The Grove is a vertically-integrated cannabis company built on crafting products catered to the complex tastes of cannabis consumers. Their cultivation and production facility are state-of-the-art, featuring an eco-friendly indoor grow outfitted with a Fohse LED lighting system. They currently serve customers at their Southern Nevada dispensaries in Las Vegas and Pahrump, selling proprietary products under the brand Kannabis.
Founder, Owner, and CEO Demetri Kouretas said he started The Grove because of the exciting challenges that often come with entering a fledgling industry and the company continues to flourish.
“We decided to give it a shot and applied for licenses in retail, cultivation, and production, which were given out in a ‘lottery/merit-based’ type fashion. Of course, we were one of the last to ‘win’ the licenses, so tensions were high, but we walked out of there with 2 retail licenses, a cultivation, and production license — and thus began our yellow brick road,” Kouretas told Ganjapreneur. “We currently hold 10 licenses in retail, cultivation, production, and distribution in the State of Nevada.”
The Grove’s success can be traced back to a focus on providing the best service and products possible. To craft their Kannabis line, The Grove has dialed in their 24,000 square foot facility to mimic a natural ecosystem where cannabis flowers thrive. Their team uses all-natural soil and purely natural pest and fungus remediations — there are no pesticides or fungicides used in their cultivation processes.
Fohse lighting systems are another essential component of creating the perfect ecosystem for healthy cannabis plants. Their LED lighting setup simulates the full spectrum of natural sunlight, even creating the same spectrum changes at ‘sunrise’ and ‘sunset’. Using LED lighting has cut power usage at The Grove by 40% and lowered A/C consumption by half, which reduced their HVAC costs significantly. The cultivation team has also seen drastic increases in their yield since switching to the Fohse A3i. To duplicate this success, Head Cultivator Mike Howard has dialed in the environment to meet the lights’ capabilities.
“In the last few years, LEDs went from a novelty to a tried and true method for many indoor growers. The biggest mistake I have seen is growers not adapting to their new lights, and running their environmental parameters as if they were with their old system. From my experience you can run LED rooms at 80+, with higher humidity than traditional HID rooms,” said Head Grower Mike Howard.
Operating vertically gives the cultivation team a direct line to the consumer through their retail staff. The team wants to grow what the customers desire, which covers both medical patients and adult-use consumers. Because of their line to the retail team, the cultivation side is able to evolve with the often quickly changing market demand. Howard obtains budtender feedback from each store to see what is most requested and, whether it’s classic Dutch genetics or new exotic flavors, they will work to provide customers with exactly what they’re looking for.
On the retail side of the operation, budtenders are trusted to provide a laid-back but informative visit for every customer. To maintain this environment, budtenders complete a two-week training course on cannabis and product information before ever working on the sales floor. They offer the full line of in-house grown Kannabis products and also third-party products that meet their medically-focused product standards.
With such high standards in place in retail, cultivation, and processing, The Grove has the ability to continue scaling its business and, as the company transitions their cultivation team fully to Fohse lights, their yields grow and facilitate further growth. While the operation started with just 20 team members, The Grove expects to employ more than 130 people by the second quarter of 2021. This year, they will be launching new brands and new products, and may even seek to build vertical operations in new states.
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