Background

In the last of our Q1 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 do 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

• 169 new manufacturing licenses were issued in Q1
• New Mexico led and issued 61 licenses (36%)
• The total number of manufacturers was stable at 6,013, down slightly from 6,085 at year-end

As we see with other activities, most new licenses were issued by a handful of states. 5 states issued 76% of all new licenses. New Mexico, New Jersey, Michigan, California, and Arizona sat atop the leaderboard. The following graph shows states that issued at least 10 new manufacturing licenses last year.  

‍

Cannabiz Media also 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 track closely and in a narrow band over the last 12 months.

Leaderboards

Here’s the Leaderboard showing total manufacturing licenses in the top 5 states for Q1 quarter-end 2024.  

Conclusion

Once again, the manufacturing licenses remain the least volatile activity in terms of license counts. The total difference over the quarter was a net loss of only 72 licenses. This was driven by Oklahoma shedding close to two hundred licenses in the quarter and the other states making up for some of that shortfall.  

‍

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.

Cannabiz Media customers can stay up-to-date on these and other new licenses through our newsletters, alerts, and reports modules. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive these weekly reports delivered to your inbox. Or you can schedule a demo for more information on how to access the Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform yourself to dive further into this data.

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.