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Futuris Files Amended Offering Circular Showing 12 month Revenues Increased 300%

FUTURIS CO.

McapMediaWire -- Futuris Company (OTC: FTRS), a Human Capital Management company focused on the areas of Staffing, Consulting, and IT Services has just filed its Regulation A amended Offering Circular with the SEC. As stated in this offering circular, Futuris Company has grown revenues in the past twelve months over 300% from $11 million to over $46 million. Futuris has grown these revenues by completing acquisitions in the Human Capital Management field as well as related IT companies. It plans to continue this acquisition strategy of revenue accretive companies to grow the company. Futuris has more good news from its companies to support this stellar growth: Akvarr Company was contracted by Augusta Health (18 location Health Plan provider) to initially assist with UKG system configuration, process improvement and carrying out day-to-day HR tasks. Over the past 3 months, Akvarr expanded its role to support process automation, tax form compliance as well as organization reporting & optimization, resulting in a contract renewal and many hours expansion from its initial SOW. As the ROI, Akvarr is now the premier provider for Augusta and its affiliates for overall systems integration. Cadan Technologies, a leading managed IT, managed security, IT staffing, and IT Project Services provider brings our world class IT Services offerings to organizations of all types and sizes across the United States. The company’s experts design, integrate, deploy, and maintain technology solutions for maximum productivity and minimum downtime. It is exciting to report their best revenue year ever in 2022 and they are positioned to continue to grow its most profitable lines of business in 2023 through growth in existing services and the addition of new value-added services. As a part of this commitment to world class IT services, Cadan Technologies has introduced Siris Datto Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery to its IT services portfolio. SIRIS is fundamentally different than traditional backup and recovery solutions. Utilizing a cloud-first approach, Cadan Technologies can now offer clients an all-in-one solution that incorporates local backup and recovery with a secure, cloud-based repository and full disaster recovery in the cloud. All of this is administered from a cloud portal that allows Cadan and its clients to view, manage and recover client data from a single interface. In another story of Cadan’s success, in less than 60 days Cadan refreshed an entire fleet of laptops with new laptops while also implementing Microsoft Intune organization-wide for a 500-employee national nonprofit organization headquartered in Minnesota. This has streamlined employee on-boarding and off-boarding by adding the ability to remote provision and remotely decommission devices across the organization regardless of where the employee is located. “All of us at Cadan Technologies are pleased to bring Siris Datto Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Services to our current and future managed IT services clients. These are excellent examples of our enduring commitment to bringing organizations of all types and sizes best in class tools and services that meet their IT management and security needs” – Charles LeVoir, President Cadan Technologies Health HR is a provider of quality therapy (Physical, Occupational and Speech) staffing services to its Home Health and Facility partners. Health HR has been in business in South Florida for 20+ years as a Health Care Service Pool licensed by the Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) currently servicing Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County. Health HR continued its growth during the 1st quarter 2023 due to closing on an acquisition in mid-January, coupled with the continued organic growth of the company. Revenue for the company is based, in large part, on the number of patient visits that are scheduled from quarter to quarter. In the 4th quarter 2022 Health HR had a total number of scheduled visits of 6,887 versus scheduled visits in the 1st quarter 2023 of 9,165 amounting to an approximate increase of 33 percent from the prior quarter. During the last quarter of 2022, a concerted effort was undertaken to spend more time in the field meeting with current and potential clients. Face to face meetings with clients had been limited over the past couple of years due to Covid concerns, but meeting with current and potential clients in their respective offices allows Health HR to get updates on marketing efforts, meet with new office staff, discuss industry initiatives and changes, etc. The TASA Group, the nation’s most experienced expert referral service is known for providing expert witnesses in all areas of the legal industry – medical, technical, business, consulting, etc. Since the pandemic, Tasa has continued to conduct business and has seen a stable and even book of business over last year. The medical division, TASAmed is up 10% in revenue over last year. The company continues to market through advertising – digitally and in print, through networking events, expert-authored articles, and through webinars presented by experts. The TASA Group continues to be top-of-mind in the legal industry and the go-to for all things requiring expert witnesses! Computer Deductions Inc. (CDI) has over five decades of experience in analyzing, designing, developing, testing, integrating, supporting, and maintaining complex solutions for a myriad of public and private sector customers, CDI has a broad set of skills, practices, and resources to bring to our customers that we believe will have a strong positive benefit. Our mission is to deliver quality services to our clients. CDI’s experience includes more than 50 years supporting various National, State, and Local Agencies, focusing primarily on the Law Enforcement and Public Safety sectors. In particular, CDI played an instrumental role in the development and implementation of the current California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) statewide communications network, the automated field office system and Driver’s License issuance system. CDI provided, installed and operates the hardware and software for the California DMV DL/ID/SP servers, database to maintain the largest DL/ID photo-database in the country, supporting 250M DL/ID photos/signatures for the DMV along with an associated WEB server providing access to all law enforcement agencies real-time access to this photo database. CDI developed and maintains several WEB based DMV photo servers, providing California DMV photos to the law enforcement community in California and nationally. CDI designed and assisted in the development of all the databases at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and totally designed and implemented the California Law Enforcement Telecommunication System (CLETS) for DOJ. Talent Beacon has announced that Stratus Technologies has partnered with Talent Beacon to establish their India presence, setup all their related HR policies, and hire their executive team and core team members. This partnership has resulted in a team of 100+ systems design and development individuals, and they are continuing to work with them. About Futuris Company Futuris is a Human Capital Management (HCM) company focused on Executive Search, Staffing, Consulting services and Tech Services specializing in verticals such as Medical, Accounting/Finance, Information Technology, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), and Legal. The Company is committed to building a global HCM company through highly targeted and accretive acquisitions and operational efficiencies. For more information, please visit https://futuris.company/ Contact Details: Futuris Company info.it@futuris.company Website: www.futuris.company Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/futuriscompany Contact Details Futuris Company info.it@futuris.company Company Website http://futuris.company/

