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Dispensary 33 is continuing to blaze a trail for the cannabis industry in Illinois, becoming the first fully employee-owned marijuana dispensary in the state.
The dispensary’s two stores in Uptown and West Loop, along with its four partnered Spark’d dispensaries in the city and suburbs, were rolled into one holding company that was sold to a trust owned by the company’s roughly 200 employees.
The state approved the sale Thursday, but the terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed.
Bryan Zises, Dispensary 33’s founder, said the move could be a model for other companies in the state and lead to a more level playing field in an industry dominated by white male owners.
“This is the ultimate success of social equity,” Zises said in an interview with the Sun-Times. “This is really a huge boon for social equity in Illinois because there’s no other way for people who are interested in cannabis, passionate about cannabis, but don’t have the financial resources to ever really get an ownership stake.”
Dispensary 33’s first shop, at 5001 N. Clark St., opened in 2015 as Chicago’s first medical dispensary. The store also made the first recreational weed sale when it became legal in 2020.
Manuel Martinez/WBEZ
Zises boasts Dispensary 33 as the last independent pot shop operator in the city after a flood of corporate consolidation engulfed Illinois’ budding cannabis industry when the drug was fully legalized. Dispensary 33 has pressed forward despite several chances to sell to larger cannabis corporations.
He’s also proud that the company employs a majority-minority staff, and has an employee-first mindset with comprehensive benefits and a strong employee retention record. Many of Dispensary 33’s workers have been employed for more than five years, and some have been there since the beginning.
In her six years with Dispensary 33, Venus Bikos, 28, has moved up from starting out as a budtender to her current role as controller, overseeing nearly all of the company’s financial operations. She’s also wrapping up her bachelor’s degree in accounting.
She said employees taking full ownership of the company adds to the value she respects about the dispensary.
“I appreciate that it employs a really diverse group of individuals who are not only important to our culture as a company, but also the industry’s culture and Chicago’s culture,” Bikos said. “I feel like it’s very cool that people who care about this industry and contribute to this industry are given this opportunity to share something that other cannabis companies in our industry don’t do yet.”
Four other cannabis businesses in Maine and Massachusetts are fully owned by their employees.
Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times
Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s Cannabis Regulation Oversight Officer Erin Johnson said the department is “proud” of the success businesses like Dispensary 33 are achieving in Illinois’ adult use cannabis program.
“Five years after becoming the first state to place social equity at the center of such a program, annual growth shows that priority can be achieved while also encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit for participants to join the industry,” Johnson said in a statement.
Dispensary 33’s transaction was made through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, which is funded through a trust that is created to purchase the company’s stock.
“[These are] shares in the company that will grow in a tax-exempt environment for the benefit of the employees, so that 30 years from now, this will be another way that employees can grow wealth for the long term,” Zises said.
Aleks Glass started at Dispensary 33 nearly seven years ago in an entry-level budtender position. He has slowly risen through the ranks and is now the company’s director of product.
Glass said the acquisition adds a new level of job security in an unpredictable industry, but it also provides a more accurate picture of who operates the businesses.
“The majority of these companies are white owned, but when you look under the hood at pretty much any cannabis company, the people who are running it are largely diverse,” Glass said. “I think people really want to be able to see the transparency of these cannabis companies, and for us to be able to truly say, OK, look, this is who’s actually running it, is incredible.”
“}]] The dispensary’s two stores in Uptown and West Loop, along with its partnered Spark’d stores in the city and suburbs, have sold its business to a trust fully owned by its roughly 200 employees. Read More
