Tekcapital (TEK ) says MicroSalt, a low-sodium salt developed and manufactured by its subsidiary company, Salarius, has won an award dubbing it as a ‘#1 start-up led by a P&G Alumni.’
On Saturday, the alumni network of Procter & Gamble, the multinational consumer goods corporation, held the P&G Alumni Global Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Seventy-four companies from five continents competed for the Star Entrepreneur Award at the global conference, with MicroSalt being selected as the winner for the P&G Catapult team.
The P&G team defined a five-pillar criteria to determine the winner; product; market potential; financial business model; team strength; as well as social and environmental impact.
Commenting on the win, Victor Hugo Manzanilla, Chief Executive Officer of MicroSalt® said: "Our team and I are overwhelmed and happy with this victory. It was a long and hard competition, but we successfully communicated the powerful impact that MicroSalt® will have by reducing excess sodium consumption without compromising flavour.”
MicroSalt develops a low-sodium salt called MicroSalt®. Its distinguishing feature is its small salt particles-- about one hundred times smaller than typical table salt-- that use a large surface area-to-volume ratio to generate a salty taste while using significantly less salt.
The particles of MicroSalt®, which is non-GMO and Kosher, are around 100 times smaller than table salt, allowing them to rapidly dissolve, producing a large sensation of saltiness.
“We are one step closer to achieving our mission of making a positive impact on the lives of people around the world that suffer from cardiovascular disease,” commented Manzanilla.
Decreasing the public’s sodium intake would aid the efforts to curtail heart disease, which according to the British Heart Foundation, causes more than a quarter, 27%, of all deaths in the UK; that’s more than 160,000 deaths each year – or one death every three minutes.
According to Market Researcher Future Market Insights, it is estimated that the sodium reduction market will be worth around $1.76 billion by 2025 with a CAGR of 11.8%.
Microsalt expects SaltMe! to become ‘a national brand’ in the low-sodium-full flavour snack category and that its e-commerce sales should be ‘positively impacted’, given a correlation between retail distribution, brand awareness, and expected increase in ecommerce sales.
It said MicroSalt® as a brand ‘could be elevated to a national-level ingredient,’ which it believes will encourage other food manufacturers to use MicroSalt® into their products.
Tekcapital owns 97.2% of the share capital of Salarius Ltd. and 87.1% of the share capital of MicroSalt Inc., its U.S. subsidiary.
In October 2021, shares in Tekcapital jumped after the company acknowledged a decision made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release voluntary sodium reduction goals for the food industry in what it described as “a major milestone” for the United States.
The new set of voluntary sodium reduction goals for the food industry will “provide measurable voluntary short-term (2.5-year) goals for sodium content in commercially processed, packaged, and prepared foods to reduce excess population sodium intake.”
Specifically, the goals were delivered by acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock and Susan T. Mayne, Director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, Chief Medical Correspondent of broadcast network ABC News said the news “could be the biggest, most important intervention in a generation for public health.”
Tekcapital said this morning’s news marked ‘a significant milestone’ for its subsidiary company, Salarius, which develops and manufactures the proprietary low-sodium salt MicroSalt®. In particular, it believes the new set of US FDA guidelines will encourage snack food manufacturers to reduce the sodium levels in their products across the board.
Salarius anticipates the sodium reduction goals should have a positive impact on both business-to-business (B2B) sales of MicroSalt® and retail sales of SaltMe! Crisps.
As a result, Salarius said it believes that MicroSalt® as a brand “could be viewed as a timely, nationwide solution, to help food companies meet these guidelines without sacrificing the full-flavour of their snack foods, which is key to their successful on-going sales.”
MicroSalt, Inc. has also been accepted for a roll-out of its SaltMe! crisps in one of the largest supermarket chains in North America. The news marked ‘a significant milestone’ for Microsalt and it anticipates the SaltMe! crisps will be available in more than 800 of these stores in 2022.
Speaking of its portfolio company, Tekcapital said Salarius is expected to have ‘a stronger go-to-market success story to present to other key accounts in the following months.’
MicroSalt®’s CEO, Victor Hugo Manzanilla, said: “This is a major milestone for the Company and one that we believe will lead to reduced sodium consumption for customers nationwide.”
Salarius successfully launched its innovative SaltMe!® snack line on Amazon in North America back in December 2020 with ‘demonstrable sales growth’ since the launch.
During the six months to 31 May 2021, Salarius progressed its B2B sales pipeline for Microsalt®, including advancing pricing discussions and successfully developing different flavor mixes using MicroSalt® for a number of snack manufacturers, Tekcapital reported.
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