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ZOONO GROUP LTD (ZNO) - How A Dry-Active Antimicrobial Turned Food Trays Into Profit Machines

• Andrew Musgrave

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A boom, a backlash, and a pivot with teeth—this conversation traces how Zoono Group turned a pandemic-era hygiene surge into a durable, data-backed strategy to cut food waste and boost supermarket margins. We unpack the science behind a dry-active antimicrobial coating that bonds to packaging, survives heat and storage, and delivers a mechanical kill through cell disruption. The result is a protective surface that prolongs freshness, reduces shrink, and moves retailers from cost-centre thinking to a measurable return on investment.

We walk through the road from lab to store shelf: multi-year regulatory and safety validation in the UK, proof-of-concept with Marks & Spencer across soft fruit categories, and the durability tests required for real-world packaging lines. Then come the commercial wins—Sharpak in the UK, Mpact in South Africa, and Multisteps in Australia—adding up to roughly $50 million in contracted sales over five years. The economics are striking: one extra day on 150 million punnets of raspberries can save an estimated £11 million, while coating those trays costs about £1 million. For packaging suppliers, the technology becomes a point of difference; for retailers, it’s a direct line to less waste and stronger margins.

We also touch on capital discipline—remaining debt-free, fully subscribed rights issues, and guidance to return to profit by year-end. Looking ahead, we explore growth in Asia and India, including trials on bananas and mangoes, and the network effects that could take the UK model into Europe at larger scale. If you care about food waste reduction, packaging innovation, or the business of fresh produce, this is a clear-eyed look at how a durable antimicrobial platform can create value across the supply chain.

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Andrew Musgrave
 
 Welcome again to ASX Briefs, where we dive into the strategies, stories, and success drivers behind the most compelling ASX listed companies.
 
 Today we’re joined by Paul Hyslop, Group MD of Zoono Group Ltd – a New Zealand based biotech company that develops, manufactures, and distributes a suite of scientifically validated, long-lasting, and environmentally friendly antimicrobial products.

Paul, thanks for joining me today and welcome to the ASX Briefs podcast.
 
 Paul Hyslop

Thank you, Andrew.

Andrew Musgrave

Now, Paul, for investors that may be unfamiliar with Zoono, can you just provide a brief overview of the company?

Paul Hyslop

Well, Zoono went public in 2017, okay, and we were a private New Zealand company, and we decided to list on the ASX. The basis of our technology is long-lasting antimicrobial protection. Microbial being bacteria and viruses. So, our technology, we will kill the bacteria and the viruses, and then we'll protect the surfaces that it's on, whether it be a hard surface or a skin surface like hands. On the hard surfaces, we'll be effective for up to 30 days, and on skin up to 24 hours.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and the company has prioritized the fresh food shelf-life extension sector, a niche market with a massive problem, which is global food waste. So, can you explain the technology you've developed with OSY Group and the progress you've made in securing commercial partners?

Paul Hyslop

Okay, so just a bit of background there. During the COVID, just before the COVID hit Australia and New Zealand, we had completed a whole lot of testing on the coronavirus and the vaccinia virus. So, when COVID came along, we went huge. We did $11 million a month in sales for about four months in a row. Okay, it just went crazy because we could make the COVID claims. Then after the COVID left, okay, we got a real backlash, and a lot of our distributors and partners didn't survive. So, we quickly decided that we had to go more into the business-to-business market and get out of the consumer business, which is too fickle. So, we decided on shelf-life extension for supermarkets, food. So initially we focused on testing on the five soft fruit groups, and we worked with Marks and Spencer in the UK in developing this technology and proof around the concept. It's gone particularly well, and it's taken us three and a half years, because by the time you have to go through the regulatory, the safety, the efficacy, all the different things that you have to go through, and the regulatory as well, because you are applying our product to a surface that comes in contact with edible food. So, there's a very high barrier to entry. So, we focused on the UK market. When we were convinced that we were, that we had something here that we could market, we went to the largest food packaging supplier in the UK, manufacturer and supplier, a company called Sharpak, who supply about 60% of all the food packaging that goes into supermarkets in the UK, including Tesco's, Marks and Spencer, Waitrose, Aldi, all the big players. So, we signed a contract with them in May, and they then had six months to place their first commercial orders, which is about now, to be honest, and we're working on orders at the moment. Now, in the meantime, we have signed a contract with Mpact in South Africa, who are a large packaging company as well. Turnover about $1.8 billion a year. And we've also signed a contract with Multisteps in Australia, which are a large local Australian company who provide a lot of the Australian market. And their contract is worth $15 million over three years in purchases. The Multisteps contract is worth $5 million over three years. And the contract with Marx and with Sharpak in the UK is worth about $25 million over five years. So, in total, we've signed orders in the last short time of around $50 million in sales over a five-year period. And we we've got so much data now and so much information on this, and it and it's a hot space to be in at the moment. And so, we expect to sign many more contracts in the coming six months.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and Zoono's key selling point is the durability of the Zuno molecule. So, can you explain in simple terms how this mechanical long-lasting kill mechanism works and why it is superior to traditional disinfectants or coatings that typically only work while wet?

