Last updated on June 13th, 2024
NectarTek is a new hemp extraction company in Las Vegas, producing a CBD isolate for CBD product makers. Former executive director of supply chain and operations services for Chipotle Mexican Grill, Tim Spong, serves as the company’s CEO. The company’s board members include Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle Mexican Grill; Monty Moran, former president and co-CEO of Chipotle; Thomas Giacomini, president and CEO of JBT Corp., a global food processor; and Ralf Ludwig, principal owner, CEO and president of Wolf-tec Inc.
In addition, Dr. James Marsden, a preeminent food safety scientist, has joined NectarTek as its chief regulatory affairs officer, and Robert Gaither, an industry veteran, serves as NectarTek’s chief technical officer.
NectarTek says its CBD isolate product is 99.5-plus percent pure CBD. It is snow-white in color and contains no THC or impurities. Its goal is to provide the highest-quality CBD isolate available in the market at an accessible price for CBD product makers, the company says.
After entering a Nevada Department of Agriculture hemp pilot program in 2016, NectarTek Founder and President Darrin Badger, who is the current president of Focus Commercial Group, was challenged in finding reliable and professional sources to complete the complicated extraction and refinement processes. He was unable to find a scalable extraction process that would produce the high-quality product he desired. This prompted Badger to create NectarTek.
“NectarTek was born from my desire to bring the purest product possible to the market and to combat the challenges I found when I first explored this industry. In order for CBD and its immense benefits to truly impact consumers around the country, the industry needs a supplier who is professional, dependable and follows best business practices,” said Badger.
With the addition of Spong as CEO in October 2018, he company spent months developing proprietary, scalable processes for CBD extraction, building out manufacturing plants and bringing together a board of high-level professionals, including CEOs of four publicly held companies.
As a vital part of the team during his time at Chipotle, Spong contributed to overcoming challenges the company faced and bringing it to the successful organization it is today. In the post-2015-food safety crisis, Spong was asked to take over Chipotle’s supply chain in December 2015, and he led and designed Chipotle’s pathbreaking and successful food safety initiative, working with Dr. James Marsden.
When he separated from the international restaurant chain, Chipotle had more than 2,500 locations. Now, Spong brings his 25 years of experience and expertise from Chipotle to NectarTek, applying the lessons he learned along the way, with the goal of instilling elevated professionalism and trustworthiness to the industry.
“Our core values are safety, quality and reliability, in that order. Our mission is to bring only the highest-quality CBD to the market at accessible prices and to establish standards for the entire industry,” said Spong.
NectarTek is currently partnered with one of the largest biomass farmers in Kentucky, and has invested substantial sums in farming operations to ensure supply of biomass in 2019 and beyond.
“We are growing rapidly with almost zero voluntary turnover of our team members. That’s significant because it means every single day the skill level and execution by our employees improves. We have a spectacular team of employees and leadership, who reward us for the massive investments we are making in training, systems and safety. Our people strategy will give us a decisive edge over our competitors,” said Spong.
The company is broadening its product line beyond CBD Isolate to include THC remediated distillate and water-soluble isolate and future potential expansion plans include extraction facilities in California, Colorado, Kentucky and Thailand.
NectarTek opened its doors in October 2018. The company operates two refinement facilities, as well as a four-acre primary extraction facility in Pahrump, Nevada.
