How two brothers created one of the UK’s leading CBD brands

After seeing the miraculous effects of CBD on their mother’s health in late 2018, two brothers launched their own company which has now become one of the most awarded CBD brands in the UK.

Just over two years ago, Simon Horth started hearing about CBD, a natural supplement, derived from the hemp plant thought to improve sleep, reduce pain and ease anxiety.

After researching the compound and discovering that CBD did not induce the psychoactive qualities associated with cannabis, he decided to buy a bottle of CBD oil for his mother who was suffering from arthritis in her hands.

“She didn’t want to take it to begin with because she thought it was an illegal drug,” Simon recalled in an interview with Cannabis Health.

“She was very reluctant but eventually I persuaded her.”

“She put it under her tongue in front of me then I told her to take it again in the evening.”

Simon Horth

In the morning, Simon woke up to a list of missed call notifications from his mum and his brother. He phoned up his mum to discover that she had just had the “best night sleep she’s ever had” and her hands were already beginning to feel less stiff.

He then called his brother, Brett Horth, who owns Vapouriz – an e-cigarette manufacturing company based in Guildford.

With success in the vaping industry, the brothers saw an opportunity to set up a company together.

“For my mum who’s in her 70s, getting a good night’s sleep, taking away those aches and pains and helping her hands has been a real life changer,” Simon said.

“Had she not phoned and said she’d just had the best night’s sleep ever, we wouldn’t have started the company. That’s what made us stand up and say ‘crikey, there could be something in this’.”

In the space of just four months, Simon and Brett created their brand, Green Stem CBD and developed a line of five products. The brothers launched the company at the UK’s very first cannabis industry trade show; the Hemp and CBD Expo, which took place in Birmingham in March of 2019.

Not knowing what to expect, the pair were astounded to win a total of five awards, including best oil, best vape and best packaging.

Simon said: “It was quite a busy show with about two hundred International exhibitors. We went along to the award ceremony that night not expecting anything at all, and then we won the top five awards. It was an incredible feeling.”

This was no small feat for a company that, at this point, had not sold a single product or had their products stocked by any retailers.

“All of the oils are tested for quality, flavour, texture and potency,” Simon said.

“We just came up with what we thought we would like. They’re very slightly flavoured, but they taste quite real as well; they don’t have that sweet, artificial taste.”

“We were lucky having an in-house team of chemists to us create it.”

Off the back of its success at the Hemp and CBD Expo, the company propelled itself forward and won its first client, British health and beauty retailer, Boots.

The brothers started to receive requests from large numbers of vape stores asking if they could stock their products, however the pair decided to be selective in who they supplied to in order to “protect” their brand.

Just over a year later, their measured approach proved to pay off.

Having famously never allowed the sale of CBD products on its platform, the e-commerce giant, Amazon invited Green Stem CBD to be one of the first four CBD suppliers listed on the website.

“We were quite protective over the brand,” Simon added. “Lots of vape stores wanted us but we thought, no, we can’t do that. Rather than just put it everywhere, we’re going make it a success. And it’s paid off.”

“We buy all of our raw material from Colorado and the reason for that is simply because it’s the best quality that there is. This is due to the altitude, the sunny climates, and you have the crops being fed from the mountain water. This all makes for a top-quality product.

“People often don’t understand that where the raw material comes from makes a big difference.”

The company recently launched a new product called ‘Sleep’, which includes CBD and other natural ingredients such as valerian root, magnesium and zinc.