By PAGE Editor

C-Suite Execs From Traditional Retail Flock to Cannabis:

The next time you pause to consider adding a scented candle or a pretty bar of soap to your check-out basket, take another moment to thank Laurie Gregory. The “giftable” item, that affordable small touch that makes your day a bit brighter or is inexpensive enough to impulse-buy for someone else, is Gregory’s invention. She also lays claim to inventing the gift basket decades ago, having scoured garage sales and flea markets for unique containers and holing up in her garage to build individual gift sets literally tied up with ribbon. 

Thirty years ago, Gregory was a young marketer just out of college when Les Wexler took her on at the Express, one of his lines — including The Limited and Victoria’s Secret — of fast-fashion changing the ‘90s retail market. Gregory quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a member of what the team called “The Original 13,” a baker’s dozen of retail pros who launched Bath & Beauty Works for Wexler, growing it to 2,000 stores and $200 billion in sales over the next 10 years.

“Back then, there were just two places you could go in beauty,” Gregory says. “There was the Chanel side of things, very expensive with everyone looking like they lived in Paris, and there was Dove soap. Period. We helped to bring in a third dimension to beauty that gave the aspirational customer who couldn’t afford Chanel and wanted something more than Dove a place to shop — and a new way to gift.”

Soon, even Victoria’s Secret was racking up sales of lotions and perfumes, scented candles and specialty soaps in addition to the lingerie that lured customers into the store, marking a historic retail run that is only just abating. And by that time, Gregory, now the Chief Product, Brand, and Marketing Officer of Skymint Brands, was the Executive Vice President of Bath & Body Works. She left in the aughts to launch her own beauty trade consultancy, and today, she is in cannabis. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

Neither would Summer Ransom-Cleveland, the Retail President for Skymint Brands, who until recently was the North America Visual Director for Urban Outfitters. Ransom-Cleveland started with the chain at a local Michigan store and worked her way up the ladder. As she recently told the MetroTimes, she opened Urban Outfitters’ 34th location and stayed with the company to their 201st store. 

Not surprisingly, she got tired of selecting sweaters for 14-year-old girls, particularly now that her own daughters are older than that. Having spent two decades helping to define the necessities needed to set up that first dorm room or the style required to feel at ease with the cool kids, Ransom-Cleveland was ready for a change, so today, she is in cannabis. She wouldn't have it any other way.

It’s easy to see why. Legal cannabis sales are exploding, particularly in Michigan, which is the fourth largest cannabis market in the U.S. and has supported medicinal sales since 2008. There’s been a 500% increase in growth January-August 2020 as recreational provisioners came online in December of 2019 for the first time, and the state is experiencing $100 million in total monthly sales. It’s as hot as Bath & Body Works was in the mid-’90s — and may even be more fun.

Together, Gregory and Ransom-Cleveland helm the look and design for Skymint, an ambitious Michigan-based cannabis vertical that has opened 11 dispensaries this year alone and is on track to open 16 more before the end of 2021. Each woman has brought her profound trove of retail wisdom and personal style to the look and feel of these handsome storefronts, which, no surprise, each boast a significant selection of giftables. On a recent visit, one customer nearly forgot to purchase the cannabis she had come in for, so taken was she by the clothing, pins, books, and handmade smoking accoutrements on display. 

“We want customers to linger,” says Ransom-Cleveland. “The dispensary should be a welcoming environment where you can really slow down and experience what’s available. We’re not just selling cannabis, we’re selling a lifestyle that incorporates cannabis with health and well-being. That’s a nice spot to spend some time with.”

These two powerhouse executives are not alone in migrating from traditional retail to cannabis. Skymint Brands additionally features executives from Nabisco and J America; in California, Airfield Supply Co. has a C-suite featuring tech escapees formerly of Fiverr and the prestigious Edelman ad agency while Flow Cannabis Co. has populated its top tiers with members driven from NASA, Merrill Lynch, Clorox, and more. Long stigmatized through federal prohibition, compliant cannabis today is being reinvented by professionals who are rethinking how this plant should be marketed, displayed, and sold. 

“You have to be driven and passionate about your mission,” Gregory says, describing how she keeps sane in the startup world of Michigan cannabis. “It’s messy, full of intensity and speed. You have to find your passion and the reason why it keeps you going. 

“Someone who likes to do things by the rule book will struggle in this industry, because that’s not how cannabis works as it comes out of Prohibition,” she says with a smile. “Everything is still changing — which is why I love it.”

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