Canopy Growth, Quebec retail giant plan to open new London cannabis store

Canada's largest cannabis company is teaming up with Quebec retail giant Alimentation Couche-Tard to open London's second brick-and-mortar cannabis retail store at a commercial plaza on Wellington Street South north of Bradley Avenue. 

The two companies plan to open the store, along with one of the winners of Ontario's cannabis retail lottery, at 1025 Wellington Street South under Canopy Growth's Tweed brand, pending approval of its application by the Alcohol Gaming Commission of Ontario. 

The application has been filed through a numbered Ontario company, which is registered to a duplex in Toronto's Steeles Avenue and Leslie Street area. 

The location of the proposed London Tweed store would be just down the street from 879 Wellington Street South, where London-based marijuana producer Indiva had plans to open one of 10 stores in Ontario, before the rules were re-written in December by Ontario's Progressive Conservative government. 

The proposed London Tweed store comes nine days after Central Cannabis sought authorization from the AGCO for London's first cannabis retail store at a commercial plaza at 666 Wonderland Road, north of Oxford Street in the city's west end, potentially putting two of Ontario's first 25 private cannabis retail licenses in London.

This latest application for London now enters a 15-day public notice period where members of the public or the municipality can file an objection or a written submission on the proposed location. 

Canopy Growth also announced Thursday that it had acquired Storz & Bickel, a European vaporizer design and manufacturing firm based in Tuttlingen, Germany for the equivalent about $380 million Canadian dollars. 

The German company holds at least 17 filed patents. Canopy Growth said the technology will enable it to develop new products for cannabis consumption. 

Officials from the company were not available for comment Thursday.