• Planting Hope launched its full product assortment (more than 60 Stock Keeping Units, each a "SKU") on the Walmart.com marketplace, making products available to millions of Walmart shoppers across the United States
• Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips in bilingual Canadian-compliant packaging are now available on Amazon.ca
• Wholesale and bulk RightRice^®, Hope and Sesame^®, and Mozaics™ foodservice items are now available on leading wholesale channel Faire.com and on PlantingHopeBrands.com
• New cross-brand "Plant-Based Starter Kit" is top seller on PlantingHopeBrands.com, reflecting consumer interest in initiating plant-based diets

CHICAGO, IL and VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 9, 2023 / The Planting Hope Company Inc. (TSXV:MYLK)(OTCQB:MYLKF)(FRA:J94) ("Planting Hope" or the "Company"), a plant-based food and beverage company focused on producing the world's most nutritious and planet-friendly products, is pleased to announce significant expansion of its e-commerce sales listings, including the debut of the full shelf-stable Planting Hope product assortment on Walmart.com. Products from all four Planting Hope brands, including Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk, RightRice^® Veggie Rice, Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips, and Veggicopia^® Veggie Snacks, are now available to shoppers across the United States through Walmart.com, an e-commerce marketplace that receives up to 100 million unique visitors a month.

"Making our products available online dramatically increases our ability to reach consumers across North America easily and conveniently; this is especially important for ‘pantry staple' products like Planting Hope's, which consumers use daily and keep on hand in their kitchens," said Jeannie Andolena, Planting Hope SVP of Marketing and E-commerce (and Jet.com/Walmart.com alumna). "Consumers have adapted to the ‘instant convenience' of online shopping, especially for food staples, and Planting Hope's products are now available across Walmart.com and Amazon.com, the top two online retailers that collectively make up more than 45% of retail e-commerce in the United States."

Amazon.ca Expansion:
Planting Hope is continuing to roll out products to online retailers servicing Canadian customers, and Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips are now available for purchase on Amazon.ca in new bilingual Canadian-compliant packaging, alongside sister brand Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk.

Online Bulk and Wholesale Product, Distribution Expansion:
In addition to direct-to-consumer e-commerce channels and product listings, Planting Hope has also expanded its listings of bulk products on wholesale websites. Bulk packs of Hope and Sesame^® Barista Blend Sesamemilk, Original RightRice^® Veggie Rice, and Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips are now available on leading wholesale website Faire.com and on PlantingHopeBrands.com, including a bulk 5lb bag of Original RightRice^®.

"We are seeing increased interest from small businesses, cafés, and independent retailers in buying wholesale and bulk plant-based food and beverage brands to use in foodservice applications or to sell to consumers in their establishments," said Jeannie Andolena. "We are pleased to make direct-shipping of wholesale and bulk products conveniently available through multiple outlets, broadening options to purchase our products."

New Cross-Product SKU, the "Plant-Based Starter Kit" Launches with Veganuary:
Launched in January 2023 in conjunction with the Company's support for Veganuary, the new cross-brand product offering, the Planting Hope "Plant-Based Starter Kit", provides a sampler of customer-favorite items from Planting Hope.

Upon launch, this item immediately proved to be extremely popular with consumers and has now become a best-selling SKU at PlantingHopeBrands.com. Inspired by Veganuary, a movement focused on encouraging consumers to adopt a vegan diet for the month of January, the popularity of the "Plant-Based Starter Kit" reflects the increasing appetite from consumers to incorporate more plant-based food and beverages into their diets.

The kit also emphasizes one of the opportunities realized through a multi-brand business model focused on a common customer (which for Planting Hope is the Female Flexitarian): to cross-introduce multiple products to the same consumer, leveraging more efficient and effective communication and marketing spend.

Initially intended as a limited-time offer, given the positive response to and continued success of the "Plant-Based Starter Kit", this item will remain available for purchase ongoing on PlantingHopeBrands.com.

