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spk03: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss Tilray Inc.' 's financial results for the 2022 fiscal first quarter ended August 31, 2021. Joining me on today's call are Erwin Simon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Carl Merton, Chief Financial Officer, and Barron Narada, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session for analysts and investment firms conducted via audio, and participating retail shareholders conducted through the Say Technologies platform. Question submission and upvoting through the Say Technologies platform concluded yesterday, and the company will read aloud and answer the top questions. Ms. Dorada, you may now begin the conference.
spk14: Thank you, and good morning. By now, everyone should have access to the earnings release, which is available on the Investors section of Tilray's website at tilray.com. and has been filed with the SEC and CDAR. On today's call, we will also refer to various non-GAAP financial measures which can provide useful information for investors. However, the presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Today's earnings press release contains a reconciliation of each non-GAAP financial measure to the most comparable measure prepared in accordance with GAAP. Also, please remember that during this call we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our current expectations and beliefs and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may prove to be incorrect. Actual results could differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. Please note The text in our earnings press release issued today for discussions on the risks and uncertainties associated with such forward-looking statements. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Tilray's Chairman and CEO, Erwin Simon.
spk12: Thank you very much, Barron, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for our call today. As you know, we are laser focused on building the world's leading cannabis-focused consumer brands company, while generating $4 billion by the end of fiscal year 2024, assuming U.S. federal legalization and acquisitions. And we're making important strides in delivering on that goal, despite a challenging backdrop in the cannabis world. Reflecting our Q1 fiscal year 2022, revenue and adjusted EBITDA grew compared to prior year, despite the impact of COVID on the top line. Notably, in Canada, where stores did not reopen until mid-June and now are at full capacity. Carl will discuss our results in more detail. but I'd like to note specifically that our adjusted EBITDA margins improved modestly, and we've taken advantage of production cultivation efficiencies and moved forward with integration and executing on the synergies we identified in the Tilray-Afria combination, which are offsetting the impact of our near-term cost pressures impacting every segment of the global economy. Importantly, as well, we did not significantly lower our product pricing to maintain our leading cannabis market share position in Canada. We still estimate that our cannabis-adjusted EBITDA would have been several million dollars higher if the legacy Tilray products had been produced under a more efficient AFRIA cost model. In that regard, we look at the performance of Tilray Since we closed the business combination in May, I am deeply gratified by our early tangible accomplishments. Our confidence in our delivery to meet our goals and deliver for our shareholders is supported by three main factors. Strong movement towards cannabis legalization in our three largest markets, Canada, Europe, and of course the U.S., Whereas evidenced by our recent opportunistic acquisition of MedMen convertible notes, we continue to build our strategic position so that we can benefit from full legalization when the time comes. Leaders with a playbook and proven executional abilities in creating, building, and sustaining value in CPG and wellness categories with particular expertise in building iconic brands, that stand for excellence and offer a selection of products that meet or exceed consumer demand. Educating consumers about our strict quality standards and the benefits of cannabis to inspire brand loyalty. And of course, growing market share through scale and distribution with a laser focus on being that low cost, high quality producer. And then finally, well-defined, organic, acquisitive, and partnership-based growth strategies. When we compare ourselves to the peer set, we are confident that we stand above in having the global reach and resources to make this vision a reality. And with the progress we are making and the COVID-related factors beginning to dissipate, We're building the new Tilray upon four key competitive differentiators. Number one is our broad geographic footprint and operational scale. Tilray's unparalleled and growing presence across our market ideally positions us to lead the global cannabis market. We're focused on doing this through taking full advantage of organic growth opportunities and with the support of a strong balance sheet and access to capital. Accelerating that growth through pursuing transactions and partnerships that would complement our current business enable us to build further revenue growth and EBITDA cash flow. On the topic of M&A, I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to our shareholders for approving an increase in the number of authorized shares of our common stock at the special meeting held last month. Because of our shareholders' overwhelming support, we have added the firepower, the resources we need to opportunistically pursue transactions that will enable us to accelerate our growth and further drive value creation. Consistent with this, I will discuss MedMen in more detail shortly. Moving on now to our next critical differentiator, Our position as the number one Canadian LP in total sales on a consolidated basis, a level we have reached due to our comprehensive portfolio of medical and adult use product offerings and carefully curated brands. In our first full quarter since the completion of the business combination, we maintained our retail market share of 16% and held our pricing. even as some of the largest competitors experienced a share reduction. Let me now detail some of those specific accomplishments in the period. In August, we made our first shipment to Nunavut, which was the last step towards making our presence in every province and territory in Canada. This was a record quarter for adult use pre-rolls, with 17% growth in net sales since the fourth quarter of last year, Indeed, we were number one in cannabis flower and pre-rolls and top two and three in all other product categories. Good Supply, our top-selling adult-use brand, reached net revenue on an analyzed basis of $225 million. And this is a three-year-old brand. And in fact, five brands in our portfolio rank in the top five sales-leading brands across all adult-use product categories. including Good Supplies, Chowee Wowee, which recently won a Butt Tender Choice Award for Best Munchies Brand in Canada. Part of our goal of reaching $4 billion in revenue by the end of fiscal 2024, concurrent with U.S. federal legalization, includes expanding our market share to 30%. And we view these recent milestones as reflective, and we're off to a good start achieving that. Please expect to hear more from us about our growth in Canada as we introduce new innovative 2.0 products across concentrates, edibles, drinks, medical products that promote health and wellness. And of course, well-being