Why Curaleaf Wants Aurora: The EU-GMP Advantage ft. Jamie Pearson

Europe Is Not a Rescue Plan ft. Jamie Pearson

Bryan Fields: The money suck in your own country, in your own language, in your own currency is one thing, but imagine compounding all of that complexity by trying to move into a different market. The operators who survive the next five years won't be the ones producing the cheapest cannabis — they'll be the ones who can produce consistency, reliability, and pharmaceutical grade outcomes. Jamie, what is the industry still missing? Jamie Pearson: I just think regulation. Right now everybody's doing what they do, and then they're waiting for the next change in regulation that makes whatever they're doing obsolete or less effective. Once the regulation dust settles globally, then you'll start to see things like data get more accurate, and being able to make data-driven decisions — whether it's on the production side or the marketing side — gets a lot easier once we're all playing on the same playing field. Bryan Fields: You say data-driven decisions. I know teams have got endless amounts of data, but maybe they're not utilizing it the same way. Jamie, can you explain what you mean by that? Jamie Pearson: Well, think about when you go to the grocery store — every product has that barcode on it, and that barcode is a GS1 private company product. Whether you scan that in Germany, Brazil, or America, in any given state, it's going to pull up exactly what that product is. The whole world operates off that GS1 system. We watched — well, for those of you younger than me, you won't remember — when we discussed maybe going to the metric system in the US because we're still on the imperial system. So we kind of have both; you look at a bottle and it's got milliliters and ounces, because American manufacturers had to start putting milliliters on there, which goes back to GS1. Every time that barcode is scanned, you can register into that system and know what products are moving — cherry flavor doesn't sell here, it does sell there. These CPG companies operate with immense amounts of data, and what we've got are companies like Dutchie or Headset trying to get us there, but we don't have one point-of-sale system. They're not all using the same barcodes. We just don't have any continuity in any market, let alone across global markets. That's what I'm talking about. Bryan Fields: It feels more like internal operational data, right — production data, understanding how batches are created, when things deviate, how they're tracked. It feels like we're moving closer into sensor technology. Is that part of the future you think the industry will morph into? Jamie Pearson: That's a crystal ball question. I'll tell you what I see happening right now, using a specific example: True Terpenes. Every year, a True Terpenes product is in nine billion dollars of cannabis products. So before you start manufacturing your product — you've developed it, you know the flavor, you've ordered your terpene — it's probably about nine months before that product actually hits the shelf. True Terpenes knows what flavor is coming; in some cases they're helping clients decide which direction to go, whether it's an infused pre-roll or whatever. The terpene is the flavor and the effect. So companies are starting to recognize businesses like True Terpenes that have that tip-of-the-spear data because they see the trend nine months before it hits the shelf. That's different from a Coca-Cola going off GS1 data globally with data analysts figuring out how to differentiate. In cannabis we have to get scrappy — we have to find who has the trend data months in advance to help decide product direction. Bryan Fields: Is this a US thing, or European? Jamie Pearson: It's operating in over a hundred countries, so this is global. I think the smart companies are figuring out who those tip-of-the-spear players are that see trends before they do — it's a smart way to innovate and develop products. On a global level, I'm seeing the Mondelez's of the world sniffing around, the Mars's sniffing around, trying to figure out if Schedule III hits, or when legislation comes, do they need to be ready, do they want to get into this industry. We already know big alcohol and big tobacco are in, hedging. If you're an operator trying to get ahead of the trend, you've got to go to the people with that tip-of-the-spear knowledge. Bryan Fields: And I think what's so important about what you said is it feels less about being reactive and more about anticipating and being proactive — expecting these changes are going to happen sooner rather than later, and being prepared when they do. Because if the big CPG companies come in, they're not going to want inconsistent processes — they want consistency and repeatability. And also brand, right? When you have a Coca-Cola in one state and another, you want it to taste the same, otherwise your brand doesn't have that integrity as people travel. Jamie Pearson: Yeah, you fail the brand promise. That's the work I did at Bhang — making sure no matter where you had your chocolate bar, it was exactly the same experience, right down to the effect and the taste. It's difficult when interstate commerce isn't allowed, but