Cultivate eyes expansions in Worcester, Framingham and elsewhere
Photo | Zachary Comeau
Cultivate President Sam Barber tends to marijuana plants at the company's Leicester facility.
After two months of recreational cannabis sales, Leicester marijuana retailer Cultivate is eyeing growth.
The company has expressed interest in opening stores in both Worcester and Framingham and is exploring expanding its cultivation space, which is currently just under 10,000 square feet at the Leicester facility.
Cultivate was one of the first two stores east of the Mississippi River to begin selling adult-use cannabis products in November.
Since then, the company has opened three additional grow rooms at the Leicester facility, said President Sam Barber.
Along with that growth came jobs. The company has 70 jobs, including 20 since November.
“For me, I think a lot of people underscore what it is to create jobs,” he said. “I find that underemphasized in all of this.”
With two additional stores in the pipeline, Cultivate is looking to expand its cultivation and product manufacturing capabilities. The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission allows licensees to grow up to 100,000 square feet of canopy.
Per state regulations, each licensee is allowed up to three retail stores, but Barber said other locations in towns aside from Worcester and Framingham are still under consideration.
“There are a lot of things up in the air,” he said. “It’s a long path to get that far.”
The launch of Cultivate's recreational marijuana business was somewhat of a rocky start for the 25-year-old Babson College graduate
Long lines and traffic backups caused many nearby residents to express frustration at community meetings, but with seven other stores licensed to sell cannabis products, the lines and traffic have eased.
Cultivate has continued to hold meetings with its neighbors, but those growing pains are largely over, Barber said.
“We got Christmas cards from a few (neighbors),” Barber said.
The company has invested in additional heaters and insulation for a large outdoor tent to hold the store’s eager customers.
To conserve product, the company initially began limiting customers to just an eighth ounce of marijuana flower, two pre-rolled joints and two concentrates. Beginning Jan. 21, customers were allowed to purchase up to the state’s legal limit of an ounce of marijuana.
The company was running out of edibles due to strict state regulations, but thanks to the additional staff and two months of experience, the store should now always be stocked with those products, Barber said.
It's been a hot market so far, with just a handful of open stores combining for almost $24 million in revenue through just two months.
Barber’s interest in the cannabis space began in the entrepreneurial world at Babson College when he began developing his cannabis-infused beverage Altus, which is now on the shelves at Cultivate for medical customers.
He was one of the early believers at Babson of the cannabis industry, he said.
“I saw the growth behind this, and I think when you see just how big this market is and the fact that this could be bigger than the NFL and bigger than the wine industry, I saw this as a huge opportunity,” he said.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments