XTRACTOR DEPOT

“Having an honest approach to our business and helping our customers is our key to success.”

Founder & CEO Andrew Yoon

DURING THE GOLD RUSH, as so many intrepid fortune XTRACTOR seekers journeyed west to find the gold in them thar hills, their trailblazing softened the soil for entirely new sectors of the economy to sprout. Ancillary businesses popped up to support the endeavor and countless fortunes were made, not on striking gold, but on selling the equipment to furnish the seekers. It was such a novel and lucrative approach to capitalizing on the Gold Rush hype, it birthed a nickname for the segment of industry that exists to sell equipment to those seeking their fortune in a new, hype-driven sector – “selling the picks and shovels.” Fast forward to 2021, and California is once again the hub for another get-rich-or-bust movement: the Green Rush. And companies like Xtractor Depot are aiding the cause by selling the picks and shovels. DEPOT

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP-LEFT: Luis Martinez, a scientific glass blower, works on a glass distillation head in the glass blowing workshop; Stacie Smith, Assembly Lead, works on top manifold parts in the warehouse; The Xtractor Depot core values hang on the wall; Various extraction equipment rests in the Xtractor Depot showroom.

EARLY STAGES OF GROWTH

Xtraction Depot Founder and CEO Andrew Yoon knew he wanted to work in a Cannabis-related business at a fairly early age – his mission started when he was at university in St. Louis.

“In college, I had an import business, selling containers for oil and torches, and stuff like that,” Yoon said over a call in June. “It was called Butter Blocks. …

That kind of brought me out to California, meeting a bunch of people in the industry.”

Once he got to Cali, he saw a need for more processors to handle the immense amount of cannabinoid-laden biomass coming out of the state’s renowned cultivation sector. Yoon immediately expanded beyond packaging and implements and went to work building out an extraction facility.

It was then, during the buildout phase, that he saw the true opportunity in front of him.

“During that equipment search, I realized that nobody was doing this professionally, and the person that I bought my system from was doing it out of his garage,” he said. “... The system was missing all kinds of parts, and it was a nightmare experience.”

Naturally, the savvy entrepreneur saw the opportunity to fill that niche.

STRONG GROWTH PATTERNS

Yoon founded Xtractor Depot in 2016 and began building out the equipment supply chain in order to help would-be extractors avoid the negative experience he had when setting up his own lab.

“It was a segue from being an extractor to being an extractor provider, providing the equipment,” he said.

Now he operates significantly sized brick and mor- XTRACTORDEPOT.COM

tars, including locations in San Bernardino and Montebello. He focuses on equipment engineering and supply, and has an in-house glass fabrication division. Yoon also maintains a licensed toll-processing extraction facility in the regulation-heavy jurisdiction of Long Beach to keep the extraction side of his business moving.

“That has helped us develop a better understanding of what the most stringent jurisdictions are going to require, and create a robust process,” Yoon said. “So, when the customer is setting up their lab, it isn’t going to be a confusion of red tape.”

SETTING UP FOR SUCCESS

Yoon understands that the best path to future stability, for the industry and for his company, is to help ensure that his clients celebrate recurrent successes and healthy growth. Rather than simply selling equipment, Yoon’s team consults with extractors on their business plans, their scaling models, and their visions for the future.

“Helping the clients develop a clear vision for their business is one of the key objectives of the business,” Yoon said. Are clients looking to build their own brands? Are they looking to get into toll processing, creating customized bulk product to sell to those who want to build their own brands? These are the types of top-level questions Xtractor Depot looks to help clients answer before drilling down into their capital investment, market research and other aspects of their business plans. With all-in buildouts getting up into the seven-figure range, and equipment-only orders ranging from $200-$500k, it’s crucial to ensure that customers are ready to swim once they jump in. “That will be the key information that we need on our end to provide the right type of equipment,” Yoon said. Xtractor Depot isn’t simply trying to sell each client whatever they can pile on. Their goal is for their customers to succeed, so they can keep the relationships going. Yoon invests in building his industry knowledge in order to pass it on to his clients. “The people in this industry will tell you what you need to do to succeed,” he said. “You just have to engage with them and be knee-deep in it to be successful.” “Having an honest approach to our business and helping our customers is our key to success,” he said. “… They don’t (always) struggle with manufacturing the product. It’s more so the distribution and sales of all this product. Do we have a market for all that product we’re going to make?”

The way Yoon sees it, selling the picks and shovels is the perfect way to help the greater industry succeed, while building his own success at the same time. Just like the Gold Rush, it’s a hard path to success and for every gold strike, there’s someone who struck out.

“A lot of people come into the market with money and no knowledge at all,” Yoon said. “We’re trying to educate our clients, so that they can stay afloat.”