Interview with Angus Rittenburg

Interview with Angus Rittenburg

Reflecting on the beginning, what inspired you to enter both the hemp and regulated cannabis markets with Wherehouse Beverage? Could you share the story of your early days and the initial vision?

 Shawn Sheehan, Casey Parzych, and I started discussing cannabis-infused beverages in late 2020. We saw the challenges with interstate commerce, where THC products could not be shipped across state lines, and ultimately needed to be produced in each state they were sold. 

This presented a unique challenge for canned beverages, since building licensed canning facilities was prohibitively capital intensive relative to the size of the individual markets. We also saw a limited selection of approachable, low-dose THC beverages for consumers seeking an alternative to alcohol.

To solve the interstate commerce issues, we designed and built a mobile canning facility on a 53-foot tractor trailer that could travel from market to market, producing 30,000 cans per day. To fill the void of low-dose THC beverage options, we created our flagship brand called WYNK with a line of zero-calorie, 2.5mg infused seltzers with a 1:1 ratio of THC and CBD. 

In February 2021, we completed the first trial production run on the mobile canning facility, aptly named the WYNK Wagon. In April 2021, we produced the first saleable units of WYNK in Ohio. By the end of 2021, the WYNK Wagon was traveling around the country producing and selling in Massachusetts, Arizona, Maine, Arkansas, Missouri, and New Mexico.

2022 saw even more growth. We created WHEREHOUSE BEVERAGE CO - a house for our brands and technologies. We launched 5mg versions of WYNK and introduced a new beverage brand called Countdown with 25mg offerings. We built a second WYNK Wagon, produced over a million cans, and launched in Nevada and Michigan.

Launching and sustaining a business in the hemp and regulated cannabis is a remarkable feat. What unique challenges did this dual focus bring, and how have these experiences shaped the evolution of Wherehouse Beverage?

The evolution of a new production technology we had been working on since mid-2022 coincidentally aligned perfectly with the evolution in the hemp–derived D9 market. We call this technology Production 2.0 - here is how it set us up to transition quickly to the hemp derived space:

In search of a more scalable way to make dosed beverages in each individual regulated market, we built an automated machine that takes any traditional beverage can, and inserts a small one-way valve into the bottom of it. We also designed and built portable dosing machines that can be placed in any facility that has a 4’x5’ space and a 120v outlet. This allowed us to produce un-dosed beverages in a centralized facility, and dose them with THC in each regulated market. In this way, we kept all the complexity of canning beverages in our centralized facility, while still being able to add the THC through the one-way valve in the individual regulated markets.

By the time the 2.0 technology became fully operational, the hemp derived market opened up. Fortunately, we were prepared with high-rate canning capacity in our own facility to support Production 2.0 manufacturing of WYNK and Countdown in the licensed dispensary channel, as well as meet the budding demand for a hemp-derived version of WYNK to be sold on our website and through beer wholesalers. It was a natural transition to begin simultaneously producing hemp derived beverages alongside the un-dosed 2.0 beverages under one roof.

Very proud that we continue to have complete control over our products in both channels - from production through to sales. 

The cannabis industry is a maze of regulations and ever-changing landscapes. Can you share an instance where you turned a challenge into an opportunity, particularly in marketing and advertising?

Before hemp-derived products were available, it was extremely difficult to market WYNK to our target consumers. Now that we can produce hemp-derived WYNK in-house and ship directly to like-minded creators, it removes many barriers that we faced in making our audience aware of WYNK and the infused beverage category as a whole.

We see this as an opportunity to more easily gift WYNK to customers who can try the product and share it with their friends and followers. This has helped increase demand for the brand across all channels, including dispensaries. Some of our best marketing content has been created by our fans, customers, and numerous influencers who love the product.

It has been great to see our marketing shift from restricted brand-led content to real people speaking freely about their genuine experiences with the product.

 Staying driven in can be tough. What’s your secret to staying motivated and navigating the complexities of the cannabis world?

An obsession with problem solving is a prerequisite for working at Wherehouse. Everyone in the business works hard to solve problems together – and then celebrates the results even harder. 

Cannabis brands are popping up left and right, how do you use branding and storytelling to stand out?

We’re really proud of the brand we’ve built and the feedback from customers continues to validate our efforts. Our strategy is fairly simple - 1. make the cans so beautiful that it is sad to throw the empty ones away and 2. Build community. Both online and in person. We’re really focused on community engagement on our social channels, with our online customers through loyalty programs, and in-person with “neighborhood” feeling events, tastings, and collaborations. It's not easy to do, but we want our customers to feel personally connected to the brand, like it's a local favorite.

Could you share a specific story or campaign from Wherehouse Beverage that really resonates with your audience and exemplifies your approach to storytelling?

We put together a fun Dry January campaign which is a misnomer, because we can play on it all year. We wanted to show that Dry January doesn’t need to be so dry, and doesn’t need to be just January. The campaign had three taglines that we used throughout the month:

“Hangover free since ‘23”

“All hang, no hangover”

“All buzz, no buzzkill”

We implemented this campaign across our social, website, earned and paid media, as well as field activities. We always monitor e-commerce subscription rates as a litmus test for marketing impact. Really proud of the team for their execution of this campaign - the skyrocketing subscription rates in January show that the “hangover free since ‘23” campaign resonated with consumers.

Gazing into the crystal ball, what trends or changes do you predict for the cannabis beverage sector in the next half-decade?

The category is going to see explosive growth with expanded distribution and product assortments. With more choice, the best products will rise to the top and win. Rescheduling will increase investment in the space and improve the product offerings.

For our part, we will continue to work side-by-side with the regulators, sharing our data and learnings to help them drive good decisions for the category, and ultimately consumers. And of course, we will continue to innovate and do our best to place the right products in the right stores.

 For those dreaming of diving into the cannabis beverage industry, what golden nugget of advice would you offer?

Focus on quality, and do right by your customer. Never give up, but be ready to pivot.

Beyond your professional life, how has cannabis shaped or influenced your personal life and worldview?

My background is design and manufacturing engineering. It has been really fun to take an engineering approach to the cannabis industry. Not only engineering the equipment, but also engineering the products, the business, the contracts, the teams, and the regulations, to the extent that we can.

Separately, it has been fascinating to see how my friends and family are adopting these products into their daily life. Many are swapping out alcohol for WYNK or Countdown in social settings. Others are using these products to help them sleep, in place of pharmaceuticals. Some are drinking them to reduce anxiety and stress. Some are drinking these products before, during, and after exercise. These products truly do meet you where you are.

Are you interested in trying Wynk? Use code LIFTOFF20 at check out and receive a 20% discount on your order!