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AMERICAN REBEL HOLDINGS, INC.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K (“Annual Report” or “Report”) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). These forward-looking statements are not historical facts but rather are based on current expectations, estimates and projections. We may use words such as “may,” “could,” “should,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “project,” “position,” “intend,” “target,” “plan,” “seek,” “believe,” “foresee,” “outlook,” “estimate” and variations of these words and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control, are difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted. These risks and uncertainties include the following:
● | the risks and other factors described under the caption “Risk Factors” under Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K; | |
● | our ability to efficiently manage and repay our debt obligations; | |
● | we recently consummated the purchase of our safe manufacturer and sales organizations, and future acquisitions and operations of new manufacturing facilities and/or sales organizations might prove unsuccessful and could fail; | |
● | our inability to raise additional financing for working capital, especially related to purchasing critical inventory; | |
● | our ability to generate sufficient revenue in our targeted markets to support operations; | |
● | significant dilution resulting from our financing activities: | |
● | actions and initiatives taken by both current and potential competitors; | |
● | shortages of components and materials, as well as supply chain disruptions, may delay or reduce our sales and increase our costs, thereby harming our results of operations; | |
● | we do not have long-term purchase commitments from our customers, and their ability to cancel, reduce, or delay orders could reduce our revenue and increase our costs; | |
● | our success depends on our ability to introduce new products that track customer preferences; | |
● | if we are unable to protect our intellectual property, we may lose a competitive advantage or incur substantial litigation costs to protect our rights; | |
● | as a significant portion of our revenues are derived by demand for our safes and the personal security products for firearms storage, we depend on the availability and regulation of ammunition and firearm storage; | |
● | as we continue to integrate the recent purchase of our safe manufacturer and sales organization, any compromised operational capacity may affect our ability to meet the demand for our safes, which in turn may affect our generation of revenue; | |
● | our future operating results; | |
● | our ability to diversify our operations; | |
● | our inability to effectively meet our short- and long-term obligations; | |
● | the fact that our accounting policies and methods are fundamental to how we report our financial condition and results of operations, and they may require management to make estimates about matters that are inherently uncertain; | |
● | given our limited corporate history it is difficult to evaluate our business and future prospects and increases the risks associated with an investment in our securities; | |
● | adverse state or federal legislation or regulation that increases the costs of compliance, or adverse findings by a regulator with respect to existing operations; | |
● | changes in generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (or “U.S. GAAP”) or in the legal, regulatory and legislative environments in the markets in which we operate; | |
● | deterioration in general or global economic, market and political conditions; | |
● | inability to efficiently manage our operations; | |
● | inability to achieve future operating results; | |
● | the unavailability of funds for capital expenditures; | |
● | our ability to recruit and hire key employees; | |
● | the global impact of COVID-19 on the United States economy and our operations; | |
● | the inability of management to effectively implement our strategies and business plans; | |
● | our business prospects; | |
● | any contractual arrangements and relationships with third parties; | |
● | the dependence of our future success on the general economy; | |
● | any possible financings; and | |
● | the adequacy of our cash resources and working capital. |
Because the factors referred to above could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by us, you should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. New factors emerge from time to time, and their emergence is impossible for us to predict. In addition, we cannot assess the impact of each factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.
This Annual Report should be read completely and with the understanding that actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. The forward-looking statements included in this Annual Report are made as of the date of this Annual Report and should be evaluated with consideration of any changes occurring after the date of this Annual Report. We will not update forward-looking statements even though our situation may change in the future and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Except as otherwise indicated by the context, references in this Annual Report to “Company,” “American Rebel Holdings,” “American Rebel,” “we,” “us” and “our” are references to American Rebel Holdings, Inc. and its operating subsidiaries, American Rebel Beverages, LLC, American Rebel, Inc., Champion Safe Co., Inc., Superior Safe, LLC, Safe Guard Security Products, LLC and Champion Safe De Mexico, S.A. de C.V. All references to “USD” or United States Dollar refer to the legal currency of the United States of America.
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AVAILABLE INFORMATION
We file annual, quarterly and special reports and other information with the SEC. You can read these SEC filings and reports over the Internet at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. You can also obtain copies of the documents at prescribed rates by writing to the Public Reference Section of the SEC at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549 on official business days between the hours of 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. Please call the SEC at (800) SEC-0330 for further information on the operations of the public reference facilities. We will provide a copy of our Annual Report to security holders, including audited financial statements, at no charge, upon receipt of a written request to us at American Rebel Holdings, Inc., 909 18th Avenue South, Suite A, Nashville, Tennessee 37212.
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Recent Development and Events
Introduction of American Rebel Beer
On August 9, 2023, the Company entered into a Master Brewing Agreement with Associated Brewing. Under the terms of the Brewing Agreement, Associated Brewing has been appointed as the exclusive producer and seller of American Rebel branded spirits, with the initial product being American Rebel Light Beer. American Rebel Light Beer will launch regionally in early 2024. The Company paid a setup fee and security deposit to Associated Brewing. In late 2023, we established American Rebel Beverages, LLC as a wholly-owned subsidiary specifically to hold our alcohol licenses and operate the beer business.
Acquisition of Champion Entities
On June 29, 2022, the Company entered into a stock and membership interest purchase agreement with Champion Safe Co., Inc. (“Champion Safe”), Superior Safe, LLC (“Superior Safe”), Safe Guard Security Products, LLC (“Safe Guard”), Champion Safe De Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (“Champion Safe Mexico”) and, together with Champion Safe, Superior Safe, Safe Guard, and Champion Safe Mexico, collectively, (the “Champion Entities”) and Mr. Ray Crosby (“Seller”) (the “Champion Purchase Agreement”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding capital stock and membership interests of the Champion Entities from the Seller. This transaction was completed on July 29, 2022. We included the Champion Entities assets and liabilities as of that date and the subsequent financial activity through the date of this Annual Report in our consolidated financial statements which consist of the consolidated balance sheets, consolidated statement of operations, consolidated statement of stockholders’ equity (deficit) and consolidated statement of cash flows (the “Consolidated Financial Statements”). The Champion Entities have been fully integrated with our existing operations and are under the full control of our management team.
The closing occurred on July 29, 2022. Under the terms of the Champion Purchase Agreement, the Company paid the Seller (i) cash consideration in the amount of $9,150,000, along with (ii) cash deposits previously of $350,000, and (iii) reimbursement to the Seller for $397,420 of agreed upon acquisitions and equipment purchases completed by the Seller and the Champion Entities since June 30, 2021.
In addition to the direct payments to the Seller during the year ended December 31, 2022, the Company paid certain costs on behalf of and associated with the acquisition of Champion and its integration totaling $350,000; $200,000 was paid to our investment banker in analyzing the acquisition and purchase of Champion as well as $150,000 was paid to Champion’s independent PCAOB registered accounting firm to conduct their two years of audit and subsequent interim review reports to be filed with the SEC in our Annual Report and other forms with the SEC.
During the year ended December 31, 2023 the Company received a claim for refund or right of repayment from the Seller of the Champion Entities with respect to the CARES Act tax credit income the Company received. The Company during the year settled the matter with the Seller and agreed to pay an additional $325,000 to the Seller as part of its purchase price. This increased the overall purchase price of the Champion Entities by an additional $325,000.
Corporate Summary
American Rebel Holdings, Inc. was incorporated on December 15, 2014, in the State of Nevada and is authorized to issue 600,000,000 shares of $0.001 par value common stock (“Common Stock”) and 10,000,000 shares of $0.001 par value preferred stock (“Preferred Stock”).
The Company operates primarily as a designer, manufacturer and marketer of branded safes and personal security and self-defense products. Additionally, the Company designs and produces branded apparel and accessories.
We believe that when it comes to their homes, consumers place a premium on their security and privacy. Our products are designed to offer our customers convenient, efficient and secure home and personal safes from a provider that they can trust. We are committed to offering products of enduring quality that allow customers to keep their valuable belongings protected and to express their patriotism and style, which is synonymous with the American Rebel brand.
Our safes and personal security products are constructed primarily of U.S.-made steel. We believe our products are designed to safely store firearms, as well as store our customers’ priceless keepsakes, family heirlooms and treasured memories and other valuables, and we aim to make our products accessible at various price points for home and office use. We believe our products are designed for safety, quality, reliability, features and performance.
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To enhance the strength of our brand and drive product demand, we work with our manufacturing facilities and various suppliers to emphasize product quality and mechanical development in order to improve the performance and affordability of our products while providing support to our distribution channel and consumers. We seek to sell products that offer features and benefits of higher-end safes at mid-line price ranges.
We believe that safes are becoming a ‘must-have appliance’ in a significant portion of households. We believe our current safes provide safety, security, style and peace of mind at competitive prices.
In addition to branded safes, we offer an assortment of personal security products as well as apparel and accessories for men and women under the Company’s American Rebel brand. Our backpacks utilize what we believe is a distinctive sandwich-method concealment pocket, which we refer to as Personal Protection Pocket, to hold firearms in place securely and safely. The concealment pockets on our Freedom 2.0 Concealed Carry Jackets incorporate a silent operation opening and closing with the use of a magnetic closure.
We believe that we have the potential to continue to create a brand community presence around the core ideals and beliefs of America, in part through our Chief Executive Officer, Charles A. “Andy” Ross, who has written, recorded and performs a number of songs about the American spirit of independence. We believe our customers identify with the values expressed by our Chief Executive Officer through the “American Rebel” brand.
Through our growing network of dealers, we promote and sell our products in select regional retailers and local specialty safe, sporting goods, hunting and firearms stores, as well as online, including our website and e-commerce platforms such as Amazon.com.
American Rebel is boldly positioning itself as “America’s Patriotic Brand” in a time when national spirit and American values are being rekindled and redefined. American Rebel is an advocate for the 2nd Amendment and conveys a sense of responsibility to teach and preach good common practices of gun ownership. American Rebel products keep you concealed and safe inside and outside the home. American Rebel Safes protect your firearms and valuables from children, theft, fire and natural disasters inside the home; and American Rebel Concealed Carry Products provide quick and easy access to your firearm utilizing American Rebel’s Proprietary Protection Pocket in its backpacks and apparel outside the home. The initial company product releases embrace the “concealed carry lifestyle” with a focus on concealed carry products, apparel, personal security and defense. “There’s a growing need to know how to protect yourself, your family, your neighbors or even a room full of total strangers,” says American Rebel’s Chief Executive Officer, Andy Ross. “That need is in the forethought of every product we design.”
The “concealed carry lifestyle” refers to a set of products and a set of ideas around the emotional decision to carry a gun everywhere you go. The American Rebel brand strategy is similar to the successful Harley-Davidson Motorcycle philosophy, referenced in this quote from Richard F. Teerlink, Harley’s chairman and former chief executive, “It’s not hardware; it is a lifestyle, an emotional attachment. That’s what we have to keep marketing to.” As an American icon, Harley has come to symbolize freedom, rugged individualism, excitement and a sense of “bad boy rebellion.” American Rebel – America’s Patriotic Brand has significant potential for branded products as a lifestyle brand. Its innovative Concealed Carry Product line and Safe line serve a large and growing market segment; but it is important to note we have product opportunities beyond Concealed Carry Products and Safes.
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American Rebel Safes
Keeping your guns in a location only appropriate trusted members of the household can access should be one of the top priorities for every responsible gun owner. Whenever a new firearm is purchased, the owner should look for a way to store and secure it. Storing the firearm in a gun safe will prevent it from being misused by young household members, and it will prevent it from being stolen in a burglary or damaged in a fire or natural disaster. Gun safes may seem pricy at first glance, but once the consumer is educated on their role to protect expensive firearms and other valuables such as jewelry and important documents, the price is justified.
American Rebel produces large floor safes in a variety of sizes as well as small portable keyed safes. Additional opportunities exist for the Company to develop Wall Safes and Handgun Boxes.
Reasons gun owners should own a gun safe:
● | If you are a gun owner and you have children, many states have a law in place that you have to have your gun locked in a safe, away from children. This will prevent your children from getting the gun and hurting themselves or someone else. | |
● | Some states have a law in place that you have to keep your gun locked away when it is not in use even if you don’t have children in your home. California has a law that you have to have your gun locked in a firearms safety device that is considered safe by the California Department of Justice (DOJ). When you buy a safe, you should see if it has approval from the California DOJ. | |
● | Many gun owners own more guns than insurance will cover. Many insurance companies only cover $3,000 worth of guns. Are your weapons worth more? If so, you should invest in a gun safe to make sure your guns are protected from fire, water, and thieves. | |
● | Many insurance companies may give you a discount if you own a gun safe. If you own a gun safe or you purchase one, you should see if your insurance company is one that offers a discount for this. A safe can protect your guns and possibly save you money. | |
● | Do people know you own guns? You might not know that many burglaries are carried out by people they know. | |
● | If a person you know breaks into your home, steals your gun, and murders someone you could be charged with a crime you didn’t commit, or the victim’s family could sue you. | |
● | Gun safes can protect your guns in the event your home goes up in flames. When buying a safe, you should see if it will protect your firearm or any other valuables from fire damage. | |
● | You might be the type of person that has a gun in your home for protection. A gun locked in a safe can still offer you protection. There are quick access gun safes on the market. With a quick access gun safe, you can still retrieve your gun in a few seconds, but when it isn’t needed it will be protected. |
A gun safe is the best investment a gun owner can make because the safe can protect guns from thieves, fire, water, or accidents. Bills or ballot measures to require safe storage have been discussed in Delaware, Washington, Oregon, Missouri and Virginia; and various laws are on the books in California and Massachusetts. Even a figure as staunchly pro-gun as Texas’s Republican lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, called on gun-owning parents to lock up their weapons after the Santa Fe shooting. The gun safe industry is experiencing rapid growth and innovation. American Rebel Chief Executive Officer Andy Ross and the rest of the American Rebel team are committed to fulfilling the opportunity in the gun safe market and filling the identified void with American Rebel Gun Safes.
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Below is a summary of the different safes we offer:
i. | Large Safes – our current large model safe collection consists of six premium safes. All of our large safes share the same high-quality workmanship, are constructed out of 11-gauge U.S.-made steel and feature a double plate steel door, double-steel door casements and reinforced door edges. Each of these safes provide up to 75 minutes of fire protection at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit. Our safes offer a fully adjustable interior to fit our customers’ needs. Depending on the model, one side of the interior may have shelves and the other side set up to accommodate long guns. There are optional additions such as Rifle Rod Kits and Handgun Hangers to increase the storage capacity of the safe. These large safes offer greater capacity for secure storage and protection, and our safes are designed to prevent unauthorized access, including in the event of an attempted theft, natural disaster or fire. We believe that a large, highly visible safe acts as a deterrent to any prospective thief. | |
ii. | Personal Safes – the safes in our compact safe collection are easy to operate and carry as they fit into briefcases, desks or under vehicle seats. These personal safes meet Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”) airline firearm guidelines and fit comfortably in luggage when required by travel regulations. | |
iii. | Vault Doors – our U.S.-made vault doors combine style with theft and fire protection for a look that fits any decor. Newly-built, higher-end homes often add vault rooms and we believe our vault doors, which we designed to facilitate secure access to such vault rooms, provide ideal solutions for the protection of valuables and shelter from either storms or intruders. Whether it’s in the context of a safe room, a shelter, or a place to consolidate valuables, our American Rebel in- and out-swinging vault doors provide maximum functionality to facilitate a secure vault room. American Rebel vault doors are constructed of 4 ½” double steel plate thickness, A36 carbon steel panels with sandwiched fire insulation, a design that provides greater rigidity, security and fire protection. Active boltworks, which is the locking mechanism that bolts the safe door closed so that it cannot be pried open and three external hinges that support the weight of the door, are some of the features of the vault door. For safety and when the door is used for a panic or safe room, a quick release lever is installed inside the door. | |
iv. | Dispensary Safes - our HG-INV Inventory Safe, a safe tailor-made for the cannabis community, provides cannabis and horticultural plant home growers a reliable and safe solution to protect their inventory. Designed with medical marijuana or recreational cannabis dispensaries in mind and increasing governmental and insurance industry regulation to lock inventory after hours, we believe our HG-INV Inventory Safe delivers a high-level user experience. |
Upcoming Product Offerings
To further complement our diverse product offerings, we intend to introduce additional products in 2024 and 2025. Below is a summary of potential upcoming product offerings:
i. Biometrics Safes – we intend to introduce a line of handgun boxes with biometrics, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies. These Biometric Safes have been designed, engineered and are ready for production.
ii. 2A Lockers – we have developed a unique steel lockbox with a 5-point locking mechanism to provide a secure place to lock up ammunition and other items that may not require the safety and security of a safe, but prevents unauthorized access. We believe there is a strong market for this product that is priced between $349 - $449 depending on the model.
iii. Wall Safes – wall safes can be easily hidden and provide “free” storage space since they are able to be tucked into the space between your wall and studs.
iv. Economy Safe Line – we are exploring enhancing our safe line through the introduction of entry level safes built in North America to compete with other safes imported from overseas.
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In addition to introducing additional products to add to our existing lines, we are actively seeking acquisition opportunities to diversify our product offerings and enhance stockholder value.
Our Competitive Strengths
We believe we are progressing toward long-term, sustainable growth, and our business has, and our future success will be driven by, the following competitive strengths:
● Powerful Brand Identity – we believe we have developed a distinctive brand that sets us apart from our competitors. This has contributed significantly to the success of our business. Our brand is predicated on patriotism and quintessential American character: protecting our loved ones. We strive to equip our safes with technologically advanced features that offer customers advanced security to provide the peace of mind they need. Maintaining, protecting and enhancing the “American Rebel” brand is critical to expanding our loyal enthusiasts base, network of dealers and other partners. Through our branded apparel and accessories, we seek to further enhance our connection with the American Rebel community and share the values of patriotism and safety for which our Company stands for. We strive to continue to meet their need for our safes and our success will depend largely on our ability to maintain customer trust, become a gun safe storage leader and continue to provide high-quality safes.
● Product Design and Development – our current safe model relies on time-tested features, such as Four-Way Active Boltworks, pinning the door shut on all four sides (compared to Three-Way Bolt works, which is prevalent in many of our competitors’ safes), and benefits that would not often be available in our price point, including 12-gauge and heavier US-made steel. The sleek exterior of our safes has garnered attention and earned the moniker from our dealers as the “safe with an attitude.” When we set out to enter the safe market, we wanted to offer a safe that we would want to buy, one that would get our attention and provide excellent value for the cost.
● Focus on Product Performance - since the introduction of our first safes, we have maintained a singular focus on creating a full range of safe, quality, reliable safes that were designed to help our customers keep their family and valuables safe at all times. We incorporate advanced features into our safes that are designed to improve strength and durability. Key elements of our current model safes’ performance include:
Double Plate Steel Door - 4 ½” Thick
Reinforced Door Edge – 7/16” Thick
Double-Steel Door Casement
Steel Walls – 11-Gauge
Diameter Door Bolts – 1 ¼” Thick
Four-Way Active Boltworks – AR-50(14), AR-40(12), AR-30(10), AR-20(10), AR-15(8), AR-12(8)
Diamond-Embedded Armor Plate
* Double Plate Steel Door is formed from two U.S.-made steel plates with fire insulation sandwiched inside. Thicker steel is placed on the outside of the door while the inner steel provides additional door rigidity and attachment for the locking mechanism and bolt works. The door edge is reinforced with up to four layers of laminated steel. Pursuant to industry-standard strength tests performed, this exclusive design offers up to 16 times greater door strength and rigidity than the “thin metal bent to look thick” doors.
