Cannabis Briefs for February 28, 2023
February 28, 2023•Boston, Massachusetts-based Harpoon Brewery is releasing its first cannabis beverage. Made in partnership with Novel Beverage Company, it’s called Rec. Weed. The hop-forward drink is brewed similarly to a session ale without the fermentation, using a green tea base and cold steeping hop oil and passionfruit puree. Each can contains 5mg of THC and is individually priced at $7 from recreational cannabis retailers in the state. Harpoon’s parent company Mass. Bay Brewing Company previously released Long Trail CBD Seltzer, now available throughout New England.
•Arizona sold $1.4 billion of cannabis in 2022, split 70/30 between recreational and medical sales. Recreational sales totaled approximately $950 million last year while medical sales reached around $500 million. The recreational market delivered its best month on record in December with $86.6 million in sales, after launching in January 2021. The state collected $23 million in cannabis taxes in December.
•California cannabis companies The Parent Company and Gold Flora are merging. The Parent Company’s portfolio includes Jay-Z’s brand Monogram, along with Caliva, Mirayo by Santana, and Fun Uncle, as well as 12 retail locations. Gold Flora operates retail throughout the state and has a campus in Desert Hot Springs, California housing its indoor cultivation, manufacturing, extraction, and distribution facilities. After the merger, Parent Company shareholders will own 49% of the combined company and Gold Flora shareholders 51%. Parent Company CEO Troy Datcher will be named chairman and Gold Flora CEO Laurie Holcomb will be CEO. The merger is expected to close by the fall, creating a company with pro forma revenue of $116.4 million for the 9-month period ended September 30, 2022.
•Humble & Fume, a distributor of cannabis and cannabis accessories, reported results for the last quarter of 2022, in which it grew revenue for its California operations by 177%. The results are the first released following a turbulent period which led to the appointment of Jakob Ripshtein as CEO last month. He was previously the president of Aphria prior to its merger with Tilray and before that president of Diageo Canada and CFO of Diageo North America. “I want to acknowledge the effort made by our prior leadership team,” he said. “The past twelve months was a challenging adjustment period for our business. Our focus on margin-enhancing products and opportunities includes the introduction of a proactive, rigorous approach to address inventory levels further. We will concentrate on high-velocity, margin-enhancing SKUs, which are expected to provide working capital and gross profit benefits.”
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