Month: November 2020

By Danny Reed -November 25, 2020

NEW YORK – Despite the uncertainty bearing down on many industries, cannabis has provided some bright spots for the U.S. economy since the COVID-19 pandemic began. In its newest “Insights Flash,” a monthly report that provides data and insight into key areas of legal cannabis including category sales, state-by-state performance, and pricing analysis, LeafLink said the cannabis industry is showing impressive growth even as our daily lives have been disrupted.

“The wholesale cannabis industry, as measured by LeafLink’s GMV (Gross Merchandise Value), grew 112 percent in October 2020 year-over-year,” LeafLink said. Advertisement

Dispensaries also are seeing higher sales than they were last year. Leaflink identified a 25 percent rise in GMV for same-store sales in October versus last year.

Due to a lack of federal guidance, cannabis operates almost as a series of individual markets. Michigan nearly doubled its overall industry growth with a GMV increase of 213 percent when compared to the same time period last year. This likely is due to a huge expansion of the state’s legalized cannabis industry. Michigan voters approved recreational use in 2018 and the state’s first recreational sales started in December of 2019. Sales really picked up during the course of 2020. California, which first legalized cannabis sales in 1996 for medicinal use, is still demonstrating impressive growth. The state’s GMV rose 65 percent over the past year despite already having the largest legal cannabis market in the United States. California’s neighboring states, Nevada and Oregon, actually saw the GMV drop compared to a year ago. 

When it comes to overall month over month sales data from September to October, cartridges led the field in growth (1.78 percent). But despite rumors of its premature demise, flower continues to dominate. Packaged cannabis flower represented 20 percent of all legal cannabis sales from September to October 2020. Edibles experienced the sharpest decline (1.7 percent) mostly driven by a bottoming out of gummy sales (10 percent). 

According to LeafLink thetop-performing brandsin October were Grow Sciences (Ariz.), THC Design (Calif.), Veritas Fine Cannabis (Colo.), Peregrine Manufacturing (Mich.), Cannavative (Nev.), and oreKron (Ore.).

PAYTON JOY x NOVEMBER 10, 2020 x INDUSTRY NEWS TOP BRANDS

Berner’s Cookies has continued its expansion across the United States, this time officially launching a beautiful new retail location in Colorado. Last spring, Cookies partnered with the Denver based cannabis company, Veritas Fine Cannabis.

Shortly after establishing that partnership, Colorado was introduced to Cookies products, though originally distributed through third parties. This Cookies Denver is the first Cookies dispensary to open in the state and they’re offering a full menu of their genetics plus many of the state’s best local brands.

Premium Strain Line Up

Cookies Denver offers a variety of Cookies strains, exclusive Cookies drops, and products from their sister companies (Exotikz, Lemonnade & Runtz). Additionally, Cookies Denver highlights some of Colorado’s finest Cannabis brands, such as Veritas, Bloom County, Cherry, and Dixie Elixirs.

Cookies Denver’s featured flower strains include:

Georgia Pie: A cross between Gelati and Kush Mintz 11, this 60/40 Indica-hybrid is known for it’s relaxing and mood-elevating effects.

Cheetah Piss: This trio creates a unique high like no other. A hybrid between Lemonade, Gelato 42, and London Pound Cake, this strain produces focused and energizing effects.

White Runtz: This is one of the most popular strains on the market, most notably for its fruit-flavored terps. This calming and euphoric hybrid is a cross between Gelato and Zkittles.

The full menu is available on Denver’s Weedmaps.

The interior and exterior of Cookies Denver reflect the same style as their other projects, showcasing their iconic baby blue aesthetic. Inside the building, their featured products border the wall, similar to other Cookies dispensaries. There is also an indoor viewpoint that allows customers to get a glimpse of their on-site grow operation.

Although Cookies has been available in Colorado for a few months now, there was still plenty of hype at the grand opening. Photos posted on social media show people decked out in Cookies merch stretched all the way around the building.

Berner continues to make waves within the Cannabis community as he carries out his mission for nationwide expansion. Not only does Cookies produce some of the most loved strains, but they also have a following like no other. Cookies is hands down one of the most innovative brands in the game and Cookies’ popularity is only going to increase as they continue to launch new projects around the country.

If you find yourself in the area, make sure to check out Cookies Denver, located at 2057 S Broadway, Denver, CO 80210.

DANNY BRADLEY x NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Denver residents, there’s a new cannabis brand in town! The international cannabis lifestyle brand COOKIES has planted roots and opened a location here in town. 

On November 5, the COOKIES brand joined the country’s oldest recreational cannabis market by opening its first retail location. COOKIES opened shop in Denver’s iconic South Broadway neighborhood.

The cannabis COOKIES offers boast premium genetics. While COOKIES is ready to take the Denver recreational cannabis market by storm, they remain humble and grateful to join the industry and Denver’s cannabis community.