April 21, 2023 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Freelance Creative Jobs Thrive Despite AI Surge

FREELANCER.COM

New data released today by Freelancer.com (ASX: FLN) (OTCQX: FLNCF), the world’s largest freelancing marketplace by number of users and jobs posted, shows an incoming startup boom amongst an unprecedented surge in freelance creative design and AI job growth. The Fast 50 Q1 2023 Index, the world’s largest forward indicator of freelance job trends, analyzes over 304,000 jobs posted to Freelancer.com between January and March 2023. The index finds that jobs for T-Shirt Design (up 33.1%, from 1,403 to 1,868), Covers & Packaging Design (up 27.3%, from 1,128 to 1,436), and Corporate Identity Design (up 24.2%, from 2,474 to 3,073) were the three fastest growing job types by total percentage growth when compared to Q4 2022. These were followed by Product Design (up 22.9%, 1,214 to 1,493) and 3D Design (up 22%, from 5,027 to 6,135) jobs. Design skills with the largest job counts on the platform also grew significantly this quarter. There were a whopping 7,495 extra Graphic Design jobs in Q1 (up 12.1%, from 61,709 to 69,204), followed by an additional 6,731 Logo Design jobs (up 20.4%, from 32,963 to 39,694) and 5,902 extra jobs requiring skills in Photoshop (up 15.4%, from 38,224 to 44,126). Design is both the most in-demand and the highest paying skill on Freelancer.com, as found in the Freelancing in 2022 Report. These types of jobs, particularly logo design, packaging design and t-shirt creation, are typically the starting point for many founders launching a new business. The sudden influx of design, eCommerce and marketing jobs are a key indicator of a boom in startups. Simultaneously, jobs requiring skills in Artificial Intelligence were the seventh fastest growing skill on Freelancer.com (up 20.62% in Q1 2023 from 1,038 to 1,252). Jobs demanding Generative AI skills, such as ChatGPT, Dall-E, Midjourney and Chatbots, grew by more than 325% from 286 in Q4 2022 to 1,216 in Q1 2023. “While many speculate whether AI will take design jobs, our latest data shows that this is certainly not the case. Design jobs are the most popular job type on the platform and continue to grow despite advances in hyper-realistic generative AI tools,” said Matt Barrie, Chief Executive at Freelancer.com. “What’s more interesting in this data is zooming out and looking at the main trend: the startup boom. The most in-demand jobs on the platform for this quarter are all related to the launch of new businesses. New logo, website and branding jobs. In fact, there were 75 extra logo design jobs posted each day last quarter, which could suggest the launch of 75 new businesses.” The data also shows an increase in Digital Marketing (up 12.8%, from 1,524 to 1,720) and Videography (up 14.2%, from 2,716 to 3,102) jobs which also suggests businesses are focusing more on their online marketing and content creation strategies to amplify their brands. Fastest Falling Jobs of Q1 2023 While design jobs dominated the fastest growing, the jobs that were in less demand in this quarter are related to tech, development and writing. Software Development, which was ranked as the fastest growing job in Q2 2022, began to decline this quarter and was down by 34.4% (from 2,001 to 1,311). Similarly, programming related jobs which were one of the fastest growing skills in Q4 2022 also declined this quarter by 20.9% (from 5,899 to 4,665). Demand for these types of jobs surged last year as many tech employees were laid off globally. However, the new data suggests demand is beginning to stabilize and return to pre-mass layoffs levels. Seasonality also plays into employers moving away from specific types of jobs quarter-to-quarter. Report Writing, Technical Writing, Research Writing and Business Plans were ranked as the fastest growing jobs in Q4 2022 as many employers traditionally turn to freelance support to help prepare end of year reports and 2023 plans. These types of jobs naturally reduce in the first quarter of the year. Fast 50 Q1 2023 - Data Analysis Startup Boom Fuels Creative Design Job Growth Historically, more businesses are started during a recession. Economic downturns have led to the creation of some of the world’s most well known brands, such as Microsoft, Uber and Burger King, just to name a few. Only a few years ago, the world witnessed this trend playing out as COVID sparked a startup boom, which saw a 24 percent increase in new business applications in the United States alone. According to the latest US Census Business Formation Statistics, the number of new business applications is beginning to grow in 2023 by an increase of 451,752, an increase of 4.5 percent compared to February 2023. Data from the latest Freelancer Fast 50 Index suggests there’s a sudden increase in the number of new businesses and startups being launched globally. The fastest growing skills, such as T-Shirt, Covers & Packaging, and Corporate Identity Design, as well as the growth of major jobs such as Logo Design, are all usually posted by founders at the