* Double-Steel Door Casement is formed from two or more layers of steel and is welded around the perimeter of the door opening. Pursuant to industry-standard strength tests performed, it more than quadruples the strength of the door opening and provides a more secure and pry-resistant door mounting. Our manufacturer installs a Double-Steel Door Casement™ on our safes. We believe the reinforced door casement feature provides important security as the safe door is often a target for break-in attempts.
* Diamond-Embedded Armor Plate Industrial diamond is bonded to a tungsten steel alloy hard plate. Diamond is harder than either a cobalt or carbide drill. If drilling is attempted the diamond removes the cutting edge from the drill, thus dulling the drill bit to where it will not cut.
● Trusted Brand - we believe that we have developed a trusted brand with both retailers and consumers for delivering reliable, secure safe solutions.
● Customer Satisfaction - we believe we have established a reputation for delivering high-quality safes and personal security products in a timely manner, in accordance with regulatory requirements and our retailers’ delivery requirements and supporting our products with a consistent merchandising and marketing message. We believe that our high level of service, combined with strong consumer demand for our products and our focused distribution strategy, produces substantial customer satisfaction and loyalty. We believe we have cultivated an emotional connection with the brand which symbolizes a lifestyle of freedom, rugged individualism, excitement and a sense of bad boy rebellion.
● Proven Management Team - our founder and Chief Executive Officer, Charles A. Ross, Jr., has led the expansion and focus on the select product line we offer today. We believe that Mr. Ross had an immediate and positive impact on our brand, products, team members, and customers. Under Mr. Ross’s leadership, we believe that we have built a strong brand and strengthened the management team. We are refocusing on the profitability of our products, reinforcing the quality of safes to engage customers and drive sales. We believe our management team possesses an appropriate mix of skills, broad range of professional experience, and leadership designed to drive board performance and properly oversee the interests of the Company, including our long-term corporate strategy. Our management team reflects a balanced approach to tenure that will allow the board of directors to benefit from a mix of newer members who bring fresh perspectives and seasoned directors who bring continuity and a deep understanding of our complex business.
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Our Growth Strategy
Our goal is to enhance our position as a designer, producer and marketer of premium safes and personal security products. We have established plans to grow our business by focusing on three key areas: (1) organic growth and expansion in existing markets; (2) targeted strategic acquisitions that increase our on-premise and online product offerings, distributor and retail footprint and/or have the ability to increase and improve our manufacturing capabilities and output, and (3) expanding the scope of our operation activities to the dispensaries U.S. community.
We have developed what we believe is a multi-pronged growth strategy, as described below, to help us capitalize on a sizable opportunity. Through methodical sales and marketing efforts, we believe we have implemented several key initiatives we can use to grow our business more effectively. We believe we made significant progress in 2022 in the largest growing segment of the safe industry, sales to first-time buyers. We intend to opportunistically pursue the strategies described below to continue our upward trajectory and enhance stockholder value. Key elements of our strategy to achieve this goal are as follows:
Organic Growth and Expansion in Existing Markets - Build our Core Business
The cornerstone of our business has historically been our safe product offerings. We are focused on continuing to develop our home, office and personal safe product lines. We are investing in adding what we believe are distinctive and advanced technological solutions for our safes and protective product lines.
We are working to increase floor space dedicated to our safes and strengthen our online presence in order to expand our reach to new enthusiasts and build our devoted American Rebel community. We intend to continue to endeavor to create and provide retailers and customers with what we believe are responsible, safe, reliable and stylish products, and we expect to concentrate on tailoring our supply and distribution logistics in response to the specific demands of our customers.
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Additionally, our Concealed Carry Product line and Safe line serve a large market segment. We believe that interest in safes increase, as well as in our complimentary concealed carry backpacks and apparel as a byproduct, when interest of the general population in firearms increase. To this extent, the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which we believe serves as a proxy for gun sales since a background check is generally needed to purchase a firearm, reported a record number of background checks in 2020, 39,695,315. The prior annual record for background checks was 2019’s 28,369,750. In 2021, there were 38,876,673 background checks conducted, similar to that of 2020’s annual record which was 40% higher than the previous annual record in 2019. While we do not expect this increase in background checks to necessarily translate to an equivalent number of additional safes purchased, we do believe it might be an indicator of the increased demand in the safe market. In addition, certain states (such as Massachusetts, California, New York and Connecticut) are starting to legislate new storage requirements in respect of firearms, which is expected to have a positive impact on the sale of safes.
We continue to strive to strengthen our relationships and our brand awareness with our current distributors, dealers, manufacturers, specialty retailers and consumers and to attract other distributors, dealers, and retailers. We believe that the success of our efforts depends on the distinctive features, quality, and performance of our products; continued manufacturing capabilities and meeting demand for our safes; the effectiveness of our marketing and merchandising programs; and the dedicated customer support.
In addition, we seek to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty by offering distinctive, high-quality products on a timely and cost-attractive basis and by offering efficient customer service. We regard the features, quality, and performance of our products as the most important components of our customer satisfaction and loyalty efforts, but we also rely on customer service and support for growing our business.
Furthermore, we intend to continue improving our business operations, including research and development, component sourcing, production processes, marketing programs, and customer support. Thus, we are continuing our efforts to enhance our production by increasing daily production quantities through equipment acquisitions, expanded shifts and process improvements, increased operational availability of our equipment, reduced equipment down times, and increased overall efficiency.
We believe that by enhancing our brand recognition, our market share might grow correspondingly. Industry sources estimate that 70 million to 80 million people in the United States own an aggregate of more than 400 million firearms, creating a large potential market for our safes and personal security products. We are focusing on the premium segment of the market through the quality, distinctiveness, and performance of our products; the effectiveness of our marketing and merchandising efforts; and the attractiveness of our competitive pricing strategies.
Targeted Strategic Acquisitions for Long-term Growth
We are consistently evaluating and considering acquisition opportunities that fit our overall growth strategy as part of our corporate mission to accelerate long-term value for our stockholders and create integrated value chains.
Champion Safe Combined Group
On June 29, 2022, the Company entered into a stock and membership interest purchase agreement with Champion Safe Co., Inc., Superior Safe, LLC, Safe Guard Security Products, LLC, Champion Safe De Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (the “Champion Entities”, “Champion Safe Combined Group” or “Champion”) and Mr. Ray Crosby (the “Seller”) (the “Champion Purchase Agreement”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding capital stock and membership interests of the Champion Entities from the Seller. The closing occurred on July 29, 2022 (see Recent Events described above).
“Champion Safe Combined Group” consists of Champion Safe Co., Inc. (“Champion Safe”) a Utah corporation, Superior Safe, LLC (“Superior Safe”) a Utah limited liability company, Safe Guard Security Products, LLC (“Safe Guard”) a Utah limited liability company, Champion Safe De Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (“Champion Safe Mexico”) a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of Mexico. Each of these entities is under common control and ownership by American Rebel Holdings, Inc.
Champion Safe Combined Group develops and sells branded products in the safe storage product using a wholesale distribution network, utilizing personal appearances, musical venue performances, as well e-commerce and television. Champion Safe Combined Group’s products are marketed under the Champion, Superior and Safe Guard brands. Champion Safe Combined Group promotes and sells its safe and storage products through a growing network of dealers, in select regional retailers and local specialty safe, sporting goods, hunting and firearms retail outlets, as well as through online avenues, including website and e-commerce platforms. Champion Safe Combined Group sells its products under the Champion Safe Co., Superior Safe Company and Safe Guard Safe Co. brands.
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Based in Provo, Utah and founded in 1999, Champion Safe is what we believe to be one of the premier designers, manufacturers and marketers of home and gun safes in North America. Champion Safe Co. has three safe lines, which we believe feature some of the most secure and highest quality gun safes.
We operate Champion Safe in the same manner as it was operated pre-acquisition. Champion Safe, Superior Safe and Safe Guard Security Products are valuable and prominent identifiable brands in the safe industry. We have begun to expand our manufacturing throughput to fill the significant backlog of orders and aggressively open new dealer accounts. Champion Safe Company and its management will shift its emphasis to growing revenue and increasing profitability of the combined businesses.
We believe that the combined company will benefit greatly from access to former Champion founder Mr. Crosby. Mr. Crosby’s vast experience and expertise in the industry will be instrumental in opening doors and insight into the industry’s growth. Mr. Crosby is a foundational figure in the safe business with over 40 years of experience in the industry. Mr. Crosby and his brother Jay Crosby founded Fort Knox Safe in 1982, and Liberty Safe in 1988. Liberty Safe which was recently resold to a middle market private investment firm for approximately $147.5 million a significant increase in overall enterprise value. In 1999, Mr. Crosby founded Champion Safe, later expanding to include Superior Safe and Safe Guard Security Products. Champion Safe employs over 60 employees in their Utah factory and over 150 employees in their Nogales, Mexico facility just south of the U.S. border. The majority of the midline and value priced safes industry-wide are manufactured in China, but Mr. Crosby had the foresight to build his own facility in Mexico and utilize American-made steel exclusively. Steep tariffs were imposed on China manufactured safes by the Trump administration and were continued under the first half of the Biden administration. The prices of components for the made-in-China safes have dramatically increased as well as the transportation costs to import these Chinese-made safes. Mr. Crosby’s decision to build his own facility in Mexico as opposed to importing Chinese-made safes has proven to be insightful and beneficial for Champion Safe.
Mr. Crosby was eager to expand his manufacturing operation and seize upon the growth opportunities in the safe business. Working closing with the American Rebel team, Mr. Crosby expanded his paint-line capacity and hinge assembly workstations. Mr. Crosby has experience in many prior economic cycles and has found the safe business to be sound in good and bad economic times. Furthermore, the current emphasis on safe storage and the capital infusion from American Rebel positions the Champion operation to grow its footprint.
In addition to the access to capital for Champion to grow its business, American Rebel will benefit from Champion’s 350 dealers, nationwide distribution network and seniority with buying groups and trade shows. American Rebel will benefit from the increased Champion manufacturing throughput as capacity restrictions have limited American Rebel’s inventory and potential growth. The collaboration between management teams will focus on increased manufacturing efficiencies and volume expansion.
Expanding Scope of Operations Activities by Offering Servicing Dispensaries and Brand Licensing
We continually seek to target new consumer segments for our safes. As we believe that safes are becoming a must-have household appliance, we strive to establish authenticity by selling our products to additional groups, and to expand our direct-to-consumer presence through our website and our showroom currently in Lenexa, Kansas.
Further, we expect the cannabis dispensary industry to be a material growth segment for our business. Several cannabis dispensary operators have expressed interest in the opportunity to help them with their inventory locking needs. Cannabis dispensaries have various insurance requirements and local ordinances requiring them to secure their inventory when the dispensary is closed. Dispensary operators have been purchasing gun safes and independently taking out the inside themselves to allow them to store cannabis inventory. Recognizing what seems to be a growing need for cannabis dispensary operators, we have designed a safe tailor-made for the cannabis industry. With the legal cannabis hyper-growth market expected to exceed $43 billion by 2025, and an increasing number of states where the growth and cultivation of cannabis is legal (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington), we believe we are well positioned to address the need of dispensaries. American Rebel has a long list of dispensary operators, growers, and processors interested in the Company’s inventory control solutions. We believe that dispensary operators, growers, and processors are another fertile new growth market for our Vault Doors products, as many in the cannabis space have chosen to install entire vault rooms instead of individual inventory control safes—the American Rebel Vault Door has been the choice for that purpose.
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Further, we believe that American Rebel has significant potential for branded products as a lifestyle brand. As the American Rebel Brand continues to grow in popularity, we anticipate generating additional revenues from licensing fees earned from third parties who wish to engage the American Rebel community. While the Company does not currently generate material revenues from licensing fees, our management team believes the American Rebel brand name may in the future have significant licensing value to third parties that seek the American Rebel name to brand their products to market to the American Rebel target demographic. For example, a tool manufacturer that wants to pursue an alternative marketing plan for a different look and feel could license the American Rebel brand name for their line of tools and market their tools under our distinct brand. This licensee would benefit from the strong American Rebel brand with their second line of American Rebel branded tools as they would continue to sell both of the lines of tools. Conversely, American Rebel could potentially benefit as a licensee of products. If American Rebel determines a third party has designed, engineered, and manufactured a product that would be a strong addition to the American Rebel catalog of products, American Rebel could license that product from the third-party and sell the licensed product under the American Rebel brand.
Our website addresses are www.americanrebel.com, www.championsafe.com, www.superiorsafe.com and www.americanrebelbeer.com. Information available on our websites is not incorporated by reference in and is not deemed a part of this Annual Report, Form 10-K.
Description of Business
Our Company
American Rebel – America’s Patriotic Brand, operates primarily on designing and marketing branded safes and personal security and self-defense products. Additionally, the Company designs and produces branded accessories and apparel, including with concealment pockets.
We believe that when it comes to their homes, consumers place a premium on their security and privacy. Our products are designed to offer our customers convenient, efficient and secure home and personal safes from a provider that they can trust. We are committed to offering products of enduring quality that allow customers to keep their valuable belongings protected and to express their patriotism and style, which is synonymous with the American Rebel brand.
Our safes and personal security products are constructed primarily of U.S.-made steel. We believe our products are designed to safely store firearms, as well as store our customers’ priceless keepsakes, family heirlooms and treasured memories and other valuables, and we aim to make our products accessible at various sizes and price points for home use. We believe our products are designed for safety, quality, reliability, features and performance.
To enhance the strength of our brand and drive product demand, we work with our manufacturing team and our suppliers to emphasize product quality and mechanical development in order to improve the performance and affordability of our products while providing support to our distribution channel and consumers. We seek to sell products that offer features and benefits of higher-end safes at mid-line price ranges.
We believe that safes are becoming a ‘must-have appliance’ in a significant portion of households. We believe our current safes provide safety, security, style and peace of mind at competitive prices. We are in the process of developing an additional value-line model safe. Seventy percent of current industry-wide safe safes are from value-priced safes.
In addition to branded safes, we offer an assortment of personal security products as well as apparel and accessories for men and women under the Company’s American Rebel brand. Our backpacks utilize what we believe is a distinctive sandwich-method concealment pocket, which we refer to as Personal Protection Pocket, to hold firearms in place securely and safely. The concealment pockets on our Freedom 2.0 Concealed Carry Jackets incorporate a silent operation opening and closing with the use of a magnetic closure.
We believe that we have the potential to continue to create a brand community presence around the core ideals and beliefs of America, in part through our Chief Executive Officer, Charles A. “Andy” Ross, who has written, recorded and performs a number of songs about the American spirit of independence. We believe our customers identify with the values expressed by our Chief Executive Officer through the “American Rebel” brand.
Through our growing network of dealers, we promote and sell our products in select regional retailers and local specialty safe, sporting goods, hunting and firearms stores, as well as online, including our website and e-commerce platforms such as Amazon.com.
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Our Products
We design, manufacture, market and sell branded safes and personal security products, including concealed carry/self-defense products, and design and market an apparel line and complimentary accessories. We promote and sell our products primarily through retailers using a dealer network, as well as online, through our website, and on Amazon.com, where customers can place an order for our branded backpacks and apparel items.
Safes
We offer a wide range of home, office and personal safe models, in a broad assortment of sizes, features and styles, which are constructed with U.S.-made steel. Our safes exhibit the strength and rugged independence that America was built upon. American Rebel’s design makes keeping your firearms more secure in style. Products are marketed under the American Rebel brand. Although demand for our safes is strong across all segments of our customers, including individuals and families who wish to protect their valuables, to collectors and the dispensary servicing community, the demand for safe storage responsible solutions has been particularly strong among gun owners, sportsmen, competitive shooters and hunters alike. We expect to benefit from increasing awareness of and need for safe storage of firearms in future periods.
Large safes
Our large safe collection consists of six safes in a range of sizes. All of our large safes share the same high-quality workmanship, are constructed out of 11-gauge U.S.-made steel and feature a double plate steel door, double-steel door casements and reinforced door edges. We believe that our large safes are ideal for storing valuables of significant size, and that they offer greater capacity for storage and protection. Our safes offer a fully adjustable interior to fit our customers’ needs. Depending on the model, one side of the interior may have shelves and the other side set up to accommodate long guns. The large safes are designed to be resistant to break-ins, natural disasters and fire damage, and to prevent unauthorized access and to protect your family and their valuables. A large, highly visible safe is believed to act as a deterrent to any prospective thief. Safe storage is a top priority of our customer base who seeks to responsibly secure their firearms. Whenever a new firearm is purchased, gun owners look for our premium solution to responsibly secure them and protect their loved ones.
Our large safes selection includes the following:
AR-50
The AR-50 is our biggest safe. The AR-50 safe is designed to be strong, rugged, constructed of 11-gauge American-made steel and maintains capacity to comfortably store over 40 firearms comfortably. This premium gun safe with a double plate steel door, double-steel door casement and reinforced door edge is designed to give our customers added security and peace of mind, with 75 minutes of fire protection at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit as well as a customized shelf solution and optional additional accessories to increase the capacity to hold firearms. 72” tall, 40” wide with a depth of 28.5”.
AR-40
The AR-40 has the same footprint as the AR-50; however, it is 12” shorter with a capacity of over 30 firearms. This gun safe contains a double plate steel door, double-steel door casement and reinforced door edge, designed to give our customers secure storage. It provides 75 minutes of fire protection at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit as well as a flexible shelving system to accommodate firearm storage. The dimensions include 60” tall, 40” wide with a depth of 28.5”.
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AR-30
The AR-30 offers nearly 50,000 cubic inches of storage. Built with the same strength and ruggedness as the AR-50 and AR-40 models, this safe holds over 20 firearms. This gun safe contains a double plate steel door, double-steel door casement and reinforced door edge. It is designed to give our customers the ability to store their firearms and valuables securely, with 75 minutes of fire protection at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit as well as offering optional add-on accessories to increase storage capacity. The dimensions include 60” tall, 34” wide with a depth of 24.5”.
AR-20
The AR-20 shares the quality workmanship as the other sizes with a capacity for over 15 firearms. This gun safe contains a double plate steel door, double-steel door casement and reinforced door edge is designed to prevent theft and provide protection from fire, flood and accidental access, with 75 minutes of fire protection at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit as well as a customized shelving solution. The dimensions include 60” tall, 28” wide with a depth of 22.5”.
AR-15
The AR-15 fits the bill for narrow spaces with room for over 10 firearms. Same quality construction as our other large safes including a double plate steel door, double-steel door casement and reinforced door edge is designed to give our customers added security and peace of mind, with 75 minutes of fire protection at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit as well as a customized shelving solution. The dimensions include 60” tall, 22” wide with a depth of 22.5”.
