Green Mountain | Wade Attwood | Cannabis Cultivation Companies

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IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS WITH Top CORPORATE EXECUTIVES (727) 480-7070 info@ceocfocontact.com

Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor

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Green Mountain – vertically integrated Organic Cannabis Company with Health Canada Cultivation License and Big Producers Placing Orders

Wade Attwood

President & CEO

Green Mountain

http://gmtn.ca/

Contact:

Wade Attwood

604-833-6037

wattwood@gmtn.ca

Interview conducted by:

Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor

CEOCFO Magazine

Published – February 28, 2022

CEOCFO: Mr. Attwood, what is the overall idea behind Green Mountain?

Mr. Attwood: We are a vertically integrated cannabis company with headquarters in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia Canada. We have just received our Health Canada cultivation license. Right now, we’re getting ready to plant our first crop which will be in the dirt on March 15th of this year. We’ll be growing 100% organic.

The crops for half of our greenhouse are already sold-out for one year and the other half are sold-out for two years. We have found a niche in the market with some of the bigger producers placing orders with us to fulfill their on-shelf needs. They have the packaging, the shelf space and the dispensaries but they are going to be using our product. As I say these wholesale contracts are in place and that will put us in positive cashflow within the next 2-3 months. As we expand into phase 2 of our expansion program, we’ll be offering products to our medical patients and developing new cannabis formulations to research together with our partner - world renowned teaching hospital Sunnybrook Health and Sciences Centre which is affiliated with the University of Toronto. We’re also developing a craft product line and expect to be selling from our on-site location as soon as farmsale regulations are approved by the Government – anticipated later this year. As you can tell we’re running multiple initiatives.

CEOCFO: Is the real organic aspect in high demand?

Mr. Attwood: Yes, demand is high. We’re talking about genuine organic product and there are very few producers that are cultivating 100% organic. The big licensed producers want to add organic products to their offering which is where we come in. Right now, we’re a B2B business however we also have a wholly owned subsidiary called Greener Life Medical which is a telemedicine platform we set up in 2019. We’ve grown that business to about 500 regular patients today and we’re anticipating plenty of demand for our organic products from that community. As we transition into production and build out the next phase, we will begin to service our Greener Life Medical patients. Over time a steadily increasing percentage of our products will be sold to medical patients via our telemedicine platform.

CEOCFO: What does Green Mountain understand about growing cannabis?

Mr. Attwood: Our greenhouse is purpose built for growing cannabis and with our team of growers and doctors we consider ourselves to be extremely knowledgeable about the plant and the business. We’re a medical patient driven business so optimal health is at the root of our philosophy. Growing organic and sun-grown makes us a little bit different from everybody else. Most people are growing indoors which is expensive and if they’re not using Mother Nature they’re not obtaining the additional benefits of full spectrum sunlight.

CEOCFO: How is that different?

Mr. Attwood: We’re using good old Okanagan sunshine so there’s a significant energy cost saving there as well as limiting our eco footprint. Then there’s the ventilation aspects (high ceilings), the high-tech screens, our storage facilities as well as the overall structure of the facility which is manufactured in Canada. We’re biting the bullet on putting together a first-class facility and we’ll reap the savings over time.

CEOCFO: What are your challenges and how are you prepared?

Mr. Attwood: We have a dream team in the greenhouse. We have Jeff Thorne who is our VP of Operations, with 20 years in the business. He is intimate with the plant and with the surroundings. He has lived in the Okanogan Valley most of his life. He has put together an incredible team of people he has known and worked with for decades. We are very capable and confident when it comes to growing. In terms of challenges, we’re well aware of the pressures of commoditization and that is part of our reason for focusing on medical patients where margins and retention rates are high. We’ll expand into the medical patient world gradually while ensuring that we’re generating healthy and regular returns from our wholesale initiatives.

CEOCFO: Are people excited and do they want to be part of the team because of the organic nature?

Mr. Attwood: Our team is extremely excited. Right now, they are putting the trays in and filling them with dirt. If you follow us on Instagram, you’ll get a feel for the vibe in the greenhouse and the positive energy of a team that is working in sync. Our emphasis on organic is a bonus because its sets our product apart so that’s definitely a source of pride for our team.