that will drive distribution across all the channels. This, of course, includes retail stores, We are pleased that there has been a nice uptick in the number of stores open since the end of the lockdown in Canada. Last year this time, there were 600 stores. Today, there's over 1,200 stores. It will take time for all the new bud tenders in these locations to build personal relationships with consumers so they can be seen as trusted resources who can educate and make specific recommendations. This is important as we believe that as consumers continue to shift away from price-based cannabis purchases, effective marketing regarding the quality and safety of our products and brand familiarity will matter more, and our brands will be positioned to reap the rewards and the benefits. Our third differentiator is tremendous international growth opportunities based on two strong medical cannabis brands, Large Distribution Network in Germany, through CC Pharma with access to 13,000 plus pharmacies and end-to-end European Union GMP supply chain. We not only have high-quality production facility in Portugal, but also new state-of-the-art cultivation and production facility in Germany, which announced its first harvest and production in July. This milestone will help us ensure that patients' needs in Germany are met with products of the highest quality, while at the same time reducing dependence on imported supply and solidifying our position as a trusted provider of medical cannabis in Europe. The EU alone, including Germany, Poland, Italy, the UK, France, the Netherlands, and including Israel, has the potential to be a billion-dollar business for us. This is because, from a cannabis perspective, these markets are more medically and pharmaceutically focused than North America. Outside the EU, our business in Australia and New Zealand continues to perform according to our expectations, with our Tilray branded extracts and flour leading that market. Most notably, Tilray high-quality CBD extracts lead the way in many Australian hospitals, serving many patients with seizure disorders under the special access scheme. Tilray continues its success in New Zealand by being the number one company to have CBD balance and THC extracts verified under the New Zealand Ministry of Health's minimum quality standards. The new scheme kicked off October 1st And Tilray is well-positioned to drive market growth. We also see additional opportunities in Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, and even China and India. Next, number four, our CBG platform and infrastructure in the U.S., including our Sweetwater and Manitoba harvest business. Sweetwater's distribution currently reaches over 47,000 on- and off-premise points of sales. 11 higher from the previous year while manitoba harvest is available across 17 000 stores and growing these businesses have already generated 100 million dollars plus in annualized revenue and are quite profitable both still have significant white space lots of growth opportunities to harness that We are expanding Sweetwater's product line of leading craft beers to include vodka sodas under the Riff brand. We're also working on new product categories, including hemp-based CBD drinks and other RTD wine spitzers, wine in cans, and others. Recently, we bought a facility in Fort Collins, Colorado, and have started producing Sweetwater products as it executes on its strategic plan of expanding into the western states. We have also just added 450 distribution points in Publix within the state of Georgia. Our growth plan is led by new innovation, including the introduction of Broken Coast BC lagers, our collaboration with our craft cannabis brand Broken Coast, as well as the launch of our Imperial IPA and hard teas and lemonade. Manitoba Harvest continues to provide us with ample opportunities to grow our footprint in the organic and natural industry. Hemp seed is a super steed, naturally high in plant-based protein, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids. Consumers' interest in hemp seed, hemp seed oil, hemp protein continues to grow in the marketplace as consumers increasingly look to follow plant-based, low-carb, and keto-based diets. Utilizing our footprint in the U.S. today, we are able to leverage these strong brands and their distribution systems to parlay into CBD beverages. CBD personal care products and related adjacencies. These may be later translated into THC-based products upon federal legalization in the U.S. In addition to these four differentiators, another critical driver of value creation for us in the $80 million in cost synergies we've identified as part of the Tilray-Afria business combination in the areas of cultivation and production, sales, marketing, and corporate expenses. We are ahead of our original pace, having reached $55 million on a run-based base to date. with actual cash savings of close to $20 million. Recall that in July, we announced we had reached $35 million in synergies on a run rate basis, with actual cash savings in Q4 of about $7 million. These data points exclude any revenue synergies, notably those that can be derived from 2.0 products in beverage, gummies, and chocolates, that Afria have not produced previously, but we can now go into leveraging legacy Tilray's manufacturing infrastructure. I would like now to spend a few moments on the potentially transformative transaction we announced and closed in August with MedMen. MedMen is an iconic multistate cannabis brand and retailer. that offers its large and loyal consumer base a highly compelling retail experience. And their recent performance reaffirms a turnaround story that firmly is taking hold. MedMen had revenue of $42 million for the fourth quarter of 2021, up 53.9% year-over-year and up 31.3% from the previous quarter. Specifically, we acquired senior secure convertible nodes and certain warrants that are convertible into equity representing 21% of MedMen upon federal legalization. MedMen currently holds 22 retail licenses nationwide, including 14 in California, the largest legal cannabis market in the world, and excluding on-cap licenses in Florida for a total of 27 retail locations. And due to the equity investment that MedMen received concurrent with our transaction, it will be able to further expand its business in key markets, including California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, among other growth opportunities across the U.S. And there's so much Tilray can do with MedMen in Canada and learning about their retail sales and their products that can help with some of our innovation and some of our products in the Canadian and the international markets. In short, this transaction has set the stage for Tilray to become a leader in the U.S. cannabis market upon federal legalization while mitigating downside risk for our shareholders. In addition to benefiting from the strong market position, when legalization allows our strategic opportunities with MedMen including international licensing opportunities in Canada and the EU, we are currently focused on pursuing, as I've said before, as well as commercial and distribution arrangements, joint ventures, or other significant transactions over time. With that, to sum it up, our eyes are firmly on the prize of creating a $4 billion cannabis-focused consumer brands company within the next three years. We have the strategy and the team in place to execute on our plan a leading and differentiated market position, ongoing opportunities to drive synergies, reduce production costs, and a strong pipeline of transaction and growth opportunities worldwide.
