Happy 4:20 Day
When Pritchard Griffin was founded in 2015, we realized that we needed to be known for being exceptional in a particular sector and for specific services. At the time, my former partner and co-founder, Tommy Pritchard, had spent his entire career doing only oil & gas investment banking. My career had been more broadly spread across a number of industries but with the ongoing theme of facilitating strategic M&A outcomes. Pritchard Griffin has continued to evolve with the addition of team members to turbocharge our capabilities in infrastructure development, green energy initiatives, and a vastly deeper rolodex for capital raising mandates – covering the landscape from the drill bit to the gas pump and most everything in between.
So why cannabis? Four years ago, a high net worth client contacted us to help with the acquisition of a Colorado dispensary company. Our client was frustrated that fortunes were being made in the relatively new legal cannabis market and he was missing out. Although our client ultimately did not transact due to the exhaustive regulatory screening for new investors, we learned the fundamental economics, supply chain needs, and regulatory issues necessary to successfully represent clients seeking to enter or to expand into legal cannabis.
Roll the clock forward to 2021 and we have invested the resources to understand the sector and to develop the relevant relationships necessary to be as successful in cannabis as we have been in energy.
Despite the early white-hot IPO excitement (Canada for now) and thinking the “trees (or stalks in this case) will grow to the sky, cannabis dispensary economics are quite similar to very successful fast casual dining – very good margins, data driven operations, but the ability to grow top line is somewhat limited as you can only change the menu so much.
In maturing state markets like Colorado, we are seeing a wave of consolidation as early movers are exiting and larger, more savvy acquirers drive operational excellence and improve the supply chain through well-run vertical integration or improved buying power with the best cultivators and processors. We are presently representing the divestiture of one of Colorado’s most successful single unit dispensary companies in a key “close to the state line” market. Our goal is to continue to have at least one high quality cannabis deal always in our queue. Please check back regularly to our Opportunities section to see how it’s going.