Cannacurio No. 95: Manufacturing Ranking 2024 Q1

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In the final roundup of our first quarter licensing, we turn to manufacturing, the least volatile of the three activities we cover in these quarterly posts. At Cannabiz Media, we classify a manufacturer as a licensee who processes marijuana-infused products such as edibles or concentrates, but does not grow or sell them to customers (flower in, product out). Cannabis production licenses are issued more slowly than cultivation or retail licenses.

However, they serve as an important asset for companies because the products are often strong brands. These brands, unlike licensed assets, can cross state lines and help well-established companies succeed and build market share. They are also useful for the license holder as these facilities can be used for white label production, increasing the value of the asset.

• 169 new manufacturing licenses were granted in the first quarter
• New Mexico led the way, issuing 61 licenses (36%).
• The total number of manufacturers remained stable at 6,013, slightly below the 6,085 at the end of the year

As we see with other activity, most new licenses were issued by a handful of states. 5 states issued 76% of all new licenses. New Mexico, New Jersey, Michigan, California and Arizona topped the leaderboard. The chart below shows states that issued at least 10 new manufacturing licenses last year.

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Cannabiz Media also tracks facilities and licenses. A facility has more than one license at a given location. This happens most often with cultivation licenses – particularly in California and with operations in states like Colorado, Illinois and Michigan. Manufacturing licenses and facilities track the last 12 months closely and in a narrow band.

Here are the rankings showing total manufacturing licenses in the top 5 states for the first quarter of 2024.

Again, manufacturing licenses remain the least volatile activity in terms of the number of licenses. The overall difference over the quarter was a net loss of just 72 licenses. This was because Oklahoma lost nearly two hundred licenses during the quarter and the other states were able to make up some of that deficit.

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Ed Keating is co-founder of Cannabiz Media and oversees the company's data research and government relations. Throughout his career, he has worked with and advised information companies in the compliance area. Ed has led product, marketing and sales while overseeing complex, multi-country product lines in securities, corporate, UCC, security, environmental and human resources.

At Cannabiz Media, Ed enjoys the challenge of working with regulators around the world as he and his team collect corporate, financial and licensing information to track the people, products and companies in the cannabis economy.

Ed graduated from Hamilton College and received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University.

Cannabiz Media customers can stay up to date on these and other new licenses through our newsletter, alerts and reporting modules. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive these weekly reports straight to your inbox. Or you can schedule a demo to get more information about how you can access the Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform yourself and dive deeper into this data.

Cannacurio is a Cannabiz Media column featuring insights from the most comprehensive cannabis market intelligence platform. Check out Cannacurio posts and podcasts for the latest updates and information.