Love Hemp CBD Gears Up for Global Expansion

2021.03.15

LOVE HEMP—the UK’s leading producer of high-quality pure CBD products—sets its sights on expanding into Europe, the US, Asia, and beyond!

As school friends, Tom Rowland and Tony Calamita never imagined that their path would find them turning personal tragedy into corporate success, let alone in the field of wellness and self-care. In 2014, Rowland’s father (also named Tom) was diagnosed with bladder cancer, and Tom observed the relief that CBD oil had brought his dad. 

Seeing CBD’s potential, but unhappy with the industry’s lack of standardization, Tom called his old friend Tony, and having pooled £2,500 from their savings began work on the CBD bedroom-startup that in March 2015 became Love Hemp.

The elder Rowland succumbed to his cancer later that year but says Tom, “My dad thought it was great. He used it, and he got to see us becoming successful.”

Recognizing the need for a high-quality pure CBD brand, Rowland and Calamita decided that all Love Hemp products – of which there are now more than 40 lines, including oils, sprays, vapes, edibles, and water-based CBD products – would be third-party tested (by independent laboratories utilizing High-Performance Liquid Chromatography), ethically sourced, and have a guaranteed concentration of CBD.

Soon, in addition to CBD oil, the entrepreneurial duo had launched a range of novel and pioneering products including everything from edibles (Love Hemp® CBD Dark Chocolate Balls and Love Hemp® CBD Jelly Domes), and cosmetics (Love Hemp® CBD Cellulose Face Mask and Love Hemp® CBD Infused Body Salve), to Love Hemp® CBD Water; all sold online at LoveHemp.com and CBDOilsUK.com. 

Simultaneously, Love Hemp launched LH Botanicals to handle the wholesale side of things as well as to provide their expertise in the fields of Full-Service Manufacturing, Product Formulation, and Analytics to other businesses in the burgeoning CBD market.

Love Hemp’s continued brand appeal and ongoing product innovation underscore the company’s successful brand strategy. This has led to massive growth in the sale of Love Hemp products and the company becoming one of the leading CBD brands in the United Kingdom.

Of course, it is virtually impossible to achieve this sort of growth without receiving the attention of even bigger players in the market.

Love Hemp blipped on the radar of World High Life PLC (AQSE:LIFE, OTCQB: WRHLF) the North American cannabis investment firm run by Canadian entrepreneur, David Stadnyk. This led to Love Hemp’s acquisition by WHL for £9 million, in 2019.

And then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a ravaged global economy, Love Hemp’s sales continued to climb, on a year-to-year basis revenue jumped from £2.6 million (2019) to £6 million (2020), due to a 122% surge in sales from February to September, the bleakest months of the pandemic. 

If nothing else, this proved that during a time of crisis, wellness has become a greater priority, thereby leading to the ‘mainstreaming’ of CBD, with CBD products a pivotal part of wellness trends in the foreseeable future.

Furthermore, Stadnyk and the team at World High Life were so taken with the strength of Love Hemp’s brand and its founders, that they announced that World Hight Life PLC would be rebranded as Love Hemp Group PLC [AQSE: LIFE | OTCQB: WRHLF], with Tony Calamita as the President and CEO. 

Says Love Hemp Group PLC Chairman and Director Andrew Male, “The change of name to Love Hemp Group PLC has helped align the listed company with our operational entity and we look forward to building the brand, product line and overall business going forward in support of Tony Calamita, CEO of Love Hemp Group and co-founder of Love Hemp Ltd.”

And build it they have, thanks to established relationships with over 2,000 stores in the UK, including such leading retailers as Sainsbury’s, Boots, Ocado, and Holland & Barrett.

Male adds that because of the recent allotment of more than 86M shares related to the conversion of Convertible Debentures and in exchange for debt, Love Hemp Group PLC is positioned “with little to no debt,” which “effectively concludes the housekeeping actions we embarked on some three months ago.”

Conclusion

Love Hemp has set its sights on expansion beyond the UK’s borders, making serious inroads into global distribution by rolling-out distribution in the US in Q1 of this year, and simultaneously expanding into domestic set-up in Germany and the Netherlands.

Also, depending on regulations, Love Hemp plans to launch this year throughout Asia, and is in talks with potential distributors in Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Japan (where Love Hemp is obtaining a CBD import license). In Thailand, Love Hemp has completed two transactions for bulk CBD sale to departments of the government, while in South Korea the company is in discussions with that country’s FDA regarding regulatory openings.

A 2019 report by Fortune Business Insights tells us that “The global cannabidiol (CBD) market was valued at USD 2.19 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach USD 39.99 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 46.4 during the forecast period.” 

Keep in mind that the market size back in 2015 had been $200 million; so, it had grown tenfold in just four years.

Furthermore, in the three months between 26 November 2020 and 26 February 2021, the North American Marijuana Index rose more than 45%, from 144.03 to 219.48. As lingering social stigma surrounding CBD continues to fall by the wayside, this growth will foreseeably continue in the years to come.

Love Hemp is also strategically positioned to take advantage of the enormous opportunities becoming increasingly available in the UK’s and Europe’s legal cannabis space which is on track to being the world’s largest by 2026.

Thanks to its strong marketing strategy and market-savvy leadership team, Love Hemp Group PLC (OTCQB: WRHLF) is expanding beyond the borders of the UK, into Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Love Hemp is AOTH’s number one pick in the global CBD space.

Love Hemp LTD
OTCQB:WRHLF, AQSE:LIFEUS$0.06, 12th March, 2021
Shares Outstanding 401M
Market cap US$24M

Michael Shulman

aheadoftheherd.com
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DISCLAIMER: Michael Shulman is neither a registered broker nor a financial advisor and holds no licenses other than the one that permits him to legally operate a registered and insured motor vehicle.  The thoughts expressed above are personal opinions and should not be construed as investment advice or a recommendation to take any action other than performing your own due diligence and/or consulting with your personal fiscal advisor.  In no event should Michael Shulman be liable for any direct or indirect losses caused by the information contained above.  Information in this article is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. 

Michael Shulman does not own shares of Love Hemp LTD (OTCQB: WRHLF, AQSE: LIFE)

Richard Mills owns shares of Love Hemp (OTCQB:WRHLF, AQSE:LIFE). Love Hemp is a paid advertiser on his site aheadoftheherd.com