Business
Green Thumb CEO sees "almost unprecedented opportunity"
MG Retailer has a good profile of Green Thumb Industries CEO Ben Kovler. Kovler, whose great-grandfather built the Jim Beam liquor brand, started Green Thumb with a dispensary in suburban Chicago. It’s now one of the country’s largest PotCos.
Green Thumb has operations in 13 states and partnerships with hot brands like Cookies and Cann.
- In Q4 2020 it reported revenue of $177.2M (up from $75.8M in Q4 2019) and net income of $22.4M (up from a net loss of $14M in Q4 2019.) The company employs 2,400 people.
In the piece, which is full of good nuggets, Kovler discusses branding, retail, strategy, finance, M&A and more:
- He compared cannabis to the cable and telecom industries where there have been opportunities to create “enormous, multibillion-dollar, multi-tentacled conglomerate through strategic mergers and acquisitions. Kovler believes cannabis also shares traits with the technology companies that built cell towers and the infrastructure for the internet, blazing a path forward through murky rules and regulations at both the state and federal levels.”
- As a company with long-term aspirations, he said, “I couldn’t think of a better place to start than markets where we can take very large market share positions in production, in retail, and understand the markets and play from a position of strength.”
- Brand development remains in early phases, but Kovler said “with a core brand like Rythm, we’re looking at things like ‘who is the consumer; when, where, and why are they consuming and how.”
- Kovler: “If you think about the U.S. market, it’s at $20 billion today and headed to $80 billion. There’s [going to be] $60 billion more to claim versus worrying about [what company is earning] the other $19 billion right now.”