How Canadian weed company Tilray got its name
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After smoking a big doobie the other day, I got to thinking … How did Tilray (TLRY), the Canadian medical marijuana company, get its name?
Luckily it took only a quick call to the company to find out. A Tilray spokesperson said it wanted a name that would “reflect its values.”
The company hired Seattle-based branding firm Heckler Associates for the task. (Heckler is best known for coining the brand Starbucks, so named after the first mate in “Moby Dick” to evoke “the romance of the high seas and the seafaring tradition of the early coffee traders.”)
After brainstorming with the Tilray team, Heckler pitched “Tilray,” a portmanteau of “till,” as in “till the earth,” and “ray,” as in “ray of sunshine” to grow healthy plants and “ray of hope” for patients in need.
Tilray, which was founded in 2013 in British Columbia, cultivates, processes and distributes medical cannabis in oil and flower form. It serves tens of thousands of patients in 8 countries. Last week, it became the first company to receive FDA approval to import cannabis to the U.S. for medical research.
After a second doobie, I got to thinking again … What about Canopy? How’d it get its name? Eh, never mind. Maybe I’ll look that up tomorrow.
Shares of Tilray have surged nearly 400% since it made its debut on the NASDAQ in July, with an IPO price of $17. Track Tilray, Canopy and other marijuana stocks on Yahoo Finance’s new Cannabis Stock Watchlist.
More on Tilray:
Tilray shares jump as company says it’s exporting cannabis to sick children in Australia
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