Chill Brands
Chill Brands published a ‘trading update’ to investors this morning, revealing growth in a number of key sales channels, but stopping short of providing any solid revenue figures.
According to the CBD and wellness retailer, it has received a purchase order for its flagship nicotine free vape products, which will see them sold in an initial 60 stores in the US following a successful trial with US firm Smoker Friendly.
The US roll out will begin in 2024, seeing 13 of its vape products stocked in stores across Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Indiana.
Across the Atlantic, Chill says it has now made nearly 500 sales to independent retail stores since launching in the UK in August via its partnership with The Vaping Group, and has ‘observed a positive trend in reorder rates from independent retailers’.
Alongside the imminent roll out of its products to 1700 WHSmith travel stores, it also informed investors that it ‘is advancing negotiations to place Chill Zero in another major UK retailer’.
Online, after announcing the launch of its products on Amazon UK in October, Chill says it has sold items to just 200 individual customers, while its Chill.com marketplace has reportedly seen ‘substantial growth’ and now includes 44 third party brands.
Its CEO Callum Sommerton said: “The Company has come a long way during 2023 and I am incredibly proud of the significant milestones we have achieved.
“The coming months will see us take action on our plans to expand the retail footprint of our Chill ZERO products, secure new listings with major retailers, and further define our Chill.com marketplace as a go-to destination for health and wellness including alternative products featuring hemp, nootropics, adaptogens and other popular natural ingredients.”
The news came just a week after Chill published an updated prospectus amid plans to issue 154.7m ordinary shares to the standard segment of the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market.
Chill Brands is planning to issue the new ordinary shares following the ‘conversion of loan notes whose issue had been announced on April 26, 2022 and June 17, 2022’.
According to the prospectus, published on November 30, Chill Brands plans to issue 154, 675,220 shares at 1 pence each, alongside a further potential 19,750,574 shares ‘resulting from the exercise of warrants’.
Following the publication of the prospectus the company’s share price has dipped by over 20%, recovering slightly following its trading update a week later.
Hellenic Dynamics
Hellenic has seen its stock price increase by 22% over the past week, following the completion of its ‘capital reorganisation’.
In early November, Business of Cannabis reported that Hellenic had announced plans to enact a 100:1 share consolidation.
Last week (November 27), the company announced that its capital reorganisation had now been successfully completed, and that an application had been made to the Financial Conduct Authority for the new ordinary shares resulting from the reorganisation to be admitted to the Official List of the LSE’s Main Market ‘in place of the existing ordinary shares’.
The company stated: “As a result of the Capital Reorganisation, Shareholders will receive 1 New Ordinary Share in substitution for every 100 Existing Ordinary Shares held.
“The New Ordinary Shares have the same rights as the Existing Ordinary Shares, including voting, dividend and other rights. Immediately following the implementation of the Capital Reorganisation, it is expected that the market price of a New Ordinary Share should be approximately equal to a multiple of 100 times the market price of an Existing Ordinary Share immediately beforehand.”
Its successful consolidation, an increasingly common tactic among listed cannabis companies, came just days before a lock-in agreement expired, enabling the companies directors to sell and transfer their shares for the first time since the company listed last year.
MGC Pharmaceuticals
Its LSE-listed companion MGC Pharmaceuticals, which also completed a share consolidation last month, announced a number of changes to its board this week.
Dr Stephen Parker and Dr Ross Walker are set to step down from the company for undisclosed reasons, while Mr Daniel Robinson has been appointed as a new Non-Executive Director ‘effective immediately’.
“Mr Robinson has over 20 years’ experience in a broad range of corporate roles across stockbroking, corporate advisory, investor relations and governance. He is an experienced Company Secretary and Director of both private and listed companies. Additionally, Mr Robinson is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors,” the company stated in an RNS.
Alongside the changes to its board, MGC announced that CMC Markets UK PLC has been appointed as its new joint UK broker.
Like MGC, CMC is headquartered in London but also has hubs in Sydney, and it has been listed on the LSE since 2016.
