Takcapital's Salarius signs food broker deal for low-sodium snacks

Intellectual property investment company Tekcapital announced that its portfolio company Salarius has signed an agreement with iLevel Brands as part of its launch of North American sales of its new ‘SaltMe!’ low sodium snack products.

The AIM-traded firm said the agreement, combined with its previously-announced distribution deal on 2 March, would expand Salarius' market penetration and brand awareness for its new potato chip snacks with retail brand placements across the entire East Coast, Midwest and Southwest geographies of the United States.

“iLevel Brands is proud to partner with Salarius,” said iLevel chief executive officer David Abrahams.

“They have created a groundbreaking and innovative solution to the challenges of sodium reduction in formulations.”

Abrahams said his company preferred representing brands such as SaltMe! as they had created a “new and innovative” solution to an important problem in the industry, with “unlimited” growth potential.

“We look forward to growing with Salarius and having a long-term partnership in the natural products industry.”

Salarius chief executive officer Victor Hugo Manzanilla said the company was “very excited” about its alliance with iLevel Brands.

“[It] will enable us to present our new innovative brand SaltMe! full flavour, low sodium snacks to numerous distributors and retailers in an accelerated time frame.”

Tekcapital said SaltMe! potato crisps were made with ‘MicroSalt’, which is Salarius' proprietary salt featuring micron-sized salt particles which dissolved in the mouth “significantly faster” than regular salt.

That delivered an increased sensation of saltiness with significantly less salt, and as a result approximately 50% less sodium.

“We are very glad to see that Salarius has signed an agreement with iLevel Brands, a premier natural food broker for its SaltMe! crisps,” said Tekcapital executive chairman Dr Clifford Gross.

“This agreement should enhance market penetration and accelerate sales growth for the SaltMe! product line in the second half of 2020.”

Tekcapital owns 91.7% of the share capital of Salarius.

In February, Salarius executives exercised stock options resulting in Tekcapital's ownership being reduced from 97.5% to 91.7%.

At 0953 GMT, shares in Tekcapital were up 5.56% at 4.75p.