Marijuana Business Magazine February 2020

Marijuana Business Magazine | February 2020 98 At Sisu Extracts in Eureka, California, co-founder and CEO John Figueiredo recommends ranking costs of production, then determining if the vendors at the top of that list can provide any discounts. Asking for a bulk discount works especially well if the company amounts to a large portion of the vendor’s bottom line. “Once you hit a certain size, you definitely can have concessions, because you’re a larger portion of a company’s client list,” Figueiredo said. Customizable Packaging Extraction companies often have several products on the market at any one time. Packaging all of those products in the same type of container, with discounts for bulk orders, can help save money, said Josh Rutherford, owner of Denver-based extraction company PurePressure. “We have every single one of our SKUs come out in the same jar,” he added. That way, the packaging ven- dor can bring down the cost per jar.  The company’s products include live rosin, bubble hash, terp diamonds, wax and more. Rutherford also recommends using packaging that can be easily altered—particularly in the event that state regulations change. Using unalterable packaging could cost an operator thousands of dollars if the rules change and new versions must be ordered. “It’s one of the biggest mistakes I see people doing time and time again,” Rutherford said. To combat this problem, PurePressure uses a generic-style label that can be changed without too much hassle. Equipment Concerns When it comes to extraction, buying the cheapest version of equipment could cost a company in the long run. “Spend the money and do it right the first time or you’ll pay for it later,” Rutherford said. Also, pick equipment that’s configurable and scalable so, as the company grows, the equipment allows for add-ons to increase throughput as well as add more SKUs to the product line. Equipment is the main cause of downtime, according to Braddock. To avoid this bottleneck, she focuses on post-processing equipment as one key sticking point. “There are a lot of extraction companies coming into the market, Best Practices In Extraction | Bart Schaneman Josh Rutherford Courtesy Photo Bubble hash is pressed into live rosin at Denver extraction firm PurePressure. Courtesy Photo Patrick Mitchell Courtesy Photo