Scottish international Adam Ashe is set to spearhead US expansion plans for his business, Pure Sport CBD, after signing for Major League Rugby side LA Giltinis.
The company, founded by Mr Ashe and his former Glasgow Warriors teammate Grayson Hart, established their business two years ago to provide an alternative to mainstream painkillers. Originally set up to help fellow athletes deal with the stresses and strains of high level competition, Pure Sport clocked up record sales last month amid rising interest in CBD among those seeking to cope with anxiety, stress and sleep disruption brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is a chemical substance found in cannabis, but it does not contain THC, the psychoactive compound that gets users “high”.
Alongside playing for his new club, Mr Ashe plans to use the platform provided by Los Angeles to accelerate Pure Sport's growth in the US.
READ MORE: Scottish rugby internationals secure funding as 'covanxiety' drives sales
The company currently distributes its products worldwide, though the US makes up only a small fraction of those sales. The CBD market in the United States is more widely established than in the UK, with a Gallup poll conducted earlier this year showing that one in seven Americans used CBD to tackle a range of issues including pain, anxiety, insomnia and arthritis.
“Our strategy in America will be exactly the same as it has been elsewhere," Mr Ashe said. "We’ll have top performers at the highest level using the products so they see the benefits for themselves, and that will filter down to everyday consumers.
"Modern day professional contact sports people are like Spartan warriors of the past with the workload and rigour their bodies go through every day. If Pure Sport CBD is an effective product for this market, then we know it’s going to be effective for non-athletes too."
Last month, Pure Sport secured an undisclosed cash investment from Alex Stewart, a founding partner of Clyde Blowers Capital, in a deal said to value the company at £2.8 million.
On his move to LA Giltinis, Mr Ashe added: “It’s perfect timing. I’m contracted for two years and while I plan to be out there for longer than that, in those first two years when rugby allows, I want to continue growing Pure Sport to be the USA’s go-to CBD brand for athletes and those who care about what goes inside their bodies.
"It’s also really exciting to be part of growing the popularity of rugby in the USA.“
Silicon Valley firm to create 70 new jobs in Edinburgh
UserTesting, which set up its European headquarters in Edinburgh in July of last year, has been awarded a £3.2m grant from Scottish Enterprise to further expand its operations. The company provides website and app user experience (UX) evaluation to some of the world’s leading brands.
READ MORE: SE grant to help create 70 new technology jobs in Edinburgh
Head office expansion for Scottish nursing home group
Randolph Hill Nursing Homes Group has relocated to a larger head office as part of its ongoing expansion. The company, which operates nursing homes across central and east Scotland, has moved to a new 4,000sq ft headquarters in the Redheughs Rigg Business Park in Edinburgh’s South Gyle.
The move to the new premises follows a number of key appointments within the group to support its ongoing expansion. They include the recruitment of a care standards manager, recruitment manager, facilities manager and marketing manager.
Randolph Hill is also nearing completion of a new £9m home in Livingston, which is due to open early next year. The 60-bedroom site in the town’s Kirk Lane will become the group’s seventh home and will create up to 80 new jobs.
Managing director Peter McCormick said: “The new head office will enable us to enhance the support we provide and give us room for further growth across the group. Over recent years we have been investing in both new and existing sites to ensure we retain the highest care standards for our residents.
“Despite the current challenges in managing Covid-19 across all our homes, we remain fully committed to maintaining that investment and keeping our growth plans on track going forward.”
Founded in 1985, Randolph Hill currently provides residential nursing care for more than 350 residents, and employs more than 500 people.
Sign up
You can now have the bulletin and the top business news stories sent direct to your email inbox twice-daily, as well as Business Week, the weekly round-up on Sunday:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/my/account/register/
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