According to information from the state, Illinois has issued 55 infuser licenses, with the first two granted in October 2022. However, as of January 4, only 10 infusers had received approval to operate.
Social equity infusers are entering into and attempting to compete in a market where the supply side has been dominated by 21 large-scale cultivation centers, which were originally licensed in the state’s medical cannabis market.
Cultivation centers also perform extraction and product manufacturing, while producing almost all of the cannabis plant material in the state, apart from the production of under a dozen small-scale craft grower licensees that are operational. Additionally, the holders of the cultivation center licenses own 110 of the roughly 180 adult use retail licenses in Illinois.
To sum up, the 17 companies that hold the original 21 cultivation center licenses produce almost all of the flower and infused products in Illinois to supply their own stores, while also wholesaling plant material and distillate to social equity infusers who are manufacturing products intended to compete with those of the cultivation centers.
Cannabis Benchmarks recently reached out to Victoria Williams for insight into the situation facing social equity infusers in Illinois. Williams has been an active player in the Illinois cannabis industry since 2015 and was one of the original founders of Starbuds’ Illinois dispensary.
She also launched the first minority-owned, social equity infused products brand to achieve retail distribution in the state. Currently, Williams is CEO of ACC of Illinois Transportation, which delivers products from cultivators and infusers to retailers across the state, which has provided her with deep insights into wholesaling issues.
She also assists other companies with supply chain optimization and recently helped a struggling social equity infuser significantly expand their retail distribution. Williams added that she “has firsthand experience with the challenges facing social equity businesses based on the barriers I faced as a licensee.”
Williams provided responses to questions from Cannabis Benchmarks via email, which are included below. The responses have been edited very lightly for clarity.
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