A small, unassuming building in the Greater Toronto Area is home to one of Ontario’s emerging new craft cannabis producers. 

Located in Scarborough, the indoor micro cultivator and processor boasts four small flowering rooms and one mother room, growing in coco coir under LEDs and packaging all of their cannabis in-house from start to finish.

First licensed in 2024, Unit 15 has quickly made a splash in the Ontario and Saskatchewan markets with their Purple Octane dried flower and pre-roll SKUs, and has plans to enter the Manitoba retail market soon. 

The founder behind Unit 15, Matt Grad, brings more than a decade of cannabis experience to the company. Grad, a longtime cannabis enthusiast, says he first started growing for himself under a personal medical license around 2015. In 2018, he began looking at a commercial licence as non-medical legalization began taking shape in Canada.

He, along with a small team, has helped to build this small company into a craft success story, he says, by focusing on local, sustainable growth. Rather than trying to tackle everything at once, he says the Unit 15 team has focussed on a quality product that resonates with consumers and has allowed word-of-mouth to spread.  

That word-of-mouth came not just from consumers, but also from others in the industry who he says have given him a hand-up for no reason other than they felt he had a great product. 

“When we first launched, we were lucky to get through our first product call in Ontario through their flow-through program,” explains Grad. “We didn’t have brand reps. I barely knew what I was doing beyond growing. We didn’t have a marketing team or budget. But I attended some events and met others working in the industry who just really embraced us, who believed in our product and really helped us first find our foothold.”

“It’s great to have such organic support and to be welcomed into the community and the marketplace.”

He says even his 72-year-old mother has been helping to spread the word, working as a brand rep and visiting stores.

“It really helps show retailers that we’re a small company. Stores love it when she visits.”

Unlike many growers, Grad says he’s not looking to expand too quickly. With his current production capacity, he says the demand in the Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan markets will likely take everything he and his small team at the facility can produce. And exports, while appealing, won’t allow him to build a sound domestic brand. 

“We want to make sure that we keep our domestic partners happy, namely Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. I don’t want to wholesale a bunch out and then not be able to fill domestic orders. And at the end of the day, that’s who we want to serve: Canadians who love a quality craft product and want to support that.”

With recent regulatory changes from Health Canada that will allow micros to grow and process more cannabis, Grad says he has considered expanding but wants to make sure that if they do, they do so in a way that won’t sacrifice the attention to detail their current small space allows. This also means taking the time to empower those on his team to take on more responsibility.

“That’s my number one concern, is to be able to scale at a rate that allows us to keep what has made us successful up to this point: focusing on quality over quantity, and building the right team who are passionate about what they are doing who can help us scale up.”

If they do scale up, Grad says it won’t be out of financial necessity. He says he’s been happy with the micro licence category. However, being able to empower others he knows to take over a room or even a whole facility is a noble goal. 

“That’s always been my dream, even before they increased the canopy space, is to help my friends who are growers coming in and being able to run their own shop.”

Following up on the success of Unit 15’s Purple Octone, Grad says they also have several other cultivars coming to their three provincial markets in 2025, namely Black Cherry Soda, Big League Sherb, and Frosted Crack, which he plans to sell as Frosted Cake to satisfy Health Canada’s concerns.

While he was able to bring in a lot of genetics when they were first licensed, he says he hasn’t focussed much on pheno-hunting yet, instead trying to dial in a few crops that meet the different and sometimes conflicting market demands, namely flavour and effect with yield. 

“A lot of people will just go by bag appeal or the numbers, but the flavour is important too. And, of course, yield has to come into play, which can be heartbreaking because sometimes the best phenotypes just don’t produce enough.

“For me, I harvest when the plant is ready. Not a set schedule. So most of our strains go around the 63-day mark, but we juggle the schedule around when the plants are ready, not when we are.”

One feature of Unit 15’s current cultivars that he’s particularly proud of is several varieties with minor cannabinoids like CBG and THCv, which have become increasingly popular with consumers in recent years. 

Although many focus on the challenges small growers can face in the market, Grad says he feels blessed to have found such early success and says he sees a lot of opportunity for others to do the same. 

“They’ve given the chance for legacy growers like myself to make the transition,” Grad argues, in relation to the micro licence category. “Everything can seem so daunting when you first do it: the licensing, CRA, the first inspection. All of these things, the first time they seem so daunting, but really once you go through it, it’s really not that bad and you get better and better at it. 

“For us in particular, it’s just slow and steady. When we decide to expand, we want to do it at a rate that ensures we remain consistent with that quality. That’s the most important thing to me. 

“I do think if you grow the best stuff, it will always sell in any market. Focus on quality, and everything else kind of falls in line. And you shouldn’t have to pay tons in marketing for all these bells and whistles. The product should speak for itself. 

“For me, it’s not so much to make a ton of money. It’s the product of ownership, of something I can be proud of, and to create opportunities for others.”