Indiva Limited (NDVAF)

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Chew on this: Indiva deal brings U.S. pot gummies, 20+ jobs to London plant

A London pot producer has teamed up with the maker of Colorado’s top-selling cannabis-infused candies to bring its product to Canada.

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DALE CARRUTHERS
Updated: March 10, 2020

https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/chew-on-this-indiva-deal-brings-u-s-pot-gummies-20-jobs-to-london-plant

A London pot producer has teamed up with the maker of Colorado’s top-selling cannabis-infused candies to bring its product to Canada.

Indiva struck a deal with Wana Brands to make and distribute the Boulder, Colo.-based company’s gummies, the companies said Tuesday.

The gummies will be made at Indiva’s south London facility, creating “a few dozen” new jobs, chief executive Niel Marotta said.

“It will definitely add a nice revenue stream to the company and keep us hiring while everybody else is firing,” said Marotta, referring to recent layoffs plaguing Canada’s cannabis industry.

More than 20 employees will be hired to staff the new production line at the Hargrieve Road plant, where Indiva also makes its Bhang chocolate bars, Marotta said.

“We’re proud to make these products in London.” he said.

Marijuana-infused foods, drinks and topicals — known as Cannabis 2.0 products — hit the market in January, more than one year after Canada legalized recreational pot.

In the U.S., where 11 states have legalized recreational marijuana, gummies have surpassed chocolates as the best-selling ingestible pot product, according to BDS Analytics, an industry research and data firm.

“Unlike chocolate products, gummies don’t easily melt,” the company said in a 2019 report. “Gummies are highly portable and discrete, compared to many beverages. They also come in myriad . . . flavours.”

Under Health Canada’s rules, edibles can contain no more than 10 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component in marijuana, per package — a limit rapped by critics as too restrictive.

Wana chief executive Nancy Whiteman called Canada an “important market” and a “gateway to international expansion.”

“We’ve been searching for the past two years for the perfect Canadian partner, and we found that with Indiva,” she said in a release.

Indiva has a history of striking deals with American firms. In addition to its partnership with Bhang, a U.S. cannabis chocolate maker, Indiva also inked a licensing deal with Ruby, the maker of cannabis-infused sugar and salt.

“Hopefully, this year, we’ll see those Wana products on the shelves in Canada,” said Marotta, whose company has distribution agreements with Ontario and four other provinces.