Etain, Chester-based marijuana operation, sold to Canadian investors

CHESTER — Etain, a women-owned marijuana company that began in 2015, sold its operation to a Toronto-based investment firm for $42 million and 16% of the firm’s common shares.

RIV Capital purchased the Chestertown-based business, which was founded by the Peckham family, also owners of Peckham Industries.

A representative with RIV Capital said the firm saw the opportunity for growth of Etain’s successful products and locations.

“With four dispensaries, including a Manhattan flagship store and locations in Kingston, Syracuse and Westchester, as well as a cultivation and production facility in Chestertown, we believe Etain is a strong foundation and a scalable platform for future growth,” said Mark Sims, president and CEO of RIV Capital, said in a news release.

“We plan to continue Etain’s collaboration with diverse New York-owned brands, optimize Etain’s attractive retail footprint, and augment Etain’s four premium product lines with high-performing West Coast brands. The ongoing expansion of Etain’s Chestertown cultivation facility, which is nearing completion, and our planned flagship indoor cultivation facility in Buffalo will enable Etain to better serve medical patients and, eventually, adult-use consumers in New York.”

The company said one of its core brands will be Etain’s popular product line, with new varieties coming in the near future.

Etain was founded in memory of the family matriarch Frances “Granny Franny” Keeffe, who died after battling ALS. Amy Peckham, along with her daughters Hillary and Keeley, have grown the operation in seven years to “one of only 10 vertically integrated operators in New York,” according to RIV Capital’s news release. This means that Etain handles all operations from cultivation to packaging to distribution.

In 2018, the company had plans to expand its operations with a packaging facility in Glens Falls, but the plans eventually fell through due to the lack of state funding available for the project.

Simultaneously, the company had submitted plans to expand its Chester site near the end of 2018.

The Post-Star previously reported in 2019 that Etain received Chester Planning Board approval to quadruple the site of its Route 9 plant by constructing a 50,000-square-foot addition to the current 15,000-square-foot greenhouse and production area.

Keeley Peckham, chief horticultural officer, said previously that the new area would be operational by early 2020. She added that the goal would be to add 15 jobs to the current 25 on the site. According to the statement from RIV Capital, this expansion is now expected to be complete by the second quarter of 2023.

RIV Capital said the expansion is “designed to increase cultivation capacity and support the development of new product formats in anticipation of the launch of adult-use sales in New York. RIV Capital is also in the process of developing a new, state-of-the-art flagship indoor cultivation facility in Buffalo, designed with premier cultivation and production infrastructure specifically tailored to support the premium New York market,” RIV’s statement read.