spk08: And with that, I will now turn the call over to Carl. Thank you, Erwin. I would like to now review Q1 results, how we are building synergies into our business model, our cash and liquidity position, and the specifics of the MedMen transaction. As Erwin discussed, we are working hard every day to build a stronger, more diversified, and profitable company. And we are executing on this through our four key competitive differentiators so that we can create sustainable value for our shareholders now, and over the long term. Recall that in the prior year quarter, as a result of the arrangement between AFRIA and Tilray, our results are based on AFRIA's financial statements, but were adjusted to follow US GAAP and is presented in US dollars. Additionally, in July, we published an appendix to our investor deck located on our website that contains an analyst primer, which breaks down AFRIA's US GAAP financial statements for 2020 and 2021 by quarter. As a reminder, this primer was not audited. Throughout our call today, we will reference both our financial results in accordance with GAAP as well as our adjusted financial results. Please refer to our press release for a reconciliation of our reported financial results under GAAP to the non-GAAP financial measures identified during our call. Our Q1 net revenue grew 43% compared to Q1 last year. Although the comparison itself is not apples to apples because the year ago quarter does not include any contributions from Legacy Tilray. We know that as with other CPG companies, the Delta variant quelled consumer confidence and impacted revenue in key consumer facing markets. In our Canadian cannabis business, We held our number one position in Canada for LP revenue and held our market share of approximately 16%, all while largely maintaining our prices. Nonetheless, the COVID Delta variant unquestionably impacted results, and our Canadian cannabis business experienced flat net revenue during the quarter due to the provincial board's buying patterns. Late in the quarter, we began to see the boards increase their purchases. a rise that we attribute to rising vaccination rates in Canada. We believe that based upon retail sales data, consumer demand is continuing to rise. The key to this rise is ongoing education of fund-tenders as the influencer in shifting consumers from price-based brands to margin-based brands. Our beverage business, Sweetwater, continues to experience a reduction in keg demand for its on-premises channel, as well as restaurants operating below full capacity, coupled with a softer off-premises channel, all being experienced by other beer producers. After managing through the changes associated with moving from branded product at a big box retailer to a white label product, we are pleased with the revenue contribution from Manitoba Harvest during Q1. Finally, While CC Pharma experienced a slight improvement in the global supply chain that resulted in a modest increase in net revenue, as we discussed on our last call, operations were shut down in July for four days due to flooding in Densburg, Germany. This resulted in lost revenue of almost $5 million, which was slightly higher than the high end of our initial estimate of $2.5 million to $4 million. To offset the lost revenue, we booked insurance reserves related to our business interruption policy that bolstered EBITDA. However, this did not benefit the top-line revenue figure. Still, as Erwin noted, despite the COVID-related headwinds impacting the top line, we worked hard to optimize our performance. And the results in the quarter was that we held our gross margin steady on a year-over-year basis and grew our adjusted EBITDA from 8.1 million to 12.7 million. representing our 10th consecutive quarter of increasing and positive adjusted EBITDA. Importantly, our profitability would have been even higher if more of our operating synergies were already embedded within our business model, particularly fully converting the legacy Tilray brands to a freest cost structure. To illustrate this, If AFRIA's cost structure had been applied to the legacy Tilray brands during this quarter, we believe the adjusted EBITDA for Q1 would have been closer to $17.6 million. This is because pre-business combination, AFRIA was already a low-cost producer with state-of-the-art cultivation, processing, and manufacturing facilities. and we are now accelerating our work on pulling additional costs out of that structure so that we can gain further efficiencies and increase margins. This work also includes improving product potency and quality to meet market demand. Our Q1 net loss increased to $34.6 million versus a net loss of $21.7 million in the prior year. while adjusted free cash flow decreased to negative $61.2 million from negative $70.1 million in the prior year quarter. Several items led to the figure in the current quarter, including paying income tax balances at a free assignment, payment of year-end accruals, and an increase in accounts receivable as we experienced late in the quarter purchasing from the provincial boards. We specifically note that inventory decreased in the quarter, And so this was not a part of the decreased adjusted free cash flow. Last quarter, you may recall we expressed how pleased we were to have generated free cash flow in Q4. How we believed that the first few quarters as a combined entity could see negative cash flows as we achieved our synergies. And how we view free cash flow as an important element of our investment thesis. That has not changed. And while we did not meet this goal in Q1, we are working diligently towards sustaining free cash flow generation in future quarters. Turning now to the business integration, we are making meaningful progress optimizing operations and as we focus on reaching at least $80 million of synergies within the first 18 months of the transaction. As of September 30th, The synergies achieved are $55 million, slightly ahead of pace. Our most recent actions include closing the Inniskillen facility and the announcement of our intention to close the Nanaimo facility in a phased approach that will be completed next spring. Included in this quarter's results is a $5 million provision to cover closing costs associated with this announcement. Going forward, We will be concentrating our British Columbia cultivation in the Broken Coast facility on Vancouver Island and international production and manufacturing in Portugal and Germany. Beyond these closers, we are working to embed other meaningful lasting efficiencies in our business processes, operating and marketing initiatives, IT infrastructure, compliance costs, and through attrition. Moving on to other events in the quarter, as Erwin noted, in mid-August, our majority-owned subsidiary acquired the outstanding senior secured convertible notes of MedMen, along with certain warrants to acquire MedMen's Class B subordinated voting chairs. The total value of the MedMen notes and MedMen warrants was $170.9 million, of which 117.8 million represents the ownership interest of Tilray and 52.9 million represents the ownership interest of the unrelated minority owners. Purchase notes and purchase warrants were accounted for as debt and equity securities and recorded in long-term investments with an offsetting current liability for the outstanding consideration due. The only P&L impact with respect to the MedMed transaction this quarter and in the near term, until U.S. federal legalization, is a recording of interest on the notes and any future fair value adjustments to the notes themselves. Now let's discuss Q1 in greater detail. In our cannabis business, our medical business grew due to the contributions from Legacy Tilray. Although we experienced a lower number of existing patient renewals, and a lower number of new patients in both independent and clinic channels. Still, the average gross retail selling price of medical cannabis rose slightly to $6.08 per gram in Q1, compared to $5.95 last year. Our adult use business grew year over year due to the business combination, along with numerous retail sales promotional programs, innovations, social media visibility, and efforts to increase new accounts. It also grew on a quarter-over-quarter basis, as last quarter only included four weeks of legacy Tilray sales. However, similar to Q4 last year, we dealt with consumers more focused on price-based brands, which contributed to a decline in average selling price to $3.17 per gram in Q1. Importantly, we did not lower our prices to secure our market-leading share of the market, and our cannabis gross margin fell not because of price compression per se, but rather that the Tilray brands represent a greater share of the mix in