Columbia Care (CCHW.C) closed their acquisition of cannabis dispensary owner, CannAscend, today, according to a press release.

CannAscend owns and operates four dispensaries across, operating in Dayton, Logan, Marietta and Monroe. These add to their existing facilities in Mt. Orab, Columbus and Warren. The addition of CannAscend will enhance Columbia Care’s vertically integration operations in Ohio, and bring them to the legal limit of dispensaries as one of the biggest operators in Ohio.

“Ohio is a key state, currently a top-five market for Columbia Care, with year-to-date state sales up more than 110 percent year-over-year and annualized runrate sales of more than $370 million for 2021. We are thrilled to be able to affirm our leadership presence in Ohio with the completion of this acquisition,” said Nicholas Vita, CEO of Columbia Care.

Columbia Care is a vertically integrated cannabis company with licenses in 18 places in the United States and the European Union. They have more than four million sales transactions since they arrived on the scene in 2012. They operate 126 facilities, including 95 dispensaries, and 31 cultivation and manufacturing facilities. They seem to have gotten involved in most of the cannabis industry’s developments over the past few years—graduating from flower to cannabis 2.0 products on time, creating a national dispensary network using their own tech platforms to facilitate distribution.

CCHW and CannAscend’s deal hearkens back to the days of October 2018. Its terms include a exclusive option to buy all membership interests of the dispensaries on the first anniversary of the date the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program issued the four dispensaries operation certificates. That happened in Q4 2019. The pricetag attached to the deal is $14.2 million, paid from funds in escrow, which won’t affect Columbia Care’s cash position.

That’s called planning ahead.

—Joseph Morton