using water from the farm. In both cases, the vaccines are in contact with the
physicochemical conditions of the water, and when these conditions are inadequate the vaccines become progressively inactivated, losing their protecting capacity and therefore decreasing the vaccination efficiency.


Our solution:

The first technology developed by the company is Custovac®, a high efficiency vaccine stabilizer which is used to increase the efficiency of the vaccination procedures performed in animal production processes. Using Custovac® increases the efficiency of protection against diseases acquired by vaccination, decreasing the costs of production associated to the mortality and medication of sick animals. Along with this, producers could decrease the need to use antibiotics because of the better protection against the disease. The company holds the intellectual property rights for Custovac® and has filed for patents in Mexico, the United States, Brazil and China.

The competitive advantages of Custovac® against competitors are based in two main facts:

• Intellectual property protection: Custovac® technology has been patented at international level, and it provides Unima as a lock-up advantage over competitors. First because competitors technology is not patented so several companies are producing the same product with the same functionality and their market strategy is solely price based; second because patent covers the formulation and use, so competitors could not create a similar product or develop using the Custovac® platform for similar technologies. Therefore, with proper investment in IP enforcement, the company should maintain this advantage and position Custovac® in the market over competitors.

• Functionality: None of the competitor products have the functionalities of Custovac®. Other products only works over chlorine content while Custovac® works over all the physicochemical conditions which affects vaccines (pH, Water hardness, chlorine content and osmotic balance). In laboratory and field tests (Appendix III) comparison between both products have shown that only Custovac® provides stability to vaccines maintaining 100% of their activity during vaccination.


Market strategy:

The company's market strategy is based in achieve strategic partnerships for the sales and distribution activities with pharmaceutical or agrochemical companies, leaders in their markets. For Custovac® sales, Unima has a strategic partnership with the German Pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica for its distribution in Mexico, Latin America, South East Asia and the Middle East. The go to market strategy is
divided in three stages. During the pre-approval stage, the company along with the strategic partner creates expectation within consumers, with publications of research and technical papers in specialized magazines and newspapers, presentations in congresses and field tests with Key Customers to gain the acceptance of the product previous to the market launch. In the Post-approval stage, after clearing registration of the product, national sales will begin. Sales will begin with Key Customers identified in each market. Experience has shown that the rest of the market will follow leaders if strong benefits are shown in their companies when using these technologies. In the Expansion stage Unima will help the strategic partner with technical presentations, presence in expos, and publication of new research results in the use of the technology or by making publications of the experiences of key users in the local or international markets.

The main differentiator of the company is that the technologies developed by Unima are focused on the systems that nature uses to control diseases, which do not harm human health or damage the environment. This is perceived by consumers and it has proven to be an important buying decision factor.


Financial information:

Year 2009:
Revenues: $100,000
Cost of Goods: $50,000
Operation Expenses:
EBITDA: $0
Net Profit: $0

Year 2010:
Revenues: $287,000
Cost of Goods: $115,000
Operation Expenses:$481,000
EBITDA: $0
Net Profit: $0

Year 2011:
Revenues: $1,025,000
Cost of Goods: $410,000
Operation Expenses:$512,000
EBITDA: $103,000
Net Profit: $19,000

Year 2012:
Revenues: $3,000,000
Cost of Goods: $1,185,000
Operation Expenses:$551,000
EBITDA: $1,225,000
Net Profit: $750,000

Year 2013:
Revenues: $8,500,000
Cost of Goods: $3,400,000
Operation Expenses:$1,125,000
EBITDA: $3,975,000
Net Profit: $2,626,000

Year 2014:
Revenues: $16,000,000
Cost of Goods: $6,450,000
Operation Expenses:$1,585,000
EBITDA: $8,075,000
Net Profit: $5,400,000

Year 2015:
Revenues: $28,500,000
Cost of Goods: $11,400,000
Operation Expenses:$2,530,000
EBITDA: $14,570,000
Net Profit: $10,085,000

Resume of Financial Indicators (2010 - 2015)
Projected Revenues $57,370000
Projected Cost of Goods $22,950,000
Projected Operation Costs $6,782,400
Projected EBITDA $27,950,000
Projected Net Profit $18,900,000
Projected IRR 100%
Projected ROI 31
Projected NPV $11,400,000

At the moment the company has already invested $200,000 USD, raised from the founders investment and non dilutive seed capital (as credit) and has raised a first round of investment of $400,000 USD from the Mexican Development Bank of Mexico (Nacional Financiera).


Awards and achievements:

Santander Award on Business Innovation 2005 Mexico, awarded by Banco Santander in Mexico.

Best Business Plan Award, received from the Ministry of Economy of Mexico in the “Semana Nacional PyME 2006”

Thompson & Knight Challenge Award and Outstanding Market Award in Global Moot Corp Competition 2006. Awarded by the University of Texas at Austin.

Third Place in the NorthWest Venture Championship 2007 organized by the Boise University in Boise, Idaho.

Business Process Award in the TIC Americas Competition 2007 in Panama City. Awarded by the Organization of the American States (OAS).

Best Business Process Award in the Global TIC Competition 2007 in Taipei. Awarded by the Glonab TIC Foundation.

Woman Innovator in the Industry 2007 Award. Awarded to Laura Mendoza by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT), the National Women Institute (INMUJER) and the Mexican Institute for the Intellectual Property (IMPI).

Scientific and Business Merit Award 2007, awarded to Jose Luis Nuño by the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara.

TECNOS Award 2007 awarded by the Government of the State of Nuevo León in Mexico.

Science and Technology Award of the State of Jalisco 2008.

Unima has participated in the TechBA acceleration program in the United States created by the Ministry of Economy of Mexico

Unima is part of the Endeavor Organization in Mexico (starting in 2009).

• ERIC MICHEL wrote (1 year ago):

  Felicitaciones UNIMA!!! por sus logros. Exitos y mis mejores deseos.

  • Reply