Detroit-born cannabis and lifestyle brand Common Citizen opens Michigan operations

Affiliate company Michigan Pure Med will be the largest cultivation and processing facility in the state

DETROIT, MI, June 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Common Citizen, a progressive lifestyle brand of the leading vertically-integrated Michigan cannabis enterprise, Michigan Pure Med, (www.commoncitizen.com) officially announced operations today.

The Detroit-born company, led by childhood friends Michael Elias, David Yostos and Joseph Jarvis, takes a deliberate, people-first approach to its business strategy — from production to retail.

"We recognized that the people of Michigan and across the United States – our common citizens – deserve better. They deserve access to safe, quality cannabis and they deserve it now," says CEO Michael Elias. "Cannabis meets people's diverse common needs, such as the treatment of anxiety, reprieve from chronic pain, enhancing creativity and fitness pursuits or the freedom to de-stress after a hard week at work. The need for some form of relief is a fact of life everyone has in common. Through a commitment to operational excellence and patient safety, we're offering a wide range of human-centered cannabis products and experiences that will keep customer well-being at its core."

These human conditions are the pillars of the Common Citizen brand and the founders' vision for a legal, quality inspired industry centered on serving the diversity of the patient. In this spirit of putting people before product, the brand's common states of unplug, daily dose, time to shine and sweet relief inform the company's entire operations, including its social responsibility (https://www.commoncitizen.com/commonstates).

"It's always been about putting patients first," explains Elias. "If people are secondary to the product, then we fail to capture the full potential of this exceptional tipping point in cannabis we're facing in Michigan and across the country. That's why we didn't begin any production or deep operational planning until we had a very intimate understanding of people's stories and their unique physical, mental, wellness and creative needs."

Common Citizen will be opening its manufacturing and R&D headquarters in Marshall, Michigan later this summer with a scale capacity up to 1.2-million-square-feet, which is estimated to create 400 jobs over the next five years. As a best practice to support the company's prioritization of patient safety, the facility has a state-of-the-art lab headed-up by Chief Chemist and a pioneer in cannabis research, Dr. John Pierce.

The company is aggressively deploying lean business management philosophy across all core value streams to deliver the highest quality products by driving operational efficiency, reducing costs and designing each core service exactly to customer needs. The cultivation and processing facilities also meet cGMP standards, ensuring products are safely produced and handled according to consistent quality measurements that meet food and drug standards. 

The headquarters will include a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) greenhouse, where each strain and derivative product will be cultivated and then processed in-house to fit the criteria of the four common states.

The Common Citizen Retail Experience

The patient-centric business strategy is also reflected within the in-store experience at its first retail location: 310 S Averill Ave., Flint, Michigan. Medical cannabis customers are led through the 5,000sf space by a Citizen Advisor who will guide them through the product selection process, ensuring that common needs are appropriately paired with that patient's ideal formulations and delivery mechanism.

The retail store and its ecommerce counterpart sell a variety of cannabis products such as flowers, oils, vape pens and edibles available in a variety of delivery methods. In addition, Common Citizen sells non-cannabis products through the House of Commons, a coffee shop within the provisioning center where high quality branded merchandise can be purchased, while sipping on finely curated coffee and learning about cannabis in a relaxing environment (https://www.commoncitizen.com/store-locator/).

Common Citizen is anticipating opening a total of five retail locations by the end of 2019, and another five by the end of 2020. For added convenience, delivery will be offered across the state, direct to patients' doorsteps.

As part of its commitment to giving back to the local communities in which it operates, Common Citizen will create funding to provide a minimum of $100,000 annually towards needs across the communities they call home, starting with the following store openings in 2019:

• Flint, Michigan
• Lansing, Michigan
• Battle Creek, Michigan
• Hazel Park, Michigan
• Detroit, Michigan

Investors

As a vertically-integrated operation, Common Citizen will grow, process and sell cannabis at its own retail locations as well as wholesale distribution to Michigan provisioning centers. 

Through its non-cannabis touching affiliate, Common Citizen also recently received funding in the form of convertible debt from one of its largest and earliest investors, Gotham Green Partners.

"We're excited to partner with such an ambitious and strategically disciplined cannabis company in one of the biggest markets in the U.S.," said Jason Adler, managing member of Gotham Green Partners. "It's companies like Common Citizen that will help mature this new industry in Michigan and beyond by driving management excellence, professionalism and exceptional compliance to quality product."

About Common Citizen

Common Citizen is a privately owned and operated company, focusing on cannabis production, cultivation, processing, retail and wholesale distribution for both the medical and adult market in Michigan and across the United States. Launched in Detroit in 2018, the Common Citizen brand takes a deliberate, people-first approach to its business strategy - from production to retail. 

SOURCE Common Citizen