How to Reduce CBD Manufacturing Costs
Author: Jason Beverly
Nowadays, there’s all that buzz about products made out of cannabidiol, or more popularly known as CBD—and, this is most rightfully so. Given the supposed promising benefits of CBD, different kinds of products to cater to the varying needs of its users are in place. This is the reason why CBD manufacturers and retailers are popping out like rabbits. It's an attractive market to take advantage of, so it’s not at all surprising that so many people have shifted their focus into this industry.
But, like any other business, it’s not easy to start in this field. There are many expenses that come along with the manufacturing of CBD products to ensure top-notch quality. You can never earn your sales rightfully if your products are of inferior quality. While expensive, if you’re smart with your manufacturing process, there are also areas where you can effectively minimize or reduce the costs to maximize your profits and, perhaps, even lower your products’ prices. This fact will make you an even more attractive CBD company to your target customers.
In this article, you’ll look into, in detail, some of the best ways you can control and reduce manufacturing costs, without lowering the quality and output of your CBD products.
1. Reduce Your Material Costs
One of the key players to an expensive manufacturing cost starts when the cost of the materials or the supplies is high. These include your CBD source, the bottles, and other containers you’ll be using to create your products.
Given the standards that come into play with farming and cultivating cannabis or marijuana plant, it’s also not surprising that suppliers of CBD may price their goods quite high. But, this doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to find cheaper ones.
Going through this step of reducing the material costs takes a lot of effort to ensure that your pursuit of lowering the price will never be at the expense of the quality. You have to compensate by also having nothing less than the best cannabis equipment. You have to do thorough research to find the best CBD growers or farms who also practice the top standards of organic farming. This is to give you the assurance of high-quality cannabis and marijuana plants.
2. Review Labor Costs
When it comes to the labor expenses, there isn’t really anything much you can do to reduce the costs as to wages. For your CBD manufacturing plant to be legal, it’s important to stay within the legal parameters of labor laws. This means paying the right wages and benefits to your employees.
What you can do, however, is to assess your entire workforce. One area where the expense may skyrocket is when your company has a high employee turnover rate. This means that rather than staying in your company, employees are regularly leaving. A high employee turnover rate can be expensive, in such a way that you’ll regularly have to go through the recruitment process.
Hiring new employees can be very expensive. You have to spend for advertising expenses, hiring paraphernalia, and even relocation packages for employees who have to move physical locations. If you can find ways to nurture and upskill your current employees rather than keep hiring new ones, that can be more advantageous for your company, cost-wise.
3. Evaluate Your CBD Production Process
If you haven’t done so yet, now’s also a great time for your company to sit down and analyze your current production process. Perhaps, there are areas in your production which you can identify as bottlenecks, or time-consuming and redundant. Not only are those a waste of time, but they’re also a waste of company resources.
As you evaluate your CBD production process, track how long each step takes and if it’s really necessary for each step to take that long. You might be able to revise, tweak, or automate your production process, with the end goal of reducing down time, wasted time, and business resources.
4. Gain More Control Over Your CBD Inventory
Another area in your manufacturing process wherein you can have more control over is your CBD inventory. The general rule you have to keep in mind is this: the longer you keep the stocks, the more costs you’ll need for their upkeep. It's, therefore, very important for you to have that clear cut determination as to when you should re-supply so you won’t be overstocking any excess inventory.
Cannabis, marijuana, or hemp plant materials are very sensitive and delicate in such a way that for you to preserve their quality, it’s important to store them properly. With all the technicalities that come into play as to storage, it’s all the more important to ensure that you aren’t storing any more than what you need, at any given time.
5. Optimize CBD Manufacturing Processes with the Right Tools
Nowadays, businesses have the advantage of living in the day and age of technology. This means that now, more than ever, many businesses are also becoming more automated. It's up to you to take advantage of those automation procedures to ensure better efficiency in your CBD manufacturing business. It takes quite a transition, but switching from manual to automated is one of the best changes you can make for your manufacturing process to reduce the costs.
In business, efficiency also directly relates to profits and costs. Hence, it also necessarily follows that the more efficient you are, the higher your cost savings are. What’s more, your profits are higher as well.
Conclusion
Especially as of late, it’s normal for businesses to feel as if they’re going through rough times. Well, one is exempt from that feeling. During this season, therefore, businesses are also on the hunt for opportunities and ways to reduce certain expenses, without hurting their employees and sacrificing product quality.
One aspect where businesses can effectively work on reducing costs is in the manufacturing side. You can start with the tips above, and take it one item at a time. With proper evaluation to ensure accuracy, you may even be able to lower the selling price of your CBD products so you can price them more competitively, without necessarily skimping on their overall quality.