it's doable — you've got to be scrappy and smart. Bryan Fields: And it's even harder in our industry because our starting material is a plant, and a plant is very variable — it grows differently in different environments and feels fickle. But you also need to use the tools and leverage them, which is why you need a proactive approach. So I want to push more on EU GMP — a term I keep hearing. Can you give listeners a broad understanding of what EU GMP is? Jamie Pearson: GMP, distilled down, means Good Manufacturing Practices — we're talking about the manufacturing level of the cannabis product. EU GMP is much, much stricter. Effectively, you get certified, meaning inspectors have come through your facility and confirmed it's producing pharmaceutical-grade product. That means no seams in the walls for bacteria to get into, everything can be hosed down, people suit up, walk across walk-off mats, go into a chamber where pollen is blown off and sucked away, then move into the next room. There's a level of SOP required — your paperwork has to be on point because you're making medicine. Imagine building a facility to produce Tylenol — what qualifications would be required. It's no different; you're producing pharmaceutical-level cannabis. One of the big differences with EU GMP relates to greenwashing. GACP is Good Agricultural Practice — a cultivator has been inspected and is using good agricultural practice. That GACP bulk product used to be imported into an EU GMP facility, lab tested, and packaged, and the whole batch got EU GMP certified. That's allowed right now, quasi, but where the law is headed — I predict by January there won't be any more GMP-washing. It will require that bulk product is weighed, dried, cured, tested, and packaged in the actual EU GMP facility. So if you're growing in South Africa, Thailand, or Colombia, you can't ship bulk product to Portugal to have it greenwashed anymore — the facility where the product is harvested, dried, and cured has to itself be EU GMP if you're going to sell into European pharmaceutical markets. It's an extensive, expensive, time-consuming process. Building an EU GMP facility in the US will cost in the neighborhood of $30 million, and if everything goes without a hitch — which never happens in cannabis — you're still looking at two years. Bryan Fields: Two years, thirty million bucks. Even if you have all the money in the world, you can't accelerate the timeline fast enough — that's what makes those facilities so highly coveted. That's why I wanted to bring up that Boris Jordan and Curaleaf were pretty outspoken about their interest, specifically in an EU GMP facility. Are people giving enough understanding to how valuable that asset he's looking to acquire actually is? Jamie Pearson: Are you talking about the bystander, or the Aurora shareholder? Bryan Fields: I'm talking from the Curaleaf standpoint — when I saw the EU GMP angle, it seemed lower on the list of assets people were discussing, but to me that's the crown jewel. That's how you accelerate past two years. The money costs what it costs, but if I can acquire that today, it gives me the opportunity to leapfrog peers who are just starting to understand how critical this will be in the coming years. Jamie Pearson: I think what Boris is doing is smart — he's getting the first-mover advantage. I'm personally not a big fan of the aggressive approach, but when you're running a publicly traded company trying to do right by shareholders, and you recognize you can do a hostile takeover, cut the timeline down, cut the spend down, and capture everything Aurora has already sunk into that facility — if that goes through, nobody's going to be able to touch Curaleaf on a global level; they'll rocket ship ahead. I don't know if I'm better off as an Aurora shareholder taking the Curaleaf stock, but I suspect Aurora would be smart to negotiate — I feel like the writing's on the wall. I don't think they're going to wiggle out from under that, and honestly they're not doing a good job of communicating to their shareholders in my opinion. Bryan Fields: I think the point I wanted to push on is that under the big headline is him speaking specifically about the asset he wants. When we talk about the two years, thirty million, I wonder if people are asking you, "Jamie, you're plugged into Europe — are there other facilities? Is this a signal I should be reacting to? How do I get in front of this next wave?" Because if there's only a certain number of those assets available, at some point the price goes way up, or they're just not available to buy. Jamie Pearson: Exactly. The sooner — you know, some of the other public companies have spoken openly about achieving EU GMP status and getting facilities certified, and some of them are doing it through acquisition, because everything you spend — the $30 million or $15 million — it's going to cost another $5 million easy in consulting, getting a QP, a quality person whose stamp of approval and insurance is on the line when things go wrong. Getting all those pieces together is step one, and then you've got to operate — navigate marketing models, get pharmacies to carry your product. This is like trying to grow the next Tylenol, but swimming upstream in the cannabis