SOL Global (SOL.C) has a number of killer assets, but there’s one you need to know about called 3 Boys Farm.
Based in Florida, 3 Boys Farm is an award-wining, USDA-certified, 100% organic cultivator of produce and, following the Village Farms (VFF.C) model, cannabis is a recent addition to the company’s list of offerings.
SOL Global invested USD$8M in the company to scale up 3 Boys Farm to supply its medical cannabis statewide through brick-and-mortar stores a new home delivery system.
And the company has aced every test thrown at it: 3 Boys Farms “has obtained Good Agricultural Practices-Farm (GAP) and Good Manufacturing Processing (GMP) approvals for its state-of-the art cannabis cultivation facility in Ruskin, Florida with 100% scores on both.”
Let’s backtrack a little. SOL Global completed its acquisition of 3 Boys Farms in April 2019 through the closing of its purchase of CannCure Investments.
Here’s a look at their pesticide-free operation:
It’s safe to say this isn’t 3 Boys Farms’ first rodeo. Robert Tornello, the company’s founder, has reimagined what it means to farm organic produce in Florida.
Tornello’s operation is highly sustainable. It reuses rainwater from the roofs of his greenhouses to use as a base for the hydroponic growing solution he uses and in the greenhouses cooling systems.
This system reduces his annual dependence on a local aquifer by 10 million gallons per year, and it’s no wonder his farm won the Florida Agricultural Commissioner’s Environmental Leadership Award and passed nearly every regulatory check with flying colours.
A big congratulations is in order to the 3 Boys operations and cultivation team, who in the span of less than five (5) months worked tirelessly to upgrade the Ruskin facility to meet and exceed GAP and GMP industry standards,” said SOL Global’s interim chair Brady Cobb.
“These certifications will allow us to deliver the best possible cannabis flowers and products to Florida’s medical patients. Our model in collaboration with GMP and GAP certifications allows 3 Boys Farm to literally be the only cannabis cultivator in the state using organic living soil while following strict organic principles in all practices.”
The Mjbizdaily graph above shows how the Florida market is heating up. It’s the third-largest American state by population and is estimated to be worth $USD250M.
What 3 Boys Farm has that Trulieve (TRUL.C) and Curaleaf (CURA.C) don’t is the organic element.
“Surveys have found that 61% of medical cannabis users and 50% of adult-use recreational cannabis users prefer organic cannabis,” according to Keith Speights at The Motley Fool.
I know I do.
Operational update on the ol’ back 40
Thanks to investments from SOL and CannCure into the 3 Boys Farm facility in Ruskin, all four greenhouses are fully air conditioned, the latest and greatest equipment has been purchased and substantial power upgrades have been made for the ramp-up.
The Ruskin facility covers 24,000 square feet of grow space and includes three flowering greenhouses, a vegetative greenhouse, propagation and seedling space and high grade harvesting and post-harvest production areas.
The cannabis grown there is overseen by director of cultivation, Chris Keller, a grow master with a 25-year career in cultivation. Keller previously grew cannabis for Incredibles, a Denver-based extracts company.
The 3 Boys cultivation team also includes Mike ‘P-Bud’ Nee who helped create the widely-known Chemdog strain.
Further additions to operational team:
- Mike Smuts: 10-year cannabis retail veteran and member of the Florida Department of Agriculture’s medical mmarijuana advisory committee;
- Kevin Symanski: A supply chain expert with 30 years of experience working with Coca-Cola, FedEx and UPS.
The 3 Boys advantage
With a stacked management team and real cultivation expertise in tow, 3 Boys is ready to make the most of their armory.
The company has 13 vans and trucks making statewide deliveries of their organic flower to Florida’s patients. According to SOL, both revenue and patient count have “increased consistently on a week-by-week basis.”
I haven’t seen numbers, but the argument 3 Boys would make would go something like this:
‘We have the only organic cannabis in the State, we have licensed ChemD which is known as the “strain that changed the game,” and we’ve gotten rave reviews from our clients.’
And soon 3 Boys will have their own brick-and-mortar locations:
3 Boys Farm’s first two (2) stores are anticipated to open before the end of October 2019 in St. Petersburg and Boynton Beach, respectively, and a total of six (6) locations expected to be open by the end of 2020. 3 Boys Farm will have a total of twenty (20) locations open by the end of 2020.
Wait, there’s more. Their 2,500 square foot extraction and processing facility in Indiantown recently received approval frrom the State of Florida’s Department of Health.
The facility has the potential to scale up ever further to 50,000 square feet, which is “expected to be fully operational by January 2020.”
In conclusion,3 Boys is following the Village Farms and The Green Organic Dutchman (TGOD.T) model rolled into one. What’s not to love?
–Ethan Reyes
Full disclosure: SOL Global is an equity.guru marketing client.