Budweiser maker AB InBev and cannabis operator Tilray have ended their cannabis beverage partnership.
A regulatory filing released earlier this week revealed the termination of the partnership between the world’s leading brewer and the New York-based company.
The news was first reported by industry publication Just Drinks.
The two companies first announced the partnership in late 2018, shortly after Canada legalized adult-use cannabis.
At the time the arrangement was announced, Budweiser maker AB InBev and Tilray pledged to invest $50 million (63.4 million Canadian dollars) in the venture, which was dubbed Fluent Beverage Co.
Each company had a 50% ownership interest in the deal.
On InBev’s end, the joint venture had been spearheaded by Labatt Breweries of Canada and Toronto-based High Park Co., a Tilray subsidiary that developed and distributed cannabis goods.
Tamar Nersesian, communications director for Labatt Breweries of Canada, told MJBizDaily that Fluent Beverages will now operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Labatt and that Tilray will serve as Fluent’s co-manufacturing partner.
“We do not expect these changes to have any significant impact on Fluent’s day-to-day operations as it remains focused on commercializing CBD-infused non-alcohol beverages in Canada,” Nersesian said to MJBizDaily via e-mail.
“We concluded our joint venture relationship with AB InBev,” Tilray disclosed in the regulatory filing Monday.
“We retained the manufacturing equipment associated with CBD and THC beverages, obtained a royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license to utilize the technology related to the manufacture of CBD and THC beverages, which was developed by the joint venture and negotiated a co-manufacturing arrangement to manufacture CBD beverages on behalf of Fluent.”
