A company specializing in recreational and medical cannabis aims to hire 1,500 people for its plant in Cobourg, Ont., in two years.
On Friday, FSD Pharma celebrated its awarding of its sales licence by Health Canada last week. The plant is based on William Street at the former Kraft Foods plant.
The company says the site could become one of the world’s largest marijuana-producing facilities after it spent several years retrofitting the near 4-million-square-foot plant that sits on 70 acres of land, 40 of which is still available for future development.
“We are thrilled about the local support for our company as we achieve this great milestone,” stated Zeeshan Saeed, company president and co-founder.
“The sales licence is the last step in our official entrance to the national cannabis market. This allows us to accelerate investment in production, add jobs, and contribute to the local economy in a meaningful and responsible way.”
The promise of 1,500 jobs comes if the company can obtain all the necessary licences. The company secured its cultivation licence in October 2017 and processing licence in February 2019. Its wholly owned subsidiary, FV Pharma Inc., secured the sales licence on April 18, which Saeed says will allow the company to serve the medicinal-use market in Canada.
Saeed says most of the jobs will be sourced from the area’s employment pool.
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“We are committed to Cobourg and the surrounding region,” he said. “We are confident we can find the employees we need from the local talent pool.”
Kraft vacated the building in 2008 and in 2016 FSD Pharma purchased the buildings. Once at full capacity, the plant will cultivate, process and produce more than 400,000 kg of cannabis per year.
“It is always exciting when an investment of this scale comes to our community,” stated Kim Rudd, MP for Northumberland-Peterborough South. “We know the hard work and diligence that FSD Pharma went through to get to this point, and I’m confident they will be an exemplary corporate citizen for this region for years to come.”
Cobourg mayor John Henderson says he’s thrilled for FSD and the community.
“Today, the Town of Cobourg celebrates this great milestone with the company, and we look forward to being a partner in its continued growth,” he stated.
FSD Pharma will specialize in providing recreational and medical dried cannabis, capsules and other forms of cannabis as the federal government makes more forms of the product legal for sale and consumption.
WATCH: The Future of Cannabis in the Medical Sector
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