CEOCFO: Could you tell us about the indigenous alliances at Green Mountain?

Mr. Attwood: Of course. This opportunity came about because of the great friendship I have with Dr. David Chartrand, who is the President of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF). The MMF is the largest indigenous group in Canada with somewhere around 500 thousand community members so we’re not talking about a couple of hundred people here! Dr Chartrand is an advocate for plant-based medicines. A disproportionate number of the MMF community suffer from diabetes, obesity, arthritis, opioid addiction, anxiety, sleep disorders, pain management issues and more. Cannabis has been shown to positively impact all of these complaints and Dr Chartrand will encourage medical cannabis to treat and possibly cure many of the ailments that his people have.

CEOCFO: How do you go from growing to shipping and what else might you need?

Mr. Attwood: This depends on what our B2B partners are looking for. Sometimes it’s whole plants, sometimes it’s trimmed flower... We’re able to prepare and deliver the product however the customer chooses. As a startup what we need more of the whole time is capital investment. We’re doing a raise of $5 million right now and the first million came in the door from an NBA All-star player!

CEOCFO: Is it easy to gain attention from potential investors, is it easy for them to recognize the difference in what you are doing?

Mr. Attwood: I think people do understand that we are different from the average curator out there. We’ve been working on our sales initiatives for years so these are programs that are already well developed. I’m talking specifically to our patient facing platform Greener Life Medical, our relationship with more than 500,000 Metis community members and the MOU for research and clinical trials that we recently signed with the MMF and Sunnybrook. I think that is why we are getting some strong interest from overseas as well as Canadian investors. The investor community can see that we’re developing with a strategy and a focused business plan. Many of our European investors have watched the cannabis markets develop in North America and can foresee a similar wave of demand coming to Europe. In time we plan to establish a grow facility in Greece, Spain or Portugal and expect our local shareholders to support that decision. Recently we’re getting investor interest from sports personalities. This is really exciting because high level athletes actually understand the benefits of cannabis products because they use them regularly for pain management, anxiety and more.

CEOCFO: Are you concerned about keeping up with demand?

Mr. Attwood: Well, that is why we are raising more capital. Our phase 2 expansion will bring on an additional 55 thousand square feet of greenhouse which we could sell-out today!

CEOCFO: Why are you working on the medical front in the telehealth and eventually building that up? Why the decision to be a soup to nuts?

Mr. Attwood: The medical cannabis market has some of the highest margins and medical patients who are properly looked after tend towards greater loyalty than recreational users who are usually more transient. We have a real strong medical background both with our panel of doctors and our consulting activities at Greener Life Medical. We’re actually sponsoring the first medical handbook for medical practitioners in Canada. It has been about two years in the making. It has been written by about fifteen different doctors and peer reviewed so there is nothing like it out there in the medical world right now. In general, doctors don’t know much about cannabis so this will provide some much-needed guidance. It will be published by Springer and it should be out in the next thirty days.

CEOCFO: What might surprise them when they take a look at the book?

Mr. Attwood: Everything – it’s going to be a journey of discovery for many of them. My own doctor has no clue about cannabis as a treatment and she is really keen to get hold of the manual once it’s out. I think there will be lots of demand among doctors – there’s just not enough reliable information about cannabis out there right now.

CEOCFO: What is the regulatory atmosphere like these days?

Mr. Attwood: The regulatory atmosphere is alive and well. There is an awful lot you have to go through just to get to where we are. It has taken about three years for us to get our license and you need to pass a lot of tests such as background security tests. Beyond this your facility has to pass a test and the people working with you also have to pass a security test. To give you a feel for the level of regulation I think we have about two hundred security cameras in our facility!

CEOCFO: What are the cameras looking for?

Mr. Attwood: For every area of the facility there are two cameras to make sure that people do not bring anything in or take anything out that they are not supposed to.

CEOCFO: What is it about the individual plants that gives them the quality you want; how do you discern what is going to grow the way you want?

