Debra Borchardt
Chicago-based Cresco Labs is set to begin trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange on Monday using the symbol CL. Cresco is headed by Chief Executive Officer Charles Bachtell who was also a founding member of the Illinois Cannabis Bar Association and the Medical Cannabis Alliance of Illinois.
Cresco hits the market with operations in six states (Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, California, and Arizona). The company focuses on entering markets with outsized demand potential, significant supply constraints and high barriers to entry. The company prides itself on its speed-to-market. It boasts that it can go from license to market in seven months.
In October, Cresco Labs closed on its oversubscribed Series D funding round securing $100 million (US), making it the second largest private funding round in U.S. cannabis history.
In November Cresco celebrated its pilot harvest from its seven-acre production site located in the Central Coast of California. The company said that it was partnered with a well-established horticultural producer in the region and had implemented the highest standard in medical cannabis production to cultivate high-quality, third-party certified cannabis products for the California adult-use market. Including the Central Coast cultivation production site, Cresco Labs will operate two cultivation/processing, one extraction and one distribution facility in California.
Its portfolio of brands includes Cresco, Remedi, Reserve and Mindy’s Edibles, an infused edible line with James Beard Award-winning Chef Mindy Segal. The products have been developed in order to address various consumer demands within the cannabis industry.
The flagship brand Cresco is available in Illinois and Pennsylvania, with Ohio, California, and Nevada on deck. Each product falls into one of three proprietary categories: Rise, Refresh, Rest, named and is color-coded to help the consumer identify the desired effects of the relevant strain’s cannabinoid profile. Mindy’s is currently available in Illinois and Nevada with Ohio and California to follow.
Reserve is a premium cannabis product that is sold in Illinois and Pennsylvania. Ohio, California, and Nevada are the next planned markets. Remedi is the medical cannabis product with an emphasis on CBD products. It is currently sold in Illinois and Pennsylvania with Ohio and Nevada to follow.
Cresco was founded after winning three merit-based cultivation licenses in the Illinois market. It has 110,000 square feet of cultivation in three facilities in the state and can yield enough product to service over 50 dispensaries. The company has since garnered more vertically-integrated licenses in Pennsylvania and Ohio. It has a facility located an hour from Pittsburgh and the first sale of medical cannabis occurred in their dispensary. In June, Cresco received a license to operate vertically-integrated dispensaries in the “Buckeye” state.
