Rritual Superfoods (RSF.C), a plant-based consumer wellness brand, announced today that is has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) with NEXE Innovations with the intent to form a strategic partnership leveraging the combined strengths of both companies.

“Rritual aims to define the superfoods category throughout the North American retail landscape, driving consumer loyalty with unmatched products that can be held to the highest standard on all fronts…Together, Rritual and NEXE can achieve a shared set of objectives, demonstrating best practices for plant-based, compostable packaging for an exclusive line of beverage products – something we see today as critical to our brand promise, but which in the future will be necessitated, as mass retail buyers we are working with have indicated,” commented Rritual CEO, Mr. David Kerbel.

Approximately 56 billion single-serve coffee pods are discarded to the landfill every year, which equates to roughly 400 coffee pods per second. With this in mind, NEXE is a leader in plant-based material manufacturing and has developed its NEXE pods, one of the only patented, fully compostable, plant-based, coffee pods for use in popular single-serve coffee machines. In addition to being compatible with leading coffee format machines like Keurig, NEXE just recently announced that it is set to begin production of its Nespresso compatible compostable pods. Furthermore, NEXE pods are non-toxic to soils, have more volume capacity than conventional capsules, and are fully compostable in as little as 35 days.

While NEXE is focused on manufacturing sustainable plant-based packaging, Rritual is committed to the well-being of its consumers. With its flagship collection of certified organic adaptogen products, including Lion’s Mane Focus, Reishi Relax, and Chaga Immune, the Company is poised to dominate the functional mushroom and plant-based wellness sectors. For context, adaptogens refer to natural plant-based, healing blends of medicinal mushrooms, super herbs, roots and fruit powders. Adaptogens are intended to balance the body’s adrenal system to regulate mental, physical, and emotional stress. Moreover, adaptogens keep the body’s nervous and cognitive system strong and promote a healthy internal ecosystem.

“NEXE is thrilled with our first strategic partnership…Aligning with Rritual will increase sales for fully-compostable capsules delivering on our mission to eliminate single use plastic. The single serve format will enhance the superfood experience and we look forward to working with Rritual to meet their compostable packaging needs,” stated Darren Footz , CEO of NEXE.

In addition it its latest announcement, Rritual has also partnered with Crossmark, one of the leading national sales and marketing agencies in North America. This partnership is expected to accelerate Rritual’s growth and retail store penetration. Through its expertise and over 100 years of experience, Crossmark will facilitate the commercialization of Rritual’s products across the United States. By as early as the end of 2022, Rritual plans to establish over 40,000 points of distribution in the U.S. with Crossmark’s assistance, which is expected to cut the Company’s original timeline in half.

In collaboration with NEXE, Rritual hopes to leverage its product development for innovative adaptogens with NEXE’s plant-based, single-serve packaging to maximize consumer experience. Both companies will work together on a variety of tasks including testing in areas of taste profile and mixability. The initial product developed by Rritual and NEXE will be branded as Rritual Superfoods Pod ‘powered by NEXE’. Moreover, Rritual’s initial line of pods will be added to a variety of platforms including the Company’s ecommerce site and Crossmark’s sales and distribution network of over 3,000 retailers.

With this in mind, Rritual is poised to meet several major milestones, including the availability of its products in 5,000 retail locations across the U.S. by the end of 2022. As harmful single-serve plastics are slowly being phased out from restaurants and retailers, Rritual’s partnership with NEXE has provided the Company with a foot in the green packaging market with is expected to reach USD$413.8 billion by 2027.

Rritual Superfoods’ share price opened at $0.61 today and is currently trading at $0.60 as of 11:38AM ET. This indicates that there has not been any significant change following the news.

Fill Disclosure: Rritual Superfoods is a marketing client of Equity Guru.