TORONTO, March 4, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – Marketing cannabis in Canada is a complex process, and rightly so, but, making it one step easier to navigate, Duallok announced the expansion of its child-resistant packaging inventory to Toronto. 

Already available in the U.S. out of Los Angeles and New Jersey, this new inventory location makes a speedy and safe packaging solution accessible to an even wider geographic. Presenting an immediately available rolling stock of child-resistant packaging in its most popular format, Duallok inventory is suitable for a wide range of products enabling cannabis brands to move quickly to market.

So how does it work? The Duallok patented double-lock design is certified under the 16 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1700 guidelines for child resistance, meaning companies can take products to market knowing confidently that they are also keeping kids safe and their brand compliant.

Based in these three prime locations are a large inventory of unbranded black and white packages ready to customize as needed to meet local legislation for vape carts, pre-rolls, edibles and much more.

Once a company selects its choice color and unit quantity, the packs are available for collection or dispatch in just two to three business days and fit directly into a company’s existing packaging process. No need to provide artwork or prepare labelling, these packs are ready to ship directly to you.

Duallok partners, stationed across the U.S. and Canada, can also support companies with any additional requirements for bespoke internal product fitments or further customizations. It's a streamlined process with a dedicated project manager ready to help at every stage.

Accessible to fledgling companies and well-established brands, the minimum order quantity for this solution is 240 units and is scalable to much higher volumes. If you're worried about your supply chain, needing a speedy turnaround or looking for a simple and safe solution, get in touch and keep things moving.

To learn more about Duallok child-resistant inventory available across the U.S. and Canada, request a free sample and information kit for review on info@burgopak.com. Be sure to sign up to the official mailing list here, for all the latest news, innovations and upcoming limited designs from Duallok and sister company Burgopak.

Fire & Flower, a network of 79 retail dispensaries in Canada and the developer of the Hifyre technology platform, has signed a licensing agreement with American Acres that will bring the brand to the U.S.

The strategic agreement offers a path forward for Fire & Flower in California, Arizona and Nevada (and beyond) by getting the brand in front of U.S. consumers and providing American Acres with a digital-forward data platform. The first Fire & Flower-branded store will open in Palm Springs, Calif., in the first half of this year.

“For us, the us is this amazing opportunity because we've already honed our craft in a really competitive environment,” CEO Trevor Fencott said. Competition is the backbone of the industry, and Fencott is eager to get into that game in more open environments—rather than the limited license markets elsewhere in the U.S. With consumer engagement and data in the foreground, he said there’s an opportunity to go deep with tech and compete on the retail side of the cannabis industry.

It wasn’t too long ago, in late 2017 when Fire & Flower got started, that product selection in Canada was practically nil: “We have dry cannabis or cannabis oil. What do you want?” was how Fencott recalled the early days of Canadian dispensary relationships, even into the adult-use legalization era.

Product selection in the U.S., he says, is more varied and innovative, generally, which allows a data-forward company like Fire & Flower to hone its craft even more.

He sees data as a pillar of cannabis retail, something necessary in this vast and burgeoning industry, particularly as product innovation drives new categories and new consumer demands. Specifically, Fencott points to businesses like Warby Parker and b8ta, “digital-native” companies that are competing in innovative ways around the likes of retail behemoth Amazon.

“These retailers really did a great job figuring out how to fight with the big gorilla,” Fencott said, gesturing toward Amazon. “And we just copied the playbook, which was to use technology to engage your customers super deeply and have that deep engagement drive higher basket size and lifetime value of customers. Then the other thing they did that was really different is they view their vendor partners as customers.”

The data inputs go both ways: As a company like Fire & Flower is tracking consumer sales trends and preferences, so too is it engaging its vendors and wholesalers as consumers of the brand. Fencott said that this is an important perspective on the relationship with sellers, one that provides a helpful feedback loop for just that sort of product innovation that was missing under the early years of Canadian market regulations.

And still, behind the data, the brick-and-mortar store is vital. Fencott that the businesses would do well to view their store as media.

The dispensary is a place consumer engagement happens, where new products can be advertised and explained. That physical location is key to understanding how consumers are interacting with this emerging industry.

