Roughly a year ago, around the time New York launched its first adult-use cannabis sales through one nonprofit organization in Manhattan, the Oneida Indian Nation further upstate announced it would build out its own cannabis program and supply chain.
Vertically integrated Verona Collective was born, making the Oneida Indian Nation one of the first tribal nations to have a fully seed-to-sale cannabis operation.
The company has grown to include an indoor cultivation facility that grows nearly 100 different varieties of flower, an extraction operation that produces vape products and edibles, and now a dispensary, which celebrated a soft opening Jan. 3 in Verona, N.Y., located in Central New York near Syracuse.
Verona Collective also has four different brands under its umbrella, including Trim & Proper, CNY Provisions, Humble & Kind, and Fair Shake. Trim & Proper represents the company’s best-performing, hand-trimmed flower, and while Vice President of Retail Ryan Riggs says the CNY Provisions brand includes similar-quality flower, some of that product is machine trimmed. Fair Shake is fully ground flower, which Riggs says appeals to consumers who don’t want to grind their own.
The company’s dispensary launched with 12 varieties of cannabis flower, as well as products from Verona Collective’s Trim & Proper, CNY Provisions, and Fair Shake brands. While the storefront currently only offers flower and prerolls on the menu, Riggs says the Verona Collective team plans to expand its dispensary menu in the coming weeks.
“All of the product sold at our dispensary is our own product, and we continue to add strains weekly,” he says. “We are going to add more strains next week as we get more strains grown, tested [and] harvested. So, it’ll be constant introduction of new products, new flower on the menu. And then … we’re going to add some new products in the form of extracted products and processed products to our menu, as well, over the next few months.”
Riggs says Verona Collective will celebrate a more official grand opening at its dispensary once more products land on the menu, and the company plans to open a second dispensary within the next few months, also on Oneida Indian Nation land.
The dispensary has received positive feedback so far, Riggs says, as well as some return customers. The team is using insight from consumers to ensure the product selection meets their needs, as well as to provide useful educational materials on Verona Collective’s offerings.
Joel Barkin, the company’s vice president of communications, says one of Verona Collective’s main advantages is its location in the heart of New York.
“We are close to many different population centers, four hours from New York City, [and we’re] obviously [near] Syracuse [and] Rochester, among other cities,” he says. “The dispensary is located pretty closely off of the Thruway, which is one of the most traveled roads in New York state.”
Barkin says the local community has come to recognize the Oneida Indian Nation for the quality and professionalism of its businesses, which sets the standard for Verona Collective’s operations.
Riggs points to vertical integration as another one of the company’s advantages in New York’s market.
“We’re very excited about the quality and we stand behind it,” he says. “We’re one of the few operators that is fully vertically integrated, so we can stand behind the genetics and the quality of each and every one of our strains, and we feel great about that resonating with guests and consumers.”
Riggs has past experience in the cannabis industry and says he has seen the price of flower drop dramatically in new markets over the course of a year. To combat this in New York’s market, he says the Verona Collective team takes pricing decisions very seriously.
“I think we are very cognizant of what our … competitive pricing demographic is here,” Riggs says. “At least on the legal side, we’ve looked into where we think a fair price is going to be. I think that’s going to be something we have to continue to watch as the state of New York advances its licensing campaign and opportunities because that will obviously bring in closer competition.”
Quality and customer service will continue to set Verona Collective apart, he says, adding that Verona Collective will also continue to explore research and development to differentiate the company in New York’s market.
“As guests are looking for new and different things, we want to be able to provide a best-in-class option for them,” Riggs says.
Looking ahead, Riggs says the company’s shorter-term goals include rolling out additional vape and edible products, including various flavors of gummies and chocolates. The Verona Collective team also plans to continue evaluating which flower varieties resonate best with customers to fine-tune its flower menu.
In the longer term, once the company opens its second dispensary, the team will evaluate further expansion opportunities within the Oneida Indian Nation.
Barkin notes that all the revenues generated from cannabis on tribal land go back to supporting the tribe’s governmental services, including housing programs, education, courts and healthcare, and the Verona Collective team is proud to support the local community.
“It’s an advantageous model in the sense that reinvestment is at the core of everything the nation does, and that'll be similar in this enterprise as well.”