How did COOKIES begin? Well, COOKIES began with cannabis grow and breeding expert Jai and an entrepreneur/Bay Area rapper Berner, whose famous strain, Girl Scout Cookies (GSC), remains one of the most sought-after cannabis strains in the world. COOKIES started out in a San Francisco garage grow. Throughout its journey, COOKIES has maintained a goal: authenticity and innovative genetics.

The Denver retail location offers famous COOKIES strains, including Gary Payton, Gelatti, Cheetah Piss, White Runtz, Georgia Pie, and Sticky Buns. COOKIES will also offer heavy-hitting products from the broader COOKIES family of brands: LEMONNADE, RUNTZ, and COLLINS AVE. The location will also stock strains and products from several top-quality Colorado-based brands like Cherry, a buzzworthy and award-winning boutique local grower.

The new store features a grow operation that customers can view through an in-store window. Located at 2057 S. Broadway, the retail storefront is situated among various boutiques, music venues, eateries, and arts attractions. The South Broadway neighborhood, affectionately known as SoBo, has exploded into one of the focal points for Denver’s music and cultural scenes over the past decade.

Before their retail store opening, COOKIES had a presence in Denver’s cannabis community. Since May 2020, COOKIES offered its strains and products in Colorado dispensaries by working out exclusive partnerships with local cultivation operator Veritas Fine Cannabis and distribution and manufacturing partner, Slang Worldwide. 

COOKIES managed to show its talent for developing partnerships through grower partnerships and brand-owned retail locations. COOKIES strains and products are available in every legal adult-use recreational cannabis market in the United States through its efforts. This excludes markets that have recently legalized cannabis due to ballot measures during the 2020 elections. Still, I am confident we will see a COOKIES presence extended into those markets soon enough.

What sets COOKIE apart? They cite their control of the entire experience from start to finish, seed to sale. COOKIES take pride in their in-house cultivation, global varieties, and a full lineup of strain-specific products.

The COOKIES brand is a lifestyle. 

“Today, COOKIES is one of the most well-respected and top-selling cannabis brands in California and throughout the worldm” their website claims. “The company and its product are recognized globally and offer a stable of over 85 cannabis varieties and product lines, including indoor and sun-grown flower, pre-rolls, gel caps, and vape carts.

“COOKIES’ seed-to-sale business allows for complete quality control at every step—from cultivation and production to customers’ end retail experience. With a deep commitment to restorative justice and progressive drug policy, COOKIES actively works to enrich communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs through advocacy work and social equity initiatives.” 

MJ Brand Insights

By Margaret Jackson

November 5, 2020

As the cannabis industry matures, consumers are growing up along with it and gravitating toward more sophisticated products. Most cannabis data-tracking companies don’t distinguish premium brands from the rest of the products available on the market, but anecdotally, industry professionals say they’ve noticed more of their customers gravitating toward higher-end products. 

“Edibles have maintained their share of the market — it’s similar to where they were pre-COVID,” said Lisa Gee, director of marketing and corporate social responsibility at Lightshade, a vertically integrated Denver-based cannabis business. “What is markedly different for us, and I think it’s a trend in Colorado that we’re learning about from our friends, is that people are spending more money on higher-priced boutique flower.”

Among the brands flying off store shelves is Cookies, the San Francisco-based cannabis brand founded by grow expert Jai and rapper and entrepreneur Berner. Lightshade didn’t carry anything that sold for more than $42 an eighth until Cookies entered the Colorado market; it sells for about $72 an eighth, Gee said. 

So what is a premium brand? It depends on who you ask. 

Alana Malone, co-founder and CEO of the Denver cultivation and extraction business Green Dot Labs, said that in the consumer packaged goods arena, premium prices are on the upper end of the prices that already exist in the marketplace. 

“Premium is the top 20 to 30 percent of any category, but luxury is out of reach for most people,” Malone said.

Andrew Freeman, chief brand officer of the Los Angeles-based pre-roll cannabis company Drew Martin, said growing techniques are what set premium brands apart from the rest. 

“Specifically with flower products or vape, it’s about the growing techniques that have allowed the cultivator to create an incredibly controlled environment with an outcome that is potent,” Freeman said. “Within legacy markets and legacy retail, premium often means growing indoors, it often means high potency, and very often there is a design element — beautiful packaging with gold or metallic foil used to connote a premium product.” 

“At the end of the day it’s about the value of the product — it has nothing to do with price. The question is would I spend money on that again?”

Jon Spadafora, head of marketing and sales at Denver-based premium cultivator Veritas Fine Cannabis,  defines premium products from the perspective of user experience.

“Premium products are effective, consistent, have an amazing taste and cool aroma,” Spadafora said. “At the end of the day it’s about the value of the product — it has nothing to do with price. The question is would I spend money on that again?”

