PreRoll-Er Reality Check: The Hidden Costs of a Free Automation Machine

PreRoll-Er Reality Check: The Hidden Costs of a Free Automation Machine

In the world of cannabis production, every dollar counts, and your choice of automation equipment can make or break your bottom line. With so many options on the market and the pressure to invest in automation, we know how easy it is to default to the cheapest offer.

However, this can make you prey to seemingly attractive offers, like “free” cannabis automation machines that charge per pre-roll produced. While these deals may sound enticing at first, they often lead to substantially higher production costs over time, steadily eating into profits and limiting your control over operations.

As a leader in cannabis automation, PreRoll-Er is dedicated to helping cannabis businesses invest in automation without sacrificing business profitability. In this blog, we’ll expose the economic realities of “pay-per-pre-roll” models versus investing in a high-quality machine that you own, explaining how a well-structured investment can reduce long-term costs, support scalability, and deliver faster returns.

The True Cost of Production Per Pre-Roll

The pay-per-roll model may seem like an easy way to access cannabis automation, but its true cost can be staggering. By paying per pre-roll produced, you’re essentially agreeing to a per-unit markup that increases production costs, decreases your margin, and ultimately reduces profits.

Put your economics hat on for a moment: even as your production volume and sales grow, so do your costs per unit. This structure makes it difficult to reach profitability because, instead of spreading the fixed cost of buying automation equipment over your entire output, you’re paying a premium on each pre-roll.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re running production at 1,200 units per hour, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 52 weeks per year; that’s nearly 2.5 million pre-rolls annually. Now, let’s say you pay $0.12 per pre-roll to your machine provider (on top of your other costs). This so-called “free” machine quickly adds up to almost $1.2 million over 4 years – and you still never own the equipment.

In other words, the pay-per-unit model increases your marginal cost significantly, draining resources that could be reinvested into your business. In contrast, owning a high-quality machine allows you to reduce costs as production scales, giving you the control to grow your profit margins rather than constantly sacrificing them.

The worst part about the pay-per-unit model is that by investing in automation – which should help you scale your business – you are actively creating diseconomies of scale, where costs increase with production rather than diminish.

Why Leasing or Buying Reduces Long-Term Costs

Buying a cannabis automation machine outright is a strategic investment that significantly reduces long-term costs. This structure means that, as your production scales, the cost per pre-roll decreases rather than remaining fixed, which maximizes profit margins.

With PreRoll-Er’s machines, this investment can often pay for itself in just weeks due to the increased production efficiency and high output capacity, which quickly offsets the initial cost. (Estimate how long it will take to make back your investment with our ROI Calculator.)

Unlike “free” machines that impose a per-unit charge and create long-term financial burdens, buying a machine from PreRoll-Er gives you full ownership of an asset that builds your business’s value over time.

Additionally, PreRoll-Er offers flexible payment plans to fit your budget and growth pace, empowering you to scale sustainably without unexpected or rising production costs. This ownership model is a long-term strategy that preserves cash flow, increases profit margins as you grow, and avoids the trap of paying indefinitely for equipment you’ll never fully own.

Choose the Right Cannabis Automation Machine for Sustainable Growth

As cannabis automation becomes increasingly important in the industry, more and more producers are looking for ways to invest. However, taking shortcuts with a “free” machine option actually just locks your business into ongoing, increasing costs and leaves you with nothing to own.

By choosing to invest in an industry leader in automation solutions like PreRoll-Er, you secure long-term savings, enjoy a faster return on investment, and gain full control over your production equipment – allowing you to scale profitably and sustainably.

Don’t let hidden fees cut into your margins. Contact PreRoll-Er today to explore our flexible leasing and ownership options designed to support your business’s growth without the financial strain..