Eric Sklar, CEO & Co-Founder, Fumé
Eric Sklar is an entrepreneur, Napa Valley vineyard owner and public official. He and his family have been growing grapes in Napa Valley for 40 years and he has recently planted his first licensed cannabis garden. Eric is CEO of Napa Valley Fume, LLC, a cannabis management/branding company based in St. Helena, CA. He is also the co-founder and a board member of the Napa Valley Cannabis Association.
https://www.fumebrands.com/
https://www.lakegrade.com/
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:01] You're listening to Thinking Outside the Bud where we speak with entrepreneurs investors thought leaders researchers advocates and policymakers who are finding new and exciting ways for cannabis to positively impact business society and culture. And now, here is your host Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt.
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[00:01:07] Welcome everyone, this is Thinking Outside the Bud. I'm Bruce Eckfeldt . I'm your host. And our guest today is Eric Sklar. He is CEO of Fumé Brands, which has a premium cannabis brand out of Napa Valley in California. We're going to talk to him about the cannabis space. We're going to talk with him about his history in Napa Valley and working in wine and then in cannabis. We're gonna learn a little bit about that transition. We're going to learn about from a business point of view and how they're approaching the markets for a strategy really fascinated about the premium side of this market. I think that as the market grows, you know, we're looking at a lot of a lot of people coming into market. A lot of product being put into the market. And I think that's premium side. Some really interesting dynamics and excited to have this conversation and learn really what it takes to create a premium cannabis brand. So with that, Erik, welcome to the program. Thanks, Chris. Great to be here. Let's talk a little bit about background and history. I'm always curious how people get into cannabis or how they get into cannabis from a business point of view. And I know you've got a long history in the area and dealing originally with grapes and wine, some kind of curious about that history of that legacy and then how cannabis came into that and how you're kind of weaving those together, how you're leveraging that experience to create a premium cannabis brand. So tell us a story.
[00:02:19] Well, you know, I'm a serial entrepreneur, but I also have a background in public policy. I was an elected official here in Napa Valley as a city council member and currently president of California Fish and Game Commission reset the wildlife rules for the state. But as a serial entrepreneur, I actually started out in the restaurant business in Washington, D.C. with a restaurant chain. I started in my 20s called Burrito Brothers, sold last night. And I came back to Napa, where my family had a vineyard for almost 40 years now, for two years last summer, actually, and settled in Napa Valley to raise our kids here 20 years ago. We've now done raising our kids. But I mean, I started a winery called Alpha Omega in 2005 with the idea being that, you know, Napa itself is this premium brand and that wine in Napa is premium, but that it's really difficult for wineries, new wineries to get any traction with distributors. Twenty five years ago, there were a 10000 distributors around the country. And now there's like 3000. But four or five companies dominate the distribution. These help you build your brands. Now they just take orders. You have to find a way to know your brand. Well, the way I did it with the wine business was open a winery tasting room on Highway 29, where there are already five million customers coming every year now.
[00:03:23] So it's a buying wine, right. And then I would ship it to them directly. So I change the model little bit of way. Wineries have been operating before. We weren't the first to do that because right around that same time, the Supreme Court told states they had to allow direct shipping of wine. They couldn't block it. Sure. So it opened up the whole possibility of this direct to consumer wine business so that businessmen really, really well. In 2013, I exited just as the possibility of Prop 64 passing in California. The law that allowed cannabis to be recreationally legal was kind of sparkle in the eyes of the proponents and a younger friend of mine. I'm in my late 50s now, so it's in my mid to early 50s and mid 50s. The younger friend of mine who has a great winery called One Hope Winery in Napa Valley. Now we're talking about cannabis and what was going to happen with it and agreed that when it became legal, Napa is a natural place to grow cannabis here. And they're among the best branders of a similar product. Right. It's an agricultural product transform that's highly regulated, that inebriates. We're not focused on the medical side, although there are some medical benefits to red wine.
[00:04:24] Right. And there's medical clearly medical benefits to cannabis. We said we're going to stay on the recreational side and and do what we do best, which is create premium brands of the best agriculturally cultivated product we possibly can't or anybody can. So in 13, we started whiteboarding it and we developed a business plan and said, okay, as soon as it's legal in California, we're off to the races. And of course, in in 2016. Prop 64 passed. We started finalizing the business plan and then later the next year when it became actually became legal. We launched and we started raising money and we had the plan of creating a number of brands that are Napa based, that are premium brands. Now, things don't always go quickly as smoothly as it can. And the cannabis businesses, especially that way. And in Napa, the powers that be have resisted the right to cultivate outdoor in Napa Valley. The Super Board of Supervisors has said, no, no, no, no. So we're looking at putting it on the ballot either in November, if we can get that done or in two years to get the people to say, yes, we want to cultivate here, we're confident that will happen. Prop 64 passed in Napa at a higher.
