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Edible Brands, best known for its artful fruit-on-a-stick bouquets, is launching a mainstream cannabis business, with plans to eventually sell low-dose THC products across the country.
The new venture kicks off this week with an e-commerce site called Edibles.com, giving the Edible Arrangements sister brand a fortuitously named entry point into the exploding market for hemp-based drinks and gummies.
The parent company’s recent hire, Thomas Winstanley—a veteran of multi-state cannabis operator Theory Wellness—is leading the effort as executive vice president and general manager. The new venture will start in Texas, with plans to expand quickly to other states including Georgia and Florida. A flagship brick-and-mortar store, serving as a prototype for a new franchise, is coming this summer to Atlanta.
“We want to be an accelerator of accessibility—we want to help connect more consumers who don’t know where to start,” Winstanley told ADWEEK, noting that Edible Brands sees itself broadly as a health and wellness company with its freshfruit.com division and recent acquisition of Roti mediterranean restaurants.
“This is a signal from a 25-year[-old] brand that says we’re okay with this and you should be too,” Winstanley said. “I think that’s going to give permission to customers, knowing they’re buying from somewhere that has this trust and validation process.”
Edibles.com will debut with partners Wana, 1906, and popular social tonic maker Cann, whose co-founder Jake Bullock called the development “a defining moment” for the $28 billion hemp industry.
“It represents another domino to fall in the mainstream acceptance of low-potency hemp-derived products,” Bullock told ADWEEK. “Edible Arrangements is a familiar, neighborhood brand that we associate with gifting special treats to the folks we care most about. Their entry into the hemp drinks space illustrate how much adults want these drinks.”
A new green wave
Edibles.com is not the first in the online hemp-selling category: Wanderous, backed by legacy weed brand Wana, Kush.com, and Gossamer feature a variety of micro-dosed products from Martha Stewart, Charlotte’s Web, Universal Roots, Hemptastic, Wyld, Pure Beauty, Hometown Hero, and other brands.
Meanwhile, major mainstream alcohol retailers have started carrying—and quickly growing—their THC-laced offerings. Among them: Total Wine & More and Spec’s, along with local and regional stores like Florida’s ABC Fine Wine and Spirits.
The activity stems, ultimately, from the now-extended 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp—and products that contain 0.3% THC or less—across America, meaning they could be sold outside of dispensaries. The surge in hemp-fortified drinks and edibles, labeled as Delta 9, has been building rapidly for at least the past year (Minnesota led the way, with other states following).
Along with curated online marketplaces and retail stores, delivery services such as DoorDash and Gopuff have now started offering the products. (Edibles.com plans to use the Edible Brands infrastructure to provide “last-mile” service when it rolls out national same-day delivery in the next few months).
Leading brands from Stiiizy to Belushi’s Farm have developed Delta 9 products specifically to satisfy the demand and potentially provide an on-ramp to big-sister weed for the canna-curious. Edibles.com is considering its own line of private-label hemp products in the future.
As hemp has become more popular, some states have considered a ban on the sale of products that contain even trace amounts of THC, mainly targeting synthetically-derived Delta 8 products commonly sold at gas stations and convenience stores. California is currently under such restrictions, which includes Delta 9-based drinks, drops, powders, and gummies.
Schooling the newbies
Edibles.com is trying to set itself apart from the competition as an educational hub, while vowing to sell only tested, regulation-compliant products from vetted brands, said Winstanley, whose marketing background includes stints at Big Pharma and alcohol companies.
The e-commerce site aims welcome consumers who may not be savvy in the dispensary experience and want to address certain wellness issues.
“If you look at the most common uses of THC and CBD products, it’s sleep, anxiety, pain management,” said Winstanley. “And then looking at national trends of major health concerns, those three are at the top. And then add in the interest in [an] alcohol replacement.”
Shoppers will be able to browse Edibles.com’s products, learning specifically about the effects they hope to achieve, he said.
A different kind of edible
With a name like Edibles, the question may be why it look so long to dive in—but as with anything connected to the still-federally illegal cannabis space, the answer is complicated. (Cannabis is legal is 39 U.S. states, with 24 allowing sales for recreational use.)
Edible Brands had previously dipped its toe into the space in 2019, when it planned to offer CBD-laced goods throughout its retail network. The experiment, largely rejected by franchisees, featured products at only a few stores and online before dying quietly.
The idea may have been ahead of its time, Winstanley said, with the market not mature or acceptance wide enough to support it. Now, with Pew data showing an 88% public approval of cannabis and access to it, the stage could be set for projects like Edibles.com.
“This landscape changes daily, almost hourly at times, so we’re watching the evolution closely to see where we fit in,” Winstanley said. “We want to be very thoughtful about how we can be a supporter and an advocate [of] growth.”
