Tilray Brands, Inc. is an American pharmaceutical, cannabis-lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company, incorporated in the United States, headquartered in New York City.[1][2] Tilray also has operations in Canada, Australia, New Zealand,[3][4]Latin America,[5] with growing facilities in Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom.[6][7]
In December 2020, the company announced a merger with Aphria, and now operates under the Tilray name and its ticker symbol on NASDAQ[8] and the Toronto Stock Exchange.[9]
Tilray also owns several breweries and was ranked by the Brewers Association as the 4th largest craft beer company in the US in 2025.
History
Founded in 2013, Tilray was originally incorporated under the umbrella of Seattle-based Privateer Holdings and was one of Canada's first licensed producers.[10][11] At the end of 2014, it secured the first institutional investment in the cannabis industry from Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital fund.[10] In 2016, it became the first cannabis company to conduct a clinical trial approved by Health Canada.[10] The trial evaluated the therapeutic potential of medical cannabis.[10] In January 2017, Tilray was certified for good manufacturing practices.[12]
By October 2018, the company had raised $1.1 billion.
Strategic partnerships and acquisitions
In 2018, Tilray announced it had entered into global alliance with Sandoz, a division of Novartis to co-brand and distribute non-combustible medical cannabis products in global markets where it is legally authorized. The Globe and Mail dubbed this partnership as ‘big-pharma’s first foray into cannabis’.[22]
Also in 2018, Tilray announced a $100-million joint venture with the world's largest brewer, AB InBev to research non-alcohol tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD)-infused beverages, through their respective subsidiaries, Labatt Breweries and High Park Company.[23]
In 2019, Tilray signed a $250 million revenue-sharing deal with U.S. based brand company, Authentic Brands Group, to leverage ABG brand names, such as Juicy Couture, Greg Norman, and Nine West to create cannabis products.
Merger with Aphria
On 15 December 2020, Aphria conducted a reverse acquisition of Tilray, creating the largest global cannabis company by revenue and geographic reach.[10][8] The chief executive officer (CEO) of Aphria, Irwin D. Simon, stated that the merger strategy was to capture Tilray's business assets and public trading exposure in the United States and its free trade abilities in Europe, enabling potential for becoming a global operation.[8] Irwin was named as CEO and chairman of the board for the merged company, and Tilray CEO, Brendan Kennedy, will be a member of the board of directors.[8] The merged companies will keep Tilray's name and trade under the Tilray ticker symbol, TLRY, on the NASDAQ exchange.[8]
By combining assets, the new Tilray company will develop craft beer and cannabis-infused beverages in partnership with Anheuser-Busch InBev
Brewery ownership
Tilray also owns several breweries: Montauk Brewing Company, Good Supply Beer, 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Square Mile Cider Company, Terrapin Beer Company, Truss Beverage Co and Brewdog breweries.[34] Tilray's beer division ranked No. 9 on the Brewers Association's annual report of the US nation's top craft companies based on beer sales volume in 2022.[35][36][37]
Alpine Beer Company
Founded in 1999 in Alpine, California, the Alpine Beer Company produced award-winning sour beers.[38]
Food and drink
HiBall Energy
HiBall Energy was founded in 2005 by Todd Berardi and was based out of San Francisco. They produced organic energy drinks and were purchased by Anheuser-Busch on July 20, 2017, in an effort to diversify into non-alcoholic beverages. Their products were low in sugar, produced with fair-trade ingredients, and were available at 14,000 locations prior to its acquisition by Anheuser-Busch.[64] On May 19, 2023, Anheuser-Busch announced that they were discontinuing HiBall alongside their box wine brand Babe Wine, stating that they will be focusing on their "mega brands" instead. This came despite HiBall having a dedicated consumer fan-base that heavily protested the discontinuation. An Anheuser-Busch spokesmen stated that the discontinuation had nothing to do with the 2023 Bud Light boycott.[65][66] Anheuser-Busch sold the HiBall brand to Tilray alongside seven of their beer brands in August 2023.[67]
Preliminary clinical research
In partnership with University of Sydney, NSW Government, Chris O'Brien Lifehouse, Tilray participated in a clinical trial testing the efficacy and tolerability of medical cannabis as a possible treatment for the side effects of chemotherapy.[68] Led by The Hospital for Sick Children, in Toronto, Canada, Tilray provided a cannabidiol (CBD) oil product available in Canada to test the efficacy and tolerability of medical cannabis oil as a possible treatment for pediatric epilepsy (Dravet syndrome).[69] In partnership with the University of British Columbia, Tilray provided medical cannabis products used to test medical cannabis as a possible treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.[70] In partnership with the Grupo Español de Investigación en Neurooncología GEINO, in Spain, Tilray supplied medical cannabis products for the trial testing the efficacy and tolerability of medical cannabis as a possible treatment for glioblastoma.
In 2019, Tilray signed an agreement with Cannamedical Pharma GmbH to export $3.3 million worth of medical cannabis from its Portugal facility to Germany, marking Tilray's first export from Tilray Portugal Unipessoal, Lda.
See also
External links
References
- Tilray Focuses on Brand Growth in Crowded Canada Pot Market Bloomberg, January 10, 2022, retrieved 2022-03-01^
- Tilray Brands, Inc. Class 2 Common Stock (TLRY)^
- SmallCapPower. Tilray Stands Out with its Global Supply Agreements 8 August 2018