starting point for a new business or venture. T-Shirt Design jobs, as an example, are growing as people hire freelancers to create t-shirts with their business logo as a way of promoting a brand or creating business uniforms. An uptick in Covers and Packaging Design jobs are the result of businesses turning to freelancers for new product labels and marketing brochures. Growth in website building jobs, such as Shopify (up 20.5%, from 2,302 to 2,775), Shopify Templates (up 16.1%, from 1,392 to 1,617) and eCommerce (up 15.5%, from 4,212 to 4,866), also support the rise of new businesses last quarter. Almost three quarters of the fastest growing jobs (72%) posted on Freelancer.com in the last quarter required skills in creative design or marketing. Serial entrepreneur Davuud Ghani, who recently founded Pivitt, a creative and branding support agency based in the United Kingdom, is just one example of how founders are turning to freelancers to support the growth of their business in 2023. “As a start-up, agility is our advantage over mature businesses with similar service offerings. It’s becoming easier for businesses to locate and leverage global talent, with platforms such as Freelancer.com. We are able to really finetune the skills needed on a project basis to drive excellence through our service offering to our partners, keeping us competitive in the market. That’s what our model is built from and has allowed us to secure partnerships with the likes of BMW & MINI,” said Davuud Ghani, founder of Pivitt. Generative AI Jobs Triple In Last Quarter Advancements in artificial intelligent and generative AI are impacting almost every faucet of business and creativity. Powerful AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Dall-E and Midjourney, are becoming smarter and more sophisticated by month, resulting in rapid leaps in capabilities and applications. In the first quarter of 2023, Open AI released GPT-4, introducing a more powerful and intelligent version of the application which could exhibit human level performance on several benchmarks. In the AI image generation space, research lab Midjourney also released the alpha iteration of its 5th version which allowed users to create photorealistic generations. Growing interest for AI is represented clearly in the Fast 50 Q1 2023 data which ranks jobs for Artificial Intelligence as the seventh fastest growing job on the platform, growing by 20.6% up to 1,252 jobs in total. Many projects posted in the first quarter aim to harness AI text generators or automate mass image generation, while some look for freelance experts who can help create their own AI models and applications. Generative AI skills (ChatGPT, Dall-E, Midjourney, Chatbots) grew the fastest over the quarter, recording a total percentage increase of 325% from 286 last quarter to 1,216 in Q1 2023. In total, there were 5,262 jobs requiring skills in AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, TensorFlow, ChatGPT and Dall-E. Digital Marketing & Content Creation Popularity of content marketing is growing amongst businesses. Major success stories, such as Netflix’s Drive to Survive series or Spotify’s Wrapped, are pushing businesses and marketers towards incorporating content marketing within their strategies. It’s a trend that was identified in the Fast 50 Q3 2022 Index and is continuing in Q1 2023. Videography (up 14.21%, from to 3,102), Digital Marketing (up 12.86% to 1,720), YouTube (up 11.30% to 1,576), and Video Production (up 10.25% to 5,401) were all in-demand skills last quarter. This finding suggests that businesses are increasingly focusing on online marketing and content creation strategies to reach their target audiences. While YouTube remains as the main platform people are turning to freelancers for support, employer interest in TikTok video creation is also growing, increasing by 25% in Q1 2023, from 405 projects in Q4 2022 to 507 total jobs Q1 2023. Product Design Jobs Apart from design projects specific to branding and new business ventures, the number of 3D Design, Product Design and general Design collectively grew over Q1 2023. ##### Freelancer Fast 50 The Freelancer Fast 50 index is the world’s largest forward indicator of trends in online jobs related to industries, technologies, products, and companies. The data is based on 304,000 jobs posted to the Freelancer platform between January 1 to March 31 2023. Fast 50 Quarterly Index – Q1 2023 About Freelancer Freelancer.com is the world's largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by total number of users and projects posted. More than 64 million registered users have posted over 22.3 million projects and contests to date in over 2,000 areas as diverse as website development, logo design, marketing, copywriting, aerospace engineering and manufacturing. Freelancer also owns Escrow.com and Loadshift. Freelancer Limited is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker ASX:FLN and is quoted on OTCQX Best Market under the ticker FLNCF. Contact Details freelancer.com Marko Zitko +61 404 574 830 mzitko@freelancer.com

