Announcement
Sativa Investments : Goodbody & Blunt wellness centre to open in Bath
RNS Number : 8735X
Sativa Investments PLC
02 May 2019
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Press Release
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2 May 2019 |
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement via the Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
Sativa Investments PLC
("Sativa" or "the Company" or "the Group")
Sativa to open first Goodbody & Blunt wellness centre in Bath with lease signed
Sativa Investments PLC (NEX: SATI), the UK's first medicinal cannabis investment vehicle, is to open the first of its Goodbody & Blunt wellness centres in Bath and has leased a 60.67 sq. m (653 sq. ft) retail unit with frontage on to the prime, high footfall, Broad Street and Milson Place City-centre shopping destinations.
The store will offer a wide range of Cannabidiol ("CBD") products and will include a café for customers to consume CBD infused coffee, tea and water. Customers will also be able to buy CBD sport's energy shots and also specially selected CBD coffee and tea in bean form to take home and enjoy in their own environment.
The UK is fast-recognising, along with North America and much of Europe, CBD as a valuable alternative medicine and treatment. Sativa already has a well-established on-line and wholesale brand, George Botanicals, which has developed bespoke white label products for Goodbody & Blunt. The store will also stock high quality CBD products from around the world. Every item stocked by the Goodbody & Blunt stores will have passed rigorous industry-leading tests, conducted by Sativa's own PhytoVista Laboratories which analyses the quality and the levels of the CBD compound contained within products, both for its own sales and also third parties. That analysis ensures that every stock item achieves full compliance within regulatory limits.
The Bath store is the first of three pilot stores after which the Company intends to roll-out a national franchise network, because the Directors believe that this is the fastest and least capital-intensive route to a national footprint. The Company feels a direct consumer relationship is very important in order to support its future franchisees and brand development.
As announced in January 2019, the Goodbody & Blunt initiative is led by Chris Jones, a recognised retail expert whose experience includes the early deployment of the Phones 4U retail presence.
In tandem with the launch of the Goodbody & Blunt chain, the Company is working closely with the Food Standards Authority (FSA) as it deliberates how to regulate CBD products, an initiative that Sativa welcomes and is delighted to assist in.
Geremy Thomas, Chief Executive and founder, said: "Sativa was first to market as a UK-quoted medical cannabis investment vehicle and continues to lead the way with its seed to consumer strategy. Goodbody & Blunt's high-street CBD outlets will break with tradition, delivering high-end wellness centres with fully trained staff to advise on the quality and provenance of products.
"Key value drivers to Sativa's business model include brand recognition and distribution, and the Goodbody & Blunt initiative provides both, alongside the Group's other brands of George Botanicals and PhytoVista laboratories.
"Sativa is a full-spectrum Group of businesses within the medicinal cannabis and CBD industries, offering in-house validated testing alongside retail, and is progressing well with an R&D Home Office licence application that will facilitate the Company supplying Kings' College London with medicinal cannabis research product from its secure growing facility."
The Bath store is expected to open in early summer 2019.
The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.
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For further information please contact:
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Geremy Thomas Founder & Chief Executive Officer Sativa Investments PLC +44 (0) 20 7971 1255 |
Joseph Colliver Chief Financial Officer Sativa Investments PLC +44 (0) 20 7971 1255 |
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NEX Exchange Corporate Adviser Guy Miller and Lucy Williams Peterhouse Capital Limited +44 (0) 20 7469 0930 |
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Financial PR and IR Abchurch Communications Julian Bosdet
Abchurch Switchboard |
+44 (0) 20 7469 4630 |
Notes to Editors
Sativa invests in well-placed ventures within the dynamic regulatory environment of the Medicinal Cannabis sector. The Company's pan-European, end-to-end, seed-to-consumer investment strategy focuses on the production, testing and compliance, research and development, including pharmacology, commercialisation and sales and marketing of Medicinal Cannabis in jurisdictions where it is regulatorily permitted. Sativa has committed to an independent legal review prior to each investment to verify compliance with the prevailing regulatory environment.
The Company's equity interest in an investment may range from a minority position, to a controlling interest, or to 100 per cent ownership. The ventures that Sativa acquires can either be public or private.
Sativa Investments has already made six investments to date, these being Canada-based and dual-listed emerging pharmaceutical company, Veritas Pharma Inc. ("Veritas Pharma" or "Veritas"), CSE-listed Toronto-based Pharma-Tech company Rapid Dose Therapeutics Inc. ("RDT"), which owns the patent-pending proprietary QuickStrip™ technology, UK-based CBD products provider George Botanicals Ltd (of which Sativa has 100 per cent ownership), PhytoVista Laboratories (of which Sativa also has 100 per cent ownership), a UK testing laboratory meeting the need for regulatory and batch testing of products such as CBD oil, a joint venture with Germany's Lexamed GmbH, and an option on a 7.53-acre development site in Wiltshire with the potential to build a glasshouse for growing raw cannabis for medicinal and CBD use.
Sativa is also focussed on researching and developing medicinal cannabis products by funding university research grants of medicinal cannabis through its Sativa Foundation.
The Company's Board and Medicinal Cannabis Advisory Board have a combined 60 years' industry experience, with significant pharmaceutical strength and experience and extensive contacts in the industry, which includes pharmacologist Sir Alasdair Breckenridge, who liaises with the Home Office and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, which he has chaired, for the legalisation of medicinal cannabis in the UK Their extensive skills range from capital fund raisings, medical research, and start-ups, to pharmaceutical development.
For more information on Sativa Investments, please visit: www.sativainvestments.com
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