Beena Goldenberg
Analyst · Aaron Grey from Alliance Global Partners. Your line is open
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. With me is Derrick West, our Chief Financial Officer. For today's call, we'll discuss the results for the three months ended November 30, 2022, and a general business update. We will then open the call for questions. The first quarter of fiscal 2023 reflected the results of our efforts in fiscal 2022 to enhance scale and efficiency through facility expansion and productivity improvements. These initiatives have had a positive direct impact on our bottom line. In the quarter as well as a 43% year-over-year increase in net revenue, we delivered our fourth consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA, positive net income and record adjusted gross margin. In Q1, we maintained our number three position among Canadian LPs. We were number two in the flower segment, number three in gummies and hash and again held the number one market position in capsules. SHRED remains a solid and well-recognized brand, embraced by cannabis consumers and we continue to hold the number one position in milled flower by a wide margin. We expect our focus on product innovation, brand revitalization, strong sales execution and advanced plant science will enable us to continue to gain share. Looking at provincial board data. We have leading market share in the maritime and we're number one in flowered gummies and hash. In Ontario, we have the top three selling SKUs. We were number three in gummies, number two in hash and whole flower and number one in milled flower and capsules. In Quebec, our sales have nearly tripled compared to Q1 of fiscal 2022. This is partly from the addition of products from the Laurentian acquisition, but also due to significant increased sales of our overall portfolio. Based on data from Weak Crawler, we had the number one hash SKU, we're number one in milled flower, and SHRED was the third largest brand in the province. This national market strength comes from our focus on creating products that excite consumers. In Q1, we introduced 17 new SKUs, including infused pre-rolls, such as Edison Grape Crescendo and Tremblant Sweet Cherry. In November, we launched Holy Mountain, a new brand in English Canada and Wo La in Quebec. These brands offer unique strengths such as R*NTZ and MAC-1 and 3.5 gram format and pressed hash. They provide us a position in the small pack size value segment that isn't covered by our successful Big Bag O'Buds. In terms of production, with the 4C expansion completed at Moncton in Q4 of fiscal '22, we achieved scale benefits from a record harvest in Q1. After the expansion, Moncton has an annual capacity of 85,000 kilograms, but this will increase as we continue to refine our cultivation technology. This includes LED lighting implemented in fiscal 2022 and fractional watering, which is now in place in all grow rooms. In the quarter, we achieved a yield of 168 grams per plant, a 30% increase over 129 grams in Q1 of fiscal '22. As a consequence of a larger capacity and improved yields, the Company has significantly reduced its cost of cultivation, the lowest cost in our history. In Winnipeg, we have increased our output for gummies in kilograms by 35% from Q4 '22 to Q1 of '23. This was driven by the increase of Monjour units in response to high consumer demand. We continue to have great productivity on our packaging line with 35,000 to 40,000 pouches per day production. At Lac-Superieur, construction is substantially complete. We expect to begin to move into the new building in February, which will help support the launch of several new exciting hash SKUs. The greenhouse expansion is expected to come online in May. This will take us towards expanding the facility's annual capacity to 2,400 kilograms of craft flower and over 2 million packaged units of hash. As well as expanding and increasing automation at Lac-Superieur, we are adding staff to the packaging chip to increase production. Another initiative completed in Q1 was transitioning our medical cannabis business from direct patient fulfillment to having orders completed through medical cannabis by Shoppers Drug Mart. This provides a proven and trusted platform for our patients. We remain committed to our medical cannabis business, ending Q1 have added 26 SKUs to the Shoppers channel. Our center of excellence is now active and focused across various cannabinoids to develop and launch new product technologies. One area of activity is supporting discovery and development efforts on novel vapor ingredients and substrates. This research also creates an industry-leading vapor data set that will serve as a foundation for future development activities, including consumer safety, product quality and performance. The state-of-the-art Biolab facility has been operational since June. The focus is on developing genetic toolboxes to aid the research of key cannabis traits and accelerate R&D activities. This has already supported several plant science discoveries that will benefit our current plant portfolio and long-term growth strategies. So overall, this foundation of increased capacity, high-quality, efficient production and innovation serves us well in addressing markets in Canada and internationally. In Q1, we delivered $5.9 million of dry flower to Israel and Australia. This is a 71% increase over $3.4 million in Q1 of fiscal 2022. On November 17, we signed a new agreement with Canndoc in Israel. This agreement over a three-year term supply allows for the shipment of 10,000 kilograms of dried flower with an option for Canndoc to order an additional 10,000 kilograms. This is a great long-term partnership with Canndoc. The products sold in Israel is dual-branded with Organigram and is identified as indoor growth Canadian flower, which is recognized as premium product by Israeli consumers. We also expect to make further shipments to Australia in fiscal 2023 and are looking at other international opportunities. I will now turn it over to Derrick to present the financial review, and then I will return with some closing comments.