Langley’s newest big cannabis producer is buying more greenhouses in Aldergrove – so the company can keep producing the bedding plants and vegetables that made its name in the first place.
Zenabis, which includes Langley’s Bevo Farms as a subsidiary, bought greenhouse firm Topgro for $12 million, with the sale officially concluding in January.
That means Bevo will take possession of a 50 acre site in Aldergrove with 10.4 acres of greenhouses already in place.
“We’re in the process of converting the area to suit our needs,” said Leo Benne, chief growing officer with Zenabis.
Langley’s Bevo merged with Zenabis last year to form a major new powerhouse in the field of legal cannabis production.
The firm has contracts to supply marijuana to a number of provinces for their post-legalization government cannabis stores, including B.C., Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
While a number of jurisdictions across Canada are actually facing a legal pot shortage, operations like Zenabis are working to start production.
READ MORE: Langley greenhouse announces move into marijuana growing
A pair of sites on the East Coast are coming along, Benne said, but the big one will eventually be Zenabis’s Langley operation.
If government approvals go through, the company expects to start phase one, a three-acre site, by June in Langley.
“And rapidly increase after that,” Benne said.
Zenabis already has 48 acres of greenhouses in Langley.
The company is still propagating bedding plants and vegetables there, but will need other facilities as it transitions into cannabis.
The cannabis industry is also expected to bring quite a few jobs to Langley.
“We expect to ramp up to about 2,500 people,” Benne said. That includes two operations on the east coast, but the majority will be here in B.C.
Most of the employment will be year-round.
“The cannabis side will not be seasonal,” Benne said.