HEXO lays off 200 employees as it vies to reach "profitability"

Oct 24 2019, 10:01 pm

HEXO Corp., a Quebec-based licensed producer of Canadian recreational cannabis, announced today that it is laying off hundreds of employees in a bid to turn a profit.

After announcing last week that they would be lowering the latest financial projections, causing a 26% fall in stock price, HEXO revealed on Thursday that they would be laying off 200 hundred employees. Among the cuts are some executive positions, including Chief Manufacturing Officer Arno Groll and Chief Marketing Officer Nick Davies.

“The delay in retail store openings in our major markets has meant that the access to a majority of the target customers has been limited,” the company said in a press release. “Additionally, regulatory uncertainty across the pan-Canadian system and jurisdictional decisions to limit the availability and types of cannabis-derivative products have contributed to an increased level of unpredictability.”

The company believes that the reduction of its workforce will help it move towards “profitability and long-term stability.”

According to a report in the Hamilton Spector, 100 of those employees are from a facility in Beamsville, Ontario, that will be closing as the company reduces its 822 national employee count to slightly over 600.

“This has been my hardest day at HEXO Corp,” said Sebastien St-Louis, CEO and co-founder of HEXO in a release. “While it is extremely difficult to say goodbye to trusted colleagues, I am confident that we have made sound decisions to ensure the long-term viability of HEXO Corp. The actions taken this week are about rightsizing the organization to the revenue we expect to achieve in 2020.”

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