Yo, peep this – Curaleaf, one of the biggest cannabis companies out there, is dipping out of the adult-use weed game in Maine. They’re selling off their licensed dispensary in South Portland to Foliage Cannabis Co. The new owner already got that operation up and running, holding it down in the local media scene.
Mainebiz put it out there that Curaleaf and Foliage Cannabis linked up to switch ownership of the South Portland spot. They ain’t dropping details on the deal just yet, but peep this – Foliage Cannabis already got another dispensary in the same area. Curaleaf ain’t bouncing completely though, they still holding it down with medical marijuana shops in Bangor, Auburn, Wells, and Elsworth, Maine.
A rep for Curaleaf confirmed the move, saying they bounced from the adult-use game but still keeping it real in the medical marijuana scene with four stores. No plans to ditch the med side of things.
Curaleaf let it be known on March 6 when they dropped results for the fourth quarter last year. All they said was they “entered into an agreement to sell our Maine, adult-use store.” Word is they made $345 mil in revenue during that quarter, a 4% increase from before.
For the whole year, Curaleaf raked in $1.35 billion in revenue in 2023, a 6% jump from 2022. But yo, profits wasn’t looking too good – they posted a $281.1 million loss for 2023. Still, they got 145 retail spots across 17 states and about 5,600 employees worldwide.
Alexis Soucy from the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy said that Curaleaf gonna finish that sale once approval goes through for an active license. Until then, Foliage Cannabis gonna hold it down with their name and brand at that spot.
Back in the day, Scott Reed was repping Curaleaf in Maine when they made moves into the recreational market three years ago. He had big dreams for them back then. Now he’s co-owning Foliage Cannabis with his homie Scott Lever after Curaleaf trimmed down its crew in 2022. They came up with their own cash to open up them two shops and now they got mad flexibility.
The Office of Cannabis Policy dropped data showing that Maine’s adult-use weed sales were up last month to $18.01 mil, a 28.3% boost from February last year. The industry is growing overall even though some companies are falling off – 20 businesses dipped out of Maine’s recreational marijuana game in 2023.
But peep this – even with them businesses closing shop, the number of cultivation sites stayed steady while retailers went up by 27 and manufacturers went up by 13.
This ain’t new for Curaleaf though – they bounced from California, Oregon, Colorado, Michigan, and Vermont’s adult-use markets before leaving Maine too. Boris Jordan said they cutting out those “low-margin, low-growth” spots to get that money right.
“In 2023 we focused on improving efficiency metrics and dialing in operations to maximize our base,” Jordan said. “We cut redundancies and bounced from unprofitable markets.”
So yeah, Curaleaf making moves to stack that paper and keep building up their empire. But don’t sleep – there’s always more drama in the weed biz. Peep Roscommon Acres for more on what’s poppin’ off in the cannabis world.