manufacturing facility “The Plant by Westleaf”, is a research, extraction and processing facility under construction in Calgary, Alberta, in a warehouse that once held mountains of paper archives from downtown Calgary businesses. This facility like the hundreds of thousands of the square feet of empty space in the city, was the direct result of shifting technology and economic fortunes. Now it’s being transformed into a high tech – and high security – research, extraction, processing and product development centre.
And lastly …. what differentiates your vertical integration model from your peers?
Westleaf is differentiated because we are truly vertically integrated across all fronts. What I mean by that is that we own and control assets across the entire cannabis value chain. From production, processing, extraction, manufacturing, product branding and wholly owned retail, we will control all aspects from seed to sale to ensure consumers receive the best products and experience. With vertical integration, we are defensively positioned to protect our margins through the life cycle and maturation of the business. Through controlling the retail distribution, we own the consumer experience and have the opportunity to help shape and influence their purchasing habits to ultimately, buy our products and create that demand pull through our vertically integrated supply chain.
One of the investment principles I emphasize as often as possible and that is to invest in the team. What is about the team at Westleaf that should impress and prospective investors?
We’ve invested heavily into recruiting a team comprised of highly driven individuals with some of the brightest minds in North America. From seasoned cannabis cultivation experts, veteran business development professionals, tenacious investment and capital market specialists, our accomplished and highly knowledgeable team has a diversity of expertise. For example, we have Ben Kaanta, Chief Operating Officer, Shon Williams, Chief Development Officer, Christian Monson, Chief Legal Officer and VP Strategy and Matt Marshall, Director of Training and Cultivation, who bring, collectively, decades of experience in the cannabis industry. These cannabis veterans were heavily involved in the first North American jurisdiction to legalize recreational and medicinal cannabis in 2014 in Colorado, Denver. We have Adam Coates as our Chief Commercial Officer who has played an integral role defining the company’s value proposition and brand identity, while developing the retail brand and in-store experience. Adam previously worked at Labatt Breweries of Canada for seven years, where his success and rapid growth advanced him to Vice President of Specialty Sales. These are just a few examples of our team and their expertise and credentials. We feel extremely confident with our roster of team members which have contributed largely to the accelerated development of the company, helping us put a large stake in the market.
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