Despite the global pandemic, a lacking supply chain, and inflation on the rise, the cannabis industry is growing. Over the past year the cannabis industry has increased by 41% and is expected to reach almost $31 billion by the end of the year. This growth should not come as a surprise as many states in the US have some form of legal cannabis. With the demand for cannabis and the expectation of expansion into several markets, is this your opportunity to launch into the space? Harry Brelsford of The CannaTech Group sits down with Duane Roebuck of BlueStar to discuss the industry and how the pandemic further solidified it.
Video Transcription
Harry Brelsford
Hey, welcome back to the Canna tech podcast. We’re with Duane Roebuck again out of BlueStar distributing the guy that invented the industry. How’re you doing?
Duane Roebuck
today? I’m doing great. Um, I wish I did invent the industry. I’d be sitting on a yacht somewhere and you know, enjoying things a little better than what I am.
Harry Brelsford
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, welcome back to the first quarter. And, hey, let’s talk about some recent piece over in the MJ biz daily, the pandemic will further solidify the cannabis industries, reputation is recession proof. So it’s counter cyclical. What are your thoughts on that?
Duane Roebuck
Yeah, I think I think what’s happened is, across the industry, people are beginning to recognize that the cannabis industry isn’t going away. And, you know, if you look at the number of states that are, you know, have either, you know, legalized recently, or getting ready to legalize, and I live in Ohio, and there’s a tremendous effort to get adult use on the ballot here. And so I think, not only as their, you know, an opportunity for individual consumers, but for resellers in this space as well, because what I’m seeing across all retail and hospitality is that this pandemic has really focused on operational efficiencies, and, conversely, any efficiencies, inefficiencies. And so I think there’s a tremendous opportunity for resellers to meet with people in the cannabis industry, especially if you’ve got a relationship because of all of the m&a that are going on as to, you know, start having conversations around operational efficiency, and how you can help them early on, I believe that a lot of resellers, you know, kind of handicap themselves, I felt like, you know, they couldn’t be in this industry, if they weren’t connected with a software company, that the resellers I’m seeing that are being successful, are ones that aren’t limiting themselves to that, but are looking at this as a traditional retail organization and going in there and showing them, you know, everything from media in terms of labeling and printing, barcode scanning RFID, you know, how they can be more operationally efficient, because despite what everyone thinks, you know, the cannabis industry still does have considerable amount of turnover from an employee, per staff. Yeah. And so it’s how do you make these growers, processors and dispensary owners able to do more and get more analytics on the business that they’re doing so that they know in what direction their company should be? I think the resellers who are able to do that, without relying on a crutch of, you know, necessarily being connected to a cannabis software company are going to be the ones that succeed. Yeah,
Harry Brelsford
here’s my take on it is early in my career, I went through an oil bust. And that’s, that’s not pretty natural resource economies men when they’re good, they’re good. And when they’re bad, they’re bad. Right? They do swing and the, what I saw, and I guess it’s fairly young, but what I saw was staples, like groceries, or do well in a recession, because you know, for the sake of argument, eat 2200 calories a day, well, that doesn’t really change in a boom time or a downtime, right, you got to eat so that groceries do pretty well. And then there was the syntax, or the Sims. So you had liquor, gum sales back in Alaska, you had the adult entertainment industry, and I would put cannabis in the category just because liquors there and it’s it’s real plain, I mean, in a recession, you know, effect you probably drink more.
Duane Roebuck
Right, right. Right. You know, what they’re seeing is, you know, in a lot of areas, you know, there’s a lot of reasons why there could be, you know, decline in some areas in terms of taxation and things like that. But for the most part, cannabis is consistently growing, you know, more and more money is being spent on lobbying, which typically lets, you know, you know, what direction and industry is going and and you’re seeing players, you know, from Anheuser Busch to Amazon, stepping in on this arena. So, you know, that’s why I felt like the opportunity is there for resellers who can show more of a value, then, you know, simply fulfilling and hardware order, you know, get in there and you know, should show them and give them the analytics that a traditional retailer will want, you know, to be able to set the tone for their business, and those that are able to do that I’m seeing are being tremendously successful. And then their areas, you know, beyond hardware that resellers really need to look at. So if any of your listeners are interested, yeah, I’d be more than happy to have a conversation with them, you know, in terms of, you know, where I’m seeing success from a reseller perspective, or MSP perspective, you know, especially with, you know, the chip shortage and things like that, you know, that’s an impact in everybody, you know, all the way down to robots. And so, you know, there are ways to, you know, to some extent to get around that supply chain issues. Everybody’s got it. But, you know, thus the need for more operational efficiency?
Harry Brelsford
Yep. Well, I’ll tell you what, we’re gonna put your email address with your permission down to the blog below the podcast, as well as your URL folks give Bluestar give them a fair shake and reach out to Dwayne Hey, Duane, we’ll end on this. We’re well, before you know it, it’ll be in the in the queue one, not quite, but name one or two shows where people might see you in the next few months. And I always say all things being equal that we have shows.
Duane Roebuck
Well, I’m hoping to make it to your show, I noticed been, you know, changed around. I am looking at, you know, two of the shows that I find tremendous value, the cannabis conference, which is put on by G media for that. Yeah. And mjbizcon Of course, you know, that that’s a must attend. But um, you know, I’m actually, you know, getting back to looking at smaller, more regional focus shows. I agree. I agree your role? Yes. Well, simply because I think there’s a lot of opportunity, and a lot of demand for face to face business. And so, you know, depending on where you’re located, you know, there could be some, you know, really good gyms there. And, you know, in the Chicago area, as well as I know, any can is one that’s coming up and in a couple, you know, in a week or two, I believe.
Harry Brelsford
So yeah. And I, I think we just crossed, don’t hold me to it, but I think we just crossed past ChemiCon up in Oklahoma, but it got some buzz. That’s why I can remember it. It got some buzz.
Duane Roebuck
You know, I think, you know, what I saw last year, his people wanted to get out. So, you know, I look MJ biz lawyer, you know, I believe they still even on a down year, they still had, I want to say like 33 35,000 attendees last year. And then I look at NRF, which is a big retail show in New York City, and they typically have 35,000. This year, they have 7000 Because of the gimmick. So, you know, I think the shows that happen before winter, are, you know, at least until we figure out if we’re past the pandemic or if this is going to be something that seasonal. So, and what I’ve seen is, you know, at last year’s cannabis conference, I believe their attendance was up I want to say like 200 or 300% You know, so people want to get out. We’re gonna write that one down, huh?
Harry Brelsford
Yeah. All right, my friend. We’ll let you run. We’ll we’ll talk to you next quarter. Thank you. Hey, thank you. You out? Yep. Okay. Yeah.
