ORIGINAL: Plant&Co Announces Expansion Outside Plant to Accelerated Growth and Name Change to Happy Belly Food Group
2022-07-29 06:01 ET - News Release
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 29, 2022) - Plant&Co. Brands Ltd. (CSE: VEGN) (FSE: VGP) (OTCQB: VGANF) ("Plant&Co." or the "Company"), a company focused on organic growth and accelerating growth through the acquisition of businesses that have great tasting foods, is pleased to announce it is expanding beyond plant-based to enable the company to participate in the broader food category.
"Plant-based eating will continue to grow and gain greater importance in the food category, and we are absolutely committed to continue building our plant-based brands and business. Our Plant&Co portfolio includes five (5) plant-based brands (on July 25th we announced the 5th as a binding LOI to acquire Lettuce Love), and from a business perspective the expansion beyond plant-based will enable the Company to accelerate growth by expanding our offerings and reach," said Shawn Moniz, CEO.
To facilitate the expansion, and subject to the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange, the Company intends to change its name to "Happy Belly Food Group" and its ticker to "HBFG".
"The expansion is very significant for the Company," said Sean Black, Chief Investment Officer. "From the day I joined Plant&Co and looked at the M&A landscape across the various food and beverage verticals, it seemed like a no brainer to leverage the board of directors' experience, in addition to my own, in successfully operating and scaling brands in both the plant-based and non-plant sectors. We had tremendous success when we operated 'Fresh Plant Powered' Restaurants at the same time as we operated a very successful burger brand called 'The Burger's Priest'. The same recipe of success is being instilled here at Happy Belly. We have successful track-records implementing this framework, and I look forward to repeating our previous success at Happy Belly."
"Our expansion immediately brings opportunities to the Company which will expand the M&A pipeline with accretive transactions. My previous experience as Chief Development Officer at MTY (TSX: MTY) which operates over 70 brands was a great example of what can be achieved as a consolidator in the restaurant sector. Now Happy Belly Food Group can provide entrepreneurs another option to consider as a new home for their plant and non plant-based business if they are looking for a JV partner to help them grow or to have someone acquire their brand outright. We are very excited to show our investors what we can do going forward with the newly expanded business. Organic & inorganic growth is our focus with brands built on great food and great people."
The Company anticipates the name change and ticker symbol update to take effect within the next 30 days.
Plant&Co. Brands Ltd.
Shawn Moniz
Chief Executive Officer
FOR FUTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
ir@plantandco.com
(833) 375-2682