Dankr.ca – Your Toronto Connection
Article by Emma Spears, Growth Op
The winners of Ontario’s much-maligned and now-defunct cannabis retail lottery are increasingly selling their pot shops less than two years after the drug was federally legalized.
Although lottery winners were initially restricted from selling their stores until December 2019, pot shops have started to quietly pop up. Business owners are finding that larger cannabis companies and chain retailers, in particular, make for enthusiastic buyers, The Canadian Press reports.
There are currently more than 115 stores in the province, with the AGCO claiming to have received over 1,000 retail operator licence applications. While the licences aren’t legally transferable, the business can be sold providing the new owner applies (and receives approval) for a new retail store licence and authorization to run the shop.
Lottery winner and former University of Toronto director Lisa Bigioni sold her Niagara Falls store to Vancouver-based Choom Holdings Inc. for $2 million in common shares and $2 million in cash, although she plans to use the funds to open another pot shop — this time a location of the Stok’d chain.
