In just four years, vertically integrated Lume Cannabis Co. grew sales from $2 million to closing in on $200 million, thanks to investments in technology and automation that cut production costs by 50%, and an engaged and experienced team. With a solid foundation in the Midwest, the company is planning to expand to the Sunshine State.
You won’t hear grumbling about Michigan’s challenges from Lume Chief Cultivation Officer Kevin Kuethe. Instead, you’ll hear optimism and confidence from a seasoned cannabis industry veteran (and 2021 CBT Cannabis Leadership Awards winner) whose cannabis industry experience spans a range of responsibilities and perspectives.
His cannabis career dates back to 2010, when he left Montana for Arizona as its medical market launched. As one of three co-founders and chief operating officer, he helped Bloom quickly become one of Arizona’s highest-grossing cannabis companies. From there, he moved on to newer markets—including Colorado, Oregon and California—before landing in Las Vegas as chief operating officer of Gb Sciences.
Kuethe joined the Lume team in late 2017, before the company technically existed. “It was still an idea. But we had a vision of what we wanted it to be,” he recalls. That vision was to build something of ultra-high quality that would last. He acknowledges that funding challenges often make such dreams difficult. But Lume was different. Initial capital came from the original founders and a network of friends, but the company has funded recent capital expenditures with revenue from ongoing operations. Now it’s “marijuana’s best-kept secret,” he says.
“The main attraction for me was that I believed that we could do that here. We had good partners and good funding. We had a vision, and everybody was on the same page,” he says. “And I’ll tell you what, nothing stopped. Nobody ever went back on what they said, and we were able to create and build our first cultivation facility here.”
Lume Chief Operating Officer and President Doug Hellyar came on board in early 2019, after working more than a decade with Lume founder and CEO, lacrosse legend Dave Morrow of Warrior Sports fame.
“It was a pretty simple call for Dave and I to make the switch over [to cannabis] because we saw this huge market potential,” says Hellyar, who had multiple leadership positions at Warrior. While the entrepreneurial duo didn’t anticipate all the challenges, the appeal of building something from scratch was irresistible. They set out to make Lume Michigan’s leading brand.
Hellyar says vertical integration and the team have been crucial to growth: “To grow from $2 million in revenues in 2019 to approaching $200 million in 2023 is rapid growth. We would not have been able to do that unless we controlled our own destiny in terms of our operations and our retail scale-up … and we put together an incredible team.”
A key factor in Lume’s success is its attitude toward automation. Related savings and advantages have been integral to staying solvent during Michigan’s wild price ride. But reducing operating costs was Lume’s goal since day one—not a reaction—enabling the company to “bob and weave with the market” and come out on top, Kuethe says.
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