The hemp-derived THC beverage industry has largely grown up around younger consumers. Pharos Brands International is making a different bet: that one of the category’s biggest opportunities may be adults old enough to remember when the evening cocktail became a daily ritual.
Pharos was co-founded by Rhyno Stinchfield and Mary Bernuth, both in their seventies, around a straightforward idea. They wanted an alternative to alcohol designed for consumers like themselves.
“Mary and I are in our seventies, and we started this company because we wanted an alternative to alcohol for people our age,” Stinchfield said.
That focus on an older consumer comes as Pharos is experiencing significant commercial growth. The hemp-derived THC beverage company is now carried in 401 retail locations across six states, compared with 74 a year ago. Sales increased 153.5% over the same period.
Florida has been a particularly significant market. ABC Fine Wine & Spirits expanded Pharos from 20 locations to 127.
Now the company is bringing traditional beverage-industry experience into its next phase.
Pharos recently named Mathew “Matt” Smith president and chief executive officer. Smith spent 15 years in PepsiCo’s beverage division, working across operations, packaging development, senior brand marketing and new products. He later led North American marketing for Del Monte Fresh Produce and held marketing and merchandising roles with HSN/Cornerstone Brands. For the past 14 years, he has also advised private equity firms on food and beverage acquisitions exceeding $100 million.
Smith says the company’s unusual target consumer was part of what attracted him.
“The second thing I noticed was who it was built for,” Smith said. “Most of this category is chasing people in their twenties. Pharos is going after seniors and veterans, and that is the part that made me want in.”
His conviction went beyond taking the job. Smith invested his own money in Pharos before he was offered the CEO position.
Building a THC Beverage Like an Adult Beverage
Pharos’ strategy also differs from parts of the cannabis industry in how the product reaches consumers.
Rather than building a separate cannabis-specific distribution network, every market Pharos currently serves is supplied through licensed alcohol distributors. Its distribution partners include Green Light Distributing in Florida, Crown Beverage across Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, Keg1 in Missouri and Capitol Husting in Wisconsin.
The products are sold through both on-premise locations, including bars and restaurants, and off-premise retailers including grocery stores, liquor stores, convenience stores and chains.
That infrastructure could become increasingly important as policymakers debate how hemp-derived THC beverages should be regulated.
Legislation introduced in Congress this summer would establish a national framework that includes oversight by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, 21-and-over age verification, federal labeling standards and an alcohol-style three-tier distribution system. Pharos already operates through licensed alcohol wholesalers in every state it serves.
The company’s approach extends to the product itself.
Pharos’ Mango flavor received Double Gold and a score of 97 at the 2026 Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America Tasting Competition, while Black Cherry received Gold. All four Pharos flavors also medaled at the 2025 America’s Best Hemp THC Beverage Awards, with Blood Orange Lime named Best Low-Dose RTD.
For Bernuth, quality is particularly important when asking an older consumer to reconsider a longstanding habit.
“We made this for people like us,” Bernuth said. “Rhyno and I are the customer. We knew that if people our age were going to change a ritual they have had for forty years, it had to taste better than what they were giving up.”
Bernuth, who previously led Pharos as chief executive, is moving into the role of Executive Board Chair. She will also focus more of her attention on Be Wise Be Well, the nonprofit senior education organization she co-founded.
A Different Bet on the THC Consumer
The leadership change comes at an interesting moment for the broader beverage industry.
Hemp-derived THC beverages increasingly sit at the intersection of several established industries: cannabis, consumer packaged goods and beverage alcohol. Pharos’ strategy suggests that the category’s next stage may involve not only different distribution channels and experienced beverage executives, but a different consumer as well.
Instead of competing primarily for twenty-something cannabis consumers, Pharos is betting that adults 55 and older may be willing to reconsider what they drink at dinner, at a bar or at the end of the day.
For a company founded by two people in their seventies and now led by a 15-year PepsiCo veteran, that isn’t simply a marketing demographic.
It’s the customer the company was built around.