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spk09: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Village Farms International's third quarter 2022 financial results conference call. This morning, Village Farms issued a news release reporting its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30th, 2022. That news release along with the company's financial statements are available on the company's website at villagefarms.com under the investors heading. Please note that today's call is being broadcast live over the internet and will be archived for replay both by telephone and via the internet beginning approximately one hour following completion of the call. Details on how to access replays are available in today's news release. Before we begin, let me remind you that forward-looking statements may be made today, during or after the formal part of this conference call. Certain material assumptions were applied in providing these statements, many of which are beyond our control. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements. A summary of these underlining assumptions, risks, and uncertainties is contained in the company's various securities files with the SEC and Canadian Regulatories, including its form 10-K MD&A for the year ended December 31st, 2021 and form 10-Q MD&A for the quarter ended September 30th, 2022, which are available on EDGAR. Forward-looking statements are made as of today's date and except as required by applicable securities law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements. I would now like to turn the call over to Michael DiGiglio, Chief Executive Officer of Village Farms International. Please go ahead, sir.
spk03: Thanks, Michelle. Good morning and thank you for joining us for today's call. With me today is Village Farms Chief Financial Officer Steve Ruffini, Village Farms Head of Canadian Cannabis Mandish Dosanjh, and Village Farms Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs Anne Gillen Lefevre. As usual, we'll go through the same format that we have previously. Steve and I will review the operating highlights and financial results for the quarter, and then we will be available for questions. So with that, the headlines for our third quarter results are very strong growth in Canadian cannabis retail branded sales, faster than the underlying industry growth, which resulted in market share gains. A smaller loss in our fresh produce business, although micro macro challenges remain and continued solid performance in our U.S. cannabis business despite restrained consumer spending. So expanding on the Canadian cannabis business, as I discussed in our last call in the second half of last year, with the benefit of several years of retail experience behind us and our team's unique ability to discern consumer trends and market segmentation, we refined our strategies. We also made the decision to invest strategically with the goal to drive both sales and market share growth in 2022. The third quarter was clear evidence of the success of this strategy, both in terms of sales growth and market share gains. Of particular note, retail branded sales, that is branded sales to provincial distributors, grew 46% year over year and 26% sequentially. for the first time in october village farms became the top selling cannabis producer in canada across all product categories not just dried flower in fact october marked our fourth consecutive month of market share expansion i want to take a moment here to comment on our market share sources the best sources of data in the canadian market continue to evolve and as a management team we have evolved the sources We are now using HiFi for all provinces except Quebec for which we use WeCrawler. This is the data we use to run our business and therefore we believe the right data to share. Importantly, there continues to be multiple contributors to our sales growth and market share gains. The PureSun Farms brand expanded. It's already number one market share in the dry flour category. as Paint Kush and JetFuel Gelato continue their strong performance. And we were further complimented by the launch of innovative new strains, researched and perfected by our commitment to continuous innovation. Pure Sun Farms has been the best-selling dried flower brand for six consecutive quarters now. Rose Life Science in Quebec continued to steadily expand its market share with a number of product launches in the quarter. which specifically target Quebec consumers. In October, Rose became the number two licensed producer in Quebec, and we are very proud of this achievement, less than one year since our majority acquisition. And we ramped up the rollout of our new value-oriented brand, the original Fraser Valley Wheat Company, into two provinces, British Columbia and Alberta, where the value segment is prominent. In British Columbia, We have had a full quarter's worth of sales data and we're already the top selling LP. The launch of Fraser Valley contributed to an increase in our market share from 6.5% in Q2 to 8.5% in Q3. That number increased further to 9.4% for the month of October. And I will note that we achieved this despite regular sellouts in a province where we already topped are the top-selling LP. In Alberta, the second province we launched in later in the quarter, Fraser Valley, has returned us to market share growth. This success is the result of our precisely defined brand strategy, a value-oriented brand with individual and unique strains that, like all of our products, is now 100% hang-dried. We feel confident in our ability to maintain growth with our continued innovation and growth of the Fraser Valley brand. In mid-October, we launched the first Fraser Valley SKUs in Ontario, and we are seeing similar positive results. Although still early days, we're quite impressed that the team delivered a strong start to the Fraser Valley launch, while at the same time continuing to support the rollout of Promenade and other brands, and while continuing to grow in market share of our first brand, Pure Sun Farms. This is a hallmark of great execution. We have also continued to execute on the cost side of the Canadian business. Gross margin remains within our stated target range, and SG&A was down meaningful compared to the second quarter of this year, both in absolute dollars and as a proportion of net sales. As the bulk of our investment spend in multiple major brand launches this year, which is now driving market share gains, as well as our major innovation that I will discuss later, is behind us. All of this contributed to our 16th consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA for our Canadian cannabis business. That's every quarter since Q4 of 2018, with adjusted EBITDA, which is 100% generated by cannabis sales only, increasing with each in the last two quarters. We have successfully enhanced profitability while gaining market shares. This is yet another hallmark of great execution. To summarize, our Canadian cannabis business is growing sales, increasing market share, and adding new customers, all while we are lowering our costs, benefiting from the increased efficiencies of scaling up our cultivation operations and gaining even more experience every day. This will further enhance profitability to invest for future growth. Now turning to our U.S. cannabis business, Balance Health Botanicals continues to perform well, and more importantly, remain profitable despite restrained consumer spending. Last quarter, I discussed the broad slowdown in consumer purchasing that was being exaggerated by the lack of clarity of the CBD category's ability to access traditional retail selling channels. We have been proactive here, pursuing new sales opportunities and implementing a number of initiatives aimed at customer attraction and retention, as we are seeing some positive results. During the quarter, we grew our subscription program by more than 5% to over 19,000 active subscribers. Balance Health also recently launched its second product in its Synergy Plus line, Deep Sleep Synergy Plus, which is positioned to help customers fall asleep and stay asleep. using plant-based ingredients. Our continued success in Canada makes me even more excited about and confident in our other international opportunities. We continue to make steady progress on our international strategy during the third quarter as we pursued emerging legal cannabis markets in which we are confident that we can win. As discussed in our last call, through our Netherlands subsidiary, Lely Holland, we have one of just 10 licenses to cultivate and distribute cannabis in the Dutch supply chain program, which is expected to be the first major legal recreational market for cannabis in Europe. We look forward to directly participating in what is expected to be the first major European market to permit large-scale cannabis cultivation and distribution for recreational purposes. In other international markets, we are very pleased with the pace of sales in the Australian medical market and export from our Canadian cannabis business. Sales to Altium International, our investing partner, have accelerated meaningful this year, in addition to starting shipments to a new customer during the quarter. In fact, Q3 sales to Australia have more than tripled over the past two quarters. And we continue to prepare for our first exports to both Israel and Germany via Canadian cannabis business. Admittedly, preparation has taken longer than expected as we navigate the evolving testing protocols and delays for each country to approve these protocols. But we are ready to go otherwise, and our market intelligence continues to support that our product, as it is in Canada, will be consumer preferred. It's a bit of a horse race as to which market we'll ship to first. So now turning to our fresh produce business. We continue to be impacted by a number of significant pressures, most notably input cost inflation, which with that is now more or less a demand-supply balance, has limited our ability to pass pricing to our customers. Specifically in Q3, we continue to be impacted by the Brown-Wagos virus, which is affecting growers in the U.S. globally, although it is confined solely to our Canadian operations. We did see some of the inflationary pressures abate in Q3, And this is apparent in the improved financial results compared to the first and the second quarter of this year that Steve will discuss in a moment. Although we expect these pressures to persist into next year, we do think the worst is behind us, which means we expect year-over-year comps to improve in 2023. Last quarter, I discussed the start of an intensive operation review of the fresh produce business. The exercise is progressing well, and I'm encouraged by the process to date. We are currently involved in a deep review of the two separate independent consulting reports and that the consulting work is already starting to help us assess customer profitability and other aspects of our operation. With last night's election results, we expect to have greater clarity on the future of cannabis regulation on both the federal and Texas fronts, as well as any of the potential for regulatory processes during the so-called lame duck session. And I look forward to reporting on those outcomes of our review at the appropriate time. I'll now turn over the call to Steve Ruffini. Steve.