About Walmart
Starting as a small discount retailer in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962, Walmart now operates approximately 10,500 stores and clubs under 46 banners in 24 countries, and e-commerce websites. As one of the world's largest brick-and-mortar retailers, they are also one of the fastest growing and most dynamic e-commerce organizations. Their largest website, Walmart.com, sees up to 100 million unique visitors a month (per comScore), and is growing every year. In 2016, Walmart acquired Jet.com and began expanding its portfolio of e-commerce sites. Walmart.com/about.

About Veganuary
Veganuary is a non-profit organization that encourages people worldwide to try vegan for January and beyond. During the 2022 campaign, more than 620,000 people took their pledge to try a vegan diet, while more than 1,540 new vegan products and menu options were launched in their key campaign countries. Throughout the year, Veganuary encourages and supports people and businesses alike to move to a plant-based diet as a way of protecting the environment, preventing animal suffering, and improving the health of millions of people. Veganuary is supported by multiple vegan celebrities, including Joaquin Phoenix, Emily Deschanel, Billie Eilish, and Paul McCartney. Veganuary.com.

About The Planting Hope Company Inc.
Planting Hope develops, launches, and scales uniquely innovative plant-based and planet-friendly food and beverage brands. Planting Hope's award-winning and cutting-edge products fill key unmet needs in the skyrocketing plant-based food and beverage space. The Planting Hope brand family includes Hope and Sesame^® Sesamemilk, Barista Blend Sesamemilk, Sesamilk™ creamers, RightRice^® Veggie Rice, Mozaics™ Real Veggie Chips, and Veggicopia^® Veggie Snacks. Planting Hope products are currently found in more than 15,000 retail doors and 70,000 total distribution points across North America. Founded by experienced food industry entrepreneurs, Planting Hope is a women-managed and women-led company focused on nutrition, sustainability, and representation.

For more information about Planting Hope please visit plantinghopecompany.com, sign up for Planting Hope news emails HERE and follow on LinkedIn.

An informational webinar on The Planting Hope Company from CEO and Co-Founder Julia Stamberger is available HERE.

To follow the brands on Instagram and Facebook, please visit: @hopeandsesameco, @rightrice, @mozaicschips, @veggicopia.

To find Planting Hope products at a store near you in the United States or Canada, please visit the store locator on each brand website: Hope and Sesame store locator, RightRice store locator, Mozaics Real Veggie Chips store locator. Planting Hope products are also available at plantinghopebrands.com and e-commerce retailers including Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.

Contacts

Company Contact:
Julia Stamberger
CEO and Co-Founder
(773) 492-2243
julia@plantinghopecompany.com

Investor Relations Contact:
Glen Akselrod, Bristol Capital
(905) 326-1888 ext. 1
glen@bristolir.com

Media Contact:
Alex Jessup, Jessup PR
(323) 529-3541
alex.jessup@jessuppr.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively referred to hereafter as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements that address activities, events, or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will, or may, occur in the future, including statements about the Company's ability to execute on its goals, the timing pertaining to these goals, the potential demand for the Company's products, the timing and success of anticipated product launches and distribution of the Company's products, and the Company's business prospects, future trends, plans and strategies. In some cases, forward-looking statements are preceded by, followed by, or include words such as "may", "will," "would", "could", "should", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "continues", or the negative of those words or other similar or comparable words. In preparing the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that demand for the Company's product will be sustained or increase in accordance with management's projections, that the Company's internal research and analysis is indicative of broader market trends and the Company's anticipated future demand for its products, that changes in consumer preferences in the plant-based food industry will continue in accordance with the Company's expectations, that the Company's current business objectives can be achieved and that its other corporate activities will proceed as expected, and that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner. Although the management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any forward-looking statement herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company, as well as trends identified by the Company affecting its industry can be found in the Company's annual information form dated January 6, 2022 and the Company's continuous disclosure record available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Such cautionary statements qualify all forward-looking statements made in this news release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE: The Planting Hope Company Inc.