High Tide Inc. announced that it has begun selling cannabis seeds in the U.S., initially through its wholly owned subsidiaries Grasscity and Smoke Cartel, which are the two most popular e-commerce platforms for consumption accessories in the world.
“With our entry into this new and exciting complementary vertical, we continue to extend and strengthen our integrated value chain, providing our customers with a complete cannabis experience, in addition to the opportunity to further enhance our consolidated gross margin profile. This new business venture will greatly expand our U.S. customer base, which already sits at 2.4 million through our ancillary cannabis business lines and sets us up well to take advantage of federal legalization in the U.S. when it comes,” said Raj Grover, president, and CEO of High Tide. “This further diversification into the U.S. seeds market also strengthens our Canadian discount club model. This new vertical is expected to generate significantly higher gross margins than our core brick-and mortar-business, which will help us continue to offer unbeatable prices to our Cabana Club members.”
The company plans to expand seed sales to additional online retail platforms within its portfolio in 2023. This launch comes on the heels of the American Drug Enforcement Agency’s recent official determination that cannabis seeds fall under the legal definition of hemp and can therefore be sold openly in the U.S.
“Grasscity and Smoke Cartel, due to their top SEO rankings, organically built over the last 22 and eight years, respectively, generate some of the highest online traffic in the consumption accessories space, which is why it makes sense for us to leverage this strength as we launch this new vertical in the U.S. Innovation has always been a cornerstone of High Tide’s strategy, and this announcement is yet another example of how we will never stop looking for ways to enhance shareholder value while differentiating ourselves from the competition,” added Grover.
The company also announced that its Board of Directors had approved a grant of 106,635 restricted share units (“RSUs”) to directors of the company pursuant to the company’s restricted share unit plan. Each RSU entitles the holder to acquire one common share of the company upon vesting.
