Dive Brief:
- Jones Soda sold its cannabis beverage business, including its Mary Jones brand, to MJ Reg Disrupters for $3 million.
- The transaction is part of Jones' previously announced strategy to streamline operations and focus on its core soda offerings, functional beverages and adult beverages. The sale included $489,399 in cash paid when the deal closed on June 19, with the remaining amount tied to a promissory note that will be paid out through 2028.
- Jones first entered the cannabis space in 2022 when it launched the Mary Jones brand. During its first quarter of 2025, Jones said its cannabis segment generated $380,000 in revenue compared to $410,000 in the same period a year earlier.
Dive Insight:
Jones’ decision to divest Mary Jones and the rest of its cannabis business will allow the Seattle company to focus its finite resources on these and other categories with greater growth potential. Cannabis was responsible for roughly 8% of its $4.6 million in sales during the first three months of 2025.
"The sale of the cannabis beverage business marks an important milestone in our effort to focus our resources on areas where we see the strongest long-term growth and profitability,” Scott Harvey, Jones’ CEO, said in a statement. “We are proud of the innovation behind the Mary Jones brand, but I believe this divestiture enables us to sharpen our strategic priorities and accelerate investment in our core soda, functional beverage, and adult beverage categories."
Jones jumped into cannabis as part of a push to expand beyond its signature quirky soda flavors. In recent years, it also debuted a prebiotic drink, a beverage with added caffeine and a hard craft soda.
For years, companies have looked to cannabis as a promising business opportunity in the U.S. But those hopes have routinely been dashed, with national legislation for regulating cannabis in food and beverage products failing to materialize.
As the national landscape for cannabis legalization remains hazy, companies have focused on states where recreational use is legal. But entering those markets is far from easy or cheap, with the logistics of state launches varying significantly.
Tilray Brands has focused more of its attention recently on beer, with its CFO recently saying there is a reduced likelihood of cannabis regulation in the U.S. Molson Coors exited a joint venture three years ago, citing “no near-term pathway to federal legalization” and “uncertainty in the market” for cannabis products. And Modelo distributor Constellation Brands has written down a large part of its roughly $4 billion investment in cannabis producer Canopy Growth.
Jones noted it will retain its fast-growing hemp-derived THC product (HD9) line, which includes Mary Jones sodas, shooters and gummies. The segment, which Jones launched in early 2024, has experienced four consecutive quarters of sales revenue growth. Unlike cannabis-infused beverages, which Jones can only sell in a few states, drinks with hemp can be sold in most parts of the U.S.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include that Jones will retain its line of hemp-derived beverages.