[00:05:27] And it did over the state as a whole, so there's a broad support for cannabis. And we were confident that in the next couple of years we'll be able to grow there. Well, we had to do something in the meantime. And so we we went to the county just north of us, which is called Lake County. And Lake County welcomed us with open arms. And we've been cultivating in Lake County now for two years. We had a second crop in November and we'll have another crop this year. We have a delivery service line that delivers to all of the North Bay of San Francisco Bay Area, which is terrific. Is doing real well. And last July, we launched our first brand, which is Lake Greyed. Eventually will be a Napa great and and Mendocino great and a Montauk great and a South Beach great. As people, we find cultivators around the country that can grow. Good stuff. We will have locally based brands for each of those areas. And then middle this year will launch Fumi, which is our premium brand with Lake County Canibus, and then we hope to launch Fumi in Napa by early next year with indoor cultivated cannabis. And then finally, outdoor cultivated cannabis and we finally get that approved.
[00:06:24] Interesting. So I'm curious, given you've got kind of a background in politics and policy, you know, what is really the dynamic? I mean, why why the resistance would have you kind of seen as you've worked with, you know, local government to, you know, figure out how to get get these programs in place to actually cultivate in Napa? What what is the resistance? What are the concerns? How have you navigated that? I guess how is your experience knowing kind of the process and knowing government knowing policy helped you kind of guide this?
[00:06:52] Yeah. You know, this is a highly regulated industry from top to bottom, whether it's the cultivation side, the manufacturing, the distribution, the sales. And, you know, California had Prop 64 passed, but it was still up to the state to write a lot of regulations and how it actually got carried out. So we played a really big role at the state level and helping them improve and perfect the regulations as they've written them and revise them. That's a massive effort. We worked with our partner, eased the delivery company extensively on Sacramento, lobbying and work on the regulations. And then, you know, in the inner cities and county where we operate, Lake County, the city of Clearlake, we spent a lot of time with him, handholding, partnering, advising, trying to get the regulations in those places to be as sensible as they can. We wanted to be a properly regulated business, but, you know, at the same time, you don't want to have it overregulate to the point where it's too difficult to run your business. Some some argued that in California right now, that's the case, that the regulations are too onerous. And I think the state has realized that the governor has realized that they're proposing more flexible regulations in the coming months. And then the cities were operating there and county, as we have all there, and show them how we operate as as professional, clean green businesses, creating lots of great jobs and providing tax revenue. They seem very willing to work with us to make things run more smoothly by, you know, fine tuning the regulations, not throwing them out, but fine tuning them.
[00:08:09] I'm curious what any particular parts of the regulations that have been kind of most abetted or most scrutinized in terms of, you know, balancing this proper relegation for business and kind of health and safety versus making sure that we've got a viable market from a cannabis point of view, that we're not overregulating the market. Anything in there that's particularly of note?
[00:08:27] Yeah, I guess there's three things. So. One is taxes. California impose taxes that are just way too high. And so it makes it more attractive to a lot of buyers to go to the illegal market, which is bad on a whole level of a bunch of levels from spoofy product safety. And so and collecting taxes and revenue and keeping it out of the hands of kids. So there's taxes. Then there is the general regulation of reporting. It's a very complex system by which you've got to report every leaf of cannabis that you grow and as it moves through the system. So they need to to make that less onerous because we're spending a huge amount of time and money just complying with the tracking system. And then finally, I guess there would be on the fine tuning on security measures, things like that, where they they went a little overboard at first. And that adds enormous costs. We're trying to work with my on that as well. I guess a fourth one is on delivery there in California. They put out a five thousand dollar case them and how much cannabis you could put into delivery car? Well, for a delivery system like ours with ease, where it's dynamic delivery, where the orders actually come to the driver in the car, much like a new broad driver gets their new ride. Yeah, they need to maybe a little more flexible on delivery, which they didn't really understand at first. So we can be really efficient and green and doing that, not have to go back to the depot as often, you know.
