Looking to the Future: Scalability in the Cannabis Industry
Construction of a cannabis cultivation facility is extremely expensive. Although banks are slowly starting to provide funding for cannabis businesses, it remains a difficult process to secure the amount of capital required for starting up operations in commercial cannabis production. Newer cannabis businesses who seek to minimize their long-term risk may elect to design their operation with the space and equipment necessary for scalability in the future. We call this the Phased Approach. In this case, they would want to work with a developer experienced specifically in phasing in cannabis cultivation and retail operations to ensure the proper setup.
Eamonn O’Kane, CEO of Valiant and longtime trailblazer in the cannabis construction field explains, “Building a cannabis facility is financially demanding. It is important to consider scalability while choosing infrastructure and equipment. Compared to traditional commercial buildings, cannabis cultivation facilities require considerably higher amounts of resources in the ways of Lighting, Water use, Waste Management, Heating & Cooling Reduction and Upgrades to all of these systems.”
Think of it this way, in the initial stages of operation, your cannabis business may only run at 25% of output capacity, so as to steadily enter the market, eliminating surplus and waste in the process. However, the initial equipment selected even for this 25% output should be fit to handle 100% capacity, so they will not need to be replaced in the future expansion process.
Make sure the facility has enough electricity to power 100% of the lighting for the mothering and flowering rooms. As cannabis is a light-intensive plant, this is often the most challenging part of the process, especially for indoor grows in older buildings. Other pieces to consider are water usage and supply, especially in a soil-less medium; HVAC systems that are more efficient than what’s needed for even 100% capacity, as biosecurity is one of the most tedious facets of growing high quality cannabis. Finally, set yourself up so that these systems can be easily upgraded when it comes time for expansion into additional phases.
Planning for a phased-in approach in your facility will reduce long term costs, downtime, and waste of product. The science behind growing cannabis demands a great number of resources, both financially and environmentally, from those necessary to control the climate of a flowering room to installing biosecurity measures. A phased approach in the initial launch of a cannabis operation may be the feasible option to increase the odds of long-term success of the business.