AR-12
The AR-12 is our shortest safe. It is the perfect size to store AR rifles, handguns and personal valuables. It has a capacity of over 8 AR rifles. Same quality construction as our other large safes including a double plate steel door, double-steel door casement and reinforced door edge is designed to give our customers safe storage and peace of mind, with 75 minutes of fire protection at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit as well as offering optional add-on accessories to increase storage capacity. The dimensions include 40” tall, 26” wide with a depth of 23”.
Personal safes
Our compact safes, which come in two sizes, are a responsible solution to safely secure smaller valuables or handguns. The AR-110 weighs 5 pounds and is 9.5” x 6.5” x 1.75”. The AR-120 weighs 6 pounds and is 10.5” x 7.5” x 2.1875”. These small, personal safes are easy to operate and carry as they fit into a briefcase, desk or under a vehicle seat. These personal safes meet (“TSA”) airline firearm guidelines and fit comfortably in luggage where travel regulations require it.
Vault doors
Our U.S.-made Vault Doors combine style with theft and fire protection for a look that fits any decor. Designed to offer superior protection, vault rooms provide an ideal solution for the protection of the family and any valuables. Newly-built, higher-end homes often add vault rooms and we believe our vault doors, which we designed to facilitate secure access to such vault rooms, provide ideal solutions for the protection of valuables and shelter from either storms or intruders. Whether it is a safe room, a shelter, or a place to consolidate valuables, our American Rebel In-Swinging and Out-Swinging Vault Doors provide maximum functionality to a secure vault room. American Rebel vault doors are constructed of two thick, A36 carbon steel panels with sandwiched fire insulation, a design that provides greater rigidity, security and fire protection. The active bolt works and three external hinges are some of the features of the vault door. For safety and to use the door for a panic or safe room door, a quick release lever is installed inside the door.
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Dispensaries
Our inventory control safe, the HG-INV Inventory Safe, provides cannabis dispensaries a reliable and safe solution. With wide-spread legalization, medical marijuana or recreational cannabis dispensaries face increasing government regulation and insurance requirements to lock their inventory after hours. Our HG-INV Inventory Safe delivers a higher-level user experience with customized shelving and our inventory notation system. The HG-INV has been introduced to the dispensary industry through trade show appearances and many of our dealers are actively cultivating dispensary business. Expanding our marketing of the HG-INV can open new markets to American Rebel.
Personal Security
Concealed Carry Backpacks – consist of an assortment of sizes, features and styles. Our XL, Large, and Medium concealed carry backpacks feature our proprietary “Personal Protection Pocket” which utilizes a sandwich method to keep handguns secure and in the desired and easily accessible position. The sandwich method is comprised of two foam pads that surround or sandwich the firearm in place. The user can access the isolated Protection Pocket from either side of the backpack. We believe these distinctive concealed carry products are designed for everyday use while keeping your firearm concealed, safe and easily accessible.
The Extra-Large Freedom and Cartwright CCW Backpack
Our largest concealed carry backpack offers ample storage, including a dedicated top loading laptop pouch and additional tablet sleeve. Both compartments are padded to protect your devices. Two large open compartments make this backpack practical for carrying documents and folders or whatever you need to tote from one place to another. Our proprietary “Protection Pocket” allows quick and easy access to your handgun from either side. Multiple interior compartments are strategically placed to secure extra magazines and accessories. Available in the Freedom and Cartwright style as well as a variety of trim color options.
Large Freedom and Cartwright CCW Backpack
Our most popular concealed carry backpack. This backpack offers ample storage, including a dedicated top loading laptop pouch and an additional tablet sleeve. Both compartments are padded to protect your devices. The size of the main compartment opening makes this backpack practical for carrying documents, folders or whatever you need to tote from one place to another. Includes our proprietary “Protection Pocket” and is available in the Freedom and Cartwright style as well as a variety of trim color options.
Medium Freedom CCW Backpack
This medium-sized backpack is designed for those who look to be more streamlined. This backpack offers ample storage, including a dedicated top loading laptop/tablet compartment and two liquid container pouches. The laptop/tablet compartment is padded to protect your devices. The main compartment is practical for carrying documents and folders or whatever you need for everyday use. Includes our proprietary “Protection Pocket”. Available in a variety of trim color options.
Small Plus CCW Backpack
Our small one-strap concealed carry backpack is designed for use while running, jogging, biking or riding a motorcycle. Our concealment pocket contains a holster and attaches to the interior with hook and loop material. Soft fleece lined pockets for your tablet, glasses case and accessories are included. Available in dark blue or in our signature patriotic “We The People” design.
Small Freedom CCW Backpack
This one strap pack contains a holster and attaches to the interior with hook and loop material. There is plenty of room for a small tablet, cell phone, chargers and other necessities. Available in a variety of trim color options.
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Apparel
We offer a wide range of concealed carry jackets, vests and coats for men and women, including our Freedom Jacket 2.0 which incorporates a significant advance in the operation of the concealment pocket. We proudly offer patriotic apparel for the whole family, with the imprint of the American Rebel brand. Our apparel line serves as “point man” for the brand, often the first exposure that people have to all things American Rebel. Our branded apparel line is forever relevant, current and bold. We place emphasis on styling that complements our enthusiast customers’ lifestyle, representing the values of our community and quintessential American character. The American Rebel clothing line style is not only a fashion statement; it is the sense of pride of belonging to our patriotic family, on your adventures and in life. Our apparel collection consists of the following:
Cartwright Coats and Vests
Engineered for comfort, warmth, and versatility and mobility. Our Cartwright Concealed Carry Coats and Vests are designed with purpose and informed by the rugged demands of the everyday hard worker. Its quality construction and workmanship are designed to keep you warm and shielded from the elements. Left-hand and right-hand concealment pocket access provides for secure and safe concealment of your firearm with easy access on either side.
Freedom 2.0 Jackets and Vests for men and women
Our lightweight jackets collection is designed with magnetic pocket closures for silent, secure and safe concealment. Our lightweight jackets are crafted to facilitate easy firearm access for both right-handed and left-handed carriers.
American Rebel T-Shirts Collection
American Rebel’s T-shirts collection was created to liberate the spirit of an endless summer inside everyone and to embrace their patriotism.
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Competition
The North American safe industry is dominated by a small number of companies. We compete primarily on the quality, safety, reliability, features, performance, brand awareness, and price of our products. Our primary competitors include companies such as Liberty Safe, Fort Knox Security Products, American Security, Sturdy Safe Company, Homeland Security Safes, SentrySafe and as well as certain other domestic manufacturers, as well as certain China-based manufactured safes. Safes manufactured in China, including Steelwater and Alpha-Guardian, have struggled under the import tariffs initiated under the administration of former U.S President Donald Trump and continued during the first half of the current administration. We believe that given the current substantial uncertainty related to the supply chain and delivery of international goods, we have a competitive advantage because our safes are not manufactured overseas.
Intellectual Property
Our commercial success depends in part on our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our brand and technology, defend and enforce our intellectual property rights, preserve the confidentiality of our trade secrets, operate our business without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property or proprietary rights of third parties and prevent third parties from infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating our intellectual property rights. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright and trade secret laws in the United States to protect our proprietary technology. We rely on a number of United States registered, pending and common law trademarks to protect our brand “American Rebel”.
On May 29, 2018, US Patent No. 9,984,552, Firearm Detecting Luggage, was issued to us. The term of the patent is 20 years from the issuance date. In addition to our patent, we rely upon unpatented trade secrets and know-how and continuing technological development and maintain our competitive position. Trade secrets and know-how, however, can be difficult to protect. We seek to protect our proprietary information, in part, by entering into confidentiality and proprietary rights agreements with our employees and independent contractors.
Regulation
The storage of firearms and ammunition is subject to increasing federal, state and local governmental laws. While the current legislative climate does not appear to seek to limit possession of firearms, there is apparent momentum to require safe storage of firearms and ammunition. Although our safes, which are the primary driver of our sales and revenues, are designed to protect any valuables, a significant number of our safes’ end users have traditionally been gun enthusiasts, collectors, hunters, sportsmen and competitive shooters. Therefore, we expect the increasing federal, state and local governmental regulation of gun storage to have a materially positive effect on our business.
Our Customers
We primarily market and sell our products to safe-only specialty stores and independent gun stores nationwide. We sell our products online to individuals desiring home, personal and office protection, as well as to recreational shooters and hunters. Our customers choose us for a number of reasons, including the breadth and availability of the products we offer, our extensive expertise, and the quality of our customer service.
We believe the nature of our solutions and our high-touch customer service model strengthens relationships, builds loyalty and drives repeat business as our customers’ businesses expand. In addition, we feel as if our premium product lines and comprehensive product portfolio position us well to meet our customers’ needs. Furthermore, we fully anticipate that we will be able to leverage all of the data that we are collecting from our existing customer base to make continuous improvements to our offerings and better serve our current and new customers in the future.
We intend to expand our distribution to sporting goods stores, farm and home stores, other independent retailers as well as our online customer base upon securing additional funding and expanding our manufacturing facilities.
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Suppliers
We are dependent on the continued supply of materials for the manufacturing of our safes, as well as the continued supply and manufacturing of backpacks and apparel at third-party facilities locations, which are critical to our success. Any event that causes a disruption of the operation of these facilities for even a relatively short period of time would adversely affect our ability to ship and deliver our safes and other products and to provide service to our customers. We have previously experienced, including during the first months after the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and may in the future experience, launch and production ramp up delays for our products as a result of disruption at our suppliers and our suppliers’ manufacturing partners. Additionally, we have to date fully qualified only a very limited number of such suppliers and have limited flexibility in changing suppliers. Any disruption in the supply of materials for our branded safes from our suppliers could limit our sales.
Furthermore, the cost of safes depends in part upon the prices and availability of raw manufacturing materials such as steel, locks, fireboard, hinges, pins and other metals. The prices for these materials fluctuate and their available supply may be unstable, depending on market conditions and global demand for these materials, including as a result of increased global production of electric vehicles and energy storage products. Any reduced availability of these materials may impact our access to these parts and any increases in their prices may reduce our profitability if we cannot recoup the increased costs through increased safe prices. Moreover, any such attempts to increase product prices may harm our brand, prospects and operating results.
We currently rely on third-party suppliers to ship our products to our customers. We have found that dedicated truckloads from our warehouse to our dealers reduce freight damage and provide the overall best shipping solution. Several companies offer dedicated truckload shipping. Increased sales will offer the opportunity to establish regional distribution centers.
Sales and Marketing
We market our products to consumers through independent safe specialty stores, select national and regional retailers, local specialty firearms stores, as well as via e-commerce. We maintain consumer-focused product marketing and promotional campaigns, which include print and digital advertising campaigns; social and electronic media; product demonstrations; point-of-sales materials; in-store training; and in-store retail merchandising. Our use of social media includes Facebook, and YouTube.
Marketing Team Aligned with Sales Force to Maximize Our Industry Visibility to Drive Revenue
Our Chief Executive Officer, Charles A. Ross, is familiar to many in the industry due to his twelve years on television as the host of Maximum Archery World Tour and later American Rebel, that was broadcast on The Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel and the Pursuit Channel. Our Marketing and Sales teams have established American Rebel as a brand that our customers want and a brand that they are proud to embrace and bring into their homes.
Direct Marketing
In light of the expertise required to deliver and install safes that weigh 500-1000 pounds, direct marketing is utilized to create awareness and provide information. Our website, AmericanRebel.com, has proven to be a very valuable tool in introducing potential customers to our products. Infomercials and direct-to-consumer campaigns are vehicles to expand our reach at the appropriate time. Currently the demand from our current customers and future customer pool of independent safe specialty stores is high. As the Company grows and seeks out new customers to expand its customer base, direct marketing will be an asset for American Rebel. Chief Executive Officer, Charles A. Ross, was basically making infomercials to promote his Ross Archery products when he was filming Maximum Archery World Tour during the mid-2000s.
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Social Media and Thought Leadership
A portion of marketing dollars will be directed to social media. American Rebel and Chief Executive Officer Charles A. Ross have large followings on social media and a dedicated social media campaign will efficiently reach large numbers of potential customers and brand adopters. We will leverage our social media assets to cross-promote locally with independent safe specialty store customers to pull out product through the sales channel. Driving demand and awareness of our products to our customers will expand their loyalty to American Rebel and increase each stores’ commitment to our brand.
Trade Shows
Trade shows have been an important medium to introducing our brand and our products. The NRA Annual Meeting, a consumer trade show, is a valuable opportunity to meet and greet our final customers. When we launched our Concealed Carry line of products at the NRA Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, in the Spring of 2017, the response from the meeting attendees was overwhelming. We immediately knew the product line resonated with consumers. Similarly, when we introduced our line of safes at the 2019 NRA Annual Meeting in the Spring of 2019, we knew we were on to something significant. The USCCA (United States Concealed Carry Association) has an annual Concealed Carry and Home Defense Expo. This is an excellent opportunity to meet, greet and sell product to our final customers, the buying public. The Iowa Deer Classic and Illinois Deer Classic are carryovers from our Chief Executive Officer Charles A. Ross’ hosting duties on Maximum Archery World Tour, but we have found that many potential safe buyers attend these shows.
Three industry-only trade shows we attend are the SHOT Show, Nation’s Best Sports (NBS) Spring and Fall Buying Markets, and the Sports, Inc trade show. The SHOT Show is very high-profile show that most movers and shakers in the firearms industry attend. Operated by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the SHOT Show is the first trade show of the calendar year and is a great opportunity to introduce the year’s new products. NBS operates buying group shows where retailers who are members of NBS attend the Spring and Fall Market Buying shows to place orders. NBS provides an excellent base of customers for us to introduce our products. Sports, Inc. is a buying group show where retailers who are members of Sports, Inc. attend to make purchases from attending vendors.
Paid Advertising
We will occasionally purchase paid print advertising to support editorial and events. The American Shooting Journal has been very supportive of our business has featured an interview with our Chief Executive Officer in one of past issues of the magazine.
Legal Proceedings
There are no proceedings to which any director or officer, or any associate of any such director or officer, is a party that is adverse to our Company or any of our subsidiaries or has a material interest adverse to our Company or any of our subsidiaries. No director or executive officer has been a director or executive officer of any business which has filed a bankruptcy petition or had a bankruptcy petition filed against it during the past ten years. No current director or executive officer has been convicted of a criminal offense or is the subject of a pending criminal proceeding during the past ten years. No current director or executive officer has been the subject of any order, judgment or decree of any court permanently or temporarily enjoining, barring, suspending or otherwise limiting his involvement in any type of business, securities or banking activities during the past ten years. No current director or officer has been found by a court to have violated a federal or state securities or commodities law during the past ten years.
From time to time, however, we may become involved in various lawsuits and legal proceedings which arise in the ordinary course of business. Litigation is subject to inherent uncertainties, and an adverse result in these or other matters may arise from time to time that may harm our business.
Corporate History
The Company was incorporated on December 15, 2014, under the laws of the State of Nevada, as CubeScape, Inc. Effective January 5, 2017, the Company amended its articles of incorporation and changed its name to American Rebel Holdings, Inc. The Company completed a business combination with its majority shareholder, American Rebel, Inc. on June 19, 2017. On July 29, 2022, the Company closed on the acquisition of Champion.
ITEM 1A. Risk Factors
The following risk factors should be considered in connection with an evaluation of our business:
In addition to other information in this Annual Report, the following risk factors should be carefully considered in evaluating our business because such factors may have a significant impact on our business, operating results, liquidity and financial condition. As a result of the risk factors set forth below, actual results could differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us, or that we currently consider to be immaterial, may also impact our business, result of operations, liquidity and financial condition. If any such risks occur, our business, operating results, liquidity and financial condition could be materially affected in an adverse manner. Under such circumstances, if and when a trading market for our various securities (besides our Common Stock and certain Common Stock Purchase Warrants) is established, the trading price of these securities could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment.
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OUR SECURITIES INVOLVE A HIGH DEGREE OF RISK AND, THEREFORE, SHOULD BE CONSIDERED EXTREMELY SPECULATIVE. THEY SHOULD NOT BE PURCHASED BY PERSONS WHO CANNOT AFFORD THE POSSIBILITY OF THE LOSS OF THE ENTIRE INVESTMENT.
RISKS RELATED TO THE BEER INDUSTRY
We face substantial competition within the beer industry.
The beer categories within the United States are highly competitive due to the participation of large domestic and international brewers in the categories and the increasing number of craft brewers and craft distilleries, who distribute similar beers we plan on selling and that have similar pricing and target drinkers.
The two largest brewers in the United States, AB InBev and Molson Coors, participate actively in mass appeal beer offerings as well as the High End and Beyond Beer categories, through numerous launches of new hard seltzers, flavored malt beverages and spirit RTDs from existing brands or new brands, importing and distributing import brands, and with their own domestic specialty beers, either by developing new brands or by acquiring, in whole or part, existing brands. Imported beers, such as Corona®, Heineken®, Modelo Especial® and Stella Artois®, continue to compete aggressively in the United States and have gained market share over the last ten years. All of these brands and companies have substantially greater financial resources, marketing strength and distribution networks than we do. We anticipate competition to be strong as some existing beverage companies are building more capacity, expanding geographically and adding more SKUs and styles. The potential for growth in the sales of hard seltzers, flavored malt beverages, craft-brewed domestic beers, imported beers and spirits RTDs is expected to increase the competition in the market for beer occasions within the United States and, as a result, we anticipate we will face competitive pricing pressures and the demand for and market share of our products, when introduced, may fluctuate and possibly decline.
Our products, when introduced, will compete generally with other alcoholic beverages. We anticipate competing with other beer and beverage companies not only for drinker acceptance and loyalty, but also for traditional retail shelf, cold box and tap space, as well as e-commerce placement and for marketing focus by our distributors and their customers, when established, all of which are anticipated to distribute and sell other alcoholic beverage products. All of our potential competitors at this point in time have substantially greater financial resources, marketing strength and distribution networks than we do. Moreover, the introduction of new products by competitors that compete directly with our intended products or that diminish the importance of our anticipated products to retailers or distributors may have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.
Further, the alcoholic beverage industry has seen continued consolidation among brewers in order to take advantage of cost savings opportunities for supplies, distribution and operations. Also, in the last several years, both AB InBev and Molson Coors have introduced numerous new hard seltzers and purchased multiple regional craft breweries and craft distilleries with the intention to expand the capacity and distribution of these brands.
More recently in 2021 and into 2022, large non-alcoholic beverage companies including Coca-Cola Company (“Coke”), Pepsi and Monster Beverage Corporation (“Monster”) have begun to enter these markets through licensing agreements with alcoholic beverage companies to develop alcohol versions of existing traditional non-alcohol brands. Coke has entered into agreements with Molson Coors to develop, market and sell Topo Chico brand Hard Seltzer and Simply Spiked Lemonade. Coke announced agreements with Constellation to develop, market and sell FRESCA™ Mixed, a line of spirits RTDs and with Brown Forman to develop, market and sell Jack Daniel’s® Tennessee Whiskey and Coca-Cola®™ Ready-to-Drink Cocktail. The Boston Brewing Company has entered into an agreement with Pepsi to develop, market and sell alcohol beverages which include Hard Mountain Dew, to take advantage of this trend. Pepsi entered an agreement in late 2022 with FIFCO USA, a New York based brewery, to develop, market and sell Lipton Hard Iced Tea which launched in 2023. Lastly, Monster, acquired CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective (“CANarchy”) in early 2022 and launched the Beast Unleashed, a new brand of flavored malt beverages in early 2023 and in January 2024 Monster announced CANarchy will operate under the name of Monster Brewing Company, another testament to craft breweries and distilleries widespread acceptance.
