The Inspiring Success Story Behind Athena Products

Athena is a vertically integrated liquid and dry fertilizer manufacturer. Athena specializes in providing clean, balanced nutrients for cannabis cultivation. They provide commercial facilities the opportunity to work with one of their specialized facility advisors when implementing the Athena program in their facility.

Athena is available in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, Chile, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Portugal, and Macedonia and is currently in the top ten in revenue for cannabis nutrient companies globally. This makes it one of the most well-known nutrient lines in the cannabis industry due to its massive growth in a short amount of operating time and expansive knowledge.

Brandon Burkhart, the founder, and owner of Athena, has a background in cannabis cultivation, where he utilized and grew using a lot of other nutrient lines. Burkhart was tired of using dozens of different products in his feed program and the inconsistencies it caused throughout the growing process. He was inspired to create a simplified line that improves quality, reduces costs, and is well-balanced with fewer parts to be used.

Athena was a concept that was acted upon quickly once Burkhart partnered with one of the largest cultivators in California, Jungle Boys, back in 2018. This partnership allowed years of testing in the grow rooms located in Los Angeles to formulate Athena for the perfect run.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the business’s most significant setback. Athena’s business grew rapidly during 2020, a time when the receipt of raw material obtained from different parts of the world was greatly disrupted. Because of these disruptions, Athena had about two months’ worth of backorders on some products. From this, the company evolved its purchasing department and now consistently has enough raw materials to keep at least a three-month supply of nutrients in stock at any time.

Athena has invested heavily in production infrastructure, acquiring an additional production facility in Sacramento, California. As a continued and desired goal of achieving excellence in the industry, custom-made Murray and Doyle equipment has been purchased for blending both Athena lines. These new automated blending and packaging machines will greatly increase Athena’s production capacity. Upon completion in late Q2 2022, their two facilities will be capable of producing 2.5 million gallons of liquid fertilizer and 20 million pounds of dry fertilizer blends annually.

The products are available countrywide in all major hydroponics retailers in-store and online. Athena also works with NYSK Holdings, the only Macedonian and European producer of active pharmaceutical substance API and final pharmaceutical forms based on medical cannabis, including the physical-chemical laboratory licensed by the Polish General Pharmaceutical Inspectorate, which is one of the top European inspectorates.

Athena is always innovating and testing, and always looking for improvements that work better when running the Athena program, striving to be in the top three most used nutrient lines in the cannabis industry globally. Athena would like to have availability throughout the entire EU by the end of 2022. The Athena growth plan is also to have three to five new distributors internationally and launch six new products while still testing and developing more. Athena’s core principle is to formulate products that improve quality and consistency while reducing costs.