Partnering with a premium brand

When Cookies wanted to get into the Colorado market, it executed a licensing agreement with Veritas, which grows and packages the lifestyle brand’s strains and distributes it to Colorado retailers.

“They knew they couldn’t go and start a new facility in every state,” Spadafora said. “They looked to people like us. For us, it was important that we weren’t just signing up with any brand. Berner is a cannabis legend before he is a hop-hop legend.”

Veritas dropped 35 pounds of Cookies cannabis the first day it was available; it sold out in eight hours, Spadafora said. While the buzz around Cookies has subsided slightly, lines still form at shops that send notifications to their customers that they’ve received a drop. The company recently delivered 65 pounds of Cookies to Colorado shops that Spadafora estimated would sell out in a few days. 

“Every Friday, we’ll have 100 people tag us on Instagram while they’re opening either Cookies or Veritas,” he said.

While partnerships are one way to bring a premium brand into a new market, positioning your retail store as a luxury destination is another strategy some companies are taking. In Aspen, Colo., a mountain town that oozes wealth, Dalwhinnie Farms’ retail boutique is selling high-end goods alongside its premium cannabis brands — think Rolex watches and Italian umbrellas and leather goods. 

“We’re trying to bring the top-notch quality of everything to our store,” said Ashley Grace, the company’s chief revenue officer. “The idea is we’re trying to de-stigmatize cannabis, and we’re using an alternative retail model to do so. We’re really focusing on a finely curated selection of interesting goods.”

The company promotes itself as meticulously growing proprietary cannabis strains at a purpose-built, advanced cultivation facility that shares its grounds with a 210-acre working equestrian ranch in the San Juan Mountains near Telluride, Colo. Its cannabis strains are available exclusively at its Aspen boutique.

“The Dalwhinnie products are for more of a connoisseur customer,” Grace said. “When we talk to customers about our product, the feedback we get is it’s by far the most superior product that they’re getting.” 

Brands can also convey premium status through carefully curated events.  Drew Martin had planned to launch its line of high-end pre-rolls with a series of dinners and cocktail parties, but the coronavirus pandemic forced the company to pivot to a virtual Zoom event. The company partnered with the exclusive Hollywood, Calf., club San Vicente Bungalows, which caters to A-list celebrities and power brokers. 

The Zoom event featured company founder Drew Martin, a former mixologist who has worked in several James Beard Award-winning bars, conducting a cocktail-making class. Drew Martin delivered packages to participants that included a list of alcohol and other ingredients they would need for the event, as well as a box of pre-rolls, a lime, a lemon, a measuring cup and a few mixers and elixirs.

“(Martin) brings that expertise in the way a chef would to a high-end restaurant,” Freeman said. “It keeps a premium consumer interested in the brand and gets in on the storytelling around the product. As we’re moving into new markets, it’s been an incredible way to introduce ourselves.”

Pretty packaging

Beyond the quality of the products, premium packaging needs to exude extravagance. 

“If you’re going to put the extra quality into the growing and curing, you have to convey that to the consumer and set an expectation that goes with it,” Grace said. “Packaging is critical to delivering on that expectation.” 

Jon Spadafora said Colorado has been resistant to pre-packaged cannabis, as opposed to having it weighed out when purchased, but he knew that the Cookies brand was strong enough for customers to accept it. That allowed Veritas to succeed with its own brand of pre-packaged products. 

“Berner is a man of the people,” Spadafora said. “His music is great, and it’s a very inclusive environment. It’s so different from what everyone else is growing.”

“Millennials as a group have high purchasing power and want a story and an emotion behind a brand”

While not all products in fancy packaging are premium, the aesthetic appeal of the container is important to ensuring a brand is attractive to millennials, a group that is more likely to invest in high-quality products and are increasingly demanding brands they can trust, said Susannah Grossman, marketing and sales director for Green Dot Labs. 

“Millennials as a group have high purchasing power and want a story and an emotion behind a brand,” Grossman said. 

It’s not only high-end cannabis flower and edibles that consumers are purchasing. They’re also interested in premium devices like DaVinci’s dual-use vaporizer. While the number of vaporizers the Las Vegas-based company has sold during the pandemic are down, its profits are up, DaVinci CEO Cort Smith said.  That’s because while in-store sales have declined, higher-profit internet sales have increased. 

“I’m sometimes amazed that people will spend $300 on an apparatus to ingest cannabis,” said Cort Smith, DaVinci’s CEO. “People are looking for safety. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) hasn’t figured out how to regulate it.”

Drew Martin’s Freeman, who has worked with mainstream luxury brands like Tiffany and West Elm, said cannabis retail is evolving toward a more boutique experience, and brands must elevate their images to match. 

“The experience has to be curated, authentic, aspirational but still approachable for consumers,” Freeman said. “We really want to create an experience that’s something special.”