Feature Story
A Historic Pickle Brand Enters the CBD & Cannabis Space
The Vlasic Torch Gets Passed to the Next Generation
by Clayton Stallings, The EVOLUTION Magazine
From the family that brought you America’ s favorite pickles, the Vlasic name now lends itself to premium THC cannabis flower that recently hit dispensary shelves in Missouri late last month.
“ I like to tell people we went from flipping pickle bags to nickel bags,” CEO Willy Vlasic said, jokingly.“ My dad doesn’ t love that line.” Willy’ s dad and former Vlasic CBD CEO Rick Vlasic, AKA Pickle Rick, never originally intended to bring the Vlasic name into the cannabis space when he and his son first entered the cannabis industry over 10 years ago in Michigan and started their first patient caregiver grow. Soon after, they became minority shareholders in a licensed cultivation operation under construction in Michigan, where Willy would later serve as the director of cultivation.
“ In the 1930s, he bought a sweet, crunchy pickle recipe from a guy in New York for $ 4,000 [ today’ s worth would be nearly $ 100,000 ], which was his life savings of over 10 years. Everyone told him he was insane,” recalled Willy.
“ My grandfather, Robert Vlasic, then took the Vlasic name global and built it to be the # 1 pickle in the world, with 90 million Americans still eating them today. They later sold the company to Campbell’ s Soup, but Campbell’ s kept the family name because the brand was so strong, and the product was so well-known— thanks to the store and the TV ads in the 70s.”
Like many other licensed grows, it took longer than expected to get up and going.“ I was itching to start a cannabis company,” recounted Willy.“ So I dove headfirst into starting a CBD extraction company at the same time. I built the lab out, sourced the hemp, and with the help of my partner Adam Rosenberg( now chairman of the board for NCIA, National Cannabis Industry Association), started extracting thousands of pounds of hemp. Unfortunately, the CBD market tanked at the same time our lab became operational, and CBD oil went from selling for $ 4,000 a kilo to $ 400 a kilo.”
With the saturation of CBD crude oil crashing the market, the only way for CBD companies to survive was by creating great finished products for the consumer. What better name to do that with than Vlasic? At least, this was Rosenberg’ s thinking when he first pitched the idea to Rick and Willy. The father-son duo went back and forth for a week on whether to carry the legacy name into such a challenging market situation. After all, those were big shoes to fill.
The Vlasic name all started with Willy’ s great-grandpa, Joseph Vlasic, a poor immigrant from Croatia who moved to Detroit in the 1920s as a child with his family. When his dad passed away when he was 15 years old, he started hustling milk, cheese, and later sauerkraut and pickles, delivering by horse and carriage to corner stores across the neighborhood to support his family. Over time, his operation expanded to more delivery guys, more carriages, and then his own factories manufacturing sauerkraut and pickles.
The Vlasic team( left to right): Jack, Rick( AKA Pickle Rick), and Willy.
Those are BIG shoes to fill, indeed, but eventually, Pickle Rick decided they would proceed on two conditions. 1. Rick leading the company as CEO. 2. Getting his father’ s blessing to use the Vlasic name.
The family would end up having eight separate conversations with Robert Vlasic explaining the health and wellness world of CBD along with their intentions of using the family name for this new family business, and“ every time he said yes, and was excited to see the family name passed down to a new generation of products,” said Willy.
28 July 2025