Cannabis Professional’s daily roundup of industry news. View archive here.
Flowr announces new CFO, executive departures
The Flowr Corp. announced a management shuffle Monday evening that will see Irina Hossu take over from Alex Dann as chief financial officer and several other executives depart. The shake-up is happening “as the Company continues to seek operational and financial efficiencies,” Flowr said Monday.
The company’s chief research and innovation officer, Jason Broome, and chief strategy officer, Laurence Levi, are departing the company, while chief policy and medical officer Lyle Oberg is moving into an advisory role while remaining on the board of directors. Board chairman Steve Klein will become the company’s chief strategist.
“As the company continues to grow and execute on its business plan, Flowr is realigning its leadership structure to drive improved operational and financial efficiencies,” said Flowr’s CEO Vinay Tolia in a statement.
– Mark Rendell
RBC analyst cuts price targets, citing slow Ontario store openings in 2020
RBC analyst Douglas Miehm cut price targets on top cannabis names on Tuesday, saying he expects only 180 retail stores to be open in Ontario by the end of 2020, limiting potential revenue growth in the near-term.
“While Ontario has indicated that it plans to have 250 stores by year-end, we think the actual number could fall below this target given the lag time between new licences and store openings, and the limited number of parties that could support this pace of additions,” Mr. Miehm said. He expects total Canadian retail sales to be $2.2-billion in 2020, rising to $4.3-billion by 2022 as the market begins to stabilize.
His short-term outlook was further tempered by cautious expectations for sales of edibles and vaporizers.
“We believe the Street is currently modeling a ~$600MM top-line contribution from rec 2.0 products for just seven licensed producers. Aggregating information from our outlook for retail stores, the results of our rec 2.0 consumer survey, and informal discussions with management teams, we believe the 2.0 market for edibles/drinks/vape pens is just ~$250MM at the retail level ($169MM for vapes, $88MM for edibles/drinks),” he wrote.
Among other target cuts, he lowered price targets on Canopy Growth Corp. to $31 from $33; Aurora Cannabis Inc. to $3 from $6; and Tilray to US$23 from $31.
- Mark Rendell
TerrAscend CEO steps down
TerrAscend Corp.’s chief executive Michael Nashat is stepping down, to be replaced by Jason Ackerman, the company’s current executive chairman, as interim CEO. Mr. Nashat will remain on the board of directors.
“Michael and the company’s board have agreed that a U.S.-based leadership and operations team is necessary to align the company’s efforts and resources across the rapidly expanding U.S. market,” the company said Tuesday.
The announcement comes one day after TerrAscend dropped plans for a $33.5-million takeover of Nevada cannabis company Gravitas Nevada Ltd.
- Mark Rendell