Tag: Poda Holdings

Altria Buys Poda Holdings’ Assets and Properties

Photo: Poda Holdings
Altria Client Services will pay $100.5 million for assets and properties used in Poda Holdings’ business of developing, manufacturing and marketing multisubstrate heated capsule technology, according to a Poda press release. The deal includes the owners’ associated patents and the company’s license of certain of those patents pursuant to an amended and restated royalties agreement dated April 12, 2019.
“This agreement represents a significant milestone for Poda and its employees,” said Ryan Selby, Poda’s CEO, director and chairman of the company’s board of directors. “Our teams have worked diligently on this technology since the company’s inception, and we believe these agreements maximize its value for the company and its shareholders.”
Poda’s multisubstrate heated capsule technology uses proprietary biodegradable single-use capsules. The design of the technology prevents cross-contamination between the heating devices and the capsules, which eliminates cleaning requirements and provides users with a convenient and enjoyable experience, according to Poda Holdings.

This agreement represents a significant milestone for Poda and its employees.
Ryan Selby, CEO, director and chairman, Poda Holdings
Poda’s technology is fully patented in Canada and is patent pending in over 60 additional countries, covering almost 70 percent of the global population.
Altria Client Services’ parent company, Altria Group, currently holds a license to distribute Philip Morris International’s IQOS HnB product in the United States. That product, however, has been subject to an import ban in the wake of an intellectual property dispute with BAT.
Analysts have also speculated on the likelihood of the IQOS distribution deal being renewed when it expires in 2024. PMI and Altria currently disagree about whether Altria has thus far met the milestones to earn the renewal option for an additional five-year deal.
May 16, 2022
Poda Moving All Pod Production to North America

Photo: Poda Holdings
Poda Holdings has signed a purchase agreement with its Chinese manufacturing partner to acquire Poda Pod manufacturing equipment, 15 patent applications related to Poda Pod technology and three Chinese trademarks for approximately CDN3.45 million ($2.7 million).
The manufacturing equipment is comprised of all proprietary custom-built equipment for Poda Pods production capable of producing an estimated 5 million Poda Pods per year. All manufacturing equipment will be shipped to Vancouver, British Columbia. The 15 patent applications were filed in China and represent unique product design and manufacturing methods applicable to the development and large-scale production of Poda Pods.
“Given the general unrest of the geopolitical situation around the globe, the company has determined it will manufacture Poda Pods in North America,” said Poda Holdings CEO Ryan Selby in a statement.
“This will reduce the amount of lag time from manufacturing to customer delivery and will provide a significant reduction in tariffs, allowing the company to be more competitive. The acquisition of the manufacturing equipment and patent applications is an important step in the growth and value of Poda, which the company believes outweighs the resulting delays in production.”
March 14, 2022
Poda’s Patent Approved for Innovative Closed-Bottom Pod

Photo: Poda Holdings
Poda Holdings has received a U.S. patent for its closed bottom vaporizer pod. The patent was granted on Dec. 28, 2021.
“Receiving this Notice of Issuance is the culmination of a substantial amount of work by Poda and our intellectual property team,” said Ryan Selby, CEO of Poda, in a statement. “The application for this invention was initially filed on March 17, 2017. After almost five years of dedicated work and substantial financial investments, I am extremely proud to have this valuable patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
“With the granting of this U.S. patent, Poda will effectively be the only company that can market a closed-ended heat-not-burn cigarette in the United States. We have already received a granted Canadian patent for this invention, and we now look forward to receiving granted patents for this application in the over 60 additional countries where this application has been filed. We believe this patent has incredible applicability in the global heat-not-burn market, and we look forward to marketing our patented products on a global scale.”
January 13, 2022
Poda and Landewyck Explore Partnership

