TheraTrue CEO believes employee loyalty key to marijuana business’ growth

As medical marijuana operator TheraTrue enters its next phase of growth, it’s brought on a new CEO with experience in expanding cannabis businesses.

Chris Ras joined TheraTrue as CEO just as the Atlanta-based company is undergoing an expansion in Ohio.

The company recently opened its first store in the state in Cleveland and has plans for an additional location in Cincinnati this summer.

The company also operates a production and cultivation facility in Georgia, where it produces medical marijuana products. It plans to open MMJ dispensaries in the state this year.

TheraTrue board member Mary Rachide said that as the company embarked on a new chapter, it needed a leader with experience executing growth initiatives.

Ras’ appointment earlier this month reflects the company’s commitment to realizing its vision and growth potential, she said.

“He brings a proven track record of operational and commercial success across highly competitive state landscapes, along with a deep understanding of how to build and inspire thriving teams,” Rachide said.

“As TheraTrue grows, Chris’ leadership will help us stay grounded in a culture that puts customers first, invests in its people and scales with purpose and precision.”

Most recently, Ras served as chief growth operator at Nevada-based Deep Roots Harvest, where he managed strategic and operational oversight of retail marketing, procurement and wholesale.

He also spent nearly seven years at New York-based multistate operator Columbia Care, now The Cannabis Co., where he led national retail operations and marketing across 17 states, scaling the company to more than $400 million in annual revenue and more than 80 retail outlets.

Marijuana operators must ‘stay relevant and strategic’

The key lessons he learned at Columbia Care that he will apply to TheraTrue’s expansion are to provide an exceptional customer experience and enhance operational efficiency and growth.

“You want to stay relevant in where you are today and stay strategic with respect to growth,” Ras said.

“You have to manage and preserve cash. Being able to preserve cash flow while staying true to your customer experience is your recipe for success.”

He also has a background in mainstream retail, having served in leadership roles in store operations at both Target Corp. and Hannaford Supermarkets.

Although the marijuana industry is different, Ras said some skills he developed in traditional retail can be applied to running a marijuana business.

“To operate a company, it requires a few pillars,” he said.

“You have to have a customer experience pillar, you have to have a operational pillar and a financial pillar and you have to have an employee engagement pillar.”

“Working in traditional retail – those companies were great for me to learn some of the basics and developing those pillars.

“They’ve really served me well in the cannabis space and bringing time-tested SOPs (standard operating procedures) to the cannabis industry.”

Maneuvering key challenges in cannabis space

Ras sees two challenges to growing a marijuana business’ footprint.

The biggest is the fragmented regulatory environment with rules differing from state to state, something Ras doesn’t anticipate becoming any easier.

“When you develop retail or develop operations outside the cannabis space, you’re able to design a business strategy at the national level,” he said.

“In cannabis, it gets tricky because the laws and regulations differ quite significantly from state to state.”

On the plus side, employees at marijuana businesses are generally more committed to their companies than those in mainstream retail.

“I find that our employees – from the CEO to any other part of the organization – believe in what it does,” Ras said.

“There’s a belief system that we share for what we do for the community and the patient.”

The second challenge is price compression as markets mature.

Companies that are too aggressive in building out their production capacity could end up struggling.

It’s important to enter new markets with the understanding that there is a life cycle and to pay attention to prices.

“As supply and product surplus start to increase, prices drop,” Ras said. “There can be a race to the bottom.”

Margaret Jackson can be reached at margaret.jackson@mjbizdaily.com.