Even companies that don’t touch cannabis – but have clients that do – can have a hard time getting financial backing.
Witness Apeks, an Ohio-based company that makes extraction equipment for marijuana processors.
Despite a healthy balance sheet and solid future business prospects, the company went through 10 banks before finally finding one that agreed to loan it money for a new $2 million, 17,000-square foot factory near Columbus, according to Columbus Business First.
“It wasn’t for financial reasons – it’s pure marijuana,” Apeks President Andy Joseph told the newspaper. “I told them straight up this is where almost all the revenue comes from.”
Joseph invented the Apeks Supercritical system, which uses carbon dioxide to extract botanical oils. About 95% of his customers work in the marijuana industry.
The price tag for each machine is $100,000, but Joseph says his system is so profitable that customers can make their money back in less than two weeks. Apeks’ sales will probably top $9 million this year, Joseph estimated, and perhaps more than $20 million next year.
