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Tag: Charlie's Holdings

  • Charlie’s Holdings Reports 169% Revenue Increase

    Charlie’s Holdings Reports 169% Revenue Increase

    Charlie’s Holdings, Inc. reported a sharp turnaround in 2025, with revenue rising 169% year over year to $20.9 million and net income of $4.5 million, compared with a $4.2 million loss in 2024. The company’s auditor, Urish Popeck & Co., LLC, issued a clean opinion that removed prior “going concern” language, strengthening Charlie’s position for a planned uplisting to a national exchange in 2026. Balance sheet metrics improved materially, with cash increasing to $1.3 million, total assets to $11.6 million, and shareholders’ equity returning to a positive $3.4 million from a deficit position a year earlier.

    Performance was supported by $7.5 million in PMTA-related asset sales to a strategic buyer, growth in SBX nicotine-analogue disposables, and the opening of a U.S. manufacturing facility in Q4. Looking ahead, Charlie’s plans to expand chain convenience distribution, pilot an AI/blockchain age-gating system with IKE Tech, introduce high-capacity disposable devices under SBX and Pachamama, pursue additional PMTA partnerships, grow international sales, and advance its exchange uplisting, while positioning its regulatory compliance and youth-access controls as differentiators in a market the company says is pressured by illicit imports.

  • Charlie’s Holdings’ 25K-Puff Vape Cleared in Calif.

    Charlie’s Holdings’ 25K-Puff Vape Cleared in Calif.

    Charlie’s Holdings, Inc. announced that California regulators have added its Virginia Tobacco 25K-puff SBX disposable vape to the state’s Unflavored Tobacco List (UTL), which, according to the company, makes it the first 25,000-puff vaping device authorized for legal sale in the state. The approval follows California’s strengthened flavor restrictions under Assembly Bill 3218, which requires that only products classified as unflavored and included on the UTL can be sold in the state. Company executives said the listing positions the SBX device to access California’s retail market while underscoring Charlie’s focus on regulatory compliance and youth-access prevention.

  • Charlie’s Holdings, IKE Tech Launch AI Verification for Vapes

    Charlie’s Holdings, IKE Tech Launch AI Verification for Vapes

    Charlie’s Holdings announced a licensing deal to bring what it describes as the first AI-powered, blockchain-based age-verification system for vape products to the U.S. market. The California–based company said it signed a definitive agreement with IKE Tech to commercialize the technology, which is designed to prevent underage access to vapor products while allowing compliant sales to adults.

    The company positioned the move as a response to regulatory pressure on flavored vaping products, which it said are preferred by 80–90% of adult consumers and play a key role in helping smokers switch away from combustible cigarettes. Charlie’s noted that despite broad recognition of vaping as a lower-risk alternative to smoking, the FDA has yet to authorize a single flavored vapor product, while state-level flavor bans in markets such as California and Massachusetts have reshaped the legal landscape.

    According to Charlie’s, those restrictions have contributed to growth in illicit products and reduced legal options for adult smokers seeking alternatives. The company said its age-gating system is intended to address youth-access concerns directly, potentially offering regulators a technology-based compliance tool that could support more balanced oversight of the flavored vapor category.

  • Charlie’s Holdings’ New Factory to Serve Texas Market

    Charlie’s Holdings’ New Factory to Serve Texas Market

    Yesterday (December 1), Charlie’s Holdings, Inc. announced the opening of its first U.S.-based manufacturing facility in Huntington Beach, California, which will exclusively produce the company’s own brands, including the Pachamama 25K line. The move ensures full compliance with Texas’ new law banning certain vape products imported from China and other restricted countries.

    “We originally expected our US-filling facility to mitigate Far East shipping delays and to lessen tariff costs, but Texas’ new domestic manufacturing requirements have also created a massive sales opportunity for Charlie’s,” Charlie’s president Henry Sicignano III, said. “Demand is so great, we now plan to devote 100% of our current U.S. manufacturing capacity to the state of Texas; if all goes well, and if we expand our U.S. manufacturing initiative in the coming months, we believe Texas could double Charlie’s sales forecasts for 2026.”

    This week, 300 retail accounts across Texas will begin receiving shipments of Charlie’s U.S.-filled disposables.

    “To my knowledge, Pachamama is the only vapor products brand that has been on the market for more than a decade and is now fully compliant with Texas domestic manufacturing requirements,” said Ryan Stump, Charlie’s co-founder and Chief Operating Officer.

  • Charlie’s Holdings Receives PMTA Acceptance Filings for 11 Products

    Charlie’s Holdings Receives PMTA Acceptance Filings for 11 Products

    Charlie’s Holdings, Inc. announced today that it received acceptance filings for 11 of its best-selling flavored PACHA Disposables brands from the Center for Tobacco Products of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Charlie’s has received more than 700 acceptance filings for its PMTA submissions.

    The FDA has received PMTAs for nearly 27 million electronic nicotine delivery system products and has made determinations on more than 99% of the applications. However, the FDA has authorized fewer than three dozen tobacco- and menthol-flavored e-cigarette products and devices. To date, no company in the world has received an FDA marketing order for a flavored (non-tobacco or non-menthol) disposable vape product.

  • Nicotine Alternatives Under Scrutiny

    Nicotine Alternatives Under Scrutiny

    Photo: Alexey Stiop

    Nicotine alternatives, such as 6-methyl nicotine, may be more potent and addictive than nicotine itself, reports Reuters, citing U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientists and independent researchers.

    Traditional nicotine found in many vapes and pouches is extracted from tobacco leaves; 6-methyl nicotine, in contrast, is made in a laboratory.

    While chemically similar to nicotine, the synthetic substances are not subject to U.S. tobacco and vaping regulations, allowing manufacturers to sell vapes with nicotine analogues without seeking FDA authorization.

    Tobacco and vape companies have criticized that the FDA product authorization process is costly and time-consuming. Only a handful of applications have been approved.

    In response to questions from Reuters, the FDA said it was reviewing the available data on nicotine alternatives to inform potential actions.

    Three academic researchers told the news agency that current studies of 6-methyl nicotine are too limited to draw definite conclusions on the health impact or to what degree it is addictive.

    The limitations of existing research, the researchers said, included that some papers were industry funded while others focused on the short-term impact on animals or cells and were insufficient to understand 6-methyl nicotine’s effects on human bodies.

    The FDA has yet to approve any flavored vape using traditional nicotine for sale in the United States, saying companies have not been able to show that the health benefits they offer to smokers outweigh the known risks to young people, who may be more attracted by the flavors.

    The Spree Bar vaporizer, which uses a 6-methyl nicotine solution branded as “Metatine,” notes on its website that Metatine “may have a toxicity profile similar to nicotine.”

    Sven Jordt, a professor at Duke University who has authored papers on products like Spree Bar, said 6-methyl nicotine could me more addictive and toxic than its traditional cousin.

    “Do we want to have such a chemical as a recreational product, available to anyone?” he asked. “That’s really questionable.”