EASTHAMPTON — Marijuana grower and retailer Insa has laid off staff in recent weeks, citing numerous challenges from out-of-state competition that did not exist months before, according to Peter Gallagher, CEO and co-founder.
“To address these new challenges, we have been focused on implementing important cost-saving measures to align with the new market. It was through this process that the difficult decision was made to eliminate various positions in the company,” Gallagher wrote in an emailed response to questions. “We are providing support and resources to those who have been impacted by this decision to help with the transition.”
It’s a further sign that the buzz is wearing off the state’s cannabis industry, where the price for an ounce of flower now averages $188, according to the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission. That’s down from $321 an ounce a year ago and $403 in March 2021.
A store in Northampton, The Source, closed abruptly in December. And last month, a buyer with ideas to grow marijuana pulled out of a deal to buy the former Chez Josef banquet house in Agawam after it couldn’t get financing due to market conditions.
Insa has a national reach, but its growing and packaging operation is in Easthampton where in January, the company bought its space at Keystone Mills, 122 Pleasant St. for $2.7 million in a business condominium arrangement.
Gallagher did not specify how many jobs were cut and didn’t respond to follow-up emails.
Insa had more than $55millionin sales in in 2022 and was the number-one dispensary in the state. Insa accounts for 2.42% of the estimated $1.4 Billion of all cannabis sales in the state according to cannmenus and its data platform
The company has not filed a WARN notice with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, a notice which some companies must file 60 days before they undergo mass layoffs, according to state spokeswoman Michele Campbell.
The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission reports job losses statewide in the aggregate, but not at specific companies.
As of the end of March, there were 22,129 active employees — “agents” in industry parlance — working in the adult-use recreational cannabis industry across the state.
In January, the state’s recreational cannabis industry surpassed a total of $4 billion in gross sales since the first legal shops opened in November 2018.
As far as out-of-state competition, the first New York shops opened over the last few months, with the first Albany-area shop opening April 1. Vermont and Maine and Rhode Island also have legal recreational marijuana.
Connecticut’s first recreational dispensaries opened in January and at least one retailer plans to open soon in Enfield.
Insa’s shop on West Columbus Avenue in Springfield sits just a few miles north of the Connecticut line. It was obviously placed there to capture customers traveling Interstate 91. The company has advertised with billboards touting the location’s ease of access from the highway.
Insa’s growing and manufacturing operations are in Easthampton. Besides the Springfield store, it has a medical marijuana location on Cottage Street, a shop in Salem and a recently opened medical dispensary in Avon, Massachusetts.
Insa is also licensed to do business in Connecticut and has operations running in Florida and Pennsylvania.
H/T: www.masslive.com
