Two days ago, FV Pharma, the Cannabis company who bought the Kraft plant, announced that they had closed their financing agreement with Cannabis Wheaton Income Corp. They had previously announced a letter of intent to do this (see link below). They are saying that the deal has “the potential to build out the largest indoor cannabis cultivation facility in the world” and that they will produce 400 million grams of Cannabis a year of which half will be “paid” to Cannabis Wheaton. Chuck Rifici, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cannabis Wheaton commented that “it has the potential to create hundreds of jobs for the City of Cobourg.” What they don’t say is that there are a whole lot of competitors in this business. In fact, Cannabis Wheaton is financing many of them – basically spreading their bets.
But Thomas Fairfull, President and CEO of FV Pharma is happy: “We couldn’t have asked for a better joint venture partner for the development of our world class facility and the execution of our business plan that we expect will create hundreds of quality skilled jobs for the City of Cobourg. We are excited at the opportunity to build and operate something special with Cannabis Wheaton and to set the gold standard for cannabis cultivation and for cannabis-derived consumer products.”
They both call Cobourg a City – we love our Town but it’s not a city.
Note that at $10 a gram, 400 million grams per year translates to a business producing $4B a year in revenue – not bad for a few hundred employees.
Legislation has not yet been passed to legalize recreational use and in the meantime the only licences to grow are for medicinal purposes – and there are currently 91 producers licenced for that in Canada. Of these, 48 are in Ontario – see link below for details.
Although growth in the world-wide Cannabis market is expected to be exponential, and although Canada is leading the pack in legal businesses growing the weed, it seems extremely unlikely that there will be a market worldwide for all the Cannabis that Canadian growers plan to produce. That means that even though Canadian companies are planning to export much of their production, many of these companies will either fail or merge with others. No doubt all the owners of these ventures have optimistic faith that they will be one of the winners but it will be interesting to see what happens to FV Pharma and whether Cobourg will in fact get the hundreds of “quality skilled jobs” that have been promised.
Links
- Update on Cobourg’s Marijuana Facility
- Health Canada List of licenced producers
- Press Release by Cannabis Wheaton Income Corp.
Print Article:
Job opening for ‘buddies’
… the US Centers for Disease Control published a small occupational health assessment of the potential risks associated with marijuana farming. Those who frequently trim marijuana buds, they concluded, may be at a slightly higher risk of developing muscular-skeletal problems from all the repetitive motion—namely, carpal tunnel syndrome. https://qz.com/1226135/trimming-pot-leaves-may-lead-to-carpal-tunnel-syndrome-the-cdc-warns/
I wonder how many Security employment positions will be available ?.
Just wondering if there will be anything posted, for employment opportunities, or if you have a link to find out about this.
Their web site is http://fvpharma.com/ but there is no indication yet that they are hiring.
Thank you sir.
Here is vid of a modern cannabis production facility. Note the employees — they do not appear to be offshore temp workers. There is no seasonal work inside these facilities, because harvesting occurs year around. There is no need for the fear of foreigners. https://youtu.be/IBW34r4JbWA
Let’s hope they hire & train local people versus offshore temporary workers.
I agree – whenever possible. The fact remains many non-Canadians will do work which many Canadian residents refuse to do…Ontario’s temporary foreign worker program is virtually non-existent and hiring non-Canadians to work in Canada is a battle of attrition and complicated by design.
This could be the best use of the old Kraft plant. Hopefully FV Pharma is a survivor when consolidation in the industry occurs when stock prices tumble to normal price earning multiples. Sounds like the big winner will be the financier Cannabis Wheaton.