Our interview with CEO Kristin Rogers about getting back the cannabis beverage company she co-founded eight years ago
The recent announcement that multi-state operator Ayr Wellness is exiting the Massachusetts cannabis market came as a huge disappointment to many. From the company’s 150-plus employees in the commonwealth to loyal customers of its Greater Boston dispensaries, people seemed to take the news harder than that of many other closures, likely because Ayr’s roots extend back to the start of regulated marijuana in Mass.
It’s not all bad news though. The beloved drinks and tincture brand Levia, which has been part of the Ayr portfolio and family for the past several years, was not only spared in the company’s Bay State exit, but is actually returning to the hands of its founders. Kristin and Eric Rogers launched Levia in 2017, dropped their first product in 2021 (generating $5.5 million in sales that year), and sold the farm to Ayr in 2022.
This week, the couple announced that they reached an agreement to re-acquire the label pending regulatory approval. They said the reinvigorated “focus will be on reestablishing Levia’s leadership in Massachusetts, scaling operations, and entering new markets through innovation and strategic partnerships.” We spoke with Kristin, who will resume her role as CEO, about all of the above and more.
CF: Take us back to the beginning, when the company first started …
KR: My husband was a brand marketer. I’m a therapist. I was working for the state of Massachusetts, working with people on the streets, right when things sort of escalated in opioids and we couldn’t get people into rehab if they were using pot, if they were using weed to come off.
When the proposed legislation came up for recreational [cannabis in 2016], it was great timing for us. We had just had our first child and you cannot be hungover with a baby. It’s the worst. So [my husband] started to make tinctures with medicinal weed. Everyone was so excited because you could drink it. Then we were like, Wait, what if this doesn’t taste like crap? What, what if you could make it something that was, that was an alcohol replacement, so that people aren’t drinking as much? Having something in your hand is so American, so backyard American barbecue.
So literally, this all started above our garage. It’s crazy to think of how far we’ve come.
So let’s talk about making it actually happen …
We tried a million different things. At first what we discovered very quickly was [that tincture and] alcohol work the same. As an emulsifier it hits you as quickly. So that was really what was exciting to us, that you could have this drink and it would hit you just as quickly as alcohol does.
The fast onset was so important, especially for me specifically because I had a terrible [pot] brownie experience in college. That just led to [swearing] off weed for what I thought was going to be forever. Here I am now, and understanding what my dosage was was so important.
We formed the LLC in 2017, right after the vote passed [to regulate adult-use cannabis]. We were working through finding partners and figuring out what we were going to make, and we are crazy seltzer people—Polar seltzer. We love Polar Seltzer, and the idea of having something that is zero calories, zero sugar. So also leaning on the wellness aspect of this, and thinking about how we make it consistent so that, just like when you have a glass of wine, you know how you’re gonna feel.
We came out with the seltzers first. And that predictability, not having to worry about dosing yourself [helped with its success]. It’s water soluble. There’s no shaking it. It’s just like a beer in the backyard. … And the tinctures, which we call the drink drops … I think it’s like 50% of cannabis users need more than 5 mg, so you can [add concentrate] if you need more.
How fast did things take off after you started producing products?
It was a rocket ship. We started getting courted [by larger companies] within like the first two months. We went to market in March 2021. The acquisition with Ayr went through in February 2022. It takes a really long time to get through regulatory approval … We signed an LOI as of September, so … it was March, April, May, June, July, August before that decision was made.
What were some of your frustrations with the parent company and how things went?
The thing about drinks, especially in the regulated market, is that the regulations were written for flower. We were very lucky that the CCC was willing to work with us on so many things, because we have weird issues that other people don’t have—like vault size, how much can [dispensaries] fit in their vault.
The drinks sell quickly. There’s so many things that make us wildly different from other products, and Ayr Wellness was great. There’s so much good in that company, so many great people. At the end of the day, I learned so much. People let me into rooms I had no business being in. I learned about finance. I learned about how to handle retail, like things that are only going to help us moving forward.
I think drinks are an outlier, so it’s really hard. Still, they moved [the drink drops] into Arizona, they moved us into Nevada, Ohio.
Is that over now?
Yep. Actually I’m at NECANN in New Jersey right now. We are working with a co-packer to get up and running here [in NJ], which I’m really excited about.
A lot of people may not realize that Levia has its own facility. Has that kind of been the backbone of the company regardless of who has owned it at any given time?
Yeah, the infrastructure itself never really changed much, because it works. We’re small, we’re nimble, we’re able to pivot really quickly. And we have a really great small crew of people that have stuck by us for years now. I’m really excited about what’s ahead.
How much do you care about the higher dose market? Are you satisfied with 5 mg? Have you done stuff on the med side? Where do you see any of that in the expansion in moving forward?
So we just went to market a month ago with 1,000 mg drink drops. They’re so good, you can barely taste them. … I’m still a five-milligram girl, but I’m super excited because we are now able to offer something at a very reasonable price point that has no sugar, no calories. We’re not using high fructose corn syrup. … There are people out there that, one of our 300 mg bottles, that’s like three doses for them. That really stinks for them. A thousand goes a lot longer.
What changes now?
While [the transition papers] in the [Cannabis Control Commission’s] hands, we do have some time to get this all organized. We’re waiting for approval. … We have our own head of sales now, we have our own brand ambassadors. We’ve been doing everything ourselves for a couple months now and I think the hardest part is trying to organize, getting everyone on board so that then we can switch everyone over, however long it takes to get through this.
You don’t see too many CEOs and owners of medium sized companies like yours out there at a lot of events, even handing out samples. Is that something your relationship with Ayr allowed you to do?
I always said that you have to be out there. I have made great friends in this market. I’ve learned so much from people. If you’re not there, no one knows you exist. So even with Ayr, I was still out and about, and a lot of it was really focused on, and still is, [the question of] How do we support this community? How do we stop the stigma? How do we make sure that there is opportunity in this for underrepresented folks?
