*By Chloe Aiello* The cannabis industry's go-to packaging supplier KushCo Holdings is taking full advantage of the green rush. And when marijuana finally goes fully legal in the U.S., the company plans to re-emerge as the leader in ancillary products. "We are going to be prepared and we aspire to be the dominant player in the industry when that happens," KushCo ($KSHB) board member Barbara Goodstein told Cheddar on Tuesday. KushCo Holdings, formerly Kush Bottles, began as a packaging supplier for cannabis companies. Through several aggressive acquisitions, KushCo diversified, and now operates a number of different businesses ー including packaging, branding solutions, and extraction supply. The company prides itself on its ability to adapt to any regulatory market for cannabis, Goodstein said, and it even has a finger on the pulse of business in China for much of its packaging. "We want to always have people on the ground wherever we do business, so we know exactly what is going on," she said. The ancillary marijuana company managed to grow its revenue by 177 percent since last year, according to its latest earnings and revenue report. Goodstein attributes that triumph to the company's approach to diversification, and of course, its decision to stay out of the weeds ー literally. "\[Our strength is\] diversification. We have a physical presence in the five major states that are doing the cannabis business," she said. "It's the presence, and then its the strategic focus of the senior team ... there is constant pace of acceleration in this team." KushCo has purposefully avoided breaking into cannabis supply and cultivation ー and it has no plans to change its stance. Instead, KushCo has positioned itself as a leader in all things ancillary, or not plant touching, which is a lower-risk approach to the cannabis industry. "It's been a very aggressive, conscious move to be diversified provider of ancillary services," Goodstein said. "KushCo Holdings has now continuously diversified its product lines with multiple acquisitions over the past year." Despite KushCo's recent acquisitions, Goodstein said much of the growth the company experienced within the past year was organic, stemming from cross-selling and up-selling existing customers. She said she expects the company's recent purchases to pay off in the long run.
