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AUTHOR: Heather Allman
PUBLISHER: CANNABIS LAW REPORT
The First Smell Proof Glass Jar with Airtight Vacuum Seal
“It’s not your first storage container, but it will be your last.”
Spotlight on Stash by Canlock: A SMELL PROOF GLASS JAR WITH AIRTIGHT VACUUM SEAL
Canlock is paving a new path in the cannabis marketplace by introducing a new, innovative product to promote product freshness with their successful launch of Stash containers.
Stash is a smell-proof, airtight cannabis jar with proprietary vacuum pump technology.
Stash initially launched in February of 2019 and was written up in Forbes by Warren Bebrow.
CLR: Do you have a company slogan or tagline?
Canlock: “Stay Fresh” is our tagline and preservation is our mantra. Everything we do is with freshness in mind.
CLR: Why the need for a new cannabis storage product?
Canlock: Most of what we saw in the marketplace are repurposed from other industries like mylar bags or plastic containers which are bad for the environment and have poor seals.
Any other glass jar does nothing to preserve the contents, its just a container. We purposely built our vacuum sealed glass jar for cannabis storage.
CLR: How do your past professional experiences and successes help you today in the Cannabis space?
Canlock: Our founders come from diverse backgrounds spanning consumer electronics, engineering and marketing.
From decades of experience, we understand how to manufacture items with complex parts and multiple sizes. Most cannabis companies are only a few years old and can look the same on the shelf.
We really understand how to build brand awareness and favorable opinion to help separate our partners from the competition.
CLR: How does your product add value to the larger cannabis space?
Canlock: To provide consistent preservation across the entire lifecycle of cannabis, from cure to consumption.
We have developed 2 lines of business to support growers and dispensaries who often have several weeks or even months of time that goes by as their product must be tested, stored and transported to its final destination.
Upon receipt, the customer may want to consume the product over a period of time, saving it for a special occasion or buying in bulk to get a good price on their medicine.
The product is a flower. It’s degrading every second it’s exposed to oxygen. We are prolonging the shelf life in-store and at home.
CLR: Which aspect of your daily job holds the most appeal for you, and why?
Canlock: Innovating our product and supporting our partners. Vacuum sealing a glass jar is not easy. We are in our 7th generation, continually perfecting our products.
It’s very rewarding to hear feedback from people and brands looking for a solution like ours and we try to go the extra mile to make sure our partners receive the best customer service possible in order to grow.
“When they are successful, we are successful.”
CLR: Tell me about your year to date in 2020, expand on Stash jars and your place in the national cannabis landscape?
Canlock: Manufacturing was a challenge as we use the same material found in test tubes.
We were able to get through the first half of the year with a low burn rate and have managed to introduce an additional travel size jar, The Mini, as well as 12 different designer styles.
On the B2B front, we are customizing our jars to include brand logos or special artwork for corporate events, sampling, investor relations, limited strains, employee gifts, etc.
We have also launched a certified Child Resistant lid to support brands that use Canlock for their packaging.
CLR: What are the top 3 core values at Stash jars Canlock?
Canlock:
Canlock’s core values are innovation, preservation and efficiency.
We strive to innovate in ways that create better preservation in an economical and scalable fashion.
CLR: What is your bottom line at Stash jars Canlock, and how do you succeed at and maintain your bottom line?
Canlock: Scale. We are getting more and more monthly recurring revenue for our product lines which makes forecasting easier and manufacturing more efficient.
CLR: Mainly, there are two distinct kinds of cannabis: compassionate or patient-centric and capitalistic or profit-centric.
How do you reconcile the two in order to maintain a balance?
Canlock: We are really just trying to preserve the flower for businesses and consumers and don’t really take a stance. Capitalistic or Profit-centric brands tend to be the ones that will invest the cheapest amount possible to get their mid-grade product on the shelf with little regard to quality or freshness.
Those are typically not our customers.
CLR: How does transparency factor into the Canlock Laboratory mission?
Canlock: We hide nothing.
Our product(s) speak for themselves. They are experiential. You have to try it out to understand the true nature of the product.
The modern look is one thing, but the fact we create an airtight, vacuum seal is undeniable.
CLR: What sets your product apart? Or, what is your foremost current goal?
Canlock: Creating a vacuum seal to provide freshness for a degrading product. Our goal is to be the milk jug of cannabis.
CLR: How do authenticity and consumer trust factor into your current course(s) of action?
Canlock: It’s everything to us. If something goes wrong, we will own it and do whatever it takes to make it right. That’s what people deserve these days.
CLR: Generally speaking, what is the biggest challenge in launching a new brand? Or, something people don’t realize about running a cannabis operation?
Canlock: Because of influencers and PR, Brand Awareness hasn’t been as big of an issue for us.
Creating a favorable opinion hasn’t either as most people’s reaction is they’ve basically been waiting for someone to come up with this idea.
Our biggest challenge has been more about forecasting inventory and revenues during this launch and growth stage of our young company.
If you don’t have enough product, sales will naturally be down. However, when you are launching (and iterating as you go), its not prudent to hold a ton of inventory. It’s a delicate balance.
Items such as our website, social accounts, banking, and insurance, have all been impacted because we provide a service to the cannabis industry.
We do not touch the plant but because we talk about it we get bucketed and treated like criminals… and we are based in California!
Whether directly or indirectly, there’s still an unconscious bias or stigma surrounding the industry.
CLR: What are the biggest challenges currently that Stash jars Canlock face or have faced?
Canlock: Manufacturing in the wake of a pandemic.
CLR: With COVID-19, what has been the business impact so far? Are you doing anything new or differently? How have you evolved and/or pivoted?
Canlock: We use the same glass as found in many test tubes.
Governments are paying 4x normal rates and millions at a time which created an issue for our sourcing.
We had to find larger warehouse space to ensure manufacturing and so orders aren’t delayed.
Working on larger storage solutions.
CLR: This is an industry that has grown primarily off consumer demand and consumer results. What consumer demand do you currently see trending and What consumer behaviors or shifts?
Canlock: Demand will always be there for flower and pre-rolls. Because of its potency (and aroma), the need for a smell proof container is obvious.
With the advent of ecommerce and the uptick in environmental awareness, consumers have been trained to expect a quality product that is recyclable, each and every time they make a purchase.
By creating glass packaging that is centered around freshness, we help businesses service those consumer expectations.
CLR: Give me an example of one thing you do in your line of work that you feel is the very most important, that makes the most impact and Why?
Canlock: We create preservation, therefore we create happiness.
Helping businesses preserve their product to help their bottom line in turn helps patients (and consumers) get a cheaper product without sacrificing quality (or freshness).
The longer we can make the degrading product last, the more everyone wins in the end.
CLR: Tell me about your personal vision for the U.S. cannabis program in year to come? —in 3 years?
Canlock: We want to see more recycling done. There’s a ton of wastefulness.
Especially in deli style dispensaries, you should be able to bring your container back for dispensement. Just like what’s done in many grocery stores.
CLR: What keeps you awake at night?
Canlock: Knowing there are a ton of people still sitting in jail for crimes involving cannabis.
CLR: What advice can you offer to others in the cannabis space, consumers? companies?
Canlock: Don’t wait for the rules and policies to be created, write them yourself.
Don’t take anyone’s word for something, fact check yourself.
