Key Success Factors for Tim Hortons and Cannabis Regulations in Canada | Organizational Company Back

Identifying and discussing key success factors for Tim Hortons to remain competitive

-Identify and discuss Tim Horton’s key success factors required for Tim Hortons to remain competitive?

The Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) were enacted under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in July 2013. Before the MMPR, the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations, enacted in 2001 and repealed in 2013, allowed patients to grow their own cannabis plants or have someone grow the plants for them. The MMPR was an attempt to control the production and distribution of medical cannabis, with licensed producers (LPs) being the only companies authorized by Health Canada to cultivate and/or sell dried cannabis to patients who had prescriptions. The application process was very rigorous and, as a result, a low percentage of applicants were granted licences. As of August 1, 2016, 1,561 applications had been received, 253 had been refused, 419 were in progress, 54 had been withdrawn, and 801 were incomplete.

As of December 28, 2016, only 37 licences had been issued, with most of them in Ontario (22) and British Columbia (8). Some companies had more than one licence, which meant that they had more than one site because each licence was location-specific. Patients could legally register and buy their medical cannabis at only one LP for each prescription.A subset of the LPs also had licences to produce and/or sell fresh cannabis seeds or cuttings and cannabis oil, with some companies holding more than one licence. Twenty-two licences for producing and/or selling cannabis oil were held by only 18 companies.

The authorization to produce and sell oils and fresh plant material meant that companies could create and sell other products, such as cloned strains (clones) of cannabis (i.e., starter plants). LPs were required to keep detailed records of all cannabis received (including the name of the seller, the date and place of the transaction, and a full description of the product). In the Task Force report,? one of the recommendations was to implement a seed-to-sale tracking system. The oils made by LPs were better for dosing than homemade oils because the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)and/or cannabidiol (CBD) could not be clearly determined in the latter. For example, when a patient smoked a joint made from dried cannabis, it was unclear how much THC was being inhaled. However, when using cannabis oil, the dosage was measured by volume. When the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) was passed in August 2016, patients were once again allowed to grow their own cannabis plants. Some LPs started selling clones to patients.

OrganiGram was founded in 2013 in Moncton, New Brunswick. In 2014, there were only approximately 17 staff members. The company employed 70 people as of December 2016, and it was looking forward to expanding its workforce up to about 170 staff in the next year or two to staff its new and expanding facilities. The organizational structure consisted of three levels: the C-suite (i.e., chief executive officer, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and chief commercial officer), directors, and employees in various functions (e.g., garden workers and client support). Its facilities consisted of a main facility, a newly acquired building next to the main facility, and the adjoining 10-acre (4.1-hectare) property with a 136,000- square-foot (12,635-square-metre) industrial building.

The process of growing and processing cannabis started with purchasing and receiving materials such as soil and fertilizers. Cuttings taken from mother plants were started in the nursery to grow clones, which were put into pots of soil for the pre-vegetative (pre-veg) process. The process of growing plants from clones had two benefits: (1) it took less time than growing from seeds and (2) it ensured that the plants would have the same characteristics as the mother plant. The pre-veg process took several weeks, as did the vegetative process, which began when the plants were set into larger pots. Next, the plants were placed in grow rooms for the flowering stage, which took 56-72 days. After harvesting, the cannabis was trimmed, dried, cured, and packaged for mailing to patients. OrganiGram had produced and posted a YouTube video that described the growing process.²? According to Rogers, it could take over six months from starting the clones to packaging the final product. Under the ACMPR, LPs were permitted to sell cannabis products only to patients directly through mail order or to other LPs on a wholesale basis.