The company offers Fluidocap liquid capsule fillers, combined with a wide variety of capsules conducive to liquid filling operations.

Piscataway, NJ – PRESS RELEASE – ACG Group, a supplier offering end-to-end manufacturing solutions for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industry, showcased its production capabilities in the burgeoning medical marijuana sector at the Lift & Co. Cannabis Show, June 6-9 in Toronto. As a longstanding supplier to the global pharmaceutical industry, ACG featured its prowess in producing liquid-filled capsules, a growing niche in the cannabis market as products incorporating CBD and THC are considered for pain relief applications in both humans and pets.

For companies with medical cannabis products, ACG can couple high-speed encapsulation equipment with so broad an array of capsules, including vegetarian capsules and those designed specifically for liquid filling.

From an equipment standpoint, ACG’s capabilities in liquid cannabis capsule production are anchored by two members of its well-regarded Fluidocap Series of liquid capsule fillers. 

For R&D and scale-up or production activities, the company’s Fluidocap 1000 is a semi-automatic machine that integrates filling, closing and band sealing processes in one compact and robust unit.

For market-ready operations, ACG offers the Fluidocap 70, a fully automatic capsule filler that can produce up to 70,000 capsules per hour.

Ideal for cannabis-based liquids--which typically have an oily consistency--the Fluidocap 70 is ideal for filling liquids of various characteristics including free flow, pastes, suspensions, thixotropics and hot melts. It also can handle a broad range of formulation viscosity (10 to 80,000cps). Both Fluidocap 1000 and Fluidocap 70 can handle HGC and HPMC capsules from size 00 to 4.

For post-fill sealing, the Fluidocap 70 is paired with ACG’s ProSeal Capsule Bander--Proseal 70 with very low changeover time, efficient system of loading, orientation and drying. The output of Proseal 70 is also 70,000 capsules per hour.

ACG also has encapsulation capabilities that allows filling of multiple dosage combinations such as powders, pellets, tablets, micro tablets, softgel and capsule-in-capsule. The Capsule Checkweigher is designed for the precise, automatic, and continuous weighing of every hard capsule in empty, filled or partially filled states.

With short-term capacities for music festivals or seasonal towns, POPCANN’s team looks to disrupt the early days of Canadian cannabis.

As the Canadian cannabis industry continues to settle in place, the retail experience remains the subject of much conversation. How will Canadian consumers engage with brands? What parts of the country need attention from the retail sector?

POPCANN, a new product line of prefabricated “pop-up” cannabis retail stores, is intent on learning more about the answers to those questions.

“We took a look at the business we were in—brand activation, media, experiential space and deploying marketing technologies for over 15 years—… and the problems and challenges that the cannabis industry was facing,” POPCANN co-founder and president Michael Girgis says, describing the company’s 2019 origin. “We've seen retail stores launching [and] we've watched the global industry, and we thought, ‘We can put our expertise in motion and develop a product that fills a gap in flexibility and creates a more modular retail experience.’”

The general idea behind POPCANN is a cannabis dispensary that can meet the market where natural gaps are forming. Girgis and his partner—co-founder and CEO Jake Neiman—point to Northern communities, seasonal towns and special events like music festivals as places that may benefit from efficient access to cannabis on a short- or medium-term basis.

POPCANN units can be brought in as turn-key solutions for a one-day event, or they can be situated in a town for months or years at a time. Girgis says the team took inspiration from companies like Starbucks, which have used prefab shipping containers as retail outlets in some cities.

The key to understanding the emerging marketplace is access. Get customers in the door, and then begin to understand how the market will play out in a place like Canada (or other countries).

“We're listening, we're watching, and we're hearing that there [are] certainly concerns in northern communities and harder-to-reach seasonal communities,” Girgis says. “There are locations that are not necessarily in the major cities, at the corners of major streets; there are non-traditional locations.”

To that end, POPCANN has also partnered with Storage Vault's portable storage division, a publicly traded self-storage business that will allow POPCANN to work with upwards of 200 non-traditional retail locations on Storage Vault property.

“They've done a lot of work to put these locations in the right place,” Girgis says. “So, they're not necessarily right in the city core; they certainly cover a vast [area] and allow us to look at locations that are dense but a little off the beaten path a bit—and certainly service regions that are not necessarily being serviced now or in the near future.”

The POPCANN move is a disruptive one, as Canadian provinces for the most part have already laid out cannabis retail regulations. The company is working within those parameters to offer another private solution to market access. Each POPCANN unit follows retail store compliance requirements: the units feature integrated locked vaults for cannabis products, a patent-pending age-gated entryway for consumers 19 and older and one-way windows and skylights around the structure; you can see out, but you can’t see in.

“The goal and vision is a global company,” Girgis says. “Looking at the very structure that we’re looking at, which is shipping containers, by virtue they can be shipped anywhere. And we're maintaining the authenticity of the structure itself.”

As 2019 goes on, the POPCANN team expects to announce more moves across Canada. It’s experimental, and Girgis says there are conversations in place with licensed producers to integrate POPCANN units more innately into the supply chain.

