This article is sponsored by CannaBox Containers. CannaBox Containers provides turnkey cultivation solutions for every aspect of cannabis growing.
Cannabis is among the fastest-growing industries in the nation, and more growers than ever are looking to scale their operations. New legislation continues to create brand-new cannabis markets across the U.S. and beyond; meanwhile, those in states that have already legalized for medical or recreational purposes are watching consumption increase. Yet many are unsure of how to augment their production and revenue quickly enough to keep up with the growth.
One option? Customizable, pre-fabricated grow facilities designed to help operations of all sizes scale with the market. Companies like CannaBox Containers, which sells shipping containers fully outfitted as grow rooms, intend to provide a turnkey solution for those who want their business to grow as fast as their cannabis plants.
Challenges of Scaling a Cannabis Grow
Whether you’re a hobby grower hoping to clone more of your favorite plant, a collective of friends searching for communal space, or a small business owner trying to capitalize on industry expansion, an array of challenges face you in scaling your cannabis grow.
The primary issue is space. Unless you plan to take over large areas of your home (or intend to grow outdoors, which minimizes production capabilities and isn’t workable in most climates), you’ll need a separate facility. Finding and keeping one costs money, which most small-scale growers are short on to begin with. Even if budget isn’t an issue, most states’ zoning regulations for cannabis grows – which dictate certain distances that must be maintained from schools, parks, libraries, and the like – make finding a space at best tricky, and at worst, virtually unnavigable. Even if you do manage to track down a compliant location, most buildings won’t rent space for growing cannabis. Manage to find a space? Now you’re faced with the task of outfitting it. Cultivation facilities require specific lighting, air filtration, precise temperature control, and much more.
Considering the time, energy, and cash required for all of this, any grower that successfully acquires and outfits a space will ideally be able to use that space for years to come. Yet for those who hope to scale with the market, that may not be realistic – Bloomberg estimates that the legal cannabis industry in the U.S. alone will reach $50 billion, or eight times its current size, within 10 years. As such, any grower serious about keeping up will have to expand at a breakneck pace, too.
Using Pre-Fabricated Grow Rooms to Scale Quickly
Consider the prospect of having to search out or build a new space every time your production swells, and scaling starts to sound like a never-ending cycle. The best way to combat this? Create a space that can be easily expanded at a moment’s notice. CannaBox marketing director Cody Gould says this is the exact reasoning behind his company’s products.
“[CannaBox offers] quickness of getting into the industry,” says Cody Gould, marketing director for CannaBox. “It’s perfect for people trying to start a business. All you need is a power source and a source of water…and you are able to scale no matter [where you are] without having to purchase a building or grow within your house.” CannaBox containers come complete with lighting, air filtration, and temperature control, and can sit on private property or within an existing warehouse – just hook them up to water and power, and they’re ready to grow the day they’re delivered.
The beauty of these kinds of pre-fabricated, customizable cultivation facilities lies in the ability to build a uniquely scalable operation that fits any grower’s specifications, even if those specifications are different from month to month. In fact, Gould says scaling up can happen at any time. “Say you start a personal grow and you’ve having fun, you might want to go in with some friends on a 20-foot box, and you start a communal grow,” he says. “Then eventually you want to go with a 40-foot box for more people. You shouldn’t have to go out and buy a warehouse to grow your own medicine.”
Meanwhile, established grows are able to adapt to rapidly changing markets using these pre-fabricated cultivation facilities. In newly legalized states, demand for cannabis often surges initially, then levels off once a critical mass of producers have entered the market. It’s impossible for producers of any size to know ahead of time at what point demand will level off, but that’s no problem, says Gould: “For dispensary purposes, you can start with a 40-foot combination of boxes, and then add more as demand rises – you can easily match the market.”
For operations that grow large enough to nurture numerous plants through various stages of development at once, CannaBoxes are also offered in an array of sizes specifically for the flowering, vegging, cloning, and curing stages. In states that permit vertical integration of cannabis businesses, even those who wish to add processing and packaging capabilities can do so with the addition of yet another CannaBox. For growers with limited space, containers can even stack on top of one another on private property such as a farm or backyard, or in an existing warehouse. This keeps grow footprints minimal – with a 10-foot box as the base, for instance, a stacked grow will take up about the same amount of space as a parking spot.
In this way, operations of any size or type can keep up with the market indefinitely. Gould says he expects that soon, those who have purchased the company’s boxes will have found success in the nascent cannabis industry, and will be back for more.
To learn more about CannaBox Containers, please visit the sponsor’s website.
