Successful grow operation expands business ventures
By Patrick Wagner
EUGENE, Ore. — Seeking a closer connection with their clientele, three entrepreneurs have parlayed successful cultivation endeavors into TJ’s Organic Provisions, a medical dispensary in Eugene, Oregon.
“It’s what we always wanted to do,” co-owner Jim Murphy said of the company’s recent expansion. Eliminating the middle man from the equation allows the company to be “in touch with our real customers,” he said.
Murphy and co-owner Travis MacKenzie first started growing cannabis as a way to help MacKenzie’s wife, Cham, who suffered from debilitating migraines. Murphy and MacKenzie had previously partnered together in an electrical contracting business. Shortly after, James Orpeza joined the cannabis business and the trio sought out a larger location to begin growing for other medical patients in Oregon.
“When we started seeing the quality of flower that was out there — what everybody else was growing — we felt like we were onto something, so we started taking on more patients and the feedback was just incredible,” Murphy said. “So we said, ‘You know what? Let’s see if we can make this go somewhere.’”
Thus, TJ’s Organic Provisions opened its doors in 2015. From the outside, the dispensary resembles a modern version of a boomtown drugstore. The interior captures the same aesthetic with reclaimed wood, high ceilings and an uncluttered retail space. But the dispensary’s success is linked with that of TJ’s Organic Gardens, manager Stephanie Calderon said, pointing out the award-winning flowers that have generated buzz through word of mouth.
Today, the company has a hand in almost every angle of the cannabis industry, ranging from cultivation and retail to manufacturing edibles, concentrates and even personal lubricants.
“We looked at all the models out there and we feel that vertical integration is the only way that we get to talk directly to the end user,” Murphy said. “We wanted to bring the product to the market ourselves.”
Murphy said the main reason TJ’s Organic has earned high praise among consumers is that the focus of the grow operation has never been to earn money. He said it’s been amazing to look back at how many times the company has had to decide between one path that would make more money and another that would be “the right thing to do.”
“We pride ourselves on doing the correct thing,” Murphy said. “We’ve made really good decisions every step of the way. There is nothing in my rearview mirror that I am ashamed of and that’s the way I want to keep it.”
One community-minded decision was the establishment of TJ’s Kids, which provides CBD oil to children who suffer from serious medical conditions in Oregon.
“It’s very active,” Murphy said. “I think we reach 40 kids, who we treat for free.”