[00:09:37] So is it because you actually literally carrying your inventory with you and then just dispensing it? You know, as people place orders, you're not picking up a package and sending a package. It's you're actually going to move moving the inventory with you.
[00:09:48] Exactly. And, you know, at first I was interested in that lack of understanding of how that actually work and security. But there's been no safety issue. Our cars are unmarked. You know, they pack the individual patronage repr an order away from where they're delivering. In order to get a delivery, you've got to give your driver's license and a credit card number. So, you know, nobody's holding people up as they come to their house because even criminals aren't.
[00:10:08] Yes, no, exactly.
[00:10:10] And curiously, given the background you have in in wine, it would give me it's sort of a compare and contrast, you know, similarities, differences.
[00:10:19] You know, on one hand, you can look at it and say, hey, it's you know, it's a it's an agricultural product. It's regulated. You know, it's a recreational product. You know, it should be very similar. We're. You notice that you can borrow a lot of the kind of learning of the models and where can you not? What's what similarities and differences between the two?
[00:10:34] It's a great question. A really good question is when we ask ourselves daily, because figure out as we go. Right. We're not. There's no playbook for this particular product this way. The similarities are as if it's a product that inebriates you, that is an agricultural product that has incredible aromas and flavors it that we want to emphasize. And so in that sense, we were talking to customers about it, often the same way.
[00:10:55] One of the big differences, though, is, is that with alcohol, it's very linear. The effect of the alcohol on a person is based on your body weight and how much you consume of alcohol. And obviously, if it's you have to adjust, if it's a private percentage in the drink, you're drinking, if it's beer. Obviously, that percentage amount about what you get is smaller per cup, but you can figure out exactly what the quantity is the same. It goes up with wine and liquor. So it's linear and affects people the same, roughly the same for each individual. They know that if they have one glass of wine, it can have this effect that they have to it's can have this effect after they learned their own body and the linear effect.
[00:11:27] Cannabis is much more variable in terms of both the quantity and age. Any given amount of cannabis, the type of form factor you're taking it in and whether it's edible or smoking it or, you know, beverage, and it affects individuals drastically differently for the same exact amount of the same product. So educating people about how to learn what their tolerance is, what what works with them and how your product in particular will affect them is very different than wine. Additionally, cannabis has so many more effects and uses than wine. Wine, pretty much. You know, it gives you a buzz. Now, it is true that resveratrol in red wine has some proven health effects, which is great. But you don't feel that that's a long term thing that they have taken you over a long period time here. You know, it can help with inflammation, can help with headaches. It can help with body aches and pains. It can help with sleeplessness. It can help with anxiety and depression. That's a far cry from alcohol. Alcohol actually is a depressant. And so helping people understand that and figure out how to use it for even though it's recreational, they still want to see some of those benefits. So it's infinitely more complex, I think, in how you talk about your product and how you teach people about your product than wine, even though they're the similarities of it's a wonderful recreational lubricant. It can be, yeah.
[00:12:38] And how does that impact the branding strategy? Because I imagine that, you know, given all the different kind of potential effects and kind of the facets of the product itself and who you're trying to target and what you're trying to accentuate and play up or play down, how do you approach kind of the branding strategy, given all those different options?
[00:12:55] Well, ultimately, we love tap tasting rooms where we can teach people in person. Right. It's difficult to do that right now on, say, consumption is relatively limited in here. Napp, it's not allowed at all yet. That's going to be changing. Snowman's looking at allowing farmers to have tasting rooms just like wineries do and winegrowers do. So in-person is the best. I think after that it becomes, you know, you know, videos, YouTube videos and then your Web site as a focal point to try to educate people and then just really engaging with them in a way that some other industries do. But wine hasn't. Exactly.
[00:13:25] Before you go and talk to me, I mean, you mentioned a couple different locations and growers. How are you kind of approaching the kind of the operational process of kind of the brand building and, you know, creating the on product versus your kind of the cultivation side and the supply side?
[00:13:41] Are you are these are you owning the cultivation side? Are you partnering with folks who are cultivators to grow product for you? How does that business model work for you?
[00:13:49] It's actually a little bit of both. We have our own cultivation where we're cultivating our own strains and perfecting them for our products. And then we're in the process of signing our first contract with a contract grower. This year, we're buying from a few people just on the spot market in Lake County, people we know really well, but we're just buying at the end of the season. This coming year, we're actually gonna contract with growers to grow. Our strain's our way. So it's a little bit both, which is not dissimilar at all from the wine model at Alpha Omega. We only grew about five percent of the grapes when I was running it, and we bought from grape growers all over Napa Valley who mostly grow and don't make their own wine. And we see a very similar model in cannabis. We think it's a it's a natural way to do it because there's folks who are great farmers, but our branders but branders, me farmers. And because you want to talk about who Bruett and how they grew up.
