By Sponsored Article
This article is sponsored by LivWell Enlightened Health.
With 14 dispensaries, a partnership with Snoop Dogg, and over 550 employees, most would argue that Colorado dispensary chain LivWell Enlightened Health embodies “corporate cannabis” – a nebulous concept that both pro- and anti-legalization groups have been wary of for years. LivWell’s development is a symptom of the rapidly-evolving cannabis community in Colorado, where some of the country’s most experienced advocates, manufacturers, and enthusiasts continue to debate the future of the industry and who should control it. “We’ve sometimes been painted – unfairly – as lacking a heart and soul,” says LivWell CEO and founder John Lord, as we drive with him from the company’s headquarters in Denver to visit their Evans Avenue dispensary location. In reality, the brave new world of corporate cannabis is far more nuanced than that. From lobbying for sensible industry regulations to sponsoring community outreach initiatives, there’s a lot to be said for large companies’ potential to drive the industry forward.
LivWell: Family-Owned and Driven to Succeed
LivWell is propelled by the determined will and business savvy of John Lord, who moved to the U.S. from the tiny New Zealand town of Te Awamutu in 1998 to manufacture and sell baby products through his company, Basic Comfort. His knowledge of how to navigate strict regulatory controls made him uniquely suited to the cannabis industry – even if he didn’t know much about the plant when he started LivWell.
What he did know was that he was ready for a career shift. His baby products business had reached its potential by 2008, and he needed a new challenge. “I was in New York one day, and I walked into FAO Schwartz in Times Square and saw all of my products there in a display at the front of the store,” he explains. “And I thought to myself, well, that’s it. I’ve made it. What’s next?”
What was next was a foray into one of the most complicated and challenging regulatory industries in the country. LivWell started small, with a single four-person operation on South Broadway in Denver. It has grown to encompass 14 locations across the state, a 140,000-square-foot grow facility in Denver’s outer suburbs, and goals for further expansion across the U.S.
John’s son Michael joined the company in 2013 and became the company’s director of business development in 2015. The relationship between father and son has proven beneficial to both, particularly in a company like LivWell where many of the employees are millennials in their early 20s. “It’s a hell of a privilege to be able to spend time with my son and to teach him a few things about what I’ve learnt,” John says. “In turn, he is smarter than me. A lot of the things I’ve had to learn, he already knew.”
Developing Best Practices to Build a Dispensary Chain
LivWell’s grow operation and dispensaries are based on consistent manufacturing models found in non-cannabis industries. Each location is part of an evolving generation of LivWell dispensaries, and each dispensary in that generation has the same look and feel. The dominant aesthetic: clean, light, and welcoming. During our visit to the new dispensary on Evans Ave. in Denver, Michael is keen to point out its security, badging, and process aspects. “This is a generation four dispensary,” he says. “We want people to walk into a LivWell dispensary, wherever it is, and have the same safe, friendly experience they have become accustomed to.”
The same emphasis on process and standardized workflows is on display at LivWell’s enormous grow facility. The grow is one of the largest (if not the largest) in the state, and a tour of the facility reveals a dedication to product consistency through standardized processes that you would expect from a former manufacturer of baby products. As we tour the site, the most predominant activity from employees is cleaning; every workstation is constantly being swept, dusted and tidied. LivWell’s cannabis goes through five quality checks in the grow facility, then a sixth check at the dispensary.
“In such a highly-regulated industry, the only way to be successful is to be sustainable,” says LivWell marketing director Matthew Givner. “That means being in it for the long haul, and in order to do that you have to follow the rules to the letter. LivWell’s size and professionalism allows us to do a number of positive things for the industry and the communities in which we operate.”
Among the positive things that Givner is referring to are LivWell’s recent campaigns to give back to veterans. On 4/20, $1 for every customer that visited a LivWell location was donated to The Fitch Foundation, an organization that helps disabled veterans live healthy, fulfilling lifestyles. On Memorial Day, $800,000 worth of cannabis went to veterans in one of the largest promotions in cannabis history, when LivWell offered veterans high-CBD strains at a rate of $0.01 per ounce. LivWell has also developed a unique training program that instructs first responders on dealing with cannabis-related calls, an idea that was so successful when implemented in Adams County that talks have begun to replicate it in other counties across Colorado.
Promoting the Maturation of the Cannabis Industry
LivWell contends that in addition to its commitment to giving back, upholding industry standards, and following legal regulations to the letter, it’s able to make an impact by dedicating resources to attending hearings and meeting with policymakers. In such a compliance-driven industry, ensuring an industry presence at such meetings has proven vital. To contextualize the difficulty of keeping up with all these changes, more than 150 new and updated regulations were enacted in Colorado last year alone; about one every 2.5 days.
The company is also able to offer employer-paid health insurance, 401k plans, and higher-than-industry-average pay, and employees spend two weeks in intensive training at LivWell University before setting foot in a store, a concept that was new to the industry when it was introduced. “The 550 employees we have working at LivWell, well, we think of that as 550 families that we’re providing for,” Michael Lord says as he walks us between row upon row of drying bud. “That’s why it’s so important for us to keep to these standard procedures. That’s why we approach cannabis from a manufacturing perspective rather than having a master grower walking around telling us what he or she feels like we should do.”
Meanwhile, the company looks out for its customers by maintaining a dedicated research and development department, applying the kind of rigorous, science-based approach to new product development that exists in traditional business. “In the case of legal cannabis, companies like ours that are run like professional businesses are the best things that could happen to an industry that is struggling to bring a previously illegal enterprise into full compliance with the law,” says Givner.
Working Toward a National Cannabis Brand
We finish a tour of LivWell’s growing facility in the cramped kitchen space, where Leafs by Snoop edibles are being manufactured, and Michael and John are both talking about expansion. The Snoop brand was launched in November to great fanfare across Colorado. “We’re growing our kitchen space significantly in the coming year as Leafs by Snoop takes off and we see the demand for edibles continue to grow,” Michael says. “We can’t keep this many employees in a space this small for much longer,” John adds as he stands sandwiched between baking trays of chocolate truffles.
The expansion plans don’t stop at the company’s grow facility: LivWell has recently formed LivWell Oregon, and is keeping a close eye on legislation efforts in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania as November elections approach. “Leafs by Snoop was a shot across the bow,” John says. “Our ambition is to be a national brand.”
As more brands follow suit and the cannabis industry develops powerful leaders, expect to see them continue to steer the industry toward longevity through growth and development of industry best practices. After all, the future of all cannabis businesses – including their own – depends on it.
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