CHARBONE’s Helium Division Scales to 22 Quebec Customers as Platform Build-Out Accelerates

ESGFIRE Commentary

CHARBONE has announced the addition of 22 new helium customers across Quebec in recent months, marking another concrete step in the build-out of the Company’s vertically integrated industrial gases platform. The new customer base spans advanced manufacturing, welding and metal processing, laboratories, specialised technical services, and other industrial applications requiring a reliable supply of helium. The Company’s helium division was only launched in 2025, and has already established a meaningful commercial footprint in Quebec — with explicit reference in the release to active customer-portfolio development now extending into Ontario, the Atlantic provinces, and the United States.

In our view, this announcement is significant for three reasons. First, it directly demonstrates the diversification thesis underpinning CHARBONE’s platform. The Company is no longer a single-product, single-customer story; with hydrogen production at Sorel-Tracy, partner-sourced UHP helium and oxygen, and the release naming nitrogen and argon as part of the product offering, CHARBONE is methodically constructing a multi-product industrial gases platform serving multiple end-customer industries. Second, the customer base itself is structurally attractive — each new client adds recurring revenue, builds geographic density of demand around CHARBONE’s supply network, and reduces the concentration risk that early-stage industrial businesses are typically exposed to. As CEO Dave Gagnon noted in the release, “each new customer increases our recurring revenue, our market presence, and the long-term value of our platform.” Third, this is now the third consecutive positive commercial data point in roughly three weeks — following the Q1 2026 results, where Phase 1B capacity expansion was advanced on accelerating demand, and the June 10 binding two-year long-term supply contract with Hone Inc.

The pattern across all three announcements is consistent: customer demand is pulling capacity and product expansion forward; revenues are being generated across multiple gases and multiple customer segments; and what was previously framed as a platform thesis is now visibly converting into a commercial-stage industrial gases business with growing diversification. The naming of nitrogen and argon alongside hydrogen, helium, and oxygen as products the Company is actively offering represents an incremental but meaningful expansion of the addressable product set, and supports CHARBONE’s stated ambition of becoming a leading North American player in UHP specialty industrial gases.

For investors, the read-through is straightforward. CHARBONE’s commercial traction is no longer dependent on any single product, vertical, or geography. The helium division is scaling rapidly less than a year after launch, the hydrogen business is now contracted with marquee customers and operating with demand outpacing supply, and the product offering is broadening into additional UHP specialty gases. In our view, the news flow over the past three weeks substantiates the platform thesis far more concretely than any single announcement in isolation could. We expect this trajectory to continue through the remainder of 2026, with Phase 1B capacity coming online in H2 2026 and the customer base continuing to broaden across both products and geographies.