Tucked away in a hidden corner of Winnipeg, there’s a secret 80,000 square foot medical marijuana facility.
Delta 9 Bio-Tech is Manitoba’s first Health Canada regulated licensed cannabis production and distribution facility.
The marijuana facility was founded by 27-year-old John Arbuthnot during a simple university business school project.
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“18 or 19-years-old, you can imagine approaching your father with a pot business. It was perhaps not well received initially, but he did warm up to the idea,” Arbuthnot said.
Eventually his father warmed up enough to the idea that he started working at Delta 9 Bio-Tech.
Arbuthnot’s school project in 2009 then turned in to a licensed facility in December 2013, with sales kicking off since 2014.
While there are only 15 storage pods built to house the cannabis plants as they go through their stages of growth, construction is underway and Arbuthnot said he hopes to bring that number up to at least 600 pods by 2019.
“Each container costs us about $40,000. It will output approximately 32 kilos per year. Now, 32 kilos at ten dollars a gram is $320,000 per year,” Arbuthnot said.
Currently, Delta 9 houses 3,000 plants at any given time and produces at least 1,000 kilos of marijuana a year.
With the July 1, 2018 legalization date in Canada just around the corner, Arbuthnot promises that not only is much more pot on the way, but also a lot more jobs.
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Arbuthnot intends to take part in the recreational marijuana scene and plans to continue growing his facility in to the additional 55,000 square foot warehouse he’s also bought next door to his currently facility.