The family behind Michigan’s most famous pickle is in the weed business now

His great-grandfather turned a Detroit dairy operation into America’s most famous pickle brand. Now Willy Vlasic is building something new—and putting the family name on it.

MICHIGAN—Every Michigander knows the Vlasic name.

It’s stamped on pickle jars in grocery stores across the country—part of a brand built by a Detroit-area family that turned a small dairy operation into one of America’s most famous pickle companies. And now that family name is showing up somewhere else: cannabis.

Or more precisely, hemp-derived CBD products now sold in Michigan dispensaries and beyond by Willy Vlasic, the great-grandson of the man who built the pickle empire in the first place.

Courtesy/Vlasic Labs

Sometimes the connection doesn’t click right away.

But when it does, Vlasic said, people tend to “lose their shit.”

“I walk into a lot of dispensaries. They see my name and they see the brand and I’m like yeah, my great-grandpa started Vlasic Pickles. And they’re like ‘oh f*ck.’ So, it’s always funny,” Vlasic said. “We’ve moved on from pickles at this point, but they’ll follow me to my grave, I’m sure.”

Vlasic Labs—the company Vlasic runs alongside his father and other members of the original Michigan pickle family—now sells CBD tinctures, topicals, gummies, and pet products in roughly 200 licensed dispensaries across Michigan, as well as dozens of other retail locations. 

It’s a very different product than the one that made his family famous. But Vlasic said the underlying philosophy isn’t all that different. The whole goal, he said, is simple: build something trustworthy and accessible under a name that already carries a lot of weight.

How a pickle heir ended up growing weed

Vlasic has been working in cannabis for more than a decade.

And it didn’t begin as a family-approved career path.

He started out the same way as a lot of licensed cannabis entrepreneurs—with a basement grow room and black market sales. Eventually—after pissing off enough of his family members —he decided to get a caregiver license and do things legally.

“My parents literally thought I was addicted to selling weed,” Vlasic said. “They weren’t worried about me smoking weed. They thought I was going to sell weed to someone and die or go to jail. They didn’t trust me to walk the dogs; they’d be watching me at the end of the driveway.”

In his 20s, Vlasic worked at a large cultivation facility in Washington and later helped launch several other cannabis businesses in multiple states—including Michigan.

For years, the idea of putting the Vlasic name on a cannabis company of his own felt like more of a pipe dream than a serious business plan, he said. But that changed about five years ago.

At the time, Vlasic said his company was operating as a CBD extraction lab during a brutal stretch for the hemp industry. Prices for CBD had collapsed, and raw CBD oil had become cheaper to buy than to produce. The company needed a fresh brand to shake things up.

During a meeting with his father and business partner, someone floated an idea that instantly made the room uneasy: What if they called this new company Vlasic Labs?

His dad’s reaction, Vlasic recalled, was conflicted. For about a week, his father kept going back and forth between loving the idea and absolutely resenting it. Eventually, enough members of the Vlasic family agreed to move forward with the idea—but only after one more conversation.

Asking grandpa for permission

Willy Vlasic said his father insisted that his own dad, Robert Vlasic, sign off on the idea first.

Robert Vlasic is the reason you know Vlasic Pickles. He helped transform the family’s Detroit-area pickle business into a national powerhouse before the company was sold to Campbell Soup Co. in 1978. He was also “super conservative,” Catholic, and Republican.

And by the time this conversation happened, he was already in his mid-90s.

So, the pitch required some careful wording.

Willy Vlasic and his dad explained that CBD was a cannabis-derived wellness product that didn’t get people high and was often used for issues like pain, sleep, and anxiety. It didn’t take much explaining. They asked Robert Vlasic multiple times—and his answer was always the same.

“He was just so happy and proud that we wanted to carry the family name on,” Willy Vlasic said.

More importantly, Robert Vlasic left the family with a simple rule during that conversation: “I don’t care what kind of business it is as long as you’re doing good business.”

For Willy Vlasic, that means three things: taking care of customers, taking care of employees, and giving back to charity. And those principles still guide the company today, he said. 

CBD for people—and their pets

Vlasic Labs focuses primarily on hemp-derived wellness products. That includes CBD tinctures, topical creams, gummies, and other products designed to help with things like pain, anxiety, inflammation, and sleep. But one product category has emerged as an unexpected hit.

“The dog treats are the best sellers,” Vlasic said. “It’s the Trojan horse of the lineup.”

Courtesy/Vlasic Labs

His dogs—Yogi and Ozzy—appear on the packaging. Yogi is also listed in the company directory as its official “director of canine affairs,” while Ozzy serves as “chief morale officer.”

Vlasic said the company’s broader lineup also focuses on high-potency CBD formulations, partly because many products on the market simply don’t contain enough cannabinoids to produce noticeable results. The goal, he said, is to create affordable products that actually work.

Courtesy/Vlasic Labs

“ Pickles weren’t expensive. Every family in America could afford ’em,” Vlasic said. “This is different, obviously, but it still brings people joy and they’re affordable. And at the end of the day, we care about quality and trust. Putting our name on the packaging is a really big deal to us.”

Vlasic said the same philosophy that made Vlasic Pickles famous now shapes his CBD line.

Products are designed to be straightforward and trustworthy, with QR codes on packaging that link directly to lab testing results for each batch. For Vlasic, putting the family name on a cannabis product means making sure customers can verify exactly what they’re getting.

Living up to the pickle legacy

A name as recognizable as Vlasic, of course, carries obvious pressure.

For generations, the Vlasic name has stood for consistency and quality. Vlasic said bringing that same level of trust into cannabis and hemp products is now central to the company’s mission.

“ Failure is not an option, and bad business isn’t an option either,” Vlasic explained. “If a customer feels we did something wrong, we will bend over backwards to make it right for them.”

Courtesy/Vlasic Labs

At the same time, Vlasic also believes the industry has a responsibility to address the harms caused by cannabis prohibition. Through the golf tournaments, the company has raised thousands of dollars for groups supporting people still affected by the war on drugs—including the Last Prisoner Project, Freedom Grow, and the Great Lakes Expungement Network.

Vlasic said that work is personal. He said he has known people who went to prison over cannabis and believes the industry should not ignore that history as it continues to expand.

“I feel like I’m extremely blessed to be born a Vlasic. White privilege is a very real thing,” Vlasic said. “We get to make money, we get to create jobs, we get to enjoy all these fun events like 420 and smoke freely while people are still locked up for smoking a joint. It’s just not fair.”

Pickles, weed—or both?

Vlasic Labs is still a tiny brand compared to the pickle empire that made the family name famous. The company only employs about a dozen people directly, Vlasic said. 

Much of the company’s growth strategy, instead, revolves around licensing deals that allow Vlasic products to be sold in other states without the company having to operate facilities itself.

That approach has already taken the brand beyond CBD. Vlasic-branded cannabis products containing THC are currently sold through licensing partnerships in places like Nevada, where local operators cultivate and distribute the products using Vlasic genetics and branding.

The long-term goal, he said, is simple: build something lasting under the family name.

Asked what he hopes people think of 50 years from now when they hear Vlasic, his answer came quickly: “I hope they have to ask whether you’re talking about the pickles or the weed.”

Vlasic Labs products are available at vlasiclabs.com. Use code VIVID30 for 30% off.

READ MORE: 6 quick hits of cannabis news from across Michigan

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