Pubdate: Sat, 18 Jul 2015
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Sacramento Bee
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/0n4cG7L1
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Bob Shallit

PLASTICS FABRICATOR CATERS TO BUDDING MARKET

Over the years, Will Smith has built plastic display cases for major 
department stores and custom cabinets for collectors of movie memorabilia.

Lately the Fair Oaks resident has discovered a booming business 
making similar products for a different sort of user: operators of 
medical marijuana dispensaries and legal pot shops.

"We're on a real successful track," said Smith, 59. He operates a 
conventional fabrication operation  All Plastic  along with his 
edgier side business in a 6,000-square-foot factory and showroom at 
2271 Sunrise Blvd. in Gold River.

He took his first small steps into the cannabis business a decade ago 
after visiting a few medical marijuana dispensaries and realizing the 
vendors weren't effectively showing off their wares. "There was no 
rhyme or reason" to the way products were displayed, he said.

He built a few cases for them on spec. Lately, as pot legalization 
efforts have picked up steam nationally, his business has grown, 
well, like a weed.

Smith's pot division, called Bud Bar Displays, now sells to legal 
marijuana purveyors in 23 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, 
Canada and the Netherlands.

Revenue is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to 
Smith - about equal to the sales in his original business.

Smith and his staff of six employees make full-size LED-lit cases 
with display shelves, and smaller ones that sit on counters and have 
tops with magnifying lenses so buyers can really check out their product.

"A lot of connoisseurs want to look at (the goods) in detail," he said.

Most of the smaller containers have retractable plugs covering "aroma 
holes" so discriminating buyers can do a smell test.

I enjoy this business because it's evolved from the hippies to the 
suit-and-tie guys.

Will Smith, co-owner of Bud Bar Displays

Brand new for Bud Bar are stand-alone cross-shaped kiosks called Bud 
Tenders that can be placed in the middle of a dispensary and enable 
customers to pick up small containers of product to view and smell 
but not touch  the merchandise.

Prices vary from about $16 for a small Bud Pod container to $7,500 
for 6-foot-long lighted display cases.

The move into the pot business is a big change of pace for Smith, who 
started a company called Amazing Plastics more than 30 years ago 
after getting out of the Navy. Early customers included big 
department stores such as Nordstrom and Macy's. He also garnered some 
unusual jobs, building cases that were used to hold priceless collectibles.

Among them: cases for a collector who owned Buddy Holly memorabilia 
and, for a 1987 Hollywood centennial tour, cases to hold Judy 
Garland's dress from "The Wizard of Oz," and Humphrey Bogart's 
trenchcoat from "Casablanca."

After California legalized medical marijuana, Smith said, 
"professional curiosity" bought him into some dispensaries. The rest 
is hashish history.

Smith, who said he smoked in his youth but now "doesn't partake," 
marvels at how the pot business has evolved from tie-dye to suit and 
tie. He and his wife and partner, Cheryl, attend huge 
cannabis-related business-to-business events all over the country and 
rub shoulders with Wall Street investors.

"It's no longer the little guy opening a corner shop. This is 
mainstream corporate stuff," he said.

Still, Smith remains just a little sheepish sometimes when telling 
people what he does for a living.

"I kind of softball it with the people I meet, telling them I'm in 
the plastics business," he said. "Then I might say I'm in the 
cannabis industry."

Few people are shocked.

"They're right at home with it," Smith said, "and say they use it themselves."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom