Cheryl Murphy Durzy

Look Ma, we made it to Sprouts Farmers Market ! 🥂 3 flavors are landing in 30+ select locations in Southern California as part of Sprouts’ Innovation Table and we are thrilled! Big shoutout to the team at Pod Foods for including EATABLE INC. in their Box of Innovation which was instrumental in having us be part of this launch alongside other fab CPG brands. As much as we’re celebrating today, I also wanted to take a second to call out (esp to my non-CPG friends who may not realize this)… The road to mass grocery and retail is HARD AF. 😅 It has always been a dream of Vincent Li and I as founders to see EATABLE popcorn on the shelves of major grocery stores. But truth be told, this journey to bridge EATABLE’s brand identity from a premium gift/department store brand to mass grocery brand has been chock full of headwinds. We’ve pivoted countless times over the last 2 years to tweak: - Pricing (one of the BIGGEST hurdles for emerging brands) - Pack size - Pack design and branding - Distribution model - Logistics and supply chain - Channel strategy - Trade marketing support strategy - Balancing a lean marketing budget between online and offline to drive sellthrough and velocity Getting on shelf is an important first step, but there’s lots of heavy lifting to be done to ensure we sell OFF the shelf too! 🛒 Our journey has been full of small tests, lots of failures and rejection along the way, which have resulted in a TON of learnings (for future posts!) In the meantime, if you or someone you know is in SoCal - Please shop EATABLE INC. at your local Sprouts and grab a bag of popcorn that will POP a party in your mouth, and start conversations at your next gathering! How we perform in these next 90 days at their Innovation Table will determine whether we get to stay on the shelves for the long haul! 🥳 Any CPG friends who have experience selling into Sprouts I’d love to connect and learn from you! And if you happen to see us in store, help a girl out and send a quick photo or “shelfie” with EATABLE - it’ll make my day in more ways than you know! 🍿+🥂 #EATABLE #CPGbusiness #CPGfounder #foodstartup #RetailLaunch #Sprouts #SoCal

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🚨 **Important Update for Cannabis Growers in Washington State!** 🚨 The WSDA has updated its list of approved pesticides with two essential columns: 1️⃣ **Section 3 Pesticides under Worker Protection Standard (WPS)**   2️⃣ **Section 3 Pesticides for "HG Only" Home-Grown Medical Cannabis** **Key Points to Remember:** - Products marked as “HG Only = Yes” are strictly for home-grown medical cannabis use and are **not permitted for commercial production**. - **Spray Adjuvants**: While not listed separately, any spray adjuvant labeled for food crops can be used with an allowed pesticide on cannabis, provided it complies with the adjuvant label. Check the WSU PICOL database for registered spray adjuvants in Washington. 🛡️ **Compliance Tips:** - Ensure all pesticides in use are on the allowed list. - Existing stocks of removed pesticides can be used up, but no new purchases are allowed. - A new active ingredient, **Metarhizium brunneum** (formerly Metarhizium anisopliae) Strain F52, has been added to the list. - Always follow the label directions and precautions for any pesticide use. **🆕 New Products Added:** - Drip Hydro Dip Rooting Gel (Section 3) - LalGuard M52 GR (Section 3) - Liquid Harvest Vinegar Weed & Grass Killer (Section 3) - HygroPunch (Section 25b) **❌Products Removed:** - Green Gobbler 20% Vinegar Weed Killer - Green Step II Caterpillar Control - Mosquito Bits Quick Kill - Onward - Plant Guardian Biofungicide Wettable Powder - Plant Guardian Insecticidal Soap - Prestop WG - Proof Cold-Pressed Neem Oil - Sil-Matrix Fungicide/Miticide/Insecticide - Vinagreen - Whitney Farms Insecticidal Soap - Zio - Banish - BH-B Botanohealth Fungicide - BugZooka - Dr. Earth Final Stop Slug & Snail Killer Spray - Procidic-C - Smite - TCC-IPM 🔍 **For the complete list and detailed criteria, visit the WSDA website.** **Contact Information:** - For Cannabis List inquiries: Laurel Schmalz, 📞 360-974-9759, 📧 [email protected] - For pesticide and fertilizer registration: WSDA Pesticide and Fertilizer Registration Section, 📞 360-902-2025, 📧 [email protected], 📧 [email protected] - For compliance with pesticide labels: WSDA Pesticide Compliance Program, 📞 360-902-2040, 📧[email protected] - For other questions, contact your Liquor and Cannabis Board enforcement officer. -For a consult with your favorite cannabis attorney, don’t hesitate to reach me at [email protected] or (509)900-6182 Stay informed and compliant to ensure the safety and success of your cannabis cultivation! 🌱💼#CannabisCompliance #WSDAUpdate #PesticideSafety #CannabisGrowing #lawmera #WSLCB #cannabislaw #lawyer For more details, visit the WSDA's website at (https://lnkd.in/gwyNeKAQ).

