Cannabis Company Acquires British Beauty Brand This Works

LONDON, United Kingdom — Canopy Growth Corp, a Canadian cannabis firm which sells medicinal and recreational cannabis products has acquired British beauty brand This Works for £43 million.

The move will facilitate the development of a range of skincare and sleep aid products infused with CBD, as the ingredient found in cannabis continues to make headlines across the globe, and revolutionise the wellness industry.

“As a leading wellness brand and a pioneer in sleep beauty products, we are passionate about the opportunity CBD offers beauty consumers,” explained This Works CEO Dr. Anna Persaud.

“Canopy Growth will provide the expertise, research, scientific rigour and quality assurance that will allow This Works to drive the agenda in wellness beauty’s ever-evolving market.”

Founded in 2004 by Kathy Phillips, a former health and beauty director at British Vogue, This Works has grown a loyal following of consumers by offering them skin and wellness products that are free from chemicals commonly found in skincare products. The brand’s bestsellers include morning expert hyaluronic serum, skin deep dry leg oil and its deep sleep pillow spray which has been purchased more than 4 million times across Europe, the UK, China and the US.

Canopy Growth and This Works will continue to scale This Works’ current portfolio, however, an additional focus on CBD will support the brand in its next stage of growth, especially in the US where the CBD market is predicted to reach $20 Billion By 2024.

According to Bruce Linton, Chairman & Co-CEO at Canopy Growth, he believes CBD has the potential to disrupt the cosmetic and sleep solution industries and has been working for years to build and establish the right entry point into the opportunity.

This Works’ acquisition is a key aspect of a multi-faceted hemp and CBD strategy for the firm, as it continues to expand across the European Union and other key regions via the introduction of new CBD-infused products and brands to the global beauty, wellness, and sleep solution space.

In particular, by bringing This Works under its umbrella, it also hopes to enhance its footprint and operations within the UK — in January 2019, it announced Spectrum Biomedical UK, a joint venture between itself and Oxford-based research company Beckley Canopy Therapeutics. The partnership aims to address the need for high-quality cannabis-based medicinal products in the UK.

With the European cannabis market also predicted to be worth €123b (£106bn) by 2028, it seems the opportunity for wellness brands on both sides of the pond is becoming increasingly harder to ignore.