spk06: Thanks, Mike. Let me begin with a quick reminder on the timing of our balanced health through Rose Lifeline acquisitions last year and their impact on our third quarter of 2022 results. The contributions of each are consolidated in our financial results for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2022. However, as we acquired Balanced Health Botanicals on August 16th of last year, our 2021 comparative results reflect approximately half a quarter's contribution from that business. As our 7% ownership of rows was acquired in Q4 2021, there is no contribution for the comparative period in 2021. Turning to the results. Consolidated sales for all village farms that includes our Canadian US canvas operations and our village farms fresh produce operations for the third quarter was 71.1 million, a slight decrease of 2% from the third quarter of last year due to a weaker Canadian dollar in 2022 versus 2021. On a constant currency basis, our year on year sales were flat. Higher sales from the Canadian Canvas business as well as the incremental contribution from a full quarter as a result of balanced health were offset by lower sales from fresh produce. Consolidated net loss for the quarter was $8.7 million or $0.10 per share compared to net income of $700,000 or $0.01 per share for the same period last year. The net loss was driven predominantly in the fresh produce business that Mike discussed earlier. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2022 was negative 2.2 million compared with positive adjusted EBITDA of 6.9 million in Q3 last year. The EBITDA loss in Q3 this year was driven almost entirely by fresh produce. Corporate costs were 2.8 million compared with 3.5 million for the third quarter of last year. The decrease due primarily to lower SG&A. Looking at our individual business segments, starting with cannabis, Net sales from our combined Canadian and U.S. cannabis operations grew 14% year-over-year to $35.6 million from $31.2 million, with the increase being driven by the growth in our Canadian cannabis business, primarily driven by the addition of Rose Brands in Quebec and the increase in Pearson Farms Brands with the contribution from a full quarter of Balanced Health. Total cannabis sales comprised 50% of Village Farms' total consolidated sales in this quarter, up from 43% in Q3 last year. Total cannabis adjusted EBITDA was $5.4 million compared with $9.4 million for the third quarter of last year, with the decrease due substantially due to the lower margin on our Canadian non-branded sales due to price compression in the wholesale market and incremental SG&A spend in 2022 versus 2021 due to investment in brand launches and innovation the addition of rows as well as higher percentage of SG&A spend in our U.S. cannabis business. Within cannabis, our Canadian operations delivered another solid quarter. I will review our Canadian cannabis results in Canadian dollars, which provides a more accurate gauge of our period-to-period performance in the face of exchange rate fluctuations, as well as providing the ability to more accurately compare to the local Canadian market growth rates. On that subject, I note that the reported results of our Canadian subsidiaries have been impacted by the strengthening U.S. dollar versus the Canadian dollar in 2022 as compared to 2021, which negatively impacts the results of the Canadian cannabis segment when translated to U.S. currency. On a constant currency basis, our Canadian cannabis Q3 sales in U.S. dollars would have been 3.4% higher. Our Canadian cannabis operations once again saw healthy year-over-year growth with net sales for Q3 of this year increasing 15% to the same period last year to 39.8 million Canadian, another new quarterly record. Canadian cannabis net sales were comprised of 82% retail branded sales, 16% non-branded sales, and 2% distribution fees and commissions. As previously noted, non-branded sales may vary widely from quarter to quarter. Both Q2 of this year and Q3 of last year were stronger quarters for non-branded sales. Q3 was a weaker quarter for non-branded sales in dollar terms, as non-branded sales are demonstrating more downward price sensitivity correlated to the general retail market's pricing trends for this segment's customers. And we sold less bulk high-quality flour in Q3 than in Q2, and more aged and out of spec flour, which has a much lower price. Our branded sales category also includes our export sales to Australia. Retail branded sales for Q3 increased 46% year-over-year and 26% sequentially, continuing our expected trend of quarter-on-quarter improvement through 2022, which we are forecasting to continue growing in Q4. Gross margin for Canadian cannabis for Q3 was again comfortably within our stated target of 30 to 40% at 32%, which was down slightly from 33% in Q2. Our gross margin continues to benefit from gains in cultivation efficiency and operational improvement, which is offset somewhat by pricing pressure in the non-branded market. Our Pearson Farms and Roads branded gross margins remain above the range in both in the quarter and year to date. With our increasing market share driven by new brands, strains, as well as our expansion in Quebec, is resulting in achieving branded sales demand volumes that are essentially fully utilizing our expanded supply capacity in the D2 facility. We will monitor our expected demand and other market dynamics within Canada and in the export market before we add incremental capacity by expanding into the remaining 600,000 square feet in D2, for which much of the hard costs have been incurred. Our inventory levels have built up over the course of 2022, but as a result of our ever increasing market share, we are now in the process of using its inventory for our winter demand and look to bring our inventory working capital down in Q4 and into Q1 of 2023, which is likely to impact the availability of biomass for our Canadian wholesale customers in 2023. Selling general and administrative expenses for Canadian cannabis operations for third quarter were 10.5 million or 26% of net sales compared with 6.9 million or 20% of net sales in the same period last year. The increase in absolute dollars was a result of the addition of the rose operations in this year's quarter, which accounted for approximately 6% of the year over year increase, as well as growth related expenditures at Pearson Farms. Notably, SG&A for Q3 this year was down meaningfully from Q2 of this year in absolute dollars, and for the second quarter decreased its percentage of net sales to 26%, down