Bud & Mary’s VP of Sales Lindsey Fuchs touches on the company’s presence in the Missouri cannabis market

Photo Courtesy of Lindsey Fuchs

Multi-state cannabis company Bud & Mary’s—the parent company of Batch, Nuo, and The Myx—is taking a stronger stance in the Missouri market. Recently, Batch introduced new lines of cannabis vaporizers to consumers across the state.

There are two differing lines of vaporizers that the company has launched—Flavor and Signature. The Flavor vaporizers are for the more casual consumer looking for flavorful, mild highs. The strains are Manzana Banana, Razzlemon, Shwazzberry, Peachy Keen, Goodness Grapecious, and Dazzleberry.

The Signature line contains three different strains—Tiffany, Tahoe OG, and LA Kush Cake—that offer much more potent highs in the expense of the fruity tastes that dominate the other six vaporizers. The two lines are offered in all-in-one vaporizers along with one and two gram cartridges.

The Pitch had the chance to speak with Bud & Mary’s Vice President of Sales Lindsey Fuchs to discuss the brand’s recent launch, the obstacles of approaching a fresh market in a new state, and the overall scoop on Bud & Mary’s and Batch.

Photo Courtesy of Bud & Mary’s

The Pitch: If you want to give me a little background on yourself and how you got started with Bud & Mary’s, that would be great.

Lindsey Fuchs: I started with Bud & Mary’s—I can’t believe it—almost six years ago, so that was when we were reallyjust in Iowa, small med market, and then Colorado. So, I’ve really been part of ground-bottom areas as they have expanded into multiple markets. It’s been pretty fun to see. And I can testify, every market in compliance and the illegal is so different across each state. So I can tell you that is something I can relate to you on a global level. 

I have always had sales experience, and I was in custom fabrication and large format print, and a lot of my clients were cannabis clients. I was not necessarily the most passionate about print or format sales. So, I wanted to marry my love of sales and cannabis, and that’s how I found Bud & Mary’s. I started as a sales rep here in Colorado, then I was territory manager, and then state sales director for Colorado. Now, I’m overseeing all states as the vice president of sales for sales and expansion.

That’s awesome. So, tell me a little bit about Bud & Mary’s and the brands that fall under its umbrella. I saw that Bud & Mary’s is a generational company, which is pretty cool.

We are family-owned, and I don’t think a lot of cannabis companies can say that. One of our things is that we aren’t your corporate cannabis. So the things that separate us at Bud & Mary’s is we are really rooted in science, and that comes from our generational founders. Their backing is that they’re some of the largest rosemary and oregano producers in the world. So we’re taking that extraction from that plant into the cannabis plant. 

We’re still sticking to our family roots of extraction, just now into the cannabis space. We focus on research. We have the first ever schedule one DEA bulk research license, and we have four doctors on our team now who are leading the first ever clinical human trials. 

One of the main missions Dr. Duncan Mackie and our team are spearheading is a clinical trial—How does cannabis slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s and dementia, which, unfortunately, so many people have been affected by? So we really pride ourselves, not only that we can put out this great recreational product, but every single bit that we sell ties back into funding our research to push the front line in that science aspect of the plant.

So where are you all based? I saw that the company is in five states.

Our corporate office is in Des Moines, Iowa. It’s small, Iowa’s a different kind of market, but it’s med only. Some of our executives stay out of Denver, Colorado. I would say Colorado is our flagship and our most mature market. We are in Iowa, Colorado, Michigan, and Missouri, and proud to say that in mid-May, we are going to be live in Illinois.

What was the expansion like to Missouri? There’s different obstacles for each state, so what were some of the hurdles maybe you guys had to hop over? How has the Missouri consumer responded to the product?

Photo Courtesy of Bud & Mary’s

Missouri is an up and coming market, and, by age, is less established than our other markets that we operate in. But expanded product offering is key to continue momentum and further penetration into the market. I would say that we’ve definitely leaned into the new product development initiatives that began in other states, and provides the Missouri team some like accelerated path to the market.

