WLCO Well Told Company Inc

TORONTO, May 3, 2022 /CNW/ - The Well Told Company Inc. ("Well Told" or ‎the "Company") (TSXV: WLCO) (FSE: 7HO), the female-founded wellness company that offers plant-‎based supplements, remedies, and other functional wellness products, announced its financial results and operational highlights for the three months and year ended December 31, 2021.

• Net Revenue for FY 2021 increased by 78% over FY 2020, driven by gross sales* of $2.2 million, as a result of the Company's expansion in its direct-to-consumer channels, and its launch into the U.S. market in Q4;
• Gross profit for FY 2021 improved by 270% over FY 2020, driven by ongoing cost reduction efforts, greater efficiency in supply chain and economies of scale in production; this significant improvement was achieved despite a reduction in sale price of 6 SKUs to allow for increased accessibility and expansion of products that occurred in Q2 2021;
• Q4 2021 gross revenue of $623 thousand, representing a 73% increase YOY over $360 thousand in Q4 2020 and a 28% increase over $486 thousand in Q3 2021; these results are driven by its Q4 launch into US wholesale and continued online sales growth;
• Net loss and comprehensive loss was $10,170,443 for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, primarily driven by changes in fair value of convertible debentures and several non-recurring public listing fees including increases in consulting fees and wages; the Company also invested in research and development and regulatory compliance of a new line of seven powders, development of compostable packaging and increased advertising.

• The completion of a three-cornered amalgamation on October 14, 2021;
• Commencement of trading as The Well Told Company (WLCO) on the TSXV on October 22, 2021;
• Well Told's ecommerce store sales increased more than 400% during 2021 from $148 thousand to $750 thousand;
• Launched in U.S. retail with over 850 CVS stores and successfully listed on Thrive Market in December 2021;
• Launched in over 500 new stores in Canada including a major foray into the Quebec market;
• Continued to increase retail sales velocity at store level in Canada (reached 140% YOY same store sales growth in Canadian retailers);
• Launched Amazon effort in Q4 with very strong first quarter growth on the channel in both Canada and the U.S.; the Company's Bye Bye Bloating product has also already earned the coveted "Amazon's Choice" badge for bloating relief;
• Completed the development and regulatory compliance for a new line of seven powder products and new compostable packaging; these new products will be launched progressively from March 2022 to December 2022 in Canada and the US and have already been ordered by both CVS and Thrive Market in the US and Whole Foods in Canada;
• Continued the development of new SKUs for capsule line of products.

Monica Ruffo, CEO of Well Told commented, "We are very happy with the progress we made in 2021, as we continue our journey to becoming a leader in plant-based wellness. We are proud to report that by the end of 2021, we had over 15,000 points of distribution across North America. We are also excited that retailers are experiencing solid and growing sales velocity of our products, and that our products are seeing strong growth on ecommerce channels. While our going public transaction incurred high costs and one-time fees that contributed to our losses, we worked hard in parallel to gain efficiencies in our operations and cost of goods sold.  Although we recognize that the capital markets are currently challenging, our business has managed to nonetheless perform exceedingly well and we are committed to paving the way towards profitability by 2023".

• Our main priority for 2022 is to continue to move closer to profitability; to work towards this goal the Company will focus growth on the U.S. market, as well as Amazon in Canada and the U.S. and subscription sales on the Well Told website; the Company will also be looking to continue to improve cost efficiency with a focus on fulfilment, distribution and shipping costs;
• By the end of 2022 the Company has a goal of quadrupling points of distribution in the U.S. to over 7,000 as the Company expands into natural food retailers, independents, regional grocery and drug retailers;
• The Company continues to see stronger re-orders from Canadian retailers which began selling prior to 2022;
• The Company expects Amazon sales to continue to grow significantly in 2022;
• The Well Told Company expects gross revenue for Q1 2022 to be in the range of $825k to $875k, representing a 96% to 108% YOY increase versus Q1 2021 and a 32% to 40% increase over Q4 2021. The preliminary results are due to the strong performance of the Company's products in both online and retail channels with continued growth coming from the U.S.

