With plans to increase its annual capacity to 8 tonnes of dry flowers in the near future, the Macedonian company Sinceritas is doubling down on its mission to improve patient health and provide relief with its high-quality, safe and effective medicinal cannabis products. The company’s pharmaceutical-grade cultivation and production activities are built on a foundation of quality, standardisation, predictability and expertise. Grodan provides all this and more, and has been supporting Sinceritas as a reliable partner from the very beginning.

Sinceritas was founded by Robert Noveski in Rosoman, North Macedonia, in late 2017. After almost two decades of working in finance, he was keen to start his own business and turned his attention to the pharmaceutical industry. “Robert spotted an opportunity when Macedonia legalised the licensed cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes in 2016,” explains Hristina Litovin, chief operating officer (COO), who has been with the company since the early days. “But he also realised that the local market was small, and we needed to export to achieve real success. Therefore, from the outset, he ensured that our facility and all our processes were designed to comply with the strictest European and international industry standards, including EUGMP, national GMP, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 50001, ISO 22301 and GACP.”

Meeting quality demands

“These standardised processes and procedures are crucial for us because our pharmaceutical customers require our dry flowers to be of consistently high quality,” says Angel Stojanov, agricultural engineer. He joined Sinceritas in July 2024, bringing experience in cannabis cultivation combined with a deep understanding of quality standards and systems.

“Various critical parameters influence product quality, but it all starts in the cultivation phase. If something goes wrong there, there is nothing we can do in the dry-flower processing phase to improve it,” he adds. The company constantly has over 10,000 plants in cultivation – whether in one of the five mother rooms, three veg rooms or eight flowering rooms – so the stakes are high.

A strong start

Reflecting the importance of getting all clones and plants off to the strongest possible start, Sinceritas set out to find the best substrate supplier. Hristina met Grodan at a cannabis event. “The company made not only a good first impression, but also a lasting impression thanks to having the most professional approach,” states Hristina. “We tested cubes and blocks from other producers, but the consistent quality of Grodan’s stone wool products stood out from the start, and we have worked with them ever since.”

Grodan’s consistent, dependable and uniform substrates make a big contribution to the predictability of Sinceritas’ own processes. “We work with a very precisely controlled 12-month cultivation plan,” comments Hristina. “Because we know exactly when the maximum cannabinoid concentration will occur per strain, we can predefine the harvesting times. This removes ad-hoc decision-making and enables us to optimally streamline our operations.”

Phase-driven steering

“To achieve this, we work with very specific strategies for each growing stage of the plant,” Angel adds. “The fact that Grodan substrates have no buffer capacity means we can steer precisely by measuring the WC%, EC and pH within the substrate to monitor nutrient uptake and optimise the fertiliser solution.”

“By then managing the dry-back periods and irrigation start/stop times in combination with lights on/off, based on specific WC% setpoints, we can encourage either more or less stretching as desired, depending on whether the crop is in the veg stage or the flowering stage. This also gives us precise control over the cannabinoid content in the final flowering phase,” continues Angel.

“Additionally, we want to achieve homogeneous quality across each batch. Grodan’s stone wool growing media help us do that, because we know that each cube or block is identical. There is no need for us to tailor our approach, because all the plants in a room – sometimes as many as 600 – will behave the same,” he says.

Perfect fit for clean rooms

Besides quality, purity is also paramount at Sinceritas because the pharmaceutical industry demands very high standards of hygiene. “Grodan’s products are a perfect fit for our clean rooms because they provide a clean start. Stone wool is the only medium that enables us to stay within the tight microbiological limits of the UK, for example.”

“Moreover, we know the substrates contain no insects or microorganisms that could bring infestations into our facility,” Angel explains. “This is particularly important for us because we work with chemical-free pest control methods only, based on preventive use of biologicals.”

Labour-saving solution

Stone wool has an added advantage, according to the agricultural engineer: it saves labour. “Because of its firmer texture, stone wool doesn’t leave so much debris on the benches, meaning we can complete our strict daily cleaning protocols faster without compromising on hygiene. And as well as saving time during cleaning, the compactness of Grodan’s cubes means there is more space around the plants on the table, making crop maintenance easier.”

Alternative way of thinking

In addition to valuing the quality of the substrates themselves, Sinceritas also places a high value on the technical support provided by Grodan. “In the early days, Ben and his colleagues helped us implement precision growing on an industrial scale, advising on topics such as dry-back and developing the irrigation schedule together,” says the COO.

“Nowadays, Ben visits us several times per year and we can always contact him if we have any questions in between,” states Angel. “He often shares interesting news and scientific articles with us, or details of Grodan’s research across other crops. We find this very beneficial, because it sets us thinking about alternative steering approaches for cannabis too.”

Market growth

The company has roughly trebled its production capacity over the years and is currently able to produce five tonnes of dry flowers annually. “Our biggest market is Germany, where we have our own sales office for flowers and extracts, and have recently started selling under our own brand rather than through white-label production only,” says Angel. “Our other main market is the UK, where we have also launched our own brand and are working to strengthen our position.”

Besides growing these existing markets, Sinceritas also expects to extend its export activities to new markets ranging from Poland and the Czech Republic to Malta and even Australia in the near future. In anticipation of this extra growth, the facility is currently being expanded to take the annual dry-flower production capacity to eight tonnes by the end of 2026.

The key to scaling up

Standardisation holds the key to enabling the company’s expansion, according to Hristina. “We have standardised ways of working, clear procedures, and consistent production supported by dependable partners like Grodan. This solid foundation makes it easier to scale up, both now and in the future,” concludes Hristina.