Cannabis Business Info Since 2011
Cannabis Business Info Since 2011
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A look inside Eaze’s expanded medical cannabis cultivation facility in Florida. (Photo courtesy of Eaze)
Following through on a goal it set in November while announcing a rebranding and cash infusion, California-based marijuana operator Eaze has planted its first cannabis crop in its recently expanded Green Dragon Florida cultivation facility.
The expansion doubled the size of Eaze’s indoor flowering canopy from 32,000 square feet to 64,000 square feet.
Products from the expanded facility will be available in Florida medical marijuana dispensaries in April, the company said.
Eaze also is opening its 40th dispensary location in Florida.
The company, which has 43 leases in the Sunshine State, expects to open the remaining three locations by the end of the year.
Eaze is now one of the bigger retail operators in Florida, behind medical marijuana companies such as Trulieve Cannabis Corp. with 160 dispensaries, Verano Holdings with 79, Müv with 74 and Ayr Wellness with 60.
It’s an auspicious turnaround for Eaze.
Founded in 2014 as Eaze Technologies, the cannabis delivery company quickly became an early cannabis industry darling, attracting tens of millions of millions of dollars in investments.
But Eaze went through a slew of problems, such as layoffs, lawsuits and employee strikes and, only a few months ago, was as good as dead.
Today, the company’s executives are focused on profitability.
Eaze closed its unprofitable Michigan operations and intends to focus on its operations in California, Colorado and Florida.
It also shut down one unprofitable Green Dragon store in Colorado, leaving the company with 16 in the state.
Price compression in the highly competitive Michigan market led to the decision to exit that state.
“Michigan was a very small market,” Eaze CEO Cory Azzalino told MJBizDaily.
“We had hoped to be able to invest more in the market, but it wasn’t a business we were comfortable allocating a lot of overhead to.”
The company doesn’t plan to enter new states in the foreseeable future.
“Given the challenges of the cannabis market, we’re very focused on profitable operations,” Azzalino said.
The expanded cultivation facility represents a rebirth of sorts for Eaze, which shut down operations of now-defunct Eaze Technologies on Dec. 31 and reopened as Eaze on Jan. 1.
Green Dragon and Eaze, which purchased Green Dragon about three years ago, recently were acquired by a group involving billionaire Jim Clark, founder of the defunct tech firm Netscape.
Clark foreclosed on Eaze in May after the delivery company defaulted on a 2022 loan of $36.9 million.
Clark then purchased Eaze’s assets for $56 million in an August auction.
In October, the company said it would wind down operations while the new ownership determined whether the business would continue.
Then, the company raised $10 million to acquire select assets of Eaze Technologies and rebrand as Eaze. It used the funding to reopen 70 Eaze and Green Dragon locations across California, Colorado, Florida and Michigan.
Before it was acquired, Eaze Technologies had negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).
The company currently is negotiating a new labor contract under the new company.
“We’re trying to keep the same economics, but it’s a new company so we need a new contract,” Azzalino said.
“The economic terms were fairly recently bargained for by the former employees.”
Eaze also is in negotiations with the UFCW’s Local 7 in Colorado, which led a picket line of former cultivation workers outside its Green Dragon grow facility in Denver.
Margaret Jackson can be reached at margaret.jackson@mjbizdaily.com.
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