Green Growth Brands cuts 5% of workforce to manage mounting expenses

An Ohio CBD and marijuana company has cut 5% of its total workforce to alleviate mounting expenses.

Green Growth Brands, which makes CBD topicals and other products, now has more than 900 employees at locations across the U.S. About 50 employees at the company’s Columbus headquarters were laid off, about 5% of the total staff, reported The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.

Green Growth Brands is a 1-year-old startup backed by majority shareholders the Schottenstein family. The family also owns the retail behemoth Designer Brands, parent of mass-market retailers including Abercrombie & Fitch, where the company’s CBD products are sold in malls across America.

Green Growth Brands’ decision to cut expenses and jobs comes from efforts to meet long-term growth objectives, Julia Fulton, the company’s investor and public relations manager, told the newspaper.

Last month, Green Growth Brands completed its initial equity raise through a bought deal offering for 50.2 million Canadian dollars ($37.8 million), which it planned to combine with a CA$102.7 million backstop commitment from the Schottenstein family, to complete acquisitions and fund ongoing capital expenditures.

The company reported a $15.4 million loss on revenue of $5.6 million for its quarter ending March 31.

Green Growth Brands announced last week that board member Gary Galitsky, who had been a company director since it was known as Xanthic Biopharma, resigned.

The company trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange as GGB and on U.S. over-the counter markets as GGXBF.