Background

In the last of our Q3 license recaps, we turn to manufacturing, the least volatile of the three activities we cover in these quarterly posts. At Cannabiz Media we classify a manufacturer as a license-holder who processes marijuana-infused products, such as edibles or concentrates, but does not cultivate or sell to customers (flower in, product out). Cannabis manufacturing licenses are issued at a slower pace than cultivation or retail licenses.  

However, they serve as important assets for companies because the products are often powerful brands. These brands, unlike license assets, can cross state lines and help well established companies thrive and build market share. They are also useful for the license holder as these facilities can be used for white label production – therefore expanding the value of the asset.  

Key Findings

• 268 new manufacturing licenses were issued in Q3 – up from 202 in Q2
• New York led and issued 72 licenses (27%) with Ohio second with 55 (20.5%)
• 19 states issued licenses this quarter versus 15 in Q2
• The total number of manufacturers was stable at 5,941, up slightly from 5,912 at the end of Q1

As we see with other activities, most new licenses were issued by a handful of states. 5 states issued 68% of all new licenses. New York, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado and New Jersey sat atop the leaderboard. The following graph shows states that issued at least 10 new manufacturing licenses last quarter.

The complete list of issuing states is available on our Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform www.cannabiz.media.

Cannabiz Media tracks facilities as well as licenses. A facility has more than one license at a given location. This occurs most often with grow licenses – especially in California, and for stores in states like Colorado, Illinois and Michigan. The manufacturing licenses and facilities continue to track closely and in a narrow band over the last 12 months.

Leaderboards

Here’s the Leaderboard showing total manufacturing licenses for the top 10 states for Q3 2024.

Conclusion

Once again, the manufacturing licenses remain the least volatile activity in terms of license counts. It is still astounding that Oklahoma has 982 manufacturing licenses – considering the state’s population is only about 4 million residents. I would venture that not all of these licenses are operating.

Author

Ed Keating is a co-founder of Cannabiz Media and oversees the company’s data research and government relations efforts. He has spent his career working with and advising information companies in the compliance space. Ed has managed product, marketing, and sales while overseeing complex multi-jurisdictional product lines in the securities, corporate, UCC, safety, environmental, and human resource markets.  

At Cannabiz Media, Ed enjoys the challenge of working with regulators across the globe as he and his team gather corporate, financial, and license information to track the people, products, and businesses in the cannabis economy.  

Ed graduated from Hamilton College and received his MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

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Cannacurio is a column from Cannabiz Media featuring insights from the most comprehensive cannabis market intelligence platform. Catch up on Cannacurio posts and podcasts for the latest updates and intel.