Ontario-based Canopy Growth on March 4 announced plans to shutter two cultivation facilities in British Columbia resulting in the layoffs of some 500 employees. In addition to shuttering 3 million square feet of greenhouses in BC, the company also said it is dropping plans to open a greenhouse in Ontario.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canopy Growth<\/a>\u2018s CEO David Klein admitted to over-optimistic market projections in announcing plans to shut the 1.7-million-square-foot greenhouse in the town of Delta and a 1.3-million-square-foot greenhouse in Langley.\u00a0<\/p>\n The two facilities, purchased in early 2018 for $400 million Canadian, make up two-thirds of Canopy\u2019s total licensed operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing a strategic review of production capacity and forecast demand, the company announced today that these facilities are no longer essential to its cultivation footprint,\u201d Klein said in a statement to the\u00a0Vancouver Sun<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNearly 17 months after the creation of the legal adult-use market, the Canadian recreational market has developed slower than anticipated, creating working capital and profitability challenges across the industry,\u201d added Canopy in a statement quoted by\u00a0CNN Business<\/a>. \u201cAdditionally, federal regulations permitting outdoor cultivation were introduced after the Company made significant investments in greenhouse production.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Health Canada issued\u00a0new regulations<\/a>\u00a0allowing outdoor cultivation in June 2018, in what the\u00a0Globe & Mail<\/a>\u00a0called \u201ca new, cheaper source of competition to established indoor producers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Deepak Anand, CEO of the Toronto medical cannabis firm\u00a0Materia Ventures<\/a>, told the Vancouver Sun he expected more companies to opt for cheaper outdoor cultivation in response to diminishing market expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCompanies looking to save on capital, or cut back on capital expenses, are going to look at either not building out or scaling back on their existing builds-out,\u201d Anand said. \u201cCapital markets have completely dried up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n BC\u2019s local\u00a0The Province<\/a>\u00a0visited the facilities to speak with some of the employees facing lay-offs. Many are migrants from India and Central America brought in under Canada\u2019s\u00a0Temporary Foreign Worker Program<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Elias Salomon, who came on a six-year permit but will return to Guatemala after just two years, displayed an attitude of resignation. \u201cIt\u2019s a business decision, right?\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s over so right now we are waiting for the flights and we will go home soon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Byron Cruz of a local advocacy group, the\u00a0Watari Counselling & Support Services Society<\/a>, spoke to The Province after meeting with the Canopy workers. He said Canopy\u2019s Guatemalan employees were earning BC\u2019s minimum wage \u2014 C$13.85 per hour \u2014 which they mostly sent home to their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey [companies] prefer to recruit people with kids and families because they know that they\u2019re more vulnerable and then they will kind of not complain, right?\u201d Cruz said. \u201cMost of these workers have families and they are First Nations in Guatemala. They are Indigenous people. That\u2019s what I know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Canopy\u2019s move is all the more significant as the company is a leader in the industry. In 2018 it became the first \u201cplant-touching\u201d cannabis company to\u00a0list on the New York Stock Exchange<\/a>. That same year, its stocks soared after the infusion of a massive\u00a0$4 billion investment<\/a>\u00a0from beer and beverage giant Constellation Brands in August.\u00a0<\/p>\n Canopy has operations elsewhere around Canada. It is uncertain if its recently announced\u00a0plans for a giant greenhouse facility on the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve<\/a>\u00a0outside Montreal will be affected by the new decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n Canopy also has a growing international footprint. In 2018 it announced a\u00a0joint venture with a Danish firm<\/a>\u00a0to cultivate cannabis for the European medical market. It has also\u00a0invested millions of dollars<\/a>\u00a0in Lesotho, the landlocked African kingdom that has aggressively opened its cannabis sector in recent years.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you think this is a sign that infrastructure overshot the market in the post-legalization euphoria? <\/p>\n The post Canopy Grow Facility Announces Lay-Offs<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Ontario-based Canopy Growth on March 4 announced plans to shutter two cultivation facilities in British Columbia resulting in the layoffs of some 500 employees. In addition to shuttering 3 million square feet of greenhouses in BC, the company also said it is dropping plans to open a greenhouse in Ontario.\u00a0Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13420,34,50,461,170,13421],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41779,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41778\/revisions\/41779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Workers Head Back to Central America\u00a0<\/h4>\n
Downsizing From an Industry Leader\u00a0<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Canopy Grow Facility Announces Lay-Offs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"