Mike Beaudry, Founder, CEO, HERBL Solutions- Interview Series

“By continuing to pursue misguided tax policies, California is costing jobs and strengthening an illicit market.”

– Mike Beaudry

The cannabis supply chain is an intricate meshwork of stringent regulations and evolving laws, partly arising from the fact that cannabis is federally illegal. For example, one cannot transport cannabis legally across state lines, even when moving from one green state to another. Stringent licensing and testing requirements coupled with laws that change from one state to another are all factors that may discourage an entrepreneur from venturing into the industry. For California, the illicit market which is very rife compounds the problem. To survive the cutthroat competition and make the most of the green rush, cannabis businesses must streamline their seed-to-sale process by having a lean and efficient supply chain.

Mike Beaudry is the CEO of the largest brand in the cannabis supply chain in California- HERBL which he founded in 2018. In spite of the numerous challenges in the Californian cannabis industry, HERBL has grown in leaps and bounds and currently services over 1,000 licensed retailers. In this brief interview, he takes us through his journey as both an entrepreneur and thought leader in the California cannabis industry.

How did your career path lead you to the cannabis industry?

I have always been both a fan of the plant and a part of the culture since high school. My career path led me to supply chain and distribution, where I spent the better part of three decades leading high-volume distribution companies. Prior to starting HERBL, I was President of United Natural Foods (UNFI), America’s leading distributor of natural, organic, and specialty foods. After ten years at UNFI, I served five years as CEO of Lang Pharma Nutrition, a private label dietary supplement company that manufactures and distributes products for the top retailers in the U.S., including Costco, Walmart, CVS, and Target.

When I went to MJBizCon in 2014 and saw the cannabis industry firsthand, it was basically love at first sight. I felt like I was seeing an industry being born. I saw very clear correlations between the early days of the natural products industry and the cannabis industry and knew that if cannabis was going to become a CPG supply chain type of industry, I needed to be part of it.

So, in December of 2015, I resigned from my job at Lang Pharma Nutrition and began building HERBL. I had a ton of learning to do, including a lot of relationship-building. Prior to the physical start of the business, I spent two and a half years of full-time due diligence, learning the industry and building the model of what I thought a cannabis distributor would look like. By 2018, HERBL officially launched as an operating company in Santa Rosa, California. From there, we were able to bring on a tremendous team of experts, both in the supply chain and in cannabis, to build a company that honors the legacy of the industry while putting professionalism into the supply chain itself.

Supply chain is an issue across industries, the cannabis industry is not an exemption. With talks of federal legalization (MORE Act) being hot on the heels, supply challenges are likely to be compounded. In what ways is HERBL stepping up to fill the gap?

HERBL is stepping up in many ways. As a company, we have built an infrastructure that is highly scalable, and we’ll be able to pivot to ship across state lines as soon as we are allowed. Together with Blackbird, HERBL’s technology stack is best in class, infinitely scalable, and battle-tested. Our warehouse management system (WMS) is utilized by the largest supply chain companies in the world, and Blackbird was purpose-built for the cannabis industry for all things e-commerce-related, B2B, and B2C. Our team is also best in class, with decades of experience managing national and international supply chains at scale. Additionally, HERBL has deep relationships with supply and brand partners, meaning we are better positioned for national expansion than any cannabis distributor.

HERBL ideally connects the best brands to the best retailers so as to bring the best products to the end consumers. Tell us more about your process

What we do is we purchase products from multiple brands and we bring them into our warehouses throughout California to create a catalog of products. From there the customers order from our catalog and we collectively bring those products to the retailer. So, the dispensary places the order via our catalog online, and then that order is collected, packed, and shipped out of our warehouses to then be delivered to the customer on one of our trucks.

Supply chains are the linchpin to growth for a brand, and we really do work in collaboration with each of the brand partners and their sales teams. We have about 30 people of our own out in the sales market infield, and all of our brands have their own set of sales folks as well. As their distributor, we offer support to their teams to help build relationships with dispensaries and make sure they have those support systems in place. So much of what we do is people first. For this reason, our selection process for the brands we choose to partner with is very diligent. We have to fit with the people on our brand partner’s team, or frankly, it won’t work.