market. You've got to be smart, have a lot of capital, and anything that gives you an advantage matters — you literally can't operate in the medical market without an EU GMP facility, full stop. Boris is smart to expand what he's doing. For example, there are six medicines approved in Ukraine. Ukraine is going through a war; they've identified cannabis helps soldiers with PTSD, made it a priority, invested, and finally opened up cultivation. So they're not only allowing cannabis sales to citizens but looking to create an export industry. Who's been in Ukraine since day one? Curaleaf — the first three products approved in the Ukrainian market were Curaleaf oil. Curaleaf's been quietly, and not so quietly, methodically taking one market down after another. This is just another notch in the bedpost for them. I think Boris is smart for doing it. Bryan Fields: The strategy he's been outspoken about, he's delivered on. But the important part for everyone else is understanding why he's doing these things, because headlines are headlines, but it's five or ten years from now when people ask, "How do I do this?" and the answer is: you need this facility, and there aren't any more available, and it's going to take two years plus everything else. Just for context — shipping from Canada into Europe is allowed because of EU GMP, which allows export from Canada, via these specific facilities, into European medical markets? Jamie Pearson: Part of it is at the regulatory level — Canada has approved its operators to export into countries that allow import. Canada is an export-friendly country: once you have your licenses in order, they'll allow you to export. Step two is figuring out where to export to, and those countries have to approve Canadian import. Right now that's all over Europe. So you've got regulatory harmony — Canada says "I see you, Germany, we like how you're doing things, we'll let your product come in," and vice versa. What you've got are GACP Canadian manufacturers shipping into EU GMP facilities — that's what's going to stop. That's the buzzsaw everyone's getting ahead of. Canadian companies without GMP are scrambling, because now you have to dry, cure, and package in the GMP facility — you can't ship wet flower, it'll get moldy even if air freighted. You've got to dry, cure, package on-site. Bryan Fields: Do you see a future where US operators should look at EU GMP standards instead of just domestic GMP, in case US regulations open up and they could become partners for Europe? Jamie Pearson: They're doing it right now. Curaleaf, Trulieve, GTI — they maybe haven't spent the money for the European designation, but they're all operating GMP facilities, especially if you're looking at Schedule III and positioning as a medical provider in the US market. Glass House and a lot of the bigger companies are way down that road already. Bryan Fields: That's where the separation becomes really wild — these teams are investing in the future versus just trying to survive the next six weeks until rescheduling finalizes. As the game opens up globally, how much are US operators reaching out to you saying, "Here's where I'm thinking six to ten months from now — what European countries should I bring my brand to?" That's where your deep understanding of these unique markets is so valuable, because they all play differently, with different advantages and interests depending on where they are. Jamie Pearson: For example, if you're an adult-use brand, you've got no business looking at the UK. The UK is a pharmaceutical supply chain, private-pay only. If you're an extractor with an API — active pharmaceutical ingredient — like Leef Brands out of Santa Barbara, they could get their GMP and become an API seller and export anywhere into Europe, because right now, Europe, no matter what country you're talking about, is really a medical play. It's medical, it's pharma, period, full stop, end of conversation. Europe is going to be a huge adult-use market eventually — Germany will be huge, France will be huge, they already have thriving illicit markets — but legislatively they're doing medical first. Here's an interesting factoid: the Czech Republic has allowed home grow, killed retail — there's no retail there right now — and kicked adult-use retail down the road, but any adult can grow cannabis, so by those standards it's adult use through possession. Germany is slated to review its adult-use retail decision in the fall or early '27, looking at its medical program in a prescribed way — did use by children go up or down, what societal impacts occurred. Germany has already published that first use by children has gone up in age — meaning kids are experimenting later, which is a positive impact; cannabis being everywhere and highly regulated correlates with less frequent, later-age use. Germany will prove out what the Czech Republic is watching, and you'll see German rules bleed over into Czech politics — legislative bleed-through, political cover to change their tune once the data shows the sky didn't fall. Bryan Fields: It's like political cover, right — to slide underneath and say, "Well, the children didn't die in Germany, we can feel good about our kids not dying." But I want to go back to the Leef Brands