The Rise of the Mini Pre-Rolled Cone - Dogwalkers

Sometimes less is more.

In 2016, the brand Dogwalkers made a big splash in the cannabis market with a very small joint. They called them “dog walkers” because they were just big enough to smoke while out walking the dog.

Most pre-rolls available at the time were between 0.7 and 1 grams, which took too much time to smoke and were too powerful for light, occasional smokers. Dog walkers, also known as small-format pre-rolls or mini pre-rolls, changed the game up by using  70mm pre-rolled cones and filled them with only .25 to .35 grams, giving the perfect amount of puffs for the casual smoker.

Since then, Dogwalkers have become the Kleenex of the cannabis industry and now all small-format, mini pre-rolled joints are known simply as Dogwalkers.

Flash forward to 2020 and Fredrik Rading, our VP of sales here at Custom Cones USA, said we are still seeing solid demand from brands selling mini pre-rolls.

“We see consistent sales for the 70mm Dogwalker cones, as well as all kinds of multipack pre-roll packaging designed specifically for mini pre-rolls,” Rading said.

Why are mini pre-rolls rising in popularity?

Rading said the rise of small-format pre-rolls is simply a matter of economics.

Over the past five years, two things have happened. Firstly, the price of wholesale marijuana came down from a high of more than $2,000 per pound in 2015 to lows around $1,300 per pound in 2018 in adult-use states, according to  Cannabis Benchmarks, an independent price reporting agency. The market has only recently started to rebound with wholesale cannabis prices hovering around $1,600 per pound.

Secondly, new machines have increased the overall automation for harvesting, grinding, sifting, and packing for pre-roll joints and blunts, which has put downward pressure on manpower costs.

“As prices went down and automation went up, the per-unit value for small-format pre-roll went up, which is why this market segment has grown to be so popular,” Rading said.

Bringing down manpower costs

Pre-roll production takes a lot of manpower.

You have to trim and harvest the cannabis. Then you have to grind and sift the cannabis to get it ready for pre-roll packing. Once the pre-rolls are packed, you need to package and seal them into multipacks for sale.

Any machine automation in that process has the potential to substantially bring down manpower costs.

Rading said there are plenty of options on the market but the companies he deals with have seen success with the  Industrial Cannabis Grinder and Commercial Sifting Machine to deliver a high-quality grind for their pre-rolls.

Depending on the volume a business is doing, Rading said there are a couple different cone packing machines that greatly increase the number of pre-rolls produced, as well as increase the overall quality. For smaller companies and farms, Rading said the  Fast Fill 55/121 and the King Kone usually get the job done.

For larger scale operations, the  King Kone, the Knockbox, and the Sluice Box are more suitable. Mature brands that want the full CPG experience can step up to the Automated Pre-Roll Machine, as well as leverage packaging machines to create additional appeal.

Small-format packaging

Since these pre-rolls are smallers, the packaging world has adjusted to accommodate.

Rading said because pre-roll joints are small, brands are packaging several small-format pre-rolls together into multipacks. These multipacks allow manufacturers to essentially spread their packaging costs across multiple single units, which can make the final retail product even more economical for the business.

For example, Jeeters Mini Pre-Rolls put its splashy branding on a clear multipack jar of 10. Besitos Mini Pre-Rolls uses a custom metal tin to house a pack of 10 and SELFiES by Heshies has a plastic slider box containing 12 pre-rolls.

The demand for multipacks has been consistently strong, Rading said, and it looks like it will stay that way for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, Rading’s company Custom Cones USA carries a variety of multipack styles including jars/tubes, cigarette boxes, slider boxes, and custom metal tins.

“With our selection of multipacks and 70mm cones, we have everything you need to launch a small-format pre-roll line,” Rading said.