sales in the current quarter, with those Tilray brands carrying their higher production costs until all our effort and synergies are achieved. and we have sold through all the inventory produced at legacy Tilray facilities. Similar to last quarter, the selling price decline was related to pricing being the primary means that brands were able to differentiate themselves, coupled with limited consumer interactions with bud tenders. We view the ability of bud tenders to educate consumers about the attributes and quality of products such as ours as critical to encouraging impulse purchases while shifting customers away from price-based brand purchases in general. We think that through more education and a reduction in bud tender turnover, which has also been very high during the lockdown period and as new dispensaries opened and ramped up, we will be very well positioned because we believe purchasing decisions will shift to margin-based brands over price-based brands. similar to how consumers behave with regards to other products, such as alcohol. Our cash cost to produce per gram decreased to 77 cents per gram at our Leamington facilities. This was due to improved yield, potency, and cost control efforts that began in January of the prior year and that continue to benefit us. net revenue from our cannabis business in the first quarter rose 37.6% to $70.4 million compared to the same period of the prior year. In our distribution business, net distribution revenue was $67.2 million for the quarter, virtually unchanged from the $66.3 million last year. During the quarter, Our distribution business was negatively impacted by the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the euro, which, if normalized, would represent an additional $3 million in revenue. Also impacting quarterly revenue was the heavy flooding, which caused a temporary business closure at CC Pharma over a four-day period and consequently resulted in almost $5 million of lost revenue. In our beverage alcohol business, net revenues at Sweetwater were $15.5 million, down slightly on a sequential basis and reflecting a reduction in keg demand from the on-premises channel, coupled with a decrease in off-premises consumption. We believe the impact of the Delta variant affected consumer behavior, both within restaurants and groceries alike. Net revenue from our wellness business, Manitoba Harvests, were $14.9 million, which we view positively and for which there is no comparable to the previous year. All of this led to net revenue increasing 43% to $168 million in Q1 over the prior year period, with the increase primarily driven by the contributions from Legacy Tilray and Sweetwater, for which there were no comparables in the Q1 period last year. Adjusted cannabis gross profit increased to $30.3 million at Q1, compared to $25.4 million in the prior year, although adjusted cannabis gross margin fell to 43% from 50% in the prior year, but only down 1% from last quarter. The decrease in margins was related to a shift in sales mix to more Tilray brands, that have higher costs to bruise than our legacy brands as a result of including 13 weeks of revenue versus four weeks in the prior quarter for Legacy Tilray. And a deliberate and one-time buildup of inventory levels as part of our integration plan to shut down facilities such as Inniskillen and Nanaimo. Said another way, as we work to adjust our cost structure and reduce production costs through the integration process, we incurred some temporary inefficiencies during this transitional phase that will ultimately result in greater efficiencies. Adjusted distribution gross profit decreased to $7.9 million in Q1 from $9.5 million in the prior year, while adjusted distribution gross margin declined to 12% from 14% as a result of the impacts of COVID-19 on CC Pharma's sales mix. Adjusted beverage alcohol gross profit was $8.8 million in Q1, and there was no comparable in the prior year as the acquisition was completed last November. Adjusted beverage alcohol gross margin was 57%, which was below the 66.5% we achieved in the previous quarter. We overachieved based on current expectations for on-premise versus our off-premise mix. adjusted wellness gross profit was $4 million and adjusted gross margin was 27%, which was in line with our expectations and for which there were no comparables last year. Sequentially, adjusted wellness gross profit more than doubled from $1.6 million in Q4. In aggregate, adjusted gross margin health study at 30% compared to the prior year while adjusted gross profit rose 46% to $51 million from $35 million. As we continue to achieve our synergy plan over the coming quarters, and as our non-distribution revenues increase their share of our total revenues, we expect to see continued improvement in this metric. General and admin costs increased to $49.5 million in Q1, or 29.5% of net revenue compared to $26 million or 22.1% in the prior year, which did not include the acquisitions of Legacy Tilray and Sweetwater. The increase in general and admin costs was primarily the result of the costs associated with the Sweetwater and Tilray acquisitions, most particularly amortization of intangible assets, and $5 million in costs due to the planned and NIMO facility closure. Transaction costs totaled $25.6 million compared to $2.5 million last year, and were related to the solicitation of shareholder votes supporting an increase in the number of authorized common stock shares, our investment in the purchase notes and purchase warrants of MedMen, transaction closing costs, remaining costs associated with the arrangement, and the evaluation of other potential acquisitions, and one-time litigation costs. For the quarter, we reported a net loss of $34.6 million, or 8 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $21.7 million, or 9 cents per share in Q1 last year, representing an improvement of 1 cent per share. Note that our weighted average share count increased to 449.4 million shares from 241.9 million shares during the same period. Turning to cash flow and liquidity, adjusted free cash flow was negative 61.2 million during Q1 and reflected 93.2 million of net cash used for operations, 16.3 million in investments in capital and intangible assets, offset by $48.4 million of cash expended related to our acquisitions. Again, as I said earlier, we view achieving free cash flow on a consistent basis as a priority for this business. While we certainly fell short in Q1, it was anticipated as a result of the synergy plans, and as we push forward with integration, we view this goal as well within our reach in the coming quarters. Even after the increase in cash used from operations, we still maintain a strong cash position of $376 million as of August 31, 2021, to both support our existing working capital requirements and our business plan. While the last 18 months have certainly proven that there are numerous factors outside of our control, our focus remains on what we can do, specifically business integration so that we can better manage costs and the opportunities we have ahead of us as we execute on our highest return priorities across our five key competitive differentiators. Thank you for your interest in Tilray, and this concludes our prepared remarks. Before we take questions from our covering analysts, Erwin and I will answer a few questions from our retail shareholders from the SAE platform. Rafe, what is the first question?
spk07: Thank you, Carl. The first question is the following. With impending federal legalization in the U.S., how will Tilray benefit from this? Specifically, how will this affect the value of the company and benefit the shareholders?
spk12: Good morning. It's Erwin Simon. Listen, I think with legalization, there's many ways it will benefit shareholders. as we're able to acquire multiple facilities, or we're able to acquire other MSOs, we can take all our You know, technology, all our brands into the U.S. market, and with our, you know, balance sheet, there's a lot for us to do owning, you know, 21% in MedMen today and expanding that. So with legalization, as I said, part of my $4 billion plan, I'm looking for at least, you know, a billion to a billion and a half dollars of sales out of U.S. So with the expansion of of cannabis sales, product sales, medical sales that will be extremely beneficial to us in the biggest market.
spk07: Thanks, Erwin. The next question is a multi-part question. Why would the dilution of shares be beneficial? How will the bill being proposed affect productivity and sales? How are you approaching future acquisitions and expansion? And are there any plans in place to accommodate the U.S. territories if and when this bill gets passed.