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Good morning California Cannabis Industry, Today, in the economic evolution of cannabinoids (both cannabis and help), there's one question remaining: WHO WON THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  

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🌱🏛🔍 Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board leaders and the public welcomed a board member to their new post as Chair, plus rulemaking  and petition actions included adoption of social equity rules which drew criticism in public comments. https://lnkd.in/deY66fdT #cannabis #cannabispolicy #cannabisindustry

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As the cannabis industry matures, we are starting to get reliable data. This can help make decisions based on real sales figures and not predictions. 10 years ago, there was only one state with adult use sales (#colorado) and a handful of states with medical seals. Now there is 24 sates with adult use sales and an additional 15 states with medical seals. At the moment #california leads with total seals but #michigan leads with per capita seals. #florida leads in medical seals. #missouri with a relatively small population and only 17 months since they launched their adult-use market, is already in fifth place. Thank you Debra Borchardt from Green Market Report for the financial update. #cannabisindustry #cannabiscommunity #cannabisnews #cannabiseducation #cannabispolicy #cannbislaw https://lnkd.in/gc96gcCh

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This is a call to all California Cannabis Operators: If you're concerned about being profitable, need help with upgrading equipment or processes, if you are looking to get more yield from your canopy space- please reach out to me. If you work as a grower or IPM manager at one of these facilities and struggle to keep your crops from improving their overall output, I can provide a referral credit for making an introduction. Verne Bioanalytics uses a host of solutions, each custom fit to your specifications, we will customize a solution to keep your crops pest and infection free plus we can help with overall plant health and efficiency. Quit wasting money guessing what's wrong, let us test and diagnose and provide an answer this WEEK and not in a few months when you're losing money due to process inefficiencies and lack of strong SOPs. We employ AI and humans to tackle the largest issues in cultivation today. DM me for a quick intro to what we can do for you.

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Department of Cannabis Control’s ‘inadequate oversight’ of $100M undermined California's licensing program for cannabis growers, according to California State Auditor Grant Parks. Parks determined the DCC ‘weakened’ the Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant (LJAG) Program. The state’s LJAG Program, approved by the California Legislature in June 2021, provided the one-time funding source to aid thousands of small, legacy and equity cannabis businesses in complying with a state environmental mandate, which would enable them to transition from provisional to more permanent annual licenses. The whole provisional licensing program is “kaput” at the end of 2025, meaning cannabis cultivators who haven’t transitioned to annual licensure will find themselves up a certain creek with no paddle, Executive Director Genine Coleman of Origins Council -- a nonprofit that advocates for roughly 900 small, independent cannabis businesses and homestead farming families, primarily in the rural areas of Northern California -- told CBT. Read the full story by CBT Editor Tony Lange here: https://lnkd.in/eaxiecrw

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2023 saw, non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits sales over $565M. That’s a 35% boost in dollar sales vs. the year before—but who’s buying these options? Gen Z is leading the trend in the sense that they are opting out of drinking alcohol. However, they are not the demographic purchasing off your NA menus. So, who is buying? Mostly women ages 34-55. They are looking for products that provide inclusivity. They want to participate in celebrations and feel included in social gatherings with their friends and loved ones. According to NIQ’s 2023 Consumer Outlook, 46% of consumers identified physical or mental wellness as one of their top priorities. And, with 47% of Americans having at least one of three risk factors that contribute to heart disease, it’s no surprise that consumers are increasingly seeking beverages that do more than just quench thirst. Healthy, low sugar options are being requested. Sober October is coming. My community and I want at least 15 solid locations to send our following/customers to for low sugar, crafted non-alcoholic beverage menus. Who's in? Email me to get your menu set, products in and offerings promoted. Andrew Schools Brian Neubauer Zaneta "Zee" Peragine William Harrison George Beattie Buddy Edwards George Beattie Tish Atkins Oatis Smith Priscilla Eich

