HOLLYWOOD, FL, Sept. 20, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Healthy Choice Wellness Corp. (“HCWC” or the “Company”) (NYSEAM: HCWC), a holding company focused on providing consumers with healthier daily choices with respect to nutrition and other lifestyle alternatives.
My name is Jeff Holman and I serve as the Chief Executive Officer of Healthy Choice Wellness Corp. (HCWC: NYSEAM). On Monday, Healthy Choice became an independent company with a singular focus. I am incredibly proud of what our team has accomplished with this milestone and am excited to continue this journey alongside our customers and shareholders. This is week one of unlocking vast new potential for our company.
In the way of a brief history, Healthy Choice is a spinoff of the Natural and Organic Health Food Grocery and Wellness divisions of our former parent company, Healthier Choices Management Corp., which traded on the OTC Pink.
With its new independent status as a publicly-traded company, Healthy Choice is well positioned to use our stronger balance sheet, equity currency and access to capital markets to capitalize on the many attractive investment opportunities in our fragmented space.
Over the past eight years, we have grown the Natural and Organic Health Food Grocery division from an idea to 19 stores, doing business in six states, employing over 500 people, and are expecting to reach annualized revenue of approximately $78,000,000 in 2025 with its current stores.
We achieved this monumental growth through the acquisition of 6 groups of stores, without the benefit of a major exchange listing to facilitate easier access to capital. Despite this obstacle, every acquisition opportunity that passed our rigorous evaluation and offered substantial value was brought to fruition through our strategic efforts.
By way of example, our year over year growth from 2022 to 2023 was 92% raising topline revenue from $29.3mm to $55.7mm.
The stores we acquire do not resemble those of a national chain. These stores are independently owned, family managed “mom-and-pops,” if you will, and are staples of their respective communities. Most of the owners have been in business for decades, have brought their children into the businesses and the stores have a significant local following. In fact, compared to our competitors, they stock their shelves with a considerable number of products sourced from local vendors and literally feed their own communities.
These owners are typically reaching the end of their career horizons but do not want to sell to a large chain that will dismantle all that they have built. They still live in their communities and want their legacies and the employment of their employees to continue. It is not atypical for staff members to have been with these stores for decades.
These are some of the reasons why their customer base is loyal to them, along with invariably exceptional customer service.
In contrast to our large chain competitors, our commitment to community engagement has resonated deeply with both store owners and loyal customers, and the overwhelming majority of employees who have chosen to stay on after acquisitions underscores the success of our approach. It is this loyalty that we strive to maintain, not only because we become a part of their communities, but because for our shareholders this is what drives our sales and profitability model.
Our strategy is a simple and time tested one, growth through acquisition and efficiency. However, we are not a typical “roll up” story. It is our mission to continue to operate the stores under their current banners and continue to facilitate their unique cultures and connections to the communities they serve.
The results of this philosophy: independent sellers are extremely receptive to being acquired by us. This dynamic in turn enables us to negotiate very reasonable and cooperative purchase agreements which typically take the form of a multiple of their bottom-line EBITDA.
However, worth mentioning is that their bottom line is not our bottom line once we incorporate and streamline their operations. There are several reasons why we raise profitability on day one following an acquisition, most notably is our significantly better buying power with the major distributors and larger economies of scale when it comes to areas like payroll, insurance and accounting.
Another factor in our favor is that our larger competitors have no interest in buying these 1-10 store chains because they are frankly too small.
Our plan: continue our proven track record of consistent, responsible growth focusing on businesses that fall within our model.
Near term: We will seek to complete another acquisition either before year end or early in the 1st quarter of next year, which could bring our top-line annualized revenue to over $100,000,000 to begin fiscal 2025; yet another milestone.
Mid term: With our newfound path to obtain proper funding, some of which is already in place, identify and close multiple acquisitions in 2025.
Long term: Continue to grow and increase profitability and shareholder value through these unique acquisitions.