from 30% in Q2 and 32% in Q1. We remain on track to bring SG&A as a proportion of sales back into the lower 20% range for the fourth quarter and into 2023. Our Canadian cannabis operations delivered their 16th consecutive quarter positive adjusted EBITDA of $6.7 million, compared with $11.1 million for Q3 of last year, with adjusted EBITDA having increased sequentially in each of the last two quarters. We'll now turn to our U.S. cannabis operations, and in doing so, we'll revert to U.S. dollars. U.S. cannabis sales for the third quarter were generated entirely by Balanced Health Botanicals, for $5.1 million, which generated a gross margin of 68%. Adjusted EBITDA was essentially flat at $10,000, but did include one-off cash expenditures that will enhance future period EBITDA. This compares with the half-quarters contribution in Q3 last year of $3.99, with a gross margin also of 68%, and adjusted EBITDA of $700,000. Turning now to fresh produce, Q3's financial performance was impacted by not only the inflationary pressure and input costs, especially freight, but also by the production challenges due to the brown rice virus that has impacted tomato growers globally, which creates incremental costs, but more importantly has a significant impact on the production volumes. And as you may recall in prior presentations, like most agriculturally-based businesses, a substantial portion of our costs are fixed. So if volumes are down, there's less revenue to cover those costs. Sales worth $35.5 million compared to $41 million for Q3 last year, with the decrease due primarily due to lower tomato volumes and selling prices at both our own greenhouses as well as those for our growing partners. Volumes were impacted both by the brown rugose virus at our Delta 1 greenhouse as well as the delay in a 2022-23 crop cycle in Texas due to an operational change in our U.S. H-2A worker program. On the cost side, freight spending Q3 was approximately $1.2 million higher compared to the same period last year, due almost entirely to the increased cost of diesel and trucking rates on lower year-on-year volumes for the reasons stated, effectively increasing our freight per pound cost by 30% over Q3 in 2021. The Brown River Ghost virus had a significant impact on yields and thus revenues. This resulted in a negative gross margin for fresh produce of 3.3 million compared with positive gross margin of 2.1 million in Q3 last year. What was a meaningful improvement from the negative 8.9 million in Q2 of this year? The negative gross margin drove negative adjusted EBITDA for fresh produce $4.6 million compared with positive $1.3 million in Q3 last year. The negative $4.6 million in Q3 this year was also a significant improvement over the negative $10.4 million in Q2 of this year. Turning now to cash flows and the balance sheet, at September 30th, we had approximately $23 million in cash. We had approximately $45.2 million in working capital excluding cash. During the quarter, we had operating cash outflows of $6.8 million net of working capital adjustments. In August, we announced an at-the-market offering of up to $50 million, which we believe, given the continued state of the broader capital markets, and more specifically with respect to the cannabis sector, is an efficient and flexible means by which to assess additional capital should we choose to do so, especially in light of our fresh produce challenges and growth opportunities in cannabis. During the third quarter, we generated proceeds of $800,000 from the issuance of 292,000 shares and an average price of $2.84. In October, we generated gross proceeds of $3.9 million from the issuance of 1,852,000 shares and an average price of $2.11. Now, I turn the call back to Mike.
spk03: Thanks, Steve. Before opening the call to questions, I want to take an opportunity to touch on a couple of popular Canadian market discussion points. that center around the theme that it is a difficult market for LPs, investors, and lenders. One theme is the accelerating total sales growth. Price compression is real, although there are signs it may be stabilizing. However, from a volume perspective, the market continues to grow at twice the rate of dollars, 40% year-to-date. We are well aware of the bear case on the Canadian market oversupply that has led to price compression and slowing growth. We agree, but you also see many reasons to remain committed to the Canadian market. First, the market is growing, led largely by volume, which is growing at twice the rate of dollar sales. Price compression has helped convert legacy consumers to the legal market, which is continuing. New users are also attracted by the growth in the category options. Second, capacity is coming out of the Canadian market. While painful for operators and investors, this will improve category dynamics. Third, with the right strategy, one can be profitable and drive strong growth, as we have demonstrated for 16 straight quarters. This ties directly to our global cannabis strategy, which is driven by three centers of excellence since 2018. Cultivation execution at a cost advantage that yields consistent, high-quality product, consumer-led insights to build brands and innovation, and strong commercial partnerships with our customers. So while others abandon this continued Canadian growth, we continue to take every opportunity to expand our leadership position in a market that is still forecasted to double from current levels to $8 billion in this consumer product industry. which is why this week we are proud to have made two major announcements that result from our investments. First, we are the first spices producer to adopt hang dry processes at scale. Hang drying minimizes direct planting of the flower to preserve natural bud structure and aromas while delivering a high terpene potential. I am pleased to say these products are now broadly in the market. It's an achievement years in the making with the combined contribution of engineers, scientists, cultivators, and dollars invested across our entire organization. Second, this morning we announced the launch of our third BC grown brand, Soar. Soar complements and further expands our Canadian portfolio with a brand that is designed to deliver an elevated cannabis experience via limited quantity batches of select cultivars chosen for their exotic and unique genetics that are hand harvested, hand detail, and of course, hang dry. Products will be available in Alberta starting this week and in Ontario and BC in weeks to come. With that, we'll now turn the call over to questions. Operator?
