Aurora Cannabis Inc.'s chief executive insisted his company was on track to meet its profitability target even as it recorded a $51.9 million net loss and saw consumer pot net revenue fall 28 per cent from a year ago.<\/p>\n
"This will be an incredible achievement, which will also be sustainable," said Miguel Martin, on a Thursday call with analysts.<\/p>\n
"We look forward to demonstrating consistent financial performance in the coming quarters."<\/p>\n
His Edmonton-based cannabis company has said it will reach profitability based on adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) by Dec. 31.<\/p>\n
The company's adjusted EBITDA loss for its first quarter, the period ended Sept. 30, totalled $8.7 million compared with $11 million a year ago.<\/p>\n
Aurora's path to profitability has involved a restructuring and several rounds of layoffs and facility closures over the last three years as it contended with shifting COVID-19 measures and grappled with aligning supply with demand.<\/p>\n
Also making profitability tough is the extreme level of competition in the cannabis market, which has included a soaring number of cannabis stores in Ontario and licensed producers relying on promotions and price reductions to draw in customers.<\/p>\n
The average price for cannabis was $11.78 per gram at the start of 2019, shortly after legalization, but fell to $7.50 per gram in 2021, a November report from Deloitte Canada and cannabis research firms Hifyre and BDSA said.<\/p>\n
The average price for vape cartridges has similarly fallen by 41 per cent from $32.02 per gram around legalization to $19 per gram a year later.<\/p>\n
"The (recreational cannabis) business is really challenging right now," said Martin. "The pricing continues to drop."<\/p>\n
While competitors slash prices to compete in the frenzied market, there are also pressures from high inflation rates and packaging costs, which he characterized as "challenging."<\/p>\n
Supply and ordering disruptions have loomed too because of a cyberattack at the Ontario Cannabis Store and store closures due to an employee strike across B.C. cannabis shops.<\/p>\n
"Thankfully those issues are now fully resolved," said Martin.<\/p>\n
The incidents were partially offset by earnings from Thrive, a premium pot company Aurora bought in March to help it reach its profitability goal and cater to more sophisticated customers looking for higher-end products.<\/p>\n
Also aiding the company was its August purchase of Bevo Agtech Inc., a supplier of vegetable seedlings and flowers.<\/p>\n
Aurora intends to amp up production at the company by converting one of its previous pot facilities, Aurora Sky, for orchid and vegetable propagation with "minimal capital investment," Martin said.<\/p>\n
His remarks came as Aurora recorded a $51.9 million net loss in its first quarter compared with a net loss of $11.9 million for the same period in the prior year.<\/p>\n
Its consumer cannabis net revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 amounted to $13.7 million, up from $12.6 million in its prior quarter, but down 28 per cent from $19.1 million in the first quarter of last year.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2022.<\/p>\n
Companies in this story: (TSX:ACB)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aurora Cannabis Inc.'s chief executive insisted his company was on track to meet its profitability target even as it recorded a $51.9 million net loss and saw consumer pot net revenue fall 28 per cent from a year ago. "This will be an incredible achievement, which will also be sustainable," said Miguel Martin, on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"featured_media":1069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"guid":"","source":"The Canadian Press","byline":"Tara Deschamps","published":"2022-11-14T03:31:31","updated":"2022-11-14T22:00:00","_infotelid":"IT95156","_prepressid":"95156","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[379,2,391,381],"tags":[],"region":[309,310,311,312],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured3","category-in420","category-nonit","category-topnews","region-kamloops","region-kelowna","region-penticton","region-vernon"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/MediaItemID95156-8446.jpg","post_modified":"2022-11-14T22:00:00","post_modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T06:00:00","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3507,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/3507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}