I am a strong proponent that the Hemp industry potentially dwarfs the cannabis industry (yes, hemp is a variety of sativa but for our purposes we tend treat them separately) … what jumped out at me while diving deep into your information was that Vireo has a committed hemp strategy. Can you expand on this strategy and what aspects of hemp is your focus – by that I mean hemp has such a myriad of unrelated applications from plastics to textiles to building materials to biofuel to nutrition and wellness and of course CBD itself ….?
We’ve touched on some of these ideas already, but it will probably be helpful to address them together.
Our focus on opportunistic growth comes down to driving cost-effective organic and acquisitive growth, and we believe we’re in a position to be successful with these objectives. We’re not going to pursue growth at any cost, but when we identify strategic opportunities at attractive valuations that align with our long-term vision, we expect we’ll be active in the marketplace, and we think there’s still potential for additional merit-based license wins in the somewhat more socially-conservative and medically-focused states.
Creating a best-in-class customer experience will be crucial in winning and maintaining market share as the cannabis industry develops, and we think our home-delivery and e-commerce capabilities, combined with suite of product offerings that promote health and wellness across age and lifestyle demographics will help us be successful.
Finally, it is our belief that meaningful IP, including novel products, and backed by science, medicine and technology will be key to establishing longevity within the sector. Our teams are on the cutting age of scientific and medical research within the industry, and we’re pursuing product applications that could have wide reaching implications.
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