I would say the Missouri market, of all the markets that we operate in, they’re very well educated. They know the terpenes. It’s not just about the highest THC percentage, but it’s also that full-spectrum of understanding different cannabinoids and the terpenes in it. So it’s been really fun to see how the Missouri market, with every single person, from a budtender to a purchaser or a store manager, anyone in the industry that I’ve come across in the Missouri market is so well educated. 

I think that really aligns with Bud & Mary’s—that research and that we’re rooted in science, and we’re not just here to put out a product that we can use for recreational use, but it’s more behind the plant. I would say that the Missouri market has, of all the markets that we’re in, really adapted to that and can get behind our mission, so they have had an immense response.

You touch on the research aspect and the mission behind Bud & Mary’s. What do you value in the work that you guys do, and the work that you get to do every day, and then how do you see it come to fruition in each different state’s market?

As a salesperson, you have to believe in the product. There are many things—not just putting out a great quality product, but the consistency behind the product. I value that we are consistent and that I know that our clients will always receive the highest-quality consistency, not only with the product and the hardware but with us as individuals. 

Believing in a product as a salesperson is key—knowing that I can put a quality product into people’s hands, and we don’t cut corners. Our facility is GAP and GMP, which is Good Agriculture Practice and Good Manufacturing Practice, so we emulate that into the Missouri market—that quality and those standards that we hold ourselves to. Not every cannabis company has a set of standards, so to be behind a company that doesn’t cut corners and wants to put the best quality product for an affordable price into consumers’ hands is something that I can get behind and value.

Let’s talk about the different brands under Bud & Mary’s. Batch is the only one that is currently available in Missouri, right?

Batch is, I would say, our bread and butter, and that’s really what made a name for Bud & Mary’s. So it’s been fairly seamless of bringing Batch into the Missouri market just because we have developed and refined it over the last seven years in the states that we’ve been operating in. So coming into the Missouri market has fairly been seamless. 

We have our Batch Signature line, which is going to be strain-specific, and it’s going to be that full-spectrum for the connoisseur. It’s going to be the convenient way to vape flower, so that’s going to be our strain-specific of the Batch Signatures. 

Then, our Batch Flavor line is going to be for that fruity, those flavors that maybe someone doesn’t want to have the flower taste. That’s going to be like for them. So we have six different flavors of those. Those are going to be Peachy Keen, Goodness Grapecious, Dazzleberry, Shwazzberry, Razzlemon, and Manzana Banana. I think people really respond well to our flavors. I think you’ll hear numerous times of everything going back into research or science—People say that our flavors truly taste like fruit, and they’re not going to taste artificial or anything like that.

Failure rates are very low. I think, last time I checked, it was .0001 percent. Not only do you have great quality, but you have the hardware that is reliable and you can depend on it. We made a splash coming out with that two g, and I’m sure you know, in the Missouri market, they’re not as many two g vapes. Going back to our company’s mission of consistency and quality, you’re going to have the same experience when you first hit that vape and the last hit of that two-gram vape. Offering great quality and consistent vapes in a large format is something that we have been innovating in the market as well.

Photo Courtesy of Bud & Mary’s

You don’t want the all-in-ones to die on you or fail, the same way when you get to the end of a two gram vape, you want it to still taste the same. Those are some of the most important aspects of it, in my opinion, so that’s sweet to hear you touch on those aspects.

When we came out with our all-in-one, we went through 50 different R&D samples before we launched it. Yes, we could be quick to market and source the hardware tomorrow, but we’re going to do the steps and the due diligence behind it. All our hardware is tested in Colorado because of the altitude. We want it to work at sea level, and we also want it to work at 14,000 above. People are up in the mountains or skiing, and so everything’s tested at altitude with our hardware. If it works in Colorado, of course it’s going to work in Missouri.

When could Missourians expect one of the other brands under Bud & Mary’s to possibly come into the state?

I’m not going to say a specific timeline, but we do have plans for expanding our portfolio that we operate in other states, into Missouri. But Batch is just the first one. Stay tuned, because, yes, we love our Missouri market and the plans for expansion there, especially with that type of consumer and that demographic of the education, we definitely have plans to expand our other product lines.