Emblem Provides Shareholder Update
PARIS, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Dec. 15, 2016) – Emblem Corp. (TSXV: EMC) (OTC: EMMBF) (the “Company”) is pleased to provide an update to shareholders reviewing our accomplishments to date and our plans going forward in 2017.
Welcome to the Emblem story! We feel we have built an exceptional management team to implement our unique three pronged approach to the industry. Our production division is committed to cultivating the highest quality product possible. Our healthcare division, GrowWise Health, is designed to address the challenges that patients are confronting as they attempt to access the ACMPR system. Our pharmaceutical division is pioneering the next generation of Canadian medical cannabis: medication made available in standard pharmaceutical dosage formats.
We believe that the Emblem senior management team (myself, Gordon Fox, and my partners Harvey Shapiro, Maxim Zavet, and John Stewart) are uniquely qualified to carry out this demanding business plan. Our mission is to pursue a patient-centric model with a relentless commitment to quality and a dedication to innovation.
Today, Emblem is fully licensed and actively registering patients. Our facility in Paris, ON was designed and built to produce elite quality dried flower. From inception we have been successful in raising over $42 million dollars of capital and we currently enjoy a cash position of $27 million as we expand our production capacity for medical offerings and prepare for the onset of the recreational market.
Our facility currently operates with two flowering rooms, one vegetation room, one mothering room and one propagation room, supported by trimming and drying facilities, fulfillment, administration and a 625kg vault. We will commission three new growing rooms in March and a 4th in June. We’re currently growing a total of 12 strains, with a variety of CBD and THC strains, (indica, sativa & hybrids). We have an excellent cultivation plan and a superb growing team to carry it out. Our growers are passionate and experienced. Management’s mission is to provide our growers with the ideal growing environment to produce the highest quality offerings for both the medical and anticipated recreational market.
Recent trends in the medical cannabis market are encouraging. The registered patient base for the industry appears to be growing at the extraordinary rate of about 10% per month. However, the number of physicians prescribing medical cannabis still appears to be below 5% of the total. While patient numbers may be increasing, they continue to confront difficulty accessing the system.
GrowWise is committed to meeting this challenge. GrowWise continues to expand its clinic network and we expect it to be serving a significant patient base by the end of 2017.
We continue to believe that medical cannabis in Canada will experience fundamental change in the coming years. We expect the number of authorizations filled in dried flower format to reduce materially over time and be replaced by authorizations for cannabis medication in standard pharmaceutical dosage formats. We are committed to be in the vanguard of this developing pharmaceutical field. We expect that the market for cannabinoid based pharmaceutical formulations to be significant. Emblem is committed to deploying the laboratory facilities and building the scientific team capable of developing a range of formulations to reach these markets.
We were gratified by a number of elements of the recent report of the Canadian Taskforce on Cannabis Legislation. The report confirms the strong recommendation that the current licensing and regulatory regime continue for recreational marihuana. A recommendation that attracted less attention but that is extremely important is the recommendation that the current e-commerce model be allowed to continue into the recreational regime. This will allow high quality producers such as Emblem maximum flexibility in reaching a Canada-wide market and optimizing margins.
We continue to perceive that the recreational market will evolve into a distinct “table wine” market and “fine wine” market. Emblem will be focusing on the upper echelon of the recreational market where we perceive that margins will be the most attractive. To pursue this objective Emblem will be deploying significant capital for the construction of the highest possible “closed box” horticultural environment capable of producing the highest quality product, at scale. We have plans and funding in place to build and commission capacity to 12,000 kgs annually for the arrival of recreational cannabis. We have additional longer-term plans to expand production to over 21,000 kgs annually.
We believe that we have a unique and well considered business plan. More important, we believe that we have the senior management team to drive it home.
We have enjoyed unwavering support from our shareholders for which we are eternally grateful. We thank you for being a part of our journey into the public markets, and look forward to delivering on our business plan.
Gordon H. Fox, Chair
About Emblem Cannabis
Emblem is licensed under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (the “ACMPR”) to cultivate and sell medical marihuana. Emblem carries out its principal activities producing marijuana from its facilities in Paris, Ontario pursuant to the provisions of the ACMPR and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Canada) and its regulations.
