Benzinga | Jan 5, 2022 06:09AM EST

High Tide To Acquire Bud Room For C$3.6M

* Fastendr(tm) is a unique and fully automated technology that integrates retail kiosks and smart lockers to facilitate a better buying experience through browsing, ordering and pickup.

* The Fastendr(tm) technology offers faster transaction times, increased average basket size, lower overhead and labor costs, and provides a seamless end to end customer experience.

* High Tide through this acquisition gains ownership of the Fastendr(tm) technology which will improve the Company's competitive advantage in bricks-and mortar cannabis retail.

* A pilot conducted at Bud Room's Ottawa location found that over 60% of customers preferred to use the Fastendr(tm) kiosks and spent over 20% more when doing so.

* All existing and future Canna Cabana locations will be equipped with this customized and innovative kiosk and smart locker technology as it delivers a faster customer experience in busier retail locations while also enabling the efficient operation of smaller footprint stores.

* High Tide intends to license this technology to third party retailers starting with the cannabis industry, and expanding to other retail sectors across North America and beyond.

* This technology provides High Tide with potential new revenue generation, data collection and monetization opportunities from third party retail locations, and will further enhance the value of its Cabannalytics data insights offering.

* This technology also provides High Tide with an opportunity to digitally advertise and upsell in store to consumers at relatively low costs.

* The Bud Room retail location is currently generating annual run rates in excess of $2.4 Million in revenue and $500,000 in Adjusted EBITDA1

* In line with High Tide's ongoing strategy of securing top tier entrepreneurial talent through acquisitions, Bud Room CEO Michael Di Duca will continue to develop and deploy the Fastendr(tm) technology with continued innovations under contract with High Tide.

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1 Adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS financial measure.

CALGARY, AB, Jan. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - High Tide Inc. ("High Tide" or the "Company") (TSXV:HITI) (NASDAQ:HITI) (FSE: 2LYA), a leading retail-focused cannabis company with bricks-and-mortar as well as global e-commerce assets, is pleased to announce that it is taking yet another step to introduce innovative technology into both its bricks-and-mortar retail cannabis operations, as well as third party retailers, by entering into a definitive agreement (the "Acquisition Agreement") pursuant to which High Tide will acquire 100% of the equity interest of Bud Room Inc. ("Bud Room"), as well as assignments of the vendors' shareholder loans, for CAD$3.6 Million (the "Transaction") and acquire all rights to the customized Fastendr(tm) retail kiosk and smart locker technology and Bud Room's retail cannabis store located at 1910 St. Laurent Blvd in Ottawa, Ontario.