spk08: Thanks, Ray. In terms of the dilution of the share count, I think it's important for shareholders to understand that the approval they gave us did not result in an immediate dilution of shares.
spk12: Just to correct that, in no dilution of shares, and shares do not get counted until they're used for some acquisition or for something else. So it's just the ability to use the shares. And there is no dilution in the shares that were authorized by shareholders, just to be clear on that.
spk08: Yeah, the only shares we've issued since that occurred was MedNet. Can you just repeat the second part of the question, since it was a multi-part question, right?
spk07: Sure. So the second part of the question is, how will the bill being proposed affect productivity and sales? And then how are you approaching future acquisitions and expansion?
spk08: So I think Erwin's laid out a very clear plan for the business in terms of the strategic plan for M&A and organic growth. We're going to be building the company to a $4 billion business by the end of 2023. We've identified a billion dollars of potential opportunities in Canada. We're looking to build to a billion dollars in Europe and international, and then a billion to a billion and a half in the U.S. As the U.S. begins to legalize and we're able to make investments into the U.S., that's when we'll begin looking at a more detailed level at at U.S. cannabis operations. Anything to add to that, Erwin?
spk12: Yeah, and I think in regards to what you're referring to as a safe bank bill, listen, I think something's got to happen in regards to some type of legalization. It doesn't necessarily help Tilray from a sales standpoint. from an EBITDA growth standpoint, but it does help us from a banking and inter-commerce. Listen, I'm a big believer that something will happen in regards to legalization, whether, you know, safe bank act, whether it's decriminalization, descheduling, or full legalization on a medical standpoint. And I think the big thing is, you know, as I laid out our plan, last quarter, and Carl just, you know, went through it. We'll be ready for that. And, you know, I'm up in Toronto today. I have viewed our facilities, and we're the largest grower of cannabis worldwide. So we have the ability to grow over 265,000 kilos of product that we can ship all around the world. And, you know, one of the biggest holdbacks in the U.S. will be growth. And we have the growth. We have the strains. We have the potency and we have the quality and the know-how to be able to export that into the U.S. once legalization does happen.
spk07: Next question is this. There's a great limit to the amount of cannabis Tilray can grow and sell in Germany. Will there be new permits issued to Tilray for continued growth and production?
spk12: So, first of all, there is no limit that we can grow in Germany. And if we did grow, if we were able to hit the limits that we are growing, we have plenty of capacity in Portugal. And I think that's the big thing within Tilray. And I'm not sure we get the credit for it. I'm not sure it's built into our evaluation. But Europe is going to be major in legalization. With the new administration coming on in Germany, with new administration coming on with Israel, with Denmark, I think legalization happens within the next 18 months. And we have two phenomenal facilities. both in Portugal and Germany, and we can ship product from Canada that's GMP, you know, EU certified. So with that, we are well prepared, and, you know, we feel that with our presence with CC Pharma, with our presence in Germany, with our Portugal facility, which I said earlier, before is a tremendous facility. We're set for European legalization, and even if adult use doesn't legalize, we see additional legalization happening on the medical front in different countries within Europe.
spk07: Final question from the retail shareholders. Will sweet water THC drinks be soon available in Canada, and are there plans to expand sweet water to California?
spk12: So, number 1, while up in while up in Toronto, I got the visit to London facility, which we inherited and acquired when the till rate transaction. We have a beautiful facility there that has the ability to do canning operations. With THC, it's a licensed facility. So with that, we are going to expand our drink business. I got out to visit stores yesterday, and absolutely the demand for drinks in Canada is growing. And there will be some type of THC product, whether it's sweet water or not, but we think there's a big opportunity with sweet water with THC. You can buy sweet water beer in Ontario today. And, you know, I had a pint or two in the last two days. But Sweetwater is definitely here, and hopefully you'll see Sweetwater in other forms. In regards to growing Sweetwater, today Sweetwater is sold in 40 states across the U.S. and continue to grow. A great new line of new products are coming out. Our Riff brand is our Riff vodka drinks. Our Broken Coast brand. You'll see some tequila seltzers and that coming out. And yes, Sweetwater, with our Colorado facility that we just recently acquired, will be expanding to the West Coast. And actually, I'm out there next week spending some time how we're going to be able to do that. So lots of expansion and lots of things happening with Sweetwater products.
spk07: Great. Thank you. Operator, let's begin the analyst question.
spk03: Thank you. For participants wishing to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. In the interest of time, we do ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Our first question is coming from Owen Bennett of Jefferies. Please go ahead.
spk05: Morning, gents, and hope all well. I'll keep it to one question which relates to CBD in the U.S. So ignoring hemp food, can you maybe talk a bit more about CBD-specific plans. So it does appear this is getting a bit more focused. So, I mean, today you mentioned CBD beverages. You also mentioned personal care. So are these segments we can expect launches over the near term? And then ultimately, can we expect quite a broad CBD portfolio across many product segments, like one of your peers, or will it be more targeted? Thank you.
spk12: Thank you all, and good morning. So, you know, we have informed Tilbury Wellness with that. It's led by, you know, Jared Simon, who, you know, was in the consumer packaged goods businesses and has worked on many consumer products. The team has done a great job in regards to Manitoba Harvest and getting that product line with both hemp and looking at lots of CBD products. And to your question, we are currently today working on some CBD partnerships, some CBD alliances, both in topicals and personal care areas and drinks. And, you know, look to expand in that area, both in U.S., Canada, and internationally. So CBD is a focus for us. Hemp will be a big focus. We've seen a big demand for hemp products and hemp food products and expansion in the U.S. on both of those. And, you know, the team is in place now ultimately developing and looking to roll out those products.
spk05: Great. Very helpful. Thanks, guys.
spk12: Thank you.
spk03: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Vivian Azer of Cowan & Company. Please go ahead.
spk02: Hi. Good morning. Thank you. My first question has to do with inter-quarter trends and post-quarter trends in the Canadian adult use market, appreciating that the Delta variant was a bit of an impediment in terms of getting consumers back into the store. That is a critical element of your strategy to trade up consumers. So I was wondering if you'd comment at all on whether trends evolved through the quarter and what you've seen quarter to date. Thank you.
