One of the world’s top cannabis companies is changing gears.
After years of striking deals in unproven markets around the world, the new CEO of Smiths Falls, Ontario-based Canopy Growth is refocusing the company.
“For a long time Canopy has prioritized doing things first, but going forward we’ll be focused on doing things the best in the markets and in the product formats that show the greatest promise,” CEO David Klein said in a statement to Marijuana Business Daily.
As part of a new approach, Canopy restructured several departments this week, resulting in the termination of 200 positions in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The decision, announced internally on Wednesday, is part of a business review initiated in February – about a month after Klein took the reins at Canopy.
The terminated positions follow Canopy’s plan to exit cannabis cultivation projects on three continents in a major international pullback that was announced earlier this month.
Klein’s new approach appears to be consistent with comments he made in a video posted to Canopy’s YouTube channel last October, when he was speaking as CFO of Constellation Brands – Canopy’s largest investor.
“Bruce Linton was an exceptional founder. He was exceptional because, maybe better than anybody I’ve ever met, he’s a possibility thinker. So what he did at Canopy was he created a wide range of capabilities for the company under the assumption that some of them would work over time,” Klein said in the panel discussion.
“Now we think we’re at a place … it’s not just Constellation, it’s the entire board believes we’re in a position now where we have to pick through those capability sets and line up the biggest profit pools with the highest probability of success, and focus in those areas,” Klein said at the time.
Linton was among a number of cannabis CEOs and chief financial officers who were replaced in the past year after their companies raked up collective net losses exceeding CA$6 billion.
For the nine month period ending Dec. 31, 2019 – before Klein was CEO – Canopy reported a net loss of 1.8 billion Canadian dollars ($1.3 billion).
Canopy’s shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CGC and on the Toronto Stock Exchange as WEED.
