News

Charlotte’s Web partners with Tilray, products expected 2023

Published on November 4, 2022 by David Wylie

Photo: Instagram/charlotteswebcbd

Charlotte’s Web will be available to recreational consumers for the first time in Canada next year.

The US-based company inked a deal with Tilray to bring its full-spectrum hemp CBD products to Canada.

One of the most well-known names in CBD, Charlotte’s Web was initially developed and used to help children suffering from seizures.

Starting in 2023, the companies plan to offer Charlotte’s Web oil tinctures, topical creams, and gummies.

Charlotte’s Web has already dipped its toe into the Canadian cannabis industry.

  RELATED: Charlotte’s Web coming to Canada with Okanagan bud

Last year, the company completed its first ever international hemp harvest, at a grow in the Okanagan. The high-CBD, early flowering and maturing hemp cultivars were developed for shorter northern climate growing seasons, and the company says their first Canadian harvest exceeded initial estimates by 20%.

The crop included its flagship “CW1AS1,” a US-patented cultivar that’s used in its full-spectrum “Original Formula.”

Photo: Instagram/charlotteswebcbd

This new alliance between Charlotte’s Web and Tilray includes licensing, manufacturing, quality, marketing and distribution of Charlotte’s Web CBD hemp extract products in Canada. Currently, the products have been available only to Canadian families that qualified for a special access medical exemption through Health Canada.

Charlotte’s Web CEO Jacques Tortoroli says the partnership underscores its strategic expansion into international markets.

“Our collective goal is to bring full spectrum CBD-lifestyle wellness options to the Canadian market that will answer consumers’ demand for safe, high quality, trusted CBD products,” says Tortoroli in a news release.

CBD could soon be openly available in Canada

While Charlotte’s Web CBD products are limited in Canada to licensed cannabis stores, the companies say they’re preparing for “the contemplated introduction of new natural health products regulations and potential ability to sell CBD products through traditional pharmacies in Canada.”

Tilray’s Canadian president Blair MacNeil says it’s an exciting time for the Canadian CBD market, adding the company is anticipating an evolution in distribution channels from the dispensary model to natural wellness retail channels—and eventually mass retail opportunities.

“This is a monumental milestone for our Canadian families that have relied on Charlotte’s Web products for years through Health Canada exemption access and marks a new era of wide availability to Charlotte’s Web products,” says Jared Stanley, co-founder and COO of Charlotte’s Web.

“It was critical that our products were produced only using our proprietary hemp cultivars to ensure quality, efficacy, and consistency. We achieved this through a process that began in 2019 to successfully list our varieties on the Health Canada LOAC (List of Approved Cultivars) in 2021 and working with best-in-class cultivation partners. We are grateful for the meaningful collaboration with Health Canada and Tilray to make Charlotte’s Web products available for all Canadians.”