High volume retail, homegrown: How Nova Farms scales as a vertically integrated MSO

About Nova Farms

Nova Farms is on a mission to make high-quality cannabis accessible to everyone.

Founded in 2019, the Massachusetts-based cannabis company has grown into a vertically integrated multi-state operator (MSO) with a footprint across the Northeast—including 6 retail locations in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maine, and Connecticut.

Nova Farms produces its own line of brands like Sticky Fish concentrates and Highlands outdoor flower.

What sets Nova apart isn’t just their scale, it’s their philosophy.

“We’re a big company,” says Mitch Gaffney, General Manager at Nova Farms Dracut. “We have all the resources of a big company, but it still feels like a small company. There’s a real care for about the culture and the products and cannabis as a whole.”

The company offers exceptional pricing and products for every type of customer.

Running high-volume retail with Flowhub

Nova Farms has used Flowhub as its retail operating system since 2021.

At the Dracut location, Nova Farms sees anywhere from 500 to 900 transactions per day. On holidays like 4/20, it’s even higher.

From check-in to checkout, Flowhub powers every aspect of the customer journey.

Nova uses Greet® at the front desk for fast ID scanning and customer intake. Budtenders handle daily transactions in Flowhub, while inventory managers run audits, pricing updates, and compliance tasks behind the scenes.

Overseeing it all, store managers track team performance and sales metrics in real time to keep operations running smoothly and profitably.

Flowhub also integrates with Nova Farm’s kiosks and ecommerce menus to create a smooth order-ahead experience.

“We have tablets and kiosks up front where customers can place their own orders,” says Mitch. “Those orders automatically show up in Flowhub, where our team can manage them from a single dashboard. It’s all really smooth.”

Because Flowhub integrates with a broad ecosystem of cannabis technology partners—including online menus, payments, and customer engagement tools—Nova Farms can build an end-to-end system that fits their retail model perfectly.

Everyone on the team touches Flowhub daily.

“I found Flowhub really easy to learn. Everything is laid out super simply. It’s very user-friendly,” adds Abigail Walsh, Inventory Manager at Nova Farms

Multi-location control at scale

With three vertically integrated locations in Massachusetts and additional retail stores operating in CT, NJ, and ME, Nova Farms needed a system that could scale with them—and keep every store consistent.

“Flowhub is the tool that makes it all happen. It’s our base. It’s our inventory system, it’s our point of sale. It’s where we get all of our reporting. It controls everything,” says Mitch.

Flowhub enables centralized control while allowing each location to operate with flexibility.

Store managers use Flowhub Analytics to review performance and optimize hours, staffing, and promotions at the local level.

“I absolutely love the View app,” Mitch adds. “It makes it really easy for me to look at things on my phone while I’m on the move and constantly be in touch with how my store is doing.”

Nova’s flexible but consistent store operations allow them to scale new locations, test local pricing, and roll out new promotions quickly—without losing visibility.

Inventory, dialed in

Compliance is Abigail’s north star. That’s why Flowhub’s real-time Metrc integration is one of her favorite features.

Nova performs weekly inventory counts on all saleable units, with full building audits monthly. Flowhub’s manifest import tool makes intake faster, and its product naming memory speeds up every delivery.

Recently, Abigail noticed a new “Log” button added directly to the inventory screen.

“That alone made my day,” she laughs. “I told everyone in the inventory room. Flowhub is constantly improving, taking our input into consideration, and building out features alongside what we’re asking for.”

Nova also uses Flowhub to analyze sales trends, manage vendor deals, and plan bundles that drive both volume and margin.

“The ability to customize the reports is really helpful,” says Abigail. “I can filter by location, by category, by product. I use that a lot when I’m doing SOPs for the staff too, to simplify what I’m showing them.”

She also loves the manifest import tool. “It used to take me an hour to enter a 60-line delivery. Now, it takes 10 minutes. That’s a huge time saver, especially when we’re busy and trying to get products on the floor fast.”

Built for Massachusetts compliance

Massachusetts cannabis laws are strict, and Flowhub is built to handle them.

“The biggest thing I noticed when I first started with Flowhub is that each transaction is locked down to a passcode to the budtender who’s supposed to be on that register. By locking down that transaction and requiring a PIN code, it ensures the budtender assigned to that drawer is actually the one making the transaction,” says Mitch.

“It prevents people from jumping on drawers and helps us stay compliant, especially here in Massachusetts.”

He adds, “There are a lot of dispensaries where you’ll see cross-contamination or managers jumping onto budtenders’ drawers or vice versa. That’s a huge compliance issue, especially here in Massachusetts, where everything’s supposed to be reported on an individual sale basis.”

Flowhub also automates daily Metrc sales pushes with a single click.

Insightful analytics, better decisions

From price drops to long-term growth, the decisions at Nova Farms are data-driven.

Store managers use Flowhub Analytics to track KPIs like transaction volume, average order value, and daily deal usage.

Anthony and his team review peak and slow periods and plan promotions accordingly. “Flowhub does a great job breaking down times and days of when we’re busy and when we’re not,” he says. “In slower windows like 10 a.m., we’ll push deals to get more people in the door.”

Flowhub’s reporting also powers Nova’s incentive programs. The team uses SparkPlug integrated with Flowhub Maui to gamify upsells and reward top-performing budtenders.

“We want carts over $55, and we track that in Flowhub daily,” Anthony explains. “We offer employee incentives like $25 gift cards, and we’ve even run rock-paper-scissors contests to keep things fun for the team.”

A real partnership

Nova Farms sees Flowhub not just as a vendor but as a partner. Whether it’s product feedback, a support request, or a feature idea, the Flowhub team shows up.

“Support’s been awesome,” says Mitch. “Anytime we send an email, Flowhub is jumping on it within minutes.”

Nova’s feedback has led directly to product improvements, like easier product logs, better deal setup, and more intuitive compliance alerts.

Whether operating through terminals on the floor, mobile order-ahead, or even delivery boats, Nova counts on Flowhub to power retail in every form.

Thank you to Anthony, Mitch, Abigail, and the whole team at Nova Farms for sharing your story with us. We can’t wait to continue supporting you as you grow!