VANCOUVER, BC, Canada — NEXE Innovations Inc, a leader in plant-based materials manufacturing, is pleased to announce that it has completed its Site Acceptance Test (“SAT”) for its high-speed assembly, filter forming and dosing automation equipment at its site in Surrey, BC, Canada.
As discussed in our news release dated November 3rd, we successfully completed our Factory Acceptance Test (“FAT”) on October 26, 2021 at our manufacturing partner’s facility in Europe. This is the first of two custom machines that were ordered by NEXE in February 2020, pre-pandemic.
This high-speed automation was designed and engineered based on NEXE’s proprietary specifications for the Company’s Keurig®-compatible NEXE Pod. As standard automation in the space was not sufficient to assemble our compostable polymers, most of the proprietary processes were pioneered by NEXE. The Company expects to receive the second proprietary high-speed assembly, filter forming and dosing machine for Keurig® compatible pods in calendar Q1 2022, increasing NEXE’s production capacity to over 100 million annual Keurig® compatible pods.
“As we come to year end, we are ecstatic to announce that we have completed a Successful site Acceptance Test on key equipment which can provide an additional 50 million annual pod production capacity” said Ash Guglani, President of NEXE. “We are now focused on commissioning this equipment in Q1 2022 and await our end of line packaging equipment to meet the market’s demand for our sustainable and fully compostable pods. As we enter 2022, expect to hear more news on distribution and corporate updates as to how we will backfill capacity with revenue.”
“The SAT results prove that NEXE is able to consistently produce our pods at a high rate while maintaining the performance and taste profile that our customers demand from a superior pod. This successful test demonstrates that NEXE’s plant-based materials can be assembled at production speed and proves the scalability of the technology,” added Guglani.
NEXE now has custom automation equipment for the production of pods that are compatible with two-leading single-serve coffee formats: Keurig® and Nespresso® OriginalLine, allowing the Company to address a sizable portion of the growing potential 60 billion per year coffee pod market. The Company plans to continue to purchase additional equipment to increase production capacity as required to fulfill growing demand.
The single-serve coffee pod and capsule market was measured at US$25.07 billion in 2020, and it is projected to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.07% from 2021-2026, according to a report from Mordor Intelligence.1
