Pineapple Express Delivery, a cannabis delivery company operating in several provinces, closed up shop in the wake of its parent company, Fire & Flower, filing an application for creditor protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.
Businesses utilizing the service say they were given no notice of the company’s plans to close, and in the case of one province, were left searching for a replacement. An email to Pineapple Express seeking more information was not replied to. An email to Fire & Flower was returned with an auto-reply about the company filing for creditor protection.
Fire & Flower completed their acquisition of Pineapple Express in 2022, with Fire & Flower’s then-CEO saying the acquisition of Pineapple Express Delivery “marks the final step in building what we believe to be the cannabis industry’s first end-to-end consumer technology experience.” The company paid more than $11 million for the delivery service.
(note: This article has been edited to note F&F paid $11 million, not $2 million).
Pineapple Express was providing cannabis delivery services in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and British Columbia. The day after Fire & Flower announced its application for creditor protection, the BC Cannabis Store, which uses the service for deliveries in much of the Lower Mainland, announced it would no longer be offering next-day delivery for customers in the Metro Vancouver area. Instead, delivery will only be offered through Canada Post.
The announcement was made quietly the day after the provincial retailer temporarily suspended delivery for the Metro Vancouver area after experiencing delays with one of its third-party carriers.
BC had been offering next-day delivery since it announced a partnership with delivery service Pineapple Express in early 2022. The Metro Vancouver region includes Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, Delta, Port Coquitlam, New Westminster, Langley, Port Moody, Surrey and White Rock, as well as parts of Maple Ridge, North and West Vancouver, and Pitt Meadows.
Fire and Flower e-commerce and delivery capabilities utilized its subsidiary Hifyre, a cannabis technology platform, and CannDeliv, a cannabis delivery software platform. A source with Hifyre tells StratCann they are still operating while under CCA. A source close to the issue says the move by Fire and Flower came as a surprise to those at Pineapple Express, which had its operations subsequently shut down across Canada.
Fire and Flower had recently announced they were entering into a Master Licensing Agreement with Couche-Tard. Couche-Tard had, at the time, committed to developing Fire and Flower branded retail cannabis stores in Ontario. The first five Fire and Flower branded retail cannabis stores were to be opened adjacent to Circle K convenience stores in the Greater Toronto Area at locations which were previously operating as MC Cannabis Inc.
