Canada-based Flora Growth Corp., an outdoor cannabis cultivator and manufacturer of cannabis-derived brands, chose Miami for its new corporate headquarters.
The publicly traded company (Nasdaq: FLGC) has already secured an office space in Miami's Brickell neighborhood, a representative told the Business Journal. Flora Growth currently has five employees in the area and expects to relocate its full headquarters operations by early 2022. It will maintain an administrative office in Toronto after the move.
CEO Luis Merchan said Flora Growth considered eight cities for its main office, with a focus on business friendly locations that boasted strong talent pools and growth opportunities for cannabis businesses.
"Ultimately, our due diligence process ended with us selecting Miami as our preferred city to establish our roots," he said.
Flora Growth, which cultivates and processes medicinal-grade cannabis oil and other cannabis-derived brands, has its agricultural and processing operations based in Colombia, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. It had 162 full-time employees as of Dec. 31.
The company currently sells its products in the U.S. and Colombia, but plans to expand to other Latin American markets.
"We intend to serve the domestic Colombian market and certain countries in Latin America that have legalized medicinal cannabis and allow for the importation of CBD-based products," the documents said.
Many countries in the region – including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru – permit the medicinal use of cannabis. Uruguay is the only country in South America where the recreational use of marijuana is legal.
Flora Growth, incorporated in 2019, reports it began to generate revenue from some of its acquired brands last August. The company went public earlier this year with the goal of raising funds to plant, grow and harvest cannabis at a commercial scale.
While the company aims to become a CBD producer, it reports it will not have the infrastructure to actually extract CBD oil in significant amounts until it constructs a new research technology and processing center.
Flora Growth reported $14.3 million in losses in 2020.
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