spk09: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request. and your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the two. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift the hands up before pressing any keys. One moment please for your first question. First question comes from Tammy Chen of BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
spk01: Thanks. Good morning. I wanted to start off with the flower category actually. bit of a follow up actually Mike to your closing comments there. First, I think a couple of quarters ago you mentioned that there were a couple of slower moving skews in your flour portfolio. I was wondering if there was still some of that or you've kind of cleared through all of it. And the second part is noticing from the high fire data recently that the 28 gram large pack has really continued to grow for the industry. whereas the smaller pack sizes are really declining and there's a concern that it's a signal the category is just getting more and more focused on value and being commoditized so just wanted to understand how what how you're viewing the flower categories evolution at this point yes tammy okay i'm gonna let mandy take that question go ahead mandy yeah absolutely uh good question tammy so
spk05: First on the SKU assortment, I mean, we're always constantly evaluating the categorization of our performance of our SKUs, kind of triple A, double A, single A, and so on and so forth. Very common in category management. We feel strong in our approach and our philosophies there. So at this time, we don't really feel there's any kind of backup of any slow-moving SKUs in our portfolio or sitting at the boards. The commercial team has been doing an incredible job of making sure we're cycling out, kind of ramping down and out of any SKUs that we might think are no longer kind of achieving the success we want as we bring in innovation behind it on the flower side. And I think you've seen that a lot with some of our different launches over the last quarter. We've been very active on innovation with new flower SKUs, milled offerings, as well as pre-rolls on the flower side and cycling that in and through. So I feel very confident that our exposure risk there is minimal and we're doing a great job of executing. On the format sizes, you're absolutely right. I mean, we see the consumer preference between small and large format deviating. People want to really get value. I think we really nailed that with the launch of our Fraser Valley Weed Co., which is specifically an only in large format 28-gram, so very specific offering to drive efficiency at the SKU level. We still like the 3.5-gram format as well, though, on Pure Sun Farms, and then now with the launch of Soar Cannabis, which is going to be in 7 gram exclusive, which we find is over indexed in the premium sector. So we like how we're positioned across the different format sizes, Tammy. We think the team has done an incredible job with category management and nailing down assortment so we're as efficient as possible on our SKU count side. And large format is where we live and can really dominate given our size of cultivation. our cost advantages and our brand awareness. So we're going to still be in both sides, three and a half and 28. It really allows the consumer to trial and test a new skew, especially on the innovation side of the much lower price point. So we continue to observe the market trends and we'll act and react accordingly, but we still see a real healthy mix and we're positioned to kind of pivot as needed.
spk01: Got it. Okay. And my follow-up is wanted to get an update on how you're thinking about the rest of your Delta 2 expansion. You sort of touched on it. It sounded like you were saying the current demand you see, it is fully utilizing the online production capacity you currently have. So, I presume that means no change in your plan. You are going to continue to, you know, bring online the rest of that facility?
spk03: Well, I can answer that, Tammy. I mean, when we got the addition a year, about a year, 18 months ago, to expanding the Delta II at half of it, although as Steve has mentioned, most of the costs have been spent to complete the other half of Delta II. Uh, we base that on the belief that we would continue our market share, uh, then of course, with the acquisition of Rose and Quebec and their performance and supporting them as well on top of their production facility in Quebec and the anticipation of our sales ramping up internationally, which they have. So in Australia now, uh, hopefully momentarily to Germany and Israel, uh, we felt it was prudent to get ahead of it with the expansion of Delta two. We're just about at full capacity now, so as Steve mentioned, we're going to look at that very carefully and then make a decision. We haven't made it yet to move forward in completing the other half based on the confidence level we have for continued market share penetration and international exports.
spk01: Got it. Okay. Thank you.
spk04: Thanks.
spk09: Thank you. The next question comes from Aaron Gray, Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead.
spk13: Hi, good morning, and thank you for the questions, and I see the results on the retail side there. So first thing I want to touch on is, you know, the SG&A, it down meaningfully. It seems like you said the bulk of it on investment, spend, and brand, as well as some innovation being behind you. I just want to know in terms of, it seems like that was an active effort on your side. So as you're now kind of rolling out, you know, SOAR, and then you're still going to have Fraser Valley, you know, now just being launched into Ontario. You know, how do you think about the timing of kind of that SG&A? How much of it do you have to put before the brand and then have, you know, kind of as maintenance as you're continuing to have the brand selling through so that you're comfortable in your ability to, you know, maintain the share or even continue those share gains despite the SG&A pullback? Thank you.
spk03: Yeah, and I think we're very comfortable with that. I mean, we communicated last year that we were going to have increases in SG&A. It takes a lot to launch three brands with Promenade and the support to Quebec in their other brands and of course the two brands we just launched and plus the investment in Hang Dry at scale we're 100% there now so that's a huge spend but we planned that spend we knew we'd have to up it and now it's about like Pure Sun Farms maintaining more so that's what we demonstrated the SG&A coming down now and continuing to come down to a level that It was in the past, and it's acceptable at that percentage to continue maintaining our growth in the Canadian market. So we feel very confident that that'll be at a good level supporting what we need to do in Canada.
spk13: All right, fantastic. That's great to hear. And then second for me, now you've had some times in terms of these new brand rollouts. Just kind of looking back with Fraser Valley, How do you think about, you know, cannibalization? Was it as you had expected relative to Pearson Farms? You know, Pearson Farms is still the number one brand. So anything that ended up surprising you now that's been out for a couple more months? And then how do you think about that cannibalization going forward, you know, with SOAR being rolled out as well? Thank you.
spk03: It really didn't surprise us at all, but I want to let Mandish put some more color on that. So, Mandish?
spk05: Yeah, thanks, Mike. Aaron, great question. So just to reiterate, you know, we've now seen a full quarter of Fraser Valley and British Columbia launched in a little bit later in the last quarter in Alberta. And we're seeing some, you know, one month of October. And I know we don't give forward looking statements, but we got a really good healthy data set. And Mike's absolutely right. There was nothing overly surprising. If anything, what we saw was that it's not cannibalizing at all. I mean, we grew market share on the Pure Sun Farms brand. in both those provinces, British Columbia and Alberta, after we launched Fraser Valley Weed Co. We also launched additional strains in Pierce Sun Farms at that time, and there was no adverse impact. When we came on the call a quarter ago, we talked to you guys all about when we were launching Fraser Valley that we really saw consumer segmentation deviating into the value segment. We really saw kind of an area that we were only exposed to through our non-branded wholesale sales, and we knew it was the right time to go in with a new brand that really attacked that consumer. And we were really confident that our data was showing us that the Pearson Farms consumer is not really playing in that space, that we don't have a lot of risk. And that was validated as we went to market and now we're seeing early results. So we're growing share, and some of our best strains in Pearson Farms are doing better than ever And I think that's through a commitment of our commercial sales team and the efforts that we're seeing, the relationships we're building with the boards, the presence of all of our brands, and just this strong supply chain credibility that we have with the boards and the customers and stores all the way through. So we're pleased. We're going to continue to drive that home, and we think that trend will continue through Ontario as well.
