Shangri-La aims to sell cannabis for 30% less in 2026

NORWALK, Conn. — The cannabis purveyor that controls two-thirds of the city’s recreational market aims to bring major price reductions in 2026 that may resonate throughout Connecticut.

Shangri-La operates adult-use dispensaries at 75 Connecticut Ave., 430 Main Ave., and others in Waterbury and Plainville. With a Stratford cultivation facility to grow cannabis flower that will be operational around August, president Kepal Patel said, and a Waterbury manufacturing plant to open shortly after in the fall, the national cannabis company will soon gain a powerful strength in Connecticut’s adult-use market.

By early 2026, Patel said, Shangri-La will have control of its entire cannabis supply chain in the Nutmeg State. This vertical integration will undoubtedly lower prices next year for its Norwalk cannabis consumers and those across the state. 

“We’d be able to reduce prices by (about) 30 percent,” Patel said.

With in-house supply chain control on the horizon, Shangri-La aims to pass benefits to the state’s consumers, who Patel said have been paying “outrageous” prices for cannabis goods.

Growing pains

Seven micro-cultivators and 14 cultivators have current or provisional active licenses, according to April 27 license records documented on the Connecticut Open Data Portal, the repository for its agencies’ public data. It is not immediately clear from the data how many of them are operational and producing cannabis flower.

“Connecticut is unfortunately very expensive,” Patel said. “The flower prices of an eighth (of an ounce) are going anywhere from $40 to $70, which is extremely high.”

And with 47% of the retail dollars spent on cannabis goods in the adult-use market, purchasing cannabis flower, according to the data portal, costs from cultivation are passed to consumers quickly.

“We have to purchase product from current facilities that are operating right now,” Patel said. “With having our own, we’ll have much more control over reducing that price. And that is the No. 1 goal.”

Shangri-La has completed the first phase of construction on the Waterbury manufacturing facility, which is starting to produce gummies and vape cartridges, Patel said.

Construction on the cultivation site is set to close out in August to begin the company’s first harvest of cannabis flower, he said. That flower will be ready to go to market and for use to make other goods in the manufacturing plant by early 2026, when Patel said Shangri-La consumers will begin to pay a third less for the company’s goods.

Market impacts

While Patel said he couldn’t speak to how other cannabis companies in Connecticut are managed, he said Shangri-La’s price adjustments may have an impact.

“A general trend in any industry is that when someone lowers the price or someone makes it more affordable, the competition reacts to it,” he said.

Regardless, the Shangri-La president said the company is focused on its consumers and providing them with a variety of “affordable, good quality” products. 

“Whether that brings down the prices, I think prices are unfair right now,” Patel said. “Bringing them down will also open more consumers to be loyal to Connecticut.”

The Stratford cultivation site is anticipated to produce 1,000 pounds of flower each month in operation, according to a Shangri-La statement, which Patel estimated will amount to 10% to 12% of the adult-use and medical flower produced each month in Connecticut.

“There are only a few cultivators that are currently up and running, there’s not enough SKUs, not enough different products to meet the demands of the consumers,” the Shangri-La president said.

Patel’s anticipated cost reductions would bring a $40 eighth-ounce to $28 and a more premium $70 eighth-ounce to about $49.