Cannabis Professional’s daily roundup of industry news. View archive here.
Lots going on midway through this week in marijuana: Tilray is selling its first Portugal-grown cannabis, the former Dixie Brands CEO is joining a small Vancouver CBD company with big ambitions, the Donnelly Group is getting into the cannabis accessories business and cannabis research and data provider BDS Analytics is raising more money.
– Jameson Berkow
Tilray to ship $3.3M of cannabis to Germany from Portugal
Nanaimo, British Columbia-based cannabis producer Tilray announced its first deal to sell medical cannabis to Germany on Wednesday.
The company signed an agreement with Cologne-based Cannamedical Pharma to export $3.3-million worth of wholesale medical cannabis to Cannamedical, which has supply relationships with 2,500 pharmacies and clinics across Germany. Tilray said the shipment, which represents the first sold production from the company’s new facility in Portugal, should be delivered sometime in the fall.
In September of 2017, Tilray announced plans to spend $30-million building out a massive facility in Cantanhede, roughly 200 kilometres north of the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. Boasting 2.5 million square feet of cultivation space as well as processing facilities, the company has frequently described its Portuguese site as a beachhead from which it can serve the entire European continent.
“This initial shipment will be the first of many from our EU Campus in Portugal to Germany as well as other European and international markets," Sascha Mielcarek, Tilray’s European managing director, said in a release.
– Jameson Berkow
Former Dixie Brands CEO joins EXMCeuticals as strategic advisor
Tripp Keber is joining Vancouver-based EXMCeuticals as a strategic advisor to the company’s board of directors.
As co-founder and former CEO of Dixie Brands - among the largest producers of cannabis-infused drinks and edibles - Mr. Keber said in a release on Tuesday he “spent the past two years evaluating companies across the globe” before settling on EXM. He resigned as CEO of Dixie Brands on December 15, 2017.
“EXM represents a ‘best of breed’ player in the industrial cannabinoid ingredients and hemp space and I am incredibly honoured to have the privilege of advising the Board,” Mr. Keber said.
The company’s Twitter bio boasts an intention “to become the largest volume, lowest cost producer of CBD oil in the world.”
Headquartered in Canada and listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker ‘EXM’, the company has virtually no assets in this country. It owns production facilities in Uganda, Malawi and Congo and is in the process of applying for licences in Portugal that would allow EXM to use the coastal European nation as a global CBD distribution hub.
Shares of EXM are current worth roughly as much as they were when they first started trading in February, closing Tuesday at $1.27 each, giving the company a market value of roughly $45-million.
EXM has yet to earn any revenues and reported a $5.7-million net loss in its latest quarter - Q3 of fiscal 2019 - that was nearly ten times the company’s net loss of $580,000 during the same period last year.
- Jameson Berkow
Hobo Cannabis parent launches wholesale pot accessories distributor
The parent company of the Hobo Recreational Cannabis Store chain announced plans Wednesday to launch a cannabis accessories distribution business.
Goodtrip Supply, via the privately-held Vancouver-based Donnelly Group, will provide Hobo locations with a “carefully curated, globally sourced, and diversified catalogue of cannabis accessories and tools, much of which was previously unavailable in Canada,” the company said in a news release.
“As a wholesale distributor with access to an extensive catalogue of specially curated products largely unavailable in the Canadian market, Goodtrip Supply will provide Hobo Rec. with a necessary solution to the limited offerings shared by cannabis retail operators nationwide,” the Donnelly Group release said.
Asked to specify what sort of cannabis accessories Goodtrip Supply will be introducing to the Canadian market for the first time, the company was unable to provide any examples.
Other cannabis retailers already have in-house cannabis accessory distributors. Calgary-based Canna Cabana parent High Tide, for example, owns both RGR Canada and Famous Brandz.
Hobo currently operates three recreational cannabis stores in British Columbia and one in Ontario. They are among nearly two dozen hospitality businesses - mostly bars and pubs in Vancouver and Toronto - owned by the Donnelly Group.
- Jameson Berkow
Cannabis data research firm BDS analytics raises US$7-million
Colorado-based cannabis industry research and data producer BDS analytics is raising US$7-million from three venture capital firms.
KEY Investment Partners, Altitude Investment Management, and 7thirty led the latest funding round that was first announced on Tuesday. KEY founding partner Pete Karabas will also be claiming a set on the company’s board of directors.
“BDS Analytics will use the capital to expand coverage of emerging cannabis markets, with a focus on providing a holistic view of the global cannabinoid market (cannabis and CBD),” the company said.
“The team will also strengthen its operating infrastructure with investments in machine learning, marketing and sales, and strategic partnerships.”
Reports from BDS are among the most widely noted in the cannabis industry. Most recently, the company projected Canada to be selling $5.2-billion of legal cannabis per year by 2024, with the global legal pot market nearly quadrupling over that time.
- Jameson Berkow