spk04: Okay, great. Really helpful call.
spk13: Then I'll go ahead and jump back to the queue.
spk04: Thanks, Aaron.
spk09: Thank you. The next question comes from Frederico Gorms of ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
spk14: Yeah, thank you. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. First question is on pre-rolls. It's obviously a category that is growing, and you are leaders in flour, but you are under-indexing pre-rolls right now. So could you comment on how you view that segment and what sort of efforts are you making to increase your market share there potentially? Thank you.
spk03: Manish, you want to take that or Fred?
spk05: Yeah. Great question. And absolutely on the pre-roll side, I think it's going to be one of the most important categories for the industry as consumers have adopted whole flour. and really seeing kind of the strains and the formats that they appreciate and then getting a more convenient offering in pre-roll. And again, you know, our strategy was always about devising a plan and approach on winning where we can and winning over the consumer with, you know, great quality, great cost and great brands. And now that we've done that, you know, we want to make sure we're equally indexed on the pre-roll side of the business. And it's always been our plan and strategy. So multiple brands, nailing the assortment, and expanding our pre-roll offering and making sure we're being as efficient as possible with our SKUs. So I think, Frederico, what you'll see over the coming quarters as we continue our brand approach, expansion into the provinces and go through the board listing process is an expansion of pre-rolls. So increasing capability internally has been the focus over the last several months, multiple shifts, increasing the capacity within the amount of pre-rolls we can produce as well as some additional co-manufacturing that we've brought online and continue to look for in the industry and more is becoming available. So we're really high on that category on the pre-roll side. We think we're well positioned with our flower dominance, the resonance of our brands and strains in market and we're excited by that and I think you'll start to see that in the coming quarters, our increased growth in that category.
spk14: Okay, thanks for that. And then my second question is on the wholesale side. Obviously, you had a good increase in branded sales and we're seeing that, but could you provide maybe some color on how are you seeing the wholesale market right now, both in terms of demand and pricing? Thank you.
spk04: Manish, go ahead and answer that.
spk05: Absolutely. Thanks, Mike. So I think Steve alluded to it on the wholesale side. I mean, Our strategy, first of all, I'll talk about and something we've talked about on this call in past quarters has always been taking our destiny in our own hands, increasing and improving our market share through great brands and great products. I think you've started to see us do that in years past, being kind of whether it's 50% or 60% indexed into our branded sales and now seeing us steadily increase that. Part of that is making sure we're getting more market share, driving more margin accretive sales and the trend in the wholesale space has been as a result of price compression, wholesale customers wanting and needing a lower price, which obviously erodes margin. And so we're not immune to that on the wholesale side, seeing a lot less pricing activity on that, on the flower side, still seeing great opportunity to take advantage of spot demand where we can fill it. And really, on the extract side and some of the age side, you know, for extraction purposes or, you know, wholesale customers who are looking to make concentrates, we're still seeing that a fairly active market. Our trim sales are strong wherever we don't need that biomass. But absolutely, Frederico, you know, the wholesale side of the business on the domestic side is extremely competitive and very, very price conscious and very spotty. And so, as a result of going into multiple brands now, we've really, you know, decreased our reliance on that side. And Steve and Mike, in both their remarks, commented on the, you know, expansion and approach on the international side. So, really picking up good margins on the international side and making that more of our, you know, wholesale side of the business and not really having to rely on flower sales in the non-branded space.
spk04: I appreciate that, Paul. Thanks all. Back to you. Thank you.
spk09: Thank you. The next question comes from Eric DeLaurier of Craig Halem Capital Group. Please go ahead.
spk10: Great. Thank you for taking my questions and congrats on the nice cost management this quarter. On the Pure Sun Farms side, you know, consistent growth there, especially in market share has really been impressive. You know, obviously these new brands are performing well. You got some more, you know, on the sort of pipeline there. Got hang dry coming in. I mean, it certainly looks like, you know, sort of blue sky. I mean, you know, more share gains to come, especially, you know, over, you know, sort of beyond the next year or so. Maybe just kind of taking some of these questions and flipping them on their head a bit. What are some of the, you know, biggest challenges or headwinds you see to continued share gains or maybe your longer term share goals in Canada? Thank you.
spk03: Well, I think there's twofold. One, the industry-wise, I think what we're doing at Pure Sun Farms, we're sort of executing, as we mentioned, across the board and remain steadfast on our execution and penetration. Innovation, we've really kicked it up, as we mentioned, and that trend is going to continue long-term. We've always said it's a continuous improvement process on the cost side. You just get better as you go. I've always mentioned... You know, cultivation is a wrap-up business from the first time you convert the greenhouse. You get better every year, every crop. And all those things will start showing up in small increments, but cumulatively, it'll have a huge impact going forward. With the addition of Rose, that's been a great, I mean, that company now in less than a year, number two, it's going strong. We're now in the maritime provinces, so pretty much everywhere in Canada. And it's all tied to just execution consistently hitting singles going forward on the macro level. I think the industry, uh, you know, it's just, uh, we're starting to see companies, uh, you know, desperate for consolidation or, uh, not making it. And I think, uh, as we mentioned in the script portion, uh, and I said this, uh, at the Benzema conference in March that I think it's going to be some scorched earth, unfortunately for many. others going down the road uh companies are looking at consolidation that's really not in our wheelhouse right now in canada just uh we don't see any necessarily accretive opportunities so uh as that market starts to dwindle and consolidate i think it can only help us going forward uh it's still a large market potential as i mentioned going to eight million so Let's just keep doing what we're doing. You know, we will spend extra money when we want to drive key innovations, but that's been proven now with this launch of three brands in this year alone. So now it's a little hunkering down, maintaining and going for strong positive cash flows in the future. On the, Mandy, do you want to add some color at the Canadian cannabis level on the operating side?
spk05: Absolutely, Mike. I think you did a really good job of framing it up. It's, you know, sticking to our knitting. We've done a lot of expansion on the brands and in the markets. And Eric, I think it's just, you know, we got to keep executing. I think we've spent a lot of time building out our processes, our teams, our commercial strategy, our category management, our product innovation, and we're really dialed in and just staying focused on that. And I think we're, you know, I feel really confident in our ability to do that Mike commented, you know, now four straight, you know, periods of sustained market share growth. And, you know, people will come. Everybody's seeing that in the industry. So it's, you know, as you're growing, everybody's going to be attacking and you've got to figure out the next step. So it's just constant song and dance and evolution of executing, innovating, and kind of just keeping focus on what you have in front of you. So the market doesn't make it any interesting with all the different dynamics going on. So that's why, you know, having an agile, resilient team is really important, and we feel like we're well positioned to weather kind of the ups and downs that will happen over the next 12 or 18 months.
