Staff
Executive Spotlight: Mike Beaudry
Mike Beaudry is founder and CEO of HERBL Solutions, California’s largest cannabis distributor and supply chain solutions company servicing more than 850 storefront and non-storefront retail licensees. Under his leadership, HERBL brings outstanding people, processes, and technology together to create a powerful supply chain never before seen in the cannabis industry.
Mike has over 25 years of experience leading high-volume distribution companies and held several executive roles in the natural & organic products industry. Mike led the national operations and then spent more than five years as President of United Natural Foods (UNFI), America’s leading distributor of natural, organic and specialty foods. As president, he rapidly scaled UNFI from a regional company with $700 million in sales to a national company with $5 billion+ in the books.
After more than a decade at UNFI Mike spent five years as CEO of Lang Pharma Nutrition, a private label dietary supplement company which manufactures and distributes products for the top retailers in the U.S., including Costco, Walmart, CVS, and Target.
Mike began researching the California legal cannabis industry in 2014 and relocated from Rhode Island to California in January 2016 to focus 100% of his efforts on cannabis. In November 2014 he walked the floor of a cannabis conference and harked back to his roots in natural foods, immediately struck by the similarities: lots of small brands with people passionate about their product. Just as with organic and natural foods, the cannabis show was lined with long-time believers telling their story, relentlessly encouraging others to discover the plant. Today’s multi-billion natural food industry was similarly founded on the backs of artisanal brands, each with their own unique story, yet with a communal mission to bring their goods to market for others who may want and need them.
After a two-year journey to learn all he could about California’s industry and beyond, Mike formally launched HERBL in 2018. HERBL has built a tremendous team to bridge the pioneers and craftsmen with those that can bring their product to the end consumer.
Full Name:
Mike Beaudry
Title:
Founder & CEO
Company:
Years at current company:
2016 – Present
Education profile:
High School Diploma
Most successful professional accomplishment before cannabis:
I was fortunate to have been at the forefront of building out the largest natural food distribution supply chain in the U.S., first as head of operations and then as President of UNFI. During my ten years there, we rapidly scaled from a multi-regional company with $700+ million in sales, to a national powerhouse doing over $5 billion in sales.
In 2014, I attended a cannabis trade show and I was immediately struck by the similarities between the natural foods sector and the increasingly legal cannabis sector. First, through the passion of the producers and their relentless commitment to pioneering a new industry, and second, because of the clear complexities of the seed to shelf supply chain – as both sectors required significant expertise in regulatory and health compliance, nuanced logistics, and the need for an independent distributor that could add critical insights to brands and retailers as the market evolved.
After diving into a full-time, two-year journey to learn all I could about the cannabis industry in California and beyond, I launched HERBL in 2018. Since then, we have built a tremendous team to serve this nascent and explosive industry.
Company Mission:
HERBL’s mission is to help make cannabis more accessible to everyone. Our experienced leadership team works to help brands and retailers efficiently manage inventory, assortment, sales, distribution — the whole nine yards.
Company’s most successful achievement:
Having exceeded $265M in sales in 2020 and forecasted to top $380M in 2021, I have never been more certain about HERBL’s competitive advantage, and the ability to create substantial long-term value not only for our stakeholders, but for the cannabis industry as a whole.
Today, HERBL is the largest cannabis supply chain company in the largest cannabis market in the world. We’re exclusively partnered with top-selling brands to deliver over 1,000 SKUs to 850+ retailers across California.
Has the company raised any capital (yes or no):
Yes
If so, how much?:
50+ Million
Any plans on raising capital in the future?
Yes
Most important company 5-year goal:
To continue strengthening the foundation we’ve built in California and taking our proven model into different markets around the country.
