TORONTO, Jan. 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lift & Co. Corp. (“Lift & Co.” or the “Company”) (TSXV:LIFT) (OTCQB:LFCOF) is pleased to announce the results of the fourth-annual Lift & Co. Cannabis Business Conference (LCBC) and Expo Vancouver, which took place January 9-11, 2020.
This was Canada’s first major cannabis event of the year and occurred just as Cannabis 2.0 started rolling out across the country. New cannabis product formats are a highly anticipated market catalyst, estimated to bring in more than $2.5 billion annually, making LCBC and the Expo an essential launchpad for new products and a must-attend event for brands looking to resonate early with new consumers.
Highlights included:
- Lift & Co. streamlined the Expo weekend to one Industry Day and one Consumer Day to offer more targeted programming for each attendee segment;
- The total number of exhibitors at the Lift & Co. Cannabis Expo increased 15% to over 300 booths covering 162,000 square feet of the Vancouver Convention Centre;
- Total revenues were $2,574,832 for the event, an increase of 14% compared to the 2019 Vancouver event, with operating margin expected to be similar to previous Expos, in the range of 40% to 50%;
- The weekend featured over 120 speakers, including the industry’s top thought leaders from Canada and around the world;
- Several new products launched at the Lift & Co. Cannabis Expo including: BevCanna, who served non-infused versions of its upcoming iced tea and sparkling botanical drink; Haven St. introducing its new line-up of 5 premium infused teas; TOQi which launched the industry’s first wireless charging vape pen; and more.
“The increase in both exhibitors and revenue this year in particular demonstrates the value of the Lift & Co. events platform in the cannabis industry. We’re proud to see this continued growth in our events business, especially during a time when overall growth in the market didn’t always meet expectations,” said Matei Olaru, CEO of Lift & Co. “As we look ahead to a brand-new year in the industry, this Vancouver conference and tradeshow illuminated a vibrant future filled with opportunity, making it a must-attend event for investors, professionals and consumers now and in the future.”
The industry programming at the 2020 Vancouver LCBC and Expo signaled the evolution of cannabis into the next major consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. Following the launch of Cohesion by Lift & Co. in 2019 and the subsequent introduction of Cohesion Segmentation—powered by Nielsen, Lift & Co. also further solidified its position as a CPG data player to-watch in 2020 at the event. The Company’s Chief Revenue Officer, Jon Kamin, shared the stage with executives from two of the Company’s key partners from 2019, Nielsen and EY Canada, for Thursday’s LCBC Keynote, moderated by Ipsos, on data analytics, consumer segmentation and creating a data-centric organization in cannabis. On the Expo Fire & Flower Stage, Sean Copeland, VP of Data, Lift & Co. honed in on data and market research alongside representatives from IBM Canada, Ipsos, and BDS Analytics.
Cohesion is a cannabis consumer insights platform with national coverage, launched by Lift & Co. on September 10, 2019. Cohesion draws from millions of Lift & Co.’s cannabis consumer and budtender data points, accumulated through verified reviews, purchase receipts and brand research on the Lift.co and CannSell platforms. In November, 2019, Lift & Co. announced a strategic partnership with Nielsen for an industry-first cannabis consumer profiling and segmentation tool, Cohesion Segmentation - powered by Nielsen, followed by the addition of Adobe Advertising Cloud demand-side-platform (DSP) in December, 2019. This enhancement gives Cohesion clients the ability to understand their target consumer segments and their likely purchase habits, and then seamlessly deliver compliant programmatic advertising and digital media buys to these segments through one platform. Cohesion is available today to industry participants as a monthly service by contacting the Company.
At its booth, Lift & Co. also revealed an early version of the new Lift & Co. App, a new offering that will bring the power of the Lift.co platform into the pockets of consumers and budtenders. Within the app, consumers or budtenders can take a photo of a cannabis package label for immediate access to the tens of thousands of cannabis product reviews on Lift.co. After a purchase, consumers can upload a photo of their receipt directly on the app to earn Lift Points. The app is a new source for much-needed product education from Lift & Co. and will further enable the Company to tap into essential consumer and retail data insights available to the cannabis industry through Cohesion. More on the Lift & Co. App will be announced in the coming months.
The flagship Lift & Co. Cannabis Business Conference and Expo Toronto 2020 will take place May 28 - 31, 2020.
About Lift & Co.
Lift & Co. (TSXV: LIFT) (OTCQB: LFCOF) is a publicly traded technology company modernizing the cannabis industry.
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SOURCE Lift & Co. Corp.
Contact Information:
Lift & Co.:
Nikki Laoutaris,
Director, Communications, Lift & Co.
1-647-464-0148
nlaoutaris@lift.co
Kasia Malz
Chief Financial Officer, Lift & Co.
416-953-6657
kasia@lift.co
Investor Relations:
Thesis Capital
Prit Singh,
905-510-7636,
psingh@thesiscapital.ca
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b4e6f9c9-5624-48fc-80dc-1ecc7ae828d9.