Cannabis Professional’s daily roundup of industry news. View archive here.
The early hours of this Thursday morning in marijuana brings us news of HEXO co-founder Adam Miron leaving, LiveWell starting publicly-traded life anew as Eureka 93 and Rubicon Organics getting even more green credentials
– Jameson Berkow
Adam Miron stepping down as HEXO Chief Brand Officer
Effective immediately, Adam Miron is no longer the chief brand officer for Gatineau, Quebec-based licenced cannabis producer HEXO Corp.
Mr. Miron will keep his seat on the company’s board of directors, the company said in a statement early Thursday morning, but he will no longer hold a management position. Six years ago, Mr. Miron co-founded HEXO along with current CEO Sebastian St-Louis and has frequently served as the public face of the company.
HEXO said Mr. Miron will transition his internal responsibilities to other members of the management team and “will remain committed to fulfilling planned external obligations as HEXO’s representative.” No specific reason was cited for his departure.
“I am a builder,” Mr. Miron said in a statement. “What I see today is an established company.”
"Adam recognizes where he brings the most value and I respect his decision to take on new challenges and focus on his true passion: building,” Mr. St-Louis said.
Prior to co-founding HEXO, Mr. Miron had careers in media and politics. He served as chief information officer for iPolitics and is the former national director of the Young Liberals of Canada.
LiveWell relaunches on CSE as “Eureka 93”
After nearly nine months of regrouping, Ottawa-based CBD-focused cannabis processor LiveWell is returning to the Canadian Securities Exchange under a new name and ticker.
Shares of Eureka93 will begin trading Thursday on the CSE under the ticker ERKA and has also applied to list on the Nasdaq in the United States. The company previously traded under the ticker LVWL until November 2018.
The company is still working towards a Health Canada licence to process cannabis products, but thanks to its newly acquired assets in Eureka, Montana (off U.S. Route 93, hence the exceedingly clever name), Eureka 93 has moved from virtually no revenue in its first quarter to US$4.2-million in sales for its second quarter, ended June 30.
In addition to its Montana assets, the company also has operations in Windsor, Ontario, (acquired for $20-million last year) where it operates 20 pharmaceutical-grade clean rooms, which it plans to use for production of natural health products. Eureka 93 also recently acquired a hemp extraction facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Total extraction capacity is expected to reach nearly 100,000 kg per month with the company targeting late 2019 for its first product launch (subject to winning regulatory approval in time, of course). In March, the company struck an extraction deal with Tilray to process 300 kg of cannabis per month for the Nanaimo, B.C.-based licenced producer.
Rubicon Organics gets more green credentials
As the name suggests, Delta, British Columbia-based licensed cannabis producer Rubicon Organics uses organic growing methods to produce its marijuana, but two additional certifications the company won this week take those credentials a step further.
Rubicon claims to be the first and, thus far, only cannabis producer to have been issued an Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) certification from the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, which the company says took four years of research and effort to achieve. The EFP came just one day after Rubicon received its Fraser Valley Organics Producers Association (FVOPA) organic certification, which the company says will translate to “industry-leading gross margins and profitability.”
The company has not sold any cannabis yet, having only received its cultivation and processing licences from Health Canada in February, though it is targeting sales to commence before the end of 2019.
Rubicon co-founder and CEO Jesse McConnell previously founded the Whistler Medical Marijuana Corporation. One month before Rubicon received its licences, in January 2019, WMMC was sold to Edmonton-based Aurora Cannabis in a deal worth $175-million.
Jameson Berkow