Sativa Investments PLC (NEX:SATI) Chief Executive Officer Geremy Thomas caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the new name change and the reclassification as a trading company.
Q1: We see you’ve announced a number of changes including a name change to Sativa Group, could you explain for us your new strategy?
A1: So, subject to ratification at the AGM, we are indeed changing the name of the business from Sativa Investments to Sativa Group PLC, this is really to reflect the change in status of the company from an investment vehicle to an operating company.
There are benefits for us for that, we’ll be seeking EIS and VCT relief and we’ll have a broader appeal to institutions and high net worth and pension funds so that’s going to be a benefit.
We are a trading company now, the history of this was that we set up originally as a conduit for UK investors to access Canadian medicinal cannabis stocks but the market has changed and our focus has changed to becoming much more a UK centric trading company.
We have 3 trading companies within the Group, George Botanicals which is our manufacturers, wholesaler and retailer of CBD products, we have PhytoVista Laboratories which is our testing facility that acts for ourselves and the market in general, and we’re about to launch our Goodbody and Blunt retail wellness stores.
All of these trading businesses will be supplied product from ourselves and the next big change that we announced is that we’re moving to a smart sourcing policy. We had previously committed to an option on a large glasshouse in Wiltshire to grow our own rare materials but having been travelling in North America and Europe recently, it’s clear that there’s going to be a glut of raw material, in fact there’s a race to the bottom on pricing.
We’ve reacted to that by focussing our business on adding value to those raw materials which we can buy at sensible pricing in the market so that’s where we’re going to go.
So, those are the two changes that we announced, we also announced a new auditor with RSM so that’s a step forward for the company and no doubt there’ll be more announcements to follow as we flesh out our smart sourcing policy.
