How a Small Family Business is Becoming a Leader in the New York Cannabis Market

Dinah Berkeley
·3 min read

Photo: Amy, Keeley, and Hillary Peckham

Thriving in a majority male industry? They’ve done it. Standing out in a small and restrictive market? Check. Finding ways to grow a business during a global pandemic? Yeah, they’ve accomplished that, too.

Meet the women of privately held, family-owned, medical marijuana company Etain Health. They’re resilient, strategic and insistent on treating each customer as one of their own.

The Family First Approach

Etain is currently New York’s only women-owned, family-run and vertically integrated cannabis company.

Hillary Peckham started Etain with her mother Amy and sister Keeley. It all began in honor of the matriarch of the family, Frances “Granny Franny” Keeffe. “She was a woman who filled the smallest moments of our lives with music, laughter and joy,” the third and fourth generation New Yorkers comment on their website.

During Granny Franny’s battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the three began researching medical marijuana as an alternative treatment. The discovery of potential benefits combined with the passing of the Compassionate Care Act in 2014, initiated the launch of Etain Medical Marijuana.

The knowledge that each Etain customer is also someone’s parent, spouse, child or sibling is what gives the company its personable touch with a family-first approach and a deep focus on quality and service.

So what’s with the namesake Etain? COO Hillary Peckham explained, “Etain is a Gallic goddess in Irish mythology. She’s the protagonist of many legends and represents women in a transformational capacity. This is the perfect way to honor my mother’s Irish heritage while giving a nod to a female-run business.”

Powerful Products

Etain offers a little bit of everything: flower, tinctures, timed-release capsules, vapes, topicals, lozenges, and even a water-soluble powder. The company runs four product lines: Dolce, Mezzo, Balance and Forte. The CBD-to-THC content ratio for each of these product lines has been carefully chosen to deliver a specific mix of benefits. For example, Dolce combines high CBD with a splash of THC, while Forte offers the reverse combo, and Mezzo uses slightly more CBD than THC. Balance is, you guessed it, 50/50.

Etain’s newest vape, Motif, offers precise dosing, is rechargeable and uses magnetic pods, as opposed to threaded cartridges. The extraction process allows the oil to retain all of its natural terpenes, leaving each pod free of additives and containing only oil extracted from the highest quality flower.

The Benefits of Staying Small and Giving Back

With a staff size of 60 people, and operating only within the state of New York, Etain definitely falls into the small business category. The Peckham women believe this has some benefits. "I think in some ways it’s given us the ability to be more nimble and flexible. We all have the same goals and we work really hard," commented CEO Amy Peckham.

Not only does Etain keep it small, but it aims for equity in the workplace.

“We’ve made it a priority of ours to give opportunities for the advancement and inclusion of women. For example, in the manufacturing facility, we’re focused on trying to get women back into the workplace after having kids. About 70% of our management is women and 65% of our entire company is made up of females,” said Hillary, who herself recently gave birth.

Etain operates its cultivation and manufacturing out of Chesterton, has dispensaries in Yonkers, Kingston, Syracuse and a flagship in Midtown East, New York City. And as one of only 10 companies in the state with a license to manufacture and distribute medical marijuana, Etain is well positioned for the inevitable growth toward federal legalization.

Keep an ear out for new releases coming from the company soon, including limited edition colors and accessories for its Motif vapes, new strains of ground flower and an upcoming location announcement in Kingston, New York.

Find out more about Etain’s story, brands and products at https://etainhealth.com/.

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