Transcript:

Madeline Colli: What are some challenges related to the manufacturing of pre -rolls, and how is Custom Cones USA and DaySavers helping to address those issues?

Harrison Bard: Yeah, so there’s endless challenges in terms of pre-roll manufacturing, so we’re constantly on the hunt for the latest and greatest machines to help. A big part of that is the metering tray process. So, a lot of companies, when they first get started, are very worried about the weight of the pre-roll, but the more experienced and mature cannabis companies, they’re less fixated on the weight of the pre-roll and they generally try to overestimate. They have the mindset of, “No one’s going to be mad if they get a little bit more weed in their pre roll, but they’ll be mad if they get less.” And then there is a tolerance. There’s like a plus or minus, I think maybe five to 10% tolerance, depending on the state, and if it’s recreational or medical, in terms of the weight. And then, even then, I do think it’s a bit arbitrary, because earlier we talked about curing, the weight of the cannabis changes over time, and it’s only going to get lighter as moisture escapes. So, what weighs a perfect gram today is not going to weigh a perfect gram a week or a month from now, especially when you see stuff on the shelves that were harvested a couple months ago, and then maybe are sitting in retail for a couple months, like it’s not going to weigh the same amount.

Weight might not be the best way to package and sell cannabis long term. And then I see this argument being made for THC too. So, they test for THC, but that is a small sample out of a big pool. To test one gram of weed, or seven grams, whatever they’re testing in the lab, and then say, this is the percentage that this whole lot of 1000s of grams of material is now measuring at like, is not true. There’s also a range there. And then, not only are labs like lying and like boosting the numbers, but the company that’s sending the sample to the lab is going to send the best, most potent sample that they possibly can, and then it’s being inflated.

Anyways, that all goes back to the challenge of the metering tray. We have been constantly working with our machine manufacturers on innovating in terms of making it easier to get the right amounts into all their pre-rolls. There’s,quite a variety of metering trays. Something that we’re working on now with one of our machine partners is a adjustable metering tray that lets you stack different shims and thicknesses of material on top to help you trial and error and get the exact volume that you need, because that’s going to change per strain. That strain might change over the months if it was harvested in the beginning of the year, you know, five months later or a couple months later, it’s going to be a different way, unless, like, you keep it in a perfectly climate-controlled environment. And so those adjustable metering trays are going to help.

The biggest challenge that we’re seeing with pre-roll manufacturers is closing the pre-rolls. So it’s pretty easy to fill the pre-rolls. You know, you put the flower into the metering tray or right into the top of the machine, and it fills all 100 or more pre-rolls in one go. But then, the most annoying part for manufacturers is taking each pre-roll out, one at a time and closing them. There’s been a lot of new technology and innovation in the closing space. There’s two machines that we sell on our website, the Fill N Fold and the King Kone. Both of them have closing attachments. They work in different ways, but ultimately they do the same finished product, which is they help you tamp down and close, and they do both like a Dutch crown style finish across the top of the pre-roll, and it helps do that at scale. So, what used to be a one at a time process, is now done at scale. The King Kone does them all at once. The Fill N Fold does one row at a time, which is like 11 rolls, all in one go and then what used to take a long time is now really easy, and it’s also really consistent, which helps create a nice, uniform, sellable retail product.