Canopy Growth forced to lay off 200 employees because of coronavirus

COVID-19 hasn’t finished taking its toll on virtually all consumer industries

Some of Canada’s provinces are taking stronger measures to fight the coronavirus pandemic, which involves industry shutdowns in the area. Canopy Growth has had to make the decision to let go some 200 employees, who are now adding themselves to the list of the tens of thousands of workers in North America who are not receiving any income. The latest firings come after the company shut down operations in 23 of its shops located in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador in response to the social distancing recommendations. Canopy Growth Inc. promised to continue delivering products to medical marijuana patients, who can place orders via their websites.

“We’ve temporarily laid off 200 retail workers and have started re-opening some corporate-owned locations using a click and collect model and reduced hours,” Canopy Growth vice president of communications, Jordan Sinclair, told BNN Bloomberg. “As you can appreciate, the situation is changing quickly and subject to different rules in different provinces,” he added.

The cannabis industry is not facing a bright moment, and most companies are having financial struggles. Even though companies like Canopy Growth are implementing dramatic strategic changes to come out of the crisis, it might not be recovered enough to sustain all employees while the worst part of the pandemic passes. Canopy Growth CEO David Klein referred to the decision the company made in a statement, explaining, “This is a big decision but it was also an easy one to make – our retail teams are public-facing and have been serving an above-average volume of transactions in recent days.”

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, cannabis sales in North America have increased significantly. However, it is still unclear how long this boost will last since nothing like this massive global shutdown has been seen before. With increased demands for marijuana, the cannabis industry has also experienced a spike in the stock prices, but there is no guarantee for the near future. Certainly, it is not enough for cannabis companies to make business decisions relying on this market behavior.