How To Turn Pre-Rolls Into A Brand-Building Catalyst

Pre-rolls continue to rank as one of the more popular cannabis products today. Harrison Bard, CEO of Custom Cones USA, claims they are an easy way to expand your product line with many options for branded customization. 

“It’s a cheap, accessible item where you can get someone to try your brand or a new strain and win new customers. The infused segments have been blowing up too.”

Below is Pam Chmiel’s conversation with Harrison, who gives us many tips and tricks on turning a simple pre-roll into a brand-building catalyst.

Investing in pre-roll manufacturing equipment seems to be a profitable move judging from the success other cannabis companies have with it. What should someone consider when buying a pre-roll machine?

The technology is still in its infancy but quickly trying to adapt to the industry’s needs because of high consumer demand. 

First and foremost, work with a reliable paper cone company to avoid significant manufacturing issues like having heavy metals, pesticides, or microbial in your end product which can risk costly recalls. 

If the cones are not the right size, they won’t fit in your machines, or if the glue line is of a lower quality, it might bust open during the manufacturing process. 

The quality of the paper matters too. There are different ways to roll the cone with as little paper as possible. We use a straight gun line with no overlapping paper except for the edge of the cone, so you are smoking less paper and more cannabis.

What are the options to customize a pre-roll and make it unique?

There are multiple ways you can individualize your pre-roll line, from cone size to paper type (hemp, botanical), filter length or diameter, glass tipped, and, of course, the weed content. 

The newest emerging trends are pre-roll multipacks which contain various strains, and a one-gram cone with white rolling paper. Consumers also like buying in bulk to save money. Many prefer 5 to 10 packs, even up to 15 or 20. And we also see five-packs gaining popularity with 3.5 grams or 1/8 of flower. And then there is the Dog Walker brand, which GTI popularized out of Chicago and became a term people use to describe pre-rolls, similar to how people use the word Google. 

My company does a lot of product development and design as well. We were the first company to release a hemp wrap blunt and a tube-shaped pre-roll similar to a cigarette without a filter. We’ve also worked on different botanical cones made of all-natural goji berries, a cocoa wrap, and a sage wrap, all of which are non-tobacco alternatives to a blunt wrap. 

How Did The Preroll Craze Start

There is now a machine to infuse pre-rolls. Originally, companies mixed the oil directly into the flower. You might be able to mix kief into flower or bubble hash, but it’s labor-intensive to homogenize that mixture and make it uniform. And then there’s the high likelihood that it’ll gunk up and stick throughout your manufacturing process, making your throughput much slower.

Infused pre-rolls make up almost 40% of all pre-roll sales. In Canada, pre-rolls are twice as popular as in the US. But they’re slow to catch on to the infused pre-roll trend or top-shelf connoisseur pre-rolls. So, a huge shift is happening in that category, and we expect a massive explosion in Canada with more top-shelf and infused payroll products soon.

How does the infusion machine work? I thought it was a manual process.

Yes, the machine is fascinating. It has a heated hopper to liquefy the cannabis concentrate and a medical-grade needle that pierces the joint and injects the oil right into the center of the pre-roll. We’ve had people use distillate to high-quality hash rosin.

And you could program the machine to have the rod of oil start 10 millimeters above the filter, then dispense for 30 millimeters, and then stop. There are issues with the infusion gumming and dripping. Some companies are painting it on the outside by rolling it in kief. But if you’ve ever lit one of those, you probably noticed a thick black plume of smoke because you’re directly combusting oil on fire producing harmful carcinogens. I don’t know the exact numbers, but you must be degrading a huge portion of the oil by burning it directly versus vaporizing it slowly throughout the time you’re smoking the pre-roll. People who are dabbing concentrate do it at a low temperature because it’s not burning and will have a better flavor. So by infusing it into the center, you’re vaporizing the oil and getting a much smoother, lighter smoke, and you get the full benefit of the oil versus directly combusting it.

What do you see as the next consumption craze after pre-rolls?

Infused pre-rolls are the next big thing, but more specifically, we’re seeing hash rosin emerge as one to watch and not only related to pre-rolls.

Hash rosin is solventless and the highest-quality concentrate you can make. As more consumers become connoisseurs, they will want the best and spend more money on it. The industry is maturing by moving away from low-grade distillate to higher-tier rosin-based products to infuse their edibles and pre-rolls. We’re expecting to see that continue to be a big trend. 

What Does It Cost To Get Into the Preroll Business?

Pre-rolls are one of the most accessible, low-investment products you can make with cannabis. As long as you don’t have to grow the flower and can procure it on the wholesale market, it’s cheap. For less than $5,000, you can buy a grinder, pre-roll machine, and sifter. If you compare that to extraction equipment, it can cost thousands of dollars. All you need to operate pre-roll machines are 1-2 people, and you can make 2000 pre-rolls in an eight-hour shift. And for many small brands, that’s more than enough. They might not even be producing payrolls every day, just maybe a couple of days out of the week.

Pre-rolls are the third most popular category after flower and concentrates in the US. For an additional small investment to your product line, you could be making a high-margin item.

Article by Pam Chmiel and first appeared in Cannabis Business Executive.