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James Yamanaka

James Yamanaka

CEO of Organigram Global (NASDAQ: OGI), Canada's leading cannabis producer, since January 2026; formerly Global Head of Strategy at British American Tobacco.

Oct 16, 2026

13:13
So which brands are going and what share of sales do they represent? And I guess how do you avoid giving up shelf space pertaining to that and basically a share to some of your competitors?
13:24
Yeah, well, look, at this time, I can't say exactly which brands because it will be phased over time.
13:29
And I can't really disclose exactly which brands we will take will be taking out.
13:34
You'll you'll see it over the next several months.
13:36
And one of the concerns, obviously, is you don't want to lose the shelf space by announcing well before the time that you're actually moving them out of the market.
13:43
So I can't disclose that now, but look, the strategy in doing this is fairly simple is, is that, you know, unlike several years ago, the bulk of our products actually sit in the, or of our sales sit in those three brands rather than spreading our investments across a lot of brands, which means short runs you know, a lot of production inefficiencies.
14:04
It makes a lot more sense to, you know, consolidate across those brands that are much bigger, you know, have a bigger impact on the shelf.
14:43
Is there any comment that you can give on there if there's ongoing talks, if there's interest, if there's discussions between the boards, or is this pure speculation that's currently in the market?
3:28
So walk me through how much of this quarter is sanity showing up in some of these numbers for the first time versus, say, the Canadian recovery you promised actually materializing in a lot of ways.
3:39
Yeah, well, I think of the numbers as a combination of both.
3:42
So a lot of the issues that I mentioned last time in Canada, so we were having issues with quality with the IPRs as well as with the vapes, and in both of those categories, I'm happy to report that there's been a good turnaround in our performance there.
3:56
We had new launches in the vapor category, and we're up, starting to grow share again in that category.
4:04
IPRs have stabilized, and in June, one month doesn't make a trend, but we're starting to come back on that.
4:11
Continued very strong performance on flour, as well as milled products.
4:20
And really, so that Canada did contribute significantly to the turnaround, addressing exactly what we talked about last time.

8 MINS LATER

12:16
So how are you thinking about where, I guess, incremental capital and flower supply actually gets allocated between the two? Because we want to grow, but you obviously have to stay stable at the same time, too.
6:03
How much has changed from your perspective now that you are, I guess, on the other side of the fence?
6:08
Yeah, well, look, I think when I first came in, when I was offered to apply for the job, so they said, do you want to go into the nomination process there to be put it through? You know, the thesis from my side was very much about, look, it's an interesting industry.
6:25
It's at a stage where, you know, it's maturing now.
6:29
At least it's in Canada, at least it's federally legal, so it's fairly stable.
6:33
And that said, from a regulatory point of view, there's a lot of things you can still make and grow.
6:37
And at this stage in an industry, you can still shape the industry.
6:41
And you can, you know, at the same time, run a company, drive value out of it, you know, increase the share price, all those sorts of things.

25 MINS LATER

31:36
Can, for those who are unfamiliar, can you just set it up and give them a little background about it, how it all worked out?

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