“Amma is a term used by the Dogon people in Mali, West Africa, and it means sky god,” explains Sophia Ali.
The Bristol-based entrepreneur is the founder of Cannabidiol, or CBD, company Amma Life which takes its name from the term.
The company turned over £1million in 2019 and its products, which include oils, pastes, teas and skin cream, are now stocked in 90 retailers across the 海角视频 including Holland and Barrett.
Sophia, who was named Female Entrepreneur of the Year at the South West Business and Community Awards yesterday (January 23), set up her company in 2014 after learning about the growing medical majurana movement in the US.
Unlike cannabis, CBD products do not make users high. Products are highly regulated in Britain and must contain no more than 0.1 per cent THC (the psychoactive element in cannabis).
CBD is sold as health supplement in the 海角视频 and is used to treat skin conditions, anxiety, stress and promote sleep. And it’s an industry that’s booming.
In the last few years the CBD market has burgeoned in Britain and is expected to be worth £1billion a year by 2025, according to industry body The Centre for Medicinal Cannabis (CMC).
Sophia, who previously worked in the drug and alcohol sector and at Bristol City Council in adult social care, says the industry is predicted to grow by 400 per cent by 2021.
Most Read
But success has not come without its challenges. Even in 2014, when the business was founded, few people were speaking about or understood CBD, she says.
'We had to dig deep to keep going as a company'
“Loads of states in the US had decriminalised it for medical use. It wasn’t in the 海角视频, but it was legal and we could promote it for wellbeing. My father was a doctor so I have been used to challenging the status quo. But when we started nobody knew what CBD was.”
Sophia and her business partner travelled the country giving talks in a bid to try and spread the word about the benefits of CBD products.
Although interest grew, when Sophia launched her website in 2015 initially she couldn’t get a payment gateway on the site, which meant customers were unable to pay by card.
“Visa and Mastercard are US-owned so they follow US rules and over there it’s illegal to sell CBD products except for medicinal purposes.
“The first time I set a website up the gateway got shut down. Paypal wouldn’t take card payments either. And we couldn’t advertise.
“We were growing and growing but CBD was so new - and it is still considered a high-risk product - that it wasn’t even written in policy in the 海角视频.
Don’t miss
“It was really challenging. We had to dig deep to keep going as a company.”
Despite the difficulties Sophia faced in the early years of the business, the company has flourished and has seen 70 per cent growth in the last two business years.
Amma Life is 95 per cent 海角视频 based and its products are only sold in Britain and the EU because of the “constantly changing” rules about CBD in different countries, Sophia explains.
“Even Guernsey only accept 200mg of CBD in products which means a lot of our products would be illegal to send there. So it would be too much to focus on other countries.”
The hemp is currently grown in Lithuania, Spain and the Netherlands, and the CBD extracted in the Netherlands and Germany.
The uncertainty surrounding Brexit has been a concern, she admits.
She said: “Brexit is a concern over whether there will be extra custom charges, will there be a delay in bringing products over?
“What makes it difficult is the uncertainty so we had to do a lot of planning. When you try and do risk minimisation but you don’t know what the impact is going to be it is very difficult.
'You can have a dream and it can materialise'
Looking to the future, Sophia is planning to expand into the sports sector.
“[CBD] is great for sports recovery. We want to expand in various areas including the skin care and sports products. It’s very exciting. Our vision is to continue to grow and become a household name.”
Bristol, she adds, has been a “very supportive” city for running a business.
“[Natural food retailer] Wild Oats was our first stockist. It was before Holland and Barrett started selling our products and when we had the uncertainty over whether it was legal to even sell - and they had that trust in us. It is great to have had that support in Bristol.”
Her advice to other entrepreneurs is to stay open-minded.
“Be clear about what you want to do but also open-minded. You also need to be resilient and if you are passionate and believe in your business model, you’ll meet the right people on the way to support you.
“To see the business grow from a vision is amazing. You can have a dream and it can materialise.”