Pioneering Technology Reports Fiscal Year 2019 Financial Results

/NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA/

MISSISSAUGA, ON, Jan. 28, 2020 /CNW/ - Pioneering Technology Corp. (TSXV: PTE) ("Pioneering" or the "Company"), a technology company and North America's leader in cooking fire prevention technologies and products, reports its audited 2019 financial results for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019.  Pioneering's audited financial statements and MD&A are available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). 

Selected Financial Information for the Twelve Months Ended September 30, 2019

• Revenue was $3,941,621 down 17% versus the same period year ago ($4,749,536).
• Expenses in 2019 were $4,890,909 versus $6,072,092 in 2018.
• Loss for the year was $3,855,738 versus a loss of $3,305,329 in 2018.
• Adjusted EBITDA was ($1,778,035) an improvement from Adjusted EBITDA of ($2,240,678) a year ago.
• The Company lost $0.07 per share in 2019. 
• Gross profit in 2019 was 57% versus 52% in 2018.
• The Company's balance sheet remains strong.

The Company has experienced two consecutive years of declining revenue after previously delivering three years of 50% year-over-year revenue growth and profitability.  Pioneering CEO Kevin Callahan said, "While we are disappointed with our results in both 2018 and 2019, we feel confident that the initiatives and changes we have implemented over the past year and 2020 year to date have put many of our previous challenges behind us and will reverse this trend."  

Selected Financial Results - Past Four Fiscal Years Ended September 30^th

"The Company faced significant challenges in fiscal 2018 and 2019 that negatively affected our financial performance," said Mr. Callahan. "We are confident that we have now resolved our internal personnel issues and made significant operational changes that have put us back on track and in a position to capitalize on continuing industry trends, particularly the UL 858 standard that was adopted in April 2019. This standard, which requires all new electric coil stoves sold in North America to meet specified cooking fire prevention criteria, provides a favourable environment for the sale of our current aftermarket products.  We are also developing additional products aimed at further capitalizing on these new industry standards."

2020 Strategic Objectives
The Company's 2020 strategic plan is focused on the following four key objectives aimed at improving its financial results in the short term and positioning the Company for continued growth:

1. Build the Right Sales Model. In order to maximize revenue growth, the Company intends to build a sales structure and model that is focused on end customer lead generation, closing deals, installations, and customer service.
2. Leverage Relationship with Leading Distributor (HD Supply (HDS) USA) to Drive Growth. HDS is the Company's most important distributor and provides access to multiple sales channels. To aggressively grow revenue and execute against its new sales structure and model Pioneering intends to devote significant resources to its relationship with HDS to train sales personnel, build product awareness with HDS sales personnel and end-customers, and leverage the HDS network to generate end-customer leads/introductions. The Company will then use its experience with HDS to create more efficient and effective relationships with other distributors.
3. Drive B2B Awareness of the Cooking Fire Problem & Pioneering Solutions. The Company will focus on building B2B customer awareness of the cooking fire problem and its solutions. The Company also intends to leverage B2B customer traffic to generate additional sales opportunities.
4. Develop Additional Cooking Fire Prevention Products.  The Company will seek to generate additional revenue opportunities by expanding its portfolio of cooking fire prevention products and appliances. 

About Pioneering Technology Corp: Pioneering, based in Mississauga, Ontario is an "energy smart" technology company and North America's leader in innovative cooking fire prevention technologies and products. Our mission is simple:  To help save lives and property from the number one cause of household fire ? cooking fires.  We do this by engineering and bringing to market energy-smart solutions that make consumer appliances safer, smarter, and more efficient.  Our patented cooking-fire prevention products address the multi-billion-dollar problem of cooking fires.  According to the National Fire Protection Association, stovetop cooking is the number one cause of household fire and fire injuries in North America. Pioneering's temperature limiting control (TLC) technology is now installed in over 300,000 multi-residential housing units across North America without a single cooking fire being reported, delivering peace of mind and a solid return on investment for its customers.  Pioneering's proprietary cooking fire prevention solutions include Safe-T-element, SmartBurner, RangeMinder & Safe-T-sensor and are suitable for the majority of the more than 140 million stoves/ranges and over 140 million microwave ovens in use throughout North America.  For more info, go to www.pioneeringtech.com.

Forward Looking Statements
The statements made in this press release include forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. A number of factors could cause actual events, performance or results to differ materially from the events, performance and results discussed in the forward-looking statements, such as the economy, generally, competition in Pioneering's target markets, the demand for Pioneering's products, the availability of funding and the efficacy of Pioneering's technology and governmental regulation. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof an, except as required by applicable law, Pioneering does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from Pioneering's expectations and projections.

Non-IFRS Measures
Adjusted EBITDA is a measure not recognized under International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). However, management of Pioneering believes that most shareholders, creditors, other stakeholders and investment analysts prefer to have these measures included as reported measures of operating performance, a proxy for cash flow, and to facilitate valuation analysis. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest income, taxes, depreciation and amortization, impairment losses, stock-based compensation, restructuring costs included in general and administration expense, fair value movement ? derivative liability and other non-recurring gains or losses including transaction costs related to acquisition.   Management believes Adjusted EBITDA is a useful measure that facilitates period-to-period operating comparisons.  Adjusted EBITDA does not have any standard meanings prescribed by IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Readers are cautioned that Adjusted EBITDA is not an alternative to measures determined in accordance with IFRS and should not, on its own, be construed as indicators of performance, cash flow or profitability. References to the Pioneering's Adjusted EBITDA should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of Pioneering posted on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). For a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA as presented by Pioneering to net income, please refer to Pioneering's management's discussion and analysis.

The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy and accuracy of this release. 

SOURCE Pioneering Technology Corp.