Pac Roots Cannabis Corp. (CSE: PACR) (OTCQB: PACRF) (FSE: 4XM)
Pac Roots Cannabis Corp. (CSE: PACR) (OTCQB: PACRF) (FSE: 4XM) is a Canadian cannabis company dedicated to producing premium-quality strains and products by leveraging a genetics-focused approach.
The company is focused on cannabis and hemp cultivation, leveraging high-end genetics and specialized cultivars to produce top quality products. Pac Roots has announced multiple promising initiatives in recent months since it commenced trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange on May 4, 2020. The company has a partnership with Phenome One, one of the largest live genetic libraries in Canada composed of over 350+ live cultivars, as well as a JV partnership with Rock Creek Farms and Speakeasy Cannabis Club leveraging existing infrastructure, equipment and access to land on a 100-acre hemp project. This combination has the company positioned to be cash-flow positive within its first year of trading.
Furthermore, the company recently completed an agreement to acquire all issued and outstanding shares of a firm holding 250 acres of land in the famed Fraser Valley Region of British Columbia.
Pac Roots is also in the process of completing its 20,000 square foot cultivation facility in Lake Country, British Columbia. The facility is expected to feature approximately 7,600 square feet of cultivation space that will enable the company to cycle through an elite line of 350+ unique, high-grade cultivars. Pac Roots expects to receive a cultivation license for the facility in the fourth quarter of 2020.
High-End Selectively Bred Genetics
Pac Roots focuses on high-end genetics in order to maximize the quality of its products while maintaining high yields and profit margins.
Through the process of artificial selection, farmers and cultivators have been adapting their plants to develop particular phenotypic traits for generations. Historically, this practice was restricted to underground cannabis producers developing their own strains.
The legalization of the cannabis industry has given producers access to thousands of cultivars located throughout the world while accelerating research into cannabis genetics. By carefully selecting strains, growers can control the size, color, smell, density and texture of cannabis buds, thereby creating distinctive, premium cannabis products.
Plants are bred to thrive in specific growing environments. This maximizes the yield of high-quality, resilient cannabis. Medical cannabis strains can also be tailored for specific medicinal purposes.
A strategic partnership with Phenome One, a plant breeding management and analytics firm, gives Pac Roots access to some of the world's best cannabis genetics from the largest genetic library in Canada. The company is using these genetics to develop unique strains featuring a variety of beneficial characteristics.
The company's 350+ licensed live cultivars and over 1,800 seed varieties are the result of a meticulous gene selection process, through which as many as 600 individual plants may be grown to produce a single strain. Selecting optimized genetics in this way provides benefits beyond simply producing a high-end product. In addition to potency and bud quality, cannabis plants are bred for yield and resilience. By selecting genetics that result in larger and more numerous buds on each plant, Pac Roots is able to grow more cannabis per grow light.
Breeding plants to be more resilient also reduces the cost and labor required. These factors, combined with the premium price point associated with top-quality cannabis, have the potential to improve Pac Roots' overall profit margin.
Partnership with Phenome One
Pac Roots has secured its cultivars through a strategic licensing agreement with Phenome One. Under the agreement, Pac Roots has unlimited access to Phenome One's live genetic library, including any of Phenome One's cultivars and its growing, breeding and cloning IP.
Phenome One is an agricultural technology company focused on providing software solutions to seed companies. Phenome One's platform gives its partners access to a massive database of detailed information on over 350 unique cannabis cultivars to support each stage of the breeding process. Each cultivar has been laboratory analyzed and rigorously field-tested, with data going back more than 30 years.
Using Phenome One's data, Pac Roots plans to grow a variety of cannabis plants optimized for certain traits. One such trait will be plants with an abundance of cannaflavin, a rare terpene with high anti-inflammatory properties. Phenome One's library could enable Pac Roots to produce plants that are bred to thrive in a range of different growing climates, including plants suited to grow in cold weather and plants that are resilient to region-specific fungi.
