PLANTATION, Fla., Oct. 26, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- MEDirect Latino Inc. (Pink Sheets:MLTO) (www.medirectlatino.org), the first national provider of direct-to-consumer Medicare reimbursed medical products focused exclusively on chronic diseases afflicting the Hispanic community, today announced that its customer service, processing and warehouse facilities in Plantation, Florida, suffered only very minor damage from Hurricane Wilma this past Monday. As of Tuesday morning, the company's national advertising and customer call intake were up and running as scheduled, and the billing and shipping division will be back on line by Friday, as the infrastructure in South Florida is repaired allowing the company's 50 employees located in South Florida to resume normal operations. All of the company's employees have been accounted for, but most live in communities that had significant power outages and have not yet been able to return to work full time. The company expects to be at full operating capacity at its corporate offices by the end of the week, with the first order of priority to ship and bill all outstanding orders that have accumulated during the last few days and to finalize new customer intake. MEDirect Latino continues on track to report record results in October, with only a slight increase in the customers on hold and pending processing that will be shipped and billed in early November.
As the storm approached South Florida on Sunday evening, the company's senior management implemented its disaster recovery plans, which included the forwarding of all inbound calls to its preferred call center partner, Datascension, located in Costa Rica, whose facilities were not affected by the hurricane. Management also implemented certain recovery plans at its main corporate office including the operation of a industrial-sized generator to maintain electricity while the infrastructure in the surrounding areas are repaired, and corporate cleanup headed by senior management of the company was completed by Tuesday afternoon. National and regional media placements continued to run on schedule, with pre-hurricane customer response levels being unaffected.
Raymond J. Talarico, co-chairman and chief executive officer stated, "This has been a difficult time for much of South Florida. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been adversely affected by the storm. I am very proud of our management team at MEDirect Latino and particularly our employees, who, while dealing with personal difficulties, are working hard to insure our customers are provided the medical supplies they need to maintain their quality of life. Our customer in-take infrastructure has not been impacted and is performing brilliantly. Our national media campaign and our regional advertising in Puerto Rico continue on schedule as planned, with responses continuing at pre-hurricane levels. Our recovery efforts ensure that we remain on projected pace for new customers, shipped products and billings, and expect to report record results with slightly higher backlog at month's end than originally projected. That customer backlog of revenue, we will book in November."
Company management, on Tuesday, October 18, 2005, discussed recent revenue results, its national media campaign launch and other key operating issues on its national conference call with investors and the brokerage community.
Interested parties may hear a replay of the call by telephone.
To hear a recording of the call (available immediately following the call by telephone for 30 days after the call takes place):
-- Call 1-800-642-1687 in the United States, or Canada -- Call 1-706-645-9291 in the Atlanta area or internationally -- Pin Code: 1436343 followed by the number key
Analytical Reports
Additional company information may be obtained by reviewing a detailed research report published by noted micro-cap analyst, Mr. William Ritger, president of The Research Works, Inc., covering MEDirect Latino. The report is now available for review at: http://www.stocksontheweb.com/mlto.pdf
Additional company information may be obtained by reviewing a comprehensive analytical profile generated by small cap analyst, Mr. Gerald Kieft, president of Wall Street Resources, Inc. The 27-page report includes detailed information on the company's business model, products, industry, valuation, management and risks. The free report is available at: http://www.wallstreetresources.net/pdf/fc/MLTO2.pdf.
About MEDirect Latino:
MEDirect Latino (Pink Sheets:MLTO) (www.medirectlatino.org), is a rapidly growing, uniquely positioned provider of direct-to-consumer Medicare reimbursed medical products focused exclusively on chronic diseases afflicting the Hispanic community in the United States and Puerto Rico. MEDirect is the only company positioned to serve the U.S. Hispanic healthcare market as a direct-to-consumer Medicare provider on an authentically national level. The company's current focus is the distribution of products for the treatment of Type II diabetes specifically because of its disproportionate impact and increasing diagnosis rate within the U.S. Hispanic population, noting an incidence of 120 percent higher than among non-Hispanic whites. Type II diabetes was also targeted because of its unique status within the Medicare reimbursement regime and because of its high degree of correlation to other chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease. These other conditions represent considerable future market potential that will allow MEDirect to efficiently scale its model by leveraging its existing client base and infrastructure.
The current Hispanic market for MEDirect's products is conservatively estimated at approximately $748 million in the continental United States. The size of the opportunity is understated by such figures as an estimated 1.2 million of the over 4.1 million Hispanics in the United States over 65 eligible to receive Medicare benefits are currently collecting these benefits with an estimate that over 1.4 million of those Medicare-eligible Hispanics have diabetes (implying a potential continental U.S. market for MEDirect products of approximately $1 billion).
Forward-Looking Statements:
Statements about the company's future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as the term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The company's actual results could differ materially from expected results. The company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequently occurring events or circumstances. Should events occur which materially affect any comments made within this press release, the company will appropriately inform the public.
The MEDirect Latino Inc. logo is available at: http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1873