A company set up by two Scottish rugby internationals to provide an alternative to mainstream painkillers has secured its first external investor after reporting a surge in sales due to “covanxiety”.
Alex Stewart, a founding partner of Clyde Blowers Capital, has put an undisclosed amount of cash into Pure Sport CBD in a deal said to value the company at £2.8 million.
Launched last year by former Glasgow Warriors teammates Grayson Hart and Adam Ashe, Pure Sport CBD provides cannabidiol products to assist in injury recovery, easing anxiety and promoting sleep, with the latter in wider demand amid increasing economic uncertainty.
READ MORE: Sunak urged to release cash into the ‘real economy’
Originally set up to help fellow athletes deal with the stresses and strains of high level competition, Pure Sport CBD has reported a surge in interest among those seeking to cope with anxiety amid the coronavirus pandemic. As lockdown restrictions have become tighter in recent weeks, the company has seen a 30 per cent increase in website hits and an increase of nearly 25% in sales.
Compared to February of this year, before lockdown began, sales in September have increased more than four-fold.
The investment by Mr Stewart will allow Pure Sport CBD to develop more products to meet rising demand, and increase world-wide marketing.
“Whether people are scared for health reasons or their livelihood or both, more people are experiencing some level of anxiety right now, especially given the fact many are forced to live without their usual support network and friends and family,” Mr Hart said.
“That’s why people are searching for other solutions to calm racing minds and cure insomnia. We believe the product can do tremendous good in the world and it feels incredibly worthwhile that it’s helping at a time when people really, really need it.”
READ MORE: Caledonian Leisure ready to roll when ‘the time is right’
Although the business has been on the go for nearly two years, Mr Ashe has only recently been able to promote it publicly after his departure from Warriors was announced at the beginning of last month. The club has a blanket ban on players endorsing certain types of products.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is a chemical substance found in cannabis, but it does not contain THC, the psychoactive compound that gets users “high”.
CBD is used by professional rugby players such as Jerome Kaino of the All Blacks, Rhys Webb of Wales and Scotland star Finn Russell. Market research from Brightfield Group estimates the European CBD market will grow to nearly £1.4 billion by 2023.
“CBD in the UK is still largely unregulated, so there are a lot of products out there that are hit and miss, weak or contaminated and far from medical grade,” Mr Hart said. “We’re in this to convince the world that there is a safe natural solution to help people feel and live better – that’s why we only sell the most rigorously tested, high-quality, natural products.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here