spk08: Good morning, Vivian. I think the important piece is that if you look at the Canadian market, early on in the quarter, we were still in effectively lockdowns with stores closed. As we go through the first month of the quarter, those lockdowns began to ease. Retail storefronts began to open. You had a lot of new stores that were opening who had, you know, bud tenders who hadn't had a chance to really educate about our product and be in a position to really, truly influence consumers. But the more important piece is that when those stores first opened, they were open with limited capacities. And so I think initially it was about 25% and then it grew, it later grew to 50. And just recently, it's now up to, you know, full capacity in stores, at least in Ontario. If you look at the Alberta market, another very large market, they have a big spike of Delta going on right now. And while there may not be lockdowns, it's something that could come forward.
spk12: Vivian, you know, your question is an excellent question because We really, you know, in Canada, stores did not open until, as Carl said, to mid to late June. Being in Toronto over the last couple of days, I was at Dundas and Young yesterday, which is like Times Square, and it was pretty quiet. But stores are open. That's the good news. And they're allowed full capacity. We are on the street educating bartenders about our product. We are trying to do as much social media as we can to bring consumers back into the stores. And with that, you know, consumers out there want good potency, good products. And what's important is for us to be out there building our brands. And that's the big thing. There's a lot of little LPs out there today that are ankle biters that are selling product just on price. But that is where our Rift, our Good Supply, our Soleil, products have to get out there and build what the quality is and what regulatory we go through. And there's a lot we have to do. It's coming up on three years, October 18th, with the Canadian government on legalization. There has to be some changes to the regs out there, and we will be out there. you know, lobbying the politicians with the Liberal government now, how to make some of these changes, how to get out there and advertise safely, how that we can sell more products. Because I'll tell you what, we pay a lot of tax dollars towards this, and there's a lot of benefits, and there's a lot of data that we've collected to show why legalization made sense and what happened in the last three years. So there's a lot we've got to do, and there's a lot we do, but I'll tell you, we're well-positioned from a growth, from a potency, from a price and a brand standpoint.
spk02: Understood. Thank you for that. I recognize the call is running long, but I have an important follow-up that relates to the first two retail investor questions that you got, Erwin. The first one characterized legalization in the U.S. is impending. You know, certainly our House view does not align with that whatsoever. I think firsthand what's happening in Capitol Hill right now in terms of, you know, lack of not only bipartisanship, but even consensus, you know, with the Democrats who hold a very narrow majority, you know, in the Senate. So I just wanted to give you an opportunity to To clarify how you're thinking about timing, obviously the 2022 midterms are not all that far away. That certainly influences, you know, congressional motivation to pass legislation. Plus, there are a number of, you know, fourth quarter legislative, you know, not just priorities, but mandates, you know, like the budget ceiling, like reconciliation that must get done. So just wanted to give you an opportunity to clarify how you're thinking about timing on the potential U.S. catalyst. Thanks.
spk12: Thank you, Vivian. Listen. You're right. I mean, you know, the Schumer bill came out with a lot of thunder, some lightning. And, you know, I think everybody thought this was going to happen right away. I agree with you. It's slow, but there's a lot of discussion going on. But I think the big thing is this here. You know, something will happen. And to your point, there's an election coming up in 2022. The House and the Senate changed. You know, that could throw a lot of monkeys in the wrenches here. But I think the big thing that I come back with, Tilray, is this here. We have a strong business with so much potential to grow in Canada. I think Europe has so much potential. I think you might see legalization happen in Germany before the U.S., OK? And we're well positioned there. Yes, we'd love to see legalization. We want legalization in the U.S. We're excited about what we're doing at MedMan. We're excited about some of the other opportunities. But I think like other LPs and like a lot of the USMSOs, if legalization doesn't happen for 18 months, 24 months, we still have lots of runway out there to grow this business and to do areas, whether it's spirits and alcohol, whether it's hemp food and CBD. So I think that's what the important thing is. We will be around the hoop, and we'll be there when legalization happens.
spk02: That's great. Thanks very much.
spk03: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Andrew Carter of Stiefel. Please go ahead.
spk04: Hey, thanks. Good morning. I know there are some puts and takes around the integration, current environment, ability to launch new products, and you mentioned the ankle biters and continued deflation. But when do you think the combined Canadian adult use portfolio can get back to gaining market share at retail and also kind of driving underlying sales growth? And then within that, I think I heard you correctly. You mentioned recently your Canadian market share target might require M&As. So I wanted to understand where Canadian M&A ranks in terms of your priorities right now and also your ability to acquire operating assets versus kind of executing investments like MedMen. Thanks.
spk12: Andrew, great question. You know, listen, here's the big thing that's got to happen here in the Canadian market. In the Canadian market, you know, yes, the population may be 33 million, 10% of the U.S., but it's one of the only countries where adult use is legal. Number two, I spent lots of time with our medical team up here, and there's so many opportunities in regards to medical cannabis that we still have to exploit upon. And in regards to medical cannabis, it's not on most drug plans today. It's not paid for. There's lots of movement there that we should do. Amazon pays for it in the U.S., but not in Canada. So there's a lot we need to do in regards to getting our medical business and our adult rec business on track here. Stores have been closed since last November. and now they're up to full capacity. It's getting people back into the offices and getting people out. The biggest thing is this year is us educating the butt-tenders about all the great new products that we have and all the products and brands that we have out there. And we have in place the team to go ahead and do that. We have the team in place to focus on the potency, the brands, the quality, the different strengths. With that, listen, the top four in Canada today represent about 50% market share. There's another group of LPs, and there's over 500 LPs that, you know, have 1%, 2%, 3% market share that are nipping away and just dropping prices to bring consumers in. That will last only so long. And with that, what we have to do to ensure is consumers know our brands, consumers know our quality, consumers know our potency, and absolutely price right. So we got our work absolutely cut out for us, but we have the plan in place that we know we have to do. And again, like I said before, we want to be a billion dollars up here. And to answer your question, are we going to get that completely from organic growth? I've said I want to be a 30% market share. Listen, originally I felt we could do that on our own, There may have to be acquisitions and more consolidation in this marketplace. You know, I'm really excited about the Tilray free of merger. You know, we've taken so far $55 million of cost out of here. You see our gross margins are 45%, where Tilray's were 19%. So there's a lot of opportunities as you bring companies together and consolidate. And with 507 LPs out there, you know, there's got to be some more consolidation. And yes, the answer is yes, Tilray would be open for other acquisitions in the Canadian market. If it made sense, it was accretive, we could get growth, and we can get lots of savings out of it.
