How Canopy Growth is using Martha Stewart and other celebs to become the Unilever of weed

Last year, Canopy Growth signed a deal with Martha Stewart to make her an adviser to the cannabis company, helping it develop a line of CBD-based products. Now the company is getting ready to start releasing the results of that collaboration over the next few months, and over the time in between there was something that surprised Canopy CEO David Klein.

“I didn’t realize how hands-on Martha Stewart is,” he says. “Our team has meetings with Martha about products, and we have CBD edibles coming in the next few months to the U.S. She’s tasting all of it.”

That partnership with Stewart is a not-so subtle clue into Canopy’s plan to become a card-carrying member of the consumer packaged goods (CPG) corporate club. Like Unilever or Mondelez, except instead of soap and crackers, it’s, y’know, with weed.

When Klein was named Canopy Growth’s top exec last December, that strategy became abundantly clear. He moved into the CEO seat after serving as chief financial officer of Constellation Brands, owner of Corona beer, Kim Crawford wine, and Svedka vodka, which owns a 37% stake in Canopy. His primary assignment was to transform Canopy from what the company calls a “Canadian medical cannabis company” to a “global CPG company.” [Read more at Fast Company]