Continued Progress for Lifeist’s Cannabis Business in 2021
TORONTO, Jan. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lifeist Wellness Inc. (“Lifeist” or the “Company”) (TSXV: LFST) (FRANKFURT: M5B) (OTCMKTS: NXTTF), a health-tech company that leverages advancements in science and technology to enable you to find your path to wellness, today announced that its Cannabis 2.0 consumer-focused house brand “Roilty'' has won the prestigious “Canadian LP Brand of the Year” award at the 2021 ADCANN Awards.
Roilty Brand Award Win
The annual industry awards, which are voted on by both industry peers and the public and saw over 100,000 votes cast nationwide, celebrate the best in marketing and advertising across Canada’s cannabis industry. The win comes only months after the initial launch by Lifeist’s wholly owned subsidiary Cannmart Inc. (“CannMart”) of its first high quality Roilty-branded vape carts and the launch of sister company CannMart Labs Inc (“Labs”) produced live resin products, confirming the significant potential that the Company sees in both the brand and Labs.
CannMart B2B Business 2021 Growth
The ADCANN award caps a calendar year of solid progress for Lifeist’s cannabis businesses, particularly CannMart’s business-to-business (B2B) platform, which has solidified CannMart’s role as a pre-eminent, value-adding distribution platform in the Canadian cannabis market, that connects LP’s (licensed producers) and brands with provincial government control boards and independent retailers. Lifeist believes that CannMart’s solid performance is attributable to having a business model that is unique in the Canadian cannabis space; CannMart retains a sales and distribution license, but does not engage in any cannabis cultivation, focusing on a lower cost distribution business model.
Provincial Government Control Boards
CannMart now maintains supply agreements with provincial government cannabis control boards and retailing bodies in the provinces of Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, and most recently added Yukon, NorthWest Territories and Nunavut, constituting access to approximately 73% of adult Canadians. CannMart continues to diligently progress its registration commenced more than 12 months ago with the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC), which has a legislated monopoly on the sale of recreational cannabis within the province of Québec, which on registration receipt would provide access to a further 22% of Canadian adults and potential cannabis consumers.
CannMart B2B Clients
As of December 31, 2021, CannMart is the trusted wholesale distribution and logistics partner for 10 LPs and 21 brands in addition to in-house brands Roilty and Mezzero and 3 licensed brands. Most recently the company has added LPs including J2 Science, Embark Health, TorrCann, JMF Growers family and Loosh Brands to its growing list of partners and also added cannabis-cause brand TobaGrown under license agreement.
CannMart B2B Financial Performance
Collectively, CannMart’s B2B revenue stream represented approximately 90% of Lifeist’s cannabis revenue for the nine months ended August 31, 2021 and for the twelve months ended November 30, 2020, and has delivered substantially all of the revenue growth and gross margin contribution during each of these periods.
CannMart Labs
Labs began commercial production in November 2021 with live resin product and experimentation with respect to new product formats ongoing as the Labs team gathers sufficient data to plan future releases of the same.
“Winning LP Brand of the Year for Roilty is a great accomplishment for our cannabis business,” commented Meni Morim, Lifeist’s Chief Executive Officer. “This award highlights the solid momentum that we are delivering in our recreational-focused B2B cannabis business CannMart now supported by distributing the output of sister cannabis entity CannMart Labs. While we understand that many investors may associate Lifeist’s cannabis business strictly with its B2C public facing medical platform at CannMart.com, it is the B2B business that has been, and is expected to continue to be, the driver of growth and value creation for our cannabis business, supported by cannabis 2.0 production at Labs.”
Added Daniel Stern, CEO of CannMart, “In calendar 2021 we focused on strengthening and growing our licensed revenue stream through distribution agreements with licensed producers, while simultaneously increasing revenue generated by our own in-house brands such as Roilty. This achievement of winning LP brand of the year, which was voted on and selected by industry peers and the public, is a huge testament to the focus, hard work and dedication of the entire CannMart team. With 2021 now behind us, our focus for 2022 remains exactly the same. We believe CannMart is well placed to serve growing consumer demand, as illustrated more and more in provincial control board product calls, for high quality cannabis products from curated high-quality producers, by serving the individual needs of exactly those producers, and by producing high quality 2.0 products of our own at Labs to be distributed and branded in consumer resonating in-house brands such as Roilty.”
About Lifeist Wellness Inc.
Sitting at the forefront of the post-pandemic wellness revolution, Lifeist is a portfolio of wellness companies leveraging advancements in science and technology to enable individuals to find their personalized path to wellness. Portfolio business units include: CannMart, which operates a B2B wholesale distribution business facilitating recreational sales to Canadian provincial government control boards; CannMart Labs, a BHO extraction facility for the production of high margin cannabis 2.0 products; and the CannMart.com marketplace, which provides Canadian medical customers with a diverse selection of cannabis products from a multitude of federally licensed cultivators and its U.S. customers with access to hemp-derived CBD and smoking accessories; Australian Vapes, the country’s largest online retailer of vaporizers and accessories; Findify, a leading AI-powered search and discovery platform; and Mikra, a biosciences and consumer wellness company seeking to develop innovative therapies for cellular health and recovery.
Information on Lifeist and its businesses can be accessed through the links below:
www.lifeist.com
www.cannmart.com
www.australianvaporizers.com.au
www.wearemikra.com
Contacts
Lifeist Wellness Inc.
Meni Morim, CEO
Matt Chesler, CFA, Investor Relations
Ph: 647-362-0390
Email: ir@lifeist.com
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release or has in any way approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release.
Source: Lifeist Wellness Inc.
Forward Looking Information
This news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not historical in nature contain forward-looking information. Forward-looking information can be identified by words or phrases such as “may”, “expect”, “likely”, “should”, “would”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “potential”, “proposed”, “estimate”, “believe” or the negative of these terms, or other similar words, expressions and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions “may” or “will” happen.
The forward-looking information contained herein, including, without limitation, statements related to the Company’s expected continued growth of its cannabis B2B business and expectations relating to Labs’ production of cannabis 2.0 products, are made as of the date of this press release and is based on assumptions management believed to be reasonable at the time such statements were made, including, without limitation, management’s perceptions of Lifeist’s standing in the online marketplace for cannabis products, Lifeist’s beliefs regarding the quality of its management, the strides the Company has made in its operations and the quality of the brands offered by CannMart, the Company’s focus on growing the business profitably, reducing operational burn and continuing to master the mechanism of moving cannabis into the market, safely and reliably, the expected demand for Cannabis 2.0 products and the growth of that market and the results of operations, operational matters, historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other considerations that are believed to be appropriate in the circumstances. While we consider these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to management, there is no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. By its nature, forward-looking information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. A variety of factors, including known and unknown risks, many of which are beyond our control, could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information in this press release. Such factors include, without limitation: competition from other players that provide similar B2B services as the Company, unforeseen developments that would delay the Company’s ability to launch additional high quality cannabis 2.0 products at Labs as anticipated and in a timely manner, the risk that the expected demand for cannabis 2.0 products in general and those to be manufactured by the Company does not develop as anticipated, regulatory risk, risks relating to the Company’s ability to execute its business strategy and the benefits realizable therefrom and risks specifically related to the Company’s operations. Additional risk factors can also be found in the Company’s current MD&A and annual information form, both of which have been filed under the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4da17d0f-8d97-4497-a70f-cbee29b28e76
