Business of Cannabis
The Cannabist Company, formerly Columbia Care, has announced a string of cost cutting measures that will make the company ‘look very different by the end of this year’.
As part of a new corporate restructuring programme, the US cannabis multi-state operator plans to ‘rightsize’ its footprint to ‘maximize profitability’, seeing it exit the Florida market altogether.
Its entire Florida estate, including 14 retail stores, three cultivation and manufacturing facilities and its state license will be divested, with LOIs for multiple transactions and $2.75m of deposits already in place.
According to the company, in Q1 of 2024, its Florida operations accounted for just 5% of its total revenues, but it lost the company nearly $20m in the final quarter of 2023.
Another underperforming retail store in Trinidad, Colorado, is due to close, reducing the company’s footprint in the state to 22 stores.
Elsewhere, in New York, medical cannabis stores in Manhatten and Rochester, New York, have closed permanently, although the company says it is searching for new locations, and remains focused on growing the adult-use wholesale segment in the state. A further two stores in Brooklyn and Riverhead have seen their hours reduced.
Meanwhile, the company says it is continuing its expansion into Virginia, having opened a its 11th retail location on June 11, and plans to open its third location in New Jersey by the end of the year.
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