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.
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.
