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Public School System’s Loss, Cannabis Industry’s Gain: Sweet Grass Kitchen

Born in New York City to Barbara and Marcel Srur before growing up in Florida as the middle child of five (three sisters and one brother), Julie Berliner always wanted to be a school teacher. After spending some time skiing in Colorado, she fell in love with the Rocky Mountains and decided to pursue her education degree at the University of Colorado in Boulder before doing her classroom work at an elementary school after graduating in 2008.

Sweetgrass 1As we all know, timing is everything in life and in Julie’s case, she ran into the perfect storm. She found herself looking for a job to serve her calling only to run into a terrible job market (it was the heart of the recession due to the collapse of the real estate market and public finance). Just as she was entering the job market, Julie went through the frustrating experience of applying for roughly 30 teaching positions in the public school system without receiving one call back.

With the medical marijuana industry taking off in Colorado at the same time, and many young entrepreneurs starting businesses in the wild west to seek their fortune, Julie found work as a receptionist in a cannabis start-up (grow and dispensary), The Greenest Green, in Boulder. One of her hobbies in college was baking gourmet chocolate chip cookies for her boyfriend (they are now married, so they must have been pretty good!) and that led to her employers approaching her to develop an infused edible product for the shop. They gave her a pound of pot and she made infused chocolate chip cookies, baked them in her home kitchen and the recipe became the anchor product of Sweet Grass Kitchen today.

Julie’s first product was available at Boulder dispensaries. She began laying the groundwork to get a license and start a business making infused baked goods. At the time, Colorado landlords were less than willing to lease space to pot start-ups, so Julie came up with a plan: she would build a commercial kitchen in a race car trailer (the kind you see at NASCAR events). The City of Denver was open to the concept, and it became the first of its kind. With that, she spent roughly $80,000 on the finished kitchen and another $1,250 to receive a license. In April of 2010, Sweet Grass Kitchen was officially launched. Julie was all-in at this point (she risked everything!) and rolled out a brownie shortly after moving into her new kitchen. Her plan was to build her business in a slow and steady manner, gaining distribution at medical and adult use dispensaries throughout the state.

Sweet Grass 3

Sweet Grass Kitchen faced another crucial decision a few years into its existence. The market for cannabis trim was increasing and the prices were facing upward pressure. Additionally, without being able to oversee the cultivation process from start to finish, Julie was unable to guarantee consistency. In 2013, Julie set forth plans to build a dedicated cultivation for Sweet Grass Kitchen.

Sweet Grass 2

At the same time, her 200 square foot trailer was bursting at the seams. She took over the adjacent property and had the good fortune of having a master baker from Washington DC consult with her on the design and build-out of a world class commercial bakery – all of this was financed through operations. With a new kitchen and her first harvested crop in April 2014, an expanded product line, and statewide distribution, Sweet Grass Kitchen was poised for growth.

Sweet Grass 4

Sweet Grass Kitchen now employs over 22 people and manufactures 15 confections every day that are distributed to over 400 dispensaries in Colorado. Julie has gone from baking 500 units per month to over 10,000 per day. Not bad for someone who couldn’t even get an interview to pursue her first love in life!

 

Company Name: Sweet Grass Kitchen

 

Year Founded: 2009

 

Ownership Structure: Julie Berliner, 100% owner

 

Management Team: Julie Berliner, Founder and CEO, Eric Knight, COO

 

Headquarters: Denver, CO

 

Website: www.sweetgrasskitchen.com

 

Industry Segment/Category: Cannabutter-based baked goods

 

Current Markets/States Served: Exclusive to Colorado

 

Current Number of employees: 22

 

Market Strategy/Goal:  NA

 

2015 YTD Projected Revenues: N/A

 

Current Product Mix: Brownies, variety of cookies, Seasonal Mini Pies, PB&J Cups

 

Expansion Plans: Continue to build intellectual property and statewide distribution

 

Financing strategy: To date, every dollar spent has been a dollar earned Sweet Grass Kitchen supplied its own seed capital and has financed itself through operations

 

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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