Paul Pruessmann and Vincent Lanci recently launched FAAFO Cannabis, a micro cultivator located in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, after purchasing the facility from another grower looking to leave the market.
With an increasing number of cannabis companies throwing in the towel, many have seen doom and gloom on the horizon, but Paul Pruessmann and Vincent Lanci see opportunity.
After spending several years on the sidelines waiting for some of the initial rush to licensing to fade, Pruessmann said he and his business partner Lanci finally saw an opportunity to enter the market.
“We’ve had this strategy for about five years now,” explains Pruessmann. “When legalization first kicked in, we took a step back and assessed the market and then waited until we could find a facility like this, and for much less than if we had built it ourselves.”
Both partners bring extensive experience to their endeavour, having previously worked at a much larger cannabis facility in BC. Along with Pruessmann’s 35 years of experience growing, Lanci is an aircraft engineer, a Red Seal Carpenter, and has extensive experience in facilities maintenance.
Utilizing that experience is one of the ways they hope to succeed where others struggled, explains Lanci, with his emphasis on operating the facility and Pruessmann’s intimate knowledge of the plant itself.
“We’re always looking for ways to complement each other. I’m always looking for efficiencies, and Paul is constantly refining his craft with the plants. We aren’t scared to get the job done, whatever it is. When there’s something that we need to do, we just figure it out and do it.”
After working at a large publicly-traded cannabis company, both say they saw a lot of excess and inefficiency in the industry they knew they could cut through, especially as a small micro cultivation facility with just a few hundred square meters of grow space.
And foremost, adds Pruessmann, is delivering a quality product that consumers want.
“This will distinguish us from most other producers out there. On top of cannabis literally being a part of my life daily for over 35 years—starting as a recreational user, leading to using it for medical treatment—my standards for quality are unmatched. No one will ever be harder on my products than I will. But I will always strive for better. That’s the passion that comes along with a true love of cannabis and being a people pleaser.”
Pruessmann also says he’s seeing more consumers returning to the legal market or even trying it for the first time because more quality, small-scale and micro growers are starting to hit shelves. It’s something he hopes to add to soon, when their first cultivar, supplied by Life Cycle Botanics, reaches shelves in BC in early January 2024.
“Once you have consistent quality, you can begin to repair the trust that was broken by first-to-market producers, greedy corporations, and the fugazi ‘Master Growers’. There’s a huge gap in the premium quality category, which we plan to help fill.”
This profile is brought to you by Life Cycle Botanics, the preferred cannabis nursery supplier for FAAFO Cannabis.
