Toronto-based producer Vivo Cannabis is cutting 18% of its workforce, selling unspecified assets and tweaking its leadership team as part of an effort to cut costs and achieve positive cash flow.
Vivo owns two Canadian cannabis license holders: ABcann Medicinals, which has two production facilities in Napanee, Ontario, and Canna Farms in Hope, British Columbia.
The company said its cuts will result in roughly 45 job eliminations, “the vast majority from the rightsizing of Napanee operations.”
Vivo’s Napanee operations are being “repurposed to focus on low-cost cultivation – airhouse-grown – and the extraction and manufacturing of Vivo’s growing line of Cannabis 2.0 concentrates,” according to a news release issued Tuesday morning.
Some other activities, including packaging and distribution, will be centralized at the Canna Farms facility in British Columbia.
Vivo also said it was “monetizing noncore assets” and turning off the taps on capital expenditures “as all major facility projects have been completed.”
“The actions taken this week will better align the business with the demands and evolution of the cannabis market and well-position the company for future profitable growth,” the release noted.
Canna Farms President and Vivo Director Dan Laflamme is stepping down from those roles, and Canna Farms co-founder Ray Laflamme is taking over as Canna Farms president.
Vivo also announced other changes to its senior leadership team.
In an August regulatory filing, Vivo management said it needed new debt or equity financing to fund the company’s operations and commitments.
The company refinanced its debt in September.
Last week, Vivo canceled a planned offering worth 5.1 million Canadian dollars ($3.9 million), citing “highly unusual trading activity.”
The company’s shares trade as VIVO on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