spk03: Yeah, and the other thing, Eric, on the international side, I mean, Australia's gone very well for us. It's very frustrating. When you're in a cannabis industry, it's a highly regulated industry, and you're starting to do business internationally. There's always delays, and we're very frustrated with the processes that Israel changed just the way their regulations midstream early in the year. We had to readapt to that and lose time. So we have to be patient. But where we've done very well in Canada, I think we can leverage that up internationally. We're seeing that trend in Australia, and I think we're going to see it, and we're going to be a very strong, strong competitor both in Israel and Germany, and that's eminent. So that's just another concern.
spk10: positive for pure sun farms on the export side going forward i appreciate the color and i'm looking forward to uh continued execution there uh last one for me just switching to the u.s side of things um uh so bhp you know you guys did a bit better than expected there um can you just remind us of you know some of the i guess key you know sales and marketing uh blocking and tackle initiatives you got you know over the next year or so and um What's your line of sight into potential growth from these sort of Q3 levels going forward? Is this something where you see meaningful share opportunities, or is this a bit of a just kind of hunker down and preserve profitability amid this tougher macro environment? Thank you.
spk06: Thanks for the question, Eric. We see the CBD business is in maintenance mode. We have launched this energy plus. SKUs, which are best-selling SKUs from a historical perspective. They are full-spectrum SKUs, so we're excited about that. That being said, CBD continues to be in jail. We have seen a drop-off in consumer purchases of higher price point items going from, for instance, tinctures to gummies. So that's something we're continuing to keep in step with. But essentially, we see sales for 2023 as being flat until we get better visibility on the farm bill. Obviously, the farm bill will come up. It has to. So with respect to that, we'll see where Congress is or how they try to force the hand of the FDA. hopefully to get CBD and all the other cannabinoids out of the, as I call it, the FDA jail cell that we're all residing in at this stage. We would like to have a bigger impact of our sales, almost all our sales in our e-commerce. We've done very well at that level. But obviously, we would like to get our products into retail stores. But most retailers are not touching our SKUs at this time since essentially they're digestible. But at any rate, we continue to do what we can. Same thing we're doing at Pearson Farms, looking at our cost. We're probably going to internalize gummies, do it ourselves, and pick up some margin there and do what we can while we wait to see what happens in 2023 with CBD.
spk04: Appreciate the call. Thanks, Steve.
spk09: Thank you. The next question comes from Scott Fortune of Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead.
spk11: Yeah, good morning. A couple of follow-ups. Real quick, maybe, Mandish, you know, you've done a great job adding innovation, getting new genetics and strains to the market, adding the HengTri technology, and broadening your flower categories. You mentioned a little bit on pre-roll, but how should we look at the kind of the 2.0 product opportunities or specific categories? That continues to kind of come off as a focus, but just kind of your thoughts for future for Pearson Farms moving into the different product categories there to potentially gain market share. Just kind of a longer-term picture as you look at 2.0 here.
spk05: Yeah, good chat. Thanks for the question, Scott. You're absolutely right. We've commented on 2.0 being important to us, and we've, not to sound like a broken record, We really devised the plan approach that was all about, you know, starting slow winning where we can and expanding it. And that started with the flower first strategy, but we've always remained committed to, um, the higher performing categories. And in this case vape on the 2.0 side, I think as we, you know, our PR our, one of our first priorities in the last little bit has been ensuring we've built out a broader, a broader brand platform and really understood consumer segmentation. and ensure we're managing skew rationalization assortment and profitability as we did that expansion with the consumer in mind. And so on the vape side, you know, we really have an opportunity to continue to focus on that. You know, we've done a few launches with more vape products under the Pearson firms brand, and we'll continue to innovate and be looking at different ways to expand that offering either through various different hardware, through different formulations, And now having multiple brands and the ability to kind of think about that consumer segmentation and rolling out more specific products in the 2.0 side. And I think one thing you know about us is we never try and, you know, we try and not let too much out of the, we try to let the cat out of the bag too early. But you'll continue to see some really interesting things from us in the 2.0 space in the coming, you know, months and quarters. and really seeing us pick up share there. But, yeah, 2.0 importance, specifically vapes, infused pre-rolls, really, really important segments to us because we think, you know, those will be part of the future, and we want to win in those segments.
spk11: I appreciate that, Colin. And then real quick, just kind of getting back, you did a great job on the branded retail growth there. Congrats. But I just want to get a sense for a long-term strategy on the wholesale opportunity. Seems there's still a lot of capacity out there. You know, Mike mentioned we're starting to see consolidation or more elimination, right? We need elimination of the over supply. We're seeing pressure on a lot of these growers. But how are you seeing incoming calls starting to look at as potential for longer supply, long-term supply agreements with wholesalers? How are you looking at kind of the wholesale as we look out kind of longer term here from that standpoint?
spk03: Mike, do you want to take that or do you want me to jump in? Yeah, that's a great observation. And the answer is yes. I think just, you know, honestly, a lot of companies are retracting their position on cultivation, both hitting quality innovation at the right price. So the phone keeps ringing off the hook. But as you can see, with the success on our percentage of sales to retail, That wholesale volume has shrunk. Incidentally, the international sales that are gearing up will add to, we don't put that in our retail numbers, but it's going to layer over it. So that percentage is decreasing in terms of the capacity available. But we do get those calls every day from more and more companies that are looking to downscale or shut down operations, but want to continue sort of, you know, as a branded company in some area, but they need quality product.
spk04: So it's an interesting dynamic that's happening. I agree. Thanks for the color. You bet.
spk09: Thank you. The next question comes from Doug Cooper, Beacon Securities. Please go ahead.
spk12: Good morning, guys, and nice momentum in the Canadian business as discussed. Just quickly, because I'm sure we're running out of time, but year-over-year Canadian growth revenue in cannabis up 15%. That includes rose. Can you give us an idea how much volume was up year-over-year?
spk06: A lot. I mean, on a kilogram basis?
spk12: Whatever basis you want to talk volume.
spk06: Well, that's why I asked for clarity on the question. I have the volume for non-branded, but I don't have the kilograms for branded. So I don't have enough information to answer that question right now, Doug. I can get back to you.
