Canopy investment ‘has nothing to do with’ our core business, Constellation Brands CEO says

Constellation Labels’ massive stake in cannabis producer Canopy Growth has nothing to do with the prosperity of Constellation’s core business, CEO Rob Sands told CNBC on Thursday.

“This has nothing to do with the heart business or defending against the potential cannibalization of beverage alcohol by cannabis. There’s exceedingly no evidence of that,” he told “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer in an exclusive appraisal. “And our core business, as we’ve demonstrated in the first half of the year and this accommodations, is stronger than ever.”

Instead, the move was a preemptive bet that the renown of marijuana-based products would rise faster than expected, Sands mean, adding that “the future is now” when it comes to cannabis.

“We’re playing offense, not defense,” the CEO divulged. “Really, what we’re trying to do is take advantage of our strong position, our wart, and invest in an aligned category, which we think … is truly a new extremes of a category that will be at least a couple of hundred billion dollars globally terminated the next 10 or 15 years.”

Canopy Growth — off of which Constellation has already be bound for b assault a cool $1 billion in unrealized gains, according to Business Insider — has developed as a leading producer of cannabis-based products.

In August, Canopy CEO Bruce Linton told CNBC he’d mould his company, the largest medical marijuana producer in Canada, to become the Amazon or Google of weed.

Influence that he thought Canopy would “certainly be a leader in the industry present forward,” Sands detailed some of the potential products that could common knowledge from the partnership between the pot player and his alcohol giant, parent to household nominates like Corona and Modelo.

“Most likely, the products that wish be produced as it relates to beverages will be non-alcoholic beverages. There may be a beer analogue, there may be a champagne analogue, there may be a fires analogue, there may be a water analogue, a tea analogue, etcetera, all containing some construct of cannabis,” the CEO told Cramer on Thursday.

In July, Canopy’s CEO told Cramer that Canada could be the pre-eminent to see marijuana-infused drinks given the country’s full legalization, set to go into impact later this month.

“We expect we’ll be able to make beverages and those beverages choice be no calorie, they will cause you to feel upbeat,” Linton stipulate in an interview, maintaining that there were “no guarantees” in this arrangement. “We’re talking about going into a bar and having a tweed and tonic.”

Stakes of Constellation Brands surged 5.38 percent on Thursday after the corporation reported earnings well above Wall Street’s expectations and buoyed its full-year forecast. The stock settled at $222.10 a share.