For generations, the Vlasic title has stood for consistency and high quality. First by a Detroit dairy, then as America’s most well-known pickle jar with its iconic smiling stork. Entrepreneur Willy Vlasic is carrying that entrepreneurial legacy ahead in his personal method for a brand new era with a potent mixture of enterprise acumen and moral ethos he inherited from his forefathers.
As the top of Vlasic Bioscience, Willy applies the identical household values that constructed one of many nation’s most enduring meals manufacturers to his hemp and CBD firm, which is proudly rooted in innovation and social influence.
Rising up in Michigan, Vlasic says he didn’t assume a lot about his surname till classmates related him to the pickle model. “We had been the pickle individuals,” he says. “When individuals requested if we had been ‘that Vlasic,’ half the time I’d say sure, and the opposite half I’d say ‘no, I want.’”
His great-grandfather, Joseph Vlasic, famously turned a household dairy into one of many nation’s most recognizable meals firms. “He was such a wise, beneficiant businessman,” Vlasic says. “He took wonderful care of his individuals, donated tens of millions to charity and constructed a powerful household fame—particularly in Detroit. We all the time felt like we needed to maintain ourselves to the next commonplace.”
These expectations—integrity, professionalism, respect—formed Vlasic’s method to enterprise. “If we embarrassed the household, my grandfather heard about it,” he says. “These values carry over into all the things I do now.”
Vlasic says his entry into hashish was something however company. In his late teenagers, he earned his Michigan medical card and struck a cope with his skeptical dad and mom: If he handed a 90-day drug take a look at, he might begin a authorized develop of their basement. He did, and this pivotal second set him on target to a lifelong profession in hashish.
A good friend quickly invited him to Mama J’s, a 4,000-plant facility in Washington state, the place he discovered cultivation from the bottom up. “They put me by the ringer,” Vlasic says. “I scrubbed flooring, trimmed, packaged—each job you’ll be able to think about.”
At 21, whereas nonetheless in school, he turned Michigan’s youngest licensed cultivator, approved to develop 6,000 crops underneath the state’s medical program. “That have was all the things,” he says. “You possibly can’t faux data on this enterprise. It’s the distinction between surviving and scaling.”
After a number of years of balancing cultivation and enterprise improvement in Michigan, Vlasic started exploring how hemp and CBD might open a authorized path for enlargement and a brand new alternative to construct one thing lasting.
About 5 years in the past, a dialog with enterprise associate Adam Rosenberg modified all the things. “You’ve received this unbelievable household title with a historical past of belief and high quality—why not deliver that very same credibility into hashish?” Adam requested Vlasic. Collectively, they pitched Vlasic’s father, Rick, on the imaginative and prescient for a clear, high-integrity hashish and wellness firm that would reside as much as the household title. “Adam was the one who bought him,” Vlasic admits. “He confirmed how we might take that legacy of high quality and apply it to one thing new and significant.”
At first, Rick wasn’t satisfied. “My dad thought it was each the perfect and worst thought ever. He mentioned, ‘We’re by no means calling it Vlasic—over my useless physique!’ and went backwards and forwards on the idea, finally agreeing that this was a chance value exploring.”
Collectively, they based Vlasic Labs earlier than the pandemic, beginning as a CBD extraction lab, then increasing into CBN conversion and finally a full shopper wellness model underneath Vlasic Bioscience, the household’s father or mother firm.
“We’ve had exits in Michigan and Missouri, and now we’re promoting Vlasic flower in a number of states,” Vlasic says. “The CBD line ships nationwide. It’s surreal.” As we speak, Vlasic Labs CBD operates alongside Vlasic Flower, Vlasic Extracts and Schedule One, all underneath the Vlasic Bioscience umbrella.
“Doing good enterprise and constructing the model the appropriate method issues greater than making a fast buck,” Vlasic says. “The Vlasic title means one thing; it’s a seal of integrity.”
For Willy Vlasic, creating an organization together with his household title additionally meant creating one with a conscience. “If we’re going to revenue from hashish, we have now to present again to the individuals nonetheless struggling due to it,” he says.
That perception led to the making of The Vlasic Traditional in 2023, a charity golf event that’s grown into one of the talked-about occasions in hashish. “The primary one was small—possibly ten groups,” he says. “We donated to a neighborhood meals pantry, however I knew I needed to assist one thing extra related to the business.”
That connection got here when he met Donte West, a previously incarcerated hashish prisoner from Kansas and advocate with the Final Prisoner Undertaking.
“I heard his story and discovered what he went by,” Vlasic says. “I requested if we might make Final Prisoner Undertaking the official charity of the occasion. He was all in.”
Every year, the event has grown—bringing in additional gamers, sponsors and freed hashish prisoners. By West, Willy related with Invoice and Jeff Levers, a.ok.a. the “Beard Bros,” behind Freedom Develop, a nonprofit offering commissary and re-entry assist for inmates. In 2024, Freedom Develop joined the Traditional as an official associate, adopted by The Weldon Undertaking, based by Weldon Angelos, who served 55 years for hashish earlier than being pardoned. “Now we’ve received all three—Final Prisoner Undertaking, Freedom Develop and The Weldon Undertaking,” Vlasic says. “To this point, we’ve raised greater than $150,000 for these causes and we’re not slowing down. We’ll preserve doing it till each hashish prisoner is free.”
Carrying a household title that after stood for pickles into an area nonetheless burdened by stigma comes with strain. “We’ve far more to lose than most individuals do,” Vlasic says, who sees clear parallels between his grandfather’s early enterprise and the trendy hashish panorama: threat, onerous work and a relentless concentrate on high quality. “They constructed their model by consistency,” he says. “That’s what we’re doing—holding ourselves to that very same commonplace, simply in a distinct business.”
After a decade in hashish, Vlasic’s philosophy stays grounded. “Even when your first funding doesn’t work out, if you happen to stroll away with new abilities, it’s value it,” he says. “We’re not right here to make a fast greenback. We’re right here to construct one thing that lasts—one thing that helps individuals and honors the place we got here from.”
The submit From Pickles To Vegetation: Vlasic is an American Success Story appeared first on Hashish Now.
