Planting Hope Expands National Top-Tier Sales Broker Representation and Internal Sales and Marketing Team
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- Planting Hope expands Sales and Marketing teams with hires of key industry veterans to build on sales momentum and distribution gains laid in 2022
- The Company accelerates and expands sales reach with the addition of new top-tier national sales brokerage and consulting relationships in key channels
- The Company is hosting an investor webcast on Thursday, January 26, 2023
CHICAGO, IL and VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 24, 2023 – The Planting Hope Company Inc. (TSXV: MYLK) (OTCQB: MYLKF) (FRA: J94) (“Planting Hope” or the “Company”), a plant-based food and beverage company focused on producing the world's most nutritious and planet-friendly products, is pleased to announce the expansion and addition of key sales and marketing team members and national sales brokerage and consulting partnerships across key focus growth channels for 2023, including Club, Natural/Specialty, and Foodservice.
“Building upon the groundwork we laid in 2022, including 10,000 retail doors and 60,000 total distribution points, in 2023 we are focusing on both increasing velocity through grocery retail distribution points and scaling in the foodservice channel,” said Julia Stamberger, Co-founder and CEO. “To that end, we have added key team members and top-tier sales and business development relationships to support the accelerating momentum across our priority channels.”
Brokerage and Sales Consulting Partnerships
The Company has secured new top national sales brokerage and consulting partnerships focused on expanding Sales growth into Foodservice, Grocery, and Club channels in the United States. These top-tier groups are highly selective in their choice of brands to back and drive sales adoption and acceleration. The Company’s new relationships include:
- Foodservice Channel – BizLink assists companies to accelerate business development and sales efforts in national foodservice accounts. With 30+ years’ experience, BizLink works with top foodservice chains developing Limited Time Offers (LTOs), permanent menu items, and new platform innovations. BizLink’s areas of focus include beverages, healthy menu items, and plant-based offerings.
- Conventional, Natural and Specialty Grocery – Alliance Sales & Marketing: Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina with 13 regional offices across the United States, Alliance is a top full-service national food brokerage, providing sales representation for brands to the Retail Grocery channel, including Conventional, Natural and Specialty Food Retailers.
- Costco – Club Innovate pioneers innovative, emerging and better-for-you brands in Costco, with 15+ years of experience providing value to both Costco and their brand clients.
Planting Hope Sales & Marketing Team Development
The Company recently added industry veterans Tamar Hale, Georgia Jordan, and Corinn Williams to the Sales & Marketing teams to support Planting Hope’s rapidly scaling brands.
Tamar and Georgia were hand-selected to join the team by Chief Sales Officer Mara Ebert, who worked with both at earlier points in her career at rapidly-scaling double- and triple-digit growth food and beverage companies.
Corinn joins the Company’s Marketing team led by SVP Jeannie Andolena, to drive shopper marketing efforts and scale trial and velocity through current grocery retail placements.
Planting Hope’s Sales and Shopper Marketing teams include:
- Corinn Williams, Marketing Director: In her leadership roles in sales and marketing at Diageo, Anheuser-Busch and Fever-Tree, Corinn created strategic programming for established and challenger brands, getting products into consumer’s hands and building brand awareness, driving trial, and increasing sales. Corinn joined the Company in January 2023.
- Tamar Hale, Director of Sales, Natural Channel: Tamar is a 15-year sales veteran in the natural foods channel, focused on scaling brands from regional to national distribution, at fast-growth challenger brands like GoodPop and large consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies like Nestlé. Tamar joined the team in September 2022.
- Georgia Jordan, Director of Conventional Grocery: Georgia has more than 30 years in the CPG industry profitably scaling sales for companies such as Applegate Farms, Georgia Pacific and Quaker Maid Meats both directly and through managing a network of broker partners. Georgia joined The Planting Hope Company in May 2022.
- Wendy Lowing: Senior Sales Coordinator: Wendy provides critical support to the Sales team with data and item management expertise including Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) integration. Her experience includes Levain Bakery and Applegate Farms, where she worked with CSO Mara Ebert in a similar role.
- Emmanuel (Manu) Daval, Manager, Café and Foodservice Sales: Manu provides tactical in-market sales expertise with end-users in the café and foodservice sector. His previous foodservice experience includes Union Square Hospitality Group (Eleven Madison Park) and Guckenheimer Food Services.
- Jeannie Andolena, SVP Marketing + Ecommerce: With a background in CPG Brand Management and Ecommerce, Jeannie’s experience ranges from managing multi-million-dollar marketing budgets to launching start-up brands. Her previous positions include roles at Reckitt Benckiser, Jet.com, VEDGEco, and Walmart.
