Genetics emerging as a key focus for Canopy Growth

Seeing is believing, or at least that’s the hope as Tweed—Canopy Growth Corporation’s wholly owned subsidiary and cannabis brand—plunges itself into the genetics pool in a strategic move to bolster diversity, consistency and saleability.

 

 

It’s been an area of interest—as illustrated by Tweed’s announcement back in 2015 that it had inked an exclusive partnership with DNA Genetics and the renewal two years later—that continues to develop and take shape.

 

Delving into genetics seen as promising all around

Jordan Sinclair, Canopy Growth’s vice president of communications, discusses genetics, products and colouring outside the lines

There is a simple elegance to predictability, at least when it comes to genetics (a cannabis plant’s genotype or genetic code carries genetic information regarding growth, appearance and characteristics, and along with environment, guide growth and set the stage for physical traits).

“You can get more yield off of a plant if you can refine the genetics and that allows us to have more grams, more kilograms coming out of this place per year. That’s good for customers and good for us as a business,” Jordan Sinclair, Canopy Growth’s vice president of communications, said in late January during an interview at the Tweed Farms operation in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.

In the past, “I think that there was a limited amount of different types of cannabis that could come into the system just because of the complexity of the laws and regulations,” Sinclair says. (Health Canada information shows the number of licensed cultivators, processors and sellers of cannabis under the Cannabis Act.)

Now, however, “we’re doing a lot of research ourselves so that we can build new cannabis brands and new cannabis strains based on our own research,” he reports.

“In the next couple of years, (customers will) start to see genetics (from Canopy Growth) that they’ve never seen before, that we’ve come up with ourselves because we’ve bred things together selectively,” says Sinclair, adding the focus on genetics is expected to “really begin to drive product offerings forward.”

 

Predictability builds confidence

Members of the media tour the Tweed Farms facilities in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.

The benefits of predictability move well beyond yield; it also offers great promise as a confidence builder among cannabis consumers.

A persistent challenge for those in the cannabis industry—in Canada as elsewhere—relate to expectations: consumers may have little confidence that the experience expected is the experience that will actually be delivered.

Sinclair understands that both from business and personal experience. At one point, “I sort of stepped away from consuming cannabis because it wasn’t easy to figure out what the outcome was going to be. You couldn’t always predict what a single joint was going to give you because there was no way to verify what it was. That’s just sort of inherent in the black market,” he says.

 

 

That’s why Canopy Growth sees investing time and resources in genetics as important moving forward. “We’ve probably gone through dozens and dozens of genetic offerings that just are no longer offered” because the company has moved on to what it views as better offerings, Sinclair says.

“Because we operate here in Niagara, but then also have greenhouses in B.C. and indoor facilities dotted around the country, we get to share a lot of the things that we learn in one facility and transport them over into another one,” he notes, thereby allowing “us to learn more than you naturally could in any single year.”

 

Accept that acceptance can build slowly

Continuous learning—whether regarding genetics or product development—is key. Consider that Canopy Growth’s experience has demonstrated that introducing new products can be slow burn.

When the company launched its softgel capsules about a year back, Sinclair acknowledges “it was a slow start.” Factors contributing to the somewhat tepid response included supply constraint, but also consumer uptake.

“People didn’t know what they (capsules) were; they’d never seen them before, so it took a bit of courage to make that first purchasing decision,” he says.

Fast forward a year, and the product now makes “up fully a third of our medical sales. So it’s gone from this tiny niche product to a huge part of who we are. We think that will happen on the recreational side, too,” Sinclair says.

 

Transforming cannabis into saleable products is advanced by listening to input and taking some chances

What will make that prediction a reality? “It’s just going to take a little bit of creativity on our side to introduce these products to people, and then maybe a little bit of going outside of someone’s comfort zone to try something new.”

That adventurousness is likely needed in light of the brave new world of cannabis offerings now taking shape. After growing and selling cannabis for the first few years of Canopy Growth’s operations, “we’re getting into some exciting products: edibles, oils, drinks. Those look like a big part of our future,” Sinclair says.

“The global view that we take is that it’s time to start thinking about cannabis more like other products that can cross borders, that can have standardized regulations across various jurisdictions, so that it will allow us to build a business that is built correctly,” he offers. “We need some unification around these sorts of things; that will be a big theme for us in 2019, trying to push for that on a global stage,” Sinclair emphasizes.

Another consideration will be what Sinclair calls “the accidental patient,” those people who may have tried cannabis in past and, as they age and develop aches and pains or sleeping problems, may be open to revisiting consumption. Could “someone walking into a recreational cannabis location have a potential to become a downstream medical user?” he asks.

 

Listen, but be ready to leap

Predictable experiences, advances around genetics and openness to colouring outside the lines could all contribute to a healthy cannabis market and happy customers.

Noting the importance of listening to consumers and gleaning insights, it is also essential to remember that “innovation requires that you try new things and push the boundaries in ways that might make the consumer uncomfortable for the first little bit. You’ve got to bring them along on the journey,” Sinclair contends.

“I think people are used to progress. In today’s world, people are used to the next thing; they’re looking for how you can build upon what they’re used to today,” he suggests. With the company’s scientific know-how, experience and strong team, “we think we can set the curve in some ways, to look at consumer trends, but also to come up with our own novel approaches for things,” he adds.

 

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