Sept 21St–Sept 27th, 2023 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times State Licensed Dispensaries & Doctor Cer tifications 31 Smokin’ Growth Tempe-based Sonoran Roots named one of fastest growing companies in U.S. BY REBECCA RHOADES I nc. magazine recently revealed its annual Inc. 5000, a prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest- growing private companies, and one local cannabis business made an astounding debut near the top of the list. Tempe-based Sonoran Roots was ranked No. 10 out of 5,000 companies nationwide. It also is the No. 1 Arizona-based company on the list and the top-ranked business in the Health Products category. “It’s definitely a huge honor” to be included on the list, said Michael O’Brien, CEO and co-founder of Sonoran Roots. “We knew we were growing fast, but we didn’t know exactly how fast relative to everyone else.” According to the magazine, companies on the Inc. 5000 2023 list are ranked on percentage of revenue growth from 2019 to 2022. Sonoran Roots had a staggering three-year sales growth of 24,397%. The average median growth for all companies on the list was 219%. Locally owned success story Sonoran Roots, a seed-to-sale craft cannabis operator, was founded in 2018. O’Brien said that at the time, it was a property holding and management company, renting sites that were later developed into its operations facilities. In 2020, the company opened its first culti- vation facility in Mesa and began selling its cannabis products to the market. A dispensary division, Ponderosa Dispensary, and an extraction facility and brand, Canamo Concentrates, soon followed. “Our first year in business, we were only wholesaling product as a grow. That was all of 2020. In 2021, we acquired the dispensary and continued to see an uptick with products,” O’Brien said. The industry flourished after recre- ational marijuana was legalized in the state following the passage of Proposition 207 in November 2020. “To go from several hundred thousand medical patients to the entire state of 21 and older folks being eligible to purchase obviously dramatically increases your market,” O’Brien said. “In 2023, we’ve mostly been growing on the retail side.” Today, the company owns and operates three cultivation facilities in Mesa and Tempe, a state-of-the-art extraction lab in Tempe, and retail dispensaries in Glendale and Florence. A third dispensary opened on Sept. 11 in Chandler, growing the company’s employee ranks to about 200 people, O’Brien estimated. Despite its rapid growth, Sonoran Roots continues to remain committed to serving its Arizona base. “We’ve focused 100% for the entire time of our company on Arizona. We all live here, we’re all from here, we understand the market, so we’ve really tried to lean into being an Arizona-centric brand,” O’Brien said. He pointed to the company’s packaging and branding as an example. Sonoran Roots proudly displays its Southwest origins, from its name, which is a nod to the Sonoran Desert, to its logo that’s a stylized blend of agave plant and cannabis leaf. Even its dispensaries, Ponderosa, take their name from northern Arizona’s ponderosa pine forests, and Canamo is the Spanish word for hemp. Sonoran Roots CEO and co-founder Michael O’Brien. (Photo courtesy of Sonoran Roots) | CANNABIS | >> p 32
