Curaleaf, one of many world’s largest hashish firms, is exiting the adult-use hashish retail market in Maine with the sale of its licensed dispensary in South Portland. The corporate’s sole leisure marijuana store is being bought to Foliage Hashish Co., which has already begun operations on the retail location, in response to a report in native media.
On-line information supply Mainebiz reviews that Curaleaf and Foliage Hashish have agreed to the switch of possession of the South Portland dispensary, though the phrases of the deal haven’t been launched. The retail website would be the second dispensary in Maine for Foliage Hashish, which operates its unique store in South Portland lower than a mile from the brand new location. Curaleaf continues to function medical marijuana dispensaries in Bangor, Auburn, Wells and Elsworth, Maine, according to a listing for the state on the corporate’s web site.
An organization spokesperson for Curaleaf confirmed the transfer, writing in an emailed assertion that “We exited grownup use, however stay within the medical market with 4 shops and haven’t any plans to exit medical.”
Curaleaf talked about the transaction on March 6 when it reported results for the fourth quarter of final 12 months. The announcement had few particulars, saying solely that the corporate had “entered into an settlement to promote our Maine, adult-use retailer.” In a press launch, the corporate reported it had generated $345 million in income within the fourth quarter of 2023, representing a rise of 4% quarter-over-quarter.
Curaleaf’s fourth-quarter monetary additionally reporting reveals that the corporate’s income for the 12 months totaled $1.35 billion, up 6% from 2022. Profitability was elusive, nonetheless, with the agency displaying a 2023 internet lack of $281.1 million, the equal of 39 cents per share. Curaleaf owns and operates 145 retail hashish areas in 17 states. Worldwide, the corporate employs about 5,600 folks.
Alexis Soucy, a spokesperson for the Maine Workplace of Hashish coverage, mentioned that Curaleaf will full the sale of the retail location as soon as the enterprise has been authorized for an lively license. The conditional license the store is working underneath is scheduled to run out in October. Till the lively license is authorized, the 2 firms have organized for Foliage Hashish to make use of its title and branding on the dispensary to be transferred.
Curaleaf Entered the Maine Rec Market Three Years In the past
Three years in the past, Scott Reed, Curaleaf’s normal supervisor in Maine on the time, mentioned that the corporate had massive plans for the state because it entered the leisure market in April 2021.
“Now we have been proudly serving the Maine medical market with top-quality, regionally grown flower, and distinctive customer support for practically a decade, and we sit up for increasing these choices to our adult-use clients,” Reed said on the time, in response to the report from Mainebiz.
Reed left Curaleaf in July 2022 when the corporate went by way of a spherical of downsizing. He’s now the co-owner of Foliage Hashish Co. together with his associate Scott Lever. Collectively, they’ve been in a position to independently elevate the cash wanted to open the 2 retail areas, giving the companions much more flexibility than many different hashish firms.
“We’re self-funded, so we’re totally different from a big firm with plenty of buyers,” Reed mentioned. “We could be nimble.”
Earlier this month, the Workplace of Hashish Coverage launched knowledge displaying that the state’s retailers rang up $18.01 million in leisure marijuana gross sales final month, a determine that was up 28.3% from the $14.05 million in gross sales in February 2022.
Regardless of the success of Maine’s adult-use hashish trade as a complete, the image isn’t as rosy for some firms available in the market. A complete of 20 licensed companies together with 11 cultivation websites, 4 manufacturing services and 5 retail dispensaries exited Maine’s leisure marijuana market in 2023.
Total, nonetheless, the trade remains to be rising. Regardless of the shuttered firms, the variety of cultivation websites in Maine remained secure from 2022 to 2023, whereas the variety of retailers elevated by 27 and the variety of producers rose by 13.
Curaleaf’s exit from Maine just isn’t the primary time the corporate has left a state’s leisure hashish market. In January 2023, Curaleaf introduced that it was leaving the mature markets of California, Oregon and Colorado. That announcement was adopted by the corporate’s exit from adult-use hashish markets in Michigan and Vermont.
Curaleaf government chairman Boris Jordan mentioned throughout a third-quarter investor convention name in November that the corporate is exiting “low-margin, low-growth” markets it now serves in a bid to enhance profitability.
“All through 2023, the corporate’s been targeted on bettering effectivity metrics and dialing in operations to maximise its present base,” Jordan mentioned, according to a report from Hashish Enterprise Instances. “Now we have taken vital steps to get rid of redundancies, strategically scale back headcounts [and] exit unprofitable markets. Most of those actions occurred within the first half of the 12 months. And within the third quarter we took the ultimate steps in our asset optimization plan.”