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A Little bit of Cuba has Come a Long Way: G FarmaLabs

A little bit of Cuba has come a long way: GĀ FarmaLabs

One of the great things about my job is the number of hardworking, risk taking, visionary entrepreneurs that I literally get to interview every day.

They share the stories of their successes and failures and are incredibly transparent in what they reveal to CBE Press in hopes of gaining attention for their companyā€™s products and servicesĀ —Ā and the pleasure they have felt and experienced in theirĀ desireĀ to live the American dream.

And yes, the Cannabis Industry is just the place to find folks like Ata Gonzalez and his wife Nicole, partners in life and in business as the CEO and COO of GĀ FarmaLabs Limited & The Holdings Company and, justĀ as importantly to them, their five (5)Ā children.

This story starts with a boy who immigratedĀ to the U.S.Ā from Cuba in 1979 with his familyĀ a year beforeĀ theĀ Mariel boatlift. His father,Ā aĀ restauranteur,Ā brought the family here because of the freedom and opportunity the U.S.presented.Ā The boy grows to be his own man and marries another Cuban immigrant whose familyā€™s heritage includedĀ blendingĀ theĀ tobacco that goes intoĀ making those famous Cuban cigars.Ā The manĀ and his wifeĀ haveĀ success in real estate only toĀ lose it all in a failed music industry ventureĀ thatĀ just aboutĀ wipedĀ themĀ out.

WithĀ five (5)Ā kidsĀ to provide for, a family friend encourages the couple to move out west and see for themselves the money being madeĀ in the emerging legal medical Cannabis Industry,Ā soĀ they travel to San Diego, then toĀ HumboldtĀ County,Ā andĀ in 2009, joined a collective to learn the cannabis cultivation and wholesale business.Ā After a while, they leased 7 acres, complete with a barn and a home, and the inexperienced farmersĀ formed their own farm and collective,Ā the beginning ofĀ GĀ FarmaLabs, andĀ began growing their first outdoor crop that consisted of 99 plants grown from clones.

Hiring great managers is something Ata takes pride in. After the first yield, he hired a manager and rented another farm. ThenĀ he hired a manager at the new farm and rented a third. Eventually, Ata and Nicole had a nice collective of four farms in and around The Emerald Triangle.

As novice growers, they only yielded about a pound of flowers a plant but it was enough for them to reinvest, learn from their mistakes and begin to perfect their growing techniques and more than double their yield to 2 1/2 lbs. a plant with their second crop.Ā Ata also attended Oaksterdam University to learn the ins and outs of the medical cannabis trade.Ā Today they continue making sure the yields keep growing more and more…

With every dime going back into the business, GĀ FarmaLabs began to grow adding acreage on additional farms and eventually investedĀ inĀ building outĀ two retailĀ stores in Southern California where they could distribute their product andĀ create their own mix of infused products.Ā The ebbs and flows of local political challenges andĀ the constant federal raids andĀ store closures eventually ledĀ them out of the retail business andĀ theyĀ focused on the production and processing activities that GĀ Farmalabs is now known for.

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Along the way, Ata and Nicole grew as many as 120 different strains but eventually settled onĀ 7, consisting of Indicas and Sativas and blends that can be mixed to create Hybrids and over 300 blends. GĀ FarmaLabs isĀ positioned to becomeĀ one of the leading companies in the cannabis space, with 40Ā plusĀ employees including in-house scientists, andĀ an expanding array of some 50 productsĀ ranging from vape pens to 20 flavors of infused chocolate edibles.Ā The core strength of their businessesĀ are the collective farms and the CO2 extraction gear they have invested in with both Eden Labs and Waters Corporation.

 

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With a new sales team in place (including pros hired from theĀ Pharma industry), Ata expects CaliforniaĀ sales to grow, asĀ G FarmaLabs products areĀ currently carried in some 500 CaliforniaĀ dispensaries.Ā They recently began raising $5 million through a private California-only offering.

TheirĀ goalĀ is to take the G FarmaLabs brand national by selling the companyā€™s marijuana-infused chocolates, cannabis oils and vape pens in numerous medical and recreational cannabis states across the country.Ā They are in the process of rolling out the Liquid Gold products in Washington through a licensing agreement that they signed last summer,Ā andĀ sales will begin recently.Ā Plans in Washington call for a 21,000 square foot outdoor and a 21,000 square foot greenhouse grow.

They are alsoĀ inĀ conversations to enterĀ theĀ Colorado marketĀ and plan to beĀ active in Nevada in the future.

The yearĀ 2015 is shaping up to be a big oneĀ for the Gonzalesā€™ and G Farmalabs. They have come a long way since moving west to join the Green Rush. They are adding to their intellectual property mix, they are in the planning and permitting stages of building an 80,000 square foot greenhouse and 10,000 square foot head house to centralize their operations in CA that can produce 80,000Ā lbs.Ā of flower a year with a planned launch date of mid-2016, and they are constantly refining their national brand strategy to challenge Bhang, Dixie, Kiva and any others with national ambitions.

The Gonzalez’s have astutely moved on to building “The Holdings Company” (THC). This entity controls all the intellectual property, packaging and territories associated with all G FarmaLabs brands. The future will tell how this success story plays out.

ata2Company Name:Ā G FarmaLabs, a non-profit CaliforniaĀ Collective

GFarmaLabs Limited a Nevada Corporation

The Holdings Company a Nevada Corporation

Year Founded:Ā NovemberĀ 2013

Ownership Structure:Ā PrivateĀ &Ā Non-ProfitĀ CaliforniaĀ Company Incorporated in California

Management Team:Ā Ata Gonzalez, CEO & Nicole Gonzalez, COO

Website: http://www.gfarmalabs.com/

Headquarters:Ā San Rafael,Ā California

Industry Segment/Category:Ā Producer and Processor

Current Markets/States Served:Ā California

Current Number of employees:Ā 40-50

Market Strategy/Goal:Ā  G FarmaLabs strive to provide access to safe, effective and affordable medicines and related health care services to the people who need them.

2014 Revenues:Ā $4Ā million+

Current Product Mix:Ā Liquid Gold Extracts, Vape, Chocolate Bars, GSTIKS,Ā fine cultural accessories, and other emerging bi-products

Expansion Plans:Licensing Territories in WA, CO, NV and IL

Financing strategy: To date from operations and seed capitalĀ plusĀ private offering to CaliforniaĀ investors

Key Partnerships: Creating operation manuals for future territories

Rob Meagher

Rob Meagher

Rob Meagher, CBE’s Founder, President and Editor-in-Chief is a 30 year veteran of the media world. His career has spanned from stints representing the Washington Post, USA Weekend, Reader’s Digest, Financial World & Corporate Finance to the technology world where he worked at International Data Group and Ziff Davis where he was part of the launch team for The Web Magazine, Yahoo Internet Life, Smart Business and Expedia Travels before starting his own marketing and Publisher’s Representative Firm. He also ran all print and online media sales and marketing for the Society for Human Resource Management before partnering with Forbes and then Fortune to create Special Sections covering a variety of topics. Rob, who started CBE Press in 2014, can be contacted at [email protected].

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