“The ironic part is that property is actually being rezoned in the next year, so we’re waiting to see what happens with it,” Karlebach says. Rather than fighting, the company closed the location last September, reassigning 20 workers to its other seven stores. Its new location was licensed and approved by the Oregon Health Authority, but the Office of Neighborhood Involvement - a non-regulating agency - asked Nectar to shut down the store. More recently, Nectar encountered another similar problem. That attitude became part of the company’s strategy. “I’ve learned long ago, don’t pick a fight with an agency or a governing body. “We try to do things the right way, so when the state government asked us to move, it just made more sense to say okay and do what they wanted,” Karlebach says. The company opted to move to a new location in East Portland. For example, about two months after opening the first store, Nectar hit a snag when a school opened nearby. Nectar had to overcome a number of hurdles in the beginning, due to the cannabis industry’s often chaotic regulatory environment. They’ve got a fabulous brand of their own and as a vendor they’re also fabulous to work with.” Nectar’s Hurdles They’ve done a really great job of capturing the marketplace. “We’re a multi-million-dollar little chocolate company now. “They’ve played a big part in our success, no doubt,” Grön owner Christine Smith says. To stock these products, the company works with a host of small, local vendors, including Grön Chocolate, a growing Portland artisanal maker of infused chocolate bars. Extracts, concentrates and edibles are primarily outsourced. Applegate Valley Organics cultivates about 18,000 plants annually at its seven different grow locations, which supply 75% of Nectar’s flower. Plus, two greenhouse facilities allow the company to grow year-round. Nectar stocks its stores heavily with its own line of cannabis - Applegate Valley Organics - grown primarily outdoors in Southern Oregon’s rich marijuana farmland. She says Pratt’s keen grasp of where the industry is heading gives him the ability to strategize accordingly. I’ve never seen somebody understand the market that well.” “He has an innate knowledge of the cannabis market. Karlebach attributes this to much of the company’s success. Pratt, the company CEO, had a background in consumer retail. Nectar was originally founded in 2013 by two men from Nebraska - Jeremy Pratt and Jeff Johnson - who moved to Oregon specifically to get into the cannabis business. When the Oregon Liquor Control Commission began licensing recreational marijuana shops, Nectar received five of the first 26 licenses. Within two years, Nectar has become one of Oregon’s largest marijuana retail chains with seven locations - four in Portland and one each in Tillamook, Eugene and Gresham. Oregon legalized recreational cannabis the same year, and Nectar began a rapid expansion, capitalizing on its clean-cut prestige. The chic space boasted a clean, open feel and showcased well-lit product displays. With that goal in mind, the company opened its first dispensary in Portland’s upscale Pearl District. We wanted to take medical marijuana out of the back room and into the light. So, we spent a lot of money to make everything nice, upfront and clean. “Most dispensaries back then were dirty and dark - you felt like you were part of an illegal drug deal,” Karlebach says. After all, if the industry wants to be respectable, it needs to look the part, says Devra Karlebach, the company’s chief operating officer. That image is exactly the vibe that Nectar, an Oregon-based marijuana retail chain, wanted to avoid when it opened its doors in 2014. Seven cultivation locations operating under the Applegate Valley Organics brand supply a large percentage of the flower in Nectar’s retail stores.Įarly medical marijuana dispensaries established a well-known stereotype of seedy, hole-in-the-wall retail shops designed to fly under the radar of law enforcement.
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