Item 8.01 Other Events
Supplemental Risk Factor
In light of recent developments relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company is supplement the risk factors previously disclosed in its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 11, 2020 with the following risk factor:
The scale and scope of the recent COVID-19 outbreak and resulting pandemic is unknown and, due to wellness center and community clinic closures and other factors, is likely to result in an adverse impact on our business at least for the near term.
As the U.S. faces the novel COVID-19 pandemic, the Company is following the recommendations of government and health authorities to minimize exposure for its veterinarians, associates, customers and retail partners. As a result, the Company announced on March 19, 2020 that it is temporarily closing all of its veterinary community clinics and wellness centers effective Friday, March 20, 2020. The Company will closely monitor this global health crisis to reopening its community clinics and wellness centers as quickly as practical. The Company will continue to reassess its strategy on a regular, ongoing basis as the situation evolves. Additionally, the rapid spread of COVID-19 globally also has resulted in travel restrictions and disruption and shutdown of certain businesses in the U.S., including those of certain of our retail partners. We may experience impacts from changes in customer behavior related to pandemic fears, quarantines and market downturns, as well as impacts on our workforce if the virus becomes widespread in any of our markets. If the virus were to affect a significant amount of the workforce employed or operating at our facilities, we may experience delays or the inability to produce and deliver products to our retail partners on a timely basis. In addition, one or more of our customers, service providers or suppliers may experience financial distress, file for bankruptcy protection, go out of business, or suffer disruptions in their business due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The global scale and scope of COVID-19 is unknown and the duration of the business disruption and related financial impact cannot be reasonably estimated at this time. The extent to which the coronavirus impacts the Company’s results will ultimately depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and will include the duration of our wellness center and community clinic closures as well as closures of our retail partners, emerging information concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions taken by governments and private businesses to attempt to contain COVID-19. However, the Company believes COVID-19 is likely to result in an adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition, at least for the near term.
Forward Looking Statements
This Current Report on Form 8-K contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements about our plans, objectives, expectations, assumptions or future events. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "project," "continuing," "ongoing," "expect," "believe," "intend," "may," "will," "should," "could" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performances, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the impact of COVID-19 on our business, our ability to successfully grow our business through acquisitions; our dependency on a limited number of customers; our ability to implement our growth strategy effectively; disruptions in our manufacturing and distribution chains; competition from veterinarians and others in our industry;