Inner Spirit Holdings Archives - Green Market Report

Debra BorchardtMay 4, 2022
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10min06

It isn’t Mcdonald’s (NYSE: MCD), but cannabis franchising is a very real part of the industry. Using data from Cannabiz Media, Green Market Report took a look at the top franchising leaders in the overall market. We then drilled down into Canada and the U.S. to see who the leaders are in each country. All of this data is sourced from Cannabiz Intelligence.

Top 5 Franchises

The Top Five Cannabis Franchises in the U.S. and Canada by store count are as follows:

  1. Inner Spirit Holdings
  2. Dutch Love Cannabis
  3. Cookies 
  4. Uncle Sams Cannabis
  5. From the Earth Inc.

Inner Spirit Holdings has 32 stores under its franchise. The company was acquired by Sundial Growers (NASDAQ: SNDL) in 2021 for approximately $131 million. Inner Spirit is a retailer and franchisor of Spiritleaf recreational cannabis stores across Canada. The Spiritleaf network includes 86 franchised and corporate-owned locations. Spiritleaf has been recognized with a Franchisees’ Choice Designation from the Canadian Franchise Association for its award-winning support center, a MarCom Platinum Award for marketing excellence, and a Hermes Gold Award for its creative customer benefits program.

Dutch Love Cannabis is a privately-owned cannabis company with 27 stores listed as franchisees. It was rebranded from the Hobo Cannabis Company in 2020. It is a Donnelly Group Venture. The Donnelly Group has 20 years of experience in the hospitality and service industries via pubs, cocktail clubs, barbershops and more.  Harrison Stoker is listed as the Chief Growth Officer. In addition to Stoker, President of the Donnelly Group Jeff Donnelly works on the cannabis brand’s team. Reid Ogden serves as Stoker’s counterpart in operations. The team also recently brought on a CFO to drive efficiency for its finance team. Two directors of operations handle the east and west sides of the company’s business, and other leaders manage training and recruitment.

Cookies is a close third with 26 stores listed as franchisees. Parker Berling is listed as the President while Crystal Millican is the VP of Retail for Cookies. Despite Cannabiz Media including Cookies in its franchise list, the company disagrees with that description. The company said, “Cookies is not a franchise, nor do they operate under a franchise model and cannot be described as such. They are a licensed retail network whose licensees are provided with the brand standards and products needed to execute Berner’s visions for Cookies and Lemonnade.” The Cookies brand was created by rapper Berner, whose real name is Gilbert Milam Jr. He became known as a rapper with the best product and furthered that reputation by learning as much as he could about the industry. The Cookies brand is known for products like Lemonnade, Runtz, Minntz as well as the trademarked name Cookies. 

Uncle Sam’s Cannabis has 14 stores counted as franchises. In December 2021, Delta 9 Cannabis Inc. (OTC: DLTNF) announced that it has closed a transaction to buy all of Uncle Sam’s assets relating to seventeen retail cannabis stores in Alberta. The seventeen Uncle Sam stores in Alberta operate under the Uncle Sam’s Cannabis and Discounted Cannabis brands. The purchase price paid by Delta 9 Cannabis Store relating to the Uncle Sam Transaction was $12,500,000, subject to customary adjustments. $50,000 of the purchase price was satisfied by a cash deposit. The company’s website says, “We offer a supportive family and the proven processes and resources needed to operate a compliant and profitable cannabis dispensary. Our franchise opportunity eases the barrier to market entry, making cannabis entrepreneurship possible for more people! At Uncle Sam’s, we only franchise people from the neighborhood. By choosing local franchisees and only hiring locals, we make sure you will always be supporting your neighbor and your community!”

