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INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS:
WSA: Good day from Wall Street, this is Juan Costello, Senior Analyst with the Wall Street Analyzer. Joining us today is Steven Rossi, the CEO for Franchise Holdings International. The company trades over the counter, ticker symbol FNHI. Thanks for joining us today there Steve.
Steven Rossi: My pleasure. Thank you for having me, Juan.
WSA: Yeah, anytime. So, can you start off by giving us a history and overview there of the company?
Steve Rossi: For sure. Yeah. So, FNHI is the parent company, traded on the OTC and FNHI is a holding company that works with and invests in subsidiaries that are high growth opportunities in retail sales products, consumer goods, manufacturing products, anything that will drive very, very healthy or explosive revenue opportunity, real explosive revenue opportunity and with a high earnings ratio, high margin of profit. We’re not into venture items like any hot spaces relating to even the marijuana sector; we’re not in those kinds of markets.
But we’re into markets that are something that we can earn revenues from immediately, we can make a high profit. So FNHI being a parent has right now one investment subsidiary, which works for it. It’s just a new brand that we upgraded to from our previous company called Truxmart and Worksport is in the design, patent, product and manufacturer space, relating to the automotive aftermarket, specifically the segments that we targeted and we’ve had great success in is the tonneau cover market, which is basically selling the number one go-to product for the number one selling vehicle for over almost a decade in North America, which is today’s pickup truck like the F-150, the GMC Sierra, Chevy Silverado, Toyota, Nissan. These trucks are dominating the streets in North America as they become more affordable and more affordable to operate. So, we’re selling the number one product and we’ve had great demand. So, Worksport is our primary focus at this time and our only subsidiary and we finally built a very solid foundation for us to be able to explode from and really, really take on the next round of opportunity within our market.
WSA: Certainly. So yeah, bring us up to speed there on some of the recent news and activity?
Steven Rossi: For sure. Okay. So recently, we just last week posted our audited financial statements. We were struggling last year, while the business updated and started doing some business cross border into Latin America, we were struggling to be able to stay on top of accounting for all of these things properly. So, we finally caught up on our filings and at this point, we’ve built our foundation to be able to move forward. So, there’s lots of news to come. We have a mandate internally that news comes as it becomes to material and definitive and I will explain that for Franchise Holdings International and Worksport, its subsidiary, we’ve been working on, on both levels, some amazing opportunities and we’ll be able to update our shareholder base in the near future on some amazing developments as time proceeds.
WSA: So, what are the key goals that you’re looking at here over the course of the next 6 or 12 months?
Steven Rossi: Okay. So, for FNHI, the key goals over the next very short term are fully current in reporting, which we’re just – we’re just about to finish our financials. So, we’re fully current and a fully reporting company, not an alternate reporting company, but a fully voluntary reporting company. We will resume quotation and trading on the OTCQB. We will finalize our CSE dual listings. We will be effectively a dually listed company and CSE is a very prestigious and amazing dynamic exchange and we’re super excited to work on and there will be a lot of other developments that – needless to say, we have a lot of irons in the fire and a lot of things will definitely take place.
On the Worksport side, we’ve been building out our private label and OEM manufacturing business where basically what we do is we design, invent and patent new and unique ways of covering light truck beds and producing Tonneau covers. The OEM system is where we’re going to be working with OEM vehicle manufacturers, such as Toyota, Fort Dodge, GM, Nissan, and trying to find a way for us to be able to manufacture a cover that brandishes their OEM logo that they can put their name on. Although that’s in the works and nothing firmed on that front, it is a long-term goal.
Our medium-term goal in the Worksport side is to carry on from the initial amazing success of our private label and private label manufacturing initiative where, what we do is we design, invent and patent different systems and truck bed covers and some amazing market leaders in our space take these products to market. So, what we find is that there’s some amazing nine figure companies out there that share our market space, that otherwise, could be considered competitors. However, what we do is we embrace these other companies as companies that have a history, have huge branding.
And sometimes the bigger the company, the more they struggle with innovations and new products where they turn to companies like us with our innovations and our products. So, throughout the rest of this year and next year, we’re going to be looking at carrying on developing that aspect of revenue and basically allowing these nine – eight to nine figure a year in revenue companies, 50 million to 100 million or from 100 million to over $1 billion. These companies are working with us and entrusting us with their brand to allow us to manufacture our product with their brand, basically private label purchasing.
