Green Monké Lands Cookies Collab
THC-infused soda maker Green Monké has secured an exclusive long-term partnership to co-create beverages with one of the cannabis industry’s best-known brands.
Green Monké is teaming with cannabis producer and lifestyle brand Cookies to create co-branded drinks that will be sold at Cookies stores and other locations, the company announced this week. Green Monké’s four existing low-dose sodas — which contain 3 mg THC and 6 mg CBD in each 12 oz. can, along with a limited edition 10 mg THC variety — will be available at Cookies retail locations starting in California this month, before expanding throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe later this year.
Led by rapper/entrepreneur Berner, San Francisco-based Cookies has emerged as one of the first household brand names of the legal-cannabis era. The company — dubbed the first billion-dollar weed brand — has teamed with celebrities like NBA Hall of Famer Gary Payton, rapper Snoop Dogg and others to create highly prized custom marijuana strains, while also running a robust licensing business with cannabis tech leaders including Grenco Science and Stündenglass. The brand’s equity has since transcended beyond cannabis users; In a podcast interview in 2021, Berner claimed Cookies made over $50 million in a year from branded clothing sales alone.
“There’s a reason why Berner, Cookies CEO, is currently on the cover of Forbes magazine, a first for the cannabis industry,” said Jen Lockwood, Chief Marketing Officer at Green Monké, in an email. “The brand has been a trailblazer for the adult-use cannabis market, and has grown a passionate and global consumer base that looks to Cookies for the best products and the latest trends.
She continued: “Since Green Monke’s dedicated audience matches the Cookies consumer, it made sense for us as a brand to meet our customers where they are. This partnership with Cookies allows Green Monké to accelerate and expand our portfolio of high-quality infused beverages while also increasing critical consumer touchpoints in the U.S. and the world.”
While new product R&D is still ongoing, Lockwood said the forthcoming co-branded drinks will “use a variety of cannabinoids that offer different experiences.”
Green Monké is currently available at adult use dispensaries in California and Maine, and across Canada.
Tilray’s Free Hemp Foods Partners With Southern Glazer’s
Canadian cannabis giant Tilray has signed on with Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits to distribute its forthcoming portfolio of CBD-infused beverages starting this fall, the company announced this week.
Tilray, the world’s largest cannabis producer, has made expansion of its beverage portfolio a priority in recent years. The company merged with Aphria, Inc. in May 2021, acquiring SweetWater Brewing Company, which produces a line of infused non-alc beers, in the process. In December, Tilray took a controlling stake in Colorado-based Breckenridge Distillery, which CEO Irwin Simon described as aligning with the company’s “strategy of leveraging our growing portfolio of U.S. CPG brands to launch THC-based product adjacencies,” pending federal legalization of marijuana.
Beverages alcohol (11%) and wellness (9%) products represent a small portion of Tilray’s $628.4 million in annual net revenue, according to the company’s most recent earnings report.
The distribution deal is specifically for Fresh Hemp Foods, a division within Tilray’s Wellness arm, which is focused on developing THC-adjacent products, including CBD-infused food and drinks, as well as non-infused items.
The agreement gives Southern Glazer’s, already the largest CBD beverage distributor in the U.S., a bigger stake in the emerging category. The deal covers 13 states with additional opportunities to scale nationwide, and aims to take Tilray’s drinks through “familiar retail channels” that “will transition the category out of the fringe and into the mainstream.” The products will also be available through Southern Glazer’s Proof ecommerce platform.
Simon said Tilray will launch its CBD beverage brand in the U.S. this fall. Details on the exact dosing or drink format were unavailable. The product will likely be released under the company’s existing Manitoba Harvest brand, which offers a range of hemp-infused food products.
Tilray’s beverage roster will include “different drinks for different occasions,” Simon noted. He described the portfolio as “multiple products… that are non-alcoholic and that can be skewed towards wellness beverages.”
Partnering with Southern Glazer’s in the U.S. was a natural fit, he added; the distributor already works with Tilray to move its products across Canada. Rather, the challenge is educating consumers and driving awareness for the brand.
“There’s some selling here that has to go on, but on the other hand, again, we have Manitoba Harvest that is sold in 70,000 stores across the U.S. We have our beer that is sold in [over] 20,000 supermarkets, convenience stores, and on premises. So there’s a lot of history, a lot of education to get out there.”
In Canada, Simon said he’s pushing to expand availability for cannabis-infused drinks out of dispensaries and into convenience outlets. In the meantime, the company will continue to position itself to grow rapidly in the U.S. once federal restrictions on cannabis sales are, at some point, lifted.
“If cannabis doesn’t legalize, we still have a lot of good businesses out there,” Simon said. “We have a strong balance sheet, we have a lot of knowledge, and most important we have a phenomenal team that I work with to execute against this.”