Joint Venture with Rock Creek Farms of British Columbia
Pac Roots recently entered a definitive investment agreement with Rock Creek Farms, a reputable agricultural enterprise, for a 100-acre commercial hemp operation in Rock Creek, British Columbia. The growing space is located in the highly lucrative farming area known as the 'Golden Mile' in the South Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. (http://nnw.fm/Gbf9I).
Under the agreement, the two companies have formed an outdoor premium hemp joint venture company to which Pac Roots is providing an aggregate of $450,000 in capital and Rock Creek Farms is contributing two commercial leases for 100+ acres of growing space, along with cultivation licenses, agricultural infrastructure and equipment, consulting services, intellectual property relating to hemp operations and proprietary biomass storage methods. Pac Roots holds a 60 percent interest in the project.
About 127,500 premium hemp CBD seedlings were planted across 100 acres as of early July 2020. The joint venture is planting a premium grade CBD hemp variety utilizing the rich native soil and both traditional and custom farming techniques.
"Our operational partners at Rock Creek Farms bring decades of generational farming expertise in one of Canada's pre-eminent growing regions," Pac Roots President and CEO Patrick Elliott said in a news release detailing the venture. "It will be an exciting outdoor growing season for the joint venture as we anticipate a successful harvest in the fall."
Infinite Development Possibilities at Fraser Valley Property in British Columbia
In September 2020, the company announced the closing of a share purchase agreement with 1088070 BC. LTD. ("1088") and its shareholders for the acquisition of all issued and outstanding shares of 1088 (https://nnw.fm/9gXHk). Through this agreement, Pac Roots gained ownership and control of 250 acres of land spread over nine parcels in the Fraser Valley Regional District.
The Fraser Valley Regional District is one of the most productive and intensively farmed areas of Canada, offering access to high-quality soil, favorable climate, water and a local market of 2.5 million people. Agriculture in this region yields an annual economic value of more than $3 billion.
According to Elliott, the addition of such a significant package of land is a major step for Pac Roots.
"The addition of such a substantial package of land to our portfolio is a major step for Pac Roots. We are pleased to have the opportunity to add significant acreage with an acquisitional cost base of $9,600 per acre. This land has no zoning restrictions and is not situated within the Agricultural land reserve, which provides for infinite development possibilities," Elliott added in the September 2020 news release.
Board of Directors member Chad Clelland also welcomed the acquisition, adding that between Fraser Valley and Rock Creek – both of them among the most productive agricultural regions in Canada – Pac Roots is very well positioned for production and the future development of its hemp and cannabis infrastructure.
The RAD Americas Genetic Program – Research and Development in Americas Genetic Program
Pac Roots intends to deploy a global R&D program focused on rigorously testing elite strains in various rich agricultural regions throughout the Americas, with a goal of mass selection to achieve the utmost environmental resilience while achieving notable quality and yields. From seed to software, collection data, proprietary techniques and custom nutrient formulas, Pac Roots and Phenome will provide the specific knowledge to cultivators in different climates in order to achieve optimal yields for THC, CBD, CBG and other unique cannabinoids. R&D from global testing programs situated throughout the Americas will allow the partnership to deploy and stress test a range of suitable cultivars in the world's lowest cost outdoor growing regions.
The company expects an industry shift in 2020 from the COVID-19 global pandemic. The 'new normal' will bring more focus on efficiencies and optimal yields to deliver a cost effective, high quality product to the end user. There has been much to be learnt from the inefficiencies in the cannabis industry in recent years, which have been detrimental to the credibility of the sector. Pac Roots is well positioned to enter the scene and take advantage of the deficiencies, reinforcing the notion that genetics and flawless growing techniques are paramount to success. Genetics and systems innovation may be the most overlooked components when comparing cannabis to other established agricultural crops. Pac Roots plans to invest into cannabis R&D to ensure a solid foundation is built that will be used by cannabis farmers worldwide.
Through its RAD Americas Development and Innovation, Pac Roots is focused on:
- Deploying one of the largest live genetic libraries in Canada, diversified for high yield output and unique climates
- Continued stress testing for indoor, high yield, THC and medicinal genetics
- Continued stress testing for outdoor, high yield, THC and medicinal genetics
- Exotic, genetic cloning for the luxury, high margin, cannabis flower market
- Psychoactive/medicinal ratio testing for effect and
- Unique Cannabinoid and terpene elevation and isolation.
