Marijuana cultivation firm to set up shop in city

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This article was published 15/05/2018 (2736 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A major new marijuana cultivation business in Manitoba is being announced today, the Free Press has learned.

GrowForce Holdings Inc. will announce it is setting up a 120,000-square-foot facility in an old meat packing plant in Transcona.

The Toronto-based company is a newly created entity that last month announced the acquisition of WILL Cannabis Group in Brampton, Ont., an authorized licensed producer of cannabis for medical purposes through Health Canada.

A spokesman for the company said GrowForce will use that licence to add the Winnipeg production operation as a second facility. GrowForce has said publicly it plans to build a vertically integrated cannabis platform with cultivation, processing and retail facilities across Canada.

GrowForce also owns Grand River Organics in Dunnville, Ont., a smaller operation which is still in the process of obtaining its cultivation licence.

The GrowForce spokesman said the announcement today will include a “significant jobs announcement.”

GrowForce is associated with Denver-based MJardin Group, the largest legal cultivator of marijuana in the United States, with more than 30 facilities in seven states. MJardin will manage the Winnipeg cultivation facility.

GrowForce is also in the process of securing a public stock market listing for its shares. It has a letter of agreement with Platform Eight Capital Corp. for a reverse takeover on the TSX Venture Exchange.

GrowForce enters the Canadian market with an experienced pedigree. Last week, it announced the appointment of James Lowe as executive vice-president of operations. Lowe is a co-founder of MJardin Group and, since 2009, has overseen the production and sale of more legal cannabis than has been grown legally in all of Canada to date.

Pat Witcher was named vice-president of strategic partnerships. Witcher is a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent and most recently was the president of Buddy Boy Brands, one of the largest cannabis retail operations in Colorado.

With federal legislation on the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada expected before the end of the year, GrowForce will become the third licensed producer of marijuana in Manitoba.

Delta 9 Cannabis was one of the original 13 companies licensed under Health Canada’s Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations, and now has about 90 employees. It has been steadily increasing its production since it started about four years ago.

In February, Delta 9, in partnership with Canopy Growth Corp., was awarded a retail licence in Manitoba. Delta 9 chief executive officer John Arbuthnot said depending on when the final federal legislation and provincial regulations are in place, the company hopes to have four or five retail locations in Winnipeg and outside the city open by the end of the year.

The other licensed producer in Manitoba, Bonify, has been producing for more than a year but has not yet received a licence to sell. CEO Jeff Peitsch said the company believes the move is imminent, and hopes to have it in place by the time federal legislation is passed.

Bonify operates a 320,000-square-foot facility Peitsch said is about half-way through the process of being fully commissioned.

Peitsch said results of the test production have been “exceptional” and although it does not yet have a licence to sell, Bonify has been building up inventory because all the the pre-licence test production will be salable.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca