Canadian company launches retail line of hemp products

Hempco Food and Fiber has moved from the hemp nut and oil business into a retail line of flavoured protein powders.

Don Mosher, marketing executive, predicts sales will jump from $6.5 this fiscal to $18 million next year.

The 10-year-old Canadian company had been exclusively selling oil and 50 lb bags of hemp seeds, mostly to Korea and the U.S. Three weeks ago the company began selling its vanilla chai, original flavour and maple sugar cinnamon powders to Tesco and other stores in the U.K.

The powders, sold under the Planet Hemp label, are used mostly for smoothies—a growing segment of the beverage market for busy and health conscious consumers.

CEO Clips, a series which profiles the most innovative publicly traded companies in North America, will feature Hempco on The Documentary Channel beginning from July 11 to July 24, Monday through Friday, throughout the day and evenings.





The company expects its products to hit grocery shelves in Canada later this year, says Mosher. The company is in talks with  Costco and Loblaw.

“They want another brand on the shelves,” explains Mosher.

Hempco expects to be producing two separate flavours of hemp snacks in the form of energy bars,  as well as hemp oils in various sizes and hemp protein powders.

He says it’s too early to know how well sales are doing in U.K. grocers.

“We won’t see numbers until September,” he says. “We’ll have a better idea then where were going.”

Hemp oil is produced from squeezing the hemp seeds which are turned into hearts or nuts once the husk is removed. When the oil is squeezed out, grinding the seed produces powder.

The company went public in March with a small IPO to raise $1.3 million to help it get into retail.