example — in the UK case, would they need a facility in the UK, or could they ship pending regulations if their facility elsewhere was certified? I wasn't sure where that supply chain cutoff was. Jamie Pearson: You can export — yes. Leef Brands could probably do that. One of the larger operators, in terms of market percentage, is a company I always call "C4," like the explosive — it's actually 4C Labs, based out of British Columbia, or their CEO is. They have about 15 to 20 percent of the UK market, manufacturing in the UK, though they manufacture elsewhere too — exporting into the UK market from Canada. So you don't have to have consumer-facing retail in the UK — you can't build a brand there, you can really only do B2B pharmaceutical. You need companies like IPS or Zeal in the UK, which have the "specials" license required to touch cannabis in the UK. Those license holders can import your API. So yes, Leef Brands could probably export massive amounts of oil into the UK — that market's exploding — but they'll need a partner. Bryan Fields: That's very interesting — or they'll need a facility, one or the other. The facility part I keep thinking back to — because if there's only a finite number of those, it feels like early cannabis days: limited licenses, here's how it works, and those certifications are so difficult to acquire. Maybe some teams look for a short-term pop, saying, "We know these countries are going to explode, here's how we do it from an asset standpoint," bringing US teams with them overseas as they expand. Jamie Pearson: For me, it's an interesting question, because I think about the Boris-Aurora situation again — if you've got the war chest, you can cut two years off your timeline. But I also think about the Vitamin Water story — 50 Cent created Vitamin Water and sold it to Coca-Cola for a fortune, and back then there were already a million beverages in 7-Eleven and convenience stores. He created a new one. Is there always going to be room, twenty years from now, for a new facility, a new idea, a new innovation? If you're in a race, you're not thinking long term. I wouldn't do it unless I had a big war chest like Boris and could afford to cut two years off. If you're a good operator, it doesn't matter — look at Grown Rogue. They've grown steadily, been disciplined, make sure products are good, ducks in a row, hire good people. It doesn't matter when you start if you've got enough capital, you're diligent and frugal, and you've got a good CFO keeping you disciplined financially. Luck helps, but you don't really need it — at the end of the day it's a simple process: buy low, sell high, build relationships, get shelf space. It's just business. Bryan Fields: Pushing on the Grown Rogue point — the emphasis is that they're a data-driven company, not just a company sitting on data like everyone else in cannabis, but one that actually understands and utilizes it. That becomes the square difference for teams, because you hear teams talk about sitting on mountains of data, but how do they use it? It's not the compliance number — it's the operational number that drives decisions. Jamie Pearson: Yes, they blur, sometimes they're the same, but you have to know how to utilize data to drive decisions. Schedule III will help the data story in a lot of ways. For example, I know a cultivator in Canada that grows four strains, has grown the same four strains for seven years, and exports all of it into Australia. Their Australian partners — pharmacies and doctors — want to prescribe the medicine that helps patients with specific ailments: Parkinson's, chemotherapy patients, and so on. Through their unique terpene and THC:CBD ratio blends, they've determined which strains help which patients, and that's what buyers want — not the new Gorilla Glue cross with Sherbet, but these four reliable medicines. That's about being a reliable operator with consistent supply, consistent from batch to batch — a completely different game than selling exotic, tastiest, highest-potency indoor bud. You need to think about which game you want to play, and your data will tell you the trend — the True Terpenes thing again — though we don't have great medical study data yet on which terpenes help which conditions; we're kind of always putting the cart before the horse. Bryan Fields: What I'm hearing is that teams need to understand what they do better than anyone else, how they compete in this new age, and maybe decommission areas where they're not so strong even if they enjoy them — understanding their strengths and where they'll double down going forward. Jamie Pearson: Yeah. One of the big headlines, from prepping for this, is that a lot of companies operate under an "if we build it, they will come" mentality — "I'm a good grower, I grow great weed," thinking only about that last mile where the consumer touches the product. If you intend to expand into another market with a different currency, language, and time zone, you need your strategy dialed in before you leap, because there's a lot more to get wrong. The money suck in your own country, language, and currency is one thing — compounding that complexity moving into a different market is another. The people who talk to me a lot are usually struggling