| Hello everyone,
In October, the momentum that began in the summer continued; this included growth in the retail presence for Oki beverages and the advancement of our e-commerce platform. We are excited about the trends we see for the rest of this year.
Sales and Distribution
As you know from our previous newsletters, we have been very successful at building our presence in California, particularly the Los Angeles area. This market has continued to grow well for us, and we are seeing double-digit growth month on month in new accounts. Product sell-through has been positive as well, and we are pleased with the repeat orders we are now receiving after our initial sell into the new accounts.
In particular, I’d like to mention our success with two specialty grocery chains in Southern California that together comprise 19 stores. We introduced Oki beverages to the stores in September, and the feedback from their customers has been very positive. In October, we started an in-store sampling campaign that is continuing this month. Consistent with our other in-store sampling efforts, we have seen good conversion from trial to purchase.
Our direct-to-store distribution continues in California, Colorado and Nevada, and we will continue to work with our wholesale partner in Texas. We are extremely excited to partner with Gotham Brands to distribute Oki beverages in the New York City area, as announced recently. Gotham Brands is a sales and distribution powerhouse that specializes in taking new brands to market. They know the New York market very well and have an experienced team of professionals selling direct-to-customer, in-store merchandising as well as in-house sampling teams. They received their first shipments of Oki at the beginning of this month and within two days opened many new accounts. Early signs are that New York retailers have an equal interest in Oki to those on the West Coast.
Along with establishing distribution partners, our sales and distribution team of Doug Campbell and Greg McCauley were in Florida for the first week of November at a semi-annual retail beverage buyers meeting to introduce Oki to national retailers. With over 20+ appointments with accounts such as Safeway, Albertsons, Kroger and Walgreens, just to name a few, we look forward to sharing the outcome of those meetings in the very near future.
Product Development
Vida+ is an essential part of our product line-up and serves a unique and growing niche in the personal care market. We have recently updated the packaging and also adjusted the strengths as well as reduced the pricing of these products across the board. These improvements and updates are now reflected on the website hempvidaplus.com, and we have been recently meeting with key accounts to show the new products. CBD supplement sales have become very competitive, and maintaining our differentiation as a provider of the highest quality products designed for the personal care market is going to be crucial going forward.
Our E-Commerce Platform
The team has also been working hard at launching Wikala, and it is now in closed beta. This means that the website is live but in testing mode to allow us to review the user experience, and fix bugs. We will be making improvements and enhancements throughout this month and will launch Wikala in open beta mode at the beginning of December. Once finished, Wikala will offer a broad range of CBD products and brands, consistent with our desire for it to be a leading CBD Market Place and e-commerce platform — but Oki and Vida+ products will, of course, receive high visibility. We expect this dedicated hemp and CBD site will have high interest as increasingly consumers are looking for CBD products and would prefer not to be associated with psychoactive cannabis.
A significant development for our Bloomgroove e-commerce platform was the addition of our first third-party seller, Grobo. Grobo designs, manufactures and markets hydroponic plant-growing systems – you simply plant your seed, choose a Grobo recipe and wait to harvest. While being a cool product, it also demonstrates a unique feature of Bloomgroove, which is to enable independent storefronts within the site. Bloomgroove is the only platform in the cannabis sector that allows independent storefronts, and we see it as an attractive growth strategy. The independent seller can easily set up and run their store – creating and updating listings, making sales and tracking orders – and Bloomgroove benefits from a diversified product line-up and additional traffic. Independent storefronts also provide an additional revenue stream for us from hosting the storefront, along with a sales commission. Over the next few months, expect to see additional independent sellers added to Bloomgroove.
As you can see, we continue to build momentum for the business. Our growing retail presence, our innovation in response to market feedback and the creation of unique ecommerce platforms are all testaments to our hard-working team that shares our vision of becoming a company that has a genuinely positive impact on the health and wellness of our customers.
Thanks for your continued support. I look forward to providing another update on our progress next month.
Respectfully,
Jim
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