TIMMINS — When a legal cannabis store opens its doors locally, it will be under the Hobo Cannabis Company brand.
Timmins' first cannabis shop is one of three new retail locations in Ontario for the Vancouver-based company.
Harrison Stoker, VP Brand at Donnelly Group, said they're excited to get into the community.
“I’d say there’s going to be a very positive economic impact on the store opening up in Timmins," he said.
In August, the AGCO held its second cannabis retail store lottery.
The Timmins store at the top of that list, CC Alliance, withdrew its application, and the next eligible applicant was disqualified.
The store now submitting an application to the AGCO is a numbered company — 2708227 Ontario Inc. The original site for it was listed on River Park Road, but it has been changed to 993 Riverside Dr., which is the old Soucie Salo store near Pizza Hut.
Stoker explained Hobo Cannabis has a brand license and service agreement with the company who will be operating it.
He expects it will open early this year, saying if it's not open by March "something's gone wrong."
“I can’t give you a specific date right now because we still need to get past some regulatory hurdles and some permitting hurdles, but I can promise you that we’ll go faster than most,” he said.
The new store will create 24 to 36 jobs locally. Stoker said the positions will be for sales, fullfillment associates and management.
Once there's more clarity on the schedule, he said there will be a hiring fair.
“Our people are amazing and we’re pretty excited about attracting some great people in Timmins and putting them into that store,” he said.
Earlier this year, Hobo Cannabis opened its first Ontario retail store in Ottawa.
According to the company, that store is now one of the top-performing retail stores in Ontario. In its first six month, it surpassed 230,000 transactions and $9.7 million in net sales.
"That gave us some credibility and then in the meantime...we’ve opened four more locations over here on the west coast and we’ve got some other operations," Stoker said, explaining they have years of experience in public houses, cocktail clubs and barbershops.
"We’re operators through-and-through, it’s in our DNA and I think that brought a lot to the table in conversations with these folks who came out on top with the lottery allocation kind of pursuing a partnership that’s going to help them operate really efficiently, profitably."
While Hobo Cannabis isn't tied to any licensed producers, he said they have great relationships with companies. He said the Timmins store will be well-stocked and curated to support the local trends.
To get a feel for what the Timmins store could like, you can check out Hobo.ca.
