A Peterborough-based distribution company of automated cannabis processing equipment has blazed a trail for itself as a global leader in the industry.
And yet, despite being valued for insight across continents, Dope Automation says it maintains the same commitment and hands-on service to clients that it had as a start-up navigating the brand new industry.
“We’re always interested in growing partnerships,” says COO Jessica Jaeger. “We’re interested in treating everyone as a partner for the long-term development of the relationship.”
Jaeger runs the growing company alongside business partner and CEO Derek Chandler. With backgrounds in food and pharma equipment distribution, Jaeger and Chandler founded Dope Automation in 2016, getting ahead of the curve when cannabis legalization was still on the horizon in Canada.
“There was a big hole within actual products that were working with cannabis and ones that were just thrown into the market,” explains Jaeger. “We were seeing that there was a big gap in how to use that equipment for cannabis.”
Fuelled by that missing puzzle piece, Jaeger had no map to follow as she conducted her own research, looking into equipment that would work specifically within cannabis spaces while fitting to Canada’s restrictions.
“Health Canada has very stringent rules on cannabis,” she says. “But because we were already familiar with those rules, we were able to navigate which products we thought would complement the Canadian market.”
Distributing commercial grade, eco-conscious, and cutting-edge equipment for pre-roll production, precision milling and trimming, depositing, packaging, and labelling, Dope Automation works with everything from mom-and-pop retailers interested in small-scale machinery to bigger companies looking for entire production lines.
“Anyone can come to us and say what they are looking to do now and what they are looking to do in the future,” Jaeger says. “We mix and match the equipment and tell them how to use it depending on their needs.”
As a trailblazer in the market, Jaeger notes the early months were a “real learning curve” having to rely on clients to take a chance by trying their products at a time when the industry was so new to everyone involved.
“Clients would understand it was a mutual relationship to figure it out together,” Jaeger says, adding that she would go into the facilities to learn to use the equipment herself. “We were willing to get in on the ground level and really understand what’s going on with the equipment.”
With the goal of working in partnership with clients, Dope Automation offers an independent service department with technicians who come into the space for installation and fixes, separately from the equipment manufacturers.
“We have a personal touch with our installation and are very hands-on to make sure you understand the equipment,” Jaeger says. “Clients might steer away from machines just because they’ve heard a service is not good, but we take that (issue) off the table. It’s doubling down on service, but also taking that out of the equation if that was holding a client back from purchase.”
After reaching a peak during the pandemic following the federal government’s legalization of cannabis in October 2018, the cannabis industry has taken a hit over the past couple years, with many retailers shutting down operations. While Jaeger can’t pinpoint one solid reason, she acknowledges the hesitancy of those who refuse to move to automation for the fear of replacing human jobs.
In response, she explains that the goal is always to make the production “more efficient to provide space to do other jobs.”
“We have seen a lot of these cannabis companies go under in the last few years and I think it’s partly because they needed to produce faster, and the technology or automation wasn’t there,” she says. “They just couldn’t navigate how to bring it in fast enough for what they needed. I wish they would have contacted us sooner.”
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Though Dope Automation is continuing to grow, having recently launched into the U.S. with a new office based in Miami, Florida, a large portion of their equipment is manufactured in Canada and they maintain a large customer base in this country, especially in Ontario.
While continuing to attend trade shows in Canada and the U.S., the company is also looking to dip more into the European market, picking up lines in the United Kingdom and recently working alongside Körber Technologies, a German developer of machinery in the tobacco and food industry.
As cannabis legalization starts to move forward in Europe, Dope Automation is getting more and more inquiries from similar companies across the globe.
“The funny thing is, Canada’s not known for being advanced in many areas — but for cannabis, Canada is where it’s at,” says Jaeger. “We’re legalized, so with cannabis we’re seen as being at the forefront of everything, especially with rules and regulations.”
Despite Dope Automation’s growth and success, at the end of the day for Jaeger it’s still about the clients she gets to work with, and hearing stories from people of different “walks of life” continues to be her favourite parts of the job.
“One day, you meet people who just like to consume it, but then the next day, you’re meeting someone who had a child who had epilepsy and cannabis really (helped) them,” says Jaeger. “It’s really beautiful to hear everyone’s story and how they came into the industry. It’s all really fascinating.”
As Dope Automation continues launching in the U.S. and soon across Europe, Jaeger says she remains grateful for having been in the industry at its launch, giving Canada the reputation as being a leader.
“Change is always good. It’s good to be seeing all the evolution of it from the ground up. What else are you going to see happen like that from the ground up?”
Visit dopeautomation.com to browse product offerings.
