CAN (ON): Canopy Growth to close 5 sites, lay off 220 people

Less than two weeks ago, the cannabis giant Aurora once again announced staff layoffs and the closing of one of its facilities. Now, the other cannabis giant too, Canopy Growth, has announced another round of layoffs and the cease of operations at a number of sites.   

“As part of the end-to-end review of our operations that we outlined during our second-quarter earnings call, we have made the decision to close a number of our production facilities," said David Klein, CEO of Canopy Growth. Therefore, the company will cease operations at St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador; Fredericton, New Brunswick; Edmonton, Alberta; Bowmanville, Ontario; as well as its outdoor cannabis grow operations in Saskatchewan. Approximately 220 employees have been impacted as a result of these closures. 

"These actions will be an important step towards achieving our targeted $150-$200MM of cost savings and accelerating our path to profitability. We are confident that our remaining sites will be able to produce the quantity and quality of cannabis required to meet current and future demand,” David continued. “This was a difficult decision but I believe it is the right one. I want to thank all of the employees impacted by this decision for their efforts in helping build Canopy Growth.”

The production sites impacted represent approximately 17% of the Company’s enclosed Canadian footprint and 100% of its Canadian outdoor production footprint.