My name is Farard Darver, the Founder and CEO of Healthcare International Research (the company behind the HEMPE brand) and I am a former British Army Officer and Green Beret Commando.  I served in the British Army for over 16 years and was deployed on operations and exercises both domestically and internationally including two tours in Afghanistan. During the latter years of my service, I began to notice the discomfort my body was suffering from, brought on by many years of arduous activity which resulted in a total left hip replacement at the ripe old age of 43!

I realised I wasn’t alone among my fellow soldiers and the reliance on painkillers seemed to become the norm before and after training, activities or sport. Many of us were regularly taking ibuprofen before army rugby matches or long marches and then finishing with painkillers afterwards. A part of me realised that this is not sustainable and certainly not very good for me or my liver…and so the foundation of HEMPE was laid.

Like everybody else, I had heard about CBD and the potential healing effects it had but was initially very sceptical and dismissive of it since after all…it’s a drug, right? I couldn’t have been more wrong. The hemp plant is one of the most versatile plants on the planet and you can find elements of it in clothes, food, building materials, drinks, and skincare products. Seeing first-hand the extent that CBD was helping people around me with a range of issues, I knew I had to investigate further and my investigations led me to the Czech Republic.

HEMPE products are formulated using over 60 years of research by world renowned scientists based in the Czech Republic. I discovered in Prague that in 1955 Prof. Jan Kabelik laid the basics of the scientific research into the healing effects of cannabis, pioneering a legacy of research in the Czech Republic that continues to this day. His colleagues Prof. Zdeněk Krejčí and chemist František Šantavy were the first to discover and isolate cannabidiol acid or CBD. In 1963 Professor Šantavý published the correct absolute configuration of CBD and THC, four years ahead of Profs Raphael Mechoulam and Gaoni in Israel who independently determined and verified the findings. Many of these ground-breaking papers were published behind the Iron Curtain in the Czech language. If they had been published in English, scientific journals of their work would now be cited all over the world. 

Today this inherited knowledge lays the foundation upon which our HEMPE formulations are created. Our Czech formulators are scientists that not only have access to decades of cannabinoid research but also the world-class expertise in formulation processes and combining bioactive ingredients to deliver the most effective products. CBD is a phenomenal natural ingredient but it is only one of many reasons and ingredients that make our products so special.

The launch of HEMPE was split into two phases with an e-commerce launch in August ’21 and a physical launch later in October’21 at the UK Arnold Schwarzenegger Sports Festival. The launch was a huge success with a tremendous reception from both athletes and customers alike. It was there that we discovered that footfall and trial of our products resulted in future repeat customers. Based upon this knowledge that once people try HEMPE products they usually purchase in the future, we opened a pop-up shop in Bournemouth for the Christmas period and confirmed the results.

Since then HEMPE has gone from strength to strength and is now selling in three continents, from the USA across Europe to India. Our products are being used by everyone from professional sports athletes to gardeners, young and old, male or female, you name them they are using it; why…because no matter your age, background, gender, color or creed, a golden thread unites everyone because at some point, we all suffer with skin, muscle or joint issues…..and HEMPE helps.