Else Nutrition Holdings is seeing its sales momentum accelerate with its plant-based toddler foods

First-mover advantage with its plant-based baby and toddler nutritional products Wide-reaching distribution agreements Experience management and advisory team What Else Nutrition Holdings does: Good nutrition begins at birth and Else Nutrition Holdings Inc (CVE:BABY) (OTCMTKS:BABYF) (FRA:0YL) has a first-mover advantage with its patented 100% plant-based, non-diary, non-soy baby and toddler nutritional products. The Israel-based company’s food items are 100% organic, vegan, natural and gluten-free, about 92% of which is made from three plants: almonds, buckwheat, and tapioca. Its products are sold under the brand name Complete Nutrition for Toddlers. Else Nutrition won the "2017 Best Health and Diet Solutions" award at the Global Food Innovation Summit in Milan. As well, its Complete Nutrition for Toddlers was recently ranked as the #1 Top seller in the baby and toddler formula category on Amazon.com. Else Nutrition also has strong Intellectual Property (IP) protection, with patents granted in 22 countries plus patents pending in another 44 nations.    The company is led by CEO Hamutal Yitzhak, the former head of Infant Nutrition at Abbott Labs Israel. And, many of Else’s advisory board members had past executive roles in companies such as Mead Johnson, Abbott Nutrition, Plum Organics and leading infant nutrition Societies, while some of them currently serve in different roles in leading medical centers and academic institutes such as Boston Children's Hospital, Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Tel Aviv University, Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, Rambam Medical Center and Technion, Israel and University Hospital Brussels, Belgium. How is it doing: Else Nutrition has been busy entering into new partnerships and boosting sales in 2021. In August, the company said it will be expanding online sales of its plant-based toddler nutrition products into owned online marketplaces by the fourth quarter of 2021.   The expansion will begin at Vitacost.com, an e-commerce healthy/organic foods site owned by US grocery chain giant Kroger.   Else Nutrition noted it is currently onboarding with Kroger Ship (of the Kroger Company), with plans to ship to Kroger customers through the Kroger.com and Vitacost.com grocery websites.   Earlier in the month, the company announced it will be expanding its reach into the western US and mountain regions with its expected new listing in all 19 Harmon’s Grocery locations by September 2021. Based out of Utah, Harmons is a leader in the grocery space in Utah, with its upscale, family-oriented approach and Harmon’s Grocery is one of the few remaining locally-owned and operated grocery chains in Utah. Also in August, Else reported that after months of R&D and trials, it had successfully completed a full-scale commercial trial manufacturing run of ready-to-drink (RTD) liquid version of its Plant-Based Complete Nutrition for Toddlers and Kids products.   Else said it intends to further use this capability to drive growth in the Kids and Toddler RTD markets across several geographies and sets the stage for being able to offer its planned infant formula in liquid format, upon receipt of FDA approval. The capacity to offer Else products in liquid format further enables the brand to penetrate hospitals with a long-awaited, Plant-Based liquid formula alternative, therein creating a critical competitive advantage for the Else brand. The hospital channel is of paramount importance in a parent/caregivers’ decision-making process when it comes choosing a formula for their baby/child, it added. Meanwhile in July, the company launched a clinical study with the Children's Hospital Colorado and University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine to validate its toddler and kids products support growth benefits in healthy young children as compared with cow-milk-based formula.  Else said the study is part of its overall efforts to establish the scientific basis for the safety and tolerance of Else Nutrition products.  Previously that month, the company said it had entered into the baby food space with the introduction of a nutritional plant-based baby cereals line suitable for those six months and older.  Else noted the cereals are aimed to further help those families struggling with dairy intolerance, as well as those embracing plant-based living, and those unwilling to accept the overly processed formulas/nutrition products currently available.   The porridge-like products, in original, banana, and mango flavors, will be available soon exclusively on elsenutrition.com, Amazon.com and other retailers. New cereal flavors are expected to be added in the future. Also in July, Else announced it will be expanding into Rouses Markets retail locations. Rouses Markets are a chain of grocery supermarkets in the US states of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi with nearly 7,000 employees. Founded in 1960, the family-owned company operates 65 supermarkets. On the corporate front, Else Nutrition recently appointed Simeon Saunders as its vice president of global medical marketing and scientific affairs and Mike Glick as the company’s general manager and vice president of Else North America, both of whom are former executives with Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT). And on the financial front, the company reported 1Q 2021 revenue that climbed 90% year over year to more than C$1.1 million. Else Nutrition ended the quarter with cash and equivalents of C$22.1 million as of March 31, 2021. Inflection points: New product line launch Additional distribution agreements Potential acquisitions What the boss says: Commenting on the company’s 1Q 2021 financial results, Else Nutrition Holdings CEO Hamutal Yitzhak said in a statement: "I am very proud of our achievements this quarter. We continued delivering rapid growth in our business while we successfully launched our first retail stores and started working with the largest US natural food distributors." Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com