For any new cannabis beverage company, the biggest problem is getting their product onto the market. Even when you find dispensaries that are accepting new products, there are chances that you might not be able to solve the issue of the required volume.

Finding the right co-packer can solve this issue, but finding such a co-packer that's willing to make your product is not easy, especially when working with brand partners who are starting from scratch and don't know much about the industry.

In this video, Sid Patel, CEO of Beverage Trade Network and Cannabis Drinks Expo, is in conversation with Kenny Morrison, Founder of VCC Brands. Here, Kenny explains what a co-packer partnership looks like in the cannabis market.

 

**About Kenny Morrison**

[Founder VCC Brands]

In 2006 Kenny co-founded a few well-known medical cannabis collectives in Los Angeles and Venice Beach, California now owned by MedMen. In 2008, Kenny founded a pioneering cannabis CPG brand called Venice Cookie Company. The premise centered on the idea that edibles should be tasty, safe, and wellness-oriented. VCC entered the beverage category in 2010 at the request of actor and Venice Beach resident Dennis Hopper, who was searching for a hot cannabis tea while terminally ill with prostate cancer. Other award-winning cannabis beverage brands followed. In 2012 he expanded to the state of Washington as Evergreen Herbal, assisting in the creation of regulations with the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board. The company, now known as VCC Brands, house a family of California-bred heritage brands and IP, including California's original bottled canna-beverage, Cannabis Quencher.

While serving his second term as a director on the board of California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA) in 2015, Kenny's Los Angeles-based cannabis business was raided by 100 law enforcement officers and DEA, which led him to co-founding CCMA (California Cannabis Manufacturers Association) in 2016 to advocate on behalf of the state’s most ethical plant-touching operators. As Kenny rebuilt the company from scratch with no money and only his reputation intact, he simultaneously spent three years fighting for the return of his seized cash and property from law enforcement, which was eventually returned in 2018. Kenny is a well-known cannabis CPG pioneer having navigated VCC Brands through well over a decade of profitability and change. Please visit VCCBrands.com and CannabisManufacturers.org to learn more.