The American Acres move follows a 2020 deal between Fire & Flower and Couche-Tard, a Canadian convenience store operator known in the States for its Circle K brand. As part of the deal, Fire & Flower opened two retail stores adjacent to Circle K locations in Alberta. Fencott says the agreement is a good example of a “spoke” coming off Fire & Flower’s retail “hub,” part of a broader corporate strategy to reimagine the cannabis landscape.

“That's a massive retailer repurposing some of their existing real estate into something that is hyper productive from a revenue standpoint,” he says. (Last year, Couche-Tard pulled in $54 billion in revenue.) It also provides an opportunity for Fire & Flower to flex its data-driven inventory management muscles, with only 600 square feet in those retail locations to provide the focused suite of SKUs that the company knows will move fast.

It might be a bit of foreshadowing for the cannabis industry as federal reform hovers vaguely in the conversation out of Washington, D.C. How will the retail landscape change once federal legalization takes shape?

It’s not easy to answer that question right now, but Fencott said he’s planning to be in position for the opportunity when it arises. To that end, the American Acres licensing deal sets up further acquisition possibilities down the road.

“We can give you this Fire & Flower operating model. We can give you this tech platform that we know is making our stores more valuable up here,” Fencott said. “That's a tremendously valuable advantage for a group like them, and, again, we have this existing relationship.”

On the flip side of the deal, Fire & Flower is getting a discounted path to acquisition in the U.S.—in more mature markets that have a mostly vibrant sense of competition among private businesses. It’s a synergistic relationship, Fencott said, one that allows both Fire & Flower and American Acres to see a clear roadmap to the future.

It’s also indicative of broader market trends, where cash- and stock-heavy acquisition deals may no longer be the only game in town. Capital markets are welling up again in 2021, and investors are taking stock of legislative winds out of Washington. Cash is available, generally speaking, to those businesses that want and need it.

From Fencott’s vantage point, however, the brand-building power of consumer data is nudging its way into the conversation—quickly.

 

Bryan Faust | Adobe Stock

Republican majority leaders in the Wisconsin state legislature spoke loud and clear: cannabis legalization doesn’t belong in their state’s biennial budget.

Two years ago, they rejected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ proposal to decriminalize adult-use cannabis and legalize medicinal cannabis. And when Evers introduced another proposal last month, to regulate and tax adult-use cannabis for the 2021-23 biennium, Rep. Mark Born and Sen. Howard Marklein, the Joint Finance Committee co-chairs, deemed it dead on arrival.

While there’s not much hope for cannabis legalization in the governor’s budget—an avenue that also has proved fatal in other states—Evers’ proposals have continued to fan the flame of debate in Wisconsin, where only cannabidiol (CBD) sale and consumption is legal. During a March 4 virtual luncheon hosted by WisPolitics, an online magazine and news service covering political and governmental news in Wisconsin, Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley and Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz were split on whether a medical cannabis measure would survive in a standalone bill.

“That could pass,” said Bewley, a Democrat who represents a rural district in the northern part of the state. “I think that nationwide this is something that all states are going to deal with. And I think we could approach it from the way that the governor did, which is to put it in the budget with all of these different aspects and ways.”

After rejecting Evers’ budget measure last month, Marklein said cannabis legalization is a significant enough policy change that it should be debated in the light of day on its own.

Last week, Bewley said medical cannabis legalization is a no-brainer. In 2019, a Marquette University Law Poll found that 83% of Wisconsin voters supported legalizing medical cannabis with a doctor’s prescription. It also found 59% supported adult-use legalization.

“I think the medical marijuana portion of it is the one that we all know is widely accepted,” she said. “I heard [more than] 80% of the people of Wisconsin are in favor of that. I believe that it could pass as a standalone. But, for now, it’s in the budget, in a larger form. But we will be seeing something happen on marijuana in the future.”

Bewley’s minority leader colleague in the lower chamber wasn’t so sure.

“I don’t know that I see it passing,” said Hintz, a Democrat who represents an urban district that encompasses Oshkosh. “Perhaps I see it getting further along. I know that I’ve talked to some of my Republican colleagues, both some who are more libertarian in nature, some who just recognize the benefits of medicinal marijuana, and certainly see and hear the public support.

“I’m an incrementalist in being reasonable. If we can get a hearing on it, answer some questions, maybe explain to folks who don’t understand, then we can get further and maybe we can get there. But it’s up to the legislature to decide that we want to join the majority of states out there; that we want to recognize that the public overwhelmingly wants this, and that attitudes and responses are changing.”

Neighboring states Illinois and Michigan both have adult-use cannabis programs, while Minnesota has a medical program, Hintz pointed out. To the southwest, Iowa is in the same CBD-only boat as Wisconsin.

In Evers’ budget proposal, he said legalizing adult-use cannabis is expected to generate more than $165 million annually in the state, beginning in the second year of the biennium. That extra revenue would hold extra weight if Wisconsin were in fiscal distress—it’s not. According to the MacIver Institute, a Wisconsin-based conservative think tank, the state’s general fund balance was roughly $1.2 billion in October 2020, which represented the largest year-end balance Wisconsin had seen in the past two decades.

That in mind, Hintz said the $165 million in potential revenue is nothing to sneeze at, but he doesn’t think that’s the reason state lawmakers should pass legislation in favor of adult-use cannabis. He said non-monetary factors and impacts also should be taken into consideration.

“I’m glad that [Evers] put it out there,” Hintz said. “I think just the proposal alone accelerates the discussion, and I think we will eventually get there. I just don’t know if it’s going to be in the next six months or in the next decade.”

Today is International Women’s Day—an opportunity to celebrate women have chosen to challenge the status quo, helping break down barriers for themselves and others. It’s also a moment where we look toward the future with hope for all the more we can achieve for women around the world by working together.

Each year on March 8, we honor this tradition by highlighting the women of Cannabis Conference, an impressive roster of women shattering glass ceilings, making space for themselves and other notable women in the burgeoning cannabis industry.  

This listing is just a start. As we continue to announce speakers for Cannabis Conference (Aug. 24-26, 2021, at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino), there will be plenty more women innovators, leaders, entrepreneurs and trailblazers to highlight—so keep an eye on CannabisConference.com for continued updates to our speaker roster.

 

Bennett

Theresa Bennett

Editor, Hemp Grower

Theresa Bennett is editor of Hemp Grower. She joined HG and Cannabis Business Times as associate editor in November 2019 after working for GIE Media’s Recycling Group of magazines. Prior to her time with GIE, Bennett was the K-12 education reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal. Bennett is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Modern Farmer and newspapers across the country.

 

 

Boyajian

Salpy Boyajian

Executive Vice President / Board Chairman, Flower One

Salpy Boyajian joined Flower One in October of 2018 following the acquisition of NLV Organics (NLVO), a renowned consumer brand and luxury cultivator she co-founded in 2014. Boyajian now serves as the company’s Executive Vice President and Board Chairman, having previously held the title of Chief Operating Officer. Before entering the cannabis space, she served as the Mental Health Director for several leading non-profits in Los Angeles, ultimately founding her own non-profit organization before relocating to Nevada.

 

Goldsberry

Debby Goldsberry
Executive Director, Magnolia Wellness, FLOR
Co-Founder, Berkeley Patients Group collective 

Debby Goldsberry is executive director at Magnolia Wellness, an award-winning dispensary in Oakland, Calif., and the managing director of the Berkeley Community Care Center dispensary at Amoeba Music. She co-founded the Berkeley Patients Group (BPG) medical cannabis collective in 1999, directing its growth for more than 11 years. In 2017, Goldsberry published her first book, “Idiot’s Guide: Starting and Running a Marijuana Business.”

 

Kowalski

Emily Kowalski
Vice President of Cultivation, LeafLine Labs

Emily Kowalski is the Vice President of Cultivation at LeafLine Labs, LLC, one of two medical cannabis companies serving the patients of Minnesota. She utilizes her 10-plus years of experience in propagation, greenhouse production, and outdoor nursery production to cultivate consistent, healthy cannabis in LeafLine’s state-of-the-art indoor facility. Kowalski never settles for status quo and digs deep into data to drive quality and efficiency within her operation.

