Verano Holdings Corp. is a vertically integrated cannabis operator headquartered at 224 W. Hill Street in Chicago. It grows, manufactures, wholesales and sells at retail under the Zen Leaf and MÜV dispensary banners, with a portfolio of house brands behind the counter. George Archos co-founded Verano LLC in September 2017 and is founder, chairman and chief executive.
Its annual report counts 13 states, 160 retail dispensaries and 14 cultivation and processing facilities with more than 1.1 million square feet of cultivation capacity as of March 10, 2026. Second-quarter 2026 revenue reached $218 million, up 8% year over year.
From one Illinois grow license to 13 states
Archos entered cannabis in 2014, when he became the first of 21 Illinois medical license recipients cleared to grow. He came out of logistics and restaurants, coordinating freight operations and running restaurants before the plant.
Verano went public through a reverse takeover on February 11, 2021, which made it a Canadian reporting company. The operating map now covers Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Cannabis cannot cross state lines, so each market makes its own inventory under its own license.
Zen Leaf, MÜV and 86 Florida stores
Retail is the front door. By the second quarter of 2026 the company counted 163 locations, 86 of them in Florida, where the MÜV banner runs. That is three more doors than the 160 its annual filing counted on March 10, 2026. Two of those Florida stores opened that quarter: MÜV Miramar Beach took the count to 85 and MÜV Bradfordville to 86.
Zen Leaf carries the banner everywhere else. Vertical integration means Verano's own labels get shelf space in its stores while it also wholesales to third-party retailers. Virginia's adult-use market is scheduled to open on July 1, 2027, and Verano is already the operator in eastern Virginia.
Savvy, BITS, Avexia and the house labels
The product portfolio spans flower, concentrates, vapes, edibles, pre-rolls, topicals and now drinks. Verano's own releases list Verano, MÜV, Savvy, (the) Essence, BITS, Encore, Avexia, HYPHEN, Swift Lifts, CTPharma and Easy Landings.
Full-year 2025 revenue split roughly in half by program type: medical-use sales were about 53% of consolidated revenue and adult-use sales about 47%. That mix reflects Florida, Pennsylvania and other markets where only a medical program exists.
Swift Lifts pre-rolls and Easy Landings bottles
On January 14, 2026 Verano relaunched Swift Lifts as a national pre-roll brand in three counts: ten 0.35g Short Lifts, five 0.5g Swift Lifts and a single 1g Long Lift. It opened in Arizona, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Nevada, with Connecticut, Virginia and Florida named next.
Chief marketing officer David Spreckman tied the launch to growth in the pre-rolled joint category. On August 20, 2026 the company entered beverages with Easy Landings, its first dedicated drink brand, in 2-ounce bottles in Lemon Lime, Watermelon, Mango and Black Cherry meant to be drunk straight or mixed. It reached Arizona, Illinois and Nevada on August 21 through Zen Leaf and third-party partners, with New Jersey following on August 28.
Buying Cannabist's Arizona and Virginia arms
Verano has grown by purchase as well as by build. Its annual report lists the acquisitions of Salubrious Wellness Clinic, Inc. and 203 Organix LLC, branded together as Cannabist AZ, plus Columbia Care Eastern Virginia LLC. Those deals moved Cannabist assets in Arizona and eastern Virginia into Verano's licenses. The filing still lists Cannabist among the company's brand names, a holdover from those purchases.
The corporate shell moved too. On November 3, 2025 the company domesticated from British Columbia into Nevada, converting its dual-class shares to common stock one for one. On June 11, 2026 it completed a one-for-five reverse stock split, cutting issued shares from about 367.7 million to roughly 73.9 million, as part of its push toward a U.S. exchange listing. It trades as VRNO on Cboe Canada and OTCQX, after 20 business days under the temporary symbol VRNOD.
Chicago neighbors and the 2026 picture
Verano shares its home city with two other large operators, Cresco Labs and Green Thumb Industries, and it competes in Florida with Tallahassee-based Trulieve. The Chicago cluster gave Illinois an early concentration of multistate headquarters.
The second quarter of 2026 was the company's third consecutive quarter of revenue gains. Gross profit came in at $100 million on a 46% margin, adjusted EBITDA at $51 million, operating cash flow at $31 million, capital spending at $12 million and the net loss at $13 million. Archos called the quarter's growth organic. Two brand launches in eight months and two Florida store openings in one quarter say the same thing.
For adults 21 and over.