January 24, 2019
4Front strengthens leadership team with seasoned grocery executive to build out Mission retail brand and to develop leading national product line
Vancouver, BC, and Phoenix, AZ, January 24, 2019 – Cannex Capital Holdings Inc. (CSE: CNNX; OTCQB: CNXXF) (“Cannex” or the “Company”), is pleased to announce the recent hiring by 4Front Holdings, LLC (“4Front”) of Glenn Backus to serve as President of Mission, 4Front’s multi-state network of branded retail operations. Mr. Backus will report directly to 4Front’s CEO, Josh Rosen.
Mr. Backus is an accomplished retail executive who brings a unique combination of operations and product development experience to Mission. He previously served as Vice President of Buying at Trader Joe’s, leading teams across national and regional categories. He also worked with category leaders to create, develop and bring to market 600 new items a year. He also previously served as Trader Joe’s Vice President of Store Operations for New York, New Jersey and Ohio.
Following his time at Trader Joe’s, Mr. Backus was appointed President of Sunflower Markets (a subsidiary of Supervalu), where he grew the company’s profitability by increasing sales, right-sizing underlying cost structures, optimizing product mix, building the brand, and increasing customer and employee engagement. Following Sunflower’s acquisition by Albertson’s, Mr. Backus served as Director of Marketing and Strategy at HEB, a Texas-based grocery chain, and then as SVP of Brand, Innovation and Retail Strategy at Topco, which at roughly $12 billion in sales is the United States’ largest retail food group purchasing organization. Mr. Backus is a faculty member at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Chicago, where he teaches MBA classes on innovation, business strategy and leadership.
“Glenn brings a unique combination of experience and capabilities to both 4Front and Mission, particularly with his formative years supporting the rapid growth of Trader Joe’s, a specialty retailer that operates in an environment that in many ways closely resembles the frequently vertically integrated cannabis retail ecosystem,” said Josh Rosen, co-founder and CEO of 4Front.
“Cannex is extremely pleased that 4Front hired Glenn to a senior position and we are looking forward to working with him more closely upon closing of the Transaction,” said Anthony Dutton, CEO of Cannex. “His experience, especially with Trader Joe’s, will be especially relevant as 4Front expands its retail platform and product portfolio into additional states and eventually nationwide.”
Mission currently operates five legal cannabis retail operations in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. In 2019, it expects to open several more stores within existing and new markets.
As described in the Company’s November 26, 2018, news release, Cannex and 4Front have signed a binding letter agreement (the “Interim Agreement”) pursuant to which 4Front has agreed to combine with Cannex in an all‐stock transaction (the “Transaction”). Subject to the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the “CSE”), the combined company will continue to trade on the CSE initially under Cannex’s existing name and the ticker symbol CNNX. The Interim Agreement will be superseded by a definitive agreement (the “Definitive Agreement”) governing the Transaction.
Closing will remain subject to Cannex shareholder approval, court approval(s), the CSE, as well as any other approvals for that are customary for a transaction of this nature. There can be no assurances that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all. Further information will also be available by way of an information circular to be prepared by Cannex and mailed to shareholders. All other relevant and publicly disclosable materials will be filed by Cannex on www.sedar.com.