UK headquartered Wellford Holdings is aiming to establish a clinic network in Australia as it rolls out its own-branded product range in the local market.
Wellford, which cultivates in Canada and has operations in Germany as well as the UK, is considering an entry through acquisition or by building its own clinic organically.
The business has earmarked a launch in the early weeks of 2027.
Finding the right partners for Wellford’s Australian expansion
But Wellford country head, Todd Steinberg, admitted acquisition talks have been challenging.
While plenty of clinic owners are interested in selling, too many “red flags” have emerged concerning dubious business practices, he told Cannabiz.
Of five initial conversations with clinics operators, only one appeared to come “without TGA liability”, Steinberg said.
News of Wellford’s Australian plans emerged as it launched six pastille products under its Aqua brand through the Special Access Scheme.
Manufactured by Canadian subsidiary Aqualitas at its EU/GMP facility in Nova Scotia, the three formulations contain THC, CBD and CBG in 30 and 60 pastille packs. Products will be distributed by Leafio, while a deal with a second “large distributor” is close to being finalised, Steinberg said.
Australian Cannabis Group has been appointed to provide logistical support as the product sponsor.
Asked to elaborate on its due diligence with potential acquisition targets, Steinberg said it became apparent that some clinics had grown patient numbers by “clearly violating advertising regulations”.
Business owners also “turned white” when asked to show details of consultations and how long doctors spent with each patient.
“We also asked how many people who have pre-screening consultations are accepted as patients. The answer we got was 100%,” Steinberg said. “That’s another red flag.”
Such concerns make transactions far too risky, he said.
“When you buy the shares of a company you also take on the legal liability for past actions, and I don’t believe the TGA is finished going after bad actors,” Steinberg said.
“If I don’t do my due diligence, I could end up three months later being hit with a lawsuit suggesting the reason you have 10,000 patients is because you broke the TGA advertising rules, and because you spent less than a minute on the phone with patients.
“They are the main reasons we had to pass on some discussions.”
Exploring acquisition opportunities
Talks with other clinics have subsequently taken place, with Steinberg hoping to progress discussions over the next week.
He said there was “no shortage” of clinic owners interested in selling, describing them as “lost leaders” in a competitive market.
“The pool of candidates to buy on the clinic side is as big as it’s ever been,” Steinberg said. “There is a wide range of expectations around price, but there’s no shortage of candidates to talk to as they’re mostly lost leaders at this point.
“I want to have maybe eight or 10 suitable candidates before making a decision, and we’d potentially buy more than one.”
But the company is also weighing up the possibility of starting from scratch rather than an entry by acquisition.
Steinberg said it could use its experience and technology from the UK to build its own clinic network.
“Is it better to do that? Frankly, I don’t know yet, we’re still working through it,” he said.
A telehealth model with continuity of care
He said its business model will focus on telehealth “with the ability to see patients in person if needed”.
“Everything will be done by video conference, not through questionnaires,” Steinberg added. “I’ve seen a number of practices where people fill out questionnaires and the doctor writes a prescription without interacting with the patient. This is not how we operate.
“After an initial consultation, a number of clinics move to a nurse practitioner for follow-ups, and that’s fine if you have a really qualified nurse practitioner in areas such as sleep, pain and anxiety.
“Our model in the UK is that patients generally stick with the doctors, but if people want to work with nurse practitioners, we offer that as well.”
Asked when Wellford hoped to launch, Steinberg said: “At a minimum I’d like to have a deal closed, or have a clinic up and running by the end January.”
Aqua launches in Australia
While the pastille product launch represents Wellford’s Australia debut under its own Aqua brand, it has been providing vape cartridges and pastilles under white label arrangements in the local market for four years, Steinberg said.
Efforts have now underway to inform prescribers and pharmacists in Queensland and Victoria of developments. To support the launch, Wellford is recruiting a national sales director and two medical sales liaisons covering both states.
Wellford’s facility in Nova Scotia
“A lot of premium brands have been buying our finished products for some time…but as margins started to compress and brand houses that were only connecting manufactures and distributors needed prices to come down, it reached a point where we decided to launch our own brands,” he explained.
“My role as country head is to speak to the larger clinics and pharmacies and tell them they’ve already been listing our products for quite a long time under someone else’s label.
“But a lot of them will know that. They are products that are well-established and well-liked by prescribing clinics, dispensing pharmacies and by the patients.”
Steinberg said it was in the process of selecting a hardware manufacturer for its vape cartridges, with a launch earmarked for mid-January.
But he ruled out bringing flower to Australia from its Canadian facility, conceding the market is already well served high quality products.
“I don’t think it helps patients to bring another flower into the market,” he said. “We think differentiation is in the 2.0 products.”
Wellford’s international operations
In addition its Aqualitas cultivation facility in Canada and clinic network in the UK, Wellford operates online business Newgrove Pharmacy and Therismos Distribution in the UK and Germany.
Wellford, which rebranded from Cannaray last year, acquired the cultivation business in February 2025. It has capacity to grow 3,000kg of dried flower and feeds plants from nutrient-rich tanks of water occupied by more than 2,000 koi carp.
It also has an EU/GMP processing facility to dry, trim and pack as well as an in-house extraction lab and pastille manufacturing.
This article was published on Cannabiz on 22 October 2026.
