Houston-based Bayou City Hemp Company has acquired LeafLife Wellness, a Dallas-based CBD product manufacturer and retailer.
Bayou City Hemp Company, formed in 2019, processes hemp for CBD extraction and TK. The company uses CO2 extraction methods. The plan is to develop a vertically integrated business in the early days of the Texas hemp market. For the LeafLife team, the acquisition provides a steady supply of hemp distillate and isolate.
“This acquisition will put us into a solid position of leadership in CBD product formulation and quality assurance of hemp-based products and is expected to be accretive to our earnings immediately,” Karen Trotter, Bayou City CFO, said in a public statement. “Continuing with our core values of building a vertically integrated CBD business founded on integrity and innovation, ensuring quality consumer products in our distribution network is key to our aggressive growth plan.”
As the 2020 season really gets under way, the Texas hemp market is cautiously coming into its own. Currently, the state has issued 21 industrial hemp processor licenses and 786 industrial hemp producer licenses. The processor segment of the supply chain, as it’s been argued across the industry and evidenced by the 2019 oversupply problem, is key to bringing hemp crops to market in as various end products. Growers need an outlet for their harvest.
Bayou City Hemp Company co-founder Jeromy Sherman sits on the Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner’s Industrial Hemp Advisory Council. “It is an honor to be on the council and act as an advocate for Texas farmers. Agribusiness is as important to Texas’s present and future as it has been to its past, and we believe that the growing hemp industry in our state is spurring job creation at every step of the process from seed to shelf,” he said upon the appointment.