spk04: Thanks. I'll pass it on.
spk13: Thank you.
spk03: Thank you. Our next question is coming from John Zamparo of CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.
spk11: Thanks. Good morning. I know we're at the top of the hour, so I'll stick to one as well. I'd like to get your thoughts on the wholesale and retail sides of the market, and particularly the state of inventory at Canadian provincial boards and retailers. I think, Carl, you had mentioned about shipments late in the quarter, but Do you think there's a restocking period coming here? And the reason I ask that is retail sales seems pretty healthy in terms of year-over-year growth, but that doesn't seem felt at the producer level. I just would like to get your thoughts there, please.
spk08: I do think there will be a minor restocking that's going to occur. I think if you look at what happened in the quarter, there were a lot of people that were concerned that we would go back into lockdown, something that had happened regularly in Canada. As that didn't happen, the individual stores got more and more comfortable with their sales levels, and then it started increasing their purchasing. I think the same thing then happened at the provincial boards. They waited to see a regular pattern and cadence change, of reordering and you're starting to see those things happen now and they've taken all the steps they needed to take to manage their inventory levels and now is the time when we believe they're going to start reordering.
spk13: Okay, that's helpful. Thanks very much. Thank you.
spk03: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Michael Laveria Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.
spk09: Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. You've reiterated your aspirations to have a leadership role in the U.S. and then obviously pointed to MedMen as part of that. But as strong as their brand is, certainly they've lost ground in the last few years to a lot of other competitors. How do you anticipate sort of, you know, that evolving and Is there anything ahead of legalization in the U.S. that you can do to collaborate and work with them? What, if any, limitations or restrictions are there around how closely you guys can work together?
spk12: Absolutely. So, number one, we've already had multiple meetings with med men to learn about their business. You're right, they have lost ground, but I would say this here under Tom Lynch, They have put some good plans in place that have taken up a lot of costs. And, yes, there is lots of opportunities for us to work with them in getting data, learning about their e-commerce, and spending time with them on products that sell in the stores that we don't have in Canada. They look at the innovation that they have in place from multiple brands. And, listen... I come back and look at the MedMed brand, and when you mention it, how well-known it is here, the equity within the brand, the product line that will be brought into stores. I know some of the stuff that they're working on on an innovation standpoint. I know some of the stuff that they're working on in regards to their stores, the experience of the stores, interaction, you know, with consumers. So there's a lot of that stuff we can take, you know, to Canada. And there is no reason why we can't license the MedMed brand at wholesale. And, you know, the Cookies brand is doing extremely well out there and, you know, compete with that. Also, if, like Canobie has done, you know, with their Tokyo Smoke brand, Tweed brand, if anybody wants a license, you know, the MedMed brand out there in the Canadian market to differentiate, there's opportunities out there. So with that, there will be lots of opportunities, a lot of cross-sharing opportunities. There's a lot of digital information that both teams will be working. You know, we do have, you know, from observation rights on the board, we can't be on the board at board meetings. You know, we have two seats with that. So there's a lot of interaction. This is not, you know, no passive investment with just no oversight at all and not working together.
spk09: Okay, great. Thanks. And a quick follow-up on Europe. You obviously mentioned how big the Portugal facility is. How does the German facility complement it, and do you have too much capacity there at the moment?
spk12: So the German facility right now is only selling to the German government from a medical standpoint. In regards to the Portugal facility, there's plenty of capacity and all our facility right now, we're not growing at full capacity there. So yes, we have plenty of capacity, but we have plenty of demand coming on from Israel, Poland, Western Europe, and other parts of Europe. So right now, all the facility is not full with product. But we have the ability to grow additional products there to fill demand.
spk09: Okay, great. That's helpful. Thank you.
spk12: Thank you.
spk03: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Aaron Gray of Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead.
spk01: Thanks for the question. I'll just keep it to one here. Okay. So kind of picking back on some of the questions that were asked at the retail level. So obviously you guys have an initiative to get more in front of bud tenders, educate the consumer about more than just price. And, you know, in the past, Erwin and Carl, you've talked a lot about more than just THC2 and kind of the whole terpene profile. But I guess my overall question is, how do you think about, you know, timing to when you think some of this, you know, education of the bud tenders and then bud tenders to consumer will result in, you know, maybe better, you know, market share trends for your brand. So, Just any kind of color in terms of what you expect in terms of timing to see an improvement would be helpful. Thanks.
spk12: So it has started already. And with that, our new product lineup is in the midst of rolling out right now. We've consolidated our sales organization, both from a merchandising standpoint, both from You know, our sales that are calling on the control boards. We consolidate our marketing groups. And in the midst of consolidating marketing programs out there, because there was a lot of programs that were already in place. And with that, you know, we're on the street today working with the retail stores. You know, there were 600 stores a year ago. In Ontario, there's 1,200 today. And they are just opening as we speak. So there's a lot of work to do to get in front of them. There's a lot of education to do about our potency, about our different strains. And we have multiple products. We have 12 brands out there that we have to educate, you know, the butt tenders on. And I think that's what's important. And while this is happening, you know, one of the obstacles out there today is there's just a lot of products coming, you know, at these bartenders on price and potency and, you know, nothing behind it. And that's where we have the big opportunity advantage. The other big opportunity we have, you know, Tilray was not really into Cannabis 2.0 with gummies and drinks and edibles. And now with our facility in London, Ontario, that does chocolate, that does edibles, that does drinks. you're going to see Tilray jump into this category in a much bigger way with a lot of uniqueness there, a lot of differentiation on the THC that will be in product. So that's a whole other area for us to capitalize on tremendously.
spk01: All right, great. Thanks very much. Thank you.
spk03: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Pablo Zuanes of Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.
