Hemp Comes Home: Why Martha Stewart is Partnering with Marijuana Grower Canopy

In what may seem like an unlikely mashup, lifestyle guru Martha Stewart announced she will partner with marijuana grower Canopy Growth to bring hemp to your home.

Stewart and Canopy, one of the largest cannabis companies in the world, will jointly develop a line of CBD products derived from hemp. CBD (cannabidiol) is a non-psychoactive chemical compound found in cannabis, and is often used to treat health issues. The partnership will develop CBD-based products for both humans and animals.

The CBD market is expected to be a $20 billion dollar industry by 2020.

The partnership will also include Sequential Brands Group, which owns numerous fashion and activewear brands including Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the media company Stewart sold to Sequential in 2015 for $353 million. So far, it’s unclear what role Sequential Brands will play in the partnership.

More details:

• Stewart will join Canopy and Sequential in an advisory role, creating a whole new line of products.
• Earlier this year, Canopy was given the green light to start large-scale hemp production in the U.S., and announced that it would start producing hemp at a farm in New York state.
• Canopy hopes Stewart’s brand and business acumen can help as it seeks to get a foothold in the U.S. CBD and cannabis markets.

What’s behind the Martha Stewart-Canopy partnership

Canopy Growth, based in Canada, is seeing success in the newly-legal Canadian cannabis market, with its latest earnings report (Q3 2019) boasting a 282% year-over-year increase in revenue. Martha Stewart’s name is instantly recognizable to millions of consumers in the U.S., and Canopy is hoping to leverage her brand as its products become available in the states, according to the company’s press release.

Stewart is famous for her no-nonsense lifestyle brand and television content. She previously built her business as a TV personality, focusing on content related to cooking and weddings. That’s what makes this partnership particularly interesting—it’s a big leap from a home and garden-focused business to the cannabis industry.

But it could be a move that helps further bring CBD and cannabis products into the mainstream in the U.S.

For Stewart, who’s fond of saying, “it’s a good thing,” the Canopy partnership may be just that.

You can invest in the cannabis industry on Stash.