in this market and see Europe as the panacea. It's like concentrates — if you've got dirty flower, you'll have dirty concentrate. If you've got a dirty operation and try to take it somewhere else, it's just not going to work. Bryan Fields: One of my favorite parts of talking to you is you always put a new country on my radar. Let me throw out a few: Slovenia, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, Brazil. Jamie Pearson: We can talk about all of them. Switzerland is interesting because it's very progressive regulatory-wise — pilot adult-use programs and a well-run medical program. It's not a big market, but sophisticated operators and smart legislators make it worth dipping a toe in if you're a brand — find a manufacturer and try to get into the pilot programs; it's arguably the most liberal drug market on the planet. Slovenia is going to give Portugal a run for its money — they took cannabis off the narcotics list, rules were just published, licenses are being issued, and they sit geographically in the middle of Europe, surrounded by countries without much legislation, so you'll get a lot of border-crossing activity. Slovenia is going to be a sleeper hit — beautiful country, highly educated people who speak four or five languages, English widely spoken, and the program was built for export and job creation. Portugal was the big GMP-washing hub, and then in '25 there were raids — organized crime had found ways to bend and skirt the rules, and a bunch of Portuguese companies got shut down. That means companies like Somai Pharmaceuticals, run by American Michael Sassano, with a medically registered vape device that's kicking butt and taking names, are now more valuable — the raids killed business for a minute, but the operators who hung on weren't cutting corners. Portugal as a market for its own citizens using cannabis isn't much, but as an export hub they're one of the leaders, right up there with Canada. Ukraine is a huge market too — once cultivation kicks in, they'll be exporters, not just importers. And Brazil is super interesting — a hundred thousand medical patients internally, a huge domestic market. They don't require EU GMP; they have their own rigorous pharmaceutical rules but not EU GMP-level rigor, so it's actually a lower bar to enter — the one caveat being you need a Brazilian partner. Companies that have gone to the Brazil conferences, identified good operators, and partnered with them are going to turn into ATM machines. They'll do really well. Bryan Fields: If I'm a US company hearing all these countries, how do I know whether to approach you saying "I want to go to these countries" versus "Here's what I do well, which country fits me best?" Which approach works? Jamie Pearson: That's how I'd do it. Companies that come to me say, "Here's what I've got, what do I need to do?" and I ask a lot of questions — do you have this, do you have that, where are you weak, where are you strong — because there are so many countries you could target, and you want to target the right one. Honestly, 75 to 80 percent of the companies that come to me for international expansion strategy end up first expanding into one or two US states, building their expansion muscles, getting SOPs in order — because you don't want to compound the complexity by adding currency, time zone, and language on top of everything else. Develop it locally and intentionally, knowing it's for eventual international expansion, and build systems that translate easily across culture and language. That's the right way to approach me. Bryan Fields: It's smart to use local markets as a practice run, and I'd assume most companies want to jump straight into Germany, the big markets — but knowing how valuable these smaller markets are is where your information is so powerful. On the reverse side, are European companies you work with saying, "Jamie, I see Schedule III might be happening, we might be looking to go stateside" — are you having those conversations? Jamie Pearson: Absolutely. I have a number of European companies I'm helping expand into the US. It's interesting because every company is good at what they're good at, and sometimes the Europeans bring a level of compliance hoop-jumping capability that Americans are more "ask forgiveness" about — show me the rule and I'll figure my way through, around, or over it. Europeans are very methodical: this is my hoop-jumping exercise, this is what I have to do — whereas there's usually a lot more wiggle room in the US, so it's interesting for them to come over. One example — when we saw each other in Chicago, I mentioned Tennessee had just come onto my radar, and there was a company called Snapdragon Cannabis. I toured their facilities and had my mind blown by how big THCA cannabis is in Tennessee. I just got back from Florida, in the Orlando area — no medical card needed, THCA everywhere, huge cannabis superstores. You realize we're reading about Trulieve and GTI coming into Florida in the regulated market, but there's a hemp market that's exploded there too. Crazy — same in Tennessee, drive-thrus. I drove through one of Snapdragon's locations — they bought an old Wendy's — and I ordered a coffee where you could add cannabinoids: 25 milligrams of this, 5 