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-- Podcast Teaser Alert -- "If you want to lead the consumer, you need to be the consumer." - Eric Ryan At one point, Eric Ryan and I were "frienemies". Friends personally, competitors professionally. He was the co-founder and CEO of Method Products PBC, while I led Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day. ................ But in the real world, we were always on the same team. Our collective efforts, along with the team at 7th Generation, were revolutionizing the cleaning category. At Mrs. Meyer's, our mission was clear: 'Together, we dream of a world where the better way becomes THE way.' ................ Eric Ryan shares his insights on creating method products pbc, OLLY PBC, and Welly Bandages, along with his go-to-market approach. Stay tuned for the next drop of the CEO podcast. 🎙 You won't regret it. #cultureFIRSTleadership #ceoPodcast #ChiefEternalOptimist

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California tax revenue from cannabis has declined each of the last two years from a peak of 2021. (Source:DCC) Where do we expect 2024 to finish? It sure seems to be a broken system, with very few profitable operators. The state is trying, and AB 2223 will be a pivotal moment for the industry. Many brands have given up, and are finding better margins and consumer access in hemp, that allow them to do basic things like make payroll. I voted in favor of prop 64. At the time, I had faith that the state supported profitable industry to boost the economy and provide jobs. I didn't believe they had altruistic motives to improve access to a beneficial plant. I didn't think the mismanagement would be so bad that the industry would already be in a decline 3 years into it. Question: How much tax revenue would we generate for the state if we had low-dose cannabis beverages accessible everywhere alcohol was? How much would we need to tax cannabis beverages to achieve their goal? Allowing adult beverage producers, distributors and retailers to freely sell low-dose cannabis beverages isn't competing for revenue from the dispensary channel. People buy beverages where they already are. Someone ordering a Coke at McDonalds or a Red Bull at a concert wasn't going to buy the same drinks at a grocery store later that day. Please tell me where I'm wrong, or your ideas to fix this decline -

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Craft breweries bloomed, and boomed, by providing drinkers with unique tastes and senses of place. Upstart breweries filled warehouses and former factories with gleaming brew kettles, proof that beer was made right here, by friendly neighborhood folks, not like those commodity lagers made elsewhere anonymously. As demand for craft beer spiked throughout the 2010s, breweries expanded to slake drinkers’ seemingly endless thirst for IPAs. “We all just ramped up production and bought tanks,” says Kieran Farrell, an owner and director of operations of Gun Hill Brewing, which opened in New York City in 2014. “In hindsight it was a mistake.” As demand for craft beer ebbs while the costs of doing business increase, breweries are overhauling their business models by offloading production equipment, closing locations, and sharing production equipment, ingredient orders, and even sales and marketing duties with fellow breweries. For VinePair, I take a deep look at how breweries are banding together to better safeguard their futures. #craftbeer #beerindustry #beer

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A simple quote from Mike Tyson and one of my favorites of all time: "Everybody has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." It rings true in the day to day battles of business, especially in CPG. Here are some examples many CPG founders go through or ones I've personally battled: 🥴 You launch a product, did all the research for R&D, focus group testing, and reviewed the packaging thousands of times before launching, but still something went wrong either with shelf life, negative consumer/retailer feedback, or weak sales on shelf 💰 You had cash flow projections in place and expected that with X amount raised, it would last you for Y Months, but ran short of runway and were scrambling to raise more cash to keep the company going in difficult times 🤝 Formed partnerships, only disappointed to find out the partner backed out, or it wasn't the partnership you envisioned and now you are doing damage control and it's causing emotional pain to be with this person 🚛 Brought on a distributor thinking they would push the brand and it would be an estimated cost, but they didn't do their job, and the costs ended up sky-rocketing from chargebacks, thus losing money on every unit 😲You release a great product, and then a competitor comes up with a version of yours that is a lower price point and they have all the marketing dollars in the world to out-compete you. I can go on and on, but in this business, like any business, you have intentions when you go into it, and many times, it doesn't turn out the way you envisioned. What's your story of getting punched in the mouth?

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We discussed this on our latest episode of CPG Vibes, BIG BIG news from KeHE Distributors on 11/22, a new program dubbed 'AAP' (administrative allowance program). A flat 2 % off-invoice allowance for specific fees including New item intros, extra performance fees, MCBs, new item set up fees, and lumping fees. My quick thoughts: This is a step in the right direction for sure. UNFI implemented SSI which is a similar program to help brands budget for costs and fees associated with doing business with large national distributors. With all that said, these categories are pretty large and encompassing, so for all the other fees associated with Kehe that can chop down a brand's margin, will this program truly cover it? Likely not, but at least it covers some. What are your thoughts?

