A Louisville-based CBD company has expanded its retail footprint in a big way.
Cornbread Hemp recently inked a deal with Fresh Thyme Market, a natural health food retailer headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, making its products available in 70 locations throughout the Midwest. That includes stores in major markets such as Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, according to a news release.
"Partnering with Fresh Thyme is further proof that full spectrum CBD products, which contain a legal amount of hemp-derived THC, are finally becoming part of the mainstream grocery channel," said Eric Zipperle, CEO and co-founder of Cornbread Hemp, in the release. "We are proud to lead the industry in providing access to safe and effective full spectrum CBD products, while educating and advocating for consumers along the way."
Cornbread Hemp, founded in 2019 by cousins Zipperle and Jim Higdon, closed on a $2 million round in March with about $300,000 of that seed capital coming from a Wefunder campaign launched in February. It has more than 1,200 investors, according to its Wefunder page.
In an interview last week, Higdon told me he and Zipperle just returned from Washington D.C. where they were advocating for CBD to become a dietary supplement as a part of the 2023 Farm Bill. While the 2018 Farm Bill decriminalized CBD products, the Food and Drug Administration still does not recognize it, and says new regulatory frameworks need to be established to "manage risks" related to CBD products.
"What we're trying to do in this Farm Bill is to bring the FDA into line with the understanding that CBD products are legal, and create a framework to work under so that CBD industry can grow naturally to what it's supposed to be," Higdon said. "The FDA lives in its own world, under its own logic, and has made recognizing the simple language of the last Farm Bill a herculean task."
That's part of the reason why the deal with Fresh Thyme is, well, a big deal. Higdon explained that without the FDA's approval, ingestible CBD products are banned from pharmacies, big box retailers and major grocers, like Kroger and Whole Foods.
But natural health food retailers are different, as Cornbread Hemp's products are now available in more than 200 natural health food stores across the country, including Rainbow Blossom locally. (Louisville's only Fresh Thyme location closed in August 2019.)
With Fresh Thyme, Higdon said it was a long process to get the company on board. Conversations began two years ago, when Higdon and Zipperle started going to Natural Foods Expo West in Anaheim, California.
"It took time to build relationships and to get the trust from they buyer necessary to give it a shot on the shelf," Higdon said.
While there's still room to grow in retail, Cornbread Hemp's e-commerce sales soared during the pandemic years and beyond. Higdon said the company finished 2022 with $6.5 million in gross revenue and its trailing 12 months is $11 million.
"I don't want to talk projections, but we're on track to do really good this year," he said.
Cornbread Hemp, which has offices on Data Drive in Louisville, employs 30 people, about half of which are based here.
