Carpinteria’s Pacific Stone Looks to 4/20/22

Cannabis Company Optimizes Technology, Maintains Large Market Share

With the unofficial cannabis holiday of April 20 — better known as 4/20 — coming up on Wednesday, it seems like a good time to check in with Pacific Stone, one of Santa Barbara County’s most successful cannabis brands. Founded by the Van Wingerden family in 2015, this greenhouse-based operation in Carpinteria quickly rose to prominence in the California legal cannabis market. Their indica-hybrid flower Wedding Cake currently sits at positions two (for the 3.5-gram package) and four (for 7 grams) on industry analyst Headset’s list of top-selling flowers in the state. In a November 2021 press release, Pacific Stone reported winning three categories — Top Selling Flower, Top Selling Pre-roll, and Fastest Growing Pre-roll — in another annual industry ranking, the LeafLink List.

On a recent rainy Monday morning, Pacific Stone CEO Skip Motsenbocker was at one of the company’s facility. He and SVP for marketing Angela Cheng described some of the new products Pacific Stone will be shipping in time for 4/20/22. After a fascinating tour of the farm, which included seeing hundreds of the company’s new, state-of-the-art odor-control devices, each bigger than your refrigerator and costing as much as a new Honda Civic, we sat down in the conference room. That’s where I heard about new diamond-infused pre-rolls and a “high-end” flower collection, each of which caters to a specific niche in the expanding and multifaceted cannabis market. There’s also a new 14-gram pouch that allows customers to purchase two different strains while complying with the state’s one-ounce purchasing limit.