spk00: Good morning, Erwin. You know, I certainly don't mean to speak on behalf of our institutional investors, but one question I'm getting a lot these days is about corporate governance, and not just for your company, but for others in the space, even the very heavy retail investor ownership, right? So, you know, look at TealRaid. It trades $400 million a day. Your free flow churns about every two weeks, right? So it's like do the shareholders care, right? And then, of course, there's the board of directors, right? But for the institutions, looking at that and remembering that in the case of Hain, right, you had long-term institutional investors, you had shareholder activists involved in the board. You know, how should think institutions about corporate governance at Tilray in particular? Thank you.
spk12: Good question. You know, from a board standpoint, we have a very independent board. Myself, I'm the only insider on the board. Brendan Kennedy did join the board from. We have a diversified is something very important from a board standpoint. So, you know, being a public company CEO for many, many years, corporate governance for us is something that's very, very important. And, you know, independence is very important. We have a vice chair, lead director, you know, in the company. So I think we, you know, continuously fill all the boxes. We went to shareholders to move ahead, to come from a staggered board to a one-year term. Shareholders didn't approve that. So with that, you know, we're out there trying to ensure we change the governance and we have good governance in place. And that's something that's very, very, you know, important to myself and the full board public.
spk00: Thank you. And just one quick follow-up in the case of exports. So in my math, you know, $10 million each quarter. On a pro forma basis, that's pretty much in line with recent quarters, if I'm not wrong. while the export markets continue to grow. So talk a little bit about, yes, you're number one in Germany in extracts. I understand Aurora is number one in flour. Just talk about the trend that you are seeing there in terms of market share because it seems to me that others are growing and you are not. And I also hear that at least in the case of a Portugal facility, your flour is not being able to ship to Germany. Just some color there. You also bought, you know, AMP. You got CC Pharma. What was the need for AMP if you already had CC Pharma? Just trying to get more color in terms of your track record and performance in the German medical market right now. Thank you.
spk12: So AMP, just on that, is doing a free extract. You know, we're focusing, you know, today on Tilray. But listen, I think similar to what happened in Canada. You know, Europe is reopening now. you know, as different countries are, and bringing Europe together, both our German facility, the person running Europe for us is consolidating our German operations, our Portugal operations. So I'm not, you know, from a growing standpoint and what we're growing over there, you know, we're selling a lot of product there. And we're producing it there. There's not many companies out there that have the production capabilities and the growth facilities that we have in Europe. And the demand is picking up. But we saw it at CC Pharma. We saw it in many areas where during the summer, You know, Europe was closed and wasn't allowed visitors and wasn't allowed tourists, et cetera. But I feel good not just, you know, looking at the quarter. I feel good about the opportunities in Europe because of our situation in Germany with the German government. I feel good about the facility in Portugal, which is one of the best facilities out there in the world today. And the opportunities, what we're seeing is, you know, France is opening up for medical. There's more and more countries looking at growing medical. And, you know, not looking just at the quarter, but we'll be there. We're seeing lots of great stuff happen in Israel, in, you know, Western Europe. So, you know, you may not see it totally now, Pablo, but stay tuned for what we have planned for Europe.
spk13: Thank you. Thank you.
spk03: Thank you. Our last question today is coming from Glenn Mattson of Lattenberg Bauman. Please proceed with your question.
spk10: Yeah, hi. Just one quick one for me. I wanted to clarify Erwin's comment early in the call talking about synergies and that they were somewhat offset or completely offset. I wasn't sure what he said on the by near-term cost pressures and just a sense of the magnitude there and whether or not you see there's a baiting soon or just some color around that. That's it for me. Thanks.
spk12: So what I said is to date, we've achieved over $55 million of synergies to date, close to $20 million of cash synergies. Absolutely offset costs. Anybody out there today that's not seeing inflation on freight, on labor, is not in business. So absolutely offset some of the costs from a standpoint. But what I did say is this here, you did not see in our numbers Tilray's production cost is in a skillet, which is running about 19%. Our margins are in the high 40s. And we, you know, that product yet has not been produced yet in our facility. So we'll ultimately see those in the back half and when a lot of that inventory is sold. So, you know, we feel good about hitting the 80 plus million dollars in synergies. We feel there's tremendous cash synergies there, which will help offset some of the higher costs that we're all seeing out there in the marketplace. Since that is our last question, thank you very much, everybody, for getting on our call. Thank you for listening to our first quarter where Tilray and Afria came together. A lot has happened since May 1st. We've accomplished a lot in regards to putting these two companies together, putting the infrastructure together, putting the boards together from a governance standpoint, from an ESG. Again, I want to thank the shareholders for approving the additional shares. They are not dilutive. They're shares that are in our treasury, and ultimately, we use them for the right acquisitions that are accretive acquisitions. We're out there, as we've talked about, taking costs out of the business, and ultimately what we've been able to do is put these companies together. Our revenue increased 43%. Our gross profit in a market where there is a lot of pricing going on was up 46%, respectively. As I've said, we're the largest grower of cannabis in the world today and have the ability to grow over 265,000 kilos. And, you know, spending time in our facilities over the last few days, our facilities look great. And coming off, you know, in greenhouses when you have hot weather, it does affect you. And coming off a hot summer out there, it's important that we got our potency, get our right flower and that stuff that we continuously work on. We've had 10 consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA and want to keep that streak going. And with that, we're the number one adult use leader in Canada, and that's with a lot of LPs. There's over 500 LPs out there, and everybody wants to stay in business, and everybody wants to bite at your ankles in regards to not all stores open, not all the market back to place. So I'm happy where we are. um i'm there's a lot more i'd like to achieve um it's not the easiest market out there you know as you look at stock performances i don't think anybody is happy but if you look at where our market cap was last year this time about a billion six and where tiller's market cap was about a billion six and you know we're trading close to five billion consolidated market cap today you know we are achieving something and you know shareholders i know are not patient but uh We're working hard at it, and there is an incredible, strong plan in place. I want to thank everybody for their support, their time, getting on the call today, and I want you to know the Tilray team is working hard for you. Thank you very much. Be safe out there, and we'll speak to you soon. Thank you, gentlemen.
spk03: Thank you for your participation and interest in Tilray. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.
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