Nevis Brands (CSE:NEVI, OTCQB:NEVIF) CEO John Kueber talked with Proactive about two major expansion updates for the company’s THC-infused beverage brands, Major and Happy Apple.
Kueber began by discussing the company’s entry into Illinois, its 10th US market.
The second key development is the expansion of the Happy Apple beverage into both North and South Carolina. Unlike Major, which is a high-dose product available only in dispensaries, Happy Apple operates under hemp-derived THC rules, enabling retail distribution across state lines.
Proactive: All right, welcome back inside our Proactive newsroom. And joining me now is John Kueber. He is the CEO of Nevis Brands. And John, good to have you back again. How are you?
John Kueber: I'm great, thanks for having me.
Yes. So a company has a couple of pieces of significant news, and we'll deal with them one at a time. Let's begin with Illinois, because that's a key market I know for the company. And you've got some news out of there today.
Yes, it's our 10th state that we're now active in. Illinois is just a fantastic market, somewhat established market, but still not a ton of drinks. We think Major is going to do extremely well. Been in market for two weeks so far, and the uptake by a few different dispensaries has been impressive.
And again, this is the same formula that you've done in all the other states as well, by using someone on the ground that you know.
Yes, we work with partners that already are selling into markets, already have established product delivery routes and so forth. And this is their only drink that they're selling. And they handle all of our sales, production and distribution. And they remit to us a royalty.
So tell me a bit about the penetration you're getting with Major. I know you're in a number of states, so just sort of update us on where Major is at.
Yes. So I'm going to compare it to our recent introduction of Major into New Jersey. We launched in New Jersey about six months ago. You have about 220 different dispensaries in New Jersey. We're in just over half of those within six months. That's a great start for us. In terms of Illinois, we'd like to penetrate 25% of those stores. There’s roughly 250 to 300 active dispensaries in Illinois. We believe we can be in 40 or 50 stores in the first 60 days. The goal is always to be in half the dispensaries within a six-month period.
Okay. Let's take a step to the other side of the news today. And that's regarding Happy Apple. And I want to just get you to remind everyone a bit about Happy Apple, because it is very different from what Major is.
Yes. We're still dealing with a THC-infused beverage. The difference is we've been playing with the 100 milligram high-dose category only sold in dispensaries, which is a good thing given the dosage. In terms of hemp-derived THC, under federal law, you can sell hemp across state lines. So it opens up a lot of opportunities.
Now, there are some states that, to protect their existing cannabis markets ironically, are banning hemp-derived beverages. But that still leaves 30 or 40 states for us to sell products into. And the news we announced today is that we have a distributor that's taking Happy Apple across the Carolinas, North to South Carolina. And I was in market there about two weeks ago.
This is just a fantastic development for the cannabis industry. Instead of going into a dispensary, instead of keeping the stigma of cannabis, you're going into a bar. And just as you'd see a reader board with, you know, 5%, 6% on the alcohol ratings, you're seeing cannabis beverages that say five milligrams THC, ten milligrams THC—being treated the same as alcohol.
And it's a wonderful thing for consumption. It's a wonderful thing for our business. But it's also just a great thing for the industry that cannabis is being normalized, similar to other intoxicants.
And John, is it a big market for that in the Carolinas? You know, when you look at markets, you think of places like California. But many people may not even have the Carolinas on their radar.
Sure. I mean, look, you look at a city like Charlotte, which is a couple million people. Raleigh—very large place. You're looking at a population of around 10 million across the Carolinas. I'm estimating that, but it's a large population, large concentration of college-age people. There's a lot of excitement around cannabis.
Anecdotally, you walk into some stores, some of these bottle shops that are selling beer, and they're talking about how half the revenue is coming from cannabis now. And there's been a fair amount of news. Actually, just over the weekend, CNN and Fox were talking about how THC is starting to take away significant market share from alcohol.
Now, alcohol is still king. But you hear stories like this and you see with your own eyes that people are consuming—it's pretty amazing. So being in the hemp-derived space is big for our business. It's a whole different model. For your viewers, I think we're one of the only investable hemp-derived cannabis beverage companies out there that's traded. And we think it's going to be fantastic for our revenue growth. We're going to be able to maintain similar margins. It's a great thing for our business to be able to play in both markets.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and style