General Assembly Announces Four Key Leadership Appointments

General Assembly Holdings Limited (TSXV: GA), a Toronto pizza restaurant-turned-omnichannel consumer packaged goods brand, today announced four key leadership appointments that will further accelerate the Company’s rapid growth into retail channels:

• Director of Sales, Brendan Beamish brings extensive experience leading sales for established CPG brands, including Nature’s Path Foods, Smucker Foods of Canada, Folgers Coffee and Steam Whistle Brewing. In his new role, he will apply his skills managing teams, implementing sales and market development strategies and navigating the landscape of major Canadian retailers to drive meaningful growth in GA’s promising grocery business.

“I was drawn to GA Pizza because of the strength of the brand,” said Mr. Beamish. “The immediate growth opportunity at Canadian retail is undeniable. GA's better-made pizzas are clearly differentiated in the frozen section and are expected to draw new customers into the segment while driving revenue growth for retailers. General Assembly's hospitality-inspired approach to doing business will make growing our sales fun!"

• Senior Vice President, Marketing Ryan Donik brings over a decade of experience optimizing the marketing efforts behind premium brands. Prior to joining GA Pizza, Mr. Donik was at Samsung Canada, where he led digital and traditional marketing for the Company’s consumer electronics divisions. Before that, he worked at Loblaw Companies Limited, where he honed such iconic Canadian brands as President's Choice® and no name®, and pioneered new DTC experiences with PC.ca and joefresh.com. His experience in premium and retail spaces, love of data-informed decision-making and passion for good food will take GA Pizza’s powerful brand to the next level.

“GA Pizza has a culture rooted in breakthrough innovation, trust and consumer experience,” said Mr. Donik. “The Company has plenty of opportunities to further establish itself as a solid CPG brand, and our team has the skills to accelerate the brand as a definitive benchmark in a new category for Canadians.”

• Katharine Joakim has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of the Company with effect as of January 24, 2022, subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (“TSXV”). Ms. Joakim brings over a decade of experience leading finance functions at such organizations as Tsavo Media and Fibernetics. Her strong technical accounting skills, including financial reporting and forecasting, analysis and implementation of both U.S. GAAP, ASPE and IFRS, stock compensation analysis, transfer pricing and tax provision work, positions GA Pizza with the fiscal experience and discipline to smoothly navigate continued growth.

“GA Pizza’s rapid growth over the past few years has been incredible to see and could be surpassed by realizing on the opportunities to scale the business,” said Ms. Joakim. “I’m looking forward to maintaining our strong books so we can capitalize on the tremendous opportunities that await.”

• Eric Hacke is promoted to the new role of Senior Vice President, Technology. Mr. Hacke joined GA Pizza in early 2021 as Vice-President of Software Engineering. Before that, he worked as founder and lead developer for a series of startups and mid-sized tech companies, building new products for such organizations as Honeywell, Voiceflow and Xero. Mr. Hacke’s strong history of technical leadership and deep understanding of fast-growing teams have been instrumental in strengthening GA Pizza’s tech stack. In his new position, he will strengthen the technical backbone required for rapid retail expansion, including building out the Company’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) (to support scaling production and more complex supply chains) and improving business intelligence and analytics (to better empower sales and production management).

“A business with growth as fast and multifaceted as GA Pizza’s requires a technological back-end that is robust, reliable and scalable—a dream challenge for a software engineer,” said Mr. Hacke. “Our tech team was pivotal to collecting, safeguarding, and measuring our progress to get to this point, and we’ll be just as crucial as GA Pizza navigates through its next phases of growth.”

“These four appointments strengthen GA Pizza’s bench as we ready ourselves for the strong long-term growth expected to come from our shift towards being an omnichannel CPG brand, with a focus on grocery retail,” said Ali Khan Lalani, Founder and CEO of GA Pizza. “Their collective experiences leading CPG brands and scaling businesses will help us grow into our next phase—particularly, scaling the number of stores that carry our delicious pizzas—and better position us on our path toward profitability.”

In light of the foregoing appointments, each of Jeff Collins and Greg Pogue have resigned as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Technology Officer of the Company, respectively, effective January 24, 2022.

Following the Company's announcement on December 21, 2021 regarding its engagement of Sophic Capital Inc. to provide capital markets advisory services, the Company announces the termination of its investor relations services engagement with Bristol Capital Ltd. with effect as of December 1, 2021.

GA Pizza began its life as a fast-casual pizza restaurant in the heart of Toronto.