LEADING CBD firm Love Hemp is set to become the latest company to make it on to Amazon UK capping a stellar few weeks for the London firm.
Earlier this month it announced it has raised £5m to support its partnership with global mixed martial arts platform UFC and upgrade from the Aquis to the London Stock Exchange.
It has subsequently announced a further £2m capital injection from ‘broker placements’ and is now close to securing an Amazon listing.
‘Live Within Weeks’
Tony Calamita, Co-Founder and Chief Executive, said: “Amazon started the CBD trial last year and we are now one of 10 to 12 companies invited on to that trial. We are currently going through the process of registering the products and having the labelling approved.
“We expect our products to be live in the next few weeks. We will be one of only a few select companies invited to participate and we expect to see our full range, of around 40 products, approved.”
BusinessCann first reported Amazon’s moves to list CBD products last October in what it has billed as ‘invite-only pilot study’.
It confirmed it has expanded the pilot in recent months by on-boarding a ‘small number of new vendors’
It went on to say that all of the vendors had demonstrated their compliance with the UK CBD Novel Food regulations and had been subject to ‘rigorous internal compliance checks’.
In an interview with BusinessCann Mr Calamita went on to say the additional £7m financial clout meant it was now in a position to expand its global reach into a number of new jurisdictions.
United States Launch
These include the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, and on into the rest of Europe; Japan, Australia and it was aligning with regulations to pursue entry into the South Korean and Thailand markets.
He said that by the end of the year its ambition is to have a ‘market of one billion people within reach of a next-day, domestic delivery capability’.
“There is lots of growing space for Love Hemp globally and we are focused on delivering on this as soon as we can,” he added.
Mr Calamita believes that with a Market Cap of £30m on the junior Aquis Exchange then Love Hemp is significantly undervalued in relation to its main market peers such as Kanabo and Cellular Goods.
Main Market Listing
On debut, earlier this year, the valuations of these companies rose to the £80m-plus bracket. With demonstrable year-on-year sales growth Love Hemp believes it’s more than capable of closing this gap for investors.
He said the London Stock Exchange listing is progressing and expected to complete in September.
The company’s new facility in South London will be fully functioning by July and by then it will be employing 40 full-time staff with annual revenues in excess of £6m.
With the ‘Public List’ of companies securing UK Novel Food Validation due out this week Mr Calamita is confident of its progress through this process.
He said all of its rodent toxicology and ADME/PK (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and pharmacokinetics) had been complete.
He added: “We have taken the process incredibly seriously with work going on for over a year. If we are not on the list, then I am confident that no one else will be.”
AMAZON UK BECAME THE FIRST ONE OF ITS GLOBAL PLATFORMS TO LIST CBD PRODUCTS
The UK Food Standards Agency’s decision to establish a regulated CBD industry through adherence to the ‘Novel Food’ pathway has assuaged Amazon’s compliance chiefs.
The initial companies selected for the Amazon UK trial included: US firm Naturopathica, UK firm Four Five CBD, Preston company Natures Aid, Vitality CBD, Weider, Green Stem, Skin Republic, Tower Health, of Nottingham, and established UK firm Healthspan.
Since then Cannaray, Dragonfly Biosciences and CBDFX have been invited on-board and Love Hemp is set to follow.
Amazon says that each vendor has submitted a Novel Food application and has been subject to ‘rigorous, internal compliance checks’.
