TAAT™ Finalizes Engagement with Omnichannel CPG Sales Agency CROSSMARK, With Access to Over 100,000 U.S. Convenience Stores

by Stephanie Moyneur February 2, 2021

All three varieties of TAAT™ are now being represented by CROSSMARK, a sales and merchandising agency for CPG products that has established relationships with major retailers across all channels, with demonstrated success in commercializing tobacco alternatives that achieved dominant e-cigarette market share in the United States. CROSSMARK is presently working with the Company to begin securing widespread on-shelf retail availability of TAAT™ products for purchase by legal-aged smokers, which could include points of sale in the 100,000+ U.S. convenience stores serviced by CROSSMARK.

LAS VEGAS and VANCOUVER, FEBRUARY 2, 2021 – TAAT™ LIFESTYLE & WELLNESS LTD. (CSE: TAAT) (OTCQB: TOBAF) (FRANKFURT: 2TP2) (the “Company” or “TAAT™”) is pleased to announce that its flagship product TAAT™ is now under the representation of CROSSMARK, Inc. (“CROSSMARK”), a Texas-based sales agency of more than 25,000 employees that serves retail channels across North America as well as Canada. TAAT™ intends to leverage CROSSMARK’s existing relationships with over 100,000 convenience retailers to expand availability of TAAT™ in Ohio and potentially elsewhere in the United States. Besides food, beverage, and household products in the consumer packaged goods (“CPG”) category, CROSSMARK has also had success in commercializing tobacco category offerings in the United States. In addition to providing wholesale and retail head office listing support, CROSSMARK is to deploy an in-field execution team across both banner and independent retailers to support in-store acceptance, merchandising, and reorders of TAAT™ products. TAAT™ also seeks to leverage CROSSMARK’s extensive promotional, trade marketing, and analytics support to augment existing initiatives and potentially drive nationwide growth, as the Company works towards its sales and volume objectives for 2021.

The Company’s engagement with CROSSMARK is the result of the successful completion of a process that began in October 2020 when the Company issued requests for proposals (“RFP”) to solicit national-level representation for TAAT™ by a sales agency in the United States. After reviewing three proposals and completing due diligence, the Company entered into an agreement with CROSSMARK dated January 20, 2021 in which TAAT will work collaboratively with CROSSMARK over the next several weeks to prepare their employees to onboard TAAT™ as part of its CPG offerings and begin rapidly introducing the product line to retail accounts who sell tobacco.

The Company has entered into a representation agreement with CROSSMARK to merchandise TAAT™ to retailer clients who sell tobacco products

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Founded in 1905, CROSSMARK first rose to prominence in 1977 when it took on an inventory management project for Cadbury to mitigate difficulties with out-of-date product in stores. By the year 2000, CROSSMARK had completed over 50 mergers and acquisitions to form a nationwide full-service sales, brand management, and merchandising firm. In 2013 CROSSMARK also acquired Marketing Werks and PromoWorks, which are Chicago-based agencies specializing in end-to-end marketing and consumer engagement through in-store and out-of-store channels. The Company is confident that CROSSMARK’s comprehensive suite of services covering the entire CPG product journey can play an important role in further establishing the presence of TAAT™ in retail stores.

Diagram of CROSSMARK’s comprehensive service offerings which, collectively, are to “facilitate increased collaboration, opportunity and ultimately sales”

TAAT™ Chief Executive Officer Setti Coscarella commented, “Ever since TAAT™ was first placed on store shelves in Ohio in December 2020, we have received glowing feedback about the product from both legal-aged smokers and retailers alike. It is common knowledge in the world of business that this is only the first step towards the success of a product launch. We selected CROSSMARK to represent TAAT™ because their formula for creating, implementing, and executing strategies for CPG merchandising has been honed over decades of bringing new consumer products to mainstream retail channels. In addition to leveraging their relationships with major retailers and wholesalers across our targeted channels for TAAT™, CROSSMARK also offers an impressive suite of ‘back office’ functions including marketing, data analytics, and order processing support. Altogether, these services could enable TAAT™ to penetrate the tobacco market much more rapidly and efficiently compared to building out our own national sales and merchandising team from scratch. One only has to look at the results CROSSMARK achieved in commercializing another tobacco brand across the United States to know that they have both the experience and know-how to launch a product to an audience of legal-aged smokers, which could assist the Company in realizing its objectives for the TAAT™ product launch. We are thrilled to have CROSSMARK on our side as we seek to make TAAT™ products available to legal-aged smokers throughout the United States.”

Jeff Neihart, a Vice President and General Manager of Customer Service for CROSSMARK commented, “At CROSSMARK, we pride ourselves in our familiarity with what intrigues today’s consumers and what consistently delivers value to them. We are very selective in onboarding only a limited number of new brands each year, and it gives me great satisfaction to have found a match in TAAT™ as a novel, relevant, and ‘sticky’ product that could continue to resonate well with legal-aged smokers. Furthermore, we are confident that with the combination of our presence in the retail channels through which tobacco products are sold and our experience in executing strategies within the category of tobacco alternatives, we can amplify the value proposition offered by TAAT™ to legal-aged smokers in the United States and help the Company meet or exceed their goals. CROSSMARK has been in the business of connecting retailers with a curated range of CPG products for more than 100 years, and we are excited to introduce TAAT™ to tobacco retailers who we predict will find the product appealing and will want to carry it in their respective stores.”

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company,

TAAT™ LIFESTYLE & WELLNESS LTD.

“Setti Coscarella”

Setti Coscarella, CEO and Director

For further information, please contact:

TAAT™ Investor Relations

1-833-TAAT-USA (1-833-822-8872)

investor@taatusa.com

THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE (“CSE”) HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE, NOR HAS OR DOES THE CSE’S REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER.

About TAAT™ Lifestyle & Wellness Ltd.

The Company has developed TAAT™, which is a tobacco-free and nicotine-free alternative to traditional cigarettes offered in “Original”, “Smooth”, and “Menthol” varieties. TAAT™’s base material is Beyond Tobacco™, a proprietary blend which undergoes a patent-pending refinement technique causing its scent and taste to resemble tobacco. Under executive leadership with “Big Tobacco” pedigree, TAAT™ was launched first in the United States in Q4 2020 as the Company seeks to position itself in the $814 billion¹ global tobacco industry.

For more information, please visit https://taatglobal.com.

References

1 – British American Tobacco – The Global Market

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Often, but not always, forward-looking information and information can be identified by the use of words such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “estimates”, “intends”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken, occur, or be achieved. Forward-looking information in this news release includes statements regarding the potential launch of Beyond Tobacco™, in addition to the following: Potential actions and corresponding outcomes relating to the Company’s engagement with CROSSMARK. The forward-looking information reflects management’s current expectations based on information currently available and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed timeframes or at all. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include: (i) adverse market conditions; (ii) changes to the growth and size of the tobacco markets; and (iii) other factors beyond the control of the Company. The Company operates in a rapidly evolving environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is impossible for the Company’s management to predict all risk factors, nor can the Company assess the impact of all factors on Company’s business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

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