Welcome to the latest installment of To Be Blunt, the Question & Answer series that aims to put the spotlight on the people, places, brands and companies that make the Arizona cannabis community unique. Today's feature is on Bran Noonan, CEO of OGeez!.
Right now isn't necessarily the best time to be getting into the cannabis industry. There's an oversupply of cannabis flower in many states, and while prices may be down for consumers, sales are down for producers.
That is, unless you get into the edible side of things. See, a ton of cannabis flower going unused makes products that are derived from that flower cheaper.
"The price of distillate oil in this state has dropped incredibly," said Bran Noonan, CEO of OGeez!, one of the largest cannabis gummy brands in Arizona. "So that being the main raw material that we use is... huge."
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During a time when many cannabis dispensaries, brands and even multi-state operators are struggling, OGeez! is staying steady, keeping item prices low and planning for an upcoming out-of-state expansion.
To Be Blunt sat down for a chat with Noonan about all things OGeez!, including where the name for the company came from and what it means, what plans are for expansion into other markets and what his theory is about why cannabis gummies are so popular compared to other edibles.
Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
To Be Blunt: You're the current CEO of OGeez! and a lawyer by trade, but tell us a little about who started the company?
Bran Noonan: My mother was the founder of the company. She was one of the few women owner-operators in the Arizona cannabis space. She only got into manufacturing starting I think in 2014. She had one of the first infusion kitchens in the state.
She was a real cannabis trailblazer at the end of the day. And again, being a woman in this kind of industry is huge, very significant in that context too.
Her name was Peggy Noonan, not to be confused when you Google her name with the conservative columnist with the Wall Street Journal.
She died in April, 2021 after a three year battle with leukemia. She had asked me prior to passing if I would succeed her and essentially take over the company.
TBB: Did your mother ever tell you the meaning or significance or meaning behind the brand name: OGeez? Is it a reference to the slang "OG's," as in "original gangsters" or "the originals"? Was it reference to the phrase "Oh jeeze"?
Noonan: I wish I could give you that answer, but it's like almost lost in the. I've looked into this, where did the name come from, who came up with the name? And there's a variety of different stories.
Nobody really has the true story and wish I could give you some really cool, fun story.
Hopefully we'll come up with one for some corporate lore, at some point. But I don't know.
TBB: Has OGeez! always been an edible gummy company? Or has it sold other products as well?
Noonan: At some point, my mom was telling me that there were these gummies that she was now manufacturing that were taking off.
In the very early days, they were making everything from pesto to peanut butter to popcorn and thinking that the marketplace wanted that.
Realizing it didn't, they shifted to small-batch baked goods and confection and a variety of other things. Brand building wasn't a thing yet for the most part, it was just about making new products, especially in a medical market.
At one point there were almost like a hundred skews, like of a variety of different things.
It was just a lot of small stuff and they were constantly trying to find new things. So they had a long laundry list and one of those things that was in there was OGeez! gummies.
They just kind of said, "let's start making gummies, because that seems like a thing to start making."
And at that point, consumers were starting to gravitate towards consumption for edibles, plus the margins of gummies are so strong. It doesn't cost as much to make. Then they just kind of started catching on and nobody, and then by March of 2020, before she passed, the company decided to essentially go single product.
They stopped making all of their other products, their other skews and focused on solely making OGeez! gummies.
TBB: Where in Arizona can consumers and patients find your gummies?
Noonan: We are rooted in Arizona and originally started in Tucson. Without having the numbers at hand, I would say we're in like about 80% (of dispensaries in the state).
Our distribution percentage is one of the highest amongst all brands, even inclusive of non-edible brands. According to LeafLink, which tracks wholesale numbers from POS data systems.
We rank in the top three if sometimes not number one, depending on the time period.
TBB: Are there any plans for the brand to expand outside of Arizona?
Noonan: I can say that I promise you, next year, you will be able to get your favorite OGeez! gummy in several different states. The targets are two East Coast states and one Midwest state.
TBB: Why do you think gummies have proliferated and become so popular among consumers and medical patients?
Noonan: I will say gummies are a low margin product to manufacture. So the ability to actually make money on an edible is there.
It doesn't take a lot. It's corn sugar, generally water, gluten or pectin or a combination of each and sugar. It doesn't take a lot to make a gummy.
You have good margins, but then you have some problems with the other products. Baked goods are really hard to make. And there's issues regarding dosing those. Chocolates can also be very challenging with melting and really quality chocolates can be really challenging.
