Brands to Watch: RAD

2023 has been a landmark year for Missouri, bringing the start of recreational marijuana sales and a bevy of new products and brands to market.

Missouri is currently home to more than 200 different brands and more than 10,000 products. As the market grows and new brands and products continue to appear, Greenway looks to highlight Brands to Watch. Companies and brands ranging from homegrown talent and design to out-of-state players looking to make a big impact, the brands featured here are moving the needle.

One of these brands is RAD. A brand built on good vibes with throwback visuals and eye-catching design.

RAD’s parent company, Heritage Cannabis, has become one of the most successful cannabis companies in the world. Dominating the Canadian extracts and manufacturing market, Heritage has branched out to Australia, Brazil, and the United States. Heritage has a strong, reputable presence and healthy margins driving cash flow.

Currently operating in Missouri and West Virginia, RAD is the Heritage flagship brand in the Show-Me State.

Heritage CEO David Schwede tells more about RAD and what we can expect to see in Missouri.

“RAD is an acronym for Really Awesome Dope,” Schwede explains. “So we like to be cheap and cheerful. Pricing weed like it’s the 80s. That’s our motto. We just always have good value and good prices. We’re trying to give people an option of high-quality products at a price that they can afford.”

Why Missouri? What made you choose to come to this state?

We like places where we can compete. So Missouri is good because of limited licenses, a pretty level playing field, and we can focus in on the product.

Our experience up in Canada has been that it starts off in a kind of sport. Everybody’s just putting out as much product as they can and everybody’s driving down the price for volume.

So once that’s done and everything’s the same price, now the customer wants differentiation. They want quality, they want better packaging and branding, something to become loyal to. So we are starting that out of the gate instead of playing the same game.

What went into the design and execution of your packaging and presentation?

In Canada, we literally can’t do anything. Everything we have is in a black package with no design except the logo with a gigantic yellow warning label. 

We just basically went with our 80s style, just kept it pretty simple. I think we wanted the colors, the carts are very colorful, bright, and eye-catching. We just want to keep it simple because we want the product in their hand to be more identifiable.

What should we expect from RAD products in 2023?

It sounds like we’re going to roll out some new SKUs. You might see some larger format blunts. You might see some infused blunts, cannagars.

   

You are going to see new flavors across the board.

Every time we launch a flavor, we’re going to put it into infused pre-rolls and vapes.

So it all runs through each category. So that if you’re not into vapes and you like pre-rolls, you get that option.

I think the flavor I like the most that’s dropping is our peach, that’s phenomenal. And we also have a pineapple.

What differentiates RAD from some of the competitors in the market?

The differentiator for us, I would argue, is we’ve got the most experience with making and distributing products in a legal market. So our formulations are more advanced. I find that our flavour profiles are more defined. We have just been doing it for longer.

We know what works and we will not put out products if we’re unsure people will like them.

We put them out in other markets, and so we know they were good.

So when you buy a RAD product, you’re certain it’s going to be good, versus other brands that are just getting into the market who haven’t gotten it figured out yet.

Our differentiator is consistency, which is going to be key.

What do you want customers to pull from your brand?

That they can rely on a good product every time and they can rely on the best flavors at competitive prices.

We’re always going to be coming out with new flavors, new SKUs, trying to keep them delighted.

If you had to pick a favorite product out of your line what would you pick?

Anything Blue Raspberry, the flavor is out of control. Those products I find are my favorite flavor, and it is the longest-standing flavor in the RAD lineup. It’s been around since day one, the very first flavor we ever launched.