London Inc. September 2021 - 17

" WE HAVE BEEN BANNED BY EVERYBODY WE CAN POSSIBLY BE
BANNED BY - OUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT HAS BEEN FROZEN WITH
MONEY IN IT AND WE'VE BEEN BANNED FROM ADVERTISING
ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM " -Jennifer Grantç
over 1,000 years, topically and internally, and it turns
out the cannabis roots have copious amounts of a really
incredibly active ingredient call friedelin, which is
clinically proven to be an anti-inflammatory. "
In October 2020, empyri (www.empyri.com), a
skincare line built around cannabis root, was born.
One irony of cannabis legalization in Canada is that
it has made doing business in proximity to cannabis
quite challenging, even if - like empyri's product line -
you're not working with THC or CBD. ( " Cannabis roots
are not super easy to get, " Grant adds.)
Launching six months into a pandemic meant that
an initial projection of a 70/30 split between brick-andmortar
versus online sales was flipped
on its head, and then some.
" We are available in some stores, but
most of the chains are not even looking
at new products still, " Grant says, " so
the majority of our sales are online. "
Getting shelf space with a major
retail chain like Whole Foods, Grant
says, is now a lengthy waiting game
while stores make decisions about
what to stock. " Eight months ago,
[Whole Foods] said, 'We'll look at you
in September,' " Grant says.
Domestically, Grant says the biggest
vehicle for growth will be via
retail stores, which they are hoping to
do as the economy starts ramping up
again. The reality for empyri, though,
is that a lot of their growth potential
exists outside of Canada, where the
regulatory concept of cannabis health
products is more fleshed out.
To that end, they are developing
a line of CBD topicals for the U.S.
market, and similar products for the European market.
" For CBD products, there are other jurisdictions
where it's way easier, " Grant says. " We've made a series
of products that we've developed for the U.S., but we
won't be able to sell them in Canada until this whole
concept of cannabis health products is developed in
Canada. "
Changes to the way Canada regulates cannabis health
products are likely in the long-term, but in the interim,
it remains a barrier for a company like empyri, which
banned by - our PayPal account has been frozen with
money in it and we've been banned from advertising on
Facebook and Instagram.
" We are still talking about the benefits of the products
in the media where we can, and in places such as email
marketing campaigns, " continues Grant. " But because
we're unable to talk face to face with our clients right
now, it makes it a little bit difficult to spread the word,
and education is such an important part of this. "
KIERAN
DELAMONT
SEPTEMBER 2021 | londonincmagazine.ca | 17
uses cannabis components but not the chemicals (THC,
CBD, etc.) that regulators concern themselves with. For
empyri, its main value proposition might be in using
cannabis root, but good luck communicating that to
customers on Facebook, Instagram, Google and so on.
" We have removed the words 'cannabis' and 'sativa'
from our website, and all of our advertising promotes
the health benefits of our products without using those
words. I've been told by numerous people that if you
want to be successful in this market, you need to get that
word off of everything, " she says. " I was stubborn about
including the word cannabis in the product name, but
we have been banned by everybody we can possibly be
http://www.empyri.com http://www.londonincmagazine.ca
London Inc. September 2021

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