A New Halo for the City of Angels

Halo Collective of Vancouver, Canada announced it has received final approval from California regulators to commence sales at its Budega-branded retail dispensary in Westwood, CA. Located at 10461 Santa Monica Blvd., two miles from of the University of Los Angeles California and adjacent to Beverly Hills, the 1,500 square feet store is seated in one of metropolitan Los Angeles’ most vibrant and heavily trafficked areas.

Beside being home to UCLA and within a mile of the famed boutiques on Rodeo Drive, the Westwood area is a regional center for shopping, dining, movie theaters and entertainment. The new store Budega will also serve nearby Century City – one of LA’s largest employment centers with a workforce of approximately 244,000. The first Budega dispensary opened in March in North Hollywood and Halo plans to open two more store in Hollywood in the second quarter of 2022. Halo’s dispensaries offer more than 1,000 products, including many top-tier California brands in addition to its Budega-branded product lineup.

“With these approvals in hand, Budega’s Westwood store is slated to open with products on shelves in a matter of weeks,” said Katie Field, president and director of Halo. “Westwood’s opening will allow us to serve even more consumers in the Los Angeles area with a super prime location.”

A permit from California’s Department of Cannabis Control has cleared the way for Halo’s second Los Angeles dispensary. PHOTO COURTESY HALO COLLECTIVE

Halo believes California – the largest legal cannabis market in the United States – is still primed for store expansion. There are currently about 250 operating licenses in Los Angeles, which hosts a population of 3.9 million people. That’s roughly two licenses per 100,000 people, making it far less saturated than other legal cannabis markets. By comparison, Oregon has 18 retail shops for every 100,000 residents. Colorado boasts a similar ratio, and Washington state’s rate is more than triple California’s.

California still the king of cannabis consumption
California remains the highest-grossing state for cannabis retail sales. Legal retail sales in 2021 totaled $5.2 billion – up 17% from 2020. Sales in the Golden State are projected to gross $7 billion by 2025. At full operation, Halo expects its new Westwood location to exceed $10 million annually in gross revenue. The dispensary is also licensed for delivery and will service Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Century City, West Hollywood, and other Westside locations.

“We expect the Westwood location to contribute immediately to Halo’s financial performance,” Field added. “Westwood should significantly increase our top-line net revenue and boost our profitability, especially since we intend to stock up to twenty percent of Budega shelf space with Halo brands and products.”

While Halo also operates Kushbar cannabis retail stores in Alberta, Canada, the company’s main focus is the cannabis market on west coast of the U.S. In Oregon, the company has a combined 14 acres of owned and contracted cultivation space. The company also operates Food Concepts in Portland, OR, overseeing a 55,000 square feet indoor-cannabis cultivation, processing and wholesaling operation. Halo jointly purchased the Bar X Farm in Lake County, CA, where the company plans to develop up to 63 acres of cultivation land to keep up with California’s big-budget-Hollywood taste for cannabis.