Healthy Choice also benefits from a proven leadership team and an outstanding Board of Directors. With a strong accounting team in place, led by John Ollet, our Chief Financial Officer, formerly with Payless Shoes and Tiger Direct (owner of Comp USA), and our Chief Operating Officer, Christopher Santi, who is a former restauranteur, has a strong background in retail & national sales, has been with the Company for over 12 years, and has steward the integration of all six of the Company’s acquisitions, we are poised to accelerate our successful growth efforts of the past.
With regards to the investment side of our recent listing, spinoff investors typically see share price volatility short-term due to the number of new shares issued into the market and also due to a company's newness and lack of stand-alone financial results. Management believes that the dividend stock distributed to shareholders of the former parent company is exerting selling pressure, causing the company's current stock price to be lower than it should be. We hope that our investors will understand our goal of creating long-term value and our expectation that our growth and success will be reflected in our stock price over the next 12 months.
We hope that you will join us on this journey and help us to continue to grow, increase our worth and shareholder value, keep local folks working, and provide a safe haven for independent operators to fulfill their lifelong goals of selling their legacies to people who care about their employees and their communities the way that they have for decades.
About Healthy Choice Wellness Corp.
Healthy Choice Wellness Corp. is a holding company focused on providing consumers with healthier daily choices with respect to nutrition and other lifestyle alternatives.
Through its wholly owned subsidiaries, the Company operates:
Ada’s Natural Market, a natural and organic grocery store offering fresh produce, bulk foods, vitamins and supplements, packaged groceries, meat and seafood, deli, baked goods, dairy products, frozen foods, health & beauty products and natural household items (www.Adasmarket.com).
Paradise Health & Nutrition’s three stores that likewise offer fresh produce, bulk foods, vitamins, and supplements, packaged groceries, meat and seafood, deli, baked goods, dairy products, frozen foods, health & beauty products and natural household items (www.ParadiseHealthDirect.com).
Mother Earth’s Storehouse, an organic and health food and vitamin store in New York’s Hudson Valley, which has been in existence for over 40 years (www.MotherEarthStorehouse.com).
Greens Natural Foods’ eight stores in New York and New Jersey, offering a selection of 100% organic produce and all-natural, non-GMO groceries and bulk foods; a wide selection of local products; an organic juice and smoothie bar; a fresh foods department, which offers fresh and healthy “grab & go” foods; a full selection of vitamins & supplements; as well as health and beauty products. (www.Greensnaturalfoods.com).
Ellwood Thompson’s, an organic and natural health food and vitamin store located in Richmond, Virginia (www.ellwoodthompsons.com).
GreenAcres Market, an organic and natural health food and vitamin chain with five store locations in Kansas and Oklahoma. GreenAcres Market is a chain of premier natural foods stores, offering organic and all natural products and vitamins from both top national brands as well as locally sourced specialty brand (www.greenacres.com).
Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Healthy Choice Wellness, LLC, the Company operates a Healthy Choice Wellness Center in Kingston, NY and has a licensing agreement for a Healthy Choice Wellness Center located at the Casbah Spa and Salon in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The Company continues to seek out locations for new Healthy Choice Wellness Centers but there are not currently any agreements in place for the opening of any new locations.
Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Healthy U Wholesale, the Company sells vitamins and supplements, as well as health, beauty and personal care products on its website www.TheVitaminStore.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of that term in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934). Additional written or oral forward-looking statements may be made by the Company from time to time in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or otherwise. Statements contained in this press release that are not historical facts are forward looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and are based on management’s estimates, assumptions and projections and are not guarantees of future performance. The Company assumes no obligation to update these statements. Forward looking statements may include, but are not limited to, projections or estimates of revenue, income, or loss, exit costs, cash flow needs and capital expenditures, statements regarding future operations, expansion or restructuring plans, including our recent exit from, and winding down of our wholesale distribution operations. In addition, when used in this release, the words “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” and “plans” and variations thereof and similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements.
Factors that may affect our future results of operations and financial condition include, but are not limited to, fluctuations in demand for our products, the introduction of new products, our ability to maintain customer and strategic business relationships, the impact of competitive products and pricing, growth in targeted markets, the adequacy of our liquidity and financial strength to support its growth, and other information that may be detailed from time-to-time in our filings with the SEC.
