Since marijuana has been a legal investment in Canada, Supreme Pharmaceuticals CEO John “Terminator” Fowler has been defying critics and building hard.
I remember back when Supreme stock was at $0.16, arguing with messageboard idiots about the company’s potential (you’re welcome for the ten-bagger, douchelords), and a large part of what sold me on the company was the guy steering the boat. Not the guy that started it, and not the industry that was a hot mess at the time, but the guy in the middle of it, making moves the right way.
John Fowler will wake up and smoke a bowl tomorrow morning, as he often does, and that’s not a criticism. The guy has been doing that since he entered law school, where he killed it every day, according to those who went alongside him. He’s singularly focused, well versed in his business, takes a long term plan and doesn’t get distracted by short term shiny lights, and he’s built a ragingly successful business that currently has some $70m cash in hand, and funding to produce 50 tons of weed per year – and weed that’s winning applause for it’s quality, no less.
And he’s done that while partaking. Not getting lit, but getting calm and undistracted.
That’s bad ass. T-1000 is the nickname I gave him because he gets shit done and nothing’s going to stop him, and the evidence of that is others have taken to that nickname in the years since. It fits.
So when I got a call from John a few weeks back, late at night (even later where he was), asking a single question, I didn’t let him go for a good hour. We talked about everything in the weed business; who he likes, what he sees going forward, what I was missing about this company and that and individuals and products… I wish I’d recorded it, because it was like sitting before the Dalai Ganja and getting the gospel.
Apologies, John, if ‘Dalai Ganja’ becomes your new nickname.
I don’t normally suggest cannabis growing is a good long term business plan, because I think it will become commoditized quickly, and then you’re basically farming. But Fowler’s plan to become the farmer to the farmers, to get growing costs down low enough to be hard to match, to have sunlight thrown into the equation via his greenhouse roof, and to have a top notch product – I can see that working out for a long time.
This week, Fowler sat down on BNN and told his story to a wider audience, days after Tweed co-founder Chuck Rifici was added to his board of directors. Rifici tells me it was tough to get Aurora Cannabis (ACB.V), where he also sits on the board, to okay the appointment, but Supreme’s place as a supplier to suppliers, and Fowler’s long-time reputation for being a supporter of all in the industry who do a good job, likely helped.
I would recommend all weed investors, and those who haven’t trusted the business yet, to watch the interview below, because I think it lays out a very interesting business plan, and shows who Fowler is, and why he’s been so successful.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Supreme isn’t a client company (lord knows, I’ve tried, but they haven’t needed the help), but I’m glad to have pointed people to the stock over the last few years regardless, and I’m glad to consider Fowler a friend. Long may that be the case.
— Chris Parry