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Nightfood Announces Successful Hotel Test, Engages iDEAL Hospitality to Scale High-Margin Hotel Vertical
Management to Host Business Update Call Today at 4:30 PM Eastern Time
Tarrytown, NY, Sept. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — via NewMediaWire — Nightfood Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: NGTF), the category-pioneering company addressing America’s $50 billion nighttime snacking problem, today announced the completion of a retail pilot test in the lobby shops of a leading international hotel chain. The test, first announced in March 2021, has been confirmed a success.
As a result, the testing chain has confirmed the decision to fully launch Nightfood into their lobby shop freezers chain-wide with an expected start date in the fourth quarter of 2021 or the first quarter of 2022.
“This is a massive step in establishing and growing the projected billion-dollar night snack category, while further securing our leadership position,” remarked Sean Folkson, Nightfood founder and CEO. “The test results indicate we can expect to sell as many pints per week in a single hotel location as we do in a single supermarket. So, adding hundreds or thousands of hotels is as impactful to the top line as adding the same number of supermarkets, and projects to be significantly more profitable and more cash-efficient.”
To fully capitalize on the high-margin hotel opportunity, Nightfood has engaged iDEAL Hospitality Partners Group. Led by hospitality industry veteran Jill Dean Rigsbee, iDEAL focuses on introducing and scaling innovative hospitality-related products within the hotel/hospitality market. Rigsbee is the former long-time Director of Business Development for Avendra, North America’s leading hospitality procurement service provider.
iDEAL has been engaged to secure distribution partnerships with additional global hotel brands, oversee hospitality-related business development initiatives, and provide sales and support during the national Nightfood hotel rollout.
“Nightfood’s vision is to secure placement in all of the estimated 20,000 hotels in the United States which sell snacks in lobby retail shops,” commented Rigsbee, iDEAL CEO. “Internally, our goal is to have Nightfood’s ice cream pints, and other Nightfood snack products, in more than 7,500 hotel locations by July 31, 2022.”
iDEAL is presently engaged in Nightfood sales discussions with several major hotel chains as well as the largest Group Purchasing Organizations in hospitality, representing thousands of additional hotel properties.
Rigsbee continued, “Over the years, hotels have curated high-sugar, high-fat, high-calorie snacks in their lobby shops. We now know such snacks are disruptive and harmful to sleep quality. This was certainly unintentional and is clearly undesirable. We expect hotel executives to quickly rectify this now that sleep-friendly night snacks are finally available to them. Hotels take their obligation to support better sleep for their guests seriously. These sleep-supporting efforts can now extend out of their guestrooms and into their lobby shops. As a result, we expect Nightfood snacks to rapidly attain significant national hotel distribution.”
“Nightfood is growing an established and documented track record of strong sales velocities in the hotel environment, now confirmed by our international partner,” added Mr. Folkson. “Simultaneously, we continue to work on optimizing and growing our supermarket business. We expect to gain new supermarket distribution in the coming months for the spring resets.”
“The supermarket is an extremely competitive and expensive place in which to launch and grow a new brand. An estimated 85% of products fail within the first two years, according to Nielsen data. We have received notification that Nightfood ice cream is expected to be rotated out of Harris Teeter supermarket locations in the coming weeks. We appreciate the opportunity to service their customers over the last two years and will work toward being reinstated in their stores. We believe securing distribution in thousands of hotels in the coming months will have a radical impact on our ability to excel in the supermarket environment. We project thousands of new consumers each day discovering and trying Nightfood for the first time in the curated hotel setting. We expect this to result in accelerated consumer acceptance of the night snack category, increased supermarket sales velocities, and in cementing Nightfood’s position as the category leader.
“Widespread hotel distribution can transform us from a middle-of-the-road supermarket player to a powerful and prominent supermarket brand. RxBar built their early mainstream success with distribution in gyms. Oatly uses distribution in coffee shops like Starbucks to rapidly and efficiently scale their supermarket sales in new markets. Nightfood plans to do the same with hotels.”
Recent corporate developments and financial results include:
Completed successful retail pilot test of Nightfood sleep-friendly ice cream in the lobby grab-and-go shops of an international hotel group
Established a Board of Directors and appointed flagship strategic directors including 5-Hour Energy founder Tom Morse, venture capitalist Nisa Amoils, and sleep expert Thanuja Hamilton, M.D.
Secured distribution and introduced Nightfood on-shelf in over 1,000 Walmart locations across the country
Introduced bold new packaging design on-shelf in major retail partners, including Walmart
Appointed ice cream industry veteran, CPA Jerry Isaacson, as Chief of Finance, significantly strengthening management with expertise in ice cream logistics, manufacturing, and procurement
Strengthened the corporate balance sheet through a $4.5 million financing/refinancing round which closed in April, 2021
Eliminated, through negotiation and repayment, approximately $4,000,000 in outstanding debt and payables
Additionally, the Company is working through its annual audit review for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2021, for its annual report on form 10K expected to be filed in the coming weeks.
The most up-to-date unaudited reports show sales of Nightfood exceeded 360,000 pints of ice cream in the twelve months ended June 30, 2021, up from 262,574 for the previous year, an increase of over 37%. Gross sales are expected to come in at over $1,100,000, an increase of approximately 25% from fiscal 2020. Net revenue is expected to exceed $600,000, an increase of over 150% from fiscal 2020.
