Manitoba cultivator Bonify Holdings Corp. is again selling recreational cannabis in Canada, a little over a year after the company’s license to sell cannabis was suspended for sourcing illicit marijuana and selling it into the legal market.
“Bonify will be supplying several different strains to licensed retailers in Manitoba with plans to introduce a wider selection of strains and products this summer,” the company said in a news release.
“That was really kind of the test bed, how do our products compare?” he said.
“Once we had a good handle on that and we were comfortable that our products were better-than-average on the market, that’s when we reapproached and we reapplied through the process in Manitoba.”
The Winnipeg-based firm’s cannabis sales license was reinstated by Health Canada in October 2019.
Bonify’s license was suspended in February 2019 after a late-2018 scandal in which the company was caught selling what federal cannabis regulator Health Canada later described as “unapproved cannabis products.”
The privately held company’s cannabis was subsequently pulled from store shelves in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Bonify terminated senior executives in the wake of the scandal and brought in third-party consultant RavenQuest BioMed to investigate and take over management.
In November 2019, Bonify’s then-CEO told the Winnipeg Free Press that the company was no longer working with RavenQuest.
At that time, the Free Press reported that cash-strapped Bonify was reaching out to shareholders for funding while seeking an acquisition by a larger company.
Morris declined to comment on whether Bonify is still looking for a buyer, but he said the company’s “shareholders continue to support us.”
“And we hope to be one of those companies, in the very, very near future,” he said, “that is running a real business – a business with a clear view to profit – and that’s partly why we’re taking things slow and only playing in those sandboxes where we believe we can be successful and, more importantly, be profitable.”
Bonify intends to expand sales to other provinces beyond Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Morris said.
The company also said in another news release that it plans to produce next-generation cannabis products such as “rosin, rosin vape pens and bubble hash” in partnership with Quebec-based licensed producer and processor Great White North Growers.
Solomon Israel can be reached at solomon.israel@mjbizdaily.com
