Known for its popular THC Seltzer Crescent 9, Crescent Canna has established its brand in over 1,000 retail locations across 20 states, as well as serving customers across the country by way of online distribution.
“We want to be the best,” said Rob Lind, Co-owner and Chief Operations Officer of Crescent Canna. “Our products are different. We use real brewing ingredients. When you drink and consume it, you can taste and feel the difference.”
Nearly a decade before Crescent Canna opened its doors in 2019, Rob jumped into the CBD industry on behalf of one patient: his mother, Laurel. At age 61, doctors discovered she had a cancerous tumor – and her son was determined to do everything in his power to help her return to good health.
“At the time, I was a commercial energy consultant for a Fortune 500 company,” recalled the resident of North Carolina and native of Los Angeles. “But once my mother got cancer, it scared the crap out of me. I wanted to figure out how to extract and create CBD products at home – and quickly.”
Rob took a job with a CBD company as their procurement and marketing specialist, eventually being tasked with managing a warehouse and building out a laboratory. Working in concert with a PhD chemist, Rob says he helped reformulate the product to better fit patient needs. After a year in the industry, he jumped back into the energy field – but the experience left a lasting impression.
“It really drove me back,” said the 37 year old. “I was tired of sitting behind three monitors. I wanted to get back to being hands on and helping people.”
Rob was introduced to business partners in Louisiana and soon Crescent Canna was created, manufacturing and distributing out of Charlotte, North Carolina. February 2019 marked Crescent Canna’s launch of a line of products featuring CBD tinctures, topicals and gummies, as well as hemp flower. Soon after, Rob and his partners established a goal of making its mark on the CBD beverage market.
“We identified that as a desire early on and really wanted to be the first in the market doing it,” he said. “Our whole objective was to swing for the fences on this and we hit it hard.”
Crescent 9 offers three varieties, including the ever-popular Tropical flavor with 6mg of THC and 3mg of CBD that’s considered to be the company’s flagship formulation. Ginger Lemonade (5mg THC, 4mg CBD) and Strawberry (50mg THC) are also available.
The products source ingredients from grows in California, Florida, Texas and Colorado, and are created with help from Deutsche Beverage – a local North Carolina affiliate with a national presence. Crescent Canna then sends the final product out for independent testing at Florida’s ACS Laboratories and California’s SC Labs – a pair of reputable testing companies in the Cannabis industry – making sure products are free of contaminants (heavy metals, pesticides, etc.) and establishing their level of potency (amount of various cannabinoids). Certificates of Analysis (COAs) are then posted on its website.
“We’ve put a lot of work into establishing a deep trust and loyalty with our customer base,” Rob said.
Crescent 9’s top-shelf “flavor, quality and effect,” he explains, are the reasons Crescent Canna didn’t just stay afloat during the challenges of a global pandemic. Rather, it managed to thrive.
“This is a low-dose alternative to alcohol,” Rob said. “People can go out to bars and be able to dose themselves accurately. We always want our customers to consume responsibly and with the lower dose cans, that makes it possible. Many of our customers have said they’ve cut back their alcohol consumption 30 to 50 percent, sometimes even more. They report better sleep and they awake with no hangover.”
This past October, the Crescent 9 beverage brand recorded its highest grossing total in distribution and e-commerce in four years of operation. The success has allowed Crescent Canna to expand its operations, moving from a facility of 3,500 square feet to over 8,000. The team is nearing 1 million cans sold.
“Crescent 9 is sold in over 1,000 bars and restaurants around the country, “he said. “Our margins lead the Cannabis beverage industry.”
Of equal excitement to Rob, his mother Laurel’s cancer has been in remission for eight years.
“She is one of our biggest supporters,” he smiled. “She is a frequent consumer and advocate.”
Impacting lives, he says, is a better feeling than any success he ever experienced as a cog in the energy sector.
“One of the best things I’ve found is looking at our reviews and seeing the impact we’ve had on people’s lives,” Rob said. “It’s feel-good and rewarding to know our products truly make a difference. I love reading them. It makes me feel like I know our customers even better. Crescent Canna works. It helps people. And changes lives.”