“One no-brainer application with the licensed producers is a freestanding POPCANN retail store on their facility,” he says. “So, it's kind of ideal, where they have their growing facilities and their cultivation facilities. They can have a purpose-built cannabis retail store designed to be fully secure, fully compliant, but provide that front-end retail experience to their overall cannabis production activity.”

With more cannabis news to come out of Canada in the coming months—including the legalization of new product categories, like edibles—POPCANN’s mission will be to find the ebb and flow of the marketplace, the gaps in access where consumer demand meets the structural capacity of a pop-up store. 

The dispensary will be added to the network of dispensaries in California that Ventura Cannabis has acquired.

LOS ANGELES, June 10, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) PRESS RELEASE -- Ventura Cannabis and Wellness Corp. announced today that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire a cannabis dispensary based in Oakland, California that specializes in delivery of cannabis to the entire Bay Area. The business is expected to generate $1 million in annual revenue with EBITDA of $100,000, not including the revenues and profits generated from selling Ventura Cannabis branded product lines through the dispensary. The total combined cost, including all fees and expenses, of the transaction, is expected to be a cash outlay of $1 million at closing. Additional payments of $375,000 cash and $295,000 stock will be paid over time depending upon performance. The management will retain operational control of the dispensary.

The dispensary will be added to the network of dispensaries in California that Ventura Cannabis has acquired, pending close. These dispensaries will act as a distribution network for the CannaSun brand and other in-house brands being actively developed.

As previously announced, Ventura Cannabis has signed a purchase agreement to acquire a vertically integrated business that recently launched a vape brand that it manufactures. At this time, the brand’s sales are limited to its local geographic area. The facility is currently producing cannabis vape products at less than an estimated 7% of capacity, or $750,000 annually.

The facility, at full production, which would require an additional capital expenditure of approximately $550,000, can produce an estimated $12 million in annual revenue with projected 50% gross margins at today’s market prices for vape products in California.

 “We continue to build out our large California dispensary network with this agreement,” said Chris Heath, President of Ventura Cannabis. “This Oakland based company specializes in delivery around the Bay Area, and we see significant growth potential as we push our CannaSun product line, and other in-house brands currently in development, through their expanding customer base once we close. The CannaSun brand has yet not been marketed in the Bay Area, and we believe the next generation of CannaSun, and other in-house branded products will appeal to the key demographic of affluent and upwardly mobile Bay area professionals who seek discretion in the use of cannabis products. We continue to work through our large and growing pipeline of attractive acquisition targets. Our goal is to create the largest possible dispensary network in California for ourselves with the smallest cash outlay possible. As our pipeline grows, we continue to see better terms from sellers with healthy, scalable businesses. Our goal of exiting 2019 with a revenue run rate of $10 million annually is intact, and we are comfortable that we have the deal pipeline and balance sheet to achieve that goal.”

Closing of the acquisition is subject to a number of customary conditions, including receipt of all required regulatory approvals.

Additionally, Ventura Cannabis has decided to renegotiate the terms of the Remedy Purchase Agreement announced February 12, 2019 with the aim of reducing the total consideration paid, including the cash outlay. The Agreement has been terminated and the parties are working toward a revised Agreement.

Cannabis Conference 2019 featured the most robust educational program and exhibit hall to date.

Cannabis professionals from 48 U.S. states and 29 countries gathered at the Westgate Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nev., April 1-3, for the third-annual Cannabis Conference. World-renowned speakers, cannabis industry leaders, representatives of some of the most successful cultivation and retail businesses, and exhibitors showcasing state-of-the-art technology, services and solutions, made up the record-breaking crowd for Cannabis Conference 2019.

Cannabis Conference is produced by the award-winning publications Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary. It is the only North American conference focused exclusively on cannabis cultivation and dispensary businesses. The conference is steered by an advisory board of cultivation and dispensary experts and featured more than 40 education sessions led by more than 90 industry experts. The 70,000-square-foot sold-out exhibit hall showcased technology and solutions providers serving cannabis cultivation and dispensary businesses and doubled as a networking space.

“The depth and breadth of the conference agenda was outstanding, and it gave both newcomers and industry incumbents the insights they need to make a meaningful impact to their business strategy,” said Guild Enterprises co-founder Claudio Miranda, who is also on the Cannabis Conference Advisory Board and a speaker.

William Morse of Total Health Cultivation said, “... This conference had the feel of cooperation, and of a genuine sense we all have to expand our knowledge about this miraculous plant. … I look forward to attending this event in the future!”

“The information and first-hand knowledge being presented at the Cannabis Conference delivers a unique opportunity to get an education from experienced individuals in the cannabis industry,” said Nick Jack, Diego Pellicer - Colorado’s chief retail officer, who also served on the conference advisory board and spoke at the event. “The connections you can make are invaluable, and the conversations with other industry experts provide unique insight into the industry in other parts of the country.”

This marks the eighth straight month of growth for the new industry.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Medical marijuana sales are continuing to climb in Oklahoma, topping $23 million in May and marking the eighth straight month of growth for the new industry.

Figures from the Oklahoma Tax Commission show the state collected more than $1.6 million in May from the 7-percent excise tax on marijuana.

Another $2 million was collected in state and local sales taxes.

Cannabis Business Times’ interactive legislative map is another tool to help cultivators quickly navigate state cannabis laws and find news relevant to their markets. View More