It’s just the first quarter of 2022 and you have already brought on board sought-after cannabis brands under your umbrella. Can you tell us more about these new partnerships and their unique value addition?

2022 is off to a strong start at HERBL, and we still have many projects still in the works. We recently announced that we ​​will now distribute the entire product line of Friendly Farms, one of California's top cannabis brands, which we’re very excited about. We appreciate their commitment to producing high-quality cannabis extracts and flower and working with California’s best cultivators.

HERBL has also recently announced an exclusive distribution partnership with URSA Extracts. URSA cartridges and concentrates are highly sought-after high-quality items that deserve to be more widely available.

We’ve also partnered with OASIS to distribute their suite of all-natural cannabis edibles, as well as Ciencia Labs' Quell brand to supply their stress-relieving tinctures and gummies. We are honored to be their distribution partner to help make these sought-after products more accessible in the largest cannabis market in the country.

We value all the brands we partner with and are excited to continue to expand our portfolio. At HERBL, we strive to team up with the best names in California cannabis to foster even deeper relationships between brands and consumers.

The California cannabis market: Is oversupply an issue presently?

There has historically been an imbalance of supply & demand at certain times of the year, but the last 12 months in California have been consistently oversupplied.  Oversupply in the market forces prices to drop and can ultimately drive cultivators out of business. While there may be an oversupply presently, I’m confident that supply and demand will get in sync, it’s a dynamic evolution as the market expands and cultivators plan for that growth.

The California cannabis market is beset with several challenges that affect your clientele. Excessive taxation that fuels the illicit market is a major one. What can or should be done about this?

A lot of great work is being done by several groups to lower taxes, and that work can’t stop until this issue is solved. Due to their advocacy, the state’s cannabis cultivation tax has a great chance of being eliminated this year. The state and local governments must accept the reality that lower taxes will mean much higher revenue at legal dispensaries, and more revenue will mean more actual tax dollars being collected. However, by continuing to pursue misguided tax policies, California is costing jobs and strengthening an illicit market. A true effort to eliminate illicit activity will help to create parity in pricing.

What’s next for HERBL? Are you looking to enter into the new emerging markets in the near future?

The HERBL leadership team had decades of experience in expanding companies throughout the US. HERBL has several additional states targeted and will also continue to put significant energy and resources into the two states that we have worked hard to gain a dominant position. Much work still needs to be done in California and Nevada.

As always, the HERBL team is always on the hunt for new and creative products to add to our ever-growing list of distribution partners.

What are your personal predictions for the global cannabis industry in 2022?

This year, I anticipate that more states will continue to legalize cannabis, bringing federal legalization closer to reality. I also anticipate banking laws in cannabis to become a reality at some point, further legitimizing the industry, and multi-state operators will start to make their entries into California. This of course will bring a lot of growth and a lot more competition in the space, but I think we will see the clear winners emerge; those who have been in this space and helped to build it. With the influx of players in the arena, I think we will see that brands will continue to resonate with consumers and marketing will matter more than it has to date.

HERBL recently announced that they have once again become the exclusive distributor of cannabis brand dosist ahead of 4/20. Can you talk about this partnership’s significance?

We are proud to once again partner with Dosist and distribute their award-winning product line throughout California. Dosist is a pioneer brand that has played a crucial role in making cannabis accessible to the mainstream with its industry-famous dose-controlled wellness products. Their expansive line of products delivers consistent and effective cannabis experiences that appeal to a wide range of consumers. The brand is a great fit for our carefully curated distribution portfolio and we’re excited to watch the brand continue to grow through our first-class distribution system.

It was a great pleasure to have this one-on-one with Mike, CEO of HERBL. Readers who wish to keep up with how HERBL is transforming the industry are welcome to visit their website.