Cannabis company Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. (Harvest) announced a multi-million-dollar partnership, which will roll out to the Asian American Trade Associations Council (AATAC) retailer network, bringing CBD product lines to more than 10,000 retail stores, including convenience stores and gas stations across the country.
Tempe, Ariz.-based Harvest is a multi-state cannabis operator (MSO) and vertically-integrated cannabis company.
Since 2011, Harvest has been committed to aggressively expanding its Harvest House of Cannabis retail and wholesale presence throughout the U.S. Subject to completion of announced acquisitions, Harvest will have the largest footprint in the U.S., with rights to more than 210 facilities, of which approximately 140 are retail locations and more than 1,580 employees across 17 states.
The agreement includes Harvest’s Colors, CBx Essentials and Harvest-branded CBD product lines, which are expected to begin arriving in stores across the country in the summer of 2019 and may expand to 30,000 locations by the end of the year.
“This exclusive partnership enables a massive advance in distribution for Harvest-owned CBD brands and follows our strategic path of expanding the scale of our wholesale and retail distribution nationally,” said Harvest Chairman Jason Vedadi. “Demand for CBD is unprecedented and by delivering leading products in 10,000 accessible locations gives us an unparalleled reach to consumers.”
The AATAC is one of the largest trade associations for independent convenience and gas stations in the country, with 50,000 primary and affiliate members and a reach of almost 90,000 locations that control over 60% of the market.
The AATAC’s primary and affiliate members operate many franchises of the most popular branded retailers such as 7-11, Circle K, Sunoco, Chevron, 76, BP, Arco, ampm, Kangaroo, Shell, Marathon and more. The group estimates convenience stores and gas stations will account for $8-10 billion of what The Brightfield Group expects to be a $22 billion CBD market in three years.
“While many CBD product companies currently experience an artificially high premium as early adopters flood the market, we realized that only true quality brands like Harvest’s COLORS and CBx brands, which have a long and established pedigree will be around after the first wave,” said AATAC Board of Directors Trustee Paul Rock. “Massive categories like energy products were built primarily in our retail channel and we expect Harvest’s line of CBD products to be no different.”
The partnership will include extensive training for store clerks and associates, an educational campaign about CBD and other cannabinoids and in-store dedicated shelf space and marketing promotions.
