TORONTO, June 03, 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 build breakthrough companies that transform human wellness, today provided updates with respect to its wholly owned subsidiary CannMart Labs Inc. ("Labs").

Continued Progress Commercializing Proprietary Brands

Commercializing proprietary 2.0 branded cannabis products is a key part of Labs' strategy to drive higher margin growth. In recent months Labs has made solid progress commercializing its award-winning Roilty brand, with expanded capacity, increased distribution and sell-through, and development efforts toward an expanded portfolio of product formats.

The Roilty proprietary brand is now available in six Canadian provinces, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, Nunavut, and Northwest Territories, four of which are being fed products produced at Labs' facility in Etobicoke, Ontario. Labs has been successfully producing live resin since fall 2021, and having seen solid traction for co-manufactured shatter, has more recently begun commercial scale runs of Labs-produced shatter, opening up another category of Labs-produced product. Labs is currently on track for the Labs-produced shatter to be in market by fiscal Q3 2022. In total, there are now 10 Roilty SKUs in the market. Roilty vapes are performing particularly well, as are Roilty live resin products such as Priest Punch, Kings Kush and Lemon Haze. To meet increasing demand, Labs continues to add capacity month over month processing fresh frozen and dried biomass through its extraction units.

"Among the many good things coming out of the CannMart business unit is our proprietary brands initiative, and in particular, in-house production at our state-of-the-art BHO extraction facility," said Daniel Stern, CEO of CannMart. "We are providing a growing number of provinces with an increasingly diverse portfolio of cannabis 2.0 products, and even with modest price compression we are experiencing at the wholesale level, we have been able to generate strong gross margins due to our scale and efficiency. We are continuing to focus on capacity expansion, growing distribution, and R&D."

Dealer's License: Construction Approval Received

Labs has received approval from Health Canada to begin construction at its facility for future storage and distribution of certain controlled substances including psilocybin, psilocin, ketamine (ketamine hydrochloride), LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), DMT (N, N-dimethyltryptamine) and MDMA (3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), as part of its application for a Controlled Drugs and Substances Dealer's License ("Dealer's License"). While making progress in the application process with this construction approval, in the immediate term Labs will not commence construction at the facility as it instead allocates its capital and resources towards further advancing its product pipeline, promising a nearer-term path to profitability and value creation than psychedelics currently would.

"CannMart Labs is an important asset and a key part of the Lifeist wellness platform," commented Meni Morim, CEO of Lifeist. "While we still believe that psychedelics could have a place on our platform, at the moment we are prioritizing our recreational cannabis and nutraceuticals businesses where the opportunities are both significant and have clearer paths to create value for shareholders. We will continue to evaluate how to prudently advance our Dealer's License application with this in mind."

Share Issuance Related to CannMart Labs Inc. Acquisition

The Company intends to issue an aggregate of 4,375,000 common shares (issued at a deemed price of $0.0616, which is equal to the seven-day volume weighted average), without a hold period, as payment of the sixth tranche of the remaining base purchase price to the vendors under the share purchase agreement for the acquisition of Labs. The issuance is considered to be a shares for debt transaction under the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSX-V") and remains subject to TSX-V approval.

About Lifeist Wellness Inc.

Sitting at the forefront of the post-pandemic wellness revolution, Lifeist leverages advancements in science and technology to build breakthrough companies that transform human wellness. Portfolio business units include: CannMart, which operates a B2B wholesale distribution business facilitating recreational cannabis sales to Canadian provincial government control boards; CannMart Labs, a BHO extraction facility for the production of high margin cannabis 2.0 products; the CannMart.com marketplace, which provides U.S. customers with access to hemp-derived CBD and smoking accessories; Australian Vapes, Australia's largest online retailer of vaporizers and accessories; and Mikra, a biosciences and consumer wellness company seeking to develop innovative therapies for cellular health.

Information on Lifeist and its businesses can be accessed through the links below:

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 news release.

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 Labs' anticipated expanded portfolio, distribution and production of cannabis 2.0 products are made as of the date of this news 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 ability to continue focus its efforts on increasing capacity, growing distribution and R&D, Lifeist's beliefs regarding the quality of its management, the Company's focus on growing the business profitably, 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 news release. Such factors include, without limitation: unforeseen developments that would delay Labs' ability to develop and launch additional cannabis 2.0 products as anticipated and in a timely manner, costs related to increasing capacity at Labs being uneconomical, the risk that the expected demand for cannabis 2.0 products in general and those to be developed and manufactured by the Company does not develop as anticipated, the generation of revenue from such products not being 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 . 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.

Source: Lifeist Wellness Inc.