CT’s 1st Cannabis Equity Joint Venture Partnership Cannabis Retailer

MANCHESTER, CT, Feb 13, 2023 –Fine Fettle-Manchester, Connecticut’s first Cannabis Social Equity Joint Venture Cannabis Retailer, will open its doors to adult-use cannabis purchasers on Feb. 17, 2023. It will be located on 91 Hale Road, Manchester. It will be the state’s first and only recreational-only cannabis retailer in the state. There will be a ribbon-cutting with community leaders right before the store opens at 9:00 a.m. It will be open until 8:00, Mondays through Saturdays and 10:00-6:00 on Sundays.

Social Equity Joint Venture Cannabis Retailer licenses were granted by Connecticut’s Social Equity Council to make sure the adult-use cannabis program grows equitably, and that the funds from the adult-use cannabis program are brought back to the communities hit hardest by the "war on drugs." These equity joint venture partnerships were a novel program built by Connecticut’s legislature to partner those from such communities and experienced operators to build the future of cannabis businesses in Connecticut. In addition, Fine Fettle built a robust Workforce Development Plan and Social Equity Plan to create job opportunities in this new and budding industry and give back to areas of Manchester and Hartford County with increased arrest records for low-level drug offenses that would not incur such penalties today. Fine Fettle – Manchester’s CEO, Kennard Ray, is just such an individual. After spending time in prison for drug and gun-related convictions when he was younger, Ray founded and became co-Director of the Full Citizens Coalition, an organization committed to civic engagement and the restoration of voting rights to ex-felons and convicts. Ray has been a community leader in Hartford and around Connecticut for years. Ray and his other partners have deep ties with Fine Fettle’s leadership, going back over two decades.

“To have this retail location open so quickly after adult-use cannabis sales began in Connecticut is a testament to our state’s focus on an equitable future of this industry. Being homegrown and local has allowed us to move swiftly through this process and create an enormous opportunity for our team and the type of community where I grew up,” Ray notes. “We are thankful for a legislature, Social Equity Council, and regulatory body in the Department of Consumer Protection that is so focused on equity. We are proud to be first and carry that torch. Connecticut is leading the way.”

Visitors to Fine Fettle Manchester will be greeted by an 8 X 10-foot mural celebrating the community’s diverse population by local muralist Jillian Goeler. The Canton-based illustrator and founder of Jag Ink Studio is known for happy, relatable, whimsical designs filled with retro typography and images of everything from musical theater and dogs to living green and pop culture.

The Manchester retailer is Fine Fettle’s fourth location in the state. Their other Connecticut locations in Newington, Willimantic and Stamford opened their doors as hybrid dispensaries, serving both medical patients and adult-use customers, on January 10, 2023. All these locations were already established as medical dispensaries, first opening in 2018. Fine Fettle also recently receive unanimous approval by Bloomfield’s planning and zoning commission to build a nearly 46,000-square-foot cannabis cultivation facility, after it was approved as a Disproportionate Impact Area cultivator by the Social Equity Council and Department of Consumer Protection.

About Fine Fettle

About Fine Fettle is a medical and adult use cannabis operator with four retail locations in Connecticut and two in Massachusetts. The company also plans to open in Georgia. For more information go to finefettle.com.

Media Contact

Ben Zachs

bzachs@finefettle.com

(860)490-0359