Business Overview: Jushi Holdings Inc. (OTCQX: JUSH)

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Executive Summary

Jushi Holdings Inc. is a vertically integrated, multi-state cannabis operator (MSO) headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, with retail, distribution, cultivation, and processing operations across eight U.S. states. Jushi was founded in 2018 and built its footprint largely through acquisitions of limited-license and early-stage medical markets, most notably in Pennsylvania and Virginia, before expanding into adult-use states such as Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, California, and Ohio.

The company operates 42 retail dispensaries (as of year-end 2025) under its own brands and licenses, supported by cultivation and processing facilities it owns in several of its core states. Jushi matters as a case study in the U.S. cannabis industry's structural handicap: it runs a real, scaling, multi-hundred-million-dollar revenue business, yet remains unprofitable and cash-constrained because federal illegality (and the resulting Section 280E tax treatment, lack of interstate commerce, and limited access to bank financing) suppresses margins and inflates the cost of capital for every state-licensed operator, Jushi included.

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1. Core Business Model & How They Work

Jushi makes money the way a vertically integrated consumer-packaged-goods retailer would, compressed entirely within individual state borders because cannabis cannot cross state lines. It cultivates and processes cannabis in states where it holds cultivation licenses, manufactures its own branded products, and sells both its own brands and third-party products through its retail dispensary network and to wholesale/other retail accounts.

 [Cultivation]        [Processing/Mfg]        [Retail Dispensaries]
  Indoor/outdoor  ➡️    Extraction,       ➡️      Jushi-branded stores
  grow facilities       edibles, vapes,          (owned real estate/
  (PA, NV, OH, VA,      pre-rolls under          leased retail)
  MA)                   in-house brands
        |                      |                         |
        |                      ▼                         ▼
        |              [Wholesale/B2B]  ➡️      [Third-Party Retail
        |               Bulk flower &              Accounts]
        |               branded products
        ▼                sold to other
  [Vertical Margin        licensed retailers
   Capture within
   each state]

Because cannabis is federally illegal, Jushi cannot deduct ordinary business expenses under IRC Section 280E, cannot use interstate banking/credit normally, and must build a separate cultivation/processing footprint in nearly every state it retails in — a structural cost disadvantage relative to any normal multi-state retailer.

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2. Business Segments

Jushi does not report multiple formal financial segments; its single cannabis operating model is expressed through geographic state markets, each combining retail, cultivation, and processing to different degrees:

                    Jushi Holdings Inc.
                            |
   -------------------------------------------------------------
   |            |            |          |         |           |
Pennsylvania  Virginia    Nevada       Ohio     Illinois   California/
(largest       (medical,   (retail +    (retail+  (adult-   Massachusetts
 medical       cultivation  cultivation  processing) use,    (adult-use
 market;       & processing & processing)           cult/proc) retail +
 18 of 42       hub)                                            Lakeville, MA
 dispensaries)                                                  processing)

• Pennsylvania is Jushi's largest market by store count (18 of 42 dispensaries), anchored by a 123,000 sq. ft. cultivation/processing facility in Scranton serving the state's medical-only market.
• Virginia combines six medical dispensaries with a 93,000 sq. ft. cultivation/processing facility in Manassas; pending state legislation could convert this into an adult-use market, a meaningful potential catalyst.
• Nevada, Ohio combine retail with in-state cultivation/processing (Sparks/Reno in Nevada; Toledo/Columbus in Ohio).
• Illinois, California, Massachusetts are primarily adult-use retail markets, with a processing facility in Lakeville, Massachusetts.

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3. Product Portfolio

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4. Competitive Landscape

• Large multi-state operators (MSOs): Trulieve, Curaleaf, Verano, and Green Thumb Industries compete directly for retail share and limited-license acquisitions in overlapping states (notably Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio); these competitors generally have larger scale, more capital, and lower-cost balance sheets than Jushi.
• Local/independent dispensaries: Smaller, single-state operators compete on local relationships and price in adult-use markets like Illinois and California.
• Illicit market: Unlicensed cannabis sales and, increasingly, intoxicating hemp-derived products sold outside the regulated cannabis system undercut licensed retailers on price in states without strong enforcement.
• Cultivation/processing competitors: Other MSOs and local growers compete on cost and quality in the same five states where Jushi grows.

            High Scale/Capital
                   |
   Trulieve •      |      • Curaleaf
   Verano   •      |      • Green Thumb
                   |
Low Price ---------+--------- Premium/Branded
                   |
   Illicit market •|      • Jushi (branded,
   / discount       |        limited-license
   operators        |        regional focus)
                   |
            Low Scale/Capital

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5. Strategic Strengths & Risks

Moat sources:

• Regulatory scarcity: Limited-license positions in Pennsylvania and Virginia (medical markets with capped license counts) are difficult and slow for new entrants to replicate, giving Jushi durable local market position in those states.
• Vertical integration: Owning cultivation and processing in most of its retail states captures margin that purely retail-focused competitors give up to third-party suppliers.
• Brand portfolio: A multi-tier branded product lineup (Hijinks, The Bank, Tasteology, Sèche, etc.) spans premium to value price points, helping defend share against both premium MSOs and the illicit market.

Named risks:

• Liquidity pressure: Jushi carries meaningful long-term debt (roughly $180–198 million in scheduled/gross principal in recent filings) against limited cash balances, and has a disputed ~$21.5 million promissory note obligation (the Sammartino notes) that is not currently repayable, creating real near-term liquidity risk.
• Section 280E tax burden: Federal illegality prevents normal expense deductions, structurally compressing net margins versus any comparable non-cannabis retailer.
• State-by-state regulatory/political risk: Virginia adult-use legalization remains pending gubernatorial action; any state's licensing or enforcement shifts can materially affect a concentrated, limited-state operator like Jushi.
• Price compression and illicit competition: Oversupply and falling wholesale flower prices in maturing adult-use markets (Illinois, California) pressure margins company-wide.

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6. Financial Overview

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7. Summary Conclusion

Jushi Holdings is a genuine, scaled cannabis retailer and vertically integrated producer with real competitive advantages in a handful of limited-license medical markets, most importantly Pennsylvania and Virginia, where regulatory scarcity functions as a moat that pure adult-use retailers lack. But those moats are bounded: Jushi remains persistently unprofitable on a GAAP basis, carries a heavy debt load against thin cash reserves, and operates in an industry where federal tax treatment (280E) and price compression in adult-use states erode the economics that would otherwise flow from vertical integration and branding. The single biggest forward risk is balance-sheet/liquidity strain — refinancing or repaying its debt load, including the disputed Sammartino notes — compounded by continued wholesale price erosion in its adult-use markets.