The financial statements of the Company for the year ended December 31, 2021 and accompanying Management Discussion & Analysis (MD&A) are available at www.sedar.com.

Well Told is a female-founded, emerging plant-based wellness company that formulates, develops, distributes and sells a variety of supplements, remedies and other functional wellness products. Founded by serial entrepreneur and award-winning leader Monica Ruffo, it was after undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and deciding to take her health into her own hands that she discovered the lack of transparency and availability of clean, plant-based formulations in the wellness industry. With the mission "Clean wellness for all", Well Told's products are currently available in over 2,000 stores across Canada including several well-known retailers and recently launched in over 850 pharmacies in the U.S.

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.

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words "may", "would", "could", "should", "potential", "will", "seek", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company are intended to identify forward-looking information, including the Company's outlooks for 2022. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, and current information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including: the Company's ability to capitalize on growth opportunities and implement its growth strategy; the Company's ability to build its market share; the Company's ability to maintain brand development; the Company's ability to maintain existing customer relationships and to continue to expand its customers' use of its products; the Company's ability to obtain financing on acceptable terms or at all; the impact of competition; the Company's ability to negotiate favorable terms with retailers and distributors; the company's ability to scale its ecommerce business;  the Company's ability to continue to source ingredients and packaging for its products on favourable terms; the changes and trends in the Company's industry or the global economy; and changes in laws, rules, regulations, and global standards.

Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking information to vary from those described herein should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize. Examples of such risk factors include, without limitation: credit; market (including equity, commodity, foreign exchange and interest rate); liquidity; operational; reputational; insurance; strategic; regulatory; legal; environmental; the general business and economic conditions in the regions in which the Company operates; the ability of the Company to execute on key priorities; the Company's results of operations may be difficult to forecast; the Company is a holding company with its only asset being direct ownership of Well Told Inc.; the Company's success depends upon the continued strength of its reputation and brands; disruptions in manufacturing facilities or losses of site licenses and other qualifications could adversely affect sales and customer relationships; the Company's success depends on its ability to continue to enhance products and develop new products; the Company's suppliers and sources for materials and inputs may fail to support demand and increasing raw material costs could adversely affect margins; the Company is reliant on third parties for shipping and payment processing; the Company's ability to compete could be negatively impacted if it is unable to protect its intellectual property rights; the ability to implement business strategies and pursue business opportunities; disruptions in or attacks (including cyber-attacks) on the Company's information technology, internet, network access or other voice or data communications systems or services; the evolution of various types of fraud or other criminal behavior to which the Company is exposed; the failure of third parties to comply with their obligations to the Company or its affiliates; the impact of new and changes to, or application of, current laws and regulations; granting of permits and licenses in a highly regulated business; the overall difficult litigation environment; increased competition; changes in foreign currency rates; increased funding costs and market volatility due to market illiquidity and competition for funding; the availability of funds and resources to pursue operations; critical accounting estimates and changes to accounting standards, policies, and methods used by the Company; the occurrence of natural and unnatural catastrophic events and claims resulting from such events; and risks related to COVID-19 including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, economic activity, financing, supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession; as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's disclosure documents filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com. Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law.

This press release contains certain pre-released 2022 first quarter financial metrics. The first quarter financial metrics contained in this press release are preliminary and represent the most current information available to the Company's management, as financial closing procedures for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022, are not yet complete. The Company's actual financial statements for such period may result in material changes to the financial metrics summarized in this press release (including by any one financial metric, or all of the financial metrics, being below or above the figures indicated) as a result of the completion of normal quarter end accounting procedures and adjustments, and also what one might expect to be in the final consolidated financial statements based on the financial metrics summarized in this press release. Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in this press release are based upon reasonable assumptions, the Company can give no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from these expectations. 

* NON-IFRS FINANCIAL MEASURES 

 "Gross Sales" is a Non-GAAP and Non-IFRS financial measure that does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP or IFRS. The Company's presentation of this financial measure may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Gross Sales is a measure the Company uses as an indicator of the true size of activities of sales and growth of the company as it includes all goods sold including those sold for payment in kind and media barters. The following table shows our Non-IFRS measure (gross sales) reconciled to our gross revenue. 

SOURCE Well Told Inc.