SME Innovation | The great seduction of hemp

In 2011, Dany Lefebvre and Marie-Ève ​​Parenteau decided to change their lives. They left the restaurant business to find a better balance. “We got into medical cannabis, says Dany Lefebvre, without experience. »

The experience came anyway, and it introduced them to hemp, a plant which, unlike its twin cannabis, contains less than 0.3% THC and lends itself to several uses. In 2017, they acquired a small business specializing in hemp processing, La Feuille verte.

“I was amazed at what this plant can do,” says the entrepreneur, who has incorporated it into his diet.

Hemp does not have the mind-altering properties of pot, but it does have other goodies. Its seeds and the oil obtained from them have great nutritional qualities, which the young company has exploited in a drink, KombuChanv, and in animal feed, with products called Crocx. But it was the quality of the hemp oil-based skin care products that the two entrepreneurs made on a handmade basis that seduced them, to the point of deciding to devote themselves to it full time.

Their company specializing in the cultivation and processing of hemp, which bore the name Lafeuille verte, was renamed Chanv to formalize this shift.

Chanv has recycled and renovated the facilities left vacant by the Colbex slaughterhouse in Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover. “A hidden treasure”, according to Dany Lefebvre. There, she makes four lines of hemp oil-based skin products, one of which is dedicated to treating conditions like eczema and rosacea.

The raw material is cultivated by partners in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, and Chanv also produces hemp for research and development purposes near its manufacturing facilities, with the help of 22 foreign workers.

In total, the company has 40 employees who manufacture skin care products at a very affordable price, assures Dany Lefebvre. With his wife and business partner, he says he is very happy to create in Quebec a product “that grows with sun and water” and that can do so much good to its users.

After selling off its medical cannabis business, the company is preparing to divest its beverage and pet product brands to focus its energy on skincare.

By the end of the year, the products should be available in 100 points of sale. Chanv aims to be sold everywhere in Quebec, and eventually in Ontario.

For its founders, the ambition is to create a Quebec flagship, says Dany Lefebvre, who finds inspiration in companies like Cascades, whose head office is located not far from Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover.

Since 2018, investments of 10 million have been made in the company, with the support of Investissement Québec and Desjardins.

“You know you have a good product and you have a brand that resonates,” he says of the big brand competition in the skincare industry.