April 21, 2023 08:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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LUX stands with female athletes and challenges sports media to "Change The Angle"

LUX

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 20 April 2023 - Unilever's global beauty brand, LUX, is rallying people once more to stand up against everyday sexism. This time it is calling out the objectification of women’s bodies in sport, highlighting how the media zeroes in on female intimate body areas rather than focus on their sporting prowess. At South Africa’s highly anticipated Durban Open Women’s Beach Volleyball tournament this week, female athletes sported QR code on precisely those areas the cameras tend to focus on. Upon scanning, these ‘viewers’ were directed to a short film – ‘ Hey Camera’, which calls on those behind the cameras to end the blatant objectification of women and, instead, focus on their strengths. Bringing this campaign to live, LUX partnered with one of South Africa’s leading broadcaster, The South African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC Sport, which has an audience of 19.7 million in South Africa to livestream the event on 15th and 16th of April. LUX’s #ChangeTheAngle campaign aims to get broadcasters and photographers reconsidering their portrayal of women in sport. The integrated campaign has also been pulled through online, social and PR channels with thousands of generated content via influencers, celebrities, athletes and media such as Gsport4girls, 2 times olympic gold medal Caster Semenya, Cricket commentator Kass Naidoo, Miss Universe 2019 Zozibini Tunzi. LUX understands the need to stop objectification of women as it can lead to more serious forms of sexism. According to its research, women are 10 times more likely to be objectified than men. While this objectification is rife across society, the brand saw that sports was the perfect, attention-grabbing example to call this out. Men in sports are frequently portrayed as strong role models who are at the top of their game. On the contrary, women's body parts are what receive the most attention, with cameras zooming into their breasts or exposed butt cheeks. LUX believes this objectification can diminish female achievements and also undermine confidence. The #ChangeTheAngle campaign aims to create a sense of urgency among people to call out what are increasingly unacceptable behaviours in real time and put pressure on broadcasters to change the camera gaze by sharing 6 guidelines for them to adhere to while filming women in sport. “Women in sports are 10 times more likely to be objectified by camera angles that focus on certain body parts compared to their male counterparts. When we found out that this is also an issue for top female athletes who have achieved incredible things, we knew we had to act,” Severine Vauleon, Global Brand Vice President of LUX says, “This doesn’t only devalue the female athletes’ professional performance and achievements, but also perpetuates the objectification issue many women face every day. At LUX, we believe that beauty should be a source of strength, and that the focus should be on celebrating the beauty of their strength, skills and achievements in sport.” “This is a bold and powerful move for a beauty brand like LUX to take, and it makes me even prouder to be a part of the LUX family. I am hoping to see the change that we need in the sports fraternity so that women athletes are celebrated for the amazing talent that they have rather than being objectified in a sexual manner. I encourage everyone to do what they can to participate and push media in South Africa and across the world to #Change the Angle” Says Zozibini Tunzi former Miss Universe. “This initiative is part of our Positive Beauty mission, which is at the heart of our Beauty, Wellness and Personal Care category, championing progressive commitments and actions for our brands into a new era of beauty which is equitable and inclusive. LUX is one of South Africa’s most iconic heritage brands representing women, earning itself a heartfelt voice to challenge stereotypes by supporting woman in different aspects of their lives. A woman’s beauty is inclusive of her strength, her capabilities and her talent. LUX #ChangeTheAngle”, amplifies the voices of women in sport and their strength on the field or on the court.” - Sphelele Mjadu Unilever Beauty, Wellbeing & Personal Care Senior PR Lead for Africa. Hinoti Joshi, Global Business Lead, from Wunderman Thompson, Singapore, who spearheaded the campaign says, “The media and broadcasters have the power to change the sexist portrayal of women. We are actively calling them out so that they can recognise the flaws in this antiquated practice and become change agents to end everyday sexism.” Watch the film here: https://youtu.be/nNhekoeNh2g Contact Details Media Contact Paula Fisher, Director paula.fisher@ogilvy.com Media Contact Priya Veeriah, Senior PR Manager priya.veeriah@ogilvy.com

April 20, 2023 02:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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News Release

