Like many others in the outlying rural cannabis communities, Linda Nxusani, felt the frustration of being unable to compete with the urban cannabis private clubs that are the main beneficiaries of the unregulated, post-legalisation ‘dagga’ boom. In the face of increased competition from commercial growers closer to market, many Mpondoland growers have hit desperate times.
Turning problems into solutions
Nxusani decided to come up with her own solution to the problem, and in the process has turned it into a women-empowering, medical cannabis business that leans heavily on the botanical legacy of the Eastern Cape.
LBS styles itself as a digital marketing cum cannabis operation. Its origins are just as rarer: it crept out into the open in the gap opened up by a twin glorious disaster: the pandemic and cannabis decriminalisation. The former mainstreamed the convenience of remote work. The latter was inadvertent catalyst for a select group of previously exclusive traditional growers to diversify into niche cannabis entities after prices plummeted and endangered their livelihoods.
“How’s it that a certain elite people are benefitting and the people that are the custodians are not? We decided we can try to do things how they do it,” says founding owner Linda Nxusani. Her reflection echoes the gripes of thousands of traditional growers who found themselves unable to compete with the urban cannabis café societies that blossomed post-legalisation.
“The digital marketing business started as a response to what I could do post-pandemic. We realised that digitisation was the way forward. But by then the cannabis market was oversaturated, prompting us to pivot to the medicinal cannabis niche.” That was in 2022 when the tail-end of Covid 19 was still disrupting routines and life as we then knew it.
If the cliché from farm to table can be applied to LBS, then its distinctiveness derives in the fact that it grows, processes, markets, retails and distributes its own raw product, while additionally acting as marketing company for Port St Johns women growers.
Using social media to connect growers to market
“Our focus is women growers because the industry is predominantly male but the people who nurture and know the plant better are female. And the plant is also female,” says Linda, an avowed marketer, facilitator and teacher. “We try to market growers on social media, connecting them with the market.” She highlights the importance of labelling, product origin- and processing point-specification in adding value to growers’ products.
Linda shares her home with her grower aunt whose product gains from her neice’s marketing expertise. The aunt’s indispensable role in the in-house value chain is to grow and supply LBS with the requisite raw materials Linda processes and retails at the onsite shop in her Port St. Jones Mpatu Ward 6 village: cannabis, lavender, roses, geraniums, you name it, that go into hercannabis medicinal, health and cosmetics range. She is the lone permanent staffer with casual workers coming in during production hours and exhibitions or as required.
“We operate on a bartering system, trading our products in exchange for raw materials. Also, some of our oils are processed differently and are accordingly sourced from the relevant various suppliers,” she explains.
Cannabis and womens’ health
“People are increasingly turning to alternatives to smoking and medicinal cannabis is really coming into its own, with others taking edibles for insomnia,” notes Linda.
Her infused chocolate and “decadent brownies” are a standout. “I really try to set myself apart from everybody else”. The already over-supplied gummies segment was not worth the investment trouble.
Well worth it was the foray into agro-processing, making oils, cosmetics, bath salts, hair food, lip palm and other products and now her signature Sensual Lubricant, designed for women undergoing peri-menopause.
On this she took after Hollywood star Halle Berry, whose menopause healthcare products venture was the result of her menopause being misdiagnosed as herpes. This underlines the nightmare many mature women go through at this most daunting phase of their life.
“The body is drying and it is getting stresses that it doesn’t quite know how to handle. You experience hormonal changes.” Linda recommends her product as ideal for women anywhere between 30 and 50 years old.
Her primary target market currently is her immediate environs but she is eyeing a solid client base in Port St. Johns town and hopefully further afield after that.
It is a given that her move into the cannabis market cannot have come without its fair share of challenges. Aside from the prevailing grey zone confusion is the no small matter of finances. “Machinery, packaging, labelling all need to be up to date in order to scale.”
She was one of Dr Ncebakazi Galada’s Township Cannabis Incubator (TCI)-managed exhibitors at last year’s Cannabis Expo. Repeat exposure at this year’s May edition will certainly be welcome.
“We continue to strengthen our relationship with entities like Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), Walter Sisulu University and OR Tambo Municipality in ensuring industry sustainability and longevity.”
Linda is a member of Mpondoland Cannabis Belt Association (MCBA) Port St. Johns branch; the MCBA is the de facto representative body of indigenous stakeholders in Eastern Cape.
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