‘Massive’ pot move into Kelowna
Trevor Nichols - Dec 04, 2017 - Biz Releases

Image: Lift News
A pot producer plans a “massive” expansion into Kelowna over the next two years.

A major cannabis producer has set up shop in Kelowna, and is promising to open a series of production facilities over the next couple of years that will bring hundreds of jobs to the city.

On Friday, the federal government granted Cannatech Plant Systems Inc. a license to grow medical marijuana.

With the first phase of its “state-of-the-art” production facility complete, the company has already started its cultivation operations.

Cannatech was originally based out of Kelowna, but is now owned by The Flowr Corporation, which is headquartered in Ontario.

The Flowr Corporation is run by president Tom Flow, who was part of the founding team at MedReleaf, one of Canada’s premier medical cannabis producers.

Tony Giorgi is the corporation’s CEO. In a Dec. 4 interview he told Okanagan Edge Cannatech’s 85,000-square-foot facility in Kelowna currently has about 40,000 square feet of cultivation capacity.

For now, the company will focus just on the medical marijuana market, but Giorgi said the long-term goal is to produce pot for the “adult use” market, once it’s legalized in Canada next year.

Giorgi said Kelowna will be Flowr’s “flagship” operation, and hinted the company plans to eventually establish a “massive presence” in the city.

“We have very, very big plans to expand our capacity in Kelowna, whereby we’ve already acquired other properties to expand at a number of new facilities over the next 12-18 months,” he said.

Giorgi pointed out that Cannatech’s current 85,000-square-foot facility is only the first of four phases. Eventually, he said, the plan is to expand into the “many hundreds of thousands of square feet” of production space.

All that space will mean work for several hundred people. In the meantime, Giorgi said the current production facility will create 40-50 jobs.

“We’re very, very excited to be a part of the Kelowna community, and essentially make the investment we have made,” he said.


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