Cannabis Production: Interview with Palo Verde LLC General Manager

Recently, the Plexus Media team spent some time at The Palo Verde facility in Colorado. We connected with Jeremy Pace, General Manager of the Colorado team and facility to chat about operations, his day-to-day, and the current state of cannabis in Colorado.

Hey Jeremy, thanks for joining us today to chat a little bit about Colorado. Can you briefly go over your current role in Colorado on behalf of Palo Verde?

Sure, I am currently the General Manager for the Pueblo facility where we manufacture FLI brand vapes, syringes and chocolates. My job includes managing both the daily processing and manufacturing operations here in Colorado as well as overseeing the FLI sales team.

What does a typical day look like?

I think one of the things I like the most about my position is that no day is the same when compared to the next. There are so many things going on around here, not only within the cannabis industry but within this facility itself. You can picture it as having a variety of different pots boiling all at the same time! One day of my job may be dealing with an operational issue, a sales situation that we’re working on, it could be something with production, or we might need to get an order out as quickly as possible. There’s definitely a lot of variety in what we’re doing on a day to day basis. No day is the same as the day before.

What operations lessons have been learned through FLI in Colorado, that may apply to other states?

I think it’s a hybrid operational production lesson. I think a lot of people understand that they need the equipment and need the people to run the extraction equipment. Whether it’s butane, propane, or another solvent… every facility needs somebody to run the extraction system. If it’s ethanol, they need somebody to run that machine. The industry is definitely in need of people with the technical knowledge.

For Palo Verde, we’ve been focused on creating an expert core team that can really take on this extraction process the right way. I think what’s missing across the board for other companies is that people are missing the support services and that is what gets you to the finish line. You have these people with the subject matter expertise on how to create the extract; but you still need the people to fulfill the orders; you still need people to package the items; you still need the people who are in the regulations and the compliance side, on a day to day basis to ensure you have a holistic operation. This construction of the right team and people has really been a major learning lesson for us as we produce and manufacture FLI products.

Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us and chat about Colorado operations. We can’t wait to see how your process is adapted in California with the recent Nutritional High expansion into that state as well.