“The market is still growing, I think that’s the important factor here,” said David Lobo, president and chief executive officer of the Ontario Cannabis Store, in an interview with BNN Bloomberg.
Ontario residents purchased more than $1.8 billion worth of legal cannabis products last year, an increase of 38 per cent from 2021, according to data released Tuesday by Statistics Canada. There are nearly 1,700 legal cannabis stores that current operate in the province, although about 110 have closed their doors permanently over the past year due to a hypercompetitive retail market that often resulted in several cannabis outlets opening within the same city block of each other.
There’s roughly 20 new licensed producers added as a provincial supplier each quarter that aims to fulfill consumer demand, Lobo said. “Ultimately, we need the partnership from both producers and retailers to develop not only competitive products but also competitive experiences,” Lobo told BNN Bloomberg in an interview.