EDMONTON, Alberta, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alcanna Inc. (the “Company” or “Alcanna”) (TSX: CLIQ) announced today that a licensed Nova Cannabis store will open at 499 Queen Street West in Toronto on Saturday April 20, the annual day known as “4/20” in cannabis culture. The store is owned by Heather Conlon, a winner of the Ontario government’s lottery process for cannabis retail licenses and will operate under a license agreement to use the Nova Cannabis name. Alcanna will provide Ms. Conlon with operational, marketing and back of house support under a Services Agreement.



“Alcanna is excited that one of our retail brands is about to open in Ontario. Now that the government of Premier Ford has opened cannabis retail to the private sector and has announced liquor retail will also be widely open for retailers beyond the LCBO and Brewer’s Retail and a few grocery stores, Alcanna is poised to make major investments to serve Ontarians with our leading retail brands,” said James Burns, Vice-Chair and CEO of Alcanna. “We have purpose-designed Nova Queen Street to be able to handle a high volume of transactions in an efficient, accessible and customer-friendly manner. We are looking forward to demonstrating what an experienced retailer can bring to Ontarians.”

“When I won the lottery I immediately thought of Alcanna as the partner we wanted to help us in this exciting venture,” said store owner Heather Conlon. “Our family business Advance Security Systems has done business with Alcanna for many years and we know them to be top of the class operators in all aspects of their business. We had offers from many others, but we wanted to go with experience and integrity and Alcanna was the easy choice.”

The store is fully stocked and will sell a broad range of cannabis products and accessories, including a “Black Market Buster” – a 3.5 gram package at a price of $24.20, or the equivalent of $6.90 per gram, “a price we believe to be equivalent to the black-market price,” said Burns. “No one should ever have to stay with the black market strictly because of price,” he said.

With a location on Queen West backing on the famous Graffiti Alley, Nova Cannabis commissioned local graffiti artist Javid Jah to produce 6 original works that are displayed in the store. Nova’s intention is to rotate the art displays every few months to allow local artists to display their talents.

ABOUT ALCANNA INC.

Alcanna is one of the largest private sector retailers of alcohol in North America and the largest in Canada by number of stores – operating 235 locations in Alberta, British Columbia and Alaska. The Company also operates six cannabis retail stores under the “Nova Cannabis” brand, with five locations in the Province of Alberta and one in the Province of Ontario. With revenues in excess of $600 million per year, Alcanna processes over 18 million individual retail transactions of beverage alcohol and cannabis.

Alcanna's common shares and convertible subordinated debentures trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols "CLIQ" and "CLIQ.DB", respectively.

Additional information about Alcanna Inc. is available at www.sedar.com and the Company’s website at www.alcanna.com .

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains forward-looking statements or information (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as “continue”, “anticipate”, "will", "should", “plan”, “intention”, “poised” and similar words suggesting future events or future performance. All statements and information other than statements of historical fact contained in this news release are forward-looking statements. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to: the opening of a Nova Cannabis store in Ontario, selection and pricing in the Nova Cannabis store in Ontario, and future potential investments that the Company may make in Ontario.

Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements, and the assumptions on which such forward-looking statements are made, are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to be correct. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements included in this news release. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual performance and financial results to differ materially from any estimates, forecasts or projections. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the factors described in the Company’s public filings (including the Annual Information Form) available at www.sedar.com . Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof. Except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation, Alcanna does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

For Further Information

James Burns

Vice Chair and Chief Executive Officer

Alcanna Inc.

(587)460-1026

James.burns@alcanna.com

Heather Conlon

heather@advancesecurity.com

Dave Crapper

SVP, Communications

Alcanna Inc.

Dave.crapper@alcanna.com