[00:14:29] Yeah, no, it's interesting. I've seen the, you know, this business model kind of playing out different ways the last couple years of, you know, people that are trying to be fully integrated, you know, everything from seed to the actual, you know, the branding and selling side of it, people that are kind of taking various segments of that chain and becoming experts in it. How do you see this market playing out? You mentioned you think that's that is a certainly a strategy that a lot of people are looking at. But you see this as a general trend in the cannabis market that you're gonna see experts in various parts of, you know, cultivating and processing and packaging and actually branding around this. How do you see this evolving?
[00:15:01] Yeah, I think a lot of people, like our company, went into this vertically initially because they were very afraid the supply chain wouldn't be reliable against this. And I think that's proven out that in these early days the supply chain isn't great, especially because you can't ship across state lines. Right. So you're limited to what you can get in your state from packaging, you know, white label packaging and so on. So I think it's starting out very vertical. There are a lot of just people who folks out there just growing and they're looking for buyers. And I think they found a bit of a challenge. But I think the direction we'll be going in. Actualisation growers will grow, manufacturers in manufacturing and retailers and brands will sell. But I think that that's a long, slow process. And I think that I mean, I would say a 10 year process probably nationwide, because until we go federally legal in something like three to five years is the prediction vertical and specialization will not be fully possible once we have a nationwide and global market. I think you'll find lots of people who are just farmers and other folks who who can do contract manufacturing and other folks who do distribution and other folks who create brands. And then we're looking forward to that because frankly, it's really difficult being vertically integrated in any business. It's just it's just really hard because you're doing dissimilar businesses and you and you may be better at some than others. But in any case, if you're distracted as you're as you're trying to do so many things at once. But for all of us, I think there was no choice early on.
[00:16:13] Yeah, I agree. You mentioned the federal legalization. I mean, I've worked with many companies now and kind of doing strategic planning around this. And I'm curious on your take.
[00:16:21] I mean, even if we get a D scheduled move, regulate, you know, it comes off the schedule and now sort of enables the possibility of interstate transportation and commerce. I mean, if people of states have spent so much money setting up these, you know, state level economies mean what's your take on how states are going to respond to this? Are that there's going to open up their doors or are they going to put certain kind of protections or taxations in place for in-state versus out-of-state cannabis? How do you see this playing out even if we get a federal legalization? How do you see that market developing?
[00:16:52] Yeah, it's a great question. I think, you know, we have we have to we can look to why right. Where there's federal legalization and probation. But states had a lot of control. And I think that's what we're going to see something like. But the good news is the Granholm decision, which says, you know, states have to treat out-of-state products the same as they treat their in-state products. It will provide some protection for interstate commerce. So therefore, you know, a state couldn't say we're going to we're going to not tax our local growers, but we're gonna tax all cannabis coming in. That won't fly. And so there will be dust, separate regulations in terms of how retail is sold. Some states may have state cannabis stores like liquor stores like Pennsylvania. Can you do it? That's got to be a real shame because that's a lousy way to do it. The state is not very good at his luxury wines. I'm picking wines and selling wines. I think that's a terrible disservice to consumers. So hopefully won't be that bad. But there is gonna be dissimilar laws across state lines. Without question, the question is how much the federal government say. We'll say you have to be consistent on A, B and C. So, for instance, they could say, you know, you have to allow retail stores, you have to allow out-of-state distributors. You can't just have in-state distributors, franchise laws like liquor. We'll see. It's hard to say how it's going to go.
[00:17:59] If you look familiar, you are with the Canadian market, but, you know, similar kind of thing where your federal legislation, but the provinces kind of decide how they're going to implement.
[00:18:07] And I mean, it's the same as their liquor situation. You know, some provinces control the the sale. Some provinces allow for independent dispensaries or independent retail locations. Is there any lessons to be learned based on what, you know, the Canadian market, how that's played out?
