Halo Collective Appoints Katie Field as Chairman of the Board
TORONTO, Aug. 12, 2022 /CNW/ - Halo Collective Inc. ("Halo" or the "Company") (NEO: HALO) (OTCQX: HCANF) (Germany: A9KN) today announced the appointment of Katie Field, Chief Executive Officer of Halo, to Chairman of the board of directors of the Company (the "Board"), effective immediately. Current Chairman Ryan Kunkel has resigned from the Board to focus on other professional endeavors. To the knowledge of the Company, Ms. Field is the second woman to serve as Chairman and CEO of a publicly traded cannabis company, the first being Kim Rivers of Trulieve (CSE:TRUL).
Cassidy McCord, Director, said, "It was an obvious decision to appoint Katie as Chairman of the Board. Her demonstrated accomplishments and female perspective are exactly what Halo requires at this critical time. With Katie at the helm, we are confident that Halo has the right leader to be the premier west coast-focused cannabis company, and to leverage our competitive strengths to pursue other emerging pathways to wellness. As important, with the prudent and timely actions she has taken to focus the strategy on the core business while eliminating significant cost, Katie has put the Company firmly on track to reaccelerate revenue and to return to profitability."
Ms. Field will assume the Chairman role with nearly a decade of direct cannabis experience spanning all facets of the business, including strategy, retail, corporate development, business development, HR & organization, legal & regulatory, and investor relations. She has been a key member of the Halo executive team since joining the Company in April 2019, serving initially as Chief Strategy Officer, President since February 2020, and Board member since July 2021. Ms. Field first entered the cannabis industry in 2014 at Costa Farms, where she led the procurement, build-out, and sale of one of five original vertically integrated companies in Florida; subsequently operated a strategy consulting practice focused on cannabis and also worked at MariMed as EVP of Corporate Development. Her resume includes positions at The Brookings Institution and Bain & Company. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA with honors from Stanford University.
"Since becoming CEO in early July, Katie has proven that she has the right experience and capabilities to leverage the Company's valuable assets to create tangible and sustainable shareholder value," commented Ryan Kunkel. "She has aggressively eliminated significant annual recurring costs, preserved profitable revenue and focused on tactical strategies in California and Oregon to produce near term results. I could not leave Halo in better hands. It has been a pleasure working with her and I look forward to Halo's success with Katie at the helm while I focus on my other pursuits, including helping Akanda with business development."
Ms. Field commented, "I am thrilled and honored to lead the Company at this critical juncture and look forward to building Halo's business and generating shareholder value with our more focused strategy."
Concluded Ms. Field, "On behalf of the entire Board, I thank Ryan for his exceptional guidance and incredible commitment to Halo over the past several years. His contributions and insights have been invaluable."
Among over 50 publicly traded cannabis companies in North America, Ms. Field is, to the knowledge of the Company, only the second female to serve in both the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman roles.
Halo is focused on the United States West Coast, where it has vertically integrated operations covering the entire value chain from seed to sale. Halo cultivates, extracts, manufactures, and distributes quality cannabis flower, pre-rolls, vape carts, edibles, and concentrates. Halo sells these products under a portfolio of brands, including Hush™, Winberry Farms™, its retail brand Budega™, and license agreements with Papa's Herb®, DNA Genetics, and FlowerShop*. In addition, Halo has opened two dispensaries in Los Angeles under the Budega™ brand in North Hollywood and Hollywood, with plans to open one more in Hollywood in the third quarter of 2022.
In the non-THC sector, Halo is expanding into health and wellness categories, including CBD and functional supplements such as nootropic nutraceuticals and non-psychotropic mushrooms. Halo, through a series of acquisitions, has product offerings in the form of beverages (H2C Beverages), dissolvable strips (Dissolve Medical), capsules (Hushrooms™), and topical supplements (Hatshe) with proposed national distribution via a strategic agreement with SWAY Energy Corporation.
Halo has successfully acquired and integrated a variety of companies which were subsequently reorganized to create Akanda Corp. (NASDAQ: AKAN), an international medical cannabis and wellness company, of which Halo currently owns 12,674,957 common shares worth approximately US$15.8 million as of August 9, 2022. Halo has also acquired a range of software development assets, including CannPOS, Cannalift, CannaFeels, and a discrete sublingual dosing technology, Accudab. Halo intends to reorganize these entities (including their intellectual property and patent applications) into a subsidiary called Halo Tek Inc. and to complete the distribution of the shares of Halo Tek Inc. to shareholders on record at a date to be determined.
For further information regarding Halo, see Halo's disclosure documents on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
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Adjusted Gross Profit and Adjusted EBITDA are non-IFRS financial measures that the Company uses to assess its operating performance and does not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. Management defines Adjusted Gross Profit as Gross Profit adjusted for fair value gains or losses on biological assets, and impairments included in cost of goods sold. Management defines Adjusted EBITDA as earnings (loss) before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization, as adjusted for non-cash items. These non-IFRS measures are provided to assist management and investors in determining the Company's operating performance. The Company also believes that securities analysts, investors, and other interested parties frequently use these non-IFRS measures in the evaluation of companies, many of which present similar metrics when reporting their results. As other companies may calculate these non-IFRS measures differently than the Company, these metrics may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. We caution readers that Adjusted EBITDA should not be substituted for determining net loss as an indicator of operating results, or as a substitute for cash flows from operating and investing activities. For a reconciliation of Adjusted Gross Profit and Adjusted EBITDA, please refer to "Non-IFRS Measures" in the Q1 2022 MD&A, which is available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.
This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only Halo's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of Halo's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". Forward-looking information may relate to anticipated events or results including but not limited to the planned EBITDA sooner; to the ability of the Company to become the premier west-coast focused cannabis company; the ability of the Company to accelerate revenue and return to profitability; the timing and commencement of operation of the Company's third dispensary in Hollywood; the ability of the Company to expand into health and wellness; the Company's proposed national distribution strategy and the expected spin-out of Halo Tek Inc.
By identifying such information and statements in this manner, Halo is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements. In addition, in connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, Halo has made certain assumptions. Although Halo believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. Among others, the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information and statements are the following: inability of management to successfully integrate the operations of acquired businesses, changes in the consumer market for cannabis products, changes in the expected outcomes of the proposed changes to Halo's operations, delays in obtaining required licenses or approvals necessary for the build-out of the Company's cannabis operations, dispensaries or Canadian operations, the proposed spin-out with Halo Tek Inc., delays or unforeseen costs incurred in connection with construction, delays or unforeseen difficulties in connection with the cultivation and harvest of Halo's raw material, changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; and the other risks disclosed in the Company's annual information form dated March 31, 2022 and other disclosure documents available on the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information or statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.
The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and Halo does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to Halo or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
SOURCE Halo Collective Inc.
Halo Collective Inc, Investor Relations, [email protected], www.haloco.com/investors
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