While Brandon Brock’s plans for a pot sales shop in Washougal hit a brick wall this summer, the local head shop owner was just getting started on his next big venture.
Brock, owner of Mary Jane’s House of Glass, will open a new glass pipe factory this month with an eye on keeping pipe production local and supporting his fast-growing chain of head shops. The company will manufacture its own glass products, but will also continue to buy from local glass-blowers.
The factory, Mary Jane’s Glass Productions, has room for 52 glass-blowing stations in its 7,500-square-foot workspace at the Port of Camas-Washougal’s industrial park. To start, Brock expects to hire as many 20 glass-blowers, and he’ll expand from there to about 35 stations. He’ll also lease some of those stations to others who aren’t necessarily working for Mary Jane’s but need a place where they’re permitted to work with glass, making pipes or any other products.
“A lot of these guys are working out of their garage, or small studios or barns, I mean, you name it,” he said. “We just thought to ourselves, ‘If we bring them all under one roof, it can be mutually beneficial.'”
Brock expects the factory to be up and running within the next few weeks, less than two months after the Washougal City Council put a two-year ban on recreational marijuana growing, processing and sales. The decision left Brock in limbo after winning the state Liquor Control Board’s lottery for a pot shop in Washougal.
Brock sees this as an important time to ramp up production and market his own brand of pipes. Mary Jane’s 10th head shop just wrapped up a strong opening in Tualatin, Ore., and Brock plans to continue expanding through Washington, Oregon and even as far south as Texas and Arizona.
“We wanted to make sure we’re able to supply all of our own Mary Jane’s House of Glass (shops) as they open up and don’t have to worry about any shortages,” he said. “As we grow as a company and we get our own team of glass-blowers going, we want to start carrying glass that can only be found at Mary Jane’s House of Glass.”
In addition to pipes, the stores carry vaporizers, incense, candles, lighters and a variety of other accessories for marijuana consumption. Back at the factory next to the production floor, Brock plans to keep a collection of raw glass in stock for glass-blowers and others to purchase.
“We’re hoping to be a hub for raw glass,” he said. “There are not a lot of people selling raw glass anywhere near here.”
Plans for the factory have been in the works for the past 10 months, he said. While summer is normally a slow sales season for Mary Jane’s, business was much stronger than usual for the company with the legalization of recreational marijuana in Washington and the launch of Vancouver’s first two pot shops, Main Street Marijuana and New Vansterdam.
“Legalization definitely has given us a nice little bump,” Brock said. “We’ve probably seen a good 20 percent jump in vaporizer sales since the pot shops have opened.”
Initially, Brock’s staff had concerns that pot shops might take a bite out of his business, because they sell their own glass pipes. He also competes with pipe makers who import their products from Mexico, India and China. None of that has been a problem Brock said, because his head shops carry a wider variety of locally made pipes with more careful craftsmanship.
Justin Runquist: 360-735-4547; twitter.com/col_smallcities; justin.runquist@columbian.com.
