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One of the oldest multistate operators in the cannabis industry is changing its name to something closer to its original iteration.
Minneapolis-based Goodness Growth Holdings now will be known as Vireo Growth, the company said in a Monday news release.
The company launched in 2014 as Vireo Health and soon became one of the best-known marijuana companies in the United States.
But in June 2021, the MSO changed its name to Goodness Growth Holdings.
Kyle Kingsley, a physician and Vireo’s CEO at the time, told MJBizDaily that the change to Goodness Growth signified the company’s purpose.
“We see ourselves as anti-Pharma, the company of everyman and we want to focus on goodness. I know that sounds unbelievably corny,” Kingsley, who remains executive chair of the company, said at the time of the rebranding.
An MJBizDaily request for comment from Vireo Growth was not immediately returned Tuesday.
The company currently trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker symbol GDNS and on the over-the-counter markets as GDNSF.
However, Vireo Growth said in the release it “anticipates, pending final regulatory approval, that effective at market open on or about July 8, 2024, its subordinate voting shares will begin trading” as VREO on the CSE and VREOF on the OTC markets.
In addition to its home state of Minnesota, Vireo Growth does business in Maryland and New York.
Some well-known mainstream companies have tried name changes, only to revert to their originals:
- Once-proud Radio Shack changed its name to The Shack in 2009. However, the company went bankrupt, and after being reborn, the business went back to the name Radio Shack in 2016.
- Royal Mail, the government mail service in the United Kingdom, changed its name to Consignia in 2000. But after customer backlash, the mail service returned to the Royal Mail brand in 2002.
