After speculation of a new warehouse in August, the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) has revealed plans for a brand new, bigger, better warehouse.
At the moment, the OCS warehouse resides in Oakville. The OCS has said that the facility, which is a collaboration with private company Domain Logistics, was selected by the previous government to fit the original model of what they thought the cannabis industry was going to be: completely government-run with approximately 150 government-owned stores. The current facility is only equipped to handle around 150 stores, and now that the model has changed to include private retailers and the store count is at 170 and climbing, the OCS needs room to grow.
“As of this week, we are meeting the 170 outlet mark and we needed a facility that was purpose-built for this type of model,” says Daffyd Roderick, Senior Director of Communications and Social Responsibility at the OCS. “It should be able to service over 500 stores. We have over 75 licensed producers delivering to our warehouse, we are looking to introduce craft cannabis, and retailers want to introduce house brands. This facility will have the size and technological capability to manage that.”
The new facility, still with Domain Logistics, was moved to Guelph and constructed during the peak of the pandemic, which added a few wrinkles, according to Roderick. The new facility is said to create around 200 jobs in Guelph.
He says they’ve started receiving products at the facility already and should start delivering out of it by the end of the month. The OCS and Domain Logistics hope to host a grand opening in October.