Mr. Attwood: It all depends on what the buyer is looking for. In most cases the buyers will pick a particular strain and that is what we will grow for them. We are licensed to grow any strain the purchaser wants. Under our current B2B contracts the buyer puts down 50% of the value of the order at the time of planting and the balance within 30 days of receiving the product.

CEOCFO: What are the challenges in putting together the best technology whether in accounting, record-keeping or telehealth?

Mr. Attwood: Of course, challenges exist when selecting the most appropriate and cost-effective tech solutions. I think we have just about all of it integrated into Microsoft 365 now which is a pretty robust program.

CEOCFO: What is the range of participation for Greener Life Medical; is that nationwide or province by province?

Mr. Attwood: Greener Life Medical is a nationwide initiative. We’re growing in the Okanagan, BC but the core of our Greener Life Medical team is based out of Toronto. In terms of servicing our patients with our own products we have purposely not pressed too hard but once we’ve harvested several crops and phase 2 is up and running, we’ll be able to start looking after our medical patients direct with strain specific organic products.

CEOCFO: What surprised you so far in the process of getting up and running at Green Mountain?

Mr. Attwood: I think maybe the process of getting through the endless security checks and finally getting licensed. It was a bit surprising how slow Health Canada moves.

CEOCFO: With so many companies to look at in your industry why does Green Mountain stand apart?

Mr. Attwood: Our indigenous alliance with the MMF cannot be overstated due to the sheer number of individuals in that community suffering from complaints that cannabis can effectively treat. The fact that we have our own telemedicine platform which has been operating for 3 years plus and now includes a sizeable repeat client base is another important differentiator. Our location is also a huge factor. British Columbia is where the BC bud cannabis craze started many years ago. There is an awful lot of demand for product grown where we are growing it. And then there’s our facility which is very special. While we have great access to essential transport infrastructure we’re also in deep nature. It’s a pristine zone of British Columbia. We’ll be using pure spring water from our on-site aquifer to water the plants; they’ll be bathed in full spectrum sunlight when the sun is shining and Phillips’ most advanced cannabis-purposed LEDs when it’s in short supply.

CEOCFO: What affect, if any, did COVID have on your plans?

Mr. Attwood: It definitely made raising capital a lot tougher. The market for cannabis stocks was not strong then and COVID didn’t help. We’ve had to work extra hard to get to where we are now.

CEOCFO: What if anything might someone miss when they first take a look at Green Mountain?

Mr. Attwood: They just might miss that we are indigenously aligned and 100% organic. There are very few companies in the cannabis space that can lay claim to either.

Green Mountain | Wade Attwood | Cannabis Cultivation Companies | Medical Cannabis Companies Canada | Green Mountain – vertically integrated Organic Cannabis Company with Health Canada Cultivation License and Big Producers Placing Orders | CEO Interviews 2022 | Cannabis Companies | Medical Company | Global Companies | Canadian Company | Canadian Cannabis Companies | Cannabis, Cannabis Industry, Cannabis Business, Finance, Business, Health, Economy, Organic, Medicine, Medical Service, Agriculture, Green Mountain Press Releases, News

“We are a vertically integrated cannabis company with headquarters in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia Canada. We have just received our Health Canada cultivation license. Right now we’re getting ready to plant our first crop which will be in the dirt on March 15th of this year. We’ll be growing 100% organic.” Wade Attwood

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“The crops for half of our greenhouse are already sold-out for one year and the other half are sold-out for two years. We have found a niche in the market with some of the bigger producers placing orders with us to fulfill their on-shelf needs. They have the packaging, the shelf space and the dispensaries but they are going to be using our product. As I say these wholesale contracts are in place and that will put us in positive cashflow within the next 2-3 months. As we expand into phase 2 of our expansion program, we’ll be offering products to our medical patients and developing new cannabis formulations to research together with our partner - world renowned teaching hospital Sunnybrook Health and Sciences Centre which is affiliated with the University of Toronto. We’re also developing a craft product line and expect to be selling from our on-site location as soon as farmsale regulations are approved by the Government – anticipated later this year. As you can tell we’re running multiple initiatives.”

Wade Attwood