Meg Sanders
Meg SandersCanna Provisions CEO
TRENDSETTER | With more than 15 years of leadership experience in the cannabis industry, Canna Provisions CEO Meg Sanders has not only survived in the ultra-competitive market, she’s led businesses to thrive by courting the often-overlooked female audience with engaging, fun products and a genuine care for the consumer.
Canna Provisions CEO Meg Sanders has a proven track record of thriving in incredibly volatile and competitive markets. From her entry into the industry as one of the early operators in Colorado’s medical cannabis program to piloting her former cannabis chain through its ultra-competitive adult-use cannabis market and then helping usher in recreational cannabis in Massachusetts with her second vertically integrated operation, Sanders has shown a knack for reading a room and connecting with her core audience.
“At the end of the day, we are CPG,” she says. “And who makes the buying decisions in our country? Women. They control the purse strings, and our data shows it.”
Courting a female audience is about creating a fun environment Sanders says, where the shopping experience and products become linked in the consumers’ minds. The pink grinders, strain-themed nail polish and kitty-cat rolling trays not only add to the theme, but also make for great upsells, as Sanders points out that Canna Provisions stores see an average of three or more items per transaction at the register. More importantly, they help the chain stand out in Massachusetts’ crowded and competitive market.
“There is no such thing as a competitor if you are telling your story correctly,” she says. “As long as it’s authentic from the moment they pull in the parking lot to the moment they get back in their car, then you have a solid retail footprint; that’s no easy task in today’s market.”
Standing out is paramount for Canna Provisions because retailers are limited to just three locations and the state’s free-market approach to licensing, where there simply is no cap, sees new retailers and producers enter the crowded marketplace regularly. The competition, limitations and free-market in Massachusetts compelled Sanders to structure Canna Provisions to rely more on third-party vendors and use the in-house production for its flower and pre-rolls. The structure ensures the stores are ready and able to pivot and meet consumer demands which can often mean offering “something new every time they come in,” she says.
“That always-have-something-new mentality drive stores,” Sanders says. “I think if you want to be successful in this market, you definitely need to have a good variety of product moving through your store and I can certainly tell you that we crank through it.”
Another differentiator Sanders points to is that Canna Provisions is an employee-owned company which encourages employees to consider the company’s bottom line and think critically about operations on every level, because they actually have a stake in its success.
“We should all be rowing in the same boat, winning together, and it aligned us very much in that way,” she says.
After having spent more than 15 years in the industry and seeing the consolidation, cutthroat pricing and countless businesses come and go, Sanders says she’d never trade the progress the industry has made for the much simpler market she entered in 2009.
“Back then, maybe what 10% of the population actively said that they consume cannabis,” she says. “I have a much bigger audience now which makes this very exciting consumer good and if you can tell the story right and provide an excellent experience, then I think you have what it takes to make it.”