WeedMD Confirms its Licensed and Scalable Outdoor Grow is Coming Online in Early June
Fall 2019 Harvest to Provide Significant Low-Cost Biomass Input for its Extraction & Processing Hub
TORONTO, June 03, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — WeedMD Inc. (TSX-V:WMD) (OTCQX:WDDMF) (FSE:4WE) (“WeedMD” or the “Company”), a federally-licensed producer and distributor of medical-grade cannabis, is pleased to confirm that following the receipt of Health Canada’s licence for outdoor cultivation, WeedMD will begin planting more than 20,000 cannabis plants during the week of June 10, 2019 at its Strathroy, Ontario site. The Company expects to be the first licensed producer in Canada to start growing cannabis outdoors. Outdoor grow readiness video here.
“We are leading the way and making history as the first Canadian LP expected to bring outdoor cultivation online,” said Keith Merker, CEO of WeedMD. “We have a very experienced cultivation team led by our Chief Cannabis Officer Derek Pedro. This same team has successfully grown cannabis outdoors at scale for more than 10 years under Canada’s medical program. The 27-acres is primed and ready for our proven high-CBD and THC outdoor strains, which are already rooted and waiting to be planted.”
WeedMD also recently announced the transition of its Aylmer, Ontario facility into a cannabis extraction and processing hub. Read extraction news here. With the large volume of low-cost input material that the outdoor harvest will generate, the Company is positioned to process and market significant quantities of extracts and concentrates starting in Q4, 2019.
WeedMD Outdoor Cultivation:
- Health Canada licence amendment secured on May 31, 2019
- Phase I includes the first 27 of 100 available acres at its Strathroy property
- Construction of fencing, security, irrigation and other required infrastructure is complete within a fully-funded $2 million budget
- 73 additional acres of production planned for Phase II in 2020 on the existing property
- Municipal approval secured
- Operational synergies with outdoor cultivation directly adjacent to WeedMD’s existing propagation operations within its licenced greenhouse facility
- All infrastructure and staffing resources exist onsite with a proven team dedicated to the outdoor grow
- WeedMD’s cultivation team brings significant experience growing cannabis outdoors locally
- Selected strains proven to excel outdoors in southwestern Ontario
- More than 20,000 plants already rooted in organic material and ready to be planted
- Growing from rooted plants allows for higher yields, survival rates and consistency when compared to starting from seed
WeedMD Extraction Hub:
- WeedMD is building on its experience in extract production, having processed oils onsite in Aylmer since June 2017
- Aylmer site is fully licensed for cannabis oil production and sale
- plans include four extraction lines in operation with the ability to process over 200,000 kgs of biomass annually
- WeedMD will utilize various extraction methods in order to meet the demands of the market
- Aylmer facility is being built to GxP* standards to support compliance for both domestic and international markets
- WeedMD will provide formulation capabilities for wholesale and white label manufacturing
- existing fully-licensed 26,000 sq. ft. facility is located on an expandable four-acre site wholly-owned by WeedMD
- WeedMD will supply a sizeable quantity of input material for cannabis extraction from its large-scale greenhouse and also from its 27-acres of outdoor production from its Strathroy site
*GxP encompasses a broad range of compliance-related activities such as Good Laboratory Practices, Good Clinical Practices and Good Manufacturing Practices.
With a combined indoor and outdoor production footprint of over 5.2M sq. ft. and projected total annual output of 150,000 kgs of cannabis in 2020, the Company is well-positioned to become one of Canada’s largest cannabis producers.
For more information, access WeedMD’s investor presentation here and recently updated corporate video here.
About WeedMD Inc.
WeedMD Inc. is the publicly-traded parent company of WeedMD Rx Inc., a federally-licensed producer and distributor of cannabis products for both the medical and adult-use markets. The Company owns and operates two facilities: a 26,000 sq. ft. facility in Aylmer, Ontario and a 158-acre state-of-the-art greenhouse and outdoor facility located in Strathroy, Ontario. The Company currently has 136,000 square feet of licensed indoor and greenhouse production space across its facilities and is expected to have a total footprint of more than 550,000 square feet of indoor and greenhouse production space online in 2019. In addition, 27 acres of outdoor cultivation has now been approved for cultivation with first harvest expected in the fall of 2019. WeedMD has a multi-channeled distribution strategy that includes selling directly to medical patients, strategic relationships across the seniors’ market and supply agreements with Shoppers Drug Mart as well as six provincial distribution agencies.
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For further information, please contact:
WeedMD Inc.
Keith Merker, Chief Executive Officer
Tel: 519-765-2440 Ext. 201
Email: investor@weedmd.com
To learn more, visit us at www.weedmd.com
For Media Inquiries:
Marianella delaBarrera
VP, Communications & Corporate Affairs
Tel: 416-897-6644
Email: marianella@weedmd.com
Forward Looking Information
This press release contains « forward-looking information » within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation which are based upon WeedMD’s current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs and views of future events. Forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as « expect », « likely », « may », « will », « should », « intend », « anticipate », « potential », « proposed », « estimate » and other similar words, including negative and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions « may », « would » or « will » happen, or by discussions of strategy.
The forward-looking information in this news release is based upon the expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and views of future events which management believes to be reasonable in the circumstances. Forward-looking information includes estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, targets, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Forward-looking information in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to internal expectations, expectations with respect to actual production volumes, expectations for future growing capacity and the completion of any capital project or expansions. Forward-looking information necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation, risks associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; loss of markets; future legislative and regulatory developments; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; the cannabis industry in Canada generally; the ability of WeedMD to implement its business strategies; competition; crop failure; and other risks.
Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, WeedMD does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for WeedMD to predict all such factors. When considering this forward-looking information, readers should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements in WeedMD’s Annual Information Form dated December 13, 2017 (the « AIF ») and other disclosure documents of WeedMD filed with the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The risk factors and other factors noted in the AIF and other disclosure documents could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in any forward-looking information.
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