Amanda and Ben Richardson are a husband and wife team in Portland, OR, marketing cannabis in the state since they purchased their joint production business, Lifted Northwest, in November of 2021. Lifted Northwest has joined a more competitive league within the cannabis industry by achieving a 50% saturation of the Oregon market in 12 short months, creating space for the company to begin white labeling, and beginning the process of marketing themselves to other states require a full-gram smoke.
They have a dual strain joint pack with ten grams of premium indoor material that has picked up exceptional momentum in the last year. The duo prides itself on sourcing the best material possible to provide each customer with an elevated smoking experience.
This high standard of quality is essential when working in one of the most competitive cannabis markets in the nation.
“There is a mind-boggling statistic in Portland that paints a clear picture of the saturation in our market,” Ben said. “In Portland, there are more dispensaries than Mcdonald’s and Starbucks combined.”
When they first acquired the business, they had to answer how a company such as theirs, without insane funding, could survive in a market with such saturation.
Using Technology to Up Their Joint Production Game
Fortunately for the Richardsons- technology has allowed them to level the playing field.
Before pivoting to utilizing STM Canna’s package of pre-roll machines, Lifted Northwest hand-rolled every joint that went into their packs, causing long lead times for product delivery. They had customers calling dispensaries night and day to find the closest location to them that wasn’t out of stock.
Seeing this extraordinary brand loyalty from their customers resulted in a complete revamp of their day-to-day operations.
“It was exciting to see the market’s response to our product offering, but it was depressing to feel the angst generated by our inability to fulfill orders on time,” Ben said.
“The joint production space was already full of companies with strong brands and strong production abilities; taking these companies head-on seemed not only impossible, but like it was a bad business move- then we found STM Canna.”
In October of 2022, the couple pulled the trigger on STM’s pre-roll turnkey package, which provided them with four machines for under $150,000.
They now use an STM Revolution 2.0 Grinder, a RocketBox 2.0 Pre-Roll Machine, a LaunchPad Weighing Module, and an Atomic Closer Automated Pre-Roll Closing Module to streamline their production and create high-quality joints for their high-quality consumers.
“After being invited to test each machine at their facilities in Spokane, WA, we knew these were the machines for our company,” Ben said. “From the precise way, the Revolution 2.0 grinder breaks down material to how beautiful the Atomic Closer crown tops the ends of the joints, these machines matched the quality of our hand production, but doing it ten times faster.”
Before the introduction of STM’s machines into their workflow, Lifted Northwest’s highest production day by hand was 7,000 joints. After getting to know the equipment, their lowest-performing production day has been 15,000 joints, allowing them to graze over 19,000 daily while leaving room for more production growth.
The Cost of Human Labor within Joint Production Facilities
In addition to the increased production, STM’s reliable products have maintained the same hand-rolled quality that Lifted Northwest saw before while also decreasing production costs.
“Biggest brag of all,” Ben explained, was that these numbers have been produced using half the staff. With the machines, we have taken five employees out of direct joint production and created a dedicated packaging/order fulfillment team. The addition of the turnkey package allowed us to stay alive in the joint space and thrive!”
Despite being a newer brand in the industry, they have proven their abilities to leverage technology and joint production processes to achieve rapid success. They look forward to taking that success across the nation, eventually even globally.
“The STM Canna machines have brought our company to the forefront of the joint production conversation, affording us to be ranked within the top five of joint production companies in the Oregon market,” Ben said.
Visit our online shop for more information on STM Canna’s product line.
Be sure also to follow STM Canna and Lifted Northwest on social media and check out their website.
