Scottish cannabidiol firm Voyager Life seals seven-figure breakthrough push into Europe

Voyager Life, the Scottish CBD health and wellness business, has extended its reach into mainland Europe after sealing a breakthrough £1.5 million deal for a Polish manufacturing plant.

The Perth-based group is part funding the deal by raising cash from new investors, existing shareholders and its chief executive and founder Nick Tulloch, the former boss of Zoetic International, the first CBD - cannabidiol - company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Voyager has acquired the CBD extraction and manufacturing facility in Poland from Goodbody Health.

The acquisition is said to be an “exceptionally good fit” with Voyager's existing business with no overlap between the two operations. There are not expected to be any post-transaction redundancy or closure costs but certain cost savings are anticipated as IT platforms and support services are consolidated. Following completion of the deal, the group’s operations will span the supply chain of CBD production from extraction through to retail sales. Voyager runs stores in Dundee, Edinburgh and St Andrews.

Tulloch said: "This acquisition simultaneously fulfils two of our objectives, namely to extend our business into Europe and complete our vertical integration. Voyager will now be in a position to control the CBD supply chain from extraction to manufacturing to product accreditation to retail. As our VoyagerCann manufacturing division has grown, we have increasingly dealt with European customers who, as a consequence of Brexit, may find delivery times are elongated due to customs checks and prices are distorted by customs charges.

“Going forward, our product range that is already formulated and made in the UK can now be manufactured in Poland and distributed across the European Union’s single market. The retail prices of CBD products are under pressure and we are now not only well placed to protect our own margins but also to offer better deals to our end customers.”

He added: “Concluding this acquisition marks the end of many months of hard work but, with more work to come as we integrate our new Polish facility with the rest of our business, we believe we have laid the foundations to be one of the most important CBD companies in continental Europe.”

News of the acquisition came alongside half-year results which revealed revenues of £135,000 for the period from April 1 to September 30, compared with £59,000 a year earlier as the fledgling business was scaling up. The group had a cash balance of just over £1m with no debt, as of the end of September.

Tulloch hailed progress at the VoyagerCann manufacturing arm, which is yet to celebrate its first birthday but is said to be “forging a reputation in the industry”. Voyager products are now available in more than 100 retail stores stretching from Cornwall to Shetland, with a small number of overseas stockists in France and Ireland. At the start of May, the firm moved out of its serviced office and nearby storage facility to consolidate all of its operations in a single building in Perth. In September, it expanded further, taking a lease of the remainder of the same building and constructing a laboratory at one end of it.