Photo: DragonImages
Poda Holdings and Landewyck Tobacco are exploring the potential of a partnership.
The companies intend to enter into a cooperation agreement based on both parties’ intellectual property, branding, manufacturing facilities and distribution channels to develop one or more products for commercialization.
Before further developing the cooperation project, the parties intend to assess the relevance of their cooperation by implementing a trial period for blend development, which could be used for the potential cooperation products.
By bringing together Landewyck’s tobacco manufacturing and distribution expertise and Poda’s patented heat-not-burn technology, the aim is to develop a consumer-centric product offering both convenience and optimal flavor in the reduced-risk sphere.
“We’re very excited to further strengthen our collaboration with Ryan and the Poda team,” said Georges Krombach, general manager of export and new-generation products for Landewyck, in a statement. “The technology and intellectual property behind Poda are disruptive and deliver a strong customer experience. By adding our tobacco and our European regulatory and distribution expertise, we expect to have great success in the European marketplace.
“We manufacture tobacco and cigarettes at our own facilities exclusively in Western Europe and attach great importance to maintaining the highest manufacturing, working and product standards that are socially acceptable to our consumers, partners and importers worldwide. Our master tobacco blenders travel to the farthest reaches of the globe to hand select the best leaves, hence ensuring the unique flavor of our tobacco products—and all so our customers can enjoy the ultimate in tobacco pleasure.
“From product and manufacturing standards to employees and retailers, we always ensure that our business decisions and the products we supply are in keeping with our family spirit and upholding our tradition of delivering 100 percent quality, flavor and customer satisfaction.”
“This marks another milestone in Poda’s commercialization efforts in Europe and abroad,” said Ryan Selby, Poda’s CEO. “Landewyck has been working in the tobacco space for over 170 years and brings a tremendous amount of manufacturing and distribution experience and expertise. We intend to get moving immediately on the blend development trial and hope to move quickly into large-scale commercialization of the cooperation products.”
January 12, 2022
Christoph Tepr Joins Poda Holdings

Photo: Andryei Yalanskiy
Tobacco industry veteran Christoph Tepr has joined Poda Holdings as vice president of European sales & international expansion effective Jan. 17, 2022. In the interim, Tepr has joined the company’s global advisory board.
Tepr has more than 15 years of commercial experience with some of the biggest tobacco and e-cigarette companies in the world, including Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and Juul Labs. His broad management experience spans sales operations, commercial deployment, brand management and professional services—targeting customers in mature and emerging product/service segments. He has helped drive the growth of iconic brands such as L&M, IQOS, and Juul.
At PMI, Tepr held several key sales and management positions and was instrumental in deploying the IQOS product into the Swiss marketplace. At Juul, Tepr was hired to build the Swiss commercial organization from the ground up and, together with his team, took the company to category leadership within 12 months of launch. Subsequently, he successfully restructured the German commercial organization for Juul. Prior to this he held a commercial leadership position with British American Tobacco, focusing on commercializing and growing their Heat-not-Burn and conventional product portfolio.
Tepr holds a MSc in International Business from Maastricht University as well as an executive certificate in Driving Strategic Innovation from IMD Lausanne / MIT Sloan.
“Poda is an agile challenger in the fast-growing heat-not-burn space,” said Tepr in a statement. “With their proprietary technology platform, Poda represents a rare opportunity that has the potential to capture significant market share and ultimately transform and expand application areas within the category—while simultaneously improving the lives of the world’s 1.3 billion adult smokers by offering them a potentially less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes. Having worked in multinational tobacco companies as well as for the fastest-growing e-cigarette start up in U.S. history, I look forward to using that experience to establish Poda’s European operations, set up a world-class team and make commercial headway into key European markets.”
“I am thrilled that Mr. Tepr has agreed to join the Poda team, both as a member of our global advisory board and, in January 2022, as the vice president of European sales & international expansion for Poda,” said Poda Holding CEO Ryan Selby. “Our goal is to build Poda into a truly global company that can challenge big tobacco head on, and we believe our superior heat-not-burn technology will allow us to do just that.”
November 2, 2021
Poda Holdings Emerges After Recent Name Change

Photo: Poda Holdings
Poda Holdings has completed the name change from Poda Lifestyle and Wellness to Poda Holdings, pursuant to a directors’ resolution announced earlier this month. The company’s shares will remain trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker symbol PODA upon the opening of the markets on Sept. 27, 2021.
The CUSIP number assigned to the company’s shares following the name change is 73044N10 4 (ISIN: CA73044N1042). No action is required by stockholders, and outstanding stock certificates are not affected by the name change and will not need to be exchanged.
In related news, the company has engaged CFN Enterprises, owner and operator of CFN Media, to provide social media and client outreach strategy services for the company.
September 28, 2021