Zenabis approved for production of cannabis oil products

STELLARTON – Zenabis has been approved to produce cannabis oil products in Stellarton.

The announcement of the latest license from Health Canada is a good sign, says company CEO Andrew Grieve.

“It’s confirmation we’re on track. We’re executing on the plan that we had put together.”

For the company that means locations in Atholville, N.B. and Stellarton are now able to begin the production and sale of cannabis oil products.

With the approval, the company will be able to deliver on the jobs which have been promised since first coming to Pictou County, said Grieve.

“I don’t know the exact timeline over 2019, but somewhere north of 200 (jobs) by the end of 2019,” he said in a phone interview.

Processing cannabis oil from plants and the production and manufacturing of both medicinal and recreational products will be coordinated between both Atlantic facilities. After plants are cultivated they are trimmed and harvested for the dry bud which is then sold, rolled and smoked.

Extracting CBD and THC oils from what gets left over is a different role within the process, which then leads to the production and manufacturing of the products that Zenabis brings to market.

According to Grieve, this process will be coordinated between both Atholville and Stellarton, and so the company will be “trying to find the optimal mix between processing and manufacturing between the two facilities.”

Currently there are around 20 people working at the Stellarton location.

“Once we get ramping up at a facility, it goes incredibly quickly,” said Grieve. “I think people were skeptical when we told them the pace of hiring, but Atholville has seen it.”

Grieve says that there are currently 270 people working at the Atholville site, which is 170 more than at the beginning of December 2018.

Right now, the company is using one-third of its 255,000-square-foot site at 114 Acadia Ave., and once production and manufacturing of oil products starts they’ll still be operating within that current build-out.

It seems then that there’s still room to grow.

All positions the company is currently hiring for at the Stellarton location can be viewed on the company’s website.