We were lucky to catch up with Scott Bryant recently and have shared our conversation below.

Scott, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?

Early on in my career, while working in Sales for a large beverage distributor in the Pacific Northwest, I always envied the well-known brands that filled our catalogs and warehouses. They had created their own flavors, identities, cultures, and carved out their own piece of the market. Some targeted smaller niches, while some appealed to the masses.

It wasn’t until I began my career working in the raw material supply side of the market that I realized the power of being behind the scenes (B2B) and working as a 3rd party supplier supporting these brands with the creation of their products.

It became apparent that all of these huge brands are limited by their own market and niche consumers. For example, people who drink craft IPAs are not typically attracted to a macro brand like Budweiser.

As a raw material supplier, we were not nearly as limited. We had hundreds/thousands of different B2B customers, all with different beer formulations that required our raw materials (hops) to create their products. This meant that if one of our customer/brand failed, we were still benefiting from the growth of all our other customers.

We may not have had the glamor or reputation in the market of the brands – consumers probably didn’t even know that we existed – but we were helping our clients and the industry grow, and we were benefitting right alongside them. This was a key lesson and precursor to starting our B2B company, Pineworx, in the hemp industry in 2014.

Scott, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Absolutely! In short, I’m 37 years old, from Seattle, Washington-area and have been living in San Diego, CA for the past decade. I love snowboarding and auto racing and I’ve been on an entrepreneurial journey since the age of 22. I’ve managed sales teams, overseeing thousands of customers, and have co-founded a few companies in the hemp/cannabis industry – producing millions of pre-rolled joints and other downstream products for B2B and B2C markets.

Since my first job, bagging groceries at QFC, I always knew that I wanted to build my own business and escape the life of 9-5. After graduating from Washington State University in 2008 during the recession, I ended up going back to work at a beverage distributor in the PNW. I later landed a position at Hopunion (now Yakima Chief), acting as Regional Manager, selling hops to craft breweries in the PNW.

A promotion in 2010 brought me down to San Diego, CA to manage the Southwest US region. Because cannabis was legal in CA, of course I had to go check out the local dispensaries. There was absolutely no branding back then, and my favorite consumption method, pre-rolls / joints, were the laughing stock of the industry. People would literally roll their own joints because the pre-roll options were such poor quality.

This is what sparked the idea of launching the first branded pack of high-quality pre-rolled joints. Because hops and cannabis are close cousins, I already had some experience with the plant.

After months of building the business plan, website development, packaging design and all the other little things that go into a product launch, our first packs hit the shelves in 2012 with a brand called Jay’s Pre-Rolls. We took the market by storm – rapidly expanding and teaming up with influencers and celebrities.

Our biggest issue was that because we were the first, there was no existing pre-roll manufacturing equipment on the market and it was up to us to create it.

Teaming up with Co-Founders Victor Berrio and Trevor Gilliam, we got to work on engineering the industry’s first pre-roll manufacturing equipment – focusing on making the finest quality products possible, then scaling.

Once the prototype was complete and we were able to mass-manufacture our own products, we made the business decision to launch an additional company (Pineworx), utilizing our excess machine time to offer white-label and co-packing services to the rest of the industry. We knew we had to set a new industry quality standard and help the market expand by chipping away at the existing stigma.

After a long bumpy road, we now have a range of patent claims pending on our machine processes in the U.S., Canada and Mexico and our product quality remains at the peak. What we’re most proud of is successfully creating the finest quality pre-rolls on the market, constantly improving, and working side-by-side with some of the top brands in the industry.

Nowadays, our services span many facets of the hemp industry, working behind the scenes to deliver our clients with top-notch shelf-ready products they can take to market. These services include pre-roll manufacturing (our core competency), white-label products, co-packing services, packaging fulfillment and other start-to-finish solutions. Aside from pre-rolls, we also provide flower products, vaporizers, gummies and more, with other offerings being added regularly.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Our website (www.pineworx.com) has been our biggest driver of new business for the company. Launched in 2014 as the first branded pre-roll co-packing supplier on the web, the site has had over a decade to build domain authority with google. Because of our niche market and low competition, we’ve been able to rank in top search engine placements for terms like “pre-roll manufacturing”, “pre-roll production” and similar.

Most businesses, brands and entrepreneurs that seek out our types of services are able to find our website relatively easy and contact us directly.

If a potential customer has reached our website, they’re usually pretty far along in the planning phase and are ready to either start building their new products, outsource production, scale, improve product quality, or transition suppliers for a myriad of reasons.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Our most effective driver for increasing business is our unmatched product quality and superior customer service. Once we get samples in the hands of potential clients, they can immediately recognize the difference – and they know their customers will too.

Receiving their products on or ahead of schedule is also a huge component and seemingly a problem area with many other suppliers. Communication is key, and working hand-in-hand with our customers to ensure their products are exactly as they envisioned is what has continued to drive repeat business.

Although price has been a huge driver for many companies in our industry, we are strong believers that quality speaks for itself and is now more important than ever for taking priority over the competition.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pineworx.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pineworx_prerolls/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PineworxPrerolls/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/scottbryant1
• Other: www.treerolls.com

Image Credits
Pineworx Gentleman Gorilla – Greg Chapman