MJBizMag January 2023 - 12

FIVE QUESTIONS with Matt Darin
The Upside of Uplisting
Curaleaf CEO shares expectations for stock exchanges, cannabis research
and emerging marijuana markets
By Kate Robertson
U
.S. cannabis multistate
operator Curaleaf Holdings
is in talks with the Nasdaq
and Toronto Stock Exchange about
the possibility of uplisting from
the smaller Canadian Securities
Exchange to gain access to big
institutional investors and more
liquidity.
Matt Darin replaced Joe
Bayern as CEO of the Wakefield,
Massachusetts-based company
in May, after serving as Curaleaf's
president since January 2022.
Since becoming CEO, Darin-the
founder of Chicago-based
Grassroots Cannabis, which Curaleaf
acquired in 2020-has had to
oversee recent layoffs.
" In the current environment with
inflationary pressures, increased
competition and slowing growth,
it's incumbent on us to be more
efficient, " Darin told MJBizDaily via
email. " These changes are never
easy, but they are a necessary
action in order to support our
long-term success and remain
competitive-for our team, our
customers and our shareholders. "
During a November interview
with MJBizDaily at MJBizCon in Las
Vegas, Darin discussed Curaleaf's
interest in uplisting to a larger
stock exchange and New York's
forthcoming adult-use market.
What experience or
perspectives from Grassroots
are you bringing to Curaleaf?
I think focus on the cannabis
consumer and what they want:
12 January 2023 | MJBizMagazine
products and brands, innovation
and service experience in the stores.
I'm really trying, as we get bigger
and have all these different states
and functions, to keep more of
an entrepreneurial mindset of
wearing different hats and making
sure there aren't silos across the
organization.
Curaleaf had a successful strategy.
Grassroots had a different
strategy that was successful in a
different way.
So, we're blending them together
and finding the hybrid of the best
elements of both.
Science, innovation and R&D are
really a core part of Curaleaf coming
out of the medical world, so that's
been a focus.
What research and development
is Curaleaf doing?
We are focused on some of the
trends like solventless extraction
and that whole world of the rosins
and the liquid diamonds and that
next, new version of distillate.
Vapes are the second-biggest
category after flower, so I think
that's a really big focus-that next
phase of the vapor industry and
how you get the right mixture of
flavor, potency and effect.
Beverages are a fraction of the
market today at 1% of the market.
But I think as cannabis is distributed
more broadly, it's going to be a
bigger category.
On Curaleaf's latest earnings
call, you mentioned possibly
uplisting to a larger exchange.
Can you share more?
Hopefully (the SAFE Banking Act)
passes in the lame-duck (Congress).
And, if that occurs, the U.S.
exchanges potentially are going to
be available, depending on what
the language of that law actually
says. So, we have been proactively
speaking to Nasdaq about that
opportunity.
That Nasdaq lists non-planttouching
companies that derive all
the revenue from plant-touching
companies or international
companies that are not even U.S.based
feels a little backward.
But to list U.S. plant-touching
companies, they need federal
legislation to permit them to do that.
We've been talking to the (Toronto
Stock Exchange) as well. I think
there's a path potentially to uplist
to the TSX, which would be an
improvement in liquidity and availability
of at least some institutional
investors to purchase our stock.
We're having all of those conversations
and, ultimately, we want
to figure out the best opportunity
MJBizMag January 2023

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