Due to the increased leverage that these combined operations will have in distribution and sales and marketing expenses, the costs to us for competing is anticipated to be great. The potential exists for these large competitors to increase their influence with their distributors, making it difficult for smaller beverage companies to maintain their market presence or enter new markets. The continuing consolidation could reduce the contract brewing capacity that is available to us. These potential increases in the number and availability of competing brands, the costs to compete, reductions in contract brewing capacity and decreases in distribution support and opportunities may have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.
Changes in public attitudes and drinker tastes could harm our business. Regulatory changes in response to public attitudes could adversely affect our business.
The alcoholic beverage industry has been the subject of considerable societal and political attention for several years, due to public concern over alcohol-related social problems, including driving under the influence, underage drinking and health consequences from the misuse of alcohol, including alcoholism. As an outgrowth of these concerns, the possibility exists that advertising by beer producers could be restricted, that additional cautionary labeling or packaging requirements might be imposed, that further restrictions on the sale of alcohol might be imposed or that there may be renewed efforts to impose increased excise or other taxes on beer sold in the United States.
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The domestic beer industry, other than the market for High End beer occasions and Beyond Beer occasions, has experienced a decline in shipments over the last ten years. We believe that this decline is due to declining alcohol consumption per person in the population, drinkers trading up to drink high quality, more flavorful hard seltzers. beers and spirts RTDs, health and wellness trends and increased competition from wine and spirits companies. If consumption of our products, when introduced, in general were to come into disfavor among domestic drinkers, or if the domestic alcohol beverage industry were subjected to significant additional societal pressure or governmental regulations, our business could be materially adversely affected.
Additionally, certain states are considering or have passed laws and regulations that allow the sale and distribution of marijuana. Currently it is not possible to predict the impact of this on sales of alcohol, but it is possible that legal marijuana usage could adversely impact the demand for our products.
We anticipate being dependent on distributors.
In the United States, where we intend for our beer to be sold, we anticipate selling most of its beer to independent beer distributors for distribution to retailers and, ultimately, to drinkers. Although we intend to engage multiple distributors, sustained growth will require us to maintain such relationships and possibly enter into agreements with additional distributors. Changes in control or ownership within the distribution network could lead to less support of our products.
Contributing to distribution risk is the fact that our distribution agreements, when entered into, are anticipated to be generally terminable by the distributor on relatively short notice. While these distribution agreements are anticipated to contain provisions giving us enforcement and termination rights, some state laws prohibit us from exercising these contractual rights. Our ability to maintain distribution arrangements may be adversely affected by the fact that many distributors are reliant on one of the major beer producers for a large percentage of their revenue and, therefore, they may be influenced by such producers. If our distribution agreements are terminated, we may not be able to enter into new distribution agreements on substantially similar terms, which may result in an increase in the costs of distribution.
No assurance can be given that we will be able to establish or maintain a distribution network or secure additional distributors on terms favorable to us.
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RISKS RELATED TO THE SAFE INDUSTRY
As a significant portion of our revenues is derived by demand for our safes and personal security products for firearms storage purposes, we depend on the availability and regulation of firearm/ammunition storage, as well as various economic, social and political factors.
Our performance is influenced by a variety of economic, social, and political factors. General economic conditions and consumer spending patterns can negatively impact our operating results. Economic uncertainty, unfavorable employment levels, declines in consumer confidence, increases in consumer debt levels, increased commodity prices, and other economic factors may affect consumer spending on discretionary items and adversely affect the demand for our products. In times of economic uncertainty, consumers tend to defer expenditures for discretionary items, which affects demand for our products. Any substantial deterioration in general economic conditions that diminish consumer confidence or discretionary income could reduce our sales and adversely affect our operating results. Economic conditions affect governmental political and budgetary policies. As a result, economic conditions can have an effect on the sale of our products to law enforcement, government, and military customers.
Political and other factors can affect our performance. Concerns about presidential, congressional, and state elections and legislature and policy shifts resulting from those elections can affect the demand for our products. As most of our revenue is generated from sales of safes, which are purchased in large numbers for firearms storage, speculation surrounding control of firearms, firearm products, and ammunition at the federal, state, and local level and heightened fears of terrorism and crime can affect consumer demand for our products. Often, such concerns result in an increase in near-term consumer demand and subsequent softening of demand when such concerns subside. Inventory levels in excess of customer demand may negatively impact operating results and cash flow.
Federal and state legislatures frequently consider legislation relating to the regulation of firearms, including amendment or repeal of existing legislation. Existing laws may be affected by future judicial rulings and interpretations firearm products, ammunition, and safe gun storage. If such restrictive changes to legislation develop, we could find it difficult, expensive, or even impossible to comply with them, impeding new product development and distribution of existing products.
Shortages of components and materials, as well as supply chain disruptions, may delay or reduce our sales and increase our costs, thereby harming our results of operations.
The inability to obtain sufficient quantities of raw materials and components, including those necessary for the production of our products could result in reduced or delayed sales or lost orders. Any delay in or loss of sales or orders could adversely impact our operating results. Many of the materials used in the production of our products are available only from a limited number of suppliers. We do not have long-term supply contracts with any suppliers. As a result, we could be subject to increased costs, supply interruptions, and difficulties in obtaining raw materials and components.
Our reliance on third-party suppliers for various raw materials and components for our products exposes us to volatility in the availability, quality, and price of these raw materials and components. Our orders with certain of our suppliers may represent a very small portion of their total orders. As a result, they may not give priority to our business, leading to potential delays in or cancellation of our orders. A disruption in deliveries from our third-party suppliers, capacity constraints, production disruptions, price increases, or decreased availability of raw materials or commodities could have an adverse effect on our ability to meet our commitments to customers or increase our operating costs. Quality issues experienced by third party suppliers can adversely affect the quality and effectiveness of our products and result in liability and reputational harm.
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We do not have long-term purchase commitments from our customers, and their ability to cancel, reduce, or delay orders could reduce our revenue and increase our costs.
Our customers do not provide us with firm, long-term volume purchase commitments, but instead issue purchase orders for our products as needed. As a result, customers can cancel purchase orders or reduce or delay orders at any time. The cancellation, delay, or reduction of customer purchase orders could result in reduced sales, excess inventory, unabsorbed overhead, and reduced income from operations.
We often schedule internal production levels and place orders for products with third party manufacturers before receiving firm orders from our customers. Therefore, if we fail to accurately forecast customer demand, we may experience excess inventory levels or a shortage of products to deliver to our customers. Factors that could affect our ability to accurately forecast demand for our products include the following:
● | an increase or decrease in consumer demand for our products or for the products of our competitors; | |
● | our failure to accurately forecast consumer acceptance of new products; | |
● | new product introductions by us or our competitors; | |
● | changes in our relationships within our distribution channels; | |
● | changes in general market conditions or other factors, which may result in cancellations of orders or a reduction or increase in the rate of reorders placed by retailers; | |
● | changes in laws and regulations governing the activities for which we sell products, such as hunting and shooting sports; and | |
● | changes in laws and regulations regarding the possession and sale of medical or recreational controlled- substances. |
Inventory levels in excess of consumer demand may result in inventory write-downs and the sale of excess inventory at discounted prices, which could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. If we underestimate demand for our products, our suppliers may not be able to react quickly enough to meet consumer demand, resulting in delays in the shipment of products and lost revenue, and damage to our reputation and customer and consumer relationships. We may not be able to manage inventory levels successfully to meet future order and reorder requirements.
We face intense competition that could result in our losing or failing to gain market share and suffering reduced sales.
We operate in intensely competitive markets that are characterized by price erosion and competition from major domestic and international companies. Competition in the markets in which we operate is based on a number of factors, including price, quality, performance, reliability, styling, product features, and warranties, and sales and marketing programs. This intense competition could result in pricing pressures, lower sales, reduced margins, and lower market share.
Our competitors include nationwide safe manufacturers and various smaller manufacturers and importers. Most of our competitors have greater market recognition, larger customer bases, and substantially greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution, and other resources than we possess and that afford them competitive advantages. As a result, they may be able to devote greater resources to the promotion and sale of products, to invest more funds in intellectual property and product development, to negotiate lower prices for raw materials and components, to deliver competitive products at lower prices, and to introduce new products and respond to consumer requirements more quickly than we can.
Our competitors could introduce products with superior features at lower prices than our products and could bundle existing or new products with other more established products to compete with us. Certain of our competitors may be willing to reduce prices and accept lower profit margins to compete with us. Our competitors could gain market share by acquiring or forming strategic alliances with other competitors.
Finally, we may face additional sources of competition in the future because new distribution methods offered by the Internet and electronic commerce have removed many of the barriers to entry historically faced by start-up companies. Retailers also demand that suppliers reduce their prices on products, which could lead to lower margins. Any of the foregoing effects could cause our sales to decline, which would harm our financial position and results of operations.
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Our ability to compete successfully depends on a number of factors, both within and outside our control. These factors include the following:
● | our success in developing, producing, marketing, and successfully selling new products; | |
● | our ability to efficiently manage our operations; | |
● | our ability to implement our strategies and business plans; | |
● | our ability to achieve future operating results; | |
● | our ability to address the needs of our consumer customers; | |
● | the pricing, quality, performance, and reliability of our products; | |
● | the quality of our customer service; | |
● | the efficiency of our production; and | |
● | product or technology introductions by our competitors. |
Because we believe technological and functional distinctions among competing products in our markets are perceived by many end-user consumers to be relatively modest, effectiveness in marketing and manufacturing are particularly important competitive factors in our business.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
Our success depends upon our ability to introduce new products that track customer preferences.
Our success depends upon our ability to introduce new products that track consumer preferences. Our efforts to introduce new products into the market may not be successful, and new products that we introduce may not result in customer or market acceptance. We develop new products that we believe will match consumer preferences. The development of a new product is a lengthy and costly process and may not result in the development of a marketable or profitable product. Failure to develop new products that are attractive to consumers could decrease our sales, operating margins, and market share and could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our advertising and promotional investments may affect the Company’s financial results but not be effective.
The Company has made and expects to continue to make, significant advertising and promotional expenditures to enhance its brand. These expenditures may adversely affect the Company’s results of operations in a particular quarter or even for the full year, and may not result in increased sales. Variations in the levels of advertising and promotional expenditures have in the past caused, and are expected in the future to continue to cause, variability in the Company’s quarterly results of operations. While the Company attempts to invest only in effective advertising and promotional activities, it is difficult to correlate such investments with sales results, and there is no guarantee that the Company’s expenditures will be effective in building brand equity or growing long term sales.
Our business depends on maintaining and strengthening our brand, as well as our reputation as a producer of high-quality goods, to maintain and generate ongoing demand for our products, and any harm to our brand could result in a significant reduction in such demand which could materially adversely affect our results of operations.
The “American Rebel” name and brand image are integral to the growth of our business, as well as to the implementation of our strategies for expanding our business. Our success depends on the value and reputation of our brand, which, in turn, depends on factors such as the quality, design, performance, functionality and durability of our products, e-commerce sales and retail partner floor spaces, our communication activities, including advertising, social media and public relations, and our management of the customer experience, including direct interfaces through customer service. Maintaining, promoting, and positioning our brand are important to expanding our customer base and will depend largely on the success of our marketing and merchandising efforts and our ability to provide consistent, high-quality consumer experiences. To sustain long-term growth, we must continue to successfully promote our products to consumers, as well as other individuals, who value and identify with our brand.
Ineffective marketing, negative publicity, product diversion to unauthorized distribution channels, product or manufacturing defects, and those and other factors could rapidly and severely diminish customer confidence in us. Maintaining and enhancing our brand image are important to expanding our customer base. If we are unable to maintain or enhance our brand in current or new markets, or if we fail to continue to successfully market and sell our products to our existing customers or expand our customer base, our growth strategy and results of operations could be harmed.
Additionally, independent third parties and consumers often review our products as well as those of our competitors. Perceptions of our offerings in the marketplace may be significantly influenced by these reviews, which are disseminated via various media, including the Internet. If reviews of our products are negative, or less positive as compared to those of our competitors, our brand may be adversely affected and our results of operations materially harmed.
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We have a limited operating history on which you can evaluate our company.
We have a limited operating history upon which an evaluation of our business plan or performance and prospects can be made. Our business and prospects must be considered in the light of the potential problems, delays, uncertainties and complications encountered in connection with a newly established business and creating a new line of products. The risks include, in part, the possibility that we will not be able to develop functional and scalable products, or that although functional and scalable, our products and will not be economical to market; that our competitors hold proprietary rights that preclude us from marketing such products; that our competitors market a superior or equivalent product; that our competitors have such a significant advantage in brand recognition that our products will not be considered by potential customers; that we are not able to upgrade and enhance our technologies and products to accommodate new features as the market evolves; or the failure to receive necessary regulatory clearances for our products. To successfully introduce and market our products at a profit, we must establish brand name recognition and competitive advantages for our products. There are no assurances that we can successfully address these challenges. If it is unsuccessful, we and our business, financial condition and operating results could be materially and adversely affected.
The current and future expense levels are based largely on estimates of planned operations and future revenues. It is difficult to accurately forecast future revenues because our business is relatively new, and our market is rapidly developing. If our forecasts prove incorrect, the business, operating results and our financial condition will be materially and adversely affected. Moreover, we may be unable to adjust our spending in a timely manner to compensate for any unanticipated reduction in revenue. As a result, any significant reduction in revenues would immediately and adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.
We are highly dependent on Charles A. Ross, our Chief Executive Officer. The loss of our Chief Executive Officer, whose knowledge, leadership and industry reputational upon which we rely, could harm our ability to execute our business plan.
We are highly dependent on Charles A. Ross, our Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of our board of directors (the “Board” or “Board of Directors”) and largest stockholder. Our success depends heavily upon the continued contributions of Mr. Ross, whose leadership, industry reputation entrepreneurial background and creative marketing skills may be difficult to replace at this stage in our business development, and on our ability to attract and retain similarly positioned prominent leaders. If we were to lose the services of our Chief Executive Officer, our ability to execute our business plan may be harmed and we may be forced to limit operations until such time as we could hire suitable replacements.
We cannot predict when we will achieve profitability.
We have not been profitable and cannot predict when or if we will achieve profitability. We have experienced net losses since our inception in December 2014.
We cannot predict when we will achieve profitability, if ever. Our inability to become profitable may force us to curtail or temporarily discontinue our research and development programs and our day-to-day operations. Furthermore, there can be no assurance that profitability, if achieved, can be sustained on an ongoing basis. As of December 31, 2023, we had an accumulated deficit of $45,213,594.
We have limited financial resources. Our independent registered auditors’ report includes an explanatory paragraph stating that there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.
We have recorded net losses since inception and have significant accumulated deficits. We have relied upon loans and equity financings for operating capital. Total revenues will be insufficient to pay off existing debt and fund operations. We may be required to rely on further debt financing, further loans from related parties, and private placements of our common and preferred stock for our additional cash needs. Such funding sources may not be available, or the terms of such funding sources may not be acceptable to us.
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We will need additional capital and continued access to operating lines of credit in the future to finance our planned growth, which we may not be able to raise or it may only be available on terms unfavorable to us or our stockholders, which may result in our inability to fund our working capital requirements and harm our operational results.
We have and expect to continue to have substantial working capital needs. Our cash on hand, together with cash generated from product sales, cash equivalents and short-term investments will not meet our working capital and capital expenditure requirements for the next twelve months. Throughout fiscal 2023 and continuing into 2024 we have raised a substantial amount of equity and debt capital to fund our operations. Further, our safe subsidiary is highly dependent on access to a line of credit with a major financial institution, which comes due in 2024. In addition, we will need to raise additional funds to fund our operations and implement our growth strategy, or to respond to competitive pressures and/or perceived opportunities, such as investment, acquisition, marketing and development activities.
If we experience operating difficulties, lose access to important operating lines of credit or other factors, many of which may be beyond our control, cause our revenues or cash flows from operations, if any, to decrease, we may be limited in our ability to spend the capital necessary to complete our development, marketing and growth programs. We require additional financing, in addition to anticipated cash generated from our operations, to fund our working capital requirements. Additional financing might not be available on terms favorable to us, or at all. If adequate funds were not available or were not available on acceptable terms, our ability to fund our operations, take advantage of unanticipated opportunities, develop or enhance our business or otherwise respond to competitive pressures would be significantly limited. In such a capital restricted situation, we may curtail our marketing, development, and operational activities or be forced to sell some of our assets on an untimely or unfavorable basis.
The sales of our safes are dependent in large part on the sales of firearms.
We market safes and other personal security products for sale to a wide variety of consumers. Although our customer base is large and diverse, and our products serve our customers’ different needs, our products have been particularly popular among collectors, hunters, sportsmen, competitive shooters, and gun enthusiasts. The sale of safe firearms storage and security components is influenced by the sale and usage of firearms. Sales of firearms are influenced by a variety of economic, social, and political factors, which may result in volatile sales.
Our financial results may be affected by tariffs or border adjustment taxes or other import restrictions.
Our current backpack and apparel suppliers have facilities both in China and Mexico and the imposition of tariffs or border adjustment taxes may affect our financial results. The current political climate is hostile to companies manufacturing goods outside of the US. At the current manufacturing levels, it is impractical to seek manufacturing facilities in the United States as US manufacturers are unable to meet or even approach the cost of manufacturing small quantities of custom-made goods. We are in the process of locating an alternative supplier which will have the capacity to produce commercial volumes of our backpacks and apparel to meet our expected demands. However, we have not yet located a suitable supplier and, even if we are able to do so, there is no guarantee that our manufacturing process will scale to produce our products in quantities sufficient to meet demand.
An inability to expand our e-commerce business and sales organization to effectively address existing and new markets that we intend to target could reduce our future growth and impact our business and operating results.
Consumers are increasingly purchasing products online. We operate a direct-to-consumer e-commerce store to maintain an online presence with our end users. The future success of our online operations depends on our ability to use our marketing resources to communicate with existing and potential customers. We face competitive pressure to offer promotional discounts, which could impact our gross margin and increase our marketing expenses. We are limited, however, in our ability to fully respond to competitor price discounting because we cannot market our products at prices that may produce adverse relationships with our customers that operate brick and mortar locations as they may perceive themselves to be at a disadvantage based on lower e-commerce pricing to end consumers. There is no assurance that we will be able to successfully expand our e-commerce business to respond to shifting consumer traffic patterns and direct-to-consumer buying trends.
