Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
"$5400 – all in small bills and the whole thing reeked of pot."
That's how entrepreneurs Deb Baker and Barb Diner describe the first payment they received from a Denver marijuana dispensary for their plastic cannabis containers. Afraid the local bank would look at them askance when they went to make the deposit, the two put the money in Ms. Baker's clothes dryer and tumbled it with some Febreeze sheets to get the smell out. By then the bank had closed so they stored the money in Ms. Baker's freezer under some loaves of bread until the next day. "We literally laundered the money," Ms. Baker laughs, "and ended up with cold hard cash." Such are the experiences of the service and supplies providers to the marijuana industry.
Ms. Baker and Ms. Diner created their company Higher Standard Packaging one year ago to supply the legal marijuana industry with plastic containers and in doing so joined a raft of businesses, large and small going after the particular and evolving packaging needs of this growing industry.
Two years ago, a Colorado dispensary could "throw some weed in a baggie and send it out the door," said Ms. Diner. Now a state government website specifies how to make the packaging compliant with the new laws including making the packaging child-resistant, opaque and bearing a warning.
In their research of existing containers, "What we smelled when we opened some of the sample vials concerned us," said Ms. Baker. She worried the odor might mean the plastic container was slowly releasing a chemical like formaldehyde it was made with, a process called off-gassing. "It's common sense that a recreational user or a person using marijuana products for medical reasons wants a container that won't contaminate what's inside," she said, so The pair decided to use only containers approved by the FDA for food and pharmaceutical use. Higher Standard Packaging now distributes a variety of products including 12 sizes of BPA-free cylindrical jars and child-resistant caps that can be individually labeled to contain edibles, flower — a term for marijuana buds, and concentrates. Clients can even choose to have containers made from an eco-friendly resin that comes from recycled milk cartons.
Working 12 hour days and learning something new in each of them, the entrepreneurs say they have sold nearly three million containers in their first year. From an initial investment of $1200 each, they have also made enough profit to take salaries as well as invest back in the business. So far the pair has worked with partners to create their products and have not hired additional employees.
When the entrepreneurs first began talking to larger companies who could create or distribute their packaging, they were most often refused due to the nature of the product's ultimate use. "They did not want to be in the marijuana business," said Ms. Baker. Now, she says, some of those same companies are calling them for advice. "We've been to more than 100 dispensaries, growers, processors," she said, "and we've talked to a lot of people about what their packaging needs are and what they want to see on the market."
Until recently, marijuana stores and producers adapted pharmaceutical containers like vials with child-resistant caps or blisterpaks to their own use, but now companies including Higher Standard Packaging are collaborating with packaging manufacturers to design "first generation" products that are designed specifically for the cannabis industry. And while last year's budtenders used to spend part of their day affixing labels to containers, producers now have labeling machines and printed jars.
The business is changing rapidly, said Ms. Diner, "the big players are getting into it now but there's still a lot of opportunity."
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Payments Smelling Of Marijuana, And Other Facts of Life At Higher Standard Packaging
Author: Julie Weed
Contact: Contact Page
Photo Credit: Mark Via Flickr
Website: Forbes
That's how entrepreneurs Deb Baker and Barb Diner describe the first payment they received from a Denver marijuana dispensary for their plastic cannabis containers. Afraid the local bank would look at them askance when they went to make the deposit, the two put the money in Ms. Baker's clothes dryer and tumbled it with some Febreeze sheets to get the smell out. By then the bank had closed so they stored the money in Ms. Baker's freezer under some loaves of bread until the next day. "We literally laundered the money," Ms. Baker laughs, "and ended up with cold hard cash." Such are the experiences of the service and supplies providers to the marijuana industry.
Ms. Baker and Ms. Diner created their company Higher Standard Packaging one year ago to supply the legal marijuana industry with plastic containers and in doing so joined a raft of businesses, large and small going after the particular and evolving packaging needs of this growing industry.
Two years ago, a Colorado dispensary could "throw some weed in a baggie and send it out the door," said Ms. Diner. Now a state government website specifies how to make the packaging compliant with the new laws including making the packaging child-resistant, opaque and bearing a warning.
In their research of existing containers, "What we smelled when we opened some of the sample vials concerned us," said Ms. Baker. She worried the odor might mean the plastic container was slowly releasing a chemical like formaldehyde it was made with, a process called off-gassing. "It's common sense that a recreational user or a person using marijuana products for medical reasons wants a container that won't contaminate what's inside," she said, so The pair decided to use only containers approved by the FDA for food and pharmaceutical use. Higher Standard Packaging now distributes a variety of products including 12 sizes of BPA-free cylindrical jars and child-resistant caps that can be individually labeled to contain edibles, flower — a term for marijuana buds, and concentrates. Clients can even choose to have containers made from an eco-friendly resin that comes from recycled milk cartons.
Working 12 hour days and learning something new in each of them, the entrepreneurs say they have sold nearly three million containers in their first year. From an initial investment of $1200 each, they have also made enough profit to take salaries as well as invest back in the business. So far the pair has worked with partners to create their products and have not hired additional employees.
When the entrepreneurs first began talking to larger companies who could create or distribute their packaging, they were most often refused due to the nature of the product's ultimate use. "They did not want to be in the marijuana business," said Ms. Baker. Now, she says, some of those same companies are calling them for advice. "We've been to more than 100 dispensaries, growers, processors," she said, "and we've talked to a lot of people about what their packaging needs are and what they want to see on the market."
Until recently, marijuana stores and producers adapted pharmaceutical containers like vials with child-resistant caps or blisterpaks to their own use, but now companies including Higher Standard Packaging are collaborating with packaging manufacturers to design "first generation" products that are designed specifically for the cannabis industry. And while last year's budtenders used to spend part of their day affixing labels to containers, producers now have labeling machines and printed jars.
The business is changing rapidly, said Ms. Diner, "the big players are getting into it now but there's still a lot of opportunity."
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Payments Smelling Of Marijuana, And Other Facts of Life At Higher Standard Packaging
Author: Julie Weed
Contact: Contact Page
Photo Credit: Mark Via Flickr
Website: Forbes
