Cann On Track To Double Sales This Year
June 24, 2025Cann is among the leading hemp THC brands nationally, selling nearly 10 million cans (over 400,000 2.25-gallon cases) last year, with revenues jumping 70% and on track to more than double in 2025. The brand is present at retail in 5,000 stores across 30 states, and is available online in 35 states. Cann’s portfolio houses hemp THC “social tonics” in formats including six-packs of 8-oz. cans at 2mg ($18), four-packs of 12-oz. cans at 5mg ($18), and four-packs of 12-oz. cans at 10mg ($20). The company recently named beer and RTD industry veteran Jeff Chassner as vice president of sales. SNDC executive editor Daniel Marsteller spoke with Chassner to discuss the hemp THC drinks category and the opportunities ahead.
SND: Can you tell us a bit about your background and what you bring to Cann?
Chassner: I’ve got a little over 20 years of experience in beverage alcohol sales. I started out at Miller Brewing Company, and later went to work for Sweetwater Brewing Company. Craft beer was booming at the time, and Sweetwater (now part of the Tilray stable) was the 15th-largest craft brewery in the country. I oversaw their new market expansion. Then after three years of helping them build their business, I went to work for (wine-based cocktail brand) Beatbox Beverages.
I was at the very front end of the hockey stick for Beatbox, responsible for moving the brand from the wine and spirits wholesaler network to the beer network, and that really was the catalyst for growth. We started in Georgia, Florida, and Texas and accelerated the growth and launched the Tetra Paks after a little over three years. Then I went back to craft beer and worked for New Realm Brewing Company, doubling their business over the last three years with some new market expansion and growth in chains. Now I’m excited to join the cannabis space.
SND: What’s attractive about the Cann brand?
Chassner: The branding is fantastic. The liquid blows me away. What excites me is that although they’ve been around for six, seven years, it’s really early in the brand’s lifecycle. I love to dig in at this stage where I can bring more rigor and discipline to the wholesale and management routines and truly partner with our distributors to elevate the brand within their portfolio, and in turn elevate the brand at retail.
Building out commercial plans, partnering with our wholesalers, helping establish the culture of the company, and owning that culture on the sales team are all important. We’ll develop our retail activation plan, trade marketing to help differentiate the brand on shelf, and get consumers to try the brand. I truly believe once consumers try the liquid, they’re going to be hooked. And that’s proven in our direct to consumer model, but now we’ve got to do it at retail.
SND: Where within the retail segment is there particular growth opportunity?
Chassner: In the off-premise channel regulation is going to dictate where we go, but with a strong background in calling on independent convenience stores and chains, we’re going to rely heavily on our distributor network to help us grow in the independent channel. We’re going to be laser-focused on building the velocity and taking the brand to chains. We’ve already had success over the past couple of weeks. GPM is going to put us in their locations. We’re working with Circle K, and talking with other big chains like Spinx and QuikTrip. As the segment grows, I want to get a disproportionate amount of share within that chain segment.
SND: How are prospects in the on-premise?
Chassner: I think the on-premise is untapped right now. We have a product portfolio that would support the on-premise with our 2mg package. That’s a great opportunity to target the on-premise to drive trial. It’s much like in my former life in beer where the on-premise builds brands and then they grow in the off-premise. Education is a big piece to this, not just for consumers, but for retailers. And I’m really excited to learn more myself and then bring that education to on-premise and support their business as other segments may be in decline. There’s a lot of curiosity in this space.
We’ll have more with Cann’s Jeff Chassner in the second part of this interview.
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