Cultivate MA: A Success Story with Catalyst BC

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

To whom it may concern,

I understand that Catalyst BC typically does not advertise, instead relying on word of mouth and trusted referrals for their business and growth. To support that, I offer the below review and a strong recommendation of Catalyst BC and its team members.

In my role as CFO of Cultivate Holdings LLC, we were approached by a large MSO to sell the business. Part of our deal structure was a strong earn-out that required a combination of garden, lab, and wholesale sales (supported, primarily, by garden productivity), and retail sales increases. We sought to engage Catalyst BC to support these needs, beginning with increasing garden productivity at our two gardens, one indoor multi-tier and one greenhouse. Catalyst’s projections of target performance increases were bold, and we came to agreement to retain them for approximately 11 months, the length of our earn-out period.

To say that the Catalyst BC team delivered on their promises is an understatement. By the 8th month of the engagement, our flower yields had approximately doubled and our collective teams had exceeded our most aggressive expectations for garden yield. Catalyst BC additionally focused on cost reduction, which was not in their original scope of work, to support enhancement of EBITDA margins, with some of the following results:

  • Reduced labor in clone cutting process
  • Reduced clonal propagation cycle time
  • Increased clone cutting/sticking/rooting success and quality
  • Reduced veg times while increasing quality and reducing labor
  • Increased overall yields up to 100% compared to average of previous crops while preserving quality and IPM standards

Ultimately, Cultivate Holdings LLC asked Catalyst BC to support retail sales in order to support our need to clear our now growing inventory and Catalyst BC agreed to expand their SOW to support not only sales efforts, but profitability. Without giving away any trade secrets, Catalyst supported our teams in delivering/accomplishing the following:

  • Catalyst BC provided key insights to the leadership team that lead to a variety of wholesale and retail initiatives which yielded greater sell-through of in-house products
  • Identified opportunities to pivot to a customer-centric retail experience and a more interactive sales process through the use of qualifying questions and customer segmentation.
  • Introduced training opportunities around sales strategies like: Bundling, Suggestive Selling, Upselling
  • Identified opportunities to promote House Brands and improve margins through stronger retail sales mix vs wholesale.
  • Identified opportunities to improve POP marketing tools and visual aids.
  • Suggested opportunity to create a Chocolate OG high-end brand campaign. Provided logo concept and highlighted the need for 3rd party photo services to create a visually appealing POP campaign for internal and 3rd party retailers. Helped take Chocolate OG to most sold strain in Massachusetts.
  • Identified over- and under-staffing situations to tighten staffing costs and enhance customer experience.

Not only was the Catalyst BC team effective in delivering contracted results, but they were also easy to work with, straightforward, and honest. When we needed to pivot, they pivoted with us without any complaint. I could not have expected more and it’s my pleasure to recommend them.

Regards,

Mark Page

CFO, Cultivate Holdings LLC

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