How Andy Joseph Became Central Ohio's Marijuana Pioneer
Inside Apeks Supercritical’s new 30,000-square-foot Johnstown facility, 45 employees bustle, building CO2-powered botanical oil extraction machines and all their components from, basically, the ground up. Welders hunched over metal tubes, sparks spraying, connect and smooth the parts. Employees make sense of tangled colored wires to power the machine. An R&D area is used to find innovations that will keep making Apeks extractors even better. Large wooden crates are built in-house and stored on towering shelves waiting to hold the precious cargo.
Two German Shepherds, Nela and Gero, trot through the building at Andy Joseph’s heels.
Apeks this summer moved from a 17,000-square-foot facility, but its beginning was far more humble—in a pole barn on founder and CEO Andy Joseph’s property back when he still thought the California clients contacting him actually wanted to extract “lavender” oil. Fast forward and Apeks is projected to generate $24 million in sales this year, doubling its 2018 revenue, which comes primarily from cannabis companies. It is known as a company that has built and distributed more CO2 extraction systems than any other company in the world. Joseph also launched Ohio Grown Therapies LLC, which is a grow operation that soon will be housed in the 17,000-square-foot space, and a cannabis dispensary in Newark.
It’s come a long way.