HeartCore announces company has secured 10th Go IPO Consulting agreement

HeartCore Enterprises Inc

HeartCore President Sumitaka Kanno joined Steve Darling from Proactive to share news the company has announced it has signed a 10th Go IPO consulting agreement. This deal is with rYojbaba Inc. Kanno tells Proactive the contract calls for the company helping in rYojbaba’s efforts to go public and list on the Nasdaq Stock Market by helping throughout the audit and legal firm hiring process, translating requested documents into English, assisting in the preparation of documentation for internal controls required for an initial public offering. The company feels its Go IPO pipeline remains robust and more announcements could be happening in the future. Contact Details Proactive Investors +1 604-688-8158 na-editorial@proactiveinvestors.com

April 19, 2023 01:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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News Release

AMPD Ventures discusses the future of its digital content and media services with emergence of Web3

AMPD Ventures Inc

AMPD Ventures CEO James Hursthouse joins Natalie Stoberman from the Proactive studio to share his vision for the next chapter of AMPD and its subsidiary Departure Lounge. Hursthouse highlights the transition from media viewed on screens to digital content experienced through technologies such as virtual reality. Hursthouse also adds how his long-standing involvement in 3D immersive digital environments and how that experience is shaping AMPD's approach to generating revenue from this sector. Contact Details Proactive Investors +1 604-688-8158 na-editorial@proactiveinvestors.com

April 19, 2023 12:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Inboxbooster launches with $1m funding round after fixing YCombinator’s email spam problems

Inboxbooster

Over 3.5 million legitimate emails are sent every second and yet nearly 85% will be destined for spam folders including opt-in emails and even payment notifications. Helping companies address and overcome this challenge, Inboxbooster has launched from stealth today with a $1m pre-seed funding round to help email senders get their comms into the primary inbox of their audience. The funding round includes participation from Y Combinator, and angels Francois Lagunas, Razvan Roman, Julien Lemoine and Ralph Gootee. Built on a dataset of 100 million emails, Inboxbooster detects and fixes email in spam folders. The Inboxbooster resolution test initially confirms the issue by querying spam filters to understand what is wrong with the emails and then build a step-by-step guide such as removing specific words,, changing the form of some URLs or steps to improve a poor domain reputation. The tool also analyzes the delivery infrastructure and offers solutions, this includes evaluating the reputation of the domain and the sending IP while analyzing the content of emails to flag what part of the email is triggering the spam filter. Inboxbooster builds a personalized step-by-step guide to make emails compliant with filter requirements and get it back to the primary inbox. Inboxbooster co-founder Nicolas Toper commented: “In the world of emails, spam is the equivalent of the bottom of the ocean. No one wants their email to end up in spam yet, a good number of those are ending up there and avoiding it can be more difficult than you would think. Inboxbooster accurately tells you why you're in the spam or promotion folder and what to do to move back to the inbox. “Email is the only open communication left and it’s important to preserve this and make it accessible to all. Large companies can deploy expensive consultants and remedy their issues but we are filling a significant gap in the market for others because no other solution fixes the problem in the same way and we’re redressing the competition. And this affects everyone sending emails, not marketers. For example, we fixed the payment notifications for a mortgage provider sending approval notices. This is a real and really painful issue for many”. The Inboxbooster journey began in 2017 when founder Nicolas Toper was experimenting with various opportunities with email. He connected with co-founder Marcus Engene at the Summer 2020 Y Combinator 3-month programme. Whilst testing and building their product, the founders noticed that Y Combinator's popular weekly newsletter on how to build startups was landing in spam and promotion on Gmail. Having applied their model on it, Inboxbooster moved the newsletter back to the primary inbox and improved their click rate by 35%. Inboxbooster detected the words of the email that were sending the email outside of the inbox and improved the subscriber targeting. Today, Inboxbooster already has over 3,000 users. Prior to setting up Inboxbooster, Nicolas Toper founded CritSend where he helped clients successfully send 50 billion emails. While Marcus Engene founded Pond5 - the media marketplace - which was backed by Accel and Stripe and acquired for over $200M. Nicolas Toper added: Looking ahead, we are going to make a deeper dive into how various software connected to email will work in the future and explain what and how the spam AI filter is deciding to do and why”. About Inboxbooster Founded in January 2021, InboxBooster is a deliverability platform built on a dataset of 100 million emails that detects and fixes email in spam folders. The Inboxbooster resolution process confirms the issues by querying spam filters to understand what is wrong with the emails and then diagnoses issues. Inboxbooster builds a personalized step-by-step guide to make emails compliant with filter requirements and get it back to the inbox. Inboxbooster works with email senders, email service providers, marketing platforms to solve deliverability issues across Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc. Founded by Nicolas Toper (former Critsend founder) and Marcus Engene (former Pond5 founder), Inboxbooster has over 2,000 customers including YCombinator, Zengo, and Wizbii among others. For information please visit: https://inboxbooster.com/ Contact Details Inboxbooster Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://inboxbooster.com/

