Just over two months after increasing its stake in Sunen Farms to 100%, Toronto-based Auxly closed two Nova Scotia marijuana facilities, which eliminated 55 jobs.
The marijuana cultivation facilities in Kentville and Hortonville, Nova Scotia, were closed effective Monday, February 14 with Auxly’s announcement.
Auxly’s statement said the closures would streamline, simplify, and reduce costs for its cultivation network and achieve its goal of becoming profitable by the first half of this year.
Sunen Farms is a large-scale cannabis producer in Leamington, Ontario. It will be renamed Auxly Leamington.
Auxly is expected to sell off the Hortonville and Kentville assets and apply the proceeds to its ongoing operations.
“Through streamlining its cultivation footprint, the company will be able to focus efforts and resources on optimizing the output of high-quality cannabis from its newly acquired large-scale greenhouse cultivation facility,” the company announced in a press release.
Located in Kentville, Nova Scotia, Robinsons Cannabis operated an indoor cultivation facility focused on craft production and produced flower that Auxly sold under the Robinsons and Kolab Project brands.
Auxly’s news release stated that their 158 acre Robinsons Outdoor Grow, in Hortonville, Nova Scotia, is utilized for storage and processing only.
“While we believe that taking these steps ultimately makes Auxly a more focused company that is better positioned to achieve its strategic goals, it was an extremely difficult decision because of the impact on our talented and hard-working Robinsons employees,” CEO Hugo Alves said.
In 2021, Auxly Cannabis gained more of Canada’s recreational marijuana market than its competitors.
“We spent three years acquiring and building assets and capabilities that we think we need to execute on our strategy. And then we focus on making those capabilities stronger, improving them,” Hugo Alves, CEO of Auxly Cannabis, said in an interview with MJBizDaily. “At the end of 2025, we want to be the No. 1 licensed producer in Canada. We want to have the strongest brands.”
Alves believes owning Sunens allows Auxly to remain hyperfocused on the consumer and dedicate their genetic library to their branded products and cannabis supplies.
He has said that owning Sunen Farms allows Auxly to respond more quickly and efficiently to consumers’ preferences instead of relying on contract growers.
Rightsizing of cultivation capacity over the past two years has been impacting the wholesale flower market in terms of availability and pricing.
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