Canada’s weed beverages are this summer’s success story 2022: Pot drink summer?
With most of the industry employing nano-emulsion production tech, the technical issues for a cannabis drink with a 15-minute or less onset have eased.
The industry now turns to the next: getting people to actually drink them.
On that front, progress has been slow. According to recent data from Headset, drinks account for only 1.9% of cannabis sales in Ontario; in B.C., It’s 1.5%. This past April, Labatt Breweries pulled out by shuttering Fluent, their cannabis drinks arm.
The push, however, is on to boost the category, with Truss president Dave Schlosser calling 2022 the “summer of cannabis-infused beverages.” The category seems poised to find its footing, and the return of more social events makes cannabis drinks a viable alternative to alcohol. “Year to date, drinks are growing by 45%,” Smith says.
In Ontario, drinks have quietly doubled their market share in the past year, with Truss saying their data shows a 2.4% market share. “The trends are definitely heading in the right direction with drinks,” she says.
Part of that is the increased selection and improved offerings. Collective Project, made by artisanal brewery Collective Arts, line of cannabis drinks has been a quick hit with consumers, currently the top-selling beverage in Ontario. (Their Yuzu Blood Orange Vanilla was recommended by several budtenders I’ve queried.) Sweet Justice Cherry Cola, produced by independent company Electric Brands, is the second top seller in B.C.
“There has been a massive boom of new brands and new products coming online. I think consumers have more choices than they’ve ever had. It’s gotten more competitive, and you have to step up your game. This spring/summer, we’ve launched 15 new products alone.”
– Melanie Smith, director of innovation at Truss
Where the boom settles is still anyone’s guess. The industry has lobbied heavily for regulation changes— consumers are currently capped at purchasing five 355 ml drinks—to improve access and, hopefully, bring consumers’ cost-per-drink, but there’s not been much reaction from Health Canada. They’re also improving production, Smith says.
Beverage formulators are refining their methods, and manufacturers have pivoted towards more potent drinks that approach the 10 mg cap without compromising flavour. Growing the cannabis drinks category is slow, but its proponents believe there’s still a lot of potential—approaching 4 or 5 % market share is probably not unrealistic, Smith says.
Cannabis beverages in Canada continue to gain market share of the overall cannabis sector despite overly strict regulations, Article Here!
I wonder how Tinley's cannabis drinks are going to contribute to Q3-Q4 earnings.... A few hundred grand here & there, my guess is Bev being halted has halted production of Tinley's for AB/BC CAD, but that's just an assumption.. Hopefully I'm wrong but Bev was a horrible choice as a business partner in Canada anyways and I wouldn't be upset in the slightest if the drinks were produced by a more reputable company even if a delay occurred in shelf time, Cali is clearly the focus for cannabis infused in regards to Tinley.
Beckett's will continue to outpace cannabis beverage sales due to faster payment cycles, 27 states is nothing to shoulder shrug & say meh... In general, retailers pay for the merchandise first for Beckett's. They sometimes have open billing which can give them somewhere between 10 and 90 days to pay but not always. This is standard for the liquor and grocery business, unlike California's all cash fragmented debacle.
Hopefully, Beckett's adds a new face to promote the drinks & adds alcohol to the best sellers once Blaze merger is finished....
Bev is likely being acquired or merged like TNY.
Maybe Tinley's will Marry Jones instead of merging with Blaze.. Unlikely... But, it's hard to understand why Jones Soda CEO would suggest Tinley's merged with Blaze before an official announcement, especially since JSDA & SBBC just went through a failed merger, was he trying to sabatoge the deal so they can impose their own...
Below are quotes from Jones Soda CEO recently.
"On our last call, we mentioned that we were a little disappointed that we are not in the marketplace as soon as we expected, but we spent this critical time securing key manufacturing, distribution and sales partnerships to ensure that our launch in the cannabis was well positioned for success. In manufacturing, we secured a partnership with the Tinley Beverage Company, a premier licensed manufacturing company of terpene and cannabis-infused products that owns a 20,000 square foot facility, specifically engineered to manage and manufacture cannabis-infused beverages.
Last month, Tinley successfully executed a merger with Blaze holding, effectively doubling their existing manufacturing capacity. With our high growth priorities, Tinley has quickly proven to be a capable partner that is willing to expand and adapt to meet our total manufacturing needs as we work to establish ourselves in the cannabis industry.
Our distributor and sales partner, CEVA sales and service has also been immensely valuable as we prepared to launch Mary Jones across California. Their sales and distribution capabilities range across the entire state and overall, have secured distribution to over 80% of the dispensaries in the state.
With key customers support and data, they have been essential to our work and strategically positioning Mary Jones for a successful launch and capturing the attention of the cannabis consumer. This brings us to our successful launch of Mary Jones, which has surpassed our high expectations and has already exceeded the forecast that we initially developed.
Our product launch press has generated over 300 million press hits so far, over $600,000 in media value, which is a reflection of the excitement that our entering the cannabis has generated with both trade and consumers. This is in addition to the press promotions and endless social media that has surrounded the Mary Jones launch from each of our partners.
We have received extremely positive consumer feedback, that have generated high demand for our product as it hit retail shelves last month. Mary Jones Soda, a 12-ounce product featuring 10 milligrams of THC in four of our most popular flavors, Berry Lemonade, Green Apple, Orange and Cream, and Root Beer was intensely released in limited quantities to select retailers due to manufacturing constraints, we have since overcome. We are pleased to report that we are actively replenishing supply and we'll be ready to debut new products within the portfolio in the coming months.
The launch of our 16-ounce 100-milligram Mary Jones Soda will arrive with the same core flavors, and we expect this to be the most in-demand cannabis product yet. This will bring another high-margin product to the cannabis portfolio with the wonderful feedback and demand we've already seen in the initial product launch, we expect this to be another hit. Rounding out the product portfolio for the back half of this year and into next year will be our cannabis-infused carbonated Jones candies and gummies, which will be coming soon.
We have made tremendous products with our -- we have made tremendous progress with our Mary Jones brand. We are now laser focused on ensuring that our supply chain supports the demand we generate. In coming quarters, we will look to refine our inventory allocation to the right dispensaries and strengthen our capacity to take Mary Jones in front of as many customers as possible.
We already beat our forecasted cannabis product sales number for the entire third quarter by the end of July, and we expect this momentum to continue. Simply put, we are blown away by how positive the reception has been from the community. We have aspirations to become the number one beverage and edibles brand in the cannabis category, and we believe we are on the right path to meet this goal. Given the excellent reception, we have been hard at work negotiating and exploring partnerships with manufacturers, distributors and MSOs across multiple expansion states.
Jones Soda recent earnings call transcript mentioning Tinley's merged with Blaze Holdings, Click Here!