When Illinois took the plunge and legalized medical marijuana in 2013, restaurateur George Archos decided he would get in on the ground floor.
Archos, who grew up in the family restaurant business, had already opened several successful Wildberry Pancake and Cafe locations in Chicago and the suburbs, and was convinced his hospitality experience would serve him well in the nascent cannabis industry.
The budding entrepreneur has since turned Chicago-based Verano from a pipe dream into one of the largest publicly traded cannabis companies in the country. And he still owns seven Chicago-area restaurants.
“I love the restaurant business, and everything that I’ve learned in the restaurant industry is directly applied to our success in the cannabis industry,” Archos, 46, said during a recent interview at Verano’s new Chicago headquarters.
One maxim has certainly applied to both businesses: you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.
From opening the first cannabis cultivation facility in the state more than a decade ago to building a vertically integrated company that ranks third in retail sales nationally, Archos has surmounted myriad regulatory and operational hurdles.
But as the industry matures, there are new challenges, with cannabis sales in the U.S. and Illinois declining last year for the first time in the era of regulated markets. Like many companies, Verano is facing pricing pressure, declining revenue and a falling stock price. And it has yet to turn a profit.
Archos remains bullish, however, on a cannabis unicorn that started as a side hustle.
“We have the people, we have the processes, we have the product.” Archos said. “We’re on the path, and I believe in this plant.”
In the 30 years since California approved the use of medical marijuana through Proposition 215, legal weed has spread across the states, while remaining illegal at the federal level.
Recreational marijuana is legal in 24 states and medical marijuana has the green light in 40 states, with Texas the latest to approve its sale last year. The total legal cannabis market generated about $30 billion in retail sales in 2025, according to industry data.
Illinois became the 20th state to authorize medical marijuana operations in 2013. It legalized recreational marijuana at the beginning of 2020.
In the summer of 2014, Archos sought one of 22 medical marijuana cultivation licenses, finishing up his application with an all-nighter and driving to Springfield to hand-deliver it by the deadline. The state granted Archos a license in February 2015 to grow marijuana in Albion, a tiny community in southeastern Illinois.
Backed by family and friends, Archos bootstrapped the startup cannabis operation, originally called Ataraxia, and began building a 52,000-square-foot indoor facility “in the middle of a cornfield,” he said.
Archos then brought his chefs and restaurant managers with him to visit cannabis operations in Colorado to learn the ropes of the business, from growing to processing to retail.
“I took the grow side as my piece,” Archos said, assuming the dual roles of CEO and inaugural cannabis cultivator.
In July 2015, Ataraxia received state authorization to begin growing marijuana, becoming the first operational cannabis cultivation facility in Illinois. The company formed a partnership to open the state’s first dispensary in nearby Effingham.
Since then, the rechristened Verano has grown exponentially to 160 dispensaries under the Zen Leaf and MUV banners and 15 production facilities across a 13-state footprint, with 3,900 employees nationwide.
Florida is Verano’s largest market with 83 MÜV medical cannabis dispensaries. Verano has 10 Zen Leaf dispensaries in the Chicago area and the downstate cultivation facility, which has been expanded to 200,000 square feet.
But Verano’s business has lost some financial ground in recent years.
In 2024, Verano generated $879 million in revenue, down from more than $938 million the previous year, according to the most recent published annual report. The company, which saw a nearly 7% revenue decline and a widening net loss through September, is expected to report its full-year 2025 earnings March 12.
When Verano went public in February 2021, it raised $100 million through an offering that valued the company at $2.9 billion, trading under the ticker symbol VRNO on the Canadian Securities Exchange.
The stock, which traded upwards of $30 per share when it went public five years ago, fell into penny stock territory last year and currently trades at about $1.40 per share on Cboe Canada, giving the company a market cap of about $380 million in U.S. dollars.
While Archos sees potential revenue catalysts in the next two years for Verano, reaching profitability may take more time.
The expected launch of adult-use cannabis sales in Virginia may boost revenue for Verano this year, while approved medical cannabis sales in Texas will open up new revenue opportunities for the company in 2027, Archos said. But the company will likely invest significant capital to launch the business, further deferring profitability, Archos said.
“When you tack on a Texas and you win a license with 30-plus million people, we might spend a quarter billion dollars there building out,” Archos said. “So it’s hard to pin a profitability date when we have so many opportunities ahead of us, we have to keep reinvesting in the business.”
More broadly, the cannabis industry is facing headwinds, but the climate may be improving.
