What Has Happened to MedMen?
Once a big player in the legal market, cannabis dispensary chain MedMen is reportedly now struggling to stay afloat.
According to numerous reports in recent weeks, MedMen has shuttered all but two of its dispensaries in California, with only their store in San Diego and one located near Los Angeles International Airport remaining open.
In further reports, a former staff member from the company reported that “the chain had a small fire sale to unload product this past week before closing down.”
The surprising news follows a string of alarming developments for the company that include the closing of MedMen’s flagship store in West Hollywood in February, shortly followed by stores in San Jose and San Francisco just this week.
The news also follows the resignation of former CEO Ellen Deutsch in January after barely seven months on the job.
MJBizDaily has reported that the company has laid off more than 100 employees since January including a corporate layoffs in the firms accounting and marketing sectors. Additionally, MedMen’s official website has been down since last week and the company has not posted on its Instagram account since January.
Back in 2019, MedMen abandoned plans for a major acquisition. Startled by tumbling cannabis stocks, the company backed out of a deal to buy Chicago-based cannabis company, PharmaCann which had operations in eight states, as reported at the time.
In what should have been a watershed moment for the cannabis industry, MedMen’s CEO at the time, Adam Bierman called it “a transformative acquisition that will create the largest U.S. cannabis company in the world’s largest cannabis market". Bierman would later step down as CEO in early 2020.
By the autumn of 2019, MedMen's position had changed dramatically, with the company citing a "steep pullback in U.S. and Canadian cannabis stocks” and an observation that "the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index, a Canadian exchange-traded fund that tracks cannabis stocks, is down 47% since March.”
Was this the beginning of the end for MedMen? if they can't survive the current legal landscape then one cannot help to wonder what could be in store for smaller chains and independent dispensaries and cultivators. Only time will tell.
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Liz Filmer