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SACRAMENTO, Calif - The California State Fair Cannabis Awards announced its Gold and Silver medal winners. Judges awarded more than 100 medals across nine categories and 44 subcategories, including outdoor flower, mixed light flower, pre-rolls, concentrates, cartridges, edibles, beverages and wellness products. Gold medal winners are now vying for nine coveted “Best of California” Golden Bear trophies, likened to the new “Michelin Guide” of cannabis products. With more than 500 entries in 2024—double that of 2023—the California State Fair Cannabis Awards is the largest sanctioned cannabis competition in the world. For 170 years, the California State Fair has awarded farmers from California’s traditional agricultural industries for their best-in-class bounty. In response to California voters’ overwhelming support for cannabis legalization and in recognition of the tremendous role cannabis plays as one of the state's top-ranking crops by value, the California State Fair has included cannabis in these prestigious awards for the past three years. Embarc Budist California State Fair Cannabis Awards Continuing reading at the link below.

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The non-alcoholic drinks market continues to grow and grow (and mature). Check out recent insights + stats from our friends at Grüvi: March Off Premise Retail Sales: → $48.6M > Identical to February, up 23% YoY → You can see subcategory performance in the chart below. Gruvi predicts: → 30-35% of YoY NA category growth. → 25%+ in off-prem and 50%+ in on-prem. → Premium, high quality craft or import NA beers will capture most of the growth of the NA beer market. → Big bet on NA RTDs to surpass NA wines by end of year. Gruvi has some more great stats in their blog post (link in comments). I’m hearing this same type of growth from members of the Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association (ANBA). There's been some questioning about the growth of the category because of the recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy by non-alc beverage retailer Boisson and the closing of their retail locations. I was going to share some thoughts on this but the Gruvi team summed it up well: “Having served as a supply partner for Boisson, and being intimately familiar with their retail locations, it became apparent that they faced challenges across their retail and e-commerce channels. Boisson positioned itself as the upscale destination for NA beverages, boasting premium locations and a curated assortment. However, despite the overall growth in the NA market, it remains predominantly composed of NA beer (80%) and NA wines/RTDs under $12 (10%). As larger retailers expanded their NA offerings to target the mainstream consumer—the 90% of the market as seen above - Boisson was left with a small addressable market. Unfortunately, the demand proved insufficient for Boisson to sustain its operations.” Andrea Hernández also has a great take on it in her most recent Snaxshot (link in the comments). The adult NA category is maturing. Brands that do not have good business models, have bad product-market, or average quality products will need to adapt or close their doors. And this is not a bad thing. Because what rises out of this are business and products that better serve the consumer. I’m always impressed by the continued release of higher and higher quality NA products, with each raising the bar for the category. And this is great for people looking to moderate or not drink alcohol for whatever reason, and in whatever situation that best suits them. The adult NA category is getting bigger and better each day. And ANBA, our members, and I are here to continue to create a world where everyone has access to great tasting adult non-alcoholic beverages to enjoy in every social situation. And that is something we can all celebrate! 🍾 🥂 🍻 You can join us in growing the category and this movement by visiting ANBA's website and signing up for a soon to launch newsletter (link in comments). And you can follow me, Marcos Salazar 🍺🍷🥃, (& click the bell under my profile banner) to get regular insights and news about NA drinks. ♻️ #Repost if you like this post :-)

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Lowell Farms is expanding its presence in California's cannabis market by taking on the management of two Los Angeles dispensaries, Rose Collective in Venice and Sunnyside Collective in Westwood. Through a management services agreement, Lowell Farms' subsidiary assumed operational control on October 1, with an option to acquire equity ownership in the future. The company sees this move as a step towards vertical integration, aiming to improve efficiency and profit margins while enhancing customer experiences. Lowell's expansion comes amid financial challenges, including a 50% year-over-year revenue decline in the second quarter and ongoing struggles in California's competitive cannabis market. https://lnkd.in/geUbGGnd

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The other three California cannabis testing labs that lost permits are: NCALC, doing business as THC Analytical: License revoked on Dec. 20, 2023. Salinas-headquartered ProForma Labs: License revoked on Feb. 16. Northridge-based California Cannabis Testing Labs: License canceled on July 24. Most of the revocations stemmed from THC-potency inflation and sloppy lab practices. But state regulators revoked ProForma’s permit after a reference lab discovered chlorfenapyr – a banned pesticide – in a product the lab had approved for retail sale. ProForma Labs did not report detecting any chlorfenapyr, according to the DCC’s revocation notice. Read entire article @ https://lnkd.in/gCdHMhFs #cannabistestinglabs #thctesting #bannedpesticices #californialabshutdown #cannabislabtestinglicenses

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