From The Earth lists 8 stores as franchises. It has licensed locations in California, Michigan, Missouri, and counting. The company says on its website, “FTE has developed a licensing model that allows you to take advantage of their business infrastructure, training fundamentals, and basic cannabis know-how and give you a much-needed partner as you traverse this complex world.” Dan Zaharoni is listed as the CEO of the company. Last week, the company announced it had added yet another three locations. A private acquisition group entered into an open-ended agreement to put the “high”-end brand, From The Earth, into travel plazas around the country. Cannabis10X Brand Ambassador, Evelyn Romero, with the support of the Cannabis10X franchise team, finalized the lucrative deal with From The Earth CEO Zaharoni and the private acquisition group just in time for 420 celebrations. From The Earth said it has fully leveraged the expertise of the Cannabis10X franchise team and is positioned to be in 15 more travel plazas by 2023. 

Top Canadian Franchises

The top Canadian franchises are:

  1. Inner Spirit Holdings
  2. Dutch Love Cannabis
  3. Uncle Sams Cannabis

Top U.S. Franchises

  1. Cookies Creative 
  2. From the Earth Inc.
  3. The Peak Dispensary (5 stores)
  4. Elev8 Cannabis (4 stores)
  5. Eufloria (3 stores)

StaffJune 17, 2020
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4min00

Inner Spirit Holdings Ltd. (OTC:INSHF) filed its interim Financial Statements and corresponding Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended March 31, 2020. The company delivered sales of $17.2 million, which was an increase of 814% from last year’s $1.9 million for the same time period. Inner Spirit reported a total net loss of $1.9 million, or $0.01 per share versus $2.0 million, or $0.01 per share, in the first quarter of 2019.

“The Company’s financial results for the first quarter show impressive year over year growth with more than $17 million recorded in system-wide retail salesfor the Spiritleaf network. We are making steady progress with our business strategy and towards achieving profitability. We continue to expand the Spiritleaf network of franchised and corporate-owned stores due to the excellent support and loyalty of our customers, investors, franchise partners, strategic partners and employees. We have built a strong platform which we will leverage in 2020 to generate future growth and opportunity with more than 30 additional store locations projected to be added by the end of the year,” said Darren Bondar, President, and CEO of Inner Spirit.

The company reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.1 million compared with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.5 million in the first quarter of 2019. The cash and cash equivalents were 3.8 million at the end of the period, which includes a short-term deposit of $1.2 million that is redeemable into cash at any time.

Inner Spirit said that six additional Spiritleaf stores have completed construction and are in the final stages of licensing in Calgary and Red Deer, Alberta and in Toronto, Ottawa, and London, Ontario. The Spiritleaf retail cannabis store network includes franchised and corporate-owned stores operating in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Spiritleaf stores are operating with enhanced customer service processes to ensure the safety of employees and customers. Spiritleaf’s Select & Collect service enables customers to pre-shop and order online prior to pick-up. Customers can also connect with their local Spiritleaf store through The Collective customer benefits program to further streamline and individualize their shopping experience.

“We are excited to continue our expansion of the Spiritleaf brand into Newfoundland and Labrador and into Ontario as well as to complete the acquisition of the Spiritleaf store in Kingston which had previously operated under a licensing agreement with one of the province’s initial lottery winners. Along with recognizing these store openings and for being the first retailer to surpass the 50-store milestone in Canada, we are pleased to announce our third contribution to the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund as a legacy partner in this important venture. With a portion of every sale invested back into our communities, it’s great to be putting roots into additional communities and to provide a premier retail cannabis experience to customers with our educated and passionate local owners and employees,” said Bondar.

The company’s key industry partners and investors include Auxly Cannabis Group Inc. (TSX.V:XLY), HEXO Corp (TSX:HEXO), Tilray, Inc. (NASDAQ:TLRY) and Prairie Merchant Corporation.


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The Green Market Report focuses on the financial news of the rapidly growing cannabis industry. Our target approach filters out the daily noise and does a deep dive into the financial, business and economic side of the cannabis industry. Our team is cultivating the industry’s critical news into one source and providing open source insights and data analysis


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