Have you heard of High Tide? Chance, that bong you bought online, came from them.
If you’ve ever bought a bong off Grasscity, grabbed a rig from Smoke Cartel, ordered a subscription box from Daily High Club, or hunted deals on DankStop… there’s a good chance you’ve already done business with High Tide Inc.
You just didn’t know it…
While most people argue about brands at the dispensary counter, a Calgary based company has quietly stitched together one of the biggest cannabis retail ecosystems on the planet… brick and mortar, online headshops, CBD brands, loyalty programs, even German medical imports.
This is the story of how High Tide went from a small Canadian accessories business to a half-billion dollar revenue machine that basically owns a big chunk of the online glass and CBD shelf.
From niche accessory shop to cannabis retail heavyweight
High Tide traces its roots back to 2009, long before legal rec weed in Canada. It started as a business focused on cannabis accessories and culture, selling glass, pipes and paraphernalia while the big LPs were still arguing about greenhouses and grow lights. hightideinc.com . Over time, founder and CEO Raj Grover pushed the company into physical retail in Canada and built what became Canna Cabana, a chain of cannabis stores that now stretches across six provinces.
Fast forward to fiscal 2024 and the company is almost unrecognizable compared to that early shop era:
- Record annual revenue of about $522 million
- Six consecutive quarters of positive free cash flow, roughly $22 million on a trailing basis
- 191 Canna Cabana locations across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and beyond
- More than 5.3 million Cabana Club members worldwide, with tens of thousands paying for the ELITE tier
On top of that, industry tracking has repeatedly called High Tide the top revenue-generating cannabis company in Canada, and they’ve landed on multiple “fastest growing companies” lists.
That’s the brick-and-mortar side. The part most consumers don’t see is what they’ve been doing online.
The two pillars… discount club stores and e-commerce
High Tide’s whole model today sits on two big pillars that feed each other.
1. Canna Cabana and the “discount club” concept
Canna Cabana isn’t just a regular chain of dispensaries. In 2021, they rolled out what they call a cannabis discount club model in Canada. Think Costco energy, but for weed and accessories.
Shoppers sign up for Cabana Club, get lower everyday prices and special deals, and then a subset of those members upgrade into Cabana ELITE, a paid membership that unlocks deeper discounts and perks in store and across High Tide’s global e-com portfolio.
By late 2024, that loyalty program had blown up to over 5.32 million members globally, with ELITE members shopping more often and spending more than regular customers. That recurring, sticky relationship is a big part of why High Tide can push discount pricing and still generate free cash flow.
2. Online headshops and CBD brands
While the Canadian store network was growing, High Tide spent years quietly buying some of the most recognizable names in online glass and CBD.
From the outside it looks like “just” a bunch of e-commerce sites. Under the hood, it’s hundreds of millions of page views, email lists, social followings and repeat buyers, all pointed at the same parent company.
Let’s break that down.
Rolling up the online headshop world
Grasscity – the original online headshop
If you’ve been in cannabis circles for a while, you already know Grasscity. Based in Amsterdam, it launched around 2000 as one of the first big consumption accessories stores on the internet, tied into a massive forum and global community.
High Tide bought Grasscity in 2018, acquiring all the shares of its Dutch holding companies in a deal valued at roughly C$6.7 million in stock.
Why start here..?
- Immediate global reach in accessories
- Deep roots and brand recognition in Europe and North America
- A huge search footprint and community they could plug into their growing retail operations
Grasscity became the anchor for High Tide’s e-commerce ambitions.
Smoke Cartel – one of the biggest U.S. glass sites
Next up was SmokeCartel.com, a Georgia-based online headshop selling glass, vapes and accessories to U.S. customers.
In early 2021, High Tide struck a deal to buy Smoke Cartel for around US$8 million total, paid as US$2 million in cash and US$6 million in shares. The acquisition closed that March.
The logic was simple…
- Owning Grasscity and Smoke Cartel meant High Tide effectively controlled two of the largest online headshops in the world
- It gave them a strong U.S. e-com beachhead even while U.S. federal legalization was still stuck in neutral
From that point on, High Tide was very openly described as a retailer with both bricks-and-mortar and global e-commerce assets in accessories and CBD.
Daily High Club – subscription boxes and influencer reach
Later in 2021, High Tide went after a different type of headshop: Daily High Club, known for its glass + accessory subscription boxes and big social following.
They paid about US$10 million for DHC, split into US$6.75 million in shares and US$3.25 million in cash.
At the time of the deal, Daily High Club brought:
- Around US$9.4 million in annual net revenue
- Over a million accessories sold under the DHC name
- 15,000+ active subscription members
- Hundreds of thousands of social followers across Instagram and TikTok
That subscription angle matters. It’s not just one-off orders… it’s recurring monthly billing and a warm list to cross-sell other High Tide products, including CBD and, eventually, cannabis in the right markets.
DankStop – another major headshop brought into the fold
Also in 2021, High Tide kept going and signed a deal to buy DankStop, another large U.S. online accessories retailer.
Under that agreement, High Tide’s U.S. subsidiary acquired 100% of DankStop for about US$3.85 million in shares.
The result of these moves by the end of 2021 was pretty wild…
High Tide controlled:
- Grasscity
- Smoke Cartel
- Daily High Club
- DankStop
That’s a serious chunk of the online headshop market, all under one corporate roof, all feeding into the same data and loyalty engine.
