Neptune Wellness Solutions.
Inside Neptune's extraction lab.
- Scott Antony, a senior Unilever exec, is joining Neptune Wellness, which sells products made from CBD.
- Antony has worked at Unilever for more than three decades, acting in various senior leadership roles since he joined the company in 1986.
- He told Business Insider that though he has a lot to learn in the CBD and hemp space, he plans to leverage his relationships with retailers who have a "significant interest" in what Neptune Wellness has to offer.
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Scott Antony, a senior Unilever exec, is stepping into the cannabis industry.
Antony was previously the VP of Sales for Target at Unilever, where he helped sell brands like Axe, Dove, and Lipton to the giant retailer. He's joining cannabis company Neptune Wellness Solutions as its new VP of US retail sales, where he'll use those skills to convince major US retailers and grocers to offer the company's CBD products.
Antony had been with Unilever for 33 years and held various senior leadership roles during his time there. He says, though, that it was the time to move on to Neptune Wellness, which he said is building itself around a "massive trend" in the space of health and wellness.
Courtesy of Scott Antony
Scott Antony.
"I think it's a huge opportunity as consumers are much more aware of what they're putting in their bodies," Antony told Business Insider. "So this company is well-positioned, I believe, to go far and be a leader in the space."
Antony is the latest in a long line of consumer-packaged goods execs to join the cannabis industry. In December, David Klein - a longtime Constellation Brands exec - took over as CEO of Canopy Growth, among other notable hires.
Antony has known Michael Cammarata, CEO of Neptune Wellness, for years. Cammarata co-founded Schmidt's Naturals, a beauty & personal care company that Unilever acquired in 2017. He continued to work on the brand with Unilever until mid-2019, when he started Neptune Wellness.
"I think this is an opportunity to help Michael but also to tap into my experience to elevate and help expand the Forest Remedies and Ocean Remedies brands to US retail," Antony said, referring to two new brands that Neptune Wellness launched earlier this month. "It's an exciting opportunity to try to build it from the ground up with such an astute team. So I'm really looking forward to it."
He told Business Insider that though he has a lot to learn in the CBD and hemp space, he plans to leverage his relationships with retailers who he already knows have a "significant interest" in the health and wellness market.
Pointing to companies like Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market, and CVS Health, Antony said that in his first couple of weeks on the job, he plans to map out the roadmap for which "big strategic retailers" he could build relationships with.
"I'll see where the biggest opportunities lie," Antony said. "And then I'll hit the streets running."
- Read more:
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- Field Trip raised $8.5 million to take psychedelic medicine mainstream. We got an exclusive look at the pitch deck that helped make it happen.
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