April 18, 2023 07:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time

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Executive VP & Director of Training Michael Jutt Talks Minuteman As We Celebrate 50 Years of Minuteman Press

Minuteman Press International Inc

As Minuteman Press International celebrates 50 years in business, we are continuing the celebration of our history. Michael Jutt first started with Minuteman Press as a press operator in the original Farmingdale shop in October of 1974, which was the second location that opened after Plainview. At just 19 years-old, Mike was hired by Roy Titus, and the rest is history. When Minuteman Press decided to become a franchise, Mike was promoted to Director of Training; he created the first Minuteman Press training program and became an integral part of the company’s expansion into franchising. Mike remains a huge part of our success today as Minuteman Press International’s Executive VP & Director of Training. How did you first get started with Minuteman Press and the Titus family? Mike Jutt: “I was hired in October of 1974 by Roy Titus. George Holzmacher worked for Roy already and he said I should meet with Roy about a job in Farmingdale. At the time, I was working two jobs, one being in printing, and I wanted to be an attorney. I wasn’t sure I wanted to commute to Farmingdale since I lived and worked in Merrick and was attending Nassau Community College. I went to the Farmingdale shop to meet with Roy. When he arrived, we went outside of the shop, behind the building. Roy and I spoke about what he wanted for the Farmingdale shop, as he was looking to make some changes. He asked me how much I was making. At the time, I was making $110/week at the printing job. Roy offered to match, but I explained the extra gas money and time I’d be spending on the commute. He smiled and then offered me $120/week to get started, and I accepted the offer. That’s how my time with Minuteman Press started, working in the Farmingdale shop that Bob Titus was managing. We worked very hard to get the business up and running, it was fun.” What was it like working in the Farmingdale shop when you first started? Mike Jutt: “I had worked in one other neighborhood quick print shop before Minuteman Press, and I was very impressed my first day of employment when I saw Bob Titus come back to the shop with a marketing assistant. The fact that they were out knocking on doors and direct marketing our printing service was to me very different and unheard of at the time for printers. I asked the other press operator who that was that just walked in, and he said that was Roy’s son Bob. The differences between Minuteman Press and other print shops were a few things. First, I saw that they were actively marketing to build the business. We had a ton of work. Second, the type of equipment that we had – Multi-Graphics equipment – had better capabilities than what other quick printers were using. Third, we also had a huge focus on customer service, shop appearance, and quality work. Another game-changer is when Roy came in one day and handed me a brochure for a new piece of equipment made by 3M, which was a superior plate system to enable multicolor printing. This was the missing piece of what we needed to bring Minuteman Press to the next level. We had the press, we just needed a better plate system that could handle color inks as well as it did black ink. We thoroughly tested the plate system with the press and evaluated the cost. The result was that we now had the perfect package to achieve multicolor printing when other quick printers did mostly single-color or just black. The 3M plate was the ticket.” When Minuteman Press started franchising, what was it like for you creating the first training program? Mike Jutt: “The next major thing that happened was Roy discussing expanding the business and moving into franchising. He promoted the business opportunity and brought interested parties into the Farmingdale location to see what we were doing. The interest was really high from the people that Roy brought in, and years later, Roy told me it was during this time where he really noticed and recognized my abilities as a hardworking young man. At age 20, Roy made me Director of Training, and it was my responsibility to teach the new franchise owners everything about our business.” What do you think are the key reasons for the success of Minuteman Press as the franchise kept growing? Mike Jutt: “I credit the success of Minuteman Press as a franchise to leadership, hard work (long days and long weeks), treating the owners as true partners, caring and supporting our owners, and helping them achieve their success. Roy Titus said you need to treat people like you want to be treated. Roy not only preached it, but he also practiced it, and that was one of the biggest keys of our success as we grew and expanded the company.” What are some of the key aspects of the original training program that remain as core principles today? Mike Jutt: “From the launch of the training department, we have focused and communicated the importance of owners becoming experts in 5 major areas: Customer service Marketing their business Delivering quality products Keeping an incredible top appearance of their business and anything that represents their business Management with an emphasis on financial management Within each of these areas, there is extensive training today covering every detail of what these items actually encompass.” What are some of the key ways that the training program and Minuteman Press have evolved over the years? Mike Jutt: “The biggest areas that we’ve always been at the forefront of are research, development, and technology. Printing technology and enhancements with 3M products in the early days got better and better. With that said, one of the big first big efficiencies was added when our first pricing program was developed. In 1977, a new franchise owner from Dallas, Texas named Cal Baker came to the training program. Cal previously worked for EDS (Electronic Data Systems). He noticed that all of our formulas were mathematically logical and that they could be automated to save hours and hours when pricing jobs. I was intrigued by Mr. Baker’s knowledge and what he was going to do, and after he wrote the software, I told Roy I had to go to Dallas to look at what he created. Roy told me, “Whatever you have to spend to research anything that helps our owners and our company, spend it. If it’s going to help our owners, it’s going to help all of us. So, I went to Dallas and saw that the computer was made by Radio Shack. The original model was called a TRS 80 and it had 16K of memory. The program was stored on a regular cassette and at the time, this was a real game changer. After the trip to Dallas, myself and Dave Scadin enrolled in a programming course offered by Radio Shack and we learned basic programming to enhance and modify what we had. We would never ask our owners to buy equipment such as a computer until we tested it. I contacted the Tandy Corporation in Fort Worth, Texas and convinced them to give us 10 computers as a trial, which we distributed to owners to test at 10 locations. We let the owners test it for 60 days and then they had to either give it back or buy the computer. 100% of the owners purchased the computer and none of us have ever looked back. From that point forward, we continued to invest in software development uniquely written to our policies and production. This protected us from software companies going out of business and gave us long-term advantages that we still benefit from to this day.” Mike continues: “Another key milestone for us was the advent of digital printing. The first Apple Mac computer that came with a printer was released in 1984. Digital printing technology emerged with desktop publishing thanks to companies like Apple, IBM, and HP. For our industry, this was great because we could create various different styles and designs on very economical equipment. It also replaced photo typesetting, which took a lot longer and was a very big investment. We quickly recognized that digital printing would evolve. In the beginning, we also recognized that the two technologies could coexist. Today, approximately 40 years later, that is absolutely what happened. The ability, production, and ease of use of the digital equipment has only made Minuteman Press an even better company. And partnering with our key suppliers Xerox, Konica-Minolta, and Hewlett-Packard has brought us improved productivity and profits.” Is there anything else you’d like to share? Mike Jutt: “Minuteman Press today has evolved to be so much more than what it was when we first started. We have developed and refined systems, policies, procedures, and a company that has a long-standing culture of caring for our owners in 5 countries. And from a personal perspective, with the diversity of products and the need for those products, the opportunity for entrepreneurs is incredible. I personally feel honored to be able to experience the emergence of such a fantastic company, Minuteman Press International.” For more information on Minuteman Press products and services, visit https://minuteman.com. Learn more about #1 rated Minuteman Press franchise opportunities and read Minuteman Press franchise reviews at https://minutemanpressfranchise.com. Contact Details Minuteman Press International Chris Biscuiti +1 631-249-1370 cbiscuiti@mpihq.com Company Website https://minutemanpressfranchise.com

