Lakeland Industries Makes Strategic Investment to Enter the Connected Worker Market

HUNTSVILLE, AL / ACCESSWIRE / October 19, 2021 / Lakeland Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:LAKE) (the "Company" or "Lakeland"), a leading global manufacturer of protective clothing for industry, healthcare and first responders on the federal, state and local levels, today announced that it has made a strategic investment of approximately $2.7 million in Inova Design Solutions Ltd. (doing business as Bodytrak®) as a groundbreaking step toward entering the Connected Worker Market for "Smart PPE." Bodytrak's unique ear-based sensor platform uses precise physiological measurements and cloud-based analytics to automate health, safety and performance monitoring, making it an ideal complement to Lakeland's portfolio of industrial protective solutions.

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Bodytrak (London, UK) provides wearable monitoring solutions for customers in industrial health, safety, defense and first responder markets wanting to achieve better employee health and performance. Bodytrak's solution is provided as a platform as a service (PaaS), delivering real-time data and powerful cloud-based analytics, and hardware that includes a patented earpiece, which is the first in the world to implement precision physiological monitoring and audio communications.

Charles D. Roberson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lakeland Industries, stated, "We are very excited to announce our investment in Bodytrak as our formal entry into the Connected Worker Market for "Smart PPE." This market is projected to grow by $1.9 billion from 2020 to 2024¹, a rate significantly higher than the traditional PPE market which is currently estimated at approximately $6 billion and having a high single digit growth rate².

"The investment in Bodytrak is a critical step forward for Lakeland and represents a transformative extension of our R&D and product development efforts. It fits perfectly within our capital allocation priorities, specifically aimed at technological innovations, new product capabilities and line extensions, and enhancing profitability. For a relatively small amount of our cash which continues to be bolstered by our ongoing cash flow from operations, we have accelerated our path toward accessing what we view as one of the most attractive segments of the PPE market.