Ionic Brands buys Zoots marijuana edibles firm

Ionic Brands paid $11 million for longtime cannabis edibles maker Natural Extractions, which does business as Zoots Premium Cannabis Infused Edibles.

As part of the stock and cash deal involving two Washington state companies, Zoots’ owners receive $855,000 in cash and more than 9.6 million shares in Ionic Brands, according to a news release.

Ionic, with a market cap of about $16.5 million, trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange as IONC and on the over-the-counter markets as IONKF.

As part of the deal, Ionic assumes about $600,000 in Zoots’ debt.

Zoots already has a footprint outside its home state in Colorado, Illinois and Massachusetts.

Ionic sells its vapor cartridges in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.

Ionic CEO John Gorst said in a statement that the acquisition of Zoots is “a natural fit for our brand strategy.”

“The Zoots acquisition expands our market segments to the popular edibles space and expands our distribution network throughout the United States,” he added.

Dan Devlin who co-founded Zoots with brothers Michael and Patrick, will remain with the company as chief operating officer.

Neither officials from Ionic nor Zoots immediately responded to inquiries from Marijuana Business Daily.