- James Curley, Co-Founder and EVP Global Business Development: A co-founder of the Company, James has more than 35 years in senior sales management and brand development leadership for Natural/Specialty CPG companies including Giorgio Foods, The Tofurky Company, Mamma Chia, Nancy’s Yogurt and others.
- Mara Ebert, Chief Sales Officer: Mara Ebert has more than 20 years of experience scaling aggressively growing, successful food brands, including Applegate Farms, Colgate-Palmolive, and GoodPop.
The Company’s Management and Organizational Chart can be found here: Planting Hope Management and Organizational Chart.
Webcast Investor Presentation Upcoming – Thursday, January 26, 2023:
The Company will be hosting a webcast investor presentation on Thursday, January 26th, 2023, at 2:00PM ET. During the webcast, CEO Julia Stamberger will conduct a presentation covering key areas of Planting Hope's business. After the formal presentation, investors will have an opportunity to ask relevant questions through an interactive Q&A portal.
To listen to the webcast or to ask questions during the live event, please pre-register at the following link:
Webcast Link: CLICK HERE - Planting Hope Investor Webcast Registration
An archived version of the webcast and presentation will be available on the Company's website, CLICK HERE - Planting Hope Investor Presentations
RightRice Acquisition Update:
When the Company acquired the RightRice business in January 2022, the purchase price was comprised of a combination of cash and two unsecured promissory notes, the first of which was paid (with interest) on March 18, 2022. The remaining promissory note, in the principal amount of US$1,000,000, had a maturity date of January 14, 2023, but the Company has the right to withhold from payment on that note in an amount equal to the Company’s good faith, reasonable estimate of the maximum amount of indemnifiable losses for Seller’s breach of representations and warranties in the Asset Purchase Agreement. The Company has exercised that right of setoff in connection with indemnification claims it has asserted against the Seller and withheld payment on the note. The Seller disputes the Company’s indemnification claims and that the Company is entitled to effect the setoff. The Company does not expect that this will have any adverse effect on the RightRice business.
About The Planting Hope Company Inc.
Planting Hope develops, launches, and scales uniquely innovative plant-based and planet-friendly food and beverage brands. Planting Hope's award-winning and cutting-edge products fill key unmet needs in the skyrocketing plant-based food and beverage space. The Planting Hope brand family includes Hope and Sesame® Sesamemilk, Barista Blend Sesamemilk, and Sesamilk™ creamers, RightRice® Veggie Rice, Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips, and Veggicopia® Veggie Snacks. Founded by experienced food industry entrepreneurs, Planting Hope is a women-managed and woman-led company focused on nutrition, sustainability, and diversity.
For more information about Planting Hope and where to find its award-winning plant-based brands please visit plantinghopecompany.com, sign up for Planting Hope news emails HERE and follow on LinkedIn. An informational webinar on The Planting Hope Company from CEO and Co-founder Julia Stamberger is available HERE. To follow the brands on Instagram and Facebook, please visit: @hopeandsesameco, @veggicopia, @rightrice, @mozaicschips.
Contacts
Company Contact:
Julia Stamberger
CEO and Co-founder
(773) 492-2243
julia@plantinghopecompany.com
Investor Relations Contact:
Glen Akselrod, Bristol Capital
(905) 326-1888 ext. 1
glen@bristolir.com
Media Contact:
Alex Jessup, Jessup PR
(323) 529-3541
alex.jessup@jessuppr.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.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively referred to hereafter as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements that address activities, events, or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will, or may, occur in the future, including statements about the Company's ability to execute on its goals, the timing pertaining to these goals the potential demand for the Company’s products, the timing and success of anticipated product launches and distribution of the Company’s products, expectations regarding the Company’s indemnification claims with respect to the acquisition of RightRice, and the Company's business prospects, future trends, plans and strategies. In some cases, forward looking statements are preceded by, followed by, or include words such as "may", "will," "would", "could", "should", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "continues", or the negative of those words or other similar or comparable words. In preparing the forward looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that demand for the Company’s product will be sustained or increase in accordance with management’s projections, that the Company’s internal research and analysis is indicative of broader market trends and the Company’s anticipated future demand for its products, that changes in consumer preferences in the plant-based food industry will continue in accordance with the Company’s expectations, that the Company’s current business objectives can be achieved and that its other corporate activities will proceed as expected, that the Company’s indemnification claims with respect to the acquisition of RightRice and right of setoff in connection therewith will not have any material adverse effect on the RightRice business and that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner. Although the management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any forward-looking statement herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company, as well as trends identified by the Company affecting its industry can be found in the Company’s annual information form dated January 6, 2022 and the Company's continuous disclosure record available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Such cautionary statements qualify all forward-looking statements made in this news release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.