SNDL closing CA$100 million flagship cannabis facility

Added on 03 November 2023

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SNDL closing CA$100 million flagship cannabis facility

CANADA, Alberta - Almost exactly five years after SNDL opened a cannabis cultivation facility in Olds, Alberta, the Canadian producer announced it’s closing the enormous plant “to enhance the competitiveness” of its marijuana operations segment.

The company, which accumulated losses exceeding 1.1 billion Canadian dollars ($800 million) through fiscal year 2022, expects to save roughly CA$10 million annually from the closure.

Regulatory filings show SNDL spent at least CA$102.5 million on the purpose-built, 448,000-square-foot structure between 2019 and 2021.

When the company, then called Sundial Growers, first unveiled the flagship facility in October 2018, it said 500 people were expected to be employed there.

At the time, SNDL said the facility would consist of 140 state-of-the-art, individually controlled cultivation rooms, with a production capacity of more than 100,000 kilograms (110 tons) of cannabis annually.

SNDL didn’t answer MJBizDaily’s questions about the number of employees who would be potentially displaced in connection with the closure.

“In the past year, we’ve transformed our facility footprint with a clear goal of achieving profitability in our cannabis operations by 2024,” SNDL President Tyler Robson said in a statement.