Serial entrepreneur Chris Jones, Founder and President of CANNABIS XPRESS, a leading chain of cannabis retail stores started in Ontario, is back on the podcast to tell us his adventure of expanding his successful store concept to small-town New Brunswick, one of the most innovative markets in Canada.
Serial entrepreneur Chris Jones, Founder and President of CANNABIS XPRESS, a leading chain of cannabis retail stores started in Ontario, is back on the podcast to tell us his adventure of expanding his successful store concept to small-town New Brunswick, one of the most innovative markets in Canada.
About Chris
Chris Jones is an entrepreneur and cannabis industry executive. He is currently Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CANNABIS XPRESS, which is a leading chain of 17 profitable cannabis retail stores across Canada; with 14 in Ontario, and 3 in New Brunswick. He was the first to open a private retail store in New Brunswick, and is also the largest private retailer in the province by revenue and number of stores.
Previous to that, he founded another cannabis retail company in Ontario and sold after it hit a run rate of approximately $15 million via an all-cash sale to a public company. Before entering the retail industry, he was actively involved in and led multiple acquisitions and investments ranging from several million to over a billion dollars during his time at a publicly traded company called Origin House (OH) which was later acquired by a top US-based multi state operator - Cresco Labs (CL).
Chris has also developed and taught classes at George Brown College through their school of continuing education. One of them more recently was called Cannabis Business Strategy, which includes a lineup of coveted guest speakers such as Bruce Linton (Founder of Canopy Growth Corporation – which was previously the largest cannabis company in the world by market capitalization). He also teaches other courses in management and business.
Before that, he built his finance and business development experience at two global construction companies based in Canada: EllisDon and Aecon. Additionally, he led business development and negotiations for a boutique trial-focused law firm in Toronto.
He obtained his Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, and a Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) from Ted Rogers School of Management.
Outside of work, Chris spends his time travelling, learning Spanish, walking his dog, enjoying the outdoors, exercising and is undefeated in Muay Thai.
You can reach Chris at christopher.lloyd.jones1@gmail.com