Seeing green: New cannabis facility ramping up production for Canadian distribution
BELLEISLE CREEK – It's been a long journey to get here, but the team behind Cannabud Company, Inc. can now say they have two harvests complete at their newly opened Belleisle Creek production facility, and their product is being distributed across New Brunswick and Canada.
Partners Victoria Colter, Nolan Pickerill and Pete Gregg started the business just over three years ago, but it wasn't until February that they received their licence from Health Canada, allowing them to start growing cannabis.
"It's going really well. We have had two harvests, and have our third coming up next week," said Pickerill. "For our first two harvests, we have received our certificate of analysis, which is basically a lab test, and all of our strains are above 20 per cent THC."
After an initial search for a suitable facility in the Fredericton area, they found the former Belleisle Foods plant on Route 870. Pickerill said the building proved to be a good fit for their needs, as it already had the required zoning, as well as space to grow.
Pickerill, a veteran of the tobacco industry, said they saw the cannabis industry as an opportunity to help people through the medical side of the business, and because they saw a gap in the market they could fill.
"We envisioned the market shifting into a place where the consumer is going to be focused more on quality. We thought the current market kind of lacked quality," he said. "A lot of early companies were growing at a large scale, so sometimes that can be challenging to produce consistent quality product when you are growing at such a large scale."
Their fully renovated facility features automated irrigation systems, an environmental control system keeping tabs on everything from temperature and humidity to carbon dioxide levels, and finely-tunable LED lighting, the company is producing an estimated 1,000 kilograms of dried cannabis flower per year.
Production rise equals more jobs
But Pickerill said that number is expected to double before they have finished their first year of growing, and full-time staff will increase to 10, including the three partners and manager Brian Ricketson.
Pickerill said for now, their facility will be producing three dried flower strains, but with 700 seeds in their genetics bank and a dedicated research and development facility on site, he said the company will be able to maintain a consistent evolution of their product line.
Pickerill and Colter said they have partnered with Ontario-based medical cannabis producer and distributor Abba Medix, and it's New Brunswick-based parent company Canada House Wellness Group, to purchase their product wholesale and distribute it across the country.
Impressed with product
Steve Pearce, a vice president with Canada House Wellness Group, said the company was all too happy to snap up what a local company like Cannabud was producing.
"We are always looking for high-quality flower for both our medical patient base, which is highly veteran-focused, as well as for our recreation distribution," said Pearce. "I was extremely impressed when I toured their facility."
Pearce said being in the medical cannabis industry since 2014, they've come to understand that as both medical and recreational consumers become more knowledgeable about cannabis, they start to demand higher quality product.
Adding Cannabud as a supplier will help them meet that demand, and already their product is available through medical cannabis suppliers in New Brunswick, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. In the near future, he said their product will be hitting Cannabis NB shelves, as well as recreational cannabis stores in other provinces.