[00:18:20] Yeah. You know, I think it shows that provincial control or state control, in our case, not ideal. But I don't I don't think I don't see any way around it because I'm a divided country. You know, the Congress is divided. And I think that what they'll do is they'll punt and let the states take a lot of control over it. And so it's going to be know it's just going to be irregular. You know, the good news for for our company, Fumi, is that we're based in California, which is the largest market in the world right now, and it will continue to be as long as states are have individual rules. You know, so it's good for us that we're in a big market and we want to go national as soon as we can. There are some efforts right now to allow interstate commerce between states that have legalized it. If they're continuous or if they're not contiguous, they Matute products have to stay on a train. You know, the they shipped by train. Yes, I can. Between states that that's really interesting. We think that that might be the first step where there's interstate commerce. States can get a get together and agree on on parts. There's north eastern states that are doing right right now whether they want to pass similar laws and allow interstate commerce. So I think there'll be some sort of hybrid. It won't be quite as as restrictive, hopefully on distribution, because that's where that were the what were the liquor industry is really messed up. Right? The distributors have way too much power. And so what we want to prevent that for sure might be some irregularity across state to state operations for sure.
[00:19:32] Yeah, that's interesting. And tell me about kind of the premium segment of this market. What? From your point of view, what defines a premium product? So, you know, how did it get classified? How why? You know, why operate in that space? You know, it's a fascinating one. So I'm curious to kind of tell me a little bit about what defines a premium brand in the cannabis market like water as quality ism's about price point is about the nature of the product. And then, you know, strategically, why choose that part of the market to focus on, you know, in terms of your business?
[00:20:01] Let me answer that reverse order. We know premium products, right? We sell 250 dollar bottle cabernet. We know that market, those customers what they're looking for. So that's why we're doing it is because it's our expertise. There's other folks who will make guy the Gallo of cannabis. Right. Just volume growing in the Central Valley of California. And by the way, let's come back to the second to California and why California is maybe the biggest player in growing. But here's what I think. We think and we're and we're arguing makes the difference on premium cannabis like any. Plant, you can grow it mass or you can grow it custom. Right. And so we're growing plants where we separate them far from each other. They grow into very big trees with enormous, beautiful, rich buds. We grow for aroma and flavor. And the best high possible, not the highest volume. So it's almost always about premium growing when it's an agricultural product versus mass growing. And so that's the first thing you grow for the highest quality possible, which costs more money. I mean, you know, your hand tending each plant carefully, your hand harvesting and hand trimming each, but carefully you're taking the very best buds and you're putting them in your product buds in parts of the plant that aren't as good.
[00:21:04] You're bulking out, which is what wineries do all the time. They take 20 or 30 percent of the wine they make and they sell it on the black market to folks who are just pouring into big batches of wine. Sure. So we're doing that same thing that's on the growing side. Then on the marketing the packaging side, you're doing small quantities of super high quality. You're doing organic hemp rolling papers on your pre rolls. You're testing, you know, to the highest level to make sure the THC and the and the turbines remain in. Right. You're driving a very careful way before you and curing to make sure that turbines are maintained. And then you're sorting in your and you're discarding and selling off as both the stuff that's not as good as is required for your product. And then there's the whole branding and how you market it. Where you sell it. You sell it. How you package it. You know, Tiffany or may loui the time they know how to sell their package and sell their product in a way that is not the same as Target.
[00:21:52] And how do you do that? I mean, with the kind of the retail dispensary kind of setup the way it is? How do you make sure that the brand you've got sort of the real consistency for the end user, not only a product like what's inside the package, but the package and the actual retail display? And how do you make that happen, given given kind of the diversity of retail sort of dispensary experiences that we have right now?
[00:22:12] Well, two things. One is, ideally, you sell most your product direct to consumers again and then eventually from a tasting and where they're experiencing it firsthand with you introducing your product and teach him. So that's ideal. And we'll have that eventually extensively. And I think in Knapp, in Sonoma in particular, your Web site is a big part of it. And how you marketing and present yourself there. And then at dispensaries, it's picking your dispensaries carefully, not going to every dispensary, going to the apothecary rooms at the harvest of the world, the ones that are the the super high end, you know, that understand how to sell high premium product face to face.
[00:22:42] Now, you mentioned a little bit about the you know, the product itself and the Tippins and the, you know, the maintaining the the quality of product.
[00:22:50] I've seen that because we're dealing with an organic product. Right. We're dealing an agricultural product that has organics that have shelf lives that have are susceptible to environmental conditions. How have you kind of ensured or managed to keep sort of the integrity of the product through the process all the way from, you know, when you you know, when it's coming off the plant to win? It's actually, you know, being used by a consumer. What's that? How do you maintain the quality of the product over that time period?
