Multistate operator MariMed recently locked down two new acquisitions: Kind Therapeutics, in Maryland, and Green Growth, in Illinois.

The company, which already had a footprint in Maryland through other licensed business acquisitions, had been eyeing Kind Therapeutics for the past few years. MariMed owned Kind’s cultivation and production facility in Hagerstown, as well as a 6,000-sq.-ft. building in Anne Arundel County that was being developed as a Kind Therapeutics dispensary location. Kind had been leasing those facilities from MariMed.

The intention now is to expand those Kind operations and layer them into MariMed’s existing Maryland infrastructure. For instance, at the cultivation site, MariMed plans to add another 40,000 square feet of canopy, as well as a GMP kitchen for cannabis edibles.

Some 630 miles to the west, the newly closed Green Growth acquisition will allow MariMed to vertically integrate its cannabis operations in Illinois. Green Growth held cultivation, manufacturing and distribution licenses; MariMed had only claimed a retail license in that state until this point.

"In this new licensed manufacturing facility, we will produce cannabis flowers and products that will be sold in our four Thrive retail dispensaries as well as into the robust Illinois wholesale marketplace,” CEO Bob Fireman said in a public statement. “Being vertically integrated in Illinois will improve our margins in our retail stores and create new wholesale revenue. We are exploring adding an additional six dispensaries in the state as Illinois allows up to 10 for a single owner."

MariMed is now building out a cultivation and processing facility (with 14,000 square feet of canopy space) in Mt. Vernon, Ill., with operations anticipated to begin at the end of this year.

"Being vertical in Illinois will improve our gross margins at our retail stores and allow us to wholesale our branded products to other dispensaries," CFO Jon Levine said in a public statement.