POWER PLAYERS: KUSHCO CEO NICK KOVACEVICH
For this week’s Power Players interview, I spoke to Nick Kovacevich, CEO of the multi-faceted ancillary company KushCo, (formerly Kush Bottles.)
KushCo was an early entrant to the public markets. And it’s been a bumpy ride. For the quarter ending November 30, the company reported a net loss of $12.5M on net revenue of $35M, and investors have not been forgiving. With the capital markets drying up, CEO Nick Kovacevich says KushCo and other companies need to focus on profitability.
A few highlights from the interview:
On the illegal market:
I think the coronavirus is actually more of a threat to the legal market, than it is to the illegal market. The illegal market continues to produce and sell product. They have no rules and regulations. There’s zero liability. Legal businesses are taking a lot of caution right now. Some of them are even voluntarily closing. You won’t see that with the black market.
On tilting away from California:
We’ve traditionally served as a lot of companies in the state, and we’ve given a lot of credit to them, and right now we’re having a tough time getting companies to pay us. And that’s across the board.
On developments in Washington D.C.:
I think whoever the President is, whether it’s Trump or Biden or Sanders, they will ultimately sign some sort of cannabis legislation if it comes to their desk. So I think the big question about November is the Senate. A Democratic Senate is more likely to also pass cannabis bills and send them to the President. That’s going to determine how likely or how quickly we are to get some real progress at the federal level.
