NEXE Innovations Inc (TSX-V:NEXE, OTC:NEXNF) President Ash Guglani talked with Proactive about the company’s recent commercial momentum and strategic expansion efforts. Guglani shared that NEXE has surpassed 1.7 million units in pod sales, with over 700,000 orders in May alone, highlighting rising demand for its compostable coffee pod technology.
Guglani noted the end of tariff-related uncertainty has helped re-accelerate growth across channels including e-commerce, retail, and OCS.
NEXE is now seeing increased order volume from existing customers, while also onboarding new partners.
Proactive: All right, welcome back inside our Proactive newsroom. And joining me now is Ash Guglani. He is the president of NEXE Innovations. And Ash, it's great to see you again. How are you?
Ash Guglani: I'm good. Thanks for having me on again.
Yeah. We've got so much to talk about. You've been very busy with the company and hit some pretty key milestones as far as sales are concerned. So why don't we begin there? I know May was a massive month for the company.
Yeah. Look, I think what we're seeing now post all the tariff drama, as I want to call it, is we're starting to see some validation for our product. We had four key customers, now we've got a fifth. With the others, we're starting to get some velocity and bigger orders. So across all channels — e-commerce, OCS, retail — we're starting to get traction, and it shows our technology is something people are excited about.
I mean, we're talking over 700,000 pod orders in May alone, and that put you over a million for the company. I know you've been working on this a long time. It must be gratifying to get to that million number?
Yeah, I think it puts us over about 1.7 million. But no, it is a big one. It shows our technology is something people want. There are a lot of different compostable pods out there, but I think with what we're able to do — as well as our patent around our filter, which makes a really good cup of coffee — I think that's really been key. And I think we’ll continue to see growth from here. We're also looking at ways to monetize quicker and build our coffee business as we look at other innovation.
I want to ask you also about a deal that you signed with Crazy Cups. So this is a US company. Tell me a little bit about this one.
Yeah. Crazy Cups is related to Ekocups, which is already a customer. But Crazy Cups is more focused on flavored coffee. I think they have over 660 SKUs. They sell mainly on their website in the US and on Amazon. They've given us a first sizable order — more than 20 SKUs — to begin with. We're also working on other SKU development for them. Through what they’ve done with Ekocups, they’re big believers in our technology. I think you’ll continue to see that relationship grow, as well as some of the OCS ones we've got going on. So we're happy, and it shows we are building trust with some of our partners and their customers. That's the only thing that matters right now.
And you're always trying to improve on what you already have. I know in the news release you talked about the next generation of Nespresso and things that are happening. There's a lot of R&D development continuing within the company?
Oh yeah, absolutely. Our focus right now is on the compostable technology we promised. I think we’re starting to see that get validated. Our goal is to scale that and make sure our customers, our partners, and their end customers are happy. We've also built infrastructure that allows us to use our technology beyond just coffee pods. Coffee is still the big focus, but we are looking at some other exciting opportunities outside of coffee.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and style