Courtesy Graham Farrar, Glass House Group

Terri Hardin

TRICHOMES Staff

“I have a lot of experience doing things that people have no experience doing,” observed Graham Farrar, co-founder and president of Glass House Group (GHG). “That’s the common thread across everything I’ve done - first the Internet (Software.com), then digital music (SONOS), then iPhone Apps (iStoryTime), then legal cannabis (Glass House).”

Another common thread has been the ability to discover and develop a business’ potential. Recently, Toronto based-Mercer Park Brand Acquisition Corp. agreed to acquire Glass House (now Glass House Group) for $567 million. “Glass House has established a top ranked flower brand in one of the most competitive cannabis markets in the world,” noted Mercer Park’s Chairman Jonathan Sandelman. “Combined with the proposed combination with the Southern California Greenhouse asset and 17 proposed Element 7 retail licenses, Glass House Group is poised to become the largest, vertically integrated brand-building platform in California, the world’s largest cannabis market.”

Since the April 8, 2021, announcement, the San Jose-based Parent Company has announced a $50 million “buy and supply” agreement, in which it will buy Glass House Farms grow and supply GHG retail with product," Said Steve Allan, CEO of The Parent Company, “We are thrilled to have sourced an aligned 10-year supply partnership with Glass House, as well as to have our branded products in Glass House retail stores for years to come.” 

And that’s just the beginning. “As a public company,” said Farrar, “we will have access to capital that will allow us to execute on numerous opportunities. We’ll be able to expand our cultivation footprint, making our high-quality products even better. Glass House Farms will also be able to expand its retail footprint, setting us up to become the No. 1 retailer in the state and positioning us to be the No. 1 quality flower brand within the state of California - right now we are currently No. 2 in terms of flower sales in CA. Furthermore, we plan to use the capital investment from Mercer Park to build out our portfolio of brands. All in all, we’ll become the largest publicly-traded, California-focused cannabis company - and we’re pretty stoked about it!”

What’s also stoking enthusiasm is the acquisition of an extant 5.5-million-square-foot greenhouse, formerly used for non-cannabinoid produce. This greenhouse, said Farrar, offers “roughly 100 football fields of space to grow our high-quality cannabis. We expect to produce over 1.7 million pounds of cannabis each year, so we’ll be able to supply enough cannabis for the California market and other states in the near future once the plant is federally legalized and interstate commerce opens up. 

“California is already an agricultural powerhouse,” he noted, "and the state’s cannabis industry is no different.” But by using innovative and forward-thinking technologies to create one of the most environmentally sensitive precision agriculture systems in the state, "we can use everything that the beautiful southern California climate gives us, while also maximizing our efficiency using state-of-the-art systems to recapture water, generate our own electricity utilizing the heat that is produced to improve the climate for the plants in a super eco-friendly way. With this combination and our new greenhouse, we are poised to achieve sustainable, quality cannabis at scale.”

Even so, visionaries - especially visionaries - like being vindicated. So, when Farrar launched Glass House Farms in 2015, did he know it would blow up in 2021? Probably. “Glass House Group has been strategizing its next phase of growth for the last few years,” said Farrar, noting that “the timing to access the public markets through our business combination with Mercer Park is impeccable. We’ve been looking for avenues to expand our brands’ capabilities, and with federal legislation on the horizon, we wanted to prepare ourselves for the next phase of cannabis - cannabis 3.0, if you will.”