Paul Hyslop

Okay, so it bonds to a surface, and you're right, like regular products only work when they're wet. Our product only works when it's dry, so it's the opposite. So, our product has a silane base, it's designed to bond to the surface, it sticks like glue, and you can literally only get it off with sandpaper. Okay, so when we went through all the testing in the UK, we also we also had to show that if it went on a food tray, it would survive all the processes that a food tray had to go through, like heating up to 180 degrees C to punch out the tray. We needed to show we'd have two years shelf life in a warehouse up there. If they made the trays and then it got stored in the warehouse for two years, that it would still have the same efficacy. So, there was a lot we had to go through. But the Zoono molecule, if you just imagine a surface with a whole lot of little positively charged pins sticking upright, and they attract the negatively charged pathogen down onto the spike, if you like, and we kill the cell through a process called lyses, which is cell disruption. So, it's a bit like a balloon full of water, and when you puncture it, it implodes on itself. That's basically how it works.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, now you touched on the agreements with Mpact in South Africa and Multisteps in Australia. So, what are the significance of these two agreements in validating your solution and what are the key commercial details specifically regarding packaging formats and minimum purchases?

Paul Hyslop

Okay, so we've been doing trials with these companies for the last six months because everywhere you go, they want to do a trial. Okay, so we do the trials, so we've collected a huge amount of data now on the efficacy of the product. So, our technology will give the packaging companies a point of difference. So, both those companies have areas of exclusivity and minimum hurdle rates that they have to achieve every year for the next five years, and it increases every year. Now, just to give you an example, we sell it to the supermarkets on a return on investment of 10 times. So, for every pound they spend, because we’re dealing in pounds at the moment in the UK, they will save 10 pounds. Just to give you an example, a punnet of raspberries in the UK, and they sell 150 million punnets of raspberries a year in the UK. If they get one extra day in shelf life, one extra day, they save 11 million pounds a year. So, it's a huge advantage. So, our technology to coat it on the trays, on the 150 million trays, would cost about a million pounds. Okay, so it's we've become more of a profit centre to a supermarket than a cost.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, now just touching on your financial position, you've had a rice issue recently where you raised just shy of 1.8 million Aussie. So, can you just talk us through your current cash position and what's your guidance on when the market can expect to see material revenues from the shelf-life products?

Paul Hyslop

Yes, okay, so I've always kept the company debt-free. Okay, I've never believed in debt. Monkeys turn into gorillas, okay. So, I've kept the company debt-free. So, we've survived the last couple of years through a combination of sales into our regular hygiene markets, and we've done two rights issues in the last two years. And both of the rights issues have been fully subscribed. And in particular, in the last rights issue, we attracted some very high net worth investors from the UK. Okay, so we're we've got a very robust shareholder base. Around 75% of the shares are held by the top 10 shareholders. I'm still the largest shareholder in the company and are well committed to the long term. Timing-wise, to produce revenues and get into profit, we'll be back in profit again at the end of this financial year.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, now just to wrap things up, beyond shelf-life extension, Zoono is also making progress in target Asian markets. So, can you highlight any of the key developments there? And finally, what are the key themes investors should watch out for over the next six months?

Paul Hyslop

Well, we're still targeting the hygiene markets in the UK and in the Asian markets and India as well. We're targeting crops in India as well at the moment, spraying our product onto crops, onto banana trees and mango trees, things like that. And what you can watch out for in the next six months is some serious contracts coming on board in this shelf-life extension. It's the sort of thing, it's amazing how all these packaging companies all around the world, they all are slightly intertwined. Okay, thus some of these companies have ownership in each other. For instance, Sharpak in the UK is owned by a French company called Group Guillen, okay, who are a large public company. And once we get out, once we get underway in the UK, they want to take us into Europe as well, which is five times the market again. So, look, I'm very I'm confident that we're heading in the right direction. The good thing about this market is that it's regular orders every month, whereas the consumer markets and the hygiene markets are very erratic and fickle. So, I'm sure we're going down the right um uh track. Personally, I've put lots of money into the company in the last two rights issues. The directors have invested as well; all the key staff have also invested. So, take that as a good sign.

 

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, Paul. Well, it's been great to chat and get an update on where the companies at. So, thanks for your time, and we look forward to further updates from Zuno Group in the upcoming months.

Paul Hyslop

Thank you, Andrew.