Last year, recreational cannabis sales in Illinois fell by 12.5% to $1.5 billion, according to a report by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. It was the first annual decline in sales since the state legalized recreational marijuana in January 2020.
Nationally, marijuana sales declined by $1 billion in 2025, according to Beau Whitney, chief economist at Whitney Economics, an Oregon-based cannabis research firm.
“Practically every state has an oversupply of cannabis at the raw material level, at the cultivation level, and because there’s so much supply, then it’s driving down prices,” Whitney said.
The sale of intoxicating hemp products has also tamped down legal cannabis sales, Whitney said.
The legal cannabis market dispensed $30.9 billion in adult-use and medical products last year, or about a third of the total $96 billion in THC sales across the U.S., according to the BDSA Market Forecast. The illegal cannabis market remained the largest segment at $40.1 billion, while intoxicating hemp accounted for $21.8 billion. But those hemp sales may soon go up in smoke.
The intoxicating hemp market was created by the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed hemp with low THC concentrations from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act. But manufacturers found a way to develop hemp-derived intoxicating products that packed enough punch to become a convenience store alternative to cannabis.
Last year, Congress closed the loophole, which is expected to dry up the intoxicating hemp market as of November. That could create new upside for the legal cannabis market to fill at least some of the void beginning in 2027.
“We think ‘27 is going to be a good story, with hemp shutting down, or at least being limited and regulated the right way, as we are,” Archos said.
Federal rescheduling could also boost the bottom line for Verano and other cannabis companies.
In December, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Attorney General to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III in the Controlled Substances Act. That would dramatically ease the federal tax burden on cannabis companies, which currently cannot deduct the costs of selling their products.
If rescheduling is enacted, it is projected to save Verano $80 million per year in taxes alone, Archos said.
“It’s a huge difference for us right now,” Archos said. “It’s a real number.”
Rescheduling may also lead to improved banking access for cannabis companies and the ability to be listed on U.S. exchanges.
Verano and Chicago-based competitors Green Thumb and Cresco Labs — three of the largest multistate operators — all trade on Canadian exchanges because marijuana is still a federally controlled substance.
Being classified as an illegal substance presents other challenges for cannabis companies, from being unable to offer credit card purchasing at dispensaries to difficulties leasing office space.
Verano encountered the latter when it outgrew its River North office and began looking for new space for its Chicago headquarters several years ago. Some building owners were unable to get banking approval for a lease with a federally “illegal” business.
In August 2023, Verano moved into the fourth floor of a new building on Hill Street in the Near North neighborhood, choosing Old Town Park by Canadian developer Onni to get a 12-year lease for its headquarters.
Verano was the first office tenant in the building, occupying 25,000 square feet in the mixed-use complex, which includes an adjacent 41-story apartment tower.
The bright industrial space features an open floor plan, meeting rooms and whimsical art on the walls, including a living Verano sign made of green plants – not the smoking kind. About 100 workers spanning finance, marketing, real estate and research keep the office hopping on a daily basis.
Archos occupies a corner office with huge windows overlooking the “L” tracks, where trains rumble by regularly, creating a classic Chicago backdrop for guiding the cannabis company.
One room serves as an incubator, where the latest marketing designs are tested out, including a new sniff jar to give customers a whiff of their flower before buying. Verboten in Illinois, it has yet to launch in any Verano market.
“This is our sandbox for things that we want to do in retail,” said Robert Cohen, executive vice president of retail strategy at Verano. “And then we turn around and talk to the compliance team on what can we do, where.”
Last year, Verano introduced bodega-style shopping at Zen Leaf dispensaries in Arizona, which allows customers to grab products off the shelf in a more hands-on retail shopping experience, Cohen said.
But it will likely take more than sniff jars to boost stagnant revenue and investor interest in the cannabis industry.
“This is kind of a make-or-break period for marijuana in the United States right now,” Whitney said. “Because of the uncertainty and the lack of progress of cannabis reform, and all of this uncertainty caused by the hemp industry, investors are not as interested in the U.S. market.”
Archos, who now primarily lives in Florida with his family, including two teenage children, maintains a residence in Chicago to manage his businesses.
After nurturing Verano from startup seedling to unicorn, Archos is hopeful the marijuana industry is finally ready for federal reform, ushering in a new era of medical research, expansion and profitability. But he is prepared to lead his work family into the future, whatever that may bring.
“We’re supporting each other, even through the tough times and this cannabis roller coaster ride,” he said. “There’s been plenty of tough moments and tough times, but I feel like we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