milligrams of that, a delicious cold brew with THCV in it. I want one of these drive-thrus in my life. That company did over a million dollars in slushies last year — mind-boggling. So when European companies look at US markets, part of my job is explaining that there's a whole other hemp market operating alongside the regulated market, using the same plant. I sit on the board of NCIA, and one of my mantras is: we should be regulating THC, not this plant or that plant. We should have an age gate, and for the medical market a prescription framework — we need to regulate around how cannabis impacts humanity, not around who paid five million dollars for a license versus a five-hundred-dollar hemp license. That disparity pits us against each other. We need government to understand they should be regulating the THC molecule, the psychoactive molecule, rather than the plant itself. Bryan Fields: The best case study for me is always the beverages — people have been buying them in supermarkets and loving them, and when people tell me about their experience, I'm excited to hear it, but I also have to say there's a strong possibility they won't see them in supermarkets anymore. When we go through why, they say, "That's silly." We can all agree it's silly, but that's just how the process works. That's where marketing becomes difficult — sometimes people market for activity, sometimes for actual brand awareness. How do you help companies establish the difference between the two? Jamie Pearson: One example — I sit on the board of Ferros, a rocket ship of a hemp beverage targeting consumers 55 and older. People under 55 are drinking it too because it's delicious — it's won awards, not hemp beverage awards, but Best New Beverage at the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America. It's manufactured with organic fruit oil, they've done everything correctly, and they're getting rewarded everywhere. With the hemp buzzsaw regulatory deadline coming at the end of December, they've learned to galvanize their marketing with a "Be Wise, Be Well" campaign, going into retirement communities like the Villages, educating people on how to communicate to their representatives that they want this product, that they want the ability not to use alcohol. You don't have to get angry, just let your representatives and senators know — politicians are trying to keep their seats, and if they know constituents want something, it emboldens them to fight for it. Going into a 55-and-up community and letting them try the beverage is a direct, one-to-one conversion — they try it, love it, tell everyone they know, and become loyal because they've overcome the stigma of not knowing how they'll feel. Bryan Fields: I can only imagine bringing that to my parents' facility in Florida — they'd sell out. Jamie Pearson: What's funny is when they do these sit-downs, the Ferros is on ice, ready, and everyone's like, "Oh, I don't know." Then one person cracks one open, says "here, taste this," and by the end everybody's had one and loosened up — it's hilarious. It's a 10-milligram can, 5 milligrams per serving, two servings per can. Bryan Fields: I mix mine with Pellegrino or something, rather than wine, beer, or a mixed drink — just a little Ferros. With my tolerance it's imperceptible, but I prefer it because there's no alcohol hangover the next morning. It's so much better. Jamie Pearson: Yeah, my favorite thing is to bring those to parties and have people try them — their faces immediately change. It takes a little coercing at first, promising they'll be fine and have a good time, and afterward it's "I can't stop smiling, I don't understand why I'm so happy," and they're like, "I don't think I'm feeling anything," and it's like, well, you are smiling a lot. Bryan Fields: It doesn't have to be a scary thing — it can be a good feeling. Jamie Pearson: Yeah. Bryan Fields: So, last question for you — what question do you wish more people asked you? Jamie Pearson: I don't know — I do feel like people find me approachable, honestly, so I think everybody asks me what they want to know, and they know they'll get the truth, something pretty direct. I was raised in a town of 800 people, where your reputation precedes you, and you have to tell the truth all the time. I never want to hurt people's feelings, but if you're direct with me and tell me the truth, no matter how hard it is to hear, I can do something with that. If you sandwich it — "that looks good on you, not your best color, good" — I can't act on that. But if you just tell me it's ugly, I can go change my clothes. I've always operated on the belief that being honest with you is being respectful of who you are. So I guess I don't have a question I wish people asked — everybody asks me exactly what they want to know. Bryan Fields: Jamie, for our listeners who want to get in touch, or want to go to Europe — where can they find you? Jamie Pearson: NewHollandGroup — that's my website. If they go to LinkedIn and search Jamie Pearson, New Holland Group, they'll find me. My phone number is published on absolutely everything, so just be direct. Bryan Fields: Thanks for taking the time — this was a lot of fun. Jamie Pearson: Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me.