Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan's Hunger To Become The 'Frito-Lay' Of Cannabis
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11/30/2020 Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan’s Hunger To Become The ‘Frito-Lay’ Of Cannabis
DAILY COVER | 34,512 views | Nov 27, 2020, 06:00am EST
Inside Curaleaf
Billionaire
Boris Jordan’s
Hunger To
Become The
‘Frito-Lay’ Of
Cannabis
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2020/11/27/inside-curaleaf-billionaire-boris-jordans-hunger-to-become-the-frito-lay-of-cannabis/?sh=27933f… 1/11
11/30/2020 Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan’s Hunger To Become The ‘Frito-Lay’ Of Cannabis
ARSENY NESKHODYMOV FOR
FORBES
Will Yakowicz Forbes Staff
Vices
The largest marijuana company in
America is on a mission to convert
non-consumers into customers by
selling them highly formulated
products.
O
n the rolling hills of Long Island’s
North Shore Country Club,
overlooking Hempstead Harbor, a 54-
year-old billionaire is getting high with his
friends. Boris Jordan, a New York native who
made his fortune in Moscow in the 1990s and
built Curaleaf into the largest cannabis company
in America, is encouraging his guests to try his
newest product—a fast-acting nano-emulsion
tincture made with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
None of the guys have smoked weed since college,
and neither has Jordan, but he drops 5 milligrams
of THC into everyone’s water and within 10
minutes they’re feeling like a billion bucks.
“I never have been so excited for a product in my
life. I felt fantastic,” says Jordan, who actually
prefers a slow-release THC capsule to help him
sleep. “It just relaxes you and my golf game was
much better. I really suck at golf, so trust me, I
needed it.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2020/11/27/inside-curaleaf-billionaire-boris-jordans-hunger-to-become-the-frito-lay-of-cannabis/?sh=27933f… 2/11
11/30/2020 Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan’s Hunger To Become The ‘Frito-Lay’ Of Cannabis
Jordan, who is worth $1.6 billion and owns about
30% of Curaleaf, believes the new cannabis
tincture, and a gummy made with the same fast-
acting bioavailability, will be a “home run.” But,
he’s much more excited about how the new adult-
use markets in New Jersey and Arizona will be a
windfall for his company.
On Election Day, voters in those two states passed
legalized recreational sales. (Voters in South
Dakota also passed medical and adult-use, while
Utah and Mississippi passed medical marijuana
laws.) The new adult-use markets, according to a
note from Cowen, will unlock a black market
worth a combined $3 billion-plus. Curaleaf, with
its 96 dispensaries and 23 cultivation sites across
as many states, is the only operator with
dominant positions in both New Jersey and
Arizona, where it is the number-one and number-
two market leader in medical marijuana,
respectively.
“The impact to the Curaleaf growth rate will be
dramatic,” says Jordan via Zoom, sitting in his
living room at his home in Sea Cliff, Long Island.
“New Jersey is a watershed event—what will
happen is that Pennsylvania, New York and
Connecticut will now go adult use.”
The company also has a dominant position in
New York’s limited medical market, as well as a
strong presence in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
If Jersey proves to be a tipping point for adult-use
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2020/11/27/inside-curaleaf-billionaire-boris-jordans-hunger-to-become-the-frito-lay-of-cannabis/?sh=27933f… 3/11
11/30/2020 Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan’s Hunger To Become The ‘Frito-Lay’ Of Cannabis
on the East Coast and New York legalizes
recreational cannabis in 2021—as Governor
Andrew Cuomo has assured residents will happen
—and Pennsylvania and Connecticut follow,
Jordan says “it’s blue skies” for Curaleaf.
Jordan’s company is perhaps the biggest winner
in the industry after Election Day. Vivien Azer, an
analyst at Cowen who covers beverages, tobacco,
and cannabis, has given Curaleaf—which recently
reported a record $182.4 million in third quarter
revenue, up 195% year over year—an
“outperform” rating.
Liquid Gold: Curaleaf acquired THC concentrate maker Select last
year. The vape and edible brand has become the heart of its
recreational cannabis product line. CURALEAF
“I think they’re incredibly well positioned. Their
scale is unparalleled,” says Azer. With New Jersey
transitioning to an adult-use market, Azer says
the state will go from under $250 million in
annual sales to at least $1.8 billion by 2025.
Curaleaf currently has an estimated 40% market
share in the state. “They are building an
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2020/11/27/inside-curaleaf-billionaire-boris-jordans-hunger-to-become-the-frito-lay-of-cannabis/?sh=27933f… 4/1111/30/2020 Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan’s Hunger To Become The ‘Frito-Lay’ Of Cannabis
incredibly durable business model by establishing
market share leadership across a number of
geographies.”
In Arizona, Curaleaf is the second-largest player
with 8 dispensaries and two cultivation facilities,
mostly in Phoenix, and the company will open two
more dispensaries in 2021. In New Jersey, the
company will open its second dispensary next
year and by March it will complete a new
100,000-square-foot indoor cultivation site,
tripling its grow capacity and cementing its
position as the state’s largest cultivator and
wholesaler. (The company will also open an
outdoor grow and a third dispensary sometime in
2021.)
“In New Jersey, our goal is different,” Jordan
continues. “We’re looking to be the wholesaler—
that’s why we’re building the big grow, so we can
supply the whole market with product.”
“We’re making the
products much more
mainstream for our
customer base—we’ll
be no different than
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2020/11/27/inside-curaleaf-billionaire-boris-jordans-hunger-to-become-the-frito-lay-of-cannabis/?sh=27933f… 5/1111/30/2020 Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan’s Hunger To Become The ‘Frito-Lay’ Of Cannabis
Coca-Cola or Frito-
Lay.”
Curaleaf is not in the craft, sun-grown, hand-
trimmed, high-end flower business targeting
legacy cannabis consumers. Rather, the company
is focused on the highly formulated products
sector, targeting people who partook in college
and want to get back into it, senior consumers
looking for something to ail their pain, and
Millennial newbies.
“I look at Curaleaf as a consumer-packaged goods
company,” says Jordan, who assumed control of
Curaleaf in 2013 through his private equity
company and took it public on the Canadian Stock
Exchange in 2018. “We’re making the products
much more mainstream for our customer base—
we’ll be no different than Coca-Cola or Frito-Lay.”
For now, Jordan’s company has two main brands
—Curaleaf, a wellness brand that sells cannabis
flower and makes THC and CBD capsules, lotions,
and tinctures. And Select, a lifestyle brand that
sells THC vape pens and gummies and CBD
tinctures.
Jordan says that while the company is doubling
its cultivation capacity next year, it plans to get
out of cultivation completely. When he took over
Curaleaf in 2013, 90% of the product sold was
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2020/11/27/inside-curaleaf-billionaire-boris-jordans-hunger-to-become-the-frito-lay-of-cannabis/?sh=27933f… 6/1111/30/2020 Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan’s Hunger To Become The ‘Frito-Lay’ Of Cannabis
flower and 10% of sales were edibles and other
products. Today, he says Curaleaf’s sales are 55%
“everything else” and 45% flower. He predicts
flower to drop further as vapes, edibles, pills,
gummies, tinctures make up 75% of the
company’s sales.
“Now, in the everything else is where we see a
tremendous market opportunity,” says Jordan.
“We want to be a highly formulated product
company. Not the customer who is looking to roll
a joint, but someone who is looking to replace
excessive alcohol, someone who is looking for a
highly formulated, very safe, very tasty product.”
This strategy of ditching cultivation and focusing
on processing and manufacturing products is akin
to other vice industries such as cigarettes.
Cowen’s Azer believes this is the best strategy for
the long term. “In my experience, covering
traditional multi-billion GPG companies like
Altria, yeah, they manufacture Marlboro
cigarettes,” she says, “but they don’t grow the
tobacco.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2020/11/27/inside-curaleaf-billionaire-boris-jordans-hunger-to-become-the-frito-lay-of-cannabis/?sh=27933f… 7/1111/30/2020 Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan’s Hunger To Become The ‘Frito-Lay’ Of Cannabis
House of Flowers: Curaleaf will double its cultivation capacity across the U.S in 2021, but Jordan
says the company will eventually stop growing cannabis and focus on product formulation.
CURALEAF
To reinforce this packaged goods strategy, Jordan
has also brought in new leadership. In January
2021, Curaleaf’s longtime CEO, Joe Lusardi will
step down and become vice chair to make room
for Joe Bayern, the current president, who
previously worked for Dr. Pepper Snapple, and
Cadbury.
During a recent earnings call, Bayern said his goal
is to bring customers who have never consumed
cannabis, or are lapsed consumers, to the legal
market. Currently, only 5% to 7% of American
households consume cannabis products, he said,
but that number is expected to grow and help the
industry become a $100 billion market in 10
years.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2020/11/27/inside-curaleaf-billionaire-boris-jordans-hunger-to-become-the-frito-lay-of-cannabis/?sh=27933f… 8/1111/30/2020 Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan’s Hunger To Become The ‘Frito-Lay’ Of Cannabis
“Curaleaf is uniquely positioned to lead this
growth and address the roughly 93% to 95% of
consumers yet to experience cannabis,” Bayern
noted. “That's an amazing opportunity.”
Curaleaf’s growth hit hyperdrive in the last year.
In September 2019, the company had 49
dispensaries, but now has 96. Its growth is thanks
to Jordan’s rollup strategy, one he said he refined
in Europe by consolidating the data center
industry with Telecity. In 2019, Curaleaf
announced two of its largest acquisitions that
transformed the company—Cura Partners (owner
of Select), a vape and THC concentrates company,
which Curaleaf bought in an all stock deal valued
at $365 million, and Grassroots, one of the largest
private cultivators and retailers with 30
dispensaries across Illinois, Nevada, Michigan,
Oklahoma, Ohio, North Dakota, which Curaleaf
bought for $830 million.
The company’s aggressive acquisitiveness has also
cost a lot—Curaleaf has $300 million in debt—but
it has posted solid quarter-to-quarter revenue
growth since going public in 2018.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2020/11/27/inside-curaleaf-billionaire-boris-jordans-hunger-to-become-the-frito-lay-of-cannabis/?sh=27933f… 9/1111/30/2020 Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan’s Hunger To Become The ‘Frito-Lay’ Of Cannabis
Bright Idea: Jordan believes the cannabis green rush benefits from
colorful packaging and slick design, like any other consumer
packaged good. CURALEAF
Curaleaf, of course, has a host of formidable
competitors—most notably Green Thumb
Industries and Cresco. But the legal industry is
still relatively small. Jordan says he doesn’t
consider the legal market operators his
competitors. By the end of 2020, legal cannabis
sales are only expected to reach $20 billion while
the illegal market is estimated at more than $100
billion. Legal cannabis companies are subject to
an effective tax rate of nearly 50%, as well as
expensive testing requirements and onerous
banking terms. Jordan expects Congress to pass
cannabis banking regulations this year, which will
help but the industry needs to be legalized at the
federal level.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2020/11/27/inside-curaleaf-billionaire-boris-jordans-hunger-to-become-the-frito-lay-of-cannabis/?sh=2793… 10/1111/30/2020 Inside Curaleaf Billionaire Boris Jordan’s Hunger To Become The ‘Frito-Lay’ Of Cannabis
“Let’s be honest,” Jordan says. “Our competition
is not each other—our competition is the drug
dealer, that’s who we’re competing against.” His
mission is to make that illicit market go up in
smoke.
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Will Yakowicz
I am a staff writer on the vices beat, covering cannabis,
gambling and more. I believe in the many virtues of vices.
Previously at Forbes, I covered the world’s richest…
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