EXHIBIT 99.2
HEMACARE CORPORATION
August 11, 2003, 4:30 PM (Eastern Time)
2nd Quarter Investor Conference Call Script
JoAnn Mannise:
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Good afternoon. My name is JoAnn Mannise, and I am the Director
of Investor Relations at HemaCare. I would like to welcome
everyone here today to our 2003 Second Quarter Financial Results
Conference Call. With us here today is HemaCare's Chairman, Jay
Steffenhagen and Judi Irving, the Company's President and Chief
Executive Officer.
During this call there will be forward-looking statements on a
number of subjects that are based on the Company's current
expectations and are subject to number of risks and
uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially. Our
press releases and 2002 annual report on Form 10-K as well as
our SEC filings, identify factors that could affect those
results. I refer you to those documents.
And now I would like to introduce Judi Irving who will start
with our prepared comments.
Judi Irving:
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I'd like to welcome all of you to today's call.
The second quarter has been a difficult one for HemaCare. As we
reported in the press release and 10Q, our loss for the second
quarter was approximately $272,000 with year-to-date losses of
$264,000. Second quarter results reflect continuing losses in
our East Coast and Mid-West Blood Management Programs and
decreases in production volumes and higher operating costs in
our California operations. We are actively addressing the
production issues in our California operations. We are
evaluating the potential of our programs outside of California
and determining the actions necessary to return the Company to
profitability.
Compared to our first quarter results, we saw some softening in
our California platelet and mobile whole blood gross profits,
although both of these programs remain profitable. This profit
decline was due to a high rate of donor deferrals and an uptick
in per unit labor costs due to a drop in collections without
corresponding decreases in labor hours, and costs related to the
turnover and training of staff, and insurance rate increases in
the second quarter for health, workers' compensation and other
insurance. Overall Sherman Oaks platelet volumes, subsequent to
the transition from paid to volunteer donors as of January 1,
continue to reflect retention rates of over 70% compared to the
fourth quarter of last year.
Our blood management programs opened in 2001 and 2002 continue
to struggle. Although overall production rose in these centers,
they are not meeting projections and continue to generate
significant losses.
Blood services generated solid results in the second quarter
with approximately 1700 procedures and gross profit margins of
28%, although the total lagged behind last years' results. We
have continued to focus on our marketing efforts in our two key
markets of California and New York.
We are closely monitoring our blood management operations. As
we reported in the first quarter 10Q, we are taking steps that
we believe are necessary to return the company to profitability.
An important part of this process has been evaluating the
potential of each business unit and determining the actions
necessary to ensure a sound footing going forward. As a result,
we may terminate some activities in 2003.
I will now provide some specific comments on the second quarter
2003 financial results compared to the second quarter of 2002,
including our balance sheet and liquidity.
Our net loss for the second quarter of 2003 was $272,000, net of
a tax benefit of $182,000, or $0.04 per share basic and diluted.
This compares to a loss of $19,000 or nil per share basic and
diluted in the second quarter of 2002. Revenues during the most
recent quarter were $6.9 million, virtually unchanged from the
prior year. Our gross profit margin decreased to $378,000 or
5.4% in 2003 compared to $987,000 or 14.2 % in 2002.
Revenues from our blood products segment increased during the
second quarter of 2003 by 7.4% to $5.1 million. These increases
were driven by our California mobile program and the expansion
of our blood management programs. Our gross profit margin for
this segment was negative $130,000 or -2.6% in the second
quarter of 2003, compared to $271,000 or 5.7% in 2002. The
decrease in the gross profit percentage was mainly due to
continued losses at our new blood management programs of
$272,000, additional expenses for health and other insurance,
costs related to the hiring and training of new employees, and a
decrease in sales volume in our Sherman Oaks platelet program.
Our mature blood products programs, opened prior to 2002, which
includes our Sherman Oaks platelet program, provided second
quarter revenues of $2.6 million in 2003 compared to $3.2
million in the same period of 2002. The decrease in revenues is
mainly due to a 30% decrease in platelet collections at our
Sherman Oaks program, the termination of our blood management
programs at Long Beach Medical Center in August of 2002 and at
the University of Irvine Medical Center in January 2003.
Gross profit margin from our mature blood management programs
was $27,000 or 1.1% in the second quarter of 2003, compared to
$453,000 or 14.2% in the second quarter of 2002. In addition to
the decrease in revenues discussed earlier, our gross profit was
further affected by increased expenses associated with insurance
and costs relating to the hiring and training of new recruitment
and clinical staff, the inclusion of our Chicago program as a
mature blood management program, and to unusually high rate of
donor deferrals and aborted procedures.
Our California mobile program provided quarterly revenue of $1.9
million compared to $1.3 million in the prior year, an increase
of 45%. The increase in revenue reflects higher collections and
better unit pricing. Our gross profit from California mobiles
was $115,000 or 5.9% in 2003 compared to a loss of $38,000 in
2002 or negative 2.8%. Our gross profit, although improved from
the same quarter of the prior year, was negatively impacted due
to an equipment failure resulting in reduced manufacturing of
fresh frozen plasma and sales of other blood components.
Our new blood management programs generated $573,000 in revenues
and $272,000 in losses during the second quarter of 2003
compared to $214,000 in revenues and $144,000 in losses in the
second quarter of 2002. Although whole blood and platelet
production for these new centers has increased 200% and 40%
respectively, these volumes are not sufficient to generate
operating profits.
Our revenues from the blood services segment were $1.8 million,
or 16% less than in the second quarter of 2002. The decrease
reflects an 8% reduction in the number of procedures performed
and a reduction in the average revenue per procedure, due to a
change in the mix of the services and related albumin sales.
The decrease in the number of procedures reflects fluctuations
in demand, primarily in California. Our gross profit margin
during the second quarter of 2003 was 28% of revenues compared
to 33% in the same period of 2002.
Our general and administrative expenses were $832,000 or 12% of
revenues, in the second quarter of 2003, compared to $1,018,000
or 15% of revenues in the second quarter of 2002. The decrease
of $186,000 reflects a reduction in legal and professional fees
associated with the American Red Cross litigation which was
settled in the latter part of 2002. This reduction was
partially offset by additional expenses we incurred due to the
expansion of our information technology department to support
our blood bank computer system and other technological
initiatives, and higher health insurance, workers' comp, and
professional liability insurance premiums.
As of June 30, 2003, our cash balance was $714,000 and unused
availability on our line of credit was $1,550,000. Our working
capital was $2.2 million. During 2003, we have reduced our debt
by approximately $400,000. We also focused our efforts on
accelerating the collection of our accounts receivable. As a
result, we reduced the number of days to collect from 62 days at
December 31, 2002, to 57 days as of the end of this quarter.
That concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open the call
for questions.
Question and Answer Session
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JoAnn Mannise:
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I'd like to thank everyone for attending the call today and for
your continued support. We look forward to your participation
in our third quarter 2003 conference call.