The 25-year-old company Edible Brands, best known for its fresh fruit arrangements sold under the banner Edible Arrangements, is taking a big leap into hemp products. The company is launching an e-commerce marketplace called Edibles.com that will feature hemp-based THC-infused products.
The platform will feature well-known hemp-based brands, like beverage companies Cann and Ayrloom, along with Wana gummies, drops from 1906 and more. The site will also be age-gated.
Industry veteran Thomas Winstanley, executive vice president of Edibles.com, is leading the launch for the edibles company. Winstanley previously served as the chief marketing officer of Theory Wellness.
“We can reach 70% of the U.S. population on the same day,” Winstanley said. “So that became really interesting. You have this IP, you then have this fulfillment and this point of distribution to the U.S., and then you add in this massive e-commerce and marketing engine that they had developed around Edible Arrangements.”
He said the company has a true willingness to build a brand around reliable, safe products that have been tested. It also wants to focus on health-based outcomes.
This isn’t the company’s first attempt to get into the hemp business. In 2018, it launched an edible CBD product, but sales were lackluster. The company also found itself in a legal battle with Green Thumb Industries, whose edible brand is named Incredibles, but the two companies dismissed their claims.
Storefronts
While the company is launching the e-commerce platform, it is also planning a separate set of hemp line brick-and-mortar stores. The first one will open in Atlanta with a small 500 square-foot layout – but it will let consumers shop with their eyes, Winstanley said. The products won’t be available in the main Edibles Arrangement retail stores.
“We’re going to keep these really spartan and very accessible,” Winstanley said. “I think it’s going to be easier for the consumers who can shop with their eyes and see everything. We want to make it feel a little bit more premium and accessible and give somebody an alternative to a gas station or black light hemp shops that are pervasive.”
Assuming this goes well, the company anticipates expanding through franchises.
“The hemp industry is evolving rapidly, but consumers still face challenges with perception, education and accessibility,” Edible Brands CEO Somia Farid Silber said. “We’re making it easier than ever for consumers to access premium, vetted products with the convenience they expect today.”
Storming the south
The company plans to focus most of its business in southern states, such as Florida and Georgia.
The platform also launched in Texas this week, even as the state considers banning such hemp products altogether. Winstanley believes such a ban will just drive consumers into the illicit market of untested products.
He added that the company is working with lobbyists in the state to convince them that these health-focused products are better for consumers versus untested and unregulated products.
“Ultimately we do as much as we can to influence policy,” he said, “but obviously at the end of the day, we can’t control it.”
Once the company conquers its initial states, it is looking at expanding into North and South Carolina and is laying the groundwork for national shipping.
[[{“value”:”The company plans on opening small storefronts that could eventually be franchised.
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