Tokyo Smoke was co-founded by Lorne and Alan Gertner in 2015. Lorne Gertner had founded Canada’s first legal medical marijuana grower, Cannasat Therapeutics, in 2004. Alan quit his job at Google in order to establish the business. The brand’s first location, Tokyo Smoke Found, opened in April 2015 in Toronto’s West Queen West neighbourhood. The store was listed as one of the Top 4 designed coffee shops in the world by Interior Design magazine. In early 2017, the company acquired another cannabis company, Van der Pop, based in Seattle and targeted towards women. On December 21, 2017, the company announced that it would merge with DOJA Cannabis and form a new company called Hiku Brands Company Ltd. On July 10, 2018, Canopy Growth acquired Hiku brands and absorbed its portfolio of brands. On August 14, 2019, Acreage announced their intention to open cannabis stores under the Tokyo Smoke brand in the United States.
Awards and recognition
At the 2017 Canadian Cannabis awards, Tokyo Smoke won the award for "Brand of the Year."
Retail Operations
As cannabis in Canada was legalized on October 17, 2018, operations prior to this point were coffee and clothing retail. Current operations include both cannabis dispensaries and coffee shops. Coffee shops do not sell cannabis, instead, they sell coffee, cafe food, and cannabis accessories.
Pre-Legalizing Location Openings
The first location opened on West Queen West in Toronto in April 2015 built within a 10 foot by 10 foot shipping container. The second location, Tokyo Smoke Green, opened in Toronto's Little Italy neighbourhood. The new location on Queen Street became Tokyo Smoke's third location in 2017. This brought Tokyo Smoke's pre-legalizing location count to three prior to cannabis became legal in Canada.
Post-Legalizating Location Openings
After legalization, the coffee/clothing offerings were supplemented by cannabis products as licenses were secured. Toronto openings included a former HMV location at 333 Yonge Street in early 2020. As of June 2020, cannabis dispensary locations reached 9 locations in Ontario and five in Manitoba. Tokyo Smoke continued coffee shops and currently operates five locations in Toronto and one in Calgary.