In addition, e-commerce and direct-to-consumer operations are subject to numerous risks, including implementing and maintaining appropriate technology to support business strategies; reliance on third-party computer hardware/software and service providers; data breaches; violations of state, federal or international laws, including those relating to firearms and ammunition sales; online privacy; credit card fraud; telecommunication failures; electronic break-ins and similar disruptions; and disruption of Internet service. Our inability to adequately respond to these risks and uncertainties or to successfully maintain and expand our direct-to-consumer business may have an adverse impact on our business and operating results.
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We sell products that create exposure to potential product liability, warranty liability, or personal injury claims and litigation.
Our products are used to store, in part, items that involve risk of personal injury and death. Our products expose us to potential product liability, warranty liability, and personal injury claims and litigation relating to the use or misuse of our products, including allegations of defects in manufacturing, defects in design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product or activities associated with the product, negligence, and strict liability. If successful, any such claims could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. Defects in our products may result in a loss of sales, recall expenses, delay in market acceptance, and damage to our reputation and increased warranty costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. Although we maintain product liability insurance in amounts that we believe are reasonable, we may not be able to maintain such insurance on acceptable terms, if at all, in the future and product liability claims may exceed the amount of insurance coverage. In addition, our reputation may be adversely affected by such claims, whether or not successful, including potential negative publicity about our products.
Despite our indebtedness levels, we are able to incur substantially more debt. This could further increase the risks associated with its leverage.
We may incur substantial additional indebtedness in the future, although certain terms of current debt agreements prohibit us from doing so. To the extent that we incur additional indebtedness, the risks associated with its substantial indebtedness describe above, including its possible inability to service its debt, will increase.
At this stage of our business operations, even with our good faith efforts, investors in our company may lose some or all of their investment.
Because the nature of our business is expected to change as a result of shifts in the industries in which we operate, competition, and the development of new and improved technology, management forecasts are not necessarily indicative of future operations and should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. Further, we have raised substantial debt and equity to fund our business operations, which to date have generated insufficient revenue to support our working capital needs.
While management believes its estimates of projected occurrences and events are within the timetable of its business plan, our actual results may differ substantially from those that are currently anticipated. If our revenues do not increase to a level to support our working capital needs, we will be forced to seek equity capital to fund our operations and repay our substantial debt balances, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all.
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Product defects could adversely affect the results of our operations.
The design, manufacture and marketing of our products involve certain inherent risks. Manufacturing or design defects, unanticipated use of our products, or inadequate disclosure of risks relating to the use of our products can lead to injury or other adverse events. We may not properly anticipate customer applications of our products and our products may fail to survive such unanticipated customer use. If our products fail to adequately perform to meet the customer’s expectations, the customer may demand refunds or replacements which will negatively affect our profitability.
We could be exposed to significant liability claims if we are unable to obtain insurance at acceptable costs and adequate levels or otherwise protect ourselves against potential product liability claims.
Our products support the use and access to firearms and if our products are ineffective, we could require protection against potential product liability claims.
We will not be profitable unless we can demonstrate that our products can be manufactured at low prices.
To date, we have manufactured our products in limited volume. As we create demand for our products, our projections require the benefit of volume discounts as we increase the size of our order. We can offer no assurance that either we or our manufacturing partners will develop efficient, automated, low-cost manufacturing capabilities and processes to meet the quality, price, engineering, design and production standards or production volumes required to successfully mass market our products. Even if we or our manufacturing partners are successful in developing such manufacturing capability and processes, we do not know whether we or they will be timely in meeting our product commercialization schedule or the production and delivery requirements of potential customers. A failure to develop such manufacturing processes and capabilities could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.
Our profitability in part is dependent on material and other manufacturing costs. We are unable to offer any assurance that either we or a manufacturing partner will be able to reduce costs to a level that will allow production of a competitive product or that any product produced using lower cost materials and manufacturing processes will not suffer from a reduction in performance, reliability and longevity.
War, terrorism, other acts of violence or natural or manmade disasters such as a pandemic, epidemic, outbreak of an infectious disease or other public health crisis may affect the markets in which we operate, our customers, our delivery of products and customer service, and could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, or financial costs condition.
Our business and supply chain may be adversely affected by instability, disruption or destruction in a geographic region in which it operates, regardless of cause, including war, terrorism, riot, civil insurrection or social unrest, and natural or manmade disasters, including famine, food, fire, earthquake, storm or pandemic events and spread of disease (including the outbreak of COVID-19).
Such events may cause customers to suspend their decisions on using our products and services, make it impossible to access some of our inventory, and give rise to sudden significant changes in regional and global economic conditions and cycles that could interfere with purchases of goods or services and commitments to develop new products and services. These events pose significant risks to our personnel and to physical facilities, transportation and operations, which could materially adversely affect our financial results.
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Any significant disruption to communications and travel, including travel restrictions and other potential protective quarantine measures against COVID-19 or other public health crisis by governmental agencies, could make it difficult for us to deliver goods services to its customers. War, riots, or other disasters may increase the need for our products and demand by government and military may make it difficult for use to provide products to customers. Further, travel restrictions and protective measures against COVID-19 could cause us to incur additional unexpected labor costs and expenses or could restrain our ability to retain the highly skilled personnel we need for our operations. Due to the substantial uncertainty related to the effects of the pandemic, its duration and the related market impacts, including the economic stimulus activity, we are unable to predict the specific impact the pandemic and related restrictions (including the lifting or re-imposing of restrictions due to the Omicron variant or otherwise) will have on our results of operations, liquidity or long-term financial results.
We believe COVID-19 has not yet had a materially adverse effect on our operational results, but could at any time and without notice in the foreseeable future. As a result of COVID-19, at any time we may be subject to increased operating costs, supply interruptions, and difficulties in obtaining raw materials and components. COVID-19 has resulted in restrictions, postponements and cancelations of meetings, conferences, trade shows and the impact, extent and duration of the government-imposed restrictions on travel and public gatherings as well as the overall effect of the COVID-19 virus is currently unknown.
The costs of being a public company could result in us being unable to continue as a going concern.
As a public company, we are required to comply with numerous financial reporting and legal requirements, including those pertaining to audits and internal control. The costs of maintaining public company reporting requirements could be significant and may preclude us from seeking financing or equity investment on terms acceptable to us and our stockholders. We estimate these costs to be in excess of $200,000 per year and may be higher if our business volume or business activity increases significantly. Our current estimate of costs does not include the necessary expenses associated with compliance, documentation and specific reporting requirements of Section 404 as we will not be subject to the full reporting requirements of Section 404 until we exceed $700 million in public float market capitalization.
If our revenues are insufficient or non-existent, or we cannot satisfy many of these costs through the issuance of shares or debt, we may be unable to satisfy these costs in the normal course of business. This would certainly result in our being unable to continue as a going concern.
Any acquisitions that we potentially undertake will involve significant risks, and any acquisitions that we undertake in the future could disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value, and harm our operating results.
Part of our growth strategy is to expand our operations through strategic acquisitions to enhance existing products and offer new products, enter new markets and businesses, strengthen and avoid interruption from our supply chain, and enhance our position in current markets and businesses. Acquisitions involve significant risks and uncertainties. We cannot accurately predict the timing, size, and success of any future acquisitions. We may be unable to identify suitable acquisition candidates or to complete the acquisitions of candidates that we identify. Increased competition for acquisition candidates or increased asking prices by acquisition candidates may increase purchase prices for acquisitions to levels beyond our financial capability or to levels that would not result in the returns required by our acquisition criteria. Unforeseen expenses, difficulties, and delays frequently encountered in connection with expansion through acquisitions could inhibit our growth and negatively impact our operating results.
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Our ability to complete acquisitions that we desire to make will depend upon various factors, including the following:
● | the availability of suitable acquisition candidates at attractive purchase prices; | |
● | the ability to compete effectively for available acquisition opportunities; | |
● | the availability of cash resources, borrowing capacity, or stock at favorable price levels to provide required purchase prices in acquisitions; | |
● | the ability of management to devote sufficient attention to acquisition efforts; and | |
● | the ability to obtain any requisite governmental or other approvals. |
We may have little or no experience with certain acquired businesses, which could involve significantly different supply chains, production techniques, customers, and competitive factors than our current business. This lack of experience would require us to rely to a great extent on the management teams of these acquired businesses. These acquisitions could require us to make significant investments in systems, equipment, facilities, and personnel in anticipation of growth. These costs could be essential to implement our growth strategy in supporting our expanded activities and resulting corporate structure changes. We may be unable to achieve some or all of the benefits that we expect to achieve as we expand into these new markets within the time frames we expect, if at all. If we fail to achieve some or all of the benefits that we expect to achieve as we expand into these new markets, or do not achieve them within the time frames we expect, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Unforeseen expenses, difficulties, and delays frequently encountered in connection with future acquisitions could inhibit our growth and negatively impact our profitability. Any future acquisitions may not meet our strategic objectives or perform as anticipated. In addition, the size, timing, and success of any future acquisitions may cause substantial fluctuations in our operating results from quarter to quarter. These interim fluctuations could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
If we finance any future acquisitions in whole or in part through the issuance of common stock or securities convertible into or exercisable for common stock, existing stockholders will experience dilution in the voting power of their common stock and earnings per share could be negatively impacted. The extent to which we will be able or willing to use our common stock for acquisitions will depend on the market price of our common stock from time-to-time and the willingness of potential acquisition candidates to accept our common stock as full or partial consideration for the sale of their businesses. Our inability to use our common stock as consideration, to generate cash from operations, or to obtain additional funding through debt or equity financings to pursue an acquisition could limit our growth.
We may not be able to successfully fund future acquisitions of new businesses due to the lack of availability of debt or equity financing on acceptable terms, which could impede the implementation of our acquisition strategy and materially adversely impact our financial condition, business and results of operations.
In order to make future acquisitions, we intend to raise capital primarily through debt financing, additional equity offerings, the sale of stock or assets of our businesses, and by offering equity in the businesses to the sellers of target businesses or by undertaking a combination of any of the above. Since the timing and size of acquisitions cannot be readily predicted, we may need to be able to obtain funding on short notice to benefit fully from attractive acquisition opportunities. Such funding may not be available on acceptable terms. In addition, the level of our indebtedness may impact our ability to borrow funds on acceptable terms. Another source of capital for us may be the sale of additional shares of common stock, subject to market conditions and investor demand for the shares at prices that we consider to be in the interests of our stockholders. These risks may materially adversely affect our ability to pursue our acquisition strategy successfully and materially adversely affect our financial condition, business and results of operations.
The industry in which we operate is competitive, price sensitive and subject to risks of governmental regulations or laws. If our competitors are better able to develop and market products that are more effective, less costly, easier to use, or are otherwise more attractive, we may be unable to compete effectively with other companies.
The safe and personal security industry is characterized by intense competition. We will face competition on the basis of product features, reliability, price, apparent value, and other factors. Competitors may include large safe makers and other companies, some of which have significantly greater financial and marketing resources than we do, and firms that are more specialized than we are with respect to particular markets. Our competition may respond more quickly to new or emerging styles, undertake more extensive marketing campaigns, have greater financial, marketing and other resources than ours or may be more successful in attracting potential customers, employees and strategic partners.
Our industry could experience greater scrutiny and regulation by governmental authorities, which may lead to greater governmental regulation in the future.
The rapidly growing interest in new concealed carry products that this rapidly growing market may attract the attention of government regulators and legislators. The current trend in legislation is to roll back or minimize access to firearms restrictions, but there can be no assurance that this trend will continue.
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RISKS RELATED TO OUR LEGAL AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
Failure to comply with applicable laws and changing legal and regulatory requirements could harm our business and financial results.
Our policies and procedures are reasonably designed to comply with applicable laws, accounting and reporting requirements, tax rules and other regulations and requirements, including those imposed by the SEC, and foreign countries, as well as applicable trade, labor, safety, environmental, labeling and gun safety related laws, such as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act as well as state laws. The complexity of the regulatory environment in which we operate and the related cost of compliance are both increasing due to additional or changing legal and regulatory requirements, our ongoing expansion into new markets and new channels, and the fact that foreign laws occasionally conflict with domestic laws. In addition to potential damage to our reputation and brand, failure by us or our business partners to comply with the various applicable laws and regulations, as well as changes in laws and regulations or the manner in which they are interpreted or applied, may result in litigation, civil and criminal liability, damages, fines and penalties, increased cost of regulatory compliance and restatements of our financial statements and have an adverse impact on our business and financial results.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
As of December 31, 2023, and December 31, 2022, we continue to have net operating loss carryforwards, or “NOLs”, for federal and state income tax purposes of $45,213,594 and $34,112,810, respectively, which begins to expire in 2032. Net operating loss carryforwards are available to reduce future taxable income. Federal net operating losses generated before 2018 will begin to expire in 2032. Federal net operating losses generated in and after 2018 may be carried forward indefinitely. The expiration of state NOL carryforwards vary by state and begin to expire in 2024. It is possible that we will not generate sufficient taxable income in time to use the NOLs before their expiration, or at all. Under Section 382 and Section 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change NOLs and other tax attributes to offset its post-change income may be limited. In general, an “ownership change” will occur if there is a cumulative change in our ownership by “5 percent (and greater than 5 percent) stockholders” that exceeds 50 percentage points or more in change over a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. Our ability to use NOLs and other tax attributes to reduce future taxable income and liabilities may be subject to annual limitations as a result of prior ownership changes and ownership changes that may occur in the future (which may be outside our control).
Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or the Tax Act, as amended by the CARES Act, NOLs arising in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, are subject to an 80% of taxable income limitation (as calculated before taking the NOLs into account). In addition, NOLs arising in tax years 2018, 2019, and 2020 were subject to a five-year carryback along with an indefinite carryforward, while NOLs arising in tax years beginning after December 31, 2020, are subject to indefinite carryforward but cannot be carried back. Our NOLs may be subject to limitations in other jurisdictions. For example, California recently enacted legislation suspending the use of NOLs for tax years 2020, 2021, and 2022 for many taxpayers. In future years, if and when a net deferred tax asset is recognized related to our NOLs, the changes in the carryforward/carryback periods as well as new limitations on use of NOLs may significantly impact our valuation allowance assessments for NOLs generated after December 31, 2017.
If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, we may lose a competitive advantage or incur substantial litigation costs to protect our rights.
Our future success depends upon our proprietary technology. Our protective measures, including patent and trade secret protection, may prove inadequate to protect our proprietary rights. The right to stop others from misusing our trademarks, service marks, and patents in commerce depends to some extent on our ability to show evidence of enforcement of our rights against such misuse in commerce. Our efforts to stop improper use, if insufficient, may lead to loss of trademark and service mark rights, brand loyalty, and notoriety among our customers and prospective customers. The scope of any patent that we have or may obtain may not prevent others from developing and selling competing products. The validity and breadth of claims covered in technology patents involve complex legal and factual questions, and the resolution of such claims may be highly uncertain, and expensive. In addition, our patents may be held invalid upon challenge, or others may claim rights in or ownership of our patents. Company owned trademarks are listed under the heading Intellectual Property on page 20.
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We are subject to the periodic reporting requirements of Section 15(d) and 12(g) of the Exchange Act that require us to incur audit fees and legal fees in connection with the preparation of such reports. These additional costs could reduce or eliminate our ability to earn a profit.
We are required to file periodic reports with the SEC pursuant to the Exchange Act and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder. In order to comply with these requirements, our independent registered public accounting firm will have to review our financial statements on a quarterly basis and audit our financial statements on an annual basis. Moreover, our legal counsel will have to review and assist in the preparation of such reports. The costs charged by these professionals for such services cannot be accurately predicted at this time because factors such as the number and type of transactions that we engage in, and the complexity of our reports cannot be determined at this time and will affect the amount of time to be spent by our auditors and attorneys. However, the incurrence of such costs will obviously be an expense to our operations and thus have a negative effect on our ability to meet our overhead requirements and earn a profit.
However, for as long as we remain a smaller reporting company as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K, we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not smaller reporting companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, reduced financial statement disclosure in registration statements, which must include two years of audited financial statements, reduced financial statement disclosure in annual reports on Form 10-K, and exemptions from the auditor attestation of management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting. We may take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer a smaller reporting company.
If we cannot provide reliable financial reports or prevent fraud, our business and operating results could be harmed, investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, and the trading price of our common stock, could drop significantly.
Our internal controls may be inadequate, which could cause our financial reporting to be unreliable and lead to misinformation being disseminated to the public.
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over our financial reporting. As defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f), internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the principal executive and principal financial officer and effected by the board of directors, management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and includes those policies and procedures that:
● | pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of ours; | |
● | provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and that receipts and expenditures of ours are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and/or directors; and | |
● | provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements. |
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Our internal controls may be inadequate or ineffective, which could cause financial reporting to be unreliable and lead to misinformation being disseminated to the public. Furthermore, our accounting policies and methods are fundamental to how we report our financial condition and results of operations, and they may require our management to make estimates about matters that are inherently uncertain. Investors relying upon this misinformation may make an uninformed investment decision.
Failure to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment could cause us to face regulatory action and cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.
However, our auditors will not be required to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 until we are no longer a smaller reporting company.
RISKS RELATED TO AN INVESTMENT IN OUR SECURITIES
Stockholders’ voting power and ownership interest may be diluted significantly through our efforts to obtain financing and satisfy obligations through issuance of additional shares.
Our Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation authorizes our board of directors to issue up to 600,000,000 shares of common stock and up to 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock, of which we have designated 150,000 shares as Series A – Super Voting Convertible Preferred Stock (“Series A Preferred Stock”) (125,000 of which were issued to three members of management, Messrs. Charles A. Ross, Jr., Doug E. Grau and Corey Lambrecht), and have superior voting rights of 1,000 to 1 over shares of our common stock, resulting in nearly 96% of the available stockholder votes, and are convertible (subject to vesting requirements) at a ratio of 500 to 1 into shares of common stock. The power of the board of directors to issue shares of common stock, preferred stock, warrants or options to purchase shares of common stock or preferred stock is generally not subject to stockholder approval, except for issuances of more than 20% of the company’s outstanding common stock or its voting power. The Series A Preferred Stock was issued prior to these shareholder approval limitations.
While we have completed several capital raises utilizing multiple financial institutions, we may attempt to raise additional capital by returning to the market to sell shares of common or preferred stock, possibly at a deep discount to the market price of our common stock. These actions may result in dilution of the ownership interests and voting power of existing stockholders, further dilute common stock book value, and may delay, defer or prevent a change of control. While we are currently in a capital raise utilizing our Series C Preferred Stock, we do not believe that the terms of the offering are at a deep discount.
Additionally, other series of preferred stock, besides our Series C Preferred Stock, currently being offered, may carry the preferred right to our assets upon liquidation, the right to receive dividend payments before dividends are distributed to the holders of common stock, superior voting or conversion rights and the right to the redemption of the shares, together with a premium, prior to the redemption of our common stock.
Our board of directors has the authority, without stockholder approval, to issue additional series of preferred stock with terms that may not be beneficial to Common Stockholders and with the ability to affect adversely stockholder voting power and perpetuate their control over us.
