How it started
History
Aphria was founded in 2013 by Cole Cacciavillani and John Cervini, who were Leamington greenhouse operators. Its CEO for its formative years was Vic Neufeld, formerly the CEO of Jamieson Laboratories, a Canadian vitamin company. It was originally listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange before it was uplisted to the Toronto Stock Exchange in March of 2017, and joined the S&P/TSX Composite Index in December 2017.
In 2014, Health Canada granted Aphria a license to produce and sell medical cannabis. The company's first wholesale shipments were in April 2015. Also in April 2015, the company announced it would double the size of its greenhouse space.
In January 2018, Aphria agreed to take over Broken Coast Cannabis, a Vancouver Island based cannabis producer. In March the same year, the company acquired Nuuvera, a global cannabis company, for CA$826 million. In May 2018, Aphria reached a deal with Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits to distribute Aphria's recreational cannabis products in Canada.
Aphria nominated Irwin D. Simon, previously of The Hain Celestial Group, Inc., as Chair of the Board of Directors in December 2018 and interim CEO in March 2019 after former CEO Vic Neufeld resigned.
In 2020, the company moved its listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the NASDAQ, citing cost cuts as the reason for the change.
From Wikipedia’s article on Aphria, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2