StaffFebruary 12, 2021
Scott Bryant is Co-Founder and CEO of Pineworx, the nation’s premier white-label pre-roll manufacturer, and Tree-Rolls® Hemp Company, a premium hemp CBD pre-roll brand created for the convenience store market. Scott has worn many hats, including accounting, marketing, Sales, brand and product development, and industrial automation engineering.
Mentored by his father in executive business management, Scott had a vision early on to create new, innovative companies. After graduating from Washington State University with a B.A. in Marketing, Scott worked for a top 10 beverage distributor, Columbia Distributing, where he gained knowledge and experience in the three-tier distribution system. With anticipation for exponential growth within the craft brewing industry he joined Hopunion (now YCH Hops) and became the company’s highest grossing Regional Manager – managing over 1000+ accounts across the Western U.S.. Over a 5-year period, Scott played an integral role in developing a nationwide sales force and worked side-by-side with top breweries, helping to introduce many of the world’s most popular hop varieties to the market.
While visiting a San Diego medical cannabis dispensary in 2012, Scott recognized the industry’s need for high quality branded products and utilized his background in Marketing and hops (a close relative to cannabis) to launch one of the nation’s first branded multipacks of pre-rolled joints, Jay’s Pre-Rolls, with co-founder Victor Berrio. Through the company’s success across California, the product helped to de-stigmatize the pre-rolled joint and became a pioneer of the product category.
Identifying a complete lack of product consistency in the market and the non-existence of pre-roll manufacturing equipment, Scott and his team acted on the opportunity to create industry quality standards. In 2014, Pineworx was born as a technology-driven white-label manufacturer focused on producing the finest quality pre-rolls possible.
After the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, Pineworx transitioned into the hemp space to capitalize on the much broader, national CBD market. As the market emerged, Scott and his fellow entrepreneurs founded Tree-Rolls® Hemp Company in 2019 with an aim to normalize smokable hemp and obtain nationwide distribution into convenience stores, smoke shops, gas stations and other retail locations across the country. Through a passion for giving back to the community, Tree-Rolls® partnered with Trees For the Future (Trees.org) – planting one tree for every product sold.
Executive Spotlight Interview:
Full birth name: Scott Bryant
Title: Co-Founder / CEO
Company: Pineworx
Years at current company: 5+
Most successful professional accomplishment before cannabis:
Prior to the cannabis industry, I spent most of my adult life in beer, wine and spirits – working for distributors and raw material suppliers. From 2010 – 2015, I worked to develop a nationwide sales force for what is now the largest global distributor of hops to craft breweries. Our team led the 25 year old grower-owned company from ~$25MM in annual sales, to over $100MM in under 5 years. Through our hop breeding program and worldwide sourcing, our sales team was a driving factor in the worldwide IPA boom.
Company Mission:
At Pineworx, Our mission is assist our clients in developing the finest pre-rolled products possible – continuously innovating new ways of improving product quality, convenience, sustainability and appeal for the ultimate benefit of our clients and the end consumer.
Company’s most successful achievement:
In 2013, Pineworx’ first project was one of the first branded multi-packs of pre-rolled smokable cannabis products in the U.S. – creating a new product category and spreading distribution throughout the state of California. At the time, there was an underlying stigma that any pre-rolls sold in a dispensary were low quality and not worth the money. We worked for years to eliminate that stigma and show the world that machine-manufactured pre-rolls can match and exceed the quality of hand-rolled products. Today, pre-rolled joints are a standard product in every cannabis retail location.
In tandem with our consumer facing products, Pineworx continued the development of proprietary pre-roll production technology and entered the B2B market, becoming the country’s first marketed white-label pre-roll manufacturer. Existing manufacturing equipment at the time was extremely primitive, forcing our engineers to start from scratch. Through years of R&D and continuous prototyping, Pineworx has set the standard for premium pre-roll smokables and solidified itself as the industry leader in product quality, consistency, and innovation. To-date our company has worked with many industry leaders to develop brands, expand on their production capacity and deliver their customers with the best pre-rolls possible.
Has the company raised any capital (yes or no):
No, we are completely self-funded.
Any plans on raising capital in the future?
Yes, we are preparing for a series A funding.
Most important company 5 year goal:
Continue expanding operations throughout the country and enter the international market, becoming the Phillip Morris of pre-roll manufacturing. We also have plans to re-enter the recreational cannabis space, partnering with select companies across the U.S.
Brenda Loughery
Cynthia Salarizadeh
