Will infused beverages become the most popular method of consumption? Inconsistent results, after taste and delayed onset are just some of the challenges that originally plagued the cannabis infused beverage sector. Fortunately, most of the obstacles have been overcome and the sector is steadily gaining popularity. Marcello Leone the CEO of BevCanna Enterprises Inc (BEV) (BVNNF) joins Dan Humiston to talk about their licensed cannabis bottling company, their white label program and the increasing demand for cannabis beverages. Produce by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/marcello-leone https://www.bevcanna.com/
Will infused beverages become the most popular method of consumption?
Inconsistent results, after taste and delayed onset are just some of the challenges that originally plagued the cannabis infused beverage sector. Fortunately, most of the obstacles have been overcome and the sector is steadily gaining popularity. Marcello Leone the CEO of BevCanna Enterprises Inc (BEV) (BVNNF) joins Dan Humiston to talk about their licensed cannabis bottling company, their white label program and the increasing demand for cannabis beverages.
https://podconx.com/guests/marcello-leone
https://www.bevcanna.com/
Dan Humiston: [00:00:00] Today on raisin cannabis capital. We are joined by Marcelo Leoni, the CEO of Bev, Cana
marcelo. Welcome to the show.
Marcello Leone: Dan. Thank you so much. Nice to be here.
Dan Humiston: I'm really excited to have you on, and I know our listeners are going to be excited because. Today's show is about developing a sector that everyone can relate to the infused beverage sector. And I, I want to get started by asking a question that's been on my mind and I know it's been on our listeners mind is why is it taken so long for the infused beverage sector to gain traction?
Marcello Leone: No question. I think, you know what I love to answer this one like this, and I think we have to look at the whole industry a little bit as a whole, which is, this federal legalization of cannabis is critical and whether it's CBD derivative from from cannabis, whether it's THC, et cetera, Canada, where we are based out of we're federally illegal.
And that means you can only buy through the provinces. You can only buy through authorized dispensary's, et [00:01:00] cetera, and creating this new category of cannabis that we're all now talking about 2.0, beverages, edibles, et cetera. This is newer with the legalization, the federal legalization with Canada.
So now it's all starting the world. We're still not even on first base, then we're still so early in this stage, we, I kinda refer to this industry as the end of prohibition of alcohol and look at all the decades from the end of prohibition and look how much alcohol distribution there is in the world today.
And every year, how many new brands come out into the marketplace? Because people are consumers and they're used to and familiar with the consumption. Method of beverages. very familiar. It's still early because we need to be able to have more federal legalization. It needs to have be able to be readily available for more and more consumers. I think Dan we're just early days. We're not even on first base. We're looking for that federal legalization in the United States. That the safe banking act is, has [00:02:00] got to now get it get approved by the Senate committee.
We're still, even though it's been around for many years in Colorado, California, and Canada, et cetera. Now we're talking about taking this plant and making it federally legal globally. And wow. What are the next three to four to five years going to look like it's going to be great.
But I think we're just in the early days with infused beverages, I think that the utilization of cannabis is becoming more and more mainstream. And I think , the one category in North America that we're starting to see, that's gaining traction are beverages.
And I think people would like to be able to have the onset. Of what cannabis can do for you or CBD and not have to have carcinogenic smoking and having those potential risks to you when you do smoke. That's where we are in the cycle. Then I think again, we have not hit first base.
I think once we have more distribution in North America. And readily available CBD distribution and major national stores, et [00:03:00] cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I think the consumption is going to be massive.
Dan Humiston: I couldn't agree with you more. I think that it's a known. Method of consumption and , it's built into our social lives and everything else. I think , when you get it ready, there's definitely going to be a demand for it.
And I see you manufacture your brands, but you also have a white label division. Can you tell us a little bit more about your white label? Division.
Marcello Leone: Sure we have a state-of-the-art bottling facility up in soy-based British Columbia, which is equivalent to your Napa Valley down in California. So our soil, this is where they grow beautiful grapes and there's beautiful wineries, et cetera. And we have our own aquifer as well.
So we have our own water that is untouched by man, which is very important. You need the water when you're infusing beverages. And we have a state-of-the-art bottling facility that can produce 200 million bottles per annum. There's not a lot of companies up there that are offering you, Dan, if tomorrow you came and you said, I'm Dan and I have gotten dance, beautiful [00:04:00] CBD infused beverage.
And I want to get that product out into the marketplace. Yet, I don't have a bottling facility. . We offered that white label solution that we can cater to entrepreneurs that are starting in the industry that need to develop product. We can offer beautiful option to say.
