LAGUNA BLENDS (LAG.C): LAUNCHED AND SELLING

131 sales affiliates, at the time of writing, have added Laguna Blends (LAG.C) to their product catalogues. What does this mean to you? Well, if you’ve been a long holder of the stock for a while, as I have, it’ll be a relief. A lot of people were casting aspersions on LAG, and have been since it was announced and listed.

Did they want to be selling sooner than this? Yes. Did they want to their stock higher? Most def. Would they like volume to be higher? Surely.

Or… maybe not.

Look, Laguna has been on a long slow slump for some time. News releases of the CEO and his wife lending money to the company aren’t generally seen as positives, though loans sure beat dilution. And a 2:1 rollback, designed to get the stock price back to where institutionals could buy in, which served only to bring the price back down once more the next day, didn’t help.

But that lower price hasn’t been due to nobody buying the stock. In fact, I have it on good authority that the insiders at the company have been snacking barfily on the cheap stock, buying as much as they can get away with and holding for what they see as a multi-year play.

I sold some of mine, mostly due to other deals I wanted to get in on, but still hold the majority and take that similar long-view on the company. If it’s down tomorrow, that’s fine, as I’m not selling tomorrow.

Either way, Laguna has a hemp protein coffee product called Caffe that is sold in small sachets. Pour it in your cup, toss in some hot water, and you’ve got a good cup of joe with a solid 28g of protein, and a taste that doesn’t just not smell like hemp cuttings (the risk of any hemp food product, it must be said) but it actually tastes.. you’re not going to believe me when I say this… great.

No really, I got my hands on an early test run of the stuff and it remains my favourite coffee. That it has the protein shot gets me through the morning without sleepinesss, and the flavour makes me want more than one, which NEVER happens with other coffee, most of which I only drink to stay awake or to punish myself for life’s failings.

Usually, a new coffee product would fight for retail shelf space and be subject to lots of test runs in rural branches of third run grocery stores, you’d have taste test programs that cost a lot but don’t really do anything other than make the supermarkets feel like you’re doing something to support their buy.

And you’d probably find a few cases of your product tossed in the dumpster out back after a few weeks once the Maxwell House rep comes through, buys it all up, and tosses it out so consumers don’t see it (I’m using Maxwell house only for effect here, but this happens with big brands a lot more than you’d know).

But Laguna is going to affiliate marketing option, which means people who sell all manner of things to their families and friends (and some of these do millions in sales, especially in the emerging world, where not everyone has access to a strip mall), will now be selling hemp protein coffee door to door, or website to website, or self to self.

With a formula provided by Canada’s surging Naturally Splendid (NSP.V), Laguna has a Second Life-style backend affiliate network system that allows sellers from around the world to hang out in a virtual reality styled setting, which lets them communicate with thousands at a time, rather than having affiliates travel around to their network to make sure they’re on point.

But the important thing, and I will repeat this up and down, is that it’s GOOD.

For real, this Laguna Blends hemp/whey protein coffee is by far the best coffee I’ve tried. #notkidding $LAG. C pic.twitter.com/2TIeo5gbYi

— Chris Parry ™ (@ChrisParry) February 18, 2016

The hard bit of the Laguna story is over; the waiting is done. Now it’s time for sales.

And for the bullshit short seller-driven assumptions that this would never actually launch to be put to bed. Laguna is in business.