[00:23:16] Yes. So, you know, I think, you know, it's fine. There's a saying in winemaking that that 90 percent of the quality wine happens in the vineyard. I would say that with cannabis, at least 50 percent of the long term quality, the product occurs during curing and drying it. If you don't if you know, if you don't grow grape plants and you don't grow great wine grapes, you know, you're not going have a good product. That's that's a given wine winemaking. A lot of people say is only 10 percent the process. And it's easy to keep the turbines and aromas in that because you're keeping it in tanks. You're keeping the barrels sealed. Yeah. So, Dan, it's the opposite here. You need to try the product to get the moisture out. So how you do that? How are you driving? Curious to maintain Turpin profiled is really critical. So there's a real skill set in that for any anybody who wants to have really high quality premium product and then packaging it the right way so that it's maintained. Those are the two steps that will ensure that it was a premium product when it got that trimmed off the plant when it got harvested remains.
[00:24:09] So, you know, I'm curious, what have been some of the challenges? You've kind of established the business and and grown the operations. Where do you see the kind of lumis in the cannabis space right now in terms of, you know, just bottlenecks or constraints that are holding the business and the industry back?
[00:24:24] Yeah, I think distribution is a big part of the problem. There are you know, there are a lot distributors who are working well. And also there's a problem in that because of all the taxation, all the regulation, because there's so many businesses out there, they're trying to figure how to make this work. There's been a lot of issues with this. This is not being able to pay their bills. And so that messes up the supply chain. Right. And that if the is not paying the brand and the brand's not paying the grower, things get jammed up. And that's a real problem in California right now that, you know, certainly is and was exacerbated by the Corona virus right now album that's added that added to it. But we'll see how this all shakes out. I think that in the end, a lot of businesses that were in business it in January of 2020 will not be and are not in business anymore, will not be Utzon's by the end of 2020. But the survival be stronger, right. They'll have made it through the tough times. Both of the new industry and and the outcomes of both financial and social, the of the corona virus crisis know the businesses that are I predict the businesses around at the end of 2020 will be infinitely stronger and ready to really take this to the next level. And I'm excited about that possibility. And I'm. That, to me, will be one of those such companies.
[00:25:29] Yeah, no, it's exciting time and mean. We're dealing we're dealing with all the Colgate stuff right now and we'll see how it kind of not only affects cannabis, but I think every industry in the world right now.
[00:25:38] But it's. Yeah. I think there'll be a those that make it through will come back stronger. And, you know, as things recover, you'll see a new wave of growth around the around the industry. Anything else that you're looking on strategically? You know, kind of whether it's, you know, the U.S. market, the international market, things that you really think are going to shape cannabis over the coming years?
[00:25:57] Well, what's interesting is there is the CBD hemp market. Right. And it's really interesting. And a lot of people flooded into it. We didn't yet. But we were looking at doing that because we think that creating a brand, it's a hemp CBD brand that can go national now rather than waiting till three or four or five years now is a wonderful way to build a brand that's national in scope. And then, you know, people already know the name and it trade dress. So then we introduce THC products nationwide later. Well, we'll be ahead of the game. So we're looking at that. That's an exciting possibility. You know, we're piecing it together right now. The biggest problem with that is interesting is that there's some great hemp growers out there, but they're really having trouble staying under the point three percent number and they have to destroy their product once they harvest, if it's not point three percent. So finding really, really good premium growers who are consistently under point three percent. So that's that that's the next big challenge. There's some talk at the federal level of raising that arbitrary number to one percent, which is much more practical.
[00:26:48] Yeah, I've heard a lot of horror stories of people having destroy vast crops versus vast sums of money because, yeah, they didn't hit that point three percent. And it's tough that you're dealing with an agricultural product. Right. So you can't you don't really know until you finish the growing season and you test it and it can often not not meet that threshold. Eric, there have been great if people to find out more about you, about Fumé. What's the best way to get that information?
[00:27:08] Go to either Fumé brands online or you can go to the lake raid as well. We have we have Web sites for both and we encourage you to go there and we're not selling on. We were selling a little bit online, but really, um, the best way in California to get our product is to order delivery through ès.
[00:27:22] Great. I'll make sure that the links are in the show notes so people can click through and get that. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for taking the time today and telling us a little bit about the business. And I always enjoy talking with growers and people that doing interesting work. And so there's been a lot of fun. I appreciate it. Thanks for thanks for coming on.
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