The Chicago-based company, Cresco Labs, is set to become America’s largest cannabis firm. On March 24, 2022, they announced they had plans to purchase Columbia Care in a $2 billion deal.
Currently, Cresco has enterprises in 10 states, including 10 dispensaries — the maximum allotted — and three cultivation centers in Illinois. The mega-deal will expand the Chicago company’s footprint in the states they are already in and extend its reach into Washington, D.C., and seven other states. Columbia Care’s headquarters is in Manhattan, New York.
CEO of Cresco Labs, Charles Bachtell, stated the deal “brings together two of the leading operators in the industry, pairing a leading footprint with proven operational, brand and competitive excellence.” Combining the two company’s “highly complementary and provides unmatched scale, depth, diversification and long-term growth.”
The business transaction is expected to close by December. Once completed, the merger will create the largest cannabis company by revenue and the number one wholesaler of branded marijuana products, according to Cresco.
Bachtell and another veteran of the Chicago mortgage company Guaranteed Rate founded the company in 2013. Cresco was one of the highly regulated medical cannabis companies to begin early on in Illinois. Now the company is a marijuana powerhouse and now trades publicly on the Canadian Securities Exchange and the U.S. “penny stocks” market.
There are 185 new marijuana dispensary permits and newly licensed cultivators, infusers and transporters work to get operational and gain footholds, according to Fox 32 Chicago. Only 110 licensed stores continue to dominate the cannabis retail market. This has generated billions in sales since recreational marijuana was made legal.
Columbia Care holds a cultivation license as well as two permits. In order to comply with the law and finalize the deal, Cresco will have to sell off some of its permits to grow and sell cannabis, according to spokesperson Jason Erkes.
The merger between the companies “will together create the most important — and the most investable — company in cannabis,” stated Columbia Care’s chief executive Nicholas Vita.
Written by Sheena Robertson
Source:
Fox 32 Chicago: Chicago company set to become nation’s largest weed firm
Top, Inline, and Featured Image Courtesy of Thomas Elliott’s Flickr Page – Public Domain License