Through its RAD Americas Field Testing System, the company is focused on:
- Global testing in different microclimates to assess genetic and complete systems for optimal yields
- Data collection, testing and optimization to prove process for commercial implementation and
- High quality yield testing for THC, CBD, CBG and other unique medicinal cannabinoids.
Lake Country Cultivation Facility near Kelowna, British Columbia
Pac Roots is in the process of completing its 20,000 square foot cultivation facility in Lake Country, British Columbia. The facility is expected to feature approximately 7,600 square feet of cultivation space that will enable the company to cycle through its line of high-grade cultivars. Pac Roots plans to submit a video evidence package of the facility build under Health Canada's Cannabis Tracking and Licensing System, and the company expects to acquire its cultivation license in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Lake Country is a municipality located just outside of Kelowna in the Okanagan region of British Columbia. For decades, the region's favorable growing climate has made it a hub for cannabis cultivation. As the Canadian legal cannabis industry ramps up, the Okanagan region is attracting attention from dozens of cannabis companies, including some of the industry's biggest names. The region's strong agricultural history has left it rich with experienced agricultural workers and an abundance of Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) property.
Management Team
Patrick Elliott, MSC, MBA, President and CEO of Pac Roots Cannabis, is also the President & CEO of Lexore Capital Corp., a private resource and cannabis investment company, as well as Phenome One Corp., a full-service cannabis farming company focused on elite strain selective breeding. Elliott brings over 15 years of corporate finance, mineral exploration and financial markets experience to the Pac Roots team. He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario in geology and holds an MSc. in mineral economics and an MBA from Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia. Elliott specializes in economic resource evaluation, financial modeling, CAPEX estimation, corporate development and finance. Combined with his technical knowledge, Elliott has a wealth of contacts in the financial sector.
Marc Geen, Founder and Strategic Operations Advisor, is a fourth-generation British Columbia farmer who has been active in the legal medical marijuana industry for more than 10 years – consulting on, complying with, and participating in the MMAR, MMPR and ACMPR programs. Prior to co-founding Speakeasy Cannabis Club Ltd., Geen spent 14 years as Head of Operations for Kettle Mountain Ginseng Ltd., one of North America's largest ginseng producers. With the experience gleaned from a long career in large scale commercial farming, Geen has been able to apply many cost-effective farming practices to the outdoor, indoor and greenhouse cultivation of cannabis. Geen is also the co-creator of a full line of cannabis extract products designed under ACMPR regulations.
Matt McGill, Director, has a strong background in both commercial and residential real estate and has played a major role in many development projects. McGill, through McGill Realty, has established a tremendous commercial and residential outfit servicing British Columbia's Fraser Valley and the lower mainland. McGill is skilled at crafting strategic financing options for corporations and has a substantial network of retail and institutional clients.
Chad Clelland, Director, has experience in the sector dating back to 2009, when he purchased Medicalmarijuana.ca, which became an information portal for thousands of patients, doctors and growers. Through this company, he and his team have helped thousands of Canadians find legal, safe medication. His team also consulted, designed and submitted dozens of applications to the government under the MMPR, ACMPR and Cannabis Act. In 2011, Clelland co-founded Greenleaf Medical Clinic, which is now recognized as a training facility by the University of British Columbia and offers preceptorships to physicians, nurse practitioners and pharmacists. He also co-founded Folium Life Science in 2013, an approved Canadian Licensed Producer. His roles in these organizations have included Chief Operating Officer, head of security, alternate master grower and alternate responsible person in charge.
Josh Bromley, Senior Cultivation Strategist, is a second-generation farmer with over two decades of experience farming, breeding, cultivating and selecting unique cultivars for the medical community. He is an expert in plant science and possesses a comprehensive knowledge of cultivars and a mastery of medicinal implementation. Bromley has developed proprietary farming systems, as well as low cost/high output nutrient systems. Through thoughtful design and engineering, he has been able to consistently show improvements in crop yields, pathogen resiliency and quality.