Dive Brief:
- Jackson BevCo, a subsidiary of c-store retailer Jacksons Food Stores, has signed a letter of intent with CordovaCann, a services and investment capital provider in the cannabis industry, to build cannabis retail locations inside or beside some of Jacksons’ c-store locations, according to a Thursday press release.
- The agreement is expected to go into effect in early 2023, with the companies targeting Washington, Oregon and Arizona for the first co-located shops.
- Jacksons joins Circle K in building cannabis shops adjacent to their c-stores, as the latter has plans for up to 20 co-located cannabis shops in Canada and the U.S.
Dive Insight:
The stores will be owned by Jacksons, with Cordova taking care of regulatory processes, training and security, as well as inventory selection and procurement. Once the shops are up and running, Jacksons will pay a portion of their revenue to Cordova in royalties.
Jacksons joins Circle K, which made headlines earlier this year for its co-located cannabis shops. In November, Circle K announced it had increased the number of its stores that incorporate a Fire & Flower cannabis shop to seven, with plans to raise that to 10 across Canada by September 2023. A month prior, cannabis company Green Thumb announced that it would be co-locating 10 of its Rise Dispensaries alongside Circle K locations in Florida, starting in 2023.
Jacksons BevCo owns and operates 65 Big Smoke and Tobacco Connection convenience stores in the Western U.S. C-Store Dive was unable to immediately confirm how many cannabis shop locations plan to open under the partnership.
“Having developed and fine-tuned our retail operations in the heavily regulated Canadian markets we are excited to bring our years of experience to this opportunity,” Taz Turner, chairman and CEO of Cordova, wrote in the press release. “And this partnership gives Cordova access to a massive retail footprint in markets in which we operate without the need for capital to build out a retail network.”
The stores may also stock cannabis flower and other manufactured items from Cordova, which has a number of retail locations across Canada under a variety of banners, as well as manufacturing and cultivation facilities on the West Coast of the U.S. This is its first foray into retail in the U.S., according to Turner.
Jacksons’ parent company, Meridian, Idaho-based Jacksons Food Stores, owns 361 convenience stores under a variety of brand names, and is involved in joint ventures with around 2,000 other c-stores. Its locations are mostly concentrated in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and Idaho.
