June 12, 2019 - Having built cannabis, hemp and CBD brands for other companies, PROHBTD is shifting focus to outbound licensing of its own brands, says CEO Drake Sutton-Shearer.

The California-based company, which assembled a dozen brands into the Hemp and Cannabis Marketplace display at Licensing Expo, previously had an internal group working with more than 60 brands to develop products. But with its own Hempathy (hemp-based therapy creams)and CBD Living (gummies, water), a joint venture with The Patch Co. (CBD transdermal patches) and Ceeby Dee’s (hemp-based dietary supplement) posting growing sales, the company decided to concentrate on outbound licensing.

As part of that effort, PROHBTD hired Beanstalk to license the hemp-based Hempathy and Ceeby Dee’s brands for personal care and household products. Beanstalk’s representing PROHBTD also “opens up new opportunities” for the agency’s iconic celebrity brands, says Beanstalk VP Marin Cribbs. However, those opportunities would follow “legalization as it solidifies nationally,” says Cribbs.

“We built a lot of brands for other companies, but we have decided to start building them for ourselves,” says Sutton-Shearer.

PROHBTD, which also is an investor in the Heavy Grass cannabis brand, plans to open its first stores in 2020 and is nearing a distribution agreement with a major U.S. retailer for the Hempathy products, says Sutton-Shearer.

Meanwhile, cannabis and CBD-related retailers are expanding.

Green Growth Brands, which has an agreement for celebrity-licensed CBD products with Authentic Brands Group, plans to expand to 280 Seventh Sense stores by year-end, including 108 at Simon Property Group’s malls and another 70 at Brookfield Properties shopping centers; Green Growth is currently in seven Brookfield locations.

Contacts:

Authentic Brands Group, Jamie Salter, CEO, 212-760-2412, jsalter@abg-nyc.com

Beanstalk, Allison Ames, CEO, 212-421-6060, allison.ames@beanstalk.com

Green Growth Brands, Peter Horvath, CEO, 614-743-0812

PROHBTD, Drake Sutton-Shearer, CEO, 323-244-0591