Heya Wellness: Coming Soon

Heya Wellness is a vertically-integrated cannabis company with operations in Saint Louis. The company was awarded a total of nine licenses, a cultivation facility, three manufacturing facilities, and five dispensaries.

Heya Wellness’s flagship facility is located in the heart of St. Louis County in St. Ann, Missouri. This facility is home to their cultivation operation, their 8,000 square foot manufacturing facility, and an on-site dispensary. Greenway chatted with the team at Heya Wellness, who told us that the city of St. Ann “has been incredibly welcoming, and we are excited to bring a new industry to the area and boost the local economy.”

Heya’s other two manufacturing facilities are located in Excello and just outside of Kirksville. Dispensaries are located in St. Peters, Park Hills, Eldon, and Kirksville.

“Our goal is to have full control over our entire supply chain to offer the safest, highest quality, and most consistent medical marijuana products available to meet a wide range of patient needs and preferences,” said board member Jeana Sellenschuetter. “By focusing on patients and doing right by them, we believe Heya Wellness will earn the reputation of being an industry leader in Missouri and be in the best position to bring the full benefits that the cannabis plant can offer to the state. Patients demand the safest and highest quality products, and Heya Wellness will deliver these products to the market.”

Heya Wellness has plans to offer a diverse range of products, including flower, pre-rolls, kief, and manufactured products such as concentrates, several vape options, edibles, and topicals. Heya is collaborating with Colorado-based cannabis company, marQaha, to bring their award-winning cannabis products to Missouri.

“The main goal of Heya Wellness was to build the most well rounded and experienced team possible. Which is why we combined forces with experts in the vertical cannabis industry,” said Lehnbeuter.

Heya Wellness will also offer its exclusive line of products to the Missouri market. Heya Wellness CEO Steve Meyer has deep roots in ethnobotany and a twenty-year-long career working in leading agriculture technology companies, shaping the face of modern agriculture. He has decided to make the switch to cannabis with the intent to normalize cannabis as medicine.

“No plant has been both more celebrated and admonished by society. I think people are starting to warm up to this plant and the benefits it can offer,” said Meyer. “We have bold goals to create a new evolution of cannabis and offer it first in Missouri, right in the heart of Ag Country. We have the technical ability, business acumen, and a passionate team to take this industry to new levels!”

At Heya Wellness, they do not believe in cutting corners that may impact quality, but rather, they plan to achieve best in class efficiency through rigorous process improvement philosophies such as Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma. When patients purchase Heya or marQaha products, Heya hopes they can rest assured they are getting the best quality and safety available.

“Cannabis is rapidly evolving to meet the medical needs and therapeutic uses of consumers globally,” said Skip Meador of Heya. “For marQaha, a cannabis product manufacturer, this means researching, designing, and producing products based on well-documented science coupled with proprietary methods to perform in a powerful and measured manner.”

Heya says they “anticipate our cultivation operation to begin by August, our manufacturing by October, and our dispensaries in the August/September timeframe. We are considering the potential to start operating the dispensaries even earlier as CBD-only dispensaries. We are exploring partnership opportunities with various CBD providers.”

The Heya team told Greenway that they have already identified the primary leaders of their operation and “anticipate staffing other key management roles over the next few months.”

   

The company says that the coronavirus has had a “nominal” impact on their plans.

“It has primarily been on our demolition schedule,” says Lehnbeuter. “We are working through the local governments to facilitate continued efforts in moving forward.”

The team also explained to Greenway that their “hands-on” and “face-to-face” approach of doing business has had to take a backseat to video and phone conferences. “Heya is prepared to work with the state to make the Missouri medical marijuana program as successful as possible, even under these difficult times.”

The company explains that one of their core beliefs is the value of education.

“Being an educator is a central pillar of who we are. Education must be inclusive and not only focus on patients and cannabis consumers, but also be extended to medical professionals, public policymakers, and the public in general. We plan to offer educational content through our own digital channels, through our dispensaries as well as third-party cannabis educational platforms. We also plan to host a variety of in-person classes, harnessing the power of people getting together and having an open dialogue.”

The Heya team describes themselves as “data-driven scientists” “striving to be a force multiplier in normalizing and destigmatizing this plant for everyone that wants to consume it responsibly. Taking a pro-cannabis stance will put us in the firing line for those that are against it, and we are willing to step into that position.”

“Perhaps the most compelling evidence supporting cannabis for medicinal use are the countless powerful personal testimonies on how this plant has improved people’s lives. It has freed people from the grips of heroin and oxycodone abuse and many patients are now effectively managing debilitating clinical conditions and living productive lives thanks to this plant,” Lehnbeuter said.

Heya Wellness has also appealed two cultivation licenses. The plan for the appealed licenses is to create high-tech greenhouse cultivation operations to be located in Excello and Kirksville. The team is hopeful the appeals are granted.

PHOTOS/PROVIDED

FEATURED/Jeana Sellenschuetter (board member), Ron Jordan (board member) and Mandy Lehnbeuter (advisory board member)

This feature is part of an ongoing series to introduce Greenway readers to operators.