Tripp Keber
Dixie Brands
In 2010, Tripp Keber and his two employees shared space in what he describes as a rundown space that felt like a drughouse. Since then, the President and CEO of Dixie Brands has built the leading marijuana company in Colorado, an entity that is wooed all over the world and may very well deserve its marketing slogan, “The Future of Cannabis.”
The breakthrough came when he realized it was possible to infuse cannabis into soda. An 8-ounce bottle of Dixie Elixirs blueberry or pomegranate soda now sells for $25 and retailers have a hard time keeping them in stock. Dixie Brands sell more than 120 products ranging from the original soda to botanical oil products and lotions. As the leader of the edibles industry, they aim to make products that can be absorbed into the body through one of four delivery systems: Oral Mucosa (through the lining of the mouth), Ingestion, Lung, and Transdermal (through the skin).
As solely an edibles and elixir company, Dixie does not have any stores itself but instead partners with dispensaries who carry their products. Therefore, a large part of Tripp’s job is to maintain relationships with the dispensary owners. Tripp has the right personality for the job and as one of his partners says, “Everyday working with Tripp is like a vacation.” Tripp jokingly says about himself, “Business runs better when I’m not there.”
But in reality, Tripp has given everything to this company. He did not take a salary for the first 30 months and continues to reinvest, always pushing Dixie to progress. The company’s executives all have backgrounds with Fortune 500 companies and the marketing team comes from some of the top packaging corporations in the world. That’s why Dixie’s products stand out on the dispensary shelves - they’re not the homegrown hippy-looking concoctions; they’re packaged like upscale brands in trendy stores.
Dixie has announced a national expansion with the creation of Dixie Brands, a kind of licensing/franchising program to take their products into other states. There is interest from entities in Oregon, Arizona, Maine, Rhode Island and Nevada. They’ve also launched the Dixie Prime Vape Pen, which they describe as offering connoisseur smoking oil. Dixie is aiming high and playing for big stakes.
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