spk12: Okay. I'm assuming it outpaces revenue though, right? Just on Australia, is that included in the $39.8 million revenue number?
spk06: I misspoke. We included it in our non-branded. That being some other territories, we are in discussion to launch the Pearson Farm in those territories. So we may have some in the future in branded and non-branded. We'll have to break that up.
spk12: Okay. So the 30 – okay. That's fine. I was just going to move over to Marcus here. I just wanted to make sure I got these numbers right. BC, I think you said you were 8.5% in Q3, moving to 9.4% in October. Is that right? Yes. Okay. Do you have similar kind of numbers for Alberta and Ontario? No.
spk04: We do. You want us to do that on a call later with you?
spk12: Okay. And I guess maybe just to continue on the wholesale conversation, I'm just curious, you know, the number was low, which is great. Do you want to drive more of your business through the, through the retail channel yourself? But is this sort of just lack of people, those companies going out of business and how are they paying for it? I mean, there'd just be less and less dollars to spend. So. There's that, and then just a comment on that. And just in a final comment, CouchTard doing the deal with Fire & Flower and GTI, opening up co-locations here in Ontario, I think just maybe a comment on how you think the retail market will evolve in Canada. Will convenience stores, do you think, will be able to get in the business? We'll just leave it there. Thanks.
spk04: Yeah. I'll let Mandesh answer that one.
spk05: So, hey, Doug, you're asking, well, can more convenience stores be able to get into cannabis? Is that what you're asking in Canada?
spk12: Yeah, just licensing. I mean, is this legal? How will this work? And, you know, what will that mean for distribution of your products?
spk05: Yeah, I think that, like everything happening in the industry right now, Doug, it's some serious inflection points as you think about profitability, businesses trying to say float. I mean, we're obviously as a producer, we're looking at it from that angle, but we're seeing rationalization and consolidation on the retail front, no doubt, right? We're seeing CCAA filings and acquisitions and takeovers on the retail front. So just as we talked about the dynamics on the producer front, things need to evolve and take a different shape on the retail side of the business. And you're starting to see that, you know, we're starting to see retailers reduce the amount of their square footage and thinking about rent control and cost controls and what's really driving their bottom line, reducing assortment, being very specific on the amount of inventory they're carrying. I think when you think of those factors, Doug, it all leads to a smaller convenient footprint and ensuring kind of your dollars per square foot on the retail side is as efficient as possible. So I think those things kind of answer your question about do we see more convenience offerings? I believe so. I think it's not always going to be the same in every province. I mean, obviously, Quebec has government-run stores. So I think it's leading that way. So however the regulations will allow for that convenience format, I mean, there's nothing that I see right now that's going to allow cannabis to be co-located within a convenience store. I'm not sure I'd necessarily see that happening anytime soon. But wherever somebody can get crafty within the regulations about putting a cannabis store on a footprint of an existing asset and leveraging real estate, I think you're going to start to see more interesting things emerge on that side. Hopefully that answers your question.
spk03: Yeah, we haven't gotten a call from Tim yet, if that's what you're inquiring about.
spk12: Okay, that's it from me. Thanks very much.
spk09: Thank you. The next question comes from Andrew Parthenio of Stifled GMP. Please go ahead.
spk07: Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions and congrats on the good branded sales growth here. Thanks, Andrew. Maybe touching on the hang dry that you guys are rolling out, could you comment on when you expect that to contribute to the P&L? Is this more of a Q123 story? And how is that going to influence your gross margin? Could we expect higher or lower gross margin versus what you posted today, which I think you allude is around the low 30s?
spk03: Yeah, I think the hang dry is just our quest to continue to drive innovation, quality, better product across the board. And I think it's an intangible to be able to say how that's going to equate directly to the bottom line or market share. But I think it's part of a whole package of how can we be best in class across the board. And the product is just a superior product, and we'll see how the consumer resonates. It is 100% complete, and it is out there now. So if it starts to show anything material that we can talk about, it'll start now. And once it gains some traction, it's certainly going into the new year. And as we mentioned, it's across the board, so it doesn't really matter if it's the very high-end products like SOAR that we're launching now or our, you know, more cross-conscious products. It's all about having a high quality at every level. I mean, I can have Mandish. You want to get some color on it from your perspective?
spk05: Yeah, I'd love to. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for the question, Andrew. Good to chat. So we rolled out product from the hang dry over the last several months. And like all things we do, we're really cautious before we make a press release. So we've been putting this product out to market over the last several months, and we've been getting great feedback and response from bud tenders, from legacy store operators that converted it. And we're just the reviews on Reddit, consumer feedback on all the new strains and innovation, as well as some of our classic strains like pink cushion, jet fuel gelato that were in market pre hang dry. So that's, you know, pretty much readily available now. And you're going to see that and consumers have already been seeing that. So that's a now story, not a next year story in here. And we just wanted to announce it to the market so that everybody knew that that's what they're going to see. And we've been getting great responses on it. on the, on the cost side of things, we've been able to control margins and stay within that range, even by putting in this kind of craft process, um, at scale and really thinking about operationalization and effectiveness of our costs. So we're really happy about that when it comes to thinking about margins moving forward. And Steven might have alluded is we're going to keep staying in that 30 to 40 range. And a big part of this was, you know, I think everybody, you gotta be doing this. You gotta be thinking about the consumer. and their preference and their desire for a great bag appeal. And you always have to be innovating. So for us, it wasn't a question of, do we do it? It was like, we're going there and we're going to do it because the consumer is demanding it. We figured out a way to do it at scale and still be efficient. And it's allowed for us to start to play up and talk about things at a premium price. And today we announced Soar Cannabis, which is a very specific tailored offering around specific cultivars, unique profiles, characteristics, improved terpene profiles, and we'll start to see kind of that pickup in the higher margin categories. So we're excited by it, and I think it's going to allow us to maintain being in that range that we've given guidance of between 30 to 40% margin.
spk07: Thanks for a fulsome answer. And maybe zooming out and thinking about consolidation, your consolidated financials. Obviously, produce plays a big part in this and thinking about produce here. In the past, I think you've alluded to Q4 being a better quarter on produce simply because of the supply-demand dynamic. Are you still thinking about a potential to reach a positive gross margin in Q4 on produce? And if you could provide a little bit more color as we go into 2023. Not sure if I heard correctly, but I think you mentioned that the worst is behind us. But you also mentioned that it's hard to pass on pricing. So just trying to understand what's resulting in a better outlook on produce in 2023.