By the way, Dan what are you going to be utilizing you? You created this formulation. We can help you with that formulation. What kind of form factor would you like? We offer aluminum glass, RPT, plastic, et cetera, shots, different sizes, and , that takes the burden off a lot of these entrepreneurs that are coming into the industry and starting to build brands.
But they don't have the facilities. And then if you want it to go to a big major Molson's or a constellation or a heck, so somebody that's big in the field for beverages. They're busy doing their own beverages. They're not going to slow down those production facilities and bottling lines for smaller runs.
And what's beautiful about what we do. We can service a big run and we can service also [00:05:00] smaller runs as well. So it's the demand for white label. Is actually quite interesting and the phone doesn't stop. So it's a nice model. We're happy with it.
Dan Humiston: I definitely see that as a huge in demand service, who can invest in the bottling facility there's a barrier to entry. They can't overcome it. So they need people like you. And I see that you recently signed an exclusive manufacturing and distribution deal with Keefe brands , out of the U S which is very exciting.
Marcello Leone: We have a really great relationship with ki.Keith is the number one brand in the U S with volume and dollar soldkeith has eight of the top 10 beverages in state of Colorado, and two of the top 10 in California.
. They're the leader in the U S again, imagine what that's going to look like in the United States in the next five years, six, seven, eight years as legalization gets more relaxed. And once again, it's going to get more relaxed. It's going to get federal legalization. We're gonna [00:06:00] relax, meaning by federal legalization, but the systems and the criteria is, and the compliance is going to be strict, which is great for the end consumer as well.
So you know, that you're buying products that are great. And then what we did with Keith was chief wants to come up to Canada. Between Canada and the United States, the way the laws work today, you can't ship product from the U S up to Canada. That's infused with cannabis. And you can't ship product from Canada.
That's infused with cannabis down to the United States. Okay. So it doesn't matter what company, it doesn't matter how big or how small that's just the way the lie is because of federal non legalization in the United States. So we manufacture all Keef beverages for Canada, and we distribute all Keef, beverages for kief in Canada as well.
So anything you touch across Canada, if you want to buy the United States leading number one beverage team, we manufacture and we distribute that's our partnership with them. .
And what's nice also with deepest, because we'd like to introduce our products into the [00:07:00] U S like our product called anarchist mountain, which is a THC infused beverage that we've created in Canada. Because we can't cross ship our products from Canada. The U S our relationship with Keith allows us to use their manufacturing facilities that they have in the U S.
And it allows us a nice distribution partnership with their distribution system in the U S as well. So it's a win-win situation on both sides.
Dan Humiston: You're positioning yourself for when it is possible. You'll be the little bats or the Molson's,
Marcello Leone: yeah. You we don't know where compliance goes, but we, if we know that alcohol can cross all borders, et cetera, then it's just a matter of time. I believe for , the cannabis plant to be able to comply. And it just needs more federal legalization globally.
Dan Humiston: I see that you're a publicly traded company and for our listeners are all excited about looking for opportunities to invest in publicly traded companies for the larger investors. Are there going to be other opportunities down the road, maybe.
Marcello Leone: We are so early days in our business, we are so excited about the next 12 months in the end of this fiscal [00:08:00] year. We're really excited about 2022. There's a lot of growth for our company. There's been a lot of excitement with our company as well.
The symbol on the stock and Canada is BEB under Bev. And then. The other symbol in the U S is BV, N F I look at it like this, if you're if you want to be exposed to the space and your outlook is is the next 12 to 18 months. Then you're well positioned with a company like arms, because we're just getting ongoing.
And we're really excited about that. Unfortunately, the business and the public markets you need that correlation to get more in line with each other, and that takes time.
Dan Humiston: Like I saidyou've created a gigantic moat around your sector because it's hard. To build a facility that can pump out as many bottles a time plus that infrastructure. And why do it just private label, do a white label with
Marcello Leone: And the licensing,
Dan Humiston: Al the licensing.
Yeah.
Marcello Leone: can you imagine you're compliant? You've got to have all the people in the staff in place. [00:09:00] You've got to spend the money. You've got to sit and wait. And hopefully in two years, you're going to get your license.
Dan Humiston: That's why I think that this is a , really good opportunity for people that want to get in on this sector. Now's the time I'll have all of Bev, his information in the show notes, including the stock symbol. So if you missed them earlier, you can grab them right off the show notes.
Marcello Leone: . We come from the entrepreneurial spirit. So we do our best to get back to everybody. And, we want to make sure that the success is there for our shareholders our company, our employees.
This is a journey.It's not a sprint.
Dan Humiston: Yeah, Marcello. I am really excited for you. I appreciate you being on the show today. Thank you.
Marcello Leone: Dan, I appreciate you inviting us to come back anytime you're gentlemen. Thank you so much.