Massachusetts cannabis company to open retail dispensary in Brattleboro

Sep. 30—BRATTLEBORO — A cannabis company with eight dispensaries across Massachusetts and Maine plans to open a Brattleboro location later this fall to expand into Vermont after regulators greenlit retail sales in that state starting Saturday.

Theory Wellness, a Stoneham, Mass.-based seller of craft cannabis and cannabis-infused products, is carrying out construction on a retail space at 768 Putney Road. No opening date is set, but this comes after the state Cannabis Control Board legalized sales of adult-use cannabis, also called marijuana, starting Oct. 1. Vermont towns can opt in to allowing retail marijuana sales, and Brattleboro did so in April.

The Brattleboro location of Theory Wellness is expected to bring 10 to 15 new jobs to the area, according to Chief Marketing Officer Thomas Winstanley, ranging from security to inventory manager to cannabis consultant.

The dispensary will also be the company's first retail-only location as opposed to others that follow a model where the company creates and sells its products at the same location.

"In Massachusetts and Maine we are vertically integrated ..., so we produce everything from flower pre-rolls, edibles, concentrates and even beverages," Winstanley said. "Within each of those markets we have control over our supply chain and are able to fill our retail stores with products that we develop in-house."

Winstanley said Theory Wellness is more interested in retail for Vermont as the company feels the state already has a strong network of cultivators to compete with.

"We realized we can use our retail as an opportunity ... to highlight and feature some of those brands that are already in the space," he said.

Brattleboro was a compelling location for Theory Wellness because of its proximity to operations in Massachusetts, Winstanley said, adding that the closeness to the New Hampshire state line was also attractive. New Hampshire legalized medical marijuana in 2013 and decriminalized small amounts of cannabis in 2017, but efforts to legalize recreational marijuana have failed repeatedly in the Statehouse, including in the last legislative session.

"We're very, very excited about the space we have and we're very much underway right now under construction," he said. "Brattleboro checked a lot of boxes for us."

The company also cited contributing to Vermont's 14 percent in excise tax on cannabis sales as an added benefit of opening in town, in a news release.

"One of the other reasons I think we chose [Brattleboro] was specifically because they've been so welcome and they've been very sharp in terms of how they're approaching this and see this as an opportunity," Winstanley said. "We know that we can help build a little bit in the local economy."

He said the first phase of construction on the dispensary should wrap in the coming weeks, and it could be ready to open in early November. The space is a former Olympia Sports sporting goods store that closed among 76 others in late 2019, according to a news release Olympia's store-closing agent issued at the time.

The business must obtain an occupancy permit for its location prior to applying to the state's Cannabis Control Board for a retail license, according to Winstanley.

"We're cautiously optimistic that we'll have a swift turnaround on the license," he said.

All focus is on opening the Brattleboro dispensary at the moment, Winstanley said, but he noted that opening additional locations throughout Vermont "isn't off the table."

Theory Wellness was founded by Brandon Pollock and Nick Friedman, who met as roommates at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and became business partners after graduating in 2010, Winstanley said. The two founded Theory as their second business in 2015 as a medical cannabis company before Massachusetts voters approved recreational marijuana in 2016.

"Nick and Brandon have always been stewards for pushing and advocating for healthier lifestyles, and they have seen cannabis as a real wellness product," Winstanley said. "This is kind of their 'theory' of what wellness can be."

Theory's launch into Brattleboro will follow the opening of another cannabis business in town, Vermont Bud Barn, which hopes to open Oct. 17, per reporting from the Brattleboro Reformer.

Trisha Nail can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or tnail@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter at

@byTrishaNail.