WeedMD has secured Health Canada (HC) licence for installation of new packaging lines at its Aylmer facility in Ontario, Canada.
Image: WeedMD has 26,000ft² indoor facility in Aylmer, Ontario. Photo: courtesy of WeedMD Rx Inc.
The fully-licensed facility in Aylmer, Ontario, has secured HC licence amendment to include an additional processing area equipped with semi-automated packaging lines in order to increase efficiency and boost gross margins.
Currently under final testing and calibration phase, the newly-constructed processing room and packaging lines are scheduled to be fully operational in the third quarter of 2019.
WeedMD CEO Keith Merker said: “The integration of automation into our packaging systems is a significant production milestone for WeedMD. We expect this automation to increase our speed to market and drive costs lower.
“This will ensure our finished products get to market competitively and efficiently with an expected positive impact on WeedMD’s margins beginning over the second half of this year.”
In addition to the 26,000ft² indoor facility in Aylmer, the company owns and operates a greenhouse and outdoor facility located on 158 acres in Strathroy, Ontario.
The firm is expected to have peak production capacity of more than 150,000kg per year of quality-driven greenhouse and outdoor cultivation in 2020, from its two facilities.
In March 2019, WeedMD said it has applied for an amendment to its Strathroy licence to expand beyond its existing cultivation with an initial 25-acre, large-scale, low-cost, outdoor cannabis grow operation.
The installation of the packaging line is part of an expansion plan at Aylmer, which is being carried out in phases, with phase 1 consisting of a 26,000ft² structure complete with retrofit.
WeedMD plans to expand the production facility to more than 100,000ft² in 20,000ft² increments.
Planned to be completed in two phases, the planned outdoor grow is supported by the Municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc.
WeedMD is a federally-licenced producer and distributor of medical-grade cannabis. It is the publicly-traded parent company of WeedMD Rx, a federally-licensed producer and distributor of cannabis products.
The firm currently has 136,000ft² of licensed production space across its facilities.