Leading Californian edibles business, Plus Products, is set to enter the Canadian market when it further liberates recreational cannabis use later this year.
Founded in a garage, Plus Products now operates from a 12,000 sq ft manufacturing facility, close to Los Angeles, producing over one million gummies a week. It listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange late last year, and sales grew and impressive 274% year-on-year to $3.2 million in the first quarter of 2019.
Lucie Herold, a Co-Founder of Plus Products, spoke to CBD Testers at the Canadian Cannabis Capital Markets Conference in London, earlier, saying the Canadian market was in its sights, with cannabis edibles and topicals legal from October.
‘Find Your Just Right’
She said: “We are always open to new markets opportunities where cannabis is legal. We have listed on the Canadian stock market and it the opening of the Canadian edibles market is definitely interesting to us.”
She said the company’s mission it to make cannabis products ‘safe and approachable via discreet, dose-able and conveniently-packaged, infused edibles’. Its tagline is ‘Find Your Just Right’, which is around finding the right dose for every individual but it also likes to refer to itself in the vernacular of something that ‘grandmas proud of’.
She elaborated: “This comes from our company mission and ethos of having balance, and making more of a family culture, and really embodying all of the things that we think should be infused into cannabis companies.”Lucie says the biggest challenge with edibles is to discover the right dose for each individual.
Form Low To High
“A lot of people have the initial experience of getting too high, so really it’s best to start off with a low dose, then work their way into something you can feel more comfortable with.”
Both opponents and advocates of recreational cannabis edibles have concerns over their availability and appeal to children. Plus addresses these issues in a number of ways, says Lucie.
“We use child resistant packaging which is fully certified and we always educate consumers to be careful with the products – in the same you wouldn’t want your kids to get into alcohol or pharmaceutical drugs.
“We do the most with our products; which are shaped in little squares, so nothing that would be super appealing to kids. We take as many precautions as we can.”
Number One Edibles Brand
In fact, Plus deliberately goes out of its way to ensure their edibles are not too attractive to kids – shunning gummy bears, and the like, which is quite a challenge for a ‘candy product!’ added Lucie. Research by BDS Analytics released earlier this year, showed Plus is the top edibles brand in California.
“Our objective at Plus is to build the world’s strongest cannabis brand. When we became the top edibles brand in the largest cannabis market (California) in the third quarter of 2018, our team felt that it was only one more step in a much larger journey,” said CEO, Jake Heimark.