 

 

Neiden Tomaselli

Cassie Neiden Tomaselli

Conference Programming Director, Cannabis Conference

Contributing Editor, Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary and Hemp Grower

Cassie Neiden Tomaselli is a media professional with 10+ years’ experience generating print, web, video and podcast content for both trade and consumer markets. She now serves as Conference Programming Director for Cannabis Conference, where she works with the event’s Advisory Board and editorial teams from Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary and Hemp Grower to craft high-quality education for industry events. Previously, Neiden Tomaselli served as Director of Marketing & Communications for Firelands Scientific, an Ohio-based medical cannabis company.

 

 

Ratliff

Alisia Ratliff, PMP
Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Victus Capital Ventures, LLC

Alisia Ratliff, the CEO of Victus Capital Ventures and licensed project management professional, is a technical conference speaker, esteemed author, and ambitious entrepreneur. Possessing over 14 years of leadership experience expanding over several industries—Ratliff effectively manages technical and executive teams cross-departmentally while simultaneously overseeing all business operations, including supply chain, manufacturing, laboratory operations and product formulation. Ratliff helps her clients avoid repeating failed business models and implement sustainable business strategies no matter the ever-changing regulatory environment.

 

Ruscitto

Andriana Ruscitto

Assistant Editor, Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary, Hemp Grower

Andriana Ruscitto was hired as an associate editor for Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary and Hemp Grower in January 2021. Before joining GIE, Ruscitto attended Kent State University, where she worked in the university communications and marketing department, writing stories for the Kent State Today.

 

 

Schiller

Melissa Schiller

Senior Digital Editor, Cannabis Business Times & Cannabis Dispensary

Melissa Schiller joined the Cannabis Business Times team as an Assistant Digital Editor in June 2017 and now serves as Senior Digital Editor. Previously, she worked as an Audience Development Associate for GIE Media’s Ornamental Group of publications, where she managed the circulation for Cannabis Business Times, Garden Center, Nursery Management, and Greenhouse Management. She has also worked as a contributing writer and editorial assistant for a community newspaper and as a freelance writer for Northeast Ohio Media Group and Modern Tire Dealer.

 

Shreeve

Anna Shreeve
President, Urban Paragon, Inc., Targeted Intent, Inc., and The Bakeréé

Anna Shreeve is President of Urban Paragon, Inc., Targeted Intent, Inc., and The Bakeréé. Shreeve entered the medical cannabis industry seven years ago with her son, and she and her team opened The Baker, a division of Cookie Fam Genetics, a collaboration with legendary breeder “Jigga.” Shreeve’s group holds two recreational producer/processor licenses in Washington, and a recreational retail/processor license in Oregon.

 

 

 

Simakis

Michelle Simakis

Editor, Cannabis Business Times

Michelle Simakis is editor of Cannabis Business Times. She joined GIE Media in 2012 and most recently served as editor of Garden Center magazine, the leading trade publication covering the independent garden retail market. Under her direction, Garden Center expanded its Top 100 Independent Garden Centers List by devoting an entire issue to telling the stories of the leaders and companies ranked on the list. She also helped to launch the Garden Center Executive Summit, the educational conference for key-decision makers in the industry, and recently developed a the only daily e-newsletter in the market.

 

Skodzinski

Noelle Skodzinski

Editorial Director, Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary, Hemp Grower, Cannabis Conference

Noelle Skodzinski has 25+ years of publishing experience. She co-founded Cannabis Business Times with previous owner Tim Hermes in 2014. She has been named among the Top 50 Most Influential Women in Cannabis. Previously, she held numerous editorial leadership roles, including serving as editorial director of the Publishing Group at North American Publishing Co., where she oversaw two national business magazines, all digital content products, as well as the annual Publishing Business Conference and related events. In 2018 and 2020, Skodzinski was named one of the “Top Women in Media” by Folio.  

 

 

Wiseman

Hope Wiseman
Owner, Mary & Main Dispensary

Born and raised in Prince George’s County, Md., Hope Wiseman has always been passionate about serving her community. After spending a year at SunTrust as an Equity Institutional Sales Analyst, Wiseman decided to continue striving for excellence by pursuing her dreams of entrepreneurship. In Fall 2017, Wiseman became the youngest Black woman dispensary owner in the United States with the opening of Mary & Main dispensary in Prince George’s County, Maryland. She has been featured in Black Enterprise, Huffington Post, Blavity, and Cannabis Dispensary. Wiseman is also a speaker and consultant to those looking to enter the industry.