ELMA, Wash. — Brandon Oppegaard cashed in his 401k, sold all his stocks and used the bulk of his personal savings to start his business, Northwest Harvesting Co., and keep it independent. The decision added tension to an already stressful endeavor, but it gave Oppegaard the freedom to choose the right path for his company.
Company: Northwest Harvesting Company
Location: Elma, Washington
Employees: 5
Operations: Indoors, 5,000-square-foot grow operation using high-pressure sodium lights
“The prices dropped substantially for what we’re selling on the wholesale market, and I can weather that right now because I don’t have any investors that I have to pay off,” Oppegaard said. “We’re not in any debt with our company.”
Oppegaard, along with his friend Dan Claugus, left Alaska in pursuit of turning a hobby into a career in the cannabis industry. Although new opportunities have arisen in Alaska, Oppegaard said the company will continue refining operations in Washington for the foreseeable future.
The Tier 2 grow facility operates with only five employees, including Oppegaard, so every member of the team must be familiar with every aspect of the business. Even during harvest, overhead remains at a minimum.
“We just work more hours,” Oppegaard said.
As soon as the company harvested and hand-trimmed its first crop, each worker transitioned from grower to salesperson overnight to put products on retail store shelves.
Northwest Harvesting Co. began selling a variety of hybrid strains in November 2015, but narrowing its strain selection helped the farm in both sales and consistency.
“It makes it easier for me to make a sale because I don’t feel like I am manipulating anything,” Claugus said. “I feel like this is a true representation of what we’ve got. We want to pick from what is going to represent the whole lot, not just the highest end of it.”
“We’ve learned, because we have a couple of harvests under our belt now, that some strains don’t cut it,” Oppegaard added. “Some of the strains that we used to grow back in the day — they just aren’t good producers.”
Northwest Harvesting Co. initially faced a moratorium in Elma. Stacy Oppegaard, the company’s director of marketing, worked with the city for months, showing detailed statistics from Colorado, and helping council members separate fact from fiction, before growers were finally allowed to operate. Developing trust among the city council was key to getting the moratorium lifted, Stacy said.