Our Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation allow us to issue shares of preferred stock without any vote or further action by our stockholders. Our board of directors has the authority to fix and determine the relative rights and preferences of preferred stock. As a result, our board of directors could authorize the issuance of a series of preferred stock that would grant to holders the preferred right to our assets upon liquidation, the right to receive dividend payments before dividends are distributed to the holders of common stock and the right to the redemption of the shares, together with a premium, prior to the redemption of our common stock.
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Our common stock may be affected by limited trading volume and our share price may be volatile, which could adversely impact the value of our common stock.
There can be no assurance that an active trading market in our common stock can be maintained. Our common stock is likely to experience significant price and volume fluctuations in the future, which could adversely affect the market price of our common stock without regard to our operating performance and the market price of our common stock may drop below the price paid by investors. In addition, we believe that factors such as our operating results, quarterly fluctuations in our financial results and changes in the overall economy or the condition of the financial markets, including as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, could cause the price of our common stock to fluctuate substantially. These fluctuations may also cause short sellers to periodically enter the market in the belief that we will have poor results in the future. We cannot predict the actions of market participants and, therefore, can offer no assurances that the market for our common stock will be stable or appreciate over time.
Short sellers of our common stock may drive down the market price of our common stock.
Short selling is the practice of selling securities that the seller does not own but rather has borrowed or intends to borrow from a third party with the intention of buying identical securities at a later date to return to the lender. A short seller hopes to profit from a decline in the value of the securities between the sale of the borrowed securities and the purchase of the replacement shares, as the short seller expects to pay less in that purchase than it received in the sale. As it is therefore in the short seller’s interest for the price of the stock to decline, some short sellers publish, or arrange for the publication of, opinions or characterizations regarding the relevant issuer, its business prospects and similar matters calculated to or which may create negative market momentum, which may permit them to obtain profits for themselves as a result of selling the stock short. Issuers whose securities have historically had limited trading volumes and/or have been susceptible to relatively high volatility levels can be particularly vulnerable to such short seller attacks.
The publication of any such commentary regarding us by a short seller may bring about a temporary, or possibly long term, decline in the market price of our common stock. No assurances can be made that we will not become a target of such commentary and declines in the market price of our common stock will not occur in the future, in connection with such commentary by short sellers or otherwise.
We may not be able to maintain a listing of our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market.
We must meet certain financial and liquidity criteria to maintain the listing of our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”). If we violate the Nasdaq’s listing requirements or fail to meet its listing standards, our common stock may be delisted. In addition, our board of directors may determine that the cost of maintaining our listing on a national securities exchange outweighs the benefits of such listing. A delisting of our common stock from the Nasdaq may materially impair our stockholders’ ability to buy and sell our common stock and could have an adverse effect on the market price of, and the efficiency of the trading market for, our common stock. The delisting of our common stock could significantly impair our ability to raise capital and the value of your investment.
On October 23, 2023, we were notified by Nasdaq that we were not in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) because the price of our common stock had traded at less than $1.00 per share for the last thirty consecutive trading days. Nasdaq’s notice has no immediate effect on the listing of the common stock on Nasdaq and, at this time. Pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), we have been provided an initial compliance period of 180 calendar days, or until April 22, 2024, to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. To regain compliance, the closing bid price of the common stock must meet or exceed $1.00 per share for a minimum of ten consecutive business days prior to April 22, 2024. In late March of 2024, we requested an additional 180-day extension to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. As of the date of this filing Nasdaq has not responded to our request. Management continues to believe that adherence to its current operating and business plan will enable us to regain compliance. In addition, we have obtained majority stockholder consent to enact up to a 1-for-10 reverse stock split at any time in the following twelve months and would cure the deficiency during the second compliance period, by effecting the reverse stock split, if necessary.
On February 28, 2024, we received a written notice from Nasdaq stating that because we have not yet held an annual meeting of shareholders within 12 months of the end of our 2022 fiscal year end, we no longer comply with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5620(a) for continued listing on Nasdaq. We have until April 15, 2024, which is 45 days from the date of the notice, to submit a plan to regain compliance and, if Nasdaq accepts the plan, it may grant an exception of up to 180 calendar days from the fiscal year end, or until June 28, 2024, to regain compliance. We intend to submit a compliance plan within the specified period, which we expect will consist of holding an annual meeting of stockholders within sixty (60) days of filing of this Form 10-K. While the compliance plan is pending, our securities will continue to trade on Nasdaq.
We believe that delisting of our common stock from the Nasdaq may adversely affect our ability to raise additional financing through the public or private sale of equity securities, may significantly affect the ability of investors to trade our securities and may negatively affect the value and liquidity of our common stock (and our Series C Preferred Stock that we are offering to the public). Delisting could have other negative results, including the potential loss of employee confidence, the loss of institutional investors and/or interest in significant business development opportunities.
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If we are delisted from the Nasdaq and we are not able to list our common stock on another exchange, our common stock may be quoted on the OTC Markets or on the “pink sheets.” As a result, we could face significant adverse consequences including, among others:
● | a limited availability of market quotations for our securities; | |
● | a determination that our common stock is a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our common stock to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities; | |
● | a limited amount of news and little or no analyst coverage of our company; | |
● | we would no longer qualify for exemptions from state securities registration requirements, which may require us to comply with applicable state securities laws; and | |
● | a decreased ability to issue additional securities (including pursuant to short-form registration statements on Form S-3) or obtain additional financing in the future. |
In addition, an increase in the per share trading value of our common stock would be beneficial because it would:
● | improve the perception of our common stock as an investment security; | |
● | reset our stock price to more normalized trading levels in the face of potentially extended market dislocations; | |
● | assist with future potential capital raises; | |
● | appeal to a broader range of investors to generate greater investor interest in us; and | |
● | reduce stockholder transaction costs because investors would pay lower commissions to trade a fixed dollar amount of our stock if our stock price were higher than they would if our stock price were lower. |
Warrants are speculative in nature.
The common stock warrants (“Warrants”) included in our various public and private offerings do not confer any rights of common stock ownership on their holders, such as voting rights or the right to receive dividends, but rather merely represent the right to acquire shares of our common stock at a fixed price for a limited period of time. Specifically, commencing on the date of issuance, holders of the Warrants may exercise their right to acquire the common stock and pay an exercise price of per share, prior to five years from the date of issuance, after which date any unexercised Warrants will expire and have no further value. Until holders of the Warrants acquire common stock upon exercise of the Warrants, the holders will have no rights with respect to the common stock issuable upon exercise of the Warrants. Upon exercise of the Warrants, the holder will be entitled to exercise the rights of a Stockholder as to the security exercised only as to matters for which the record date occurs after the exercise. Moreover, the market value of the Warrants is uncertain and there can be no assurance that the market value of the Warrants will equal or exceed their public offering price. There can be no assurance that the market price of the common stock will ever equal or exceed the exercise price of the Warrants, and consequently, whether it will ever be profitable for holders of the Warrants to exercise the Warrants.
Provisions of the Warrants sold in our public and private offerings could discourage an acquisition of us by a third party.
In addition to the discussion of the provisions of our governing organizational documents, certain provisions of the Warrants offered in our various public and private offerings could make it more difficult or expensive for a third party to acquire us. The Warrants prohibit us from engaging in certain transactions constituting “fundamental transactions” unless, among other things, the surviving entity assumes our obligations under the Warrants. These and other provisions of the Warrants could prevent or deter a third party from acquiring us even where the acquisition could be beneficial to our stockholders.
Our executive officers and directors, and their affiliated entities, although they own an insignificant percentage of our common stock, super voting preferred stock will allow them to be able to exert significant control over matters subject to stockholder approval.
Our executive officers and directors beneficially own only approximately 1% of our common stock. However, as referenced above, we issued 125,000 shares of the Series A Preferred Stock to three members of our executive management team, Messrs. Charles A. Ross, Jr., Corey Lambrecht and Doug E. Grau, which have superior voting rights of 1,000 to 1 over shares of our common stock, resulting in nearly 96% of the current available stockholder votes. In addition, these shares are able to be converted into shares of common stock at a rate of 1 share of Series A Preferred Stock into 500 shares of common stock over a three to five-year period under certain circumstances.
Accordingly, these stockholders who are members of management may, as a practical matter, continue to be able to control the election of a majority of our directors and the determination of all corporate actions after these offerings and any future offerings. This concentration of ownership could delay or prevent a change in control of us.
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Certain provisions of our second amended and restated articles of incorporation may make it more difficult for a third party to effect a change-of-control.
Our second amended and restated articles of incorporation authorizes our Board to issue up to a certain number of shares of preferred stock. The preferred stock may be issued in one or more series, the terms of which may be determined at the time of issuance by our Board without further action by the stockholders. These terms may include voting rights including the right to vote as a series on particular matters, preferences as to dividends and liquidation, conversion rights, redemption rights and sinking fund provisions. The issuance of any preferred stock could diminish the rights of holders of existing shares, and therefore could reduce the value of such shares. In addition, specific rights granted to future holders of preferred stock could be used to restrict our ability to merge with, or sell assets to, a third party. The ability of our Board to issue preferred stock could make it more difficult, delay, discourage, prevent or make it costlier to acquire or effect a change-in-control, which in turn could prevent our stockholders from recognizing a gain in the event that a favorable offer is extended and could materially and negatively affect the value of our securities.
We do not anticipate that we will pay dividends on our common stock and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.
We have never paid cash dividends on our common stock (see Risk Factors related to our Series C Preferred Offering as to the requirement to pay dividends on our Series C Preferred Stock). We do not expect to pay cash dividends on our common stock at any time in the foreseeable future. The future payment of dividends directly depends upon our future earnings, capital requirements, financial requirements and other factors that our board of directors will consider. Since we do not anticipate paying cash dividends on our common stock, return on your investment, if any, will depend solely on an increase, if any, in the market value of our common stock.
We are a smaller reporting company and will be exempt from certain disclosure requirements, which could make our common stock less attractive to potential investors.
Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act defines a “smaller reporting company” as an issuer that is not an investment company, an asset-backed issuer, or a majority-owned subsidiary of a parent that is not a smaller reporting company and that:
● | had a public float of less than $250 million as of the last business day of its most recently completed second fiscal quarter, computed by multiplying the aggregate worldwide number of shares of its voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates by the price at which the common equity was last sold, or the average of the bid and asked prices of common equity, in the principal market for the common equity; or |
● | in the case of an initial registration statement under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act for shares of its common equity, had a public float of less than $250 million as of a date within 30 days of the date of the filing of the registration statement, computed by multiplying the aggregate worldwide number of such shares held by non-affiliates before the registration plus, in the case of a Securities Act registration statement, the number of such shares included in the registration statement by the estimated public offering price of the shares; or |
● | in the case of an issuer whose public float as calculated under paragraph (1) or (2) of this definition was zero or whose public float was less than $700 million, had annual revenues of less than $100 million during the most recently completed fiscal year for which audited financial statements are available. |
If a company determines that it does not qualify for smaller reporting company status because it exceeded one or more of the above thresholds, it will remain unqualified unless when making its annual determination it meets certain alternative threshold requirements which will be lower than the above thresholds if its prior public float or prior annual revenues exceed certain thresholds.
As a smaller reporting company, we are not required to include a Compensation Discussion and Analysis section in our proxy statements; we may provide only two years of financial statements; and we need not provide the table of selected financial data. We will also be exempt from certain greenhouse gas emissions disclosure and related third-party assurance requirements. We also have other “scaled” disclosure requirements that are less comprehensive than issuers that are not smaller reporting companies which could make our common stock less attractive to potential investors, which could make it more difficult for our stockholders to sell their shares.
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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 1C. CYBERSECURITY
We have processes to assess, identify and manage risks from cybersecurity threats as a part of our overall risk assessment process. On a regular basis we implement into our operations these cybersecurity processes, technologies, and controls to assess, identify, and manage material risks. We engage certain external advisors to enhance our cybersecurity oversight where necessary.
To manage our material risks from cybersecurity threats and to protect against, detect, and prepare to respond to cybersecurity incidents, we endeavor to undertake the below listed activities:
● | Monitor emerging data protection laws in conjunction with our advisors and implement changes to our processes to comply; |
● | Maintain firewall and virus protection software, and 2FA logins to servers; and |
● | Seek to obtain a cybersecurity insurance policy where necessary. |
As part of the above processes, we engage with third party providers to review our cybersecurity program and help identify areas for continued focus, improvement, and compliance.
Our processes also include assessing cybersecurity threat risks associated with our use of third-party service providers in normal course of business use. Third-party risks are included within our cybersecurity risk management processes discussed above. In addition, we assess cybersecurity considerations in the selection and oversight of our third-party service providers, including due diligence on the third parties that have access to our systems and facilities that house our critical systems and data.
The Audit Committee of our board of directors is responsible for oversight of our risk assessment, risk management and cybersecurity risks, and periodically updates our board of directors on such matters. Members of the Audit Committee engage in discussions with management on cybersecurity-related news events and discuss any updates to our cybersecurity risk management and strategy programs.
As of the date of this Annual Report, we have not encountered risks from cybersecurity threats that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our business strategy, results of operations or financial position.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
American Rebel Facilities
American Rebel entities lease the following properties:
Location | Square Feet | Use | Lessee | Lease Expiration | ||||
909 18th Avenue South, Suite A Nashville, TN 37212## |
1,750 | Corporate Executive Offices | American Rebel Holdings, Inc. | March 31, 2024** | ||||
3800 S Ross Lane Chanute, Kansas 66720## |
50,000 | Warehouse and Shipping | American Rebel Holdings, Inc. | Month to month | ||||
8500 Marshall Drive Lenexa, Kansas 66214# |
13,000 | Retail Sales/Offices | American Rebel, Inc. | July 31, 2028 |
** Subsequent to year end the above leased property (our corporate offices) we received an extension from the lessor providing for month-to-month to vacate the premises. We currently believe that we will vacate these offices in their entirety on or before May 31, 2024.
## The above leased properties should be or shall be vacated by the date this Report is filed or shortly thereafter.
# The Company and its wholly owned subsidiary moved from the 8460 Nieman Road facility to the 8500 Marshall Drive facility which adjoins the old 8460 Nieman Road property, increasing the retail sales space from approximately 6,000 square feet to 13,000 square feet.
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Champion Safe Facilities
Headquarters for the Champion Entities (Champion, Superior and Safe Guard) are located in Provo, Utah. These entities lease the following locations:
Location | Square Feet | Use | Lessee | Lease Expiration | ||||
2055 S. Tracy Hall Parkway Provo, Utah 84606** |
8,000 | Manufacturing | Champion
Safe Company, Inc. |
January 1, 2025 | ||||
2813 S Sierra Vista Way, Provo, Utah 84606* | 8,000 | Executive Offices and Factory Sales Outlet | December 31, 2024 | |||||
2813 S Sierra Vista Way, Suite 2 Provo, Utah 84606 |
24,000 | Warehouse | December 31, 2024 | |||||
200 Rock Industrial Park Bridgeton, Missouri 63044**## |
5,000 | Warehouse and Shipping | January 15, 2024 | |||||
500 Industrial Drive Lewisberry, Pennsylvania 17339** |
2,100 | Warehouse and Retail Sales | August 1, 2024*** | |||||
5411 Trebor Lane Knoxville, Tennessee 37914**## |
2,500 | Warehouse and Retail Sales | January 31, 2024 | |||||
792 N. Gilbert Road, Suite 102 Gilbert, Arizona 85233 |
2,600 | Retail Sales | June 30, 2026 | |||||
4027 North Oracle Road Tucson, Arizona 85705 |
1,400 | Retail Sales | March 7, 2027 | |||||
17455 N. Black Canyon Highway Phoenix, Arizona 85023 |
2,400 | Retail Sales | February 28, 2025 | |||||
9802 N. 91st Avenue, Suite 108 Peoria, Arizona 85345 |
3,907 | Warehouse and Retail Sales | April 30, 2025 | |||||
Av. Alvaro Obregon 6745, California, 84065 Nogales, Sonora, Mexico | 73,659 | Manufacturing | Champion
Safe De Mexico, S.A. DE C.V. |
September 1, 2024 |
*** Subleased effective December 15, 2023. Original lease expiration date was August 1, 2024.
** Leased from Utah–Tennessee Holding Company, LLC, a company owned by former Champion founder, owner and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Crosby.
* Leased from Champion Holdings, LLC, a company owned by former Champion founder, owner and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Crosby.
## The above leased properties should be or shall be vacated by Champion Safe Company, Inc. by the date this Report is filed or shortly thereafter.
As part of the acquisition of the Champion Entities, several long-term leases were held with the Seller, Mr. Crosby through his ownership in two limited liability companies. These long-term leases were considered fair value as Mr. Crosby provided rental space at what was deemed market value or what could have been negotiated in an arm’s length transaction. Please review the footnotes to our Consolidated Financial Statements for further disclosure on the leases the Company is obligated to the Seller of the Champion Entities.
Recently the Company and Mr. Crosby, through his limited liability companies, entered into several short-term extensions on the leased properties. With the extensions of the leases the Company and the limited liability companies generally increased the base rent to be paid by an average of 10% due to inflation. The Company negotiated these extensions and other terms in an arm’s length manner.
The Company believes these facilities are currently adequate for its needs, including providing the space and infrastructure to accommodate its development work based on its operating plans. For the foreseeable future, the Company may lease or license additional facilities for manufacturing, corporate offices and other functions. The Company believes that suitable facilities will be available on commercially reasonable terms to accommodate the foreseeable expansion of our operations and warehousing requirements.
The Company intends to for the immediate future, twelve (12) to eighteen (18) months, not to extend the leases on the Lewisberry, Phoenix and Peoria facilities and consolidate its warehousing wholly within its Utah facilities.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
From time to time, we may become involved in various lawsuits and legal proceedings, which arise in the ordinary course of business. However, litigation is subject to inherent uncertainties, and an adverse result in these or other matters may arise from time to time that may harm business.
We are not currently a party in any legal proceeding or governmental regulatory proceeding nor are we currently aware of any pending or potential legal proceeding or governmental regulatory proceeding proposed to be initiated against us that would have a material adverse effect on us or our business.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
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PART II
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR THE REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Market for our Common Stock and certain Common Stock Purchase Warrants
Our common stock and certain existing warrants are traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbols “AREB” and “AREBW,” respectively.
On April 11, 2024, the closing price of shares of common stock of the Company was $0.3689. Our common stock has been quite volatile over the past two years, with significant fluctuations in volume and price.
Nasdaq Deficiency Notices
On October 23, 2023, we were notified by Nasdaq that we were not in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) because the price of our common stock had traded at less than $1.00 per share for the last thirty consecutive trading days. Nasdaq’s notice has no immediate effect on the listing of the common stock on Nasdaq and, at this time. Pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), we have been provided an initial compliance period of 180 calendar days, or until April 22, 2024, to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. To regain compliance, the closing bid price of the common stock must meet or exceed $1.00 per share for a minimum of ten consecutive business days prior to April 22, 2024. In late March of 2024, we requested an additional 180-day extension to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. As of the date of this filing Nasdaq has not responded to our request. Management continues to believe that adherence to its current operating and business plan will enable us to regain compliance. In addition, we have obtained majority stockholder consent to enact up to a 1-for-10 reverse stock split at any time in the following twelve months and would cure the deficiency during the second compliance period, by effecting the reverse stock split, if necessary.
