Kaival Brands Expands Senior Management Team with the Appointment of Barry Hopkins as Executive Chairman

GRANT-VALKARIA, Fla., Nov. 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kaival Brands Innovations Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: KAVL) ("Kaival Brands," the "Company," or "we"), today announced that it has expanded the role of Mr. Barry Hopkins, Chairman of the Board, to the new position of Executive Chairman. In this role, Mr. Hopkins will serve as Kaival Brands’ principal executive officer. Current President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Eric Mosser, will continue to manage day-to-day operations of the Company.

Mr. Hopkins joined Kaival Brands as Chairman of the Board in March 2023. He is a 40-year tobacco industry veteran with deep operational experience and industry contacts. With his expanded responsibilities, Mr. Hopkins will play a more active role in the strategic direction and oversight of the Company with a focus on accelerating revenue growth, improving operational efficiencies and executing on Kaival Brands’ strategic initiatives.

“Since I joined Kaival Brands in March, I have become even more energized by the opportunities for our company and look forward to working with Eric and our excellent senior leadership team to refine our strategic business plan and reignite growth,” said Mr. Hopkins. “I aim to foster a culture of performance and accountability and to establish clear decision-making processes and strong communication which are essential for moving our promising business forward. I look forward to working with and supporting Eric and the team to build upon their past success and lead Kaival to the next level.”

Eric Mosser, Chief Executive Officer & President of Kaival Brands, said, “Barry has a distinguished and accomplished career with decades of experience in the tobacco industry. With a proven track record of growing sales, penetrating markets, and operational excellence, he understands what it takes for a company like ours to rapidly gain market share. We are fortunate to be able to tap his expertise and leverage his network of industry relationships to expand distribution and accelerate revenue growth.”

Mr. Hopkins spent most of his decades-long career primarily in senior sales and marketing roles for Turning Point Brands and Altria. Most recently, before becoming a management consultant, Mr. Hopkins served as Senior Vice President of Executive Organizational Development of Turning Point Brands, where he led that company’s senior management team in building the infrastructure for an enhanced performance management system and development of a new strategic planning process with a focus on mission critical initiatives to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. These initiatives contributed to eight record-setting quarters of revenue growth.

ABOUT KAIVAL BRANDS

Based in Grant-Valkaria, Florida, Kaival Brands is a company focused on incubating innovative and profitable adult-focused products into mature and dominant brands, with a current focus on the distribution of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) also known as “e-cigarettes”. Our business plan is to seek to diversify into distributing other nicotine and non-nicotine delivery system products (including those related to hemp-derived cannabidiol (known as CBD) products). Kaival Brands and Philip Morris Products S.A. (via sublicense from Kaival Brands) are the exclusive global distributors of all products manufactured by Bidi Vapor.

Learn more about Kaival Brands at .

ABOUT KAIVAL LABS

Based in Grant-Valkaria, Florida, Kaival Labs is a 100% wholly-owned subsidiary of Kaival Brands focused on developing new branded and white-label products and services in the vaporizer and inhalation technology sectors. Kaival Labs’ current patent portfolio consists of 12 existing and 46 pending with novel technologies across extrusion dose control, product preservation, tracking and tracing usage, multiple modalities and child safety. The patents and patent applications cover territories including the United States, Australia, Canada, China, the European Patent Organisation, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and South Korea. The portfolio also includes a fully-functional proprietary mobile device software application that is used in conjunction with certain patents in the portfolio.

Learn more about Kaival Labs at .

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and the statements of the Company’s management and partners included herein and related to the subject matter herein includes statements that constitute “forward-looking statements” (as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended), which are statements other than historical facts. You can identify forward-looking statements by words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “position,” “should,” “strategy,” “target,” “will,” and similar words. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Although we believe that the plans, intentions, and expectations reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there is no assurance that these plans, intentions, or expectations will be achieved. Therefore, actual outcomes and results (including, without limitation, the impact of Mr. Hopkins’ appointment as Executive Chairman on the Company’s business and results of operations) could materially and adversely differ from what is expressed, implied, or forecasted in such statements. Our business may be influenced by many factors that are difficult to predict, involve uncertainties that may materially affect results, and are often beyond our control. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: (i) future actions by the FDA in response to the 11th Circuit Court’s decision that could impact our business and prospects, (ii) the outcome of FDA’s scientific review of Bidi Vapor’s pending FDA Premarket Tobacco Product Applications, (iii) the results of international marketing and sales efforts by Philip Morris International, the Company’s international distribution partner, (iv) how quickly domestic and international markets adopt our products, (v) the scope of future FDA enforcement of regulations in the ENDS industry, (vi) the FDA’s approach to the regulation of synthetic nicotine and its impact on our business, (vii) potential federal and state flavor bans and other restrictions on ENDS products, (viii) the duration and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic and impact on the demand for the products we distribute, (ix) general economic uncertainty in key global markets and a worsening of global economic conditions or low levels of economic growth, (x) the effects of steps that we could take to reduce operating costs, (xi) our inability to generate and sustain profitable sales growth, including sales growth in U.S. and international markets, (xii) circumstances or developments that may make us unable to implement or realize anticipated benefits, or that may increase the costs, of our current and planned business initiatives, (xiii) significant changes in our relationships with our distributors or sub-distributors and (xiv) other factors detailed by us in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the disclosures under the heading “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2022, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 27, 2023 and accessible at . All forward-looking statements included in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by such cautionary statements. Except as required under the federal securities laws and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and regulations, we do not have any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements publicly, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contact:

Brett Maas, Managing Partner

Hayden IR

(646) 536-7331