PlantX Life (VEGA.C) announced today that through PlantX Lifestyle USA, the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, it has entered into a purchase agreement dated May 17, 2021 to acquire all of the issued and outstanding membership interest of Matthew Kenney Cuisine Global’s (MKC’s), New Deli.
“This new acquisition strengthens PlantX’s position as a leading plant-based company, while facilitating the Company’s physical and e-commerce expansion across North America…In addition to e-commerce, PlantX has always believed that an interactive one-stop-shop that consumers interested in plant-based living could visit, should be accessible throughout the United States and Canada – a void that New Deli by PlantX plans to fill,” said PlantX CEO, Julia Frank.
Last month, PlantX entered into a partnership and arranged acquisition with Chef Matthew Kenney, founder of Matthew Kenney Cuisine and Matthew Kenney Culinary. The partnership was intended to support the growth of Chef Kenney’s plant-based neighborhood store, New Deli. New Deli is a Venice Beach, California-based retail location that is styled as a modern convenience store. With this in mind, the store offers consumers a wide variety of products including household supplies, hygiene products, frozen foods, pantry items, snacks, beer and wine.
Despite COVID-19 factors and restrictions, New Deli experienced strong year-over-year growth in revenue and profitability. This includes a 1.75x increase in gross revenue based on Q1 2021 annualized results compared to the company’s year ended financial results for 2019. With this in mind, PlantX’s acquisition of New Deli demonstrates the Company’s continued commitment to bringing sustainable and healthy products to consumers through its brick-and-mortar locations. Although the PlantX is currently in the midst of opening several brick-and-mortar stores, including its recent Squamish location, the Company remains focused on expanding its ecommerce platform as a one-stop-shop for its North American consumers.
“New Deli’s story has always been to reinvent the concept of a modern plant-based boutique store, which is fully aligned with PlantX’s mission to revolutionize the plant-based industry and develop exciting signature brick-and-mortar locations…This acquisition will create new meaningful pathways that will transform and advance PlantX’s strategic expansion plans across the U.S. and Canada,” said Sean Dollinger, PlantX Founder.
According to the terms of the acquisition, PlantX will acquire all of the issued and outstanding membership interests of New Deli for an aggregate purchase price of USD$1,569,999. Following the acquisition, New Deli will be rebranded as ‘New Deli by PlantX’. Furthermore, New Deli by PlantX stores will be launched globally and will be operated in collaboration with the MKC team. In addition to its current selection of ecommerce products, PlantX plans to add beer and wine to its list of products by leveraging New Deli’s merchandising expertise. Keep in mind, the North American beer market is expected to reach USD$102.69 billion by 2024, reaching a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.7% between 2019 and 2024.
PlantX Life’s share price opened at $0.55 today, up from a previous close of $0.50. The Company’s shares are up 6% and are currently trading at $0.53 as of 11:29AM ET. This indicates that there has been some noticeable change following the news.