On February 28, 2024, we received a written notice from Nasdaq stating that because we have not yet held an annual meeting of shareholders within 12 months of the end of our 2022 fiscal year end, we no longer comply with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5620(a) for continued listing on Nasdaq. We have until April 15, 2024, which is 45 days from the date of the notice, to submit a plan to regain compliance and, if Nasdaq accepts the plan, it may grant an exception of up to 180 calendar days from the fiscal year end, or until June 28, 2024, to regain compliance. We intend to submit a compliance plan within the specified period, which we expect will consist of holding an annual meeting of stockholders within sixty (60) days of filing of this Form 10-K. While the compliance plan is pending, our securities will continue to trade on Nasdaq.
Stockholders of Record
As of April 1, 2024, an aggregate of 5,947,643 shares of our common stock were issued and outstanding and owned by 132 stockholders of record. This amount includes 67,723 shares of common stock that were authorized, but unissued as of April 1, 2024.
Dividends
We have not since December 15, 2014 (date of inception) declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and currently do not anticipate paying such cash dividends. We currently anticipate that we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the development and expansion of our business and for general corporate purposes. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend upon our results of operations, financial condition, tax laws and other factors as the board, in its discretion, deems relevant.
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Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans
On January 1, 2021, our Board approved the establishment of the 2021 Long-Term Equity Incentive Plan (“LTIP”). The LTIP is intended to enable us to continue to attract able directors, employees, and consultants and to provide a means whereby those individuals upon whom the responsibilities rest for successful administration and management of the Company, and whose present and potential contributions are of importance, can acquire and maintain common stock ownership, thereby strengthening their concern for our welfare. The aggregate maximum number of shares of common stock (including shares underlying options) that may be issued under the LTIP pursuant to awards of Restricted Shares or Options will be limited to 10% of the outstanding shares of common stock, which calculation shall be made on the first trading day of each new fiscal year. For fiscal year 2022, up to 6,390 shares of common stock were available for participants under the LTIP. For fiscal year 2023, up to 67,723 shares of common stock were available for participants under the LTIP. For fiscal year 2024, up to 587,992 shares of common stock are available for participants under the LTIP. The number of shares of common stock that are the subject of awards under the LTIP which are forfeited or terminated, are settled in cash in lieu of shares of common stock or in a manner such that all or some of the shares covered by an award are not issued to a participant or are exchanged for awards that do not involve shares will again immediately become available to be issued pursuant to awards granted under the LTIP. If shares of common stock are withheld from payment of an award to satisfy tax obligations with respect to the award, those shares of common stock will be treated as shares that have been issued under the LTIP and will not again be available for issuance under the LTIP. In December of 2022, we authorized the grant and issuance of all 6,390 shares of common stock under the LTIP to our executive management team. Further, in December of 2023, we authorized the grant and issuance of all 67,723 shares of common stock under the LTIP to our executive management team.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
On June 27, 2023, we entered into a PIPE transaction with Armistice Capital Master Fund Ltd. for the purchase and sale of $2,993,850.63 of securities, consisting of (i) 71,499 shares of common stock at $4.37 per share, (ii) prefunded warrants (the “2023 Prefunded Warrants”) that are exercisable into 615,000 shares of common stock (the “2023 Prefunded Warrant Shares”) at $4.37 per Prefunded Warrant, and (iii) immediately exercisable warrants to purchase up to 686,499 shares of common stock at an initial exercise price of $4.24 per share and will expire five years from the date of issuance.
In connection with the Company’s June 27, 2023 1-for-25 reverse split and the round lot rounding associated therewith, approximately 2.1 million new shares of common stock were issued.
On July 1, 2023, we authorized the issuance of 24,129 shares of common stock to our independent board members for past services through June 30, 2023.
On September 8, 2023, holders of certain existing warrants exercised such warrants by paying $3,287,555.70 for 2,988,687 shares of the Company’s common stock at a reduced exercise price of $1.10 per share in consideration for the Company’s agreement to issue two new common stock purchase warrants to purchase, in the aggregate, up to 5,977,374 shares of the Company’s common stock.
On December 30, 2023, we authorized the issuance of 40,634 shares of common stock to Mr. Ross, our Chief Executive Officer, and 27,089 shares of common stock to Mr. Grau, our President, under the 2021 LTIP. These shares have not been issued as of the date of this Annual Report.
Repurchase of Equity Securities
We have no plans, programs or other arrangements in regards to repurchases of our common stock. Further, we did not repurchase any of our equity securities during the year ended December 31, 2023.
Subsequent Issuances after Year-End
None
All of the above-described issuances were exempt from registration pursuant to Section 4(a)(2) and/or Regulation D of the Securities Act as transactions not involving a public offering. With respect to each transaction listed above, no general solicitation was made by either the Company or any person acting on its behalf. All such securities issued pursuant to such exemptions are restricted securities as defined in Rule 144(a)(3) promulgated under the Securities Act, appropriate legends have been placed on the documents evidencing the securities, and may not be offered or sold absent registration or pursuant to an exemption there from.
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ITEM 6. [RESERVED]
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
This Item 7 contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control. Our actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities could differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. Additional risks of which we are not currently aware or which we currently deem immaterial could also cause our actual results to differ, including those discussed in the sections entitled “Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this Annual Report.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis should be read in conjunction with the financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Financial Statements”). The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”). Except as otherwise disclosed, all dollar figures included therein and in the following management discussion and analysis are quoted in United States dollars.
The following discussion of the Company’s financial condition and the results of operations should be read in conjunction with the Financial Statements and footnotes thereto appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report.
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor for forward-looking statements. In order to comply with the terms of the safe harbor, the Company notes that in addition to the description of historical facts contained herein, this Annual Report contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties as detailed herein and from time to time in the Company’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and elsewhere. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those, described in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, among others: (a) the Company’s fluctuations in sales and operating results; (b) risks associated with international operations; (c) regulatory, competitive and contractual risks; (d) development risks; (e) the ability to achieve strategic initiatives, including but not limited to the ability to achieve sales growth across the business segments through a combination of enhanced sales force, new products, and customer service; and (f) pending litigation.
Operations
On June 9, 2016, a change in control occurred, a sixty percent (60%) ownership interest was obtained by American Rebel, Inc. from a former officer and director who was also our founder. On June 17, 2017, the Company acquired the business of its control stockholder accounted for and presented financially as a reverse merger transaction. Our majority stockholder, American Rebel, Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company and we distributed the shares to the stockholders of American Rebel, Inc. As a result of this reverse merger, the reporting operating history of the Company is now the operating history of American Rebel, Inc. Financial statements of both companies are now consolidated and all material intercompany transactions and balances are eliminated. On July 29, 2022, the Company closed on its acquisition of the Champion Entities, a major acquisition with significant existing operations.
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Recent Developments
Establishment of American Rebel Beer
On August 9, 2023, the Company entered into a Master Brewing Agreement with Associated Brewing. Under the terms of the Brewing Agreement, Associated Brewing has been appointed as the exclusive producer and seller of American Rebel branded spirits, with the initial product being American Rebel Light Beer. American Rebel Light Beer will launch regionally in early 2024. The Company paid a setup fee and security deposit to Associated Brewing. We established American Rebel Beverages, LLC as a wholly-owned subsidiary specifically to hold our alcohol licenses and conduct operations for our beer business.
Acquisition of Champion Entities
On June 29, 2022, the Company entered into a stock and membership interest purchase agreement with Champion Safe Co., Inc. (“Champion Safe”), Superior Safe, LLC (“Superior Safe”), Safe Guard Security Products, LLC (“Safe Guard”), Champion Safe De Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (“Champion Safe Mexico”) and, together with Champion Safe, Superior Safe, Safe Guard and Champion Safe Mexico, collectively, the (“Champion Entities”) and Mr. Crosby (“Seller”) (the “Champion Purchase Agreement”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding capital stock and membership interests of the Champion Entities from the Seller. This transaction was completed on July 29, 2022. We have included the Champion Entities assets and liabilities as of that date and the subsequent financial activity through the date of this Annual Report in our Consolidated Financial Statements. For all intent and purposes, the Champion Entities have been integrated with our existing operations and are under the control of our management team.
Secured Loans
On April 14, 2023, the Company entered into a $1,000,000 Business Loan and Security Agreement (the “Secured Loan”) with an accredited investor lending source (the “Lender”). Under the Secured Loan, the Company received $980,000 on April 20, 2023, which was net of fees to the Lender. The Secured Loan requires 64 weekly payments of $20,000, for a total repayment of $1,280,000 to the Lender. The principal balance bears interest at 22.8%. The Secured Loan is secured by all of the assets of the Company and its subsidiaries second only to a previously secured line of credit and contains other customary terms and conditions for agreements of its type. Further, the Company’s CEO, Charles A. Ross, Jr., provided a personal guaranty for the Secured Loan.
On December 28, 2023, the Company entered into a $500,000 Business Loan and Security Agreement (the “Second Secured Loan”) with Alt Banq Inc., an accredited investor lending source (“Alt Banq”). Under the Second Secured Loan, the Company received $490,000 on December 29, 2023, which was net of fees to Alt Banq. The Second Secured Loan requires 52 weekly payments of $11,731, for a total repayment of $610,000 to Alt Banq. The principal balance bears interest at 22% per annum. The Second Secured Loan, is secured by all of the assets of the Company and its subsidiaries second only to a previously secured line of credit and contains other customary terms and conditions for agreements of its type. Further, the Company’s CEO, Charles A. Ross, Jr., provided a personal guaranty for the Second Secured Loan.
Unsecured Loan
The Company refinanced a $600,000 note with an accredited investor that was due March 31, 2023 with a new note dated July 1, 2023. The total amount refinanced with an accredited investor is $450,000, with $150,000 due December 31, 2023, and $300,000 due June 30, 2024. Interest will be paid quarterly in the amount of 12% on the outstanding principal amounts.
Armistice PIPE and Warrant Exercise
On June 27, 2023, we entered into a PIPE transaction with Armistice Capital Master Fund Ltd. for the purchase and sale of $2,993,850.63 of securities, consisting of (i) 71,499 shares of Common Stock at $4.37 per share, (ii) prefunded warrants (the “2023 Prefunded Warrants”) that are exercisable into 615,000 shares of Common Stock (the “ 2023 Prefunded Warrant Shares”) at $4.37 per Prefunded Warrant, and (iii) immediately exercisable warrants to purchase up to 686,499 shares of Common Stock at an initial exercise price of $4.24 per share and will expire five years from the date of issuance.
On September 8, 2023, Armistice exercised certain existing warrants by paying $3,287,555.70 for 2,988,687 shares of the Company’s common stock at a reduced exercise price of $1.10 per share in consideration for the Company’s agreement to issue two new common stock purchase warrants to purchase, in the aggregate, up to 5,977,374 shares of the Company’s common stock.
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Revenue Interest Purchase Agreement
On December 19, 2023, we entered into a Revenue Interest Purchase Agreement (the “Revenue Interest Purchase Agreement”) with Kingdom Building Inc. (“KBI”), pursuant to which KBI purchased a revenue interest from us for $500,000, less $5,000 in transaction expenses.
As consideration for such payment, commencing on April 1, 2024 and continuing thereafter until all amounts are repurchased by us pursuant to the terms of the Revenue Interest Purchase Agreement, KBI has a right to receive $75,000 per month from us in perpetuity until we purchase the revenue interest from the holder (the “Revenue Interest”). There are no distinct limitations or requirements that we are to produce revenue, or sufficient revenue to cover these payments.
Under the Revenue Interest Purchase Agreement, we have an option (the “Call Option”) to repurchase the Revenue Interest at any time upon two days advance written notice. Additionally, KBI has an option (the “Put Option”) to terminate the Revenue Interest Purchase Agreement and to require us to repurchase future Revenue Interest upon us consummating a public offering pursuant to Regulation A. The repurchase price to be paid by us will be, if the Call Option or the Put Option is exercised (i) $625,000 if repurchased on or before March 31, 2024; and (ii) $687,500 after April 1, 2024; in each case of (i) or (ii), minus all Revenue Interest or other payments made by us to KBI prior to such date.
In addition, the Revenue Interest Purchase Agreement contains various representations and warranties, covenants and other obligations and other provisions that are customary for a transaction of this nature. Further, in March and April of 2024 we have entered into several additional revenue interest purchase agreements, which are described in Item 9B below.
Description of Our Business
Company Overview
American Rebel is boldly positioning itself as America’s Patriotic Brand. The Company has identified the market opportunity to design, manufacture, and market innovative concealed carry products and safes. American Rebel accesses its market uniquely through its positioning as America’s Patriotic Brand and the appeal of its products as well as through the profile and public persona of its founder and Chief Executive Officer, Andy Ross. Andy hosted his own television show for 12 years, has made multiple appearances over the years at trade shows, and is well-known in the archery world as the founder of Ross Archery, which was the world’s fastest-growing bow company in 2007 and 2008. Andy has released 3 CDs, done numerous radio and print interviews, and performed many concerts in front of thousands of people. Andy has the ability to present American Rebel to large numbers of potential customers through the appeal of his music and other supporting appearances. For example, his appearance on the History Channel hit show Counting Cars in February 2014 has been viewed by over 2 million times. Bringing innovative products that satisfy an existing demand to the market through exciting means is the American Rebel blueprint for success.
Other
As a corporate policy, we will not incur any cash obligations that we cannot satisfy with known resources, of which there are currently none except as described in “Liquidity” below or elsewhere in this Annual Report. We believe that the perception that many people have of a public company makes it more likely that they will accept restricted securities from a public company as consideration for indebtedness to them than they would from a private company. We have not performed any studies of this matter. Our conclusion is based on our own observations. Additionally, the issuance of restricted shares will dilute the percentage of ownership interest of our stockholders.
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Results of Operations for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023
Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2023 Compared to the Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2022
For the year ended December 31, 2023 | For the year ended December 31, 2022 | |||||||
Revenue | $ | 16,228,310 | $ | 8,449,800 | ||||
Cost of goods sold | 13,191,886 | 6,509,382 | ||||||
Gross margin | 3,036,424 | 1,940,418 | ||||||
Expenses: | ||||||||
Consulting/payroll and other costs | 3,347,070 | 905,843 | ||||||
Compensation expense – officers – related party | 528,107 | 1,094,781 | ||||||
Compensation expense – officers – deferred comp – related party | 1,413,000 | - | ||||||
Rental expense, warehousing, outlet expense | 871,032 | 508,527 | ||||||
Product development costs | 132,528 | 746,871 | ||||||
Marketing and brand development costs | 1,273,012 | 507,503 | ||||||
Administrative and other | 3,317,082 | 3,190,092 | ||||||
Depreciation and amortization expense | 104,229 | 50,087 | ||||||
10,976,060 | 7,003,704 | |||||||
Operating income (loss) | (7,939,636 | ) | (5,063,286 | ) | ||||
Other Income (Expense) | ||||||||
Interest expense | (406,252 | ) | (358,689 | ) | ||||
Interest expense – pre-emptive rights release | - | (350,000 | ) | |||||
Interest income | 3,780 | 5,578 | ||||||
Employee retention credit funds, net of costs to collect | 1,113,337 | - | ||||||
Gain/(loss) on sale of equipment | 1,900 | - | ||||||
Tangible asset valuation adjustment | (1,570,816 | ) | - | |||||
Impairment adjustment – goodwill | (2,525,000 | ) | - | |||||
Gain/(loss) on extinguishment of debt | 221,903 | (1,376,756 | ) | |||||
Net income (loss) before income tax provision | (11,100,784 | ) | (7,143,153 | ) | ||||
Provision for income tax | - | - | ||||||
Net income (loss) | $ | (11,100,784 | ) | $ | (7,143,153 | ) | ||
Basic and diluted income (loss) per share | $ | (3.81 | ) | $ | (23.90 | ) | ||
Weighted average common shares outstanding - basic and diluted | 2,912,100 | 298,800 |
Revenue and cost of goods sold
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we reported Revenues of $16,228,310 compared to Revenues of $8,449,800 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in Revenues of $7,778,510 (or 92% period over period (PoP)) for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022, is primarily attributable to the closing of the Champion acquisition on July 29, 2022 and a general increase from Champion’s average quarterly sales of product. For the year ended December 31, 2023, we reported Cost of Goods Sold of $13,191,886, compared to Cost of Goods Sold of $6,509,382 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in Cost of Goods Sold of $6,682,504 (or 103% period over period (PoP)) for the current period is due to a significantly greater number of sales of product during the period compared to the year ending December 31, 2022 and again attributable to the closing of the Champion acquisition on July 29, 2022. For the year ended December 31, 2023, we reported Gross Margin of $3,036,424, compared to Gross Margin of $1,940,418 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in Gross Margin of $1,096,006 (or 56% period over period (PoP)) for the year ending December 31, 2023, compared to the year ending December 31, 2022 is again due to the closing of the Champion acquisition on July 29, 2022. Gross Margin percentages for the year ended December 31, 2023 was 18.7% compared to 22.9% for the year ended December 31, 2022. We expect our Gross Margin percentage to remain consistent in the 20% range until we achieve sufficient sales volume to increase our margins from better pricing power, to better buying power on our costs of goods, inventory and inventory management.
