Irwin Simon, CEO of Canadian cannabis company Aphria, is looking for additional opportunities to acquire brands in consumer products, hoping to grow beyond cannabis.
“There are currently a lot of opportunities in the U.S. with food and beverages and other consumer products, and I know how to build consumer brands and process them into cannabis as soon as legalization takes place,” Simon said in an interview on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” ” said.
Simon previously founded the consumer products company Hain Celestial Group, which specializes in natural and organic foods, beverages and personal care items. He stayed with the company for more than 25 years and acted as CEO and Chairman.
‘Do not know when [cannabis] legalization takes place in the US. “I want to continue acquiring certain businesses like a Sweetwater, like a Manitoba Harvest, that can change in the marijuana world if legalization only takes place with big margins, big growth and big distribution for us,” Simon said.
The company acquired Sweetwater, an independent U.S. brewer, in November. A month later, Aphria announced its merger plans with another Canadian cannabis company, Tilray, along with the Manitoba Harvest brand for hemp consumption, to form the largest cannabis business by revenue.
The company’s share closed up 14% to $ 13.95 on Monday, after the company reported that coronavirus closures in parts of Canada and Germany hurt sales of its products in the third fiscal quarter. Revenue tumbled from the second quarter to the third quarter, but was higher on a year-on-year basis.
For the three months ended February 28, Aphria reported a net loss of $ 361 million Canadian dollars on revenue of $ 153.6 million Canadian dollars.
“In the U.S., we had a solid first full quarter of Sweetwater, even with lower on-site sales compared to the previous quarter, as many businesses in the food service industry still operated with limited capacity,” Simon said. said in a press release.
Aphria shareholders are due to vote on the Tilray deal on Wednesday. Tilray shares closed at $ 17.19 on Monday, up 13%.