CBD elixirs and more: Centre County businessman shifts gears by jumping into hemp market

A new Centre County, vertically-integrated hemp farm and CBD extraction company offers locals unique ways to incorporate CBD into their daily lives. Pink Mule Growers, founded by Bob Ricketts, owner of Fasta & Ravioli Co., harvested its first hemp crop this year and launched its products for pre-sale online.

The prospect of hemp farming was first brought to Ricketts’ attention in relation to Centre County’s ongoing dairy crisis.

“A conversation came about, on how hemp could be a paradigm shift for helping solve the dairy crisis,” he said. “This kind of ‘ah ha’ moment happened. ... Why am I encouraging everyone else to do this when I have a few of the key pieces available to me: one being land, two being a place to process, three being a place to produce products?”

Ricketts describes the hemp market as a “blue ocean” market. The phrase is derived from a marketing strategy popularized in the early 2000s, wherein investors and entrepreneurs attempt to take advantage of “blue ocean” markets where market saturation is no worry and newcomers enjoy uncontested space. With hemp farming only becoming legal in Pennsylvania in 2018, Ricketts says the market isn’t fully developed and there’s a lot of opportunity for long-term growth.

While the new endeavor makes full use of Ricketts’ well-honed entrepreneurial skills, he notes the sales cycle for hemp products is “significantly different than anything I’ve worked with before.”

“You have to grow it, then you have to process it and then you have to make the products and then you have to sell it,” he said. “Being vertically integrated is really unique and a path less traveled, and the harder path to take, because each individual step is very much its own business and its own art and its own area requiring expertise, whether that’s the growing, the processing, making the products or the sale of the products.”

For the upcoming holiday season, customers can find Pink Mule Growers products online, as well as in — hopefully, Ricketts said — a few retail shops around State College. In the first quarter of 2021, he plans to expand where the products are sold. Products currently include citrus CBD elixirs, as well as harvest sample packs.

The elixirs are meant to introduce CBD to the customer in a “fun, less medical way,” Ricketts said.

“At one point last year, I did a lot of research and was planning to make the tinctures and the creams and the vape cartridges, but then thought, why should Pink Mule be doing what everyone else is doing, when something like a drink elixir is a more fun way to introduce people to the product and incorporating it into their everyday lifestyle, whether that’s with a cocktail or a mocktail?” he said.

But how did the Pink Mule Growers unique name come about?

“It’s a throwback to Old Coaly, Penn State’s original mascot, and the black and pink were the original colors. It’s kind of a throwback to the land grant roots of the university and how we are, 15 minutes in any direction, an agricultural economy, beyond Penn State,” Ricketts said.

Moving forward, Ricketts’ focus is on growth and getting the product in customers’ hands. “It starts with a quality product, and I think we have that, so it’s about getting the quality product in the hands of the customers, and then building from there.”

For more information on Pink Mule Growers, visit www.hyperlocalsuperfresh.com.