CO2 GRO Inc. Provides a Corporate Update for 2020
CO2 GRO Inc. Provides a Corporate Updatefor 2020 and the Fourth Quarter
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / January 13, 2021 /Toronto based CO2GRO Inc.("GROW")(TSX-V:GROW)(OTCQB:BLONF)(Frankfurt:4021) is pleased to provide a review of 2020 operations and2021 businessprospects.
John Archibald, CEO, commented, "2020 and in particular the fourth quarter was a period of significant achievements for CO2 GRO Inc. During the course of the year we achieved eighteen CO2 Delivery Solutions™ sale agreements, announced three international marketing agreements, a fourth as part of a South American floriculture commercial feasibility, strengthened and increased our North American sales and support team, announced 25 commercial feasibilities across hemp, cannabis, orchids, lettuce, strawberries roses and peppers, completed a CAD$1.38M non-brokered private placement with Ospraie Ag Sciences LLC, a leading Ag Tech investor as the lead participant and strategic partner and participated in several virtual technology and marketing conferences. This has significantly increased awareness of the benefits and recognition of the disruptive nature of our CO2 Delivery Solutions™ technology and we have continued to strengthen our patent portfolio. As a management team we continue to be long term shareholders having not sold any of our shares and we commit to not receiving cash compensation until the Company is EBITDA positive. Our interests as a management team are aligned with those of our shareholders as we focus on building shareholder value."
Going forward in 2021, our management team will continue to build on the momentum generated in 2020 remaining focused on adding international marketing partners, new commercial feasibilities, converting existing commercial feasibility projects into sales and pursuing the direct sale of smaller systems based on GROW's scientific and commercial data. We are confident that CO2 Delivery Solutions™ will become an ever-increasing component of the international covered grower market as growers seek to capture up to 30% value increases using our technology. Our overriding goal for 2021 is to bring home significant revenue generating sales opportunities to increase shareholder value."
2020 and Fourth Quarter Summary
Top 10 Revenue and Key Commercial Feasibility Projects
- In Q4 announced the first three direct sales to Canadian licensed cultivators.
- In Q3 announced 15 purchase agreements with hemp growers in Missouri.
- In Q1 announced a commercial feasibility with a UAE lettuce grower operating a 75,000 sq. facility following an introduction by marketing partner Gulf Cryo.
- In Q2 announced a Colombia rose commercial feasibility introduced by a leading international industrial gas supplier.
- In Q2 announced an El Salvador pepper commercial feasibility with Hidroexpo S.A. de C.V., a contract grower for US based Lipman Family Farms, conducted in one of 36 one-hectare greenhouses with approximately 3.8m sq. ft. under cultivation.
- In Q2 announced an Ontario hemp mothers commercial feasibility with Canbud Distribution Corporation, an outdoor hemp grower who has 16,000 sq. ft. of hemp mother production in hoop houses.
- In Q3 announced a strawberry commercial feasibility with DeJong greenhouses, a subsidiary of Dan and Jerry's Greenhouses, with a total of 1.6m sq. ft. under cultivation.
- In Q3 announced a commercial feasibility on spinach at a leafy greens cultivation greenhouse in Florida with 140,000 sq. ft. under cultivation.
- In Q4 announced impressive 30% faster growth results from an ongoing orchid commercial feasibility conducted at St. Cloud State University.
- In 2020 participated in several conferences including AGRI Tech Canada to increase awareness of CO2 Delivery Solutions™ and its benefits to greenhouse growers and received recognition of the technology's benefits. Financing and Strategic Partnership
Financing and Strategic Partnership
In Q3 CO2 GRO closed a non-brokered private placement raising CAD$1.38M of which Ospraie Ag Sciences LLC, a leading Ag Tech strategic investor and strategic investor participated for CAD$1.2M. The balance of the non-brokered private placement was taken up by CO2 GRO Inc. officers and directors.
Marketing Partnerships
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In Q1 signed a Marketing and Sales Agreement withDotzNano Inc. (now operating as Green Mist Ltd. for the purposes of marketing GROW's technology) to market and sell CO2 Delivery Solutions™ exclusively in the Israeli horticulture market.
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In Q2 signed a Collaboration Agreement with a leading industrial gas supplier to assess CO2 Delivery Solutions™ in Colombia.
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In Q3 signed a Marketing and Sales Agreement with UK based Rika BioTech to market and sell CO2 Delivery Solutions™ exclusively in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium horticulture markets.
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In Q4 signed a Marketing and Sales Agreement with South Africa based PharmaCrop to market and sell CO2 Delivery Solutions™ exclusively in the Southern Africa horticulture market.
Patent Portfolio Update
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Five previously filed patents are all pending and are in various stages of the patent review process.
