Colombia Cannabis Company Clever Leaves to Launch CBD Wellness Brand in London

• Clever Leaves has already established itself in Germany, France, and Portugal.
• CEO Andrés Fajardo believes that the best way to drive the UK market for CBD is cooperation with other companies and adherence to regulations.

CBD has evolved significantly around the world, and regulations in Europe are making it possible for this substance to be available to local consumers. Clever Leaves, though based in Colombia, is one of the companies working to make their products available to local consumers. They’ve established a presence in several areas, including Germany, France, and Portugal, but reports from CBD Testers show that the company is now going into London.

The new CBD brand Clever Leaves is called Esenia, and the CEO and co-founder Andrés Fajardo recently sat down with CBD Testers for an interview on this development. He started off the interview by explaining that the UK market is already ahead of others with their regulations and the consumers trends, worth about £300 million presently. The industry is progressing substantially, and Fajardo believes that it could easily be a £1 billion market by 2025.

Fajardo explained that the consumers are the key to the trends, adding that a “successful CBD product” will be defined by the changes that they drive. Choosing London as their launching place has a lot to do with the ways that the community creates new trends.

He commented,

“We see London as a place where you can build a brand and a portfolio of products, not only is the talent here, and spectacular for that objective, over and over again the U.K. has proven to be a great location for this kind of brand-building, portfolio development.”

Now, the brand is looking forward to do creating a business that can benefit from the local citizens but can also become a successful business for the rest of Europe. He added, “It is a very attractive market but also a very solid hub for our portfolio, brand management, and all of our commercialization efforts going forward.”

Right now, the London office of Clever Leaves has five staff members, and they are hoping to quadruple that number within the next year. These new staff members will need to “understand business, are innovative and understand how a product relies on quality consistency and delivering on the promises made to consumers.”

Right now, he points out that the industry is already at an early stage, and the products are still fairly basic. To get the industry to progress and move forward, Fajardo believes that the best way is to work together with the rest of the community, adding that London is being used as their “hub for the UK market and beyond.”

All of the products from Esenia can be authenticated for their seed-to-sale production and are made from pharmaceutical grade ingredients. The company adheres to the standards set forth by the Colombian Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). Presently, the brand has 1.5 million square feet of greenhouses to produce their CBD, though they plan on expanding to 10 million square feet.

To make sure these products can come to the rest of the European market, Clever leaves has established regulatory teams that compare their protocols to the rules of each jurisdiction. So far, to ensure that the supply chain can throughout the UK, the company has spent nine months to adjust their protocols, and recently delivered their “safety stock” to the country as their first product. Fajardo explained that they’ve already reached a milestone at a global level by exporting legal hemp-based products from Colombia, which is something to be celebrated for the entire industry. All of the remedies with Esenia have specifically been created and produced in Colombia with an “extraordinary formulation team.”

Their CBD spray provides 6 mg of 4% CBD oil extract to the user, offering a “sophisticated terpene profile.” The CEO believes that the medical cannabis market of Germany will be booming, which is why his brand is focusing on creating medical grade cannabis with both CBD and THC to supply those consumers.