Around the industry: Dixie Brands; YSS; D.C. pot sales

In the early hours of this Tuesday morning in marijuana, one company announced a new finance boss and another detailed a plan to consolidate its existing shares ahead of a refreshed public listing. And one major American city got a step closer to realizing a dream now five years in the making: establishing a commercial framework for recreational cannabis sales.

– Jameson Berkow

Dixie Brands gets new CFO

In less than three weeks, the cannabis sector will have officially acquired another executive from consumer packaged goods. Greg Robbins, most recently vice president of finance for energy drink giant Red Bull, will start a new job on June 24th as chief financial officer of Dixie Brands. James Feeham, who has been in the CFO role for the past nine months, will remain with the company to facilitate an orderly transition, Dixie Brands said in a release. Mr. Robbins faces a challenging role with the cannabis-infused product maker, as late last week Dixie reported an eight-fold increase in its net loss for Q1 of 2019, which the company attributed to hiring more sales and marketing staff as well as the costs associated with becoming a public company; Dixie shares started trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange in late November of 2018.

D.C. gets closer to commercial cannabis sales

It has been fully five years since voters in the District of Columbia approved a ballot measure to legalize recreational cannabis, but there is still nowhere residents of America’s capital city can legally buy the stuff. That is because of the city’s unique status that gives Congress direct control over its budget and since 2014, legislators have prevented D.C. from spending any of its own money to establish rules and licensing regulations for legal cannabis stores, claiming that doing so would violate ongoing federal cannabis prohibition. While local entrepreneurs have since found relatively creative ways around that barrier, the wall could soon be coming down entirely. According to a draft version of an appropriations bill passed by House Democrats on Sunday and made public on Monday, the previous section (known as a “rider”) of the bill that prevented D.C. from spending any of its own money implementing the results of the 2014 ballot measure has been deleted. The legislation must still be passed by another committee and then the full House of Representatives, so there are still no guarantees, but D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has already introduced a plan to regulate local cannabis sales in anticipation of the appropriations bill passing in its current form.

Solo Growth confirms consolidation details, June 10 launch on TSX-V

YSS Corp, which until January was named Solo Growth, announced Tuesday that its shares will begin trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker YSS as of June 10. As part of that process, the cannabis retailer will also be consolidating its shares on a 6:1 ratio, meaning anyone holding six shares of the company prior to consolidation will have a single share after the process is complete next week. The company has 19 cannabis retail locations in Alberta, though less than half are currently licensed for sales, in addition to one location held under lease in Ontario. The share consolidation plan was approved by YSS shareholders at the company’s May 29th annual general meeting.