Poultry company buys closed cannabis facility in Kentville

A poultry company has purchased a shuttered cannabis facility in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley in a deal valued at $6 million.

Atlantic Poultry Incorporated confirmed in an email it recently acquired the former Robinsons Cannabis cultivation facility in Kentville, N.S.

The facility was previously owned by Toronto-based Auxly Cannabis Group, which announced in February it was ending production to focus on, in part, "streamlining and simplifying its cultivation platform," and reducing costs. Robinsons Cannabis is one of Auxly's wholly-owned subsidiaries.

Atlantic Poultry spokesperson Drew Redden wrote that the company plans to turn the property into a "state-of-the-art chick hatchery."

"The new facility will increase API's hatching capacity by roughly 30 per centand will also allow API to make further investments in technology and equipment that will reduce the company's carbon footprint," Redden wrote.

Redden also said work to prepare the facility will begin immediately and the company hopes to open the hatchery by early 2023. It currently has a hatching capacity of about 27 million broiler chicks across its Atlantic Canadianlocations.

Auxly announced on Tuesday it completed the sale of the location and intends to use the cash proceeds to support its ongoing operations.

The cannabis firm began cultivating the plant at the nearly 2,600 square meter facility in Kentville in 2019 after receiving standard cultivation and processing licences from Health Canada.

Auxly said products from the facilityhit the market in Ontario and Nova Scotia in July 2020.