NEW YORK, July 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acreage Holdings, Inc. (CSE: ACRG.U) (OTCQX: ACRGF) (FSE: 0ZV) today announced the appointment of Rhonda Kratz as General Manager in the State of Florida, an incremental operation updates subsequent to Acreage’s first quarter earnings call and also disclosed the departure of Acreage’s Chief Marketing Officer.

“We are excited to welcome Rhonda to the team as we begin to establish an aggressive Acreage footprint across the state of Florida," said Acreage Chief Operating Officer, Bob Daino. "Given the size of the Florida market, we knew it was crucial to hire someone seasoned in retail operations.”

Ms. Kratz comes to Acreage with extensive experience in the retail optical space. Most notably, she headed up the Stores Organization at LensCrafters in North America from 2013 to 2015, providing leadership to over 960 retail stores that generated nearly $2 billion in annual revenue. Ms. Kratz joined Acreage in April 2019, coming from Nationwide Vision, where she served as Senior Vice President and led sales and operations for 109 stores across the nation from 2018 to April 2019. Prior to that, she served as Chief Operating Officer at For Eyes from 2016 to 2017, where she built and led Operations, Professional Services, Managed Vision Care, Real Estate and Construction, and also led a team of nine regional managers responsible for delivering revenue, customer loyalty and retention, and meeting EBITDA targets for 117 stores with approximately $100 million in annual revenue.

Florida Operation Updates:

Acreage has achieved the following milestones subsequent to its first quarter 2019 earnings call:

• Acreage closed on a cultivation and production facility in Sanderson, a community in Baker County, FL. The location sits on 15.4 acres of land and comes with a 109,000 square foot building able to accommodate the build out a processing facility with the capabilities of Form Factory, Acreage’s recently acquired subsidiary. Acreage tentatively plans to construct a 100,000 square foot greenhouse on the property.
• Seven dispensary locations have been secured via lease agreements with locations in Hollywood, Spring Hill, Daytona, Orange Park, North Miami Beach and two locations in Miami. Of the two in Miami, the Miami Beach dispensary will be Acreage’s flagship location in the state of Florida.

Additional details will be provided as to when Acreage expects these locations to become operational.

Chief Marketing Officer Departure:

Acreage announced that Harris Damashek, Acreage’s Chief Marketing Officer, is no longer employed at Acreage effective July 5, 2019. Acreage has initiated a search for a new Chief Marketing Officer, who will report to Acreage’s Chief Operating Officer, Bob Daino.

ABOUT ACREAGE

Headquartered in New York City, Acreage is the largest vertically integrated, multi-state operator of cannabis licenses and assets in the U.S. with respect to the number of states with cannabis related licenses, according to publicly available information. Acreage owns licenses to operate or has management or consulting services agreements in place with license holders to assist in operations in 20 states (including pending acquisitions) with a population of approximately 180 million Americans, and an estimated 2022 total addressable market of more than $17 billion in legal cannabis sales, according to Arcview Market Research. Acreage is dedicated to building and scaling operations to create a seamless, consumer-focused branded cannabis experience. Acreage's national retail store brand, The Botanist, debuted in 2018.