2021 BusinessProspects
We expect some of our ongoing commercial feasibilitiesfor CO2 Delivery Solutions™ to move to full commercial installations starting in Q2 2021 and a larger number of new commercial feasibilities to be announced and proceed starting in Q1 and Q2.
GROW is in discussions with greenhouse misting and irrigation companies, other international CO2 gas supply companies and similar qualified companies to become Marketing Partners to market and sell CO2 Delivery Solutions™ to their customers.
Technology Conferences and Recognition
In 2020, GROW has been honored by:
Selected by the Mexico Trade Commissioner Ag Tech Program for 2021 support meeting potential protected grower customers and Marketing Partners. The selection criteria required a disruptive commercial Canadian owned agriculture technology that can immediately be deployed in Mexico with a proven Canadian Management track record.
Selected as one of four finalists from over sixty entries in the Hemp Innovation Challenge at the 2020 World Ag Expo in Tulare, California.
Attended multiple ag-tech conferences resulting in significantly increased awareness ofCO2 Delivery Solutions™ leading tointroductions to several potential marketing partners including GulfCryowho subsequently signed a marketing agreement with GROW.
Fourth Quarter Update Detail
Q4 2020 Sales Results
During the fourth quarter we sold three CO2 Delivery Solutions™ systems to licensed cultivators in Canada. Of significant importance was that all three sales were completed without a commercial feasibility. The customers relied upon CO2 GRO's ever increasing scientific and commercial plant science data which shortens the sales cycle, lowers the cost of sales and increases the number of customers who are happy and who can provide referrals to potential customers going forward. Going forward we will focus on completing sales of smaller systems based on our scientific and commercial data. For the year, including the sales to the Missouri hemp growers, we have sold a total of 18 commercial installations, a dramatic increase over the one system sold in 2019.
Marketing Partnerships
On December 8th, GROW announced an exclusive Marketing Agreement with South Africa based Pharmacrop (Pty) Ltd. to market and install the Company's CO2 Delivery Solutions™ systems into the covered horticulture markets in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region. A 2020 GreenCape Sustainable Agriculture study for the South Africa Department of Agriculture stated there was a 171% and 55% growth during 2013-2018 in covered shade netting and tunnel grow facility hectares. Since the 2017-2018 census, an additional 2,822 hectares of shade netting grow structures have been added in South Africa. The covered grow market size is accelerating due to food security issues and high value fruit and nut export opportunities. Shade netting and tunnel grow facilities cannot supplement with CO2 gassing but can apply aqueous CO2 mist using GROW's CO2 Delivery Solutions™. The addition of Pharmacrop (Pty) Ltd. as a GROW marketing partner brings the number of marketing partners to five covering 14 countries.
Commercial Feasibilities
On December 1st GROW provided an update on the accelerated flowering results in ornamental orchid species receiving supplemental CO2 via CO2 Delivery Solutions™ compared to a control grown under standard atmospheric conditions. This orchid grow trial began in April 2020 at Minnesota based St. Cloud State University's greenhouse facilities. As of mid-November, the CO2 supplemented orchids were achieving full bloom approximately 30% faster than control orchids. This is consistent with all other GROW scientific and commercial feasibility plant growth results which show benefit from CO2 supplementation delivered via aqueous CO2 misting. Orchids account for about 10% of global fresh cut flower and potted plant trade. The interim results point to yet another high value plant market opportunity for CO2 GRO.
Significant geographic diversification has been achieved with commercial feasibilities being conducted in the U.S., Canada, UAE, Colombia and El Salvador. In addition, significant crop diversification has also been achieved with commercial feasibilities underway on lettuce, peppers, spinach, strawberries, roses, orchids, cannabis and hemp. The duration of these commercial feasibilities generally ranges up to nine months.
The timing and probability of closing commercial installations on the eleven active commercial feasibilities is dependent on CO2 Delivery Solutions™ systems performance against objectives, the success of management in negotiating agreements and continued COVID-19 related impacts. GROW continues work towards adding to its list of commercial feasibilities targeting new customers who grow similarly to existing customers as well as new plant varieties, new geographic markets and new cultivation methods where CO2 Delivery Solutions™ adds value.
COVID-19 Impacts on Operations
To date the Company continues to make progress in developing its business in a COVID-19 world though it is not without challenges. With the travel and physical distancing restrictions imposed by governments due to COVID-19, the Company is physically restricted to the markets in which it already has a foothold:North America, the UAE, Colombia, El Salvador, Israel, the UK, the Netherlands, and Belgium. With the addition of Phramacrop (Pty) Inc. CO2 GRO's presence is expanded to Southern Africa. The Company's regional sales representatives and regional contracting partners continue to work on business development and installations. In addition, the Company has developed virtual sales and installation programs to support customers despite physical restrictions.
Visitwww.co2delivery.cafor more information on CO2 Delivery Solutions™ or watch this video.To see a CO2 Delivery Solutions™ VCO2 system installation, watch this video.