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Friday August 29, 2008

VRX Reports Second Quarter Results (Unaudited)

  • Record Licensing Fees: up 31% over Q2’07 and 12% over Q1’08
  • 7th Straight Quarter of Licensing Fee Growth
  • Gross Profit Increases 45% over Q2’07 to $467,402
  • EBITDA improves $121,544 to ($121,088) over

Vancouver, B.C. (August 28, 2008), VRX Worldwide Inc. (TSX-V:VRW) reports its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ending June, 2008. The financial results reflect strong growth, year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, of the Company’s Licensing Fees and a significant improvement in the Company’s Gross Profit and EBITDA.

  2nd Quarter Ended June 30/08 (Million C$) % Increase vs. 2nd Quarter Jun 30/07 % Increase vs. 1st Quarter Mar 31/08
Licensing Fees $0.483 31% 12%
Service Fees $0.563 -15% 3%
Total Revenue $1.046 22% 7%

  Six Months Ended June 30/08 (Million C$) % Increase vs. Six Months ended Jun 30/07
Licensing Fees $0.915 33%
Service Fees $1.110 -2%
Total Revenue $2.025 11%

Total revenue for the second quarter of 2008 was $1,045,715 with quarterly Licensing fees reaching a record $482,555 after 21 straight months of growth. Total revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2008 was $2,024,513, an increase of 11% over the comparable period in 2007.

“With the economy slowing in the US, many hotel brands are taking advantage of lower vacancy rates to conduct photo shoots of their properties,” commented David MacLaren, President and CEO of VRX. “This is a trend that we’ve seen before. For many hotels, a slowing economy is a great opportunity to gain market share by increasing their marketing efforts. Be it online or offline, stunning images can be the cornerstone to a great marketing campaign; our industry leading production quality, consistency and scalability continues to win us such production business and drive our revenues.”

In the second quarter, VRX’s Service fees were generated primarily by production agreements with Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Red Roof Inns, Best Western and Wyndham Hotel Group. Both Fairmont and Red Roof projects were started in the beginning of the first quarter whereas the Best Western project was started in the second quarter and the Wyndham project is now in its third year. As the Company completed shooting most of Wyndham’s 6,000 properties in 2007, VRX is currently covering all new openings and renovations of the Wyndham brands: Howard Johnson®, Travelodge®, Super 8®, Days Inn®, Ramada®, Wingate Inn® and Baymont Inn and Suites®. In addition, under the Company’s Always Fresh™ program, VRX works with all of its hotel clients to ensure their content is always accurate and update to date.

Gross Profit
For the six months ending June 30, 2008, the Company’s gross profit increased to 44% from 37% and contributed an extra $213,055. This improvement was due to an increase in licensing revenues and continued improvement in production efficiencies.

Costs and Expenses
Total overheads for the three months ended June 30, 2008 were $613,135 (2007 - $610,122) and $1,181,996 (2007 - $1,216,107) for the six months ended June 30, 2008. Total expenditures were relatively similar; however the components that make up these amounts were different. For the six months ended June 30, 2008, sales and marketing amounted to 24% of sales (2007 – 14%), research and development 14% (2007 – 7%) and general, administrative and amortization 20% (2007 – 45%). The shift in expenditures is a result of a reclassification of some expenses from general and administrative to sales and marketing and research and development in fiscal 2008.

Net Loss
VRX recorded a net loss of $183,731 in the second quarter of 2008 compared with a net loss of $423,646 for the same period in 2007, an improvement of 57%. Further, VRX’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) improved 50% for the three months ending June 30, 2008 over the comparable period in 2007.

VRX recorded a net loss of $448,838 for the six months ending June 30, 2008 compared with a net loss of $748,113 for the same period in 2007, an improvement of 40%. Further, VRX’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) improved 47% for the six months ending June 30, 2008 over the prior period in 2007.

Six Months Ended June 30
 20082007
Licensing Revenue$     914,584$     687,168
Service Fees1,106,5691,131,274
Other3,36044
Total Revenue2,024,5131,818,486
EBITA(234,536)(442,302)
Net Income/(Loss)(448,838)(748,113)
Earnings (Loss) Per Share(0.01)(0.02)

During the three and six months ended June 30, 2008, the Company’s working capital decreased by $130,449 and $1,204,891 respectively to a deficit of ($1,337,614). The reduction of working capital was mainly attributable to the reclassification of the Sabre convertible debenture from a long term to a short term liability and the loss from operations.

Improvement in the Company’s working capital during 2008 is largely dependent on the success of the Company’s Hotel and Athena programs along with its technology and cost reduction initiatives. Ultimately, the Company’s increase in liquidity and capital resources will be based upon its ability to achieve consistently profitable operations.

Outlook
The Company expects its world renowned production capability and quality to continue to play an important strategic role in wining new clients while it strides to deliver more industry leading rich media content solutions to the global hospitality industry.

Detailed Financial Statements
The financial results provided in this release are based upon unaudited results. The full financial statements and the related MD&A are now available on the Company’s website,www.vrxworldwide.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Press Releases (2008)