April 18, 2023 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Shareholders Asked to Vote for Reduced Power for Chairman/CEO of ‘Woke-A-Cola’

National Legal & Policy Center

The annual meeting for The Coca-Cola Company is next Tuesday, April 25, and shareholders will be asked to vote on a proposal that would increase accountability for the company’s Chairman and CEO, James Quincey. National Legal and Policy Center is sponsoring Proposal No. 8 on the company’s proxy statement, which requests the Board of Directors to require the two powerful roles now occupied by Quincey to be split between two individuals. NLPC argues that Quincey has inappropriately engaged the company in multiple divisive political issues that are not in the fiduciary interest of Coca-Cola or its shareholders. As an investor in the company, NLPC has filed a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission that explains its rationale for appointing an equally authoritative counterpart to keep Quincey’s left-leaning political excursions in check. “James Quincey, invoking the name of ‘Coca-Cola,’ has repeatedly weighed in on issues like opposing the Georgia election integrity law and in support of Black Lives Matter, pointing out the alleged racial sins of America,” said Paul Chesser, director of the Corporate Integrity Project for NLPC. “His careless rhetoric only harmed the company’s reputation, since 2022 voter turnout in the Peach State elections was extremely high. Meanwhile, Quincey has highlighted Coca-Cola’s hypocrisy by doing extensive business in China, while saying nothing about the communist government’s genocide and enslavement practices.” In its report to the SEC, NLPC points out several examples of Quincey’s leadership failures, including: entering Coca-Cola in a multi-company effort as co-signer of a letter that opposed plans by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2018 to restore definitions of “sex” to remove the term “identity,” for the purposes of Title IX enforcement of gender discrimination in civil rights law; signing the Company’s name to a 2019 letter in support of the so-called “Equality Act,” which would have added “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” discrimination protections in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – which would have squashed almost all other rights and freedoms Americans possess, including speech, association, privacy, and property rights; held mandatory “anti-racist” training in 2021 that instructed employees to try to “be less white,” which included recommendations to “be less oppressive, be less arrogant, be less certain, be less defensive, be less ignorant, be more humble, listen, believe, break with apathy, (and) break with white solidarity;” providing $2.5 million in grants for left-leaning organizations that included $500,000 to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, a deeply racist, anti-law enforcement organization that spent millions of dollars in corporate donations to enrich its leaders and their family members, and purchased several multi-million dollar mansions for personal use; engaged Coca-Cola in a multi-company letter-writing campaign to urge a “permanent legislative solution to enable (illegal immigration) ‘Dreamers’ who are currently living, working, and contributing to our communities to continue doing so” – a policy many Americans characterize as “amnesty;” opposed the “Heartbeat Bill” when it passed the Georgia Senate in 2019, signing a letter of objection with other businesses. The bill prohibited abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, with exceptions for cases that involve rape, incest, and saving the life of the mother. NLPC’s report to the SEC also notes that since Quincey immersed Coca-Cola in controversial political issues, the company’s stock performance has lagged behind its chief competitors (like PepsiCo), when he should have been focused on his fiduciary priorities. “Coca-Cola, like almost every company that combines the power of chairman and CEO in one person, claims they do so to maximize returns for shareholders,” Chesser said. “But the opposite is usually the case. The board needs a stronger counterpart to put the kibosh on Mr. Quincey’s political activities.” Founded in 1991, NLPC promotes ethics in public life and government accountability through research, investigation, education, and legal action. ### For more information or to schedule an interview with Paul Chesser, contact Dan Rene at 202-329-8357 or drene@nlpc.org. Please visit http://www.nlpc.org. Contact Details National Legal and Policy Center Dan Rene +1 202-329-8357 drene@nlpc.org Company Website http://www.nlpc.org

