FARMINGTON — The owners of Blue Sky Lab, LLC and Kender Farms Inc., recently bought two existing marijuana licenses in the city, with plans to grow their company through vertical integration. The practice allows a business to own and control the cultivation, lab and extraction, manufacturing and retail sectors of the business, theoretically allowing them to better control costs and make the business more efficient, in what is becoming a very competitive cannabis market.

Chad Crandall, one of the owners and principles in both companies, confirmed they bought two licenses — one from the former owner of Green Grow and the other from the former owner of Biome. “It is true that we have bought a few licenses from other local companies. We hired a majority of the people who worked at the one location,” he said in an email. He added that by joining the Blue Sky team, they added better pay and benefits including holiday pay and full healthcare insurance for the individuals and their families.

Maine’s Office of Marijuana Policy, which is responsible for the oversight of all aspects of legalized marijuana, including Maine’s existing Medical Use of Marijuana Program, shows that Crandall and his partner Jacob Daku currently hold nine licenses for Kender Farms and one for Blue Sky Lab. They have one conditional license for a store in Farmington, and two conditional, jurisdiction approved licenses for stores in Farmington. Crandall said they are just waiting for final signoff before they can open the retail store. Additionally, the company has three pending cultivation licenses and three product manufacturing licenses in Farmington.

OMP defines licensure as “conditional” when the establishment has completed the first step in the application process and obtained a conditional license. “Conditional, jurisdiction approved” means the establishment has obtained local authorization from a host municipality and is eligible to begin the supplemental/active license phase.

“We are a rare company the way it’s just two local people without investors, said Crandall. “We grew from caregivers, starting at the beginning of the program and have grown a semi-stable company employing over 30 people.”

Crandall said their operations include one of the first extraction facilities in Maine, and that they operate in both medical and adult use, with multiple retail locations and manufacturing sites for edibles with a maple focus and a beverage plant license for infused drinks.

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