Press Release this morning....Verde Science, Inc. Signs First Long Term Advisory Services Contract With Los Angeles County Medical Marijuana Dispensary; Unveils Additional Details About Its New Strategic Direction and Recurring Revenue Business Model
Company Contracts With Sherman Oaks Holistic Oasis to Provide Design, Engineering, Build and Financing of a New Grow Facility to Increase Product Yield, Quality and Profitability
LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 2, 2014) - Verde Science Inc. (OTCQB: VRCI) today announced that it has signed its first long-term contract with Sherman Oaks Holistic Oasis (SOHO), a legal, licensed medical marijuana dispensary located in Los Angeles County since 2006 which services more than 1,600 patients. Verde will earn an ongoing monthly management fee based on costs savings generated from its advisory services as well as a royalty on all product sales. Los Angeles County is thought to be the largest medical marijuana market in the world.
Verde will provide design, engineering, construction, financing and management services to SOHO to construct a state-of-the-art medical marijuana cultivation facility. By leveraging Verde's technical expertise, SOHO will achieve greater crop yields resulting in substantially lower costs. Final terms of the construction funding from Verde Science Financial Services will be disclosed upon signing.
As previously announced, Verde Science will introduce state-of-the-art aeroponic growing technology to the Southern California market, and the initial site will be SOHOs grow facility. Aeroponics utilizes no soil or any other growth media like hydroponics. Rather, plants grow with their roots suspended in the air and are intermittently misted with nutrient solution. The benefits of aeroponics are healthier plants, increased yields and shortened crop turns, but the single most important aspect of this technology is the consistent quality and potency of the product which is also free of molds, pesticides, and diseases.
Verde Science's newly appointed director, Luis Bobadilla, has eight years of operational experience in the legal medical marijuana business in Los Angeles. He is very influential among a sizable group of the 132 legal dispensaries in LA County. With the assistance of Verde Science, a significant number of these dispensaries will gain access the same benefits as SOHO obtains with the deal announced herein. They will have lowered costs, reliable and available products, operational assistance and most importantly access to capital. Currently these businesses have little or no access to capital with which to expand and operate. The availability of capital combined with the huge technical advantage that Verde Science brings to the market assures that dispensaries who team up with Verde will come to dominate in their local market.
Verde Science's CEO, Harp Sangha, commented, "We are excited to announce our contract with SOHO and look forward to working with them to increase profitability, output, and quality. This is the first of what we expect to be several long-term agreements that we will sign with dispensaries in Los Angeles Country. We see an outstanding opportunity to enter this market, establish our best practices and then move into other legal jurisdictions as well."
Director, Luis Bobadilla, stated, "Verde Science Financial Services will be a crucial asset to Verde's partners because they will provide funding to businesses which have no other access to the capital markets. The funds will allow dispensaries to procure essential real estate, equipment, and operating capital, and facilitate accelerated customer acquisition. Verde will secure and service the financing with a royalty stream from product sales. Risk is mitigated as facilities will be designed and built to service existing patient demand supported by an existing revenue stream. Verde will leverage its proprietary commercial aeroponic technology to deliver 20% to 40% cost savings over current wholesale market prices along with increases in annual crop turns between 20% and 60%. Finally, access to our proprietary, highest quality marijuana genetic strains will provide dispensaries with the most requested varieties, which naturally command a price premium in the world's largest medical marijuana market. Also we cultivate pre-vegetated plants to maximize yield per square foot in the customer's flowering facility. The cost savings and technology which Verde is bringing to the market will by necessity be adopted by a large percentage of LA County dispensaries."
Verde Science will soon launch a research division that will develop marijuana strains specifically targeted towards certain diseases. In conjunction the research division will create medicinal products, pills, tablets, salves, etc. which will be clinically tested on various conditions and ailments for which THC and cannabinoids appearing promising. This will involve various formulations of the drugs as well as determining the appropriate dosing of those drugs. In time this market will likely come under the jurisdiction of the FDA and/or Health Canada. Verde Science will be ready when this happens.
Mr. Sangha concluded, "We are in the process of securing non-dilutive funding to support the growth of our advisory business and will be providing more details on the specifics of the financial model as it solidifies, but Verde will be the general partner of an investment fund that will provide capital to growers to implement Verde's state of the art grow technologies. It is a model that investors and licensed operators are both very excited about. Likewise, we are very enthusiastic about our position in the market and our ability to create a sustainable, recurring revenue stream while bringing quality product and operational efficiencies to our clients' businesses."
About Verde Science
Verde Science plans to take an all-encompassing, integrated public health approach to medical marijuana with a focus on becoming the leader in providing services to legal, licensed cannabis cultivators and dispensaries and their patient community. Verde's focus, in collaboration with its partners, is on deploying ad advanced array of technical services to foster an integrated health care model in California and, over time, other U.S. states.
The Company provides a variety of products and services to its clients by using best practices to ensure the best quality of product, produced with focus on cost control and legal compliance. Verde Science is meticulous, measured and diligent with an absolute focus on compliance while offering growers and their patient community unsurpassed, fully integrated, holistic health care products and programs.
Verde Science is one of the initial corporate players in the medical marijuana industry providing sophistication, controls, standards and innovation. The company has and will continue to assemble a highly experienced team that will deploy state-of-the-art technology and a superior methodology to enter and take meaningful market share that can be repeated and expanded as more and more jurisdictions adopt legal use of cannabis products to
address health care issues.