Jesse Lavoie wanted to sell cannabis grown in Manitoba in his home province, but he had to ship it first.
Working with seven local businesses to produce nonprofit boards to help fund a legal challenge to the province’s pot laws, he soon found the process unnecessarily complex and costly, and took a big bite out of the funds that he was trying to raise. .
Lavoie said the price of sending two kilograms of flowers to Ontario to process and send them back to individual Manitoba cannabis stores was about $ 1,000, and that did not include the cost of processing.
“That’s when we all decided, instead of doing it all separately by other means, to unite. We formed a union,” the Winnipeg businessman said.
Starting next week, five independently owned Manitoba cannabis companies will be in charge of packaging and delivery, and will do so locally.
The TobaRolling Union will pack cannabis, for example, in pre-rolled joints and jars, at a facility and deliver it together to cannabis stores in the province.
Small batch producers come together
It will save money for every company, create new jobs and reduce its environmental footprint, they say.
“We all have similar problems where we’re paying a lot of money for shipping or we’re paying a big corporation to do our processing and maybe it’s prioritized, maybe not,” Lavoie said.
“There are a lot of different issues that we’re trying to get rid of by doing it ourselves, and I wasn’t thought better partners to do it.”
His company, TobaGrown, is joined by four independently owned cannabis producers: Alicante Gardens, Cypress Craft, Kief Cannabis and Natural Earth Craft Cannabis.
Prior to that agreement, “when you send to a dispensary, you have to send to each individual dispensary,” Lavoie said. “There are more than 150 in this province. If you think of 150 packages coming out of Ontario to come here, it’s crazy money.”
Before cannabis can be sold in retail stores, it must be processed by an authorized company who will weigh the product, label the packaging and apply the tax stamps, among other obligations. (Richard Vogel / The Associated Press)
Lavoie anticipates that stores will appreciate placing an order and getting products from five companies.
Alicante Gardens, based in the Morris area, considered becoming a license processor to save time and money.
But it would not have been cheap, said co-owner Waldemar Heidebrecht.
“Just to make this processing room and all the licenses … we’re talking about $ 10,000, $ 20,000, $ 30,000 right there, without even blinking an eye.”
In fact, he once jokingly told his family that Lavoie should set up some sort of processing and distribution cooperative with other small-scale producers.
“It was kind of an internal joke and I never thought about it again, but then Jesse called me and said,‘ Hey, we have that idea, ’” recalled Heidebrecht, who jumped on board right away.
Lavoie is well known in the Manitoba cannabis industry. Under the banner of TobaGrown, he took the province to court to ban the production of self-produced recreational cannabis, even though the federal government allows it. He is awaiting a decision from the Queen’s Bank Court.
Natural Earth Craft Cannabis owner Tim Doerksen on the left and Alicante Gardens co-owner Waldemar Heidebrecht share a laugh as they talk to the founding members of the TobaRolling Union. (Ian Froese / CBC)
Lavoie said this latest collaborative effort is a vote of confidence in Manitoba’s cannabis industry.
“It symbolizes our commitment to this province, the cannabis users of this province, the dispensaries of this province and the brands of this province,” he said.
Focusing first on Manitoba
“Of course, our partners have aspirations to go beyond here. Manitoba will be our goal, but we will eventually go there.”
The local market is driving Natural Earth Craft Cannabis, a Winnipeg-based processor that initially produced cannabis for other companies to sell elsewhere, before obtaining a sales license to sell under its own brand.
“We wanted to be part of the local cannabis community, which means having our products on the shelves of local cannabis stores,” said director Tim Doerksen.
He said TobaRolling’s opportunity was “almost impossible to say no.” By aligning with other producers and minimizing or sharing costs, you expect a 20 percent savings in this part of your business.
The additional revenue will help expand business like yours, and will support the hiring of eight new workers to manage flower weight, joint winding and packaging labeling, among other tasks. Lavoie said the union could hire more people if more companies sign up.
Cypress Craft Cannabis, which stays out of North Cypress-Langford township, hopes the new relationship will bring its products to more Manitobans.
Because a small business runs out of the family farm, master producer Bryce Oliver said there is sometimes little time to focus on the distribution part of owning a business when you are busy producing it.
“One of our problems is that we don’t go out on the farm too often. So yes [TobaRolling is] making a lot of relationships across the province, that will help us. “
Jesse Denton, founder of Kief Cannabis, said his facility will be the main place where the union will package its cannabis. (Ian Froese / CBC)
This agreement is possible with the participation of a licensed producer like Kief Cannabis, who has the authority to be a processor. The Selkirk-based producer has a room reserved for packaging and another in case of expansion.
But Jesse Denton, the founder of Kief, said TobaRolling could not have come together without the five parties.
“In my opinion, we’re the first of its kind,” Denton said.
“I think it says a lot about how well connected we are as a province and how well connected we want to be as an industry, especially locally.”
Five local companies join forces to pack and deliver cannabis
Before you can buy cannabis at a nearby store, it must be packaged and distributed. The process can be very expensive, especially for small-scale unlicensed cannabis growers to do it themselves. Some local entrepreneurs are trying to change that.