MJBizMag November-December 2020 - 100

White Labeling
Partnerships Can Help Weather Storms
Whether you're relying on white-labeling companies to grow flower,
extract distillate or create cannabis-infused edibles, having a stable of
reliable production partners will ensure consumers always have access to
your products.
This year, Mother Nature has dealt a particularly hard blow to marijuana
cultivators. Wildfires have ravaged cannabis crops in Oregon and
threatened even more in California and Washington state. Meanwhile,
an early freeze and snowstorm delivered a surprise blow to Colorado's
outdoor growers.
To combat disruptions in the supply chain, California-based flower and
vape brand Old Pal contracts with about 100 cultivators licensed to grow
or manufacture marijuana in markets where the company operates.
Old Pal partners with cultivators for its marijuana
flower brand. Courtesy Photo
Pal's distributor is responsible for
quality assurance and control.
Old Pal teamed up with Austin, Texasbased
creative agency Land to develop the
brand. In turn, Land has an ownership
stake in the company. " That really helped
us think about brand and marketing from
the get-go, " Wilenkin said.
FOCUSING ON CORE BUSINESS
Another company that uses white-label
manufacturers is Boulder, Coloradobased
edibles maker Wana Brands.
While Wana manufactures its own
gummies, it contracts out for extracting
the distillate used in its infused
products, which saves on the cost of
equipment, the workers to operate that
machinery and the space it takes up
in the company's 19,000-square-foot
manufacturing facility.
" We used to do our own extraction,
but as we've grown, we realized it's more
efficient to focus on the actual edibles
manufacturing and become more
specialized there, " said Logan Craven,
Wana's chief financial officer. " What we
decided was, if we were to move away
from extraction, we'd have additional
edibles manufacturing capacity in
our facility. We wanted to keep all the
manufacturing within our control and
" For us, being a flower brand, we rely on having amazing relationships
with great cultivators and distributors, " said Rusty Wilenkin,
CEO of Old Pal, which sells cannabis in California, Nevada and
Washington state. " This allowed us to go to so many states
so quickly. If we had to build a mini-factory in each state,
our expansion would take so long. "
The multiple relationships with cultivators ensure that
Old Pal can get its products-even when natural
disaster strikes. So far, Old Pal's flower supply has
not been affected by the West Coast wildfires,
though several growers did report close calls.
" We've had supply shortages in the past, " Wilenkin
said. " This year, wholesale prices for cannabis
skyrocketed, and a number of brands had trouble
keeping up with demand. Luckily, our partners stepped
up to make sure we had enough product to keep our
brand growing. "
- Margaret Jackson
not white label and outsource the actual
edibles manufacturing. Extraction is a
relatively easier process to standardize. "
Wana encourages its extractors to use
multiple cultivators so that if one crop
fails, there are still others that can be
relied upon.
" We want to make sure it's a grow
source we've vetted and that we feel
comfortable with their practices and
procedures, " Craven said. " It makes us
less dependent on an individual crop or
production runs. We're able to mitigate
risk and work off of what the industry as
a whole is doing as opposed to what we
have in our own grow. "
Another measure Wana takes to
ensure continuous production is keeping
three to four months worth of THC
distillate on hand.
100 Marijuana Business Magazine | November-December 2020
" Our growers or the extractor would
have to have long-term supply issues in
order for it to impact us, " Craven said.
" Luckily, we haven't seen that. "
Because Colorado requires a certificate
of analysis before cannabis products can
be legally transferred to another business
or consumer, quality control is built into
the regulatory process. Wana takes it a
step further by retesting the distillate
it receives to ensure the vendors are
sending what they say they're sending.
" A big part of the brand has always
been quality and consistency and trying
to innovate in terms of the product
itself, " said Craven, who has been with
the company since January 2019. " We've
always tried to present ourselves as very
professional and clean. The product has
always been the focus here. "
MJBizMag November-December 2020

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