Schwazze to take over, rebrand pair of Smokey’s NoCo pot shops

DENVER — Schwazze Colorado LLC (OTCQX: SHWZ), a Denver-based cannabis portfolio company that previously operated as Medicine Man Technologies Inc., has inked a deal to buy a pair of Smokey’s Cannabis Co.-branded dispensaries in Fort Collins and Garden City.

The Smokey’s shops — currently owned by Cannabis Care Wellness Centers LLC and Green Medicals Wellness Center #5 LLC — will be rebranded as Star Buds, a multi-state pot-shop chain with Boulder Valley locations Boulder, Westminster, Louisville, Longmont and Niwot.

“We are excited to bring our Star Buds operations to Garden City and Fort Collins. Bringing our operating playbook to two key cities in northern Colorado allows us to deliver our brands, product assortment and our dedicated service to customers in new neighborhoods as we continue to go deep in the state,” Schwazze president Nirup Krishnamurthy said in a prepared statement. 

The 50/50-stock-cash acquisition deal is worth $7.5 million, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2023.

Schwazze has been on a buying spree in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado regions since 2020, when it signed a purchase agreement to acquire 14 Star Buds locations in Colorado.

At the time of the deal, those 14 dispensaries were responsible for about $50 million in annual sales, the company said. 

It’s not just Star Buds-branded operations that Schwazze is after. Last year, the company  closed on a deal to buy the assets of  BG3 Investments LLC, the operator of two Drift-branded dispensaries in Boulder. The price of acquisition was $3.5 million  — $1.9 million in cash and $1.6 million in common stock.

Assuming that the Northern Colorado Smokey’s locations acquisition closes, Schwazze will own 27 dispensaries in Colorado. The company also operates seven cultivation facilities and two manufacturing facilities in Colorado and New Mexico. 

During a previous acquisition, Schwazze said its mission is building “cannabis businesses and brands spanning seed to sale,” while “combin[ing] customer-centric thinking and data science to test, measure, and drive decisions and outcomes.”

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