Building a CBD portfolio on top of that
Accessories were only half the game. High Tide also went hard after hemp-derived CBD brands in the U.S. and U.K.
FAB CBD – a leading U.S. CBD brand
In May 2021, High Tide acquired 80% of FAB CBD (Fab Nutrition LLC) for about US$20.6 million, with an option to buy the remaining 20% later. FAB had strong direct-to-consumer sales of oils, gummies, creams and other hemp products.
The deal:
- Immediately boosted High Tide’s U.S. revenue run rate
- Added another high-margin e-com channel they could cross-list on Grasscity, Smoke Cartel and CBDcity
Blessed CBD – a top U.K. online CBD retailer
In October 2021, High Tide moved into Europe by buying 80% of Blessed CBD, one of the U.K.’s best known CBD brands, for roughly £9.1 million, again with an option on the remaining 20%.
Blessed brought:
- Strong brand recognition in the U.K.
- High gross margins and solid EBITDA
- Millions of site visits and a pure DTC model
It instantly made High Tide a meaningful player in U.K. CBD e-commerce.
NuLeaf Naturals – premium cannabinoids and manufacturing
Finally, in late 2021, High Tide completed a deal to acquire 80% of NuLeaf Naturals, a Colorado-based cannabinoid company, for about US$31.2 million, with a three-year option on the rest.
NuLeaf added:
- A well-known premium CBD and cannabinoid brand in the U.S.
- A cGMP-certified production facility
- Thousands of verified 5-star reviews and strong DTC sales
Together, FAB CBD, Blessed CBD, NuLeaf, CBDcity and the accessory sites give High Tide a CBD footprint that stretches across the U.S., U.K. and Europe, all tied back into the same corporate ecosystem and loyalty infrastructure.
What High Tide actually looks like today
By 2025, High Tide is positioned as:
- The largest cannabis retailer in Canada by revenue, and one of the largest globally by store count
- Operator of 191 Canna Cabana stores with a discount-club model and a 5.3M-strong global loyalty base
- Owner of a suite of major e-com platforms:
- Grasscity.com
- SmokeCartel.com
- DailyHighClub.com
- DankStop.com
- NuLeafNaturals.com
- FABCBD.com
- BlessedCBD sites in the U.K. and EU
- CBDcity.com
All of that sits on top of a strategy that keeps showing up in their investor decks and press releases:
- Use brick-and-mortar to dominate local markets and collect rich retail data
- Use e-commerce to capture global accessory and CBD demand with relatively low capex
- Wire it all together with Cabana Club, Cabana ELITE and Cabanalytics data so they can sell more, more often, to the same customer base
- Keep expanding into new legal markets like Germany on the medical side, and be ready if U.S. federal rules finally crack open full online cannabis sales
It’s not perfect, and they’ve had to navigate impairments and the usual cannabis market chaos, but the trajectory is clear… they’re building a diversified, consumer-first retail empire that touches THC, CBD and accessories across multiple countries.
Why this matters for regular consumers
For the average person buying a bong or some CBD gummies, this all mostly happens behind the curtain.
You might think you’re supporting a scrappy independent headshop or a standalone CBD brand… when in reality, you’re probably helping a publicly traded Canadian company:
- Test which product categories and price points work best
- Collect more data for its loyalty and analytics engines
- Fuel its ability to open more discount club stores and push prices lower in Canada
None of this is automatically bad or good. It’s just a very different power structure than most people imagine when they see an “about us” page with a cute origin story and some pictures of glassblowers.
If you’re in cannabis tourism, retail or online accessories, it’s worth knowing that High Tide is one of the main gravitational forces you’re competing with or selling into, whether you realize it or not.
A Video with Raj Grover – CEO High Tide Inc
Sources
- High Tide investor presentation, February 2023 company snapshot, founding year, store counts and e-commerce brand list hightideinc.com
- High Tide FY2024 year-end financial results and corporate “About” section, including $522.3M revenue, free cash flow, 191 stores and 5.32M Cabana Club members hightideinc.com
- High Tide “Invest” and “Brands” pages describing the business model, brick-and-mortar network and e-commerce assets hightideinc.com+1
- SEC and MD&A filings outlining U.S. and international e-commerce platforms operated by High Tide SEC+2hightideinc.com+2
- Press releases and coverage of Grasscity acquisition, 2018 transaction details and strategic rationale hightideinc.com+1
- Press releases and news on Smoke Cartel acquisition terms and closing in early 2021 hightideinc.com+2Smoke Cartel+2
- Press and High Tide releases regarding Daily High Club acquisition terms, financials and subscription metrics hightideinc.com+1
- Press releases describing the DankStop acquisition, consideration and U.S. e-commerce expansion strategy hightideinc.com+2hightideinc.com+2
- Releases and articles on FAB CBD, Blessed CBD and NuLeaf Naturals acquisitions, including deal sizes and global CBD strategy citybiz+3PR Newswire+3hightideinc.com+3
- Recent financial news and corporate updates on 2024–2025 performance, growth rankings and global Cabana Club expansion Investing.com+7PR Newswire+7hightideinc.com+7
If you want, next step we can tune this for SEO on USAWeed… headline tests, meta description, internal link anchors, and where to slot it into your cannabis business / industry section so it actually pulls in some of that search interest around High Tide and these headshop brands.