When Bill Margaritis talks about his company, Hemp2Lab, the excitement in his voice is palpable. And it’s not hard to see why.
The Rossville, Tennessee-based manufacturer has expanded beyond just CBD, and into nutraceuticals, natural pharmaceutical alternatives. In addition to its white label service, it’s launched its own product line, Precise CBD, which is found in health and wellness centers. It’s developed its own liposomal delivery technology, Element6; and it’s brought the entire production process under one roof at its headquarters, from extraction and formulation to fulfillment.
Hemp2Lab has also recently scored two high-profile partnerships. Here’s a rundown on each of them — and how they developed.
Hemp2Lab’s jackhammer
As it happens, one of Hemp2Lab’s key investors is the former chiropractor for the WWE, who’s known famed wrestler Bill Goldberg for more than two decades. So, when Goldberg started looking for more effective dietary supplements, he connected him with the company.
Goldberg liked Hemp2Lab’s offerings, and started exchanging ideas with its team.
“He became very interested in the science, as well as the provenance of our ingredients we’re using here, and then the creativity behind the formulations,” said Hemp2Lab president and CEO Bill Margaritis.
That interest led to a partnership between the two, and together, they’ve launched Gallant — a custom line of wellness products that are designed to maximize nutrient delivery and athletic performance. The initial product line has both CBD and non-CBD products. The non-CBD products include a pre-workout supplement and immune boost supplement, and the CBD products include a muscle relief cream, gummies, pure tincture oil, joint relief salve, and a sleep improvement offering with botanicals. They use THC-free organic hemp, and are vegan and gluten free.
For Hemp2Lab, the partnership is a significant victory, as Goldberg is a WWE Hall of Famer and former heavyweight champion with a large, loyal fanbase. He has almost 616,000 followers on Twitter, and about 2.6 million followers on Instagram. His first post about Gallant on the latter platform has over 11,500 likes.
“It allows us to reach a very discreet and unique demographic segment of the market: namely, action sports people, weightlifting, muscle cars, and hunting,” Margaritis said. “Bill has an extraordinary following across those demographics.”
Retail representation
Just a week after announcing the collaboration with Goldberg, Hemp2Lab has revealed another partnership: it’s struck a deal with The Vitamin Shoppe, the New Jersey-based retailer of nutritional supplements that has over 700 stores nationwide.
The Vitamin Shoppe now sells offerings of Hemp2Lab's product line, Precise CBD, on its website. Currently, it’s selling Precise CBD’s hemp oil tincture, immune boost tincture, sleep improvement tincture, muscle relief roll-on, and muscle relief cream. All the offerings — like its other products — are THC-free, and if everything goes as planned with online sales, Hemp2Lab will be able to get them into the retailer's stores in February or March.
According to Margaritis, The Vitamin Shoppe chose to do business with Hemp2Lab after testing several of the Precise CBD products.
“They asked us to send two scientific samples, one to their in-house team, and one to an outside team ... and we passed with flying colors,” he said. “They came back to us and said, ‘You’re a finalist; we’re going with you.’”
He also noted that The Vitamin Shoppe was impressed with Element6, its liposomal delivery technology found in all its products, including those in the Precise CBD and Gallant lines. Thanks to the presence of Element6, he maintains, Hemp2Lab’s products could provide a significantly higher bodily absorption rate, and more nutrients delivery for consumers than other, similar offerings.
Typically, he asserted, much of the nutrients from supplements and CBD products are vaporized by stomach enzymes and liver metabolism. But Element6 aims to prevent this and looks to increase the speed and rate of absorption.
“With our liposomal delivery, not only are you getting a much faster absorption rate into the blood stream, but the nutrients are protected by the lipids,” he said. “That’s why, when we’re coming to market, it gives us a competitive advantage in terms of performance."
