Greenville, South Carolina, Aug. 20, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ARCpoint Inc. (TSXV: ARC) (the “Company” or “ARCpoint”) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a transaction, dated August 20, 2024, with Any Lab Test Now, (“ALTN”) and is finalizing the process to bring together the franchise operations of both companies into a new joint venture company, CRESSO Brands, LLC. (“CRESSO”).

Any Lab Test Now CEO, Clarissa Bradstock, commented “By combining our two franchise operations, we will not only create the largest franchise network of its kind in the United States, but we expect to capitalize on the respective strengths of both franchise groups to improve both individual unit and overall economic performance. As a collaborative group, we believe that ARCpoint franchisees will benefit from the Any Lab Test Now experience gained in successfully building our mostly individual consumer business. At the same time, we believe that Any Lab Test Now franchisees will benefit from the implementation of ARCpoint’s proprietary technology platform, MyARCpointLabs, as well as ARCpoint’s experience in the B2B and employer solutions markets”.

Any Lab Test Now, (“ALTN”) based in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in 1992. It currently has more than 235 U.S. franchise locations providing direct access to clinical, DNA, and drug and alcohol lab testing services, as well as phlebotomy and other specimen collection services, through its retail storefront business model. ALTN has been recognized as one of the top 500 franchises for nine consecutive years in Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500®. Entrepreneur magazine's Franchise 500 is the world's first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking. It is not intended to endorse, advertise, or recommend any particular franchise and is solely a tool to compare franchise operations.

ARCpoint CEO, John Constantine added “In addition to the cost benefits and efficiencies of combining our respective franchise operations under CRESSO, we believe this partnership is very positive to ARCpoint shareholders in the near term as it will allow us to reduce ARCpoint’s costs, while at the same time adding a new customer to our MyARCPointLabs technology platform and increasing our distribution footprint”.

Under the terms of the agreement, both ARCpoint and ALTN have contributed their franchise operations into CRESSO Brands, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. ALTN will own 70.5% of the new entity, with ARCpoint owning the other 29.5%. Both ALTN and the ARCpoint Franchise Group (“AFG”) brands will remain and be managed on a separate basis. Clarissa Bradstock will continue to lead ALTN, as she has for the past 11 years and Bob Mann will continue to lead AFG, as he has done since April 2023. In addition to continuing his role as ARCpoint CEO, John Constantine will also act as Implementation Strategist for CRESSO and split his time with ARCpoint. Both ALTN and AFG management teams will report to a CRESSO board of directors, which will be comprised of a total of five members. Of the five directors, three will be appointed by ALTN and two by ARCpoint. The ARCpoint nominees will be John Constantine and Bob Mann.

Separately, ALTN and ARCpoint have agreed to make ARCpoint’s MyARCPointLabs technology platform the system’s choice for CRESSO brand franchisees.

Any Lab Test Now is an Arms Length party to ARCpoint and there are no finder’s fees payable in connection with this transaction.

About ANY LAB TEST NOW®
Founded in 1992, ANY LAB TEST NOW® is a franchise direct access lab testing company that provides thousands of standard lab tests to consumers and businesses in a professional, convenient, cost-effective, and transparent manner with more than 235 franchises around the United States. ANY LAB TEST NOW® offers a variety of affordable and confidential lab tests to consumers and businesses, including blood, drug, DNA, and STD testing. To learn more about lab testing near you visit https://www.anylabtestnow.com/locations

About ARCpoint Inc.
ARCpoint is a leading US-based franchise system providing drug testing, alcohol screening, DNA and clinical lab testing, corporate wellness programs, and employment and background screening, among other services. The Company is based in Greenville, South Carolina, USA. ARCpoint Franchise Group LLC, formed under the laws of the state of South Carolina in February 2005, is the franchisor of ARCpoint Labs and supports over 130 independently owned locations. ARCpoint sells franchises to individuals throughout the United States and provides support in the form of marketing, technology and training to new franchisees. ARCpoint Corporate Labs LLC develops corporate-owned labs committed to providing accurate, cost-effective solutions for customers, businesses and physicians. AFG Services LLC serves as the innovation center of the ARCpoint group of companies as it builds a proprietary technology platform and a physician network to equip all ARCpoint labs with best-in-class tools and solutions to better serve their customers. The platform also digitalizes and streamlines administrative functions such as materials purchasing, compliance, billing and physician services for ARCpoint franchise labs and other clients.

For more information, please contact:

ARCpoint Inc.
Jason Tong, Chief Financial Officer
Phone: (604) 889-7827
E-mail: invest@arcpointlabs.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this Press release.

Forward-Looking Information

This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company regarding future events. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward‐looking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include without limitation, statements regarding discussions of future plans, estimates and forecasts and statements as to management's expectations and intentions with respect to, among other things: CRESSO’s future plans as a joint venture entity.

These forward‐looking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties, and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements.

In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that: CRESSO will be able to operate as a successful joint venture entity once formed.

Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. We seek safe harbor.