CBE’s Post-Harvest Manufacturing List: Automation – Cannabis Business Executive

As operators in mature markets can attest, the cannabis green rush can only last so long. Once workflows are established, production is ramped, and the luster of a new product has waned in consumers’ eyes, cultivation companies need to be prepared to operate with tight margins.

One way to keep operational costs under control is to automate processes like trimming and packaging. Dozens of companies have developed various technologies to help streamline labor-intensive post-harvest steps, and new entrants appear at industry trade shows every year.

Here, Cannabis Business Executive presents an overview of some of the top post-harvest automation manufacturers in today’s cannabis industry to help you get started in your business optimization planning.

Eteros

Launched in 2016, Eteros is the parent company to Mobius, Triminator, GMP Solutions, and Bloom Automation. The British Columbia-based company offers a variety of wholesale automation technologies covering such tasks as bucking, trimming, sorting, and milling. 

Mobius is the company’s performance brand. Despite that, a full line of Mobius automation equipment will cost approximately $230,000, a fraction of other full-process automation providers. Mobius’ flagship product is the M108S wet/dry trimmer, which can process up to 260 pounds of wet flower per hour and up to 140 pounds of dry material when using two systems inline with one another, and has a variety of customizable settings to match each batch’s unique properties. 

Through Bloom Automation, Eteros is bringing artificial intelligence and vision systems to the cannabis industry, and GMP Solutions offers GMP-grade cleaning supplies for cannabis manufacturing equipment.

Eteros’s investment focus is on the research & development of new technologies, meaning new ways to optimize cannabis operations are always in the works. “We’ve got a full R&D facility here in Cloverdale, BC. We also have one in Ottawa that’s got a full CNC [Computerized Numerical Control] shop that would probably make most manufacturers jealous. … I think I’d have a hard time finding someone that invests more than we do on the R&D side of things,” Aaron McKellar, the company’s founder & CEO, told CBE earlier this year. 

Keirton

One of (if not) the first manufacturing companies to bring to market a commercial-scale automated trimming system, Keirton’s Twister Technologies brand is a recognized name in the cannabis industry. Launched in 2007, CEO Jay Evans has grown Keirton’s offerings to cover the drying, bucking, trimming, sorting, extracting, and curing post-harvest processes. 

Keirton has the largest selection of trimmers under one brand with eight, all of which are widely available through the company’s network of 800 partner vendors. The T-Zero is Keirton’s largest unit built specifically for the largest producers, with a capacity of up to 600 pounds (wet).

With its “Flower by the Hour” financing program, Keirton “can charge them on a tolling basis,” Evans explained to CBE. “The more, or less, they use the equipment [dictates] how they pay for it. It’s a very similar model to jet engines or power distribution, where you don’t necessarily own the equipment, but you just pay for it as you use it.”

The company is seeking to help brands automate the post-harvest steps most closely associated with quality. Keirton is in the process of launching “Marvel,” an AI-based bud quality grading system that “allows producers to do a 360-degree inspection of every piece of cannabis ensuring customers get exactly what they expect,” according to Evans.

Canapa

Canapa is a unique company on this list, as it does not currently offer any automated trimming equipment. What it does offer, however, is a comprehensive lineup of automation technologies for finished product packaging. Weigh-filling, weight checking, counting, jar/container filling, bagging, wrapping, capping, labeling, bottle unscrambling, cartoning, pre-rolling, palletizing, and wholesale boxing–nearly every step following trimming can be automated with Canapa’s suite.

Canapa also is the only company on this list that comes from legacy industries–its parent company, Paxiom, had already been in the automation and packaging automation manufacturing business for more than 30 years, serving mostly the food, beverage, and cosmetics industries.

Retail price for Canapa’s products starts at $50,000, with a fully automated, in-line setup stretching to $1 million. Canapa’s modular systems design enables companies to start with smaller investments and gradually scale as their operations allow, which can be helpful for startups looking to strategically implement automation into their post-harvest processes.

Companies around the world leverage a Paxiom/Canapa/Weighpack Systems product. “We’ve sold in Canada, the United States, Portugal, Israel, Germany, Switzerland,” Nicholas Taraborelli, Vice President at Paxiom told CBE. This global footprint enables the company to service equipment (even machines purchased on second-hand markets) with a team of 15 traveling technicians.