April 18, 2023 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Sustainable Startup Iced Tea Brand Ryl™ Tea Announces Morgan Wallen as Investor and Brand Ambassador Ahead of Large-Scale Company Expansion

Full Scope PR

Ryl™ Tea is pleased to announce Country music star Morgan Wallen has signed on as an investor and brand ambassador in the first iced tea brand to align classic southern iced tea taste with healthy, functional attributes of homemade steeped tea. Wallen felt an organic connection to Ryl™ Tea due to the brand’s nostalgic Southern taste profile – giving Wallen a taste of his East Tennessee roots in a can. “I’ve loved sweet tea since I was a kid,” says Wallen. “I remember drinking it out of a pitcher on a hot summer day in my Mamaw Boots’ kitchen. A good iced tea brings back very happy memories for me, so when I found Ryl™ Tea I knew I had something special that I wanted to share.” After learning more about Ryl’s™ health conscious and sustainable mission statement and tasting iterations of the product ahead of its launch in January, Wallen was on board with plans already underway to develop new products in the coming months. Ryl™ is a zero-sugar iced tea product with no artificial ingredients, filled with their proprietary “ polyphenol technology ”, all while delivering the traditional great taste of sweetened iced tea that is usually filled with loads of sugar or artificial ingredients. “When I’m on tour, I train daily so I can bring everything I have to the stage, so finding Ryl™, an iced tea with no sugar and with no artificial ingredients, has been awesome. I can’t wait to do more with them,” Wallen adds, teasing what’s brewing in the future. Ryl™ Tea is available in major grocery chains across the Northeast, including Wegmans, Shoprite and Whole Foods Market. In its first year, the brand is focused on expanding the product in the continental United States, launching nationwide with Sprouts Farmers Market last month and moving quickly to partner with retailers and distributors who are aligned with bringing clean and functional options to legacy categories like iced tea. Consumers can find Ryl™ Tea nationwide in stores and via drinkryl.com. Wallen’s investment joins Ryl™’s founder and seasoned beverage industry executive Blodin Ukella; established food & beverage industry director Leigh Feuerstein; and digital marketing executives of Get Engaged Media Cam Fordham, Alex Dermer and Ben Hiott, who will play a key role in keeping Ryl Tea’s community excited and informed within culture. ABOUT THE RYL COMPANY™: Launched in January 2023, The RYL Company™ is a Gen-Z & Millennial non-alcoholic beverage company focused on offering wellness focused products in traditionally indulgence forward beverage occasions. Their first product line is Ryl Tea, the first iced tea product line to bring together the delicious attributes of iced tea with the health benefits of homemade steeped tea. The Ryl Company produces all of their products in 100% recyclable aluminum packaging and uses no artificial ingredients in their products, making them the perfect items for the growing number of health conscious and environmentally responsible Gen-Z and Millennial consumers. Contact Details Full Scope PR Pia Malihi pia@fullscopepr.com Essential Broadcast Media Ebie McFarland ebie@ebmediapr.com

April 17, 2023 01:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Shareholders Asked to Vote for Reduced Power for Chairman/CEO of ‘Woke-A-Cola’

Sustainable Startup Iced Tea Brand Ryl™ Tea Announces Morgan Wallen as Investor and Brand Ambassador Ahead of Large-Scale Company Expansion