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Expenses
Total operating expenses for the year ended December 31, 2023 were $10,976,060 compared to $7,003,704 for the year ended December 31, 2022 as further described below. Overall, we saw a $3,972,356 increase in operating expenses or a 57% period over period (PoP) increase in operating expenses from the prior year comparable period. With the acquisition and integration of the Champion acquisition we expect this to be about the same going forward dropping as a percentage of Revenues as we increase our overall sales volume.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred consulting/payroll and other costs of $3,347,070 compared to consulting/payroll and other costs of $905,843 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in consulting/payroll and other costs of $2,441,227 (or 269% period over period (PoP)) was primarily due to the overall increase in the number of employees and the size of the Company’s head count post-acquisition of the Champion Entities. This was affected as well by the increased payroll costs from a competitive jobs market and the Champion Entities employees receiving pay increases that they were promised for years. The Company expects to maintain its current consulting/payroll and other costs as we further expand our sales volume and increase margins.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred compensation expense – officers and compensation expense – officers – deferred comp costs of $518,107 and $1,413,000 compared to compensation expense – officers and compensation expense – officers – deferred comp costs of $1,094,781 and $0 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in compensation expense – officers – deferred comp costs of $1,413,000 (in excess of 100% period over period (PoP)) was due to Company issuing shares of preferred stock that are convertible into common stock of the Company as well as the modification of the conversion terms of the same preferred stock that were previously issued to two (2) officers that are now able to be converted into common stock of the Company. The Company is required to recognize the cost attributable to the ability to convert the preferred shares into common stock multiplied by the market value or fair value of the Company’s common stock on either the grant date, issuance date, or the end of each reporting period. The Company will re-evaluate the fair value of the common stock equivalents underlying the preferred stock that was issued, as well as take into account the vesting (and complete ownership) of the preferred stock and its common stock equivalency. The decrease in compensation expense – officers of $576,674 (or -53% period over period (PoP)) was due to the Company issuing significant bonuses to its officers in 2022 for the successful closing on the Champion Entities offset or decreased by reduced bonuses for 2023 as recommended by the board of directors and its compensation committee. Mr. Lambrecht’s compensation will be fully integrated into the year ended December 31, 2024 with approximately another $250,000 to $300,000 in direct compensation expense – officers attributable to Mr. Lambrecht. Compensation expense is the total value that we pay our officers during the period reported, which includes a base salary, bonus, any equity awards or fringe benefits that we provide our officers. The Company believes that it pays it officers or management a fair and competitive salary, as well as stock grants or awards that are made during the year. Deferred compensation is attributable to the fair value of the common stock equivalents that are underlying our Series A preferred stock that have been issued pursuant to employment agreements and vesting schedules.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred rental expense, warehousing, outlet expense of $871,032, compared to rental expense, warehousing, outlet expense of $508,527 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in rental expense, warehousing, outlet expense of $362,505 (or 71% period over period (PoP)) was due to the significant number of leases and properties that the Company rents to conduct the Champion business. Prior to the Champion business acquisition, the Company included lease expense in the Administrative and other account. The significant number of leases and properties that the Company rents to conduct its Champion business provides a better presentation of expenses through a separate line item in its Statement of Operations. The Company expects to maintain this level of expense on a go-forward basis with its leases and rented properties. The Company may look to consolidate some of its space as it fine tunes the Champion business.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred product development expenses of $132,528, compared to product development expenses of $746,871 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease in product development expenses of $614,343 (or -82% period over period (PoP)) is due to some of the Company’s current product development expenses being included in consulting/payroll and other costs account which provides for a better presentation of those expenses than pure product development expense, offset by new efforts over these past few months where we’ve incurred some significant expenses that are attributable to our private label brewery efforts and should be separated and identified. The Company expects to maintain some level of expense on a go-forward basis with new products and efforts being expended for future sales growth and product needs.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred marketing and brand development expenses of $1,273,012, compared to marketing and brand development expenses of $507,503 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in marketing and brand development expenses of $765,509 (or 151% period over period (PoP)) relates primarily to an increase of activities including major trade shows and the availability of working capital for these types of expenses as well as increased costs attributable to our acquisition and integration of the Champion business.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred administrative and other expense of $3,317,082, compared to administrative and other expense of $3,190,092 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in administrative and other expense of $126,990 (or 4% period over period (PoP)) relates primarily to significant legal and other professional fees that we incurred during 2022 in anticipation of our registered public offerings, offset by other additional expenses picked up from our acquisition of Champion and recent financing efforts. The Company believes as it grows its sales base it will need to increase administrative and other expenses commensurate with an overall increased profit into the future.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred depreciation and amortization expense of $104,229, compared to depreciation and amortization expense of $50,087 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in depreciation and amortization expense relates primarily to the acquisition of Champion and its significant and additional depreciable asset base that it provided to the Company’s financial position.
Other income and expenses
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred interest expense of $406,252, compared to interest expense of $358,689 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in interest expense ($47,563) is due to a significant number of notes being paid during 2022 that were able to be paid in full from the various financings, offset by the increased borrowing costs that we have on our working capital notes payable and line of credit. We are currently paying an interest rate of approximately 7% on our line of credit, 12% on our existing working capital notes payable, and our new working capital notes payable we are paying approximately 40% per annum on these debt instruments. We are currently working on re-negotiating some of these debt instruments. We expect our interest expense exposure shall be significantly higher for the year ending December 31, 2024 based on these high interest rate notes or debt instruments.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred a gain on extinguishment of debt of $221,903, compared to $1,376,756 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease in loss on extinguishment of debt is due to the charges necessary through the amortization of the debt discount recorded for the issuance of shares of common stock in connection with working capital loans retired during 2022. The Company expects to manage and maintain its interest expense exposure despite the increase in interest rates for this year over last year, as well keeping our debt obligations to a minimum as we grow the business and its sales volume. The gain on extinguishment of debt for year ended December 31, 2023 is directly attributable to equity issuances that were static or an agreed upon number of shares for the services at the time (which was much higher) and the settlement of the shares as payment for the services at a time when the shares were significantly less valuable.
For the year ended December 31, 2023 we received approximately $1,286,000 in tax credits under the CARES Act from the US Department of Treasury and in turn paid approximately $178,500 to the service provider, netting the Company approximately $1,113,337 in credits for retaining its employees during COVID. As part of the collection process the Company retained the services of a tax service professional to provide the Company with the specialized tax services. The services included identifying various tax initiatives as well as specifically tasking the tax service professional in applying for and the tax filings for (tax) credits available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”). This is a one-time other income item and we do not expect to receive this type of special income in the future. During the year ended December 31, 2023 the Company received a claim for refund or right of repayment from the Seller of the Champion Entities with respect to the CARES Act tax credits income. The Company prior year end settled with the Seller and agreed to pay an additional $325,000 to the seller. This amount was not offset against the CARES Act tax credit income but increased the purchase price of the Champion Entities and increased our determined Goodwill value by $325,000.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred a loss on tangible asset (inventory) valuation of $1,570,816, compared to $0 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The loss on tangible asset valuation is due to the charges necessary to bring the value of inventory in line with net realizable value as determined through a long and arduous process. When inventory is physically disposed of, we account for the write-offs by making a debit to the reserve and a credit to inventory for the standard cost of the inventory item. Our valuation reserve is applied as an estimate to specific product lines. Since the inventory item retains its standard cost until it is either sold or written off, the reserve estimates will differ from the actual write-off. During the 4th quarter of 2023, management completed its analysis of 100% of its inventory acquired in the purchase of the Champion Entities as well as pre-existing subsidiary level inventory. It was determined that the Company needed to write-down, reserve for impairment of approximately $1,570,816 of excess inventory value.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred impairment of goodwill of $2,525,000, compared to $0 for the year ended December 31, 2022. The impairment of goodwill is due to the charges necessary to write down intangible asset to fair value. Overall, we recognized a $2.525 million impairment loss in our Champion Entities reporting unit. Changes in future year margin expectations were primarily driven by sustained increases in supply chain costs, expectations for lower or static pricing to maintain a competitive positioning, and expectations for increased marketing investment, primarily in response to increased competition, as well as customer-driven investments. Changes in expectations for lower long-term net sales growth were primarily due to sustained competition and anticipated trends in consumer preferences. Our revised expectations were based on the completion of our fourth quarter results, which were below management’s expectations, and the development of our operating plan in December 2023, along with our inventory management and tracking project which was completed during the early part of October 2023. From this inventory management and tracking project it was determined that we had an over-valuation of our inventory acquired in the Champion Entities purchase. Additionally, our revised expectations were based on the development of three-year operating plan, which commenced in early 2023 and is expected to be completed in 2024. The goodwill carrying amount of the Champion Entities reporting unit was $4.525 million prior to its impairment
Net Loss
Net loss for the year ended December 31, 2023, amounted to $11,100,784, resulting in a loss per share of $3.81, compared to a net loss of $7,143,153 for the year ended December 31, 2022, resulting in a loss per share of $23.90. The increase in the net loss from the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023 is primarily due to acquisition costs of the Champion Entities and our increased expenditures on financing and other activities for growth, along with the write down of the valuation of our inventory of $1,570,816 as well as impairment of goodwill of $2,525,000 , as well as the $1,413,000 in additional compensation expense that we are required to recognize with regards the convertibility of our Series A preferred stock to members of management during the year ended December 31, 2023.
45 |
Liquidity
The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern, which contemplates the recoverability of assets and the satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. The Company is in the growth and acquisition stage and, accordingly, will have to raise capital to complete acquisitions and successfully integrate acquired companies. Since inception, the Company has been engaged in financing activities and executing its business plan of operations and incurring costs and expenses related to developing products and market identity, obtaining inventory and preparing for public product launch. As a result, the Company incurred net income (losses) for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 of ($11,100,784) and ($7,143,981), respectively. The Company’s accumulated deficit was ($45,213,594) as of December 31, 2023, and ($34,112,810) as of December 31, 2022. The Company’s working capital surplus was $4,551,927 as of December 31, 2023, compared to $6,678,562 as of December 31, 2022. In addition, the Company’s development activities since inception have been sustained through equity and debt financing and the deferral of payments on accounts payable and other expenses.
During February 2023, the Company entered into a $2 million master credit agreement (credit facility) with a major financial institution. The credit facility is secured by all the assets of the Company’s Champion subsidiaries. The Line of Credit expires on February 28, 2024. If the Company is unable to extend or replace the credit facility, it would have a material impact on the Company and its Champion subsidiaries working capital needs. Requiring the Company to seek replacement equity or debt financing, which may not be available, or may be on substantially worse terms than the current credit facility.
The ability of the Company to continue as a going concern is dependent upon its ability to raise capital from the sale of its equity and, ultimately, the achievement of increased operating revenues. Management believes the remaining holders of its warrants will execute their outstanding warrants generating investment capital. Management is in discussions with several investment banks and broker dealers regarding the initiation of further capital campaigns.
Management believes sufficient funding can be secured through the obtaining of loans, as well as future offerings of its preferred and common stock to institutional and other financial sources. However, no assurance can be given that the Company will obtain this additional working capital, or if obtained, that such funding will not cause substantial dilution its stockholders. If the Company is unable to secure such additional funds from these sources, it may be forced to change or delay its business plan rollout.
We expect to require additional funds to further develop our business plan. Since it is impossible to predict with certainty the timing and amount of funds required to establish profitability, we anticipate that we will need to raise additional funds through equity or debt offerings or otherwise in order to meet our expected future liquidity requirements. Any such financing that we undertake will likely be dilutive to existing stockholders.
In addition, we expect to need additional funds to respond to business opportunities and challenges, including our ongoing operating expenses, protecting our intellectual property, developing or acquiring new lines of business and enhancing our operating infrastructure. While we may need to seek additional funding for such purposes, we may not be able to obtain financing on acceptable terms, or at all. In addition, the terms of our financings may be dilutive to, or otherwise adversely affect, holders of our common stock. We may seek additional funds through arrangements with collaborators or other third parties. We may not be able to negotiate any such arrangements on acceptable terms, if at all. If we are unable to obtain additional funding on a timely basis, we may be required to curtail or terminate some or all of our product lines.
Critical Accounting Policies
The preparation of financial statements and related footnotes requires us to make judgments, estimates, and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities.
An accounting policy is considered to be critical if it requires an accounting estimate to be made based on assumptions about matters that are highly uncertain at the time the estimate is made, and if different estimates that reasonably could have been used, or changes in the accounting estimates that are reasonably likely to occur periodically, could materially impact the financial statements.
Financial Reporting Release No. 60 requires all companies to include a discussion of critical accounting policies or methods used in the preparation of financial statements. There are no critical policies or decisions that rely on judgments that are based on assumptions about matters that are highly uncertain at the time the estimate is made. Note 1 to the financial statements, included elsewhere in this Annual Report, includes a summary of the significant accounting policies and methods used in the preparation of our financial statements.
Recent Accounting Standards Updates Adopted
In June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments. The updated guidance requires companies to measure all expected credit losses for financial instruments held at the reporting date based on historical experience, current conditions, and reasonable supportable forecasts. This replaces the existing incurred loss model and is applicable to the measurement of credit losses on financial assets, including trade receivables. The guidance was adopted by the Company on January 1, 2023. The adoption of the ASU did not have an impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
We adopted the FASB issued ASU 2019-12, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes, on January 31, 2021. ASU 2019-12 removes certain exceptions to the general provisions of Topic 740 and provides simplification in other areas of Topic 740. The adoption of ASU 2019-12 had no material impact on our consolidated financial statements.
Recent Accounting Standards Updates Not Yet Adopted
In December 2023, the FASB issued ASU No. 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740)—Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures (“ASU 2023-09”), which is intended to enhance the transparency and decision usefulness of income tax disclosures. The amendments in ASU 2023-09 provide for enhanced income tax information primarily through changes to the rate reconciliation and income taxes paid information. ASU 2023-09 is effective for the Company prospectively to all annual periods beginning after December 15, 2024. Early adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact this update will have on our consolidated financial statements and disclosures.
In November 2023, the FASB issued ASU No. 2023-07, Segment Reporting (Topic 280)—Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures (“ASU 2023-07”), which require public companies disclose significant segment expenses and other segment items on an annual and interim basis and to provide in interim periods all disclosures about a reportable segment’s profit or loss and assets that are currently required annually. The guidance is effective for public entities for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2023, and interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024. Early adoption is permitted. The guidance is applied retrospectively to all periods presented in the financial statements, unless it is impracticable. We are currently evaluating the impact this update will have on our consolidated financial statements and disclosures.
In October 2023, the FASB issued ASU No. 2023-06, Disclosure Improvements: Codification Amendments in Response to the SEC’s Disclosure Update and Simplification Initiative. This update modifies the disclosure or presentation requirements of a variety of topics in the Accounting Standards Codification to conform with certain SEC amendments in Release No. 33-10532, Disclosure Update and Simplification. The amendments in this update should be applied prospectively, and the effective date for each amendment will be the date on which the SEC’s removal of that related disclosure from Regulation S-X or S-K becomes effective. However, if the SEC has not removed the related disclosure from its regulations by June 30, 2027, the amendments will be removed from the Codification and not become effective. Early adoption is prohibited. We are currently evaluating the potential impact of this guidance on our consolidated financial statements.
We continuously monitor and review all current accounting pronouncements and standards from the FASB for applicability to our operations. As of April 12, 2024, there were no other new pronouncements or interpretations that had or were expected to have a significant impact on our operations.
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and are not required to provide the information under this item.
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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
AMERICAN REBEL HOLDINGS, INC.
DECEMBER 31, 2023
Page | ||
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID No. 5041) | F-1 | |
Financial Statements for the years ended December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022 | ||
Balance Sheets | F-2 | |
Statements of Operations | F-3 | |
Statement of Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit) | F-4 | |
Statements of Cash Flows | F-5 | |
Notes to the Financial Statements | F-6 |
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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of American Rebel Holdings, Inc.:
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of American Rebel Holdings, Inc. (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2023 and 2022 and the related consolidated statements of operations, shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for the two years in the period ended December 31, 2023, and the related notes and schedules (collectively referred to as the financial statements). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the two years in the period ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Going Concern Matter
The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern. As discussed in Note 2 to the financial statements, the Company has suffered recurring losses from operations that raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s plans in regard to these matters are also described in Note 2. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audit, we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audit included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audit also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matter
Critical audit matters are matters arising from the current-period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments.
We determined that there are no critical audit matters.
/s/
BF
Borgers CPA PC (PCAOB ID
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2020
April 12, 2024
F-1 |
AMERICAN REBEL HOLDINGS, INC.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
December 31, 2023 | December 31, 2022 | |||||||
ASSETS | ||||||||
CURRENT ASSETS: | ||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | $ | ||||||
Accounts receivable | ||||||||
Prepaid expense | ||||||||
Inventory | ||||||||
Inventory deposits | ||||||||
Total Current Assets | ||||||||
Property and Equipment, net | ||||||||
OTHER ASSETS: | ||||||||
Lease deposits and other | ||||||||
Right-of-use lease assets | ||||||||
Goodwill, net | ||||||||
Total Other Assets | ||||||||
TOTAL ASSETS | $ | $ | ||||||
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY (DEFICIT) | ||||||||
CURRENT LIABILITIES: | ||||||||
Accounts payable and other payables | $ | $ | ||||||
Accrued expense and other | ||||||||
Loan – Officers – related party | ||||||||
Loans – Working capital | ||||||||
Line of credit | ||||||||
Right-of-use lease liability, current | ||||||||
Total Current Liabilities | ||||||||
Right-of-use lease liability, long-term | ||||||||
TOTAL LIABILITIES | ||||||||
STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY (DEFICIT): | ||||||||
Preferred stock, $ | par value; shares authorized; , and issued and outstanding, respectively at December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022||||||||
Preferred Shares A | ||||||||
Preferred Shares B | ||||||||
Common Stock, $ | par value; shares authorized; and issued and outstanding, respectively at December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022||||||||
Additional paid in capital | ||||||||
Accumulated deficit | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY (DEFICIT) | ||||||||
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY (DEFICIT) | $ | $ |
See Notes to Financial Statements.
F-2 |
AMERICAN REBEL HOLDINGS, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
For the year ended December 31, 2023 | For the year ended December 31, 2022 | |||||||
Revenue | $ | $ | ||||||
Cost of goods sold | ||||||||
Gross margin | ||||||||
Expenses: | ||||||||
Consulting/payroll and other costs | ||||||||
Compensation expense – officers – related party | ||||||||
Compensation expense – officers – deferred comp – related party | ||||||||
Rental expense, warehousing, outlet expense | ||||||||
Product development costs | ||||||||
Marketing and brand development costs | ||||||||
Administrative and other | ||||||||
Depreciation and amortization expense | ||||||||
Operating income (loss) | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
Other Income (Expense) | ||||||||
Interest expense | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
Interest expense – pre-emptive rights release | ( | ) | ||||||
Interest income | ||||||||
Employee retention credit funds, net of costs to collect | ||||||||
Gain/(loss) on sale of equipment | ||||||||
Tangible asset valuation adjustment | ( | ) | ||||||
Impairment adjustment – goodwill | ( | ) | ||||||
Gain/(loss) on extinguishment of debt | ( | ) | ||||||
Net income (loss) before income tax provision | ( | ) | ( | ) | ||||
Provision for income tax | ||||||||
Net income (loss) | $ | ( | ) | $ | ( | ) | ||
Basic and diluted income (loss) per share | $ | ) | $ | ) | ||||
Weighted average common shares outstanding - basic and diluted |
See Notes to Financial Statements.
F-3 |
AMERICAN REBEL HOLDINGS, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY (DEFICIT)
Common
Stock | Common
Stock Amount | Preferred Stock Amount | Additional
Paid-in Capital | Accumulated
Deficit | Total | |||||||||||||||||||
Balance – December 31, 2021 | $ | $ | $ | $ | ( | ) | $ | ( | ) | |||||||||||||||
Sale of common stock through registered offering, net of offering costs, includes reverse stock split round lot share increase of | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Issuance of common stock to pay for expenses at a price of $per share | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preferred stock converted into common stock | ( | ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Debt converted into common stock warrants | - | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Sale of common stock for cash at a price of $ per share | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sale of pe-funded common stock warrants at a price of $per share, with an exercise price of $ | - | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Prefunded common stock warrant offering costs and fees | - | ( | ) | ( | ) | |||||||||||||||||||
Issuance of common stock as compensation at a price of $ per share | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Exercise of $ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Exercise of $ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Net loss | - | ( | ) | ( | ) | |||||||||||||||||||
Balance – December 31, 2022 | ( | ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Sale of common stock, net | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sale of pre-funded common stock warrants at a price of $per share, with an exercise price of $ | - | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Prefunded common stock warrant offering costs and fees | - | ( | ) | ( | ) | |||||||||||||||||||
Effect of reverse stock split with share minimum round lot share increase | ( | ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Warrant inducement and exercise of |