- Success of Initial Pilots Drives New Effort to Advance Retail
- Partnership Strategy in New Markets Across Canada
TORONTO, Oct. 5, 2021 /CNW/ – Fire & Flower Holdings Corp. (“Fire & Flower” or the “Company”) (TSX: FAF) (OTCQX: FFLWF), today announced that it has advanced its strategic initiative with its operational partner, Alimentation Couche-Tard (“ACT”), the parent company of Circle K stores, to open new Fire & Flower cannabis retail stores adjacent to existing Circle K stores located in new markets across Canada.
The expansion of the pilot program between the strategic partners will see new co-located retail stores open over the next several months in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The enhanced agreement also allows for the opportunity to further expand the program into additional high-value markets including Ontario and the United States.
The initial Circle K co-located store pilot program was launched in July 2020 with Alimentation Couche-Tard, which operates stores across North America and has remained a key investment partner of Fire & Flower since 2019. The first two stores, located in Calgary and Grand Prairie, Alberta utilized ACT’s existing lease footprint to build a co-located, small-scale Fire & Flower retail operation that delivers strong economies of scale for both companies due to the opportunity to incorporate Fire & Flower’s industry-leading Hifyre™ technology and analytics platform.
Alimentation Couche-Tard has been an invaluable partner to Fire & Flower as we built out Canada’s largest retail network of legal cannabis products and services over the past two years. Our success in Canada, and now as we enter into the U.S., is directly attributable to the powerful consumer data and analytics technology that we have successfully employed in each of our stores through our Hifyre™ technology platform.
Trevor Fencott, Chief Executive Officer of Fire & Flower
As we continue to build on our leadership position, we are leveraging our powerful consumer data, strategically working with our key partners to capture this data and, together, enhance our collective cannabis operations, allowing Fire & Flower to advance our ‘asset-light’ business model to further support our financial growth.
Fencott continued, “As we continue to advance our relationship with Couche-Tard, we are driving a new level of service to our extensive operational footprint in Canada and beyond. We are able to leverage the power of Hifyre to allow these small co-located stores to run efficiently. The advanced analytics we provide allows stores to operate and manage inventory at maximum efficiency.”
About Fire & Flower
Fire & Flower is a leading, technology-powered, adult-use cannabis retailer with more than 90 corporate-owned stores in its network. The Company leverages its wholly-owned technology development subsidiary, Hifyre, to continually advance its proprietary retail operations model while also providing additional independent high-margin revenue streams. Fire & Flower guides consumers through the complex world of cannabis through education-focused, best-in-class retailing while the Hifyre digital retail and analytics platform empowers retailers to optimize their connections with consumers. The Company’s leadership team combines extensive experience in the technology, cannabis and retail industries.
Through the strategic investment of Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (owner of Circle K convenience stores), the Company has set its sights on global expansion as new cannabis markets emerge and is poised to expand into the United States when permitted through its strategic licensing agreement with Fire & Flower U.S. Holdings upon the occurrence of certain changes to the cannabis regulatory regime.
Fire & Flower is a multi-banner cannabis retail operator that owns and operates the Fire & Flower, Friendly Stranger, Happy Dayz and Hotbox brands. Fire & Flower Holdings Corp. owns all issued and outstanding shares in Fire & Flower Inc. and Friendly Stranger Holdings Corp., licensed cannabis retailers that own and operate cannabis retail stores in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and the Yukon territory.
To learn more about Fire & Flower, visit www.fireandflower.com.
About Hifyre
The Hifyre Digital Retail and Analytics Platform is a proprietary ecosystem of products that includes the Spark Perks member program, Hifyre ONE retail software platform and the Hifyre IQ cannabis data and analytics platform.
The Hifyre platform also supports Fire & Flower’s advanced operations and provides a competitive advantage in providing a tailored digital experience and understanding consumer behaviours in the evolving cannabis market.
To learn more about Hifyre, visit www.hifyre.com.
