The Potential Profit and ROI of a Live Rosin Press

Learn how one employee can make you $1,720 per day with one rosin press.

If you’re considering reaping the returns of a live rosin press, the math isn’t too hard. But how much money can you make pressing rosin? It depends on a few factors. If you’re a commercial grower though, the answer is a good one: “more money than you’re making right now.” Even sweeter, getting started can cost as little as a few pounds of flower.

So Why a Live Rosin Press?

Much to the horror of growers, a larger customer base hasn’t yielded larger profits. At least not in a one-to-one fashion. Like other expanding markets, cannabis has gotten competitive. Retail prices have dropped while labor and materials costs have stayed basically the same.

“Commoditization” is a hot buzzword. The national average price for wholesale flower dropped to $1,292 per pound in January of 2018. Depending on your market, it may be a lot worse than that. Growers in Colorado report an average per-pound price of $1,000 and lows dipping to $600. NorCal? Same story. Growers are getting between $900 and $1,200. Oregon has reported retail sales of $2 per gram, or about $900 per pound. Retail.

In response, growers are realizing the market for other products. National trends show consumers—especially new consumers—turning away from flower in favor of concentrates and edibles. But a lot of the paraphernalia you need to make those products—like CO2 extraction machines and post-processing equipment—require large investments and highly-trained staff. Rosin does not. See how easy it is to use a rosin press pressing Super Lemon Haze. With the extract market expanding and more people going solventless, quick-thinking growers are implementing rosin presses as a solution to low-priced flower.

How Expensive is it to Press Rosin?

Your rosin pressing setup will need filter bags, parchment paper and, of course, a rosin press and pump. These are fairly straightforward expenses; others are more variable…

The price of flower will be your largest and most flexible operating expense. Even if you’re growing what you’re pressing, it’s the full sale price of the flower that counts for calculating return on investment (ROI). The flower may have cost $300 per pound to grow, but if you were going to sell it for $1,000, that’s the real “out-of-pocket.” If you’re vertically integrated and selling directly to consumers, assessing ROI may be more complicated. But, for the sake of an ROI comparison, let’s just say you’re growing flower and wholesaling the rosin.

Time is the other significant expense. Aside from bulk flower, time is the most expensive part of rosin pressing and the most easily overlooked. Staff quality people for quality product. Rosin pressing isn’t difficult to learn but it takes practice and attentiveness. For maximum speed on a high-throughput rosin press like the Triminator TRP Stack, consider employing multiple technicians for the fastest results.

Rosin pressing expenses:
  •                  Bags ($2)
  •                  Parchment paper ($.50)
  •                  Flower or trim ($200-1,300)
  •                  Staffing ($20 per technician)

How Much Money can You Make Pressing Rosin?

Like a lot of questions, the answer is “it depends.” But let’s oversimplify for a minute:

  • Revenue per hour  — Cost of goods sold per hour  = Profit per hour

The biggest factors affecting revenue are the flower/trim quality and your percentage yield. The biggest factors affecting profit are the cost of the input material and the price of rosin in your market.

The Math

Start with two pounds of flower. Let’s say it’s good flower, testing at 22% THC, so it’s market value is $1,000 per pound, or $2,000 total. When it presses, you get most of the oil out—around a 19% yield by weight. That’s almost exactly 200 grams of rosin. At a price of $20 per gram, your 200 grams of rosin is worth $4,000.

So, you’ve expended $2,000 of flower to get $4,000 worth of rosin. But now you’ve got to pay your staff and restock supplies. Eight hours at $20 per hour is $160. Supplies like bags and parchment will cost about $10 per hour, or $80 for the eight-hour day.

$4,000 worth of rosin (from two pounds of flower)

  — $2,000 price of two pounds of flower

  — $280 supplies and staffing for an eight-hour day

= $1,720 profit per day

The Math (again)

Does it make sense to process lower quality flower? Yes—particularly if you were going to sell it dirt cheap anyway. Taking the trouble to kief or make bubble hash from your trim can definitely prove profitable.

For a second hypothetical, we start with $2,000 of trim (10 pounds). It tests at 10% THC. Let’s say the trouble of turning that 10 pounds of trim into kief or bubble hash costs you $45 of labor. But now you have nearly a pound of material testing much higher than 10% THC—something more like 70%.

  • 10 pounds of trim = $2,000
  • 10 pounds trim = 1 pound kief or bubble hash = 315 grams of rosin = $6,300 revenue

A pound of bubble hash will yield about 70% by weight because it’s much more potent and flows better. That’s 315 grams of rosin. And, at that $20/gram price, all expenses told, it’ll yield a profit of almost $4,000!

Pays For Itself With Maximized Rosin Press Yields

If you have an outlet to sell as much rosin as you press, the answer to the question of your rosin press ROI is “why don’t I own two presses?” The profit potential from a rosin press is tremendous, and the ROI time is usually less than a week—if you have lots of material to press and a reliable buyer.

Ultimately, local market conditions will determine the profit potential of your rosin press. Consider these three questions if you’re ballparking your ROI:

  • How much will you pay for input material?
  • How much will the buyer pay for rosin?
  • What volume of rosin can you sell consistently?

Expect to pay $3,000 to $6,000 for a quality rosin press and between $625 and $3,000 for the pump to put it into action.

  • Low-end setup: $3,625
  • High-end setup: $9,000
  • Per-day profit potential: $1,720

Given a $1,720-per-day profit potential, that’s an ROI time of just three to five days!

Ready for a rosin press? Checkout the world’s fastest press: the Triminator TRP Stack. Its double-plated design will give you the quickest return on investment of any live rosin press on the market today.

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