Can Automation Save Your Cannabis Business From Recession?

Everyone is talking about the recession. We are all feeling its impact one way or another. If you are running a cannabis business, you might already be seeing signs that tough times are up ahead. Since the rising cost of goods means shoppers have less cash, competition is much stiffer. Some retailers are already marking down prices to attract more shoppers but this short–term solution just leaves most players in the industry with lower profit margins. 

In addition to all this, your employees might already be experiencing a low morale because of the rising cost of everyday goods. This can’t be good for your business, right? You’re probably asking yourself if you can weather the storm. 

Winners and Losers

Since the cannabis industry is still in its infancy, it’s hard to say if it is truly recession-resistant. However it is safe to expect, just like in any recession, some businesses will come out as winners. Others, unfortunately, will have to bear the lifelong impacts of this economic crisis. 

There are many ways to help your cannabis business survive and even thrive in these uncertain times. Given the current economic landscape, automation for cannabis businesses can help save time, money, and energy. While it’s not a silver bullet that can solve all business problems, it can improve efficiency and ultimately help profits. 

Empowering a business with automation can help keep customers happy and even help a brand grow during these challenging times. There are several measurable ways automation can help cannabis companies.

Increased Production Efficiency

Automation in the cannabis industry is underutilized. Adding automation to cut costs and increase throughput on your production may help create resiliency and come out of the recession on top. 

For those in gummy manufacturing, an automated gummy filling machine like the DM50 from One Supply creates up to 18,000 cannabis gummies per hour. If you are producing half that amount now manually through other methods, increasing volume will increase revenues, and could help carry your brand through tough times. An entry piece of automation equipment like the DM50, at a competitive price, could help a cbd gummy manufacturer who has been using human workers increase productivity without breaking the bank. One Supply reported the DM50 can reduce three workers to one, resulting in over $200,000 of increased profits on a $70K investment. It’s also a good option if you are just looking to expand your product offerings. Opening up a new revenue stream is always a good option for recession proofing.

If you are in vape manufacturing then pre-loaded trays can help your production definitely become more efficient. Effectively reducing the time it takes to set up cartridges for filling. By having ready-to-go trays you can fill product 4x faster and can check off that box for efficiency in your vape business.

Expanding Your Business With New Products

Sure, cutting costs is essential for business survival during a recession. But it is also important that you don’t miss out on opportunities to strengthen your brand and boost your sales. A concrete way to increase sales during the recession is to expand your offerings. This could even help you stand out against competitors who have the mindset of “just keeping the business afloat” during the recession.

If you are a more experienced cannabis company looking to upgrade your automation processes, there are several other machines that offer the ability to not only add automation to your every day production, but also add the ability to expand. One Supply’s manufacturing solutions catalog has some options to equip you for just that.

For example the RoboCAP 300. If you are vape filling already this unit can increase your production volume to 1,800 cartridges per hour. You can achieve this with the RoboCAP with just one operator. You’ll know that if you were to try to produce that number manually, you would need a minimum of 4 operators. The investment here is a no-brainer. Save on operations and increase your volume. Sounds like a recipe for success.

On top of that, you can utilize the RoboCAP to open up some other categories you might not be utilizing with your brand. The RoboCAP machine can be upgraded with minimal cost to have the ability to fill capsules, balms, creams, tinctures, and bottles. This effectively opens up a pandora’s box of revenue streams for your already existing business.

Did you know? In 2018, gummies drove 44% of the total category size. So far in 2022, gummies are driving 73% of edibles sales. 

In California, the world’s longest-standing legal market, gummies now make up over 90% of total edibles.

It proves that now is the perfect time to expand your brand into gummy manufacturing. You can once again use the DM50 From One Supply to expand your brand’s product offerings and open up that new stream of revenue just waiting for you to reach out and grab it. If you’re company is larger in size and your facility can hold a machine with a slightly larger footprint and you are looking for a larger throughput, then the G80 which produces double the amount of gummies per hour. That might satisfy that expansion itch.

These automation solutions bring options for your staff providing opportunities to grow your business instead of staff wasting their time on monotonous tasks. They can spend more time experimenting, looking for innovative solutions, or finding ways to help your company grow in ways that involve real thought and things only a human can do. Since your employees would be making better use of their time and skill sets, you can expect that the result of adding automation will cultivate better employee satisfaction and overall morale would significantly improve.

Improve cost savings

Automation allows business owners to allocate limited resources to things that matter most in the business. As you shift to automation, you will be able to assess your processes and determine the steps where money is wasted. Another great example of a task that can reduce operation costs for vape producers is pre-loaded trays.

Typically trays are manually filled, and if you’ve ever done this yourself it can be a “pull your hair out” type of task that eats up very valuable time. You can once again use pre-loaded trays tto improve cost savings. These pre-loaded trays can be combined with the RoboCAP Series machines from ATG. Greentank’s pre-loaded trays come with the tray ready to go. Just place it on the machine and fill. Not only reducing that time to setup cartridges for filling, but also comes with the vape caps on preloaded blocks right out of the box to easily cap your filled cartridges. Labor savings here can bring you from 6-8 operators down to 2-3. If you factor in the use of pre-loaded trays, that can bring operators down to 1. Just think about how this might add to your bottom line. 

You might find that relying on manual processes is more expensive than migrating to automated processes. This gives you an opportunity to improve your business workflows, so that you are able to produce the highest quality products in the most efficient way. 

Future-proof your business

While there are indeed challenges that come with the recession, this does not mean the end for your business. In fact, cannabis is one of the industries that would greatly benefit from shifting to automation during these trying times. It wouldn’t be surprising if we see more cannabis businesses shifting to automated processes in the near future. The last thing you want is to be left behind! 

In a way, getting started with automation today is simply making sure that your cannabis business is ready for the future.