‘One billion per annum’: Why Australia’s cannabis companies are listing on the ASX
Ken Charteris affectionately refers to his company’s gargantuan Southport-based refinement facility as “the Deathstar”.
But rather than blowing up Alderaan, this Deathstar is responsible for the extraction and refining of medicinal cannabis and is one of the largest facilities of its type in the southern hemisphere. The company running the plant is THC Global, one of Australia’s premier players in the medicinal cannabis production and growing space, with operations across Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Charteris is the chief executive officer of THC, and tells SmartCompany that since the company’s acquisition of the plant, business has been booming.
“[The Deathstar] has quite significant value to us as a potential for exporting cannabis globally of pharmaceutical grade. That is a bit of a game changer on a global market,” he says. THC was spun up in 2016, formed as the parent company behind medicinal cannabis startup Canndeo, and the business was formerly known as the Hydroponics Company. Charteris says it changed its name last year after opening operations globally, hence ‘THC Global’.
Though not the largest marijuana grower in Australia, THC is a top contender, though Charteris notes the industry is still emerging as legislation permitting cannabis as a controlled narcotic passed only two years ago.
“We’re just starting to see a few companies now getting a stake in the ground. We’re still an emerging industry in Australia, a long way away from what you might be used to reading about in places like Canada,” he says.
That doesn’t stop Charteris from being bullish on the future of the medicinal cannabis space Down Under though, saying there’s a quarter of a million forecasted patients in Australia and THC is focused on building out the right infrastructure to keep up with the eventual demand.
That demand is already manifesting itself in the nascent industry, with doctors, growers and pharmaceutical companies struggling to keep ahead of demand as more and more patients look to cannabis as a solution.
Charteris says the growth is hindered somewhat by Australia operating under a pharmaceutical cannabis model, meaning customers can’t just “go to the pot doctor” like they do in countries such as the US.
“It’s a much slower build, but once we get there the numbers are pretty straightforward: $1 billion in revenue per annum. That’s pretty significant for a new industry that’s not really competing with anyone else,” he says.
“Globally, that number reaches the trillions.”
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