So that will be the short term goal and then medium term goal and long term goal for Worksport is to finalize the Alpha development, which is the most – Tonneau cover that will work with every relevant model truck and the Helios which we’re super excited about. The Helios is a fully-featured Tonneau cover that produces up to 400 watts of electrical current that’ll charge lithium ion battery packs within the battery of your truck. So, for those that are outdoors and or life stylers, build, they’ll have power at the TLD to power any of their goods or campers VE tenting, or tailgating, and then for the contractors that use the truck for work, for a living, you will have power right at your bed for your tools and for charging things and for lights, for everything off grid and on grid. So that’s an amazing development, but that’s only just the tip of the iceberg.
The real idea is that we know that electric trucks are coming. They are for sure coming and they will dominate our market in the very near future and the Helios is a patented product or a patent pending product that integrates these solar panels that we hope one day can integrate also with electric trucks of the future, electric trucks. Tesla has announced that they’re building electric trucks. General Motors has been in the electric and electric hybrid truck market for some time and other you know, mainstream manufacturers and what we hope is to integrate our technology with these electric and electric hybrid trucks so that you can mitigate range anxiety, you don’t have to plug your truck in.
Our vision long-term is to develop a product that is so robust, that you can take your vehicle, your truck completely off the grid and never have to worry about plugging it in or putting another little bit, another bit of fuel and reducing or completely eliminating fossil fuels and carbon emissions.
WSA: So, what are some of the specific factors that you feel make FNHI unique from some of the other players in the sector?
Steven Rossi: What makes us unique is our steadfast approach to revenues and earnings. I retired 100. We had 200 – over 220 million shares issued and outstanding. I retired all or most of my personal shareholdings to reduce our issued and outstanding. Our job is not to dilute, not to issue shares and not to explore new opportunities, but to make money, to make revenues, to make earnings, to focus on high growth and eventually initiate a buyback program, so we can even further reduce our already very low issued and outstanding and also one day, we do aspire to pay dividends on our stock. So, what makes us different is that we are capitalists at heart. We will design things, we will invent things, we’re going to sell the heck out of them, we’re going to make money and that’s it.
WSA: So perhaps you can talk to us about your background, experience and some of the key management?
Steven Rossi: Sure. Yeah. So, my experience, I’ve been an entrepreneur since the age of 17. I went to college for a few years in that and I wanted to get my experience as an entrepreneur. I’ve built businesses, I’ve never failed, I’m steadfast again in my approach to just continue to solve problems. And that’s what makes me a good businessman. I will evolve, I will learn, I will adapt, and I will never give up. The rest of the management team that we have, the directors is amazing. We have Mike Johnston who is an amazing interim Chief Financial Officer who knows US and Canadian accounting, tax laws, financial drafting and footnotes. He’s an amazing CFO. Paul Haber is one of the most high-level businessmen I’ve ever met in my life.
I look up to him with experience in every form of business, from accounting standpoint also to acquisition, mergers, funding. Lorenzo has a massive political background. So, he’s very, very wise in ethics and human resources, in deal structuring, in meetings and general organization companies and the growth therein. So that’s our management team and we have a lot of people behind the scenes and some extremely huge players in the market that work directly with Worksport, from engineering gurus to inventors to sales consultants. So, there’s a lot behind the scenes that haven’t been named yet that are working with us and will be coming on board as we progress a seven to eight figure in revenue and that’s where our intention is to build this business to an 8 or 9 figure valuation.
WSA: Sure. So once again, joining us today is Steven Rossi, CEO of Franchise Holdings International, which trades over the counter, ticker symbol, FNHI. And before we conclude here, to recap some of your key points, why do you believe investors should consider the company as a good investment opportunity today?
Steven Rossi: It’s a good investment opportunity because we’re just at the tip of the iceberg in terms of revenues and we have a lean enough operation that in the very short term, we forecast profitability. And from there, there’s only – we’ve only really realized less than 1% of the earnings and revenue – or sorry, at least the revenues that we forecast and it’s just – literally, we have just started to stretch before the race. So, we have an amazing 2018 plan and a fantastic 2019 in the works already. So, the show has just begun and we expect to really focus on these solid revenues, earnings and all the amazing things within.
WSA: Well, we certainly look forward to continuing to track the company’s growth and report on your upcoming progress and we’d like to thank you for taking the time to join us today, Steven and update our investor audience on Franchise Holdings International. It was great having you on.
Steven Rossi: My pleasure. Thank you very much.
