Olds Soft Gels plans to launch an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange in March, 2021, thereby enabling people to buy shares in the company.
Su Kania, the company's new chief executive officer (CEO) made that announcement during the Olds Is Open For Business town Hall breakfast meeting, held Aug. 21 in the Olds Legion. She is originally from New York where she worked on hedge funds, mergers and acquisitions.
That follows Sundial Growers Inc. which produces cannabis in a giant Olds facility. It launched an IPO on July 23.
Kania told the Albertan the purpose of that IPO is to help finance expansion and redevelopment of the company's facilities in the southeast industrial park.
"This will be my fifth IPO, so the company is in good hands," she during a speech to the audience. "I have done pharmaceutical to raw material to any type of hedging so far and this has actually been one of the best stories."
Olds Soft Gels (OSG) currently makes a wide range of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products. (Nutraceuticals are foods or food additives said to offer health benefits). The company has applied for a licence to produce products containing cannabis as well.
"We are working on five different pharmaceutical developments within our research and development team. Four of them are with cannabis and one of them is not with cannabis."
"For us to be the pharmaceutical company that we need to be, we need the funding to be there," she said during an interview.
"We're building the research and development lab within our facility, but soon it will need to be separated out and be a research and development centre alone, then the processing centre alone, then the cannabis section alone.
"We need to make sure that we have enough funding and we have the sustainable growth of finances for us to continue on. So that will be the reason for the IPO," she added.
OSG has applied for a cannabis processing licence. Kania said once it gets its that licence, the company plans to make soft gels with cannabis in them.
She said the company is working in conjunction with the University of Calgary to undertake clinical studies on what the cannabis gels could do for migraine headaches, PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), and other health care issues.
Currently the company has 82 employees. They're looking for more now — everyone from executives to production workers. Kania says in a year or two they'll likely have more than 100 employees. She said the company has hired people from around the world but their goal is to primarily hire local people.
She says age is no issue.
"Everybody has something they are able to contribute," Kania said. "Age is not a determining factor. It's the motivation, the passion. "It's the drive that is going to get you where you need to be, it's not the education or what you've learned in the classroom.
"I'm an Ivy league brat. I one hundred per cent know that education is important. But in the end, if you have the education but you don't have the passion and the drive, you're not going to go anywhere anyway."
She said OSG is working with the Town of Olds and a public relations firm on a story line to be communicated when the IPO is launched.
"So the story for Olds when we go IPO is going to be that we are a very humble family company that will be on the New York Stock Exchange," she said.
"This will be the ultimate small town making it big story. "It's driven by culture, it's driven by people and it's driven by support."
Kania urged audience members to come and tour the OSG plant.
She said the company is telling its story on social media such as Instagram and Twitter — "all the bells and whistles of the new generation. So it's very exciting; we're building it."
