A New Jersey Cannabis Company Gives Employees 100% Ownership

New Jersey’s cannabis industry just saw a move that could quietly change everything.

S1 Enterprises, the parent company behind Illicit (one of the state’s most recognizable cannabis brands) has completed the largest employee ownership transition in U.S. cannabis history.

Through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), every one of its 500+ employees now owns the company outright.

Employees Now Own The Entire Cannabis Company

This isn’t profit-sharing, by the way. It isn’t stock options, either. Nope, employees didn’t buy in.

S1 actually transferred 100% ownership of the company to its workforce at no cost to them. As the business grows, so do employees’ retirement accounts as they’re directly tied to the company’s value.

In an industry where wealth typically flows upward to the founders, investors, and private equity contributors, this is a major shift.

Cannabis workers usually earn hourly wages while taking on the risk of working in a federally illegal industry with limited long-term security. S1 just flipped that equation.

This Is HUGE For New Jersey’s Weed Industry

This means that the people doing the day-to-day work now benefit when the company succeeds. That’s rare in this particular industry. Honestly, it’s almost unheard of at the scale they’re doing it, too.

New Jersey’s legal marijuana market is one of the fastest-growing in the country. That means others here in the industry are watching closely.

It’s Basically A New Exit Strategy

Most cannabis companies are stuck waiting for federal legalization to sell or go public.

If S1’s model proves sustainable, it could change how New Jersey cannabis businesses think about ownership, growth, and exits… and who actually gets to share in all the wealth.