Charlotte's Web Enters Employee Health Benefits Channel in Partnership with SBM, LLC.

Launching Hemp CBD Wellness Benefits is an Industry First

DENVER, July 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - (TSX: CWEB) (OTCQX: CWBHF) Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. ("Charlotte's Web," "CW" or the "Company"), the market leader in full-spectrum hemp extract CBD products, is the first company to achieve formulary approval and inclusion of its products in SBM LLC's exclusive employee benefits program. Through this employer-sponsored benefit plan, US employers can now confidently provide employees and their pets with coverage and access to Charlotte's Web products as an alternative health and wellness therapy. 

"With almost 4,000 CBD brands for sale in the U.S., we are selecting Charlotte's Web as our flagship full-spectrum hemp extract offering," said Bryan Perry, Chief Commercial Officer. Attaining SBM product formulary inclusion required Charlotte's Web to show proof of clinical human safety data. In addition, Charlotte's Web must demonstrate ongoing good quality manufacturing, lot-specific product labelling matching certificates of authenticity, customer education, and attractive pricing.  

In an economy increasingly affected by high levels of employee burnout and resignation, employers are turning to new and meaningful benefits to attract and retain talent. Now more than ever, natural alternatives for wellness are requested by employees to support general health and wellness including: mental well-being, sleep, sports, and recovery or discomfort. Supplement benefit management from SBM provides employers the ability to cover natural therapies and wellness alternatives to improve employee well-being, recruitment and retention, and lower overall healthcare costs.  Employers are able to "bolt-on" this benefit as an adjunct to traditional health insurance. This provides employees with trusted products, education, and the ability to track how these therapies affect their health and wellness.

"Through this program, product experience data reveals where natural care and cost choices produce better results for both employers and employees," said SBM Chief Operating Officer Rodney Nuss.  "Employee engagement can be some employers' best-practice solution for controlling costs and improving health outcomes. Now employers have the option to add hemp-based wellness coverage with a built-in employee engagement platform to support a healthy workforce and healthy company."

Starting in July 2022, employers can directly enroll in the SBM program and determine the desired level of coverage provided for each employee on a monthly or annual basis.  Then employees simply opt-in and gain access to the program through their MySBM app. SBM represents a 'benefit with a real benefit' for those employers who are struggling to attract and retain employees. SBM estimates up to 50,000 employees will participate in the program within twelve months.

"We celebrate our launch into this category as the lead partner with SBM," said Jacques Tortoroli, Charlotte's Web Chief Executive Officer. "Expanding access to CBD through the employee benefits programs is yet another way Charlotte's Web is fulfilling its mission for broad consumer access for everyday hemp wellness. Wider access and visibility for hemp-wellness empower people to make more informed health and wellness decisions."

Employers can learn more about how to lower costs and help employees achieve better health by contacting SBM at 877-726-2363 (877-SBM-Bene) or [email protected].

Supplemental Benefit Management, LLC (SBM), headquartered in Colorado, is an innovative benefit management company providing voluntary "bolt-on" benefit offering targeting specific health and wellness areas for humans and pets as part of employer sponsored employee benefit plans. Founded by healthcare, technology, and benefit executives with a proven history of disrupting traditional markets, SBM is at the forefront of merging natural products, consumer experience, and workforce needs to provide an industry first solution for controlling costs and improving health outcomes. The SBM offering includes an exclusive product formulary with best-in-class products and pricing, coupled with an employee engagement solution providing products, education and outcomes tracking for meaningful health and wellness areas.

Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc., a Certified B Corporation headquartered in Denver, is the market leader in innovative hemp extract wellness products under a family of brands which includes Charlotte's Web™, CBD Medic™, CBD Clinic™, and Harmony Hemp™. Charlotte's Web branded premium quality products start with proprietary hemp genetics that are 100-percent American farm -grown using organic and regenerative cultivation practices. The Company's hemp extracts have naturally occurring botanical compounds including cannabidiol ("CBD"), CBC, CBG, terpenes, flavonoids, and other beneficial compounds. The Company's CW Labs R&D division advances hemp science at two centers of excellence in Louisville, Colorado, and the Hauptmann Woodward Research Institute at the University at Buffalo, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network. Web product categories include full-spectrum hemp CBD oil tinctures (liquid products), CBD gummies (sleep, stress, exercise recovery), CBD capsules, CBD topical creams and lotions, as well as CBD pet products for dogs.  Through its vertically integrated business model, Charlotte's Web maintains stringent control over product quality and consistency with 20+ product lot testing for quality assurance. Charlotte's Web products are distributed to more than 15,000 retail, over 8,000 health care practitioners, and online through the Company's website at www.CharlottesWeb.com. Charlotte's Web's mission is "To unleash the healing powers of botanicals with compassion and science, benefitting the planet and all who live upon it."

Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, ‎‎"forward-looking information"). In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward looking information can be identified by the ‎use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", ‎‎"is positioned", "estimates", "intends", "assumes", "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", "will" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be ‎achieved". In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or ‎circumstances contain forward-looking information. ‎Specifically, this news release contains forward-looking information relating to, among others: the future of Charlotte's Web and the impacts of management changes.

Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management's current ‎expectations, estimates and projections regarding the future of our business, future plans, strategies, projections, anticipated events ‎and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, ‎assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of this news release, are subject to ‎known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, ‎performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. The material factors and assumptions used to develop the forward-looking information herein include, but are not limited to, the following: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; the regulatory climate in which the Company currently operates and may in the future operate; consumer interest in CBD; successful sales of the Company's products; and the success of sales and marketing activities. Important factors that could cause actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking information include, among others, the factors discussed throughout the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 available on www.SEDAR.com and www.sec.gov , and other risk factors contained in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission available on www.sec.gov and filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities available on www.sedar.com. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking information, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

SOURCE Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc.