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.