spk03: Well, for the fourth quarter, yes, we're looking at positive margins, I can say that. I just have to remember that when we talk about fiscal year first quarter, second quarter this year, From a crop cycle perspective, that was the fourth, third and fourth quarter of our crop cycle, which started actually in the third quarter of 2021. So we had to take the hit we had last year in that crop with the Brown Ragusa virus, uh, in Texas. So the last two quarters of 21, that crop continued to June of this year. So we had to pay the piper in the first and second quarter, and that's why we had this tremendous loss in the second quarter. So even though we're now on account of the fiscal year, we're in a new crop cycle that started in Texas in the third quarter. And so far we have a clean, solid crop. And then last year, this year, what made things worse is we never had the virus in Canada. And remember, it's a worldwide virus, and it did hit Canada twice. while it hit Texas three, four, five years ago, we didn't have it. So this year we suffered in Canada. So that added to the end of that crop cycle in Texas, starting again last year and through the second quarter of this year. So you have to kind of look at that. So why the fourth quarter? Okay. We're tracking well on a positive March fourth quarter. Again, you know, one of the things we suffer in the U S as we compete as a NAFTA company against Canada and the United and Mexico, you have to understand that. Canada has a terrific foreign worker program. Bottom line is, you know, in America, people don't even want to cut their lawn, let alone work in agriculture. So we're very dependent on the foreign worker program. In Mexico, there's abundant labor. In Canada, the foreign worker program is a five-year program. In the United States, it's 10 months on, two off. So think of any business. where you have to let your employees go for 60 days a year and then restart. It's crazy, but that's what our system is in the U.S., so it's at a huge disadvantage. And this year, with these changes in the foreign worker program, we delayed some of our crop scheduling that normally would have happened earlier. So even with that, the fourth quarter should improve. And then going into next year, hopefully with all the protocols we have, On virus, it's working well. I've often said it's if you compare AIDS in the 1980s, it was a death sentence. Today, nobody dies from AIDS because you've learned the therapies and the protocols to deal with it. Now, on the positive side, the gene has been found and is now being put into all the new varieties of tomatoes worldwide. And we're actually testing some of these new varieties that are resistant to the virus now. And I think by the end of 24, all the seed companies will have all their varieties resistant. So looking at sort of a little blue sky that's gonna start happening in 2023, it should be solid by 2024. In farming and these types of environments, these things happen in the cyclical form. It's no different than COVID was for humans and we'll get through it. So, and then the inflationary issues, You know, like we said, diesel fuel has been up. Is that going to come back down? So we're feeling more confident going forward. But, again, you know, it is a difficult business. Think of cannabis under NAFTA where Canada has to compete with Mexico and the U.S. It's a different world. But, again, let's not lose sight that our optionality for the U.S., and that's our home turf, we want to be very involved in the U.S. industry. We're waiting to see when we can. again, enter the market based on NASDAQ allowing us to, and then move forward. So we want to continue to keep our optionality in the U.S. and in Texas. So that's my answer to that, Andrew.
spk07: Thank you very much again for a fulsome answer. Thank you.
spk08: Thank you. Next question comes from Michael Freeman at Raymond James. Please go ahead.
spk02: Hi. Good morning, Mike, Steve, and this is Nancy. Thanks for taking our questions today. So I want to focus on Quebec. This seems to be an area of real outperformance for village farms through Rose, especially over the last six months. So I wonder how you would describe sort of the changes, any changes that have taken place in the Rose business and how village farms has supported the growth of that business in Quebec. Thanks.
spk03: Sure, I mean, look, we haven't done any acquisitions other than Rose in Canada. We look at them all the time, but Rose was one very strategic for us to be in Quebec. Quebec, one of the largest markets, as you know. It's a different approach in that the SQDC in Quebec owns all the retail stores. It's not independent. Quebec is about, you know, very patriotic towards Quebec. So we had to be there in a different way of penetrating the market, and Rose was the selection. So, of course, then it's the Rose team. You know, we really love the Rose team. They are so, you know, brilliant. They've got a great CBG. The leadership there is very solid. And in acquisitions, you know, you have to have a lot of synergies and be on the same page. And, you know, that's been working. Rose has continued to be innovative on their own, but working with Pure Sun Farms, we were able to help support them in the launch of their Promenade brand, which is the third brand we've launched this year, sort of as Canadian cannabis, which is doing very well. And, you know, it's not even been a year. It'll be a year next month. And I think you continue to see great market penetration by them and moving forward. in the Quebec market and they all are also participating in some other provinces as well in conjunction with some of the programs with Pure Sun Farms. The other thing that's very unique is one of their brands is based on all the craft producers in Quebec and that's very important to the government of Quebec to support very small craft growers. I think we have 11 or 12 that we consolidate and market for under the Delce brand, and that's working extremely well. Not big numbers, but it just is another avenue of synergy across the board, and we may roll that out in some other provinces going forward. So that's where we are today. We look at now as Canadian cannabis, and the teams are all working pretty solid as well. Mandish, you want to add some color?
spk05: yeah thanks mike and a great question look the the rose team are experts at commercialization um in the province of quebec and there was many different facets that we uh really enamored with in partnering teaming up making the acquisition of rose and we talked about that earlier in the year that it was going to take some time because every board has a has a product call cycle you just can't immediately implement products. And the Rose team is so adept at understanding customer segmentation, looking at pricing, what the SQDC needs. And with the last call that was happening this year, I mean, we really knew that, you know, summer, fall was going to be really important for the integration of Village Farms Canadian Cannabis to kick off in a very effective way. And the Rose team knocked it out of the park. I mean, metal listings we got, you know, Promenade as a brand fueled by Pure Sun Farms Biomass. So I think now, and you know, this is probably the first full quarter where you're really starting to see the integration of Village Farms Canadian Cannabis taking shape and showing what we can perform and do. And yeah, I'm pleased to hear that you're seeing it as well. And we're really optimistic about it and continuing to work collaboratively with the team to, you know, get more listings, really think about, you know,
spk04: continued domination and market presence in the province of Quebec we're excited okay thank you very much for that answer we look forward to following your growth moving forward all right thank you thank you there are no further questions please proceed I want to thank everyone for joining us today we're very excited about uh
spk03: our direction in cannabis, not only in Canada, but extending out internationally and standing by to see what the legislation changes will be for the U.S. as we gear up for the penetration in the U.S. market in the future. Thanks for joining us today. We look forward to talking to you in the future when we report out year-end. Thank you. Thanks, Operator.
spk08: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect.
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