Village Farms (VFF) Reports Q3 Loss of $0.10

Village Farms (NASDAQ: VFF) reported Q3 EPS of ($0.10), versus ($0.04) reported last year. Revenue for the quarter came in at $47.34 million, versus $39.78 million reported last year.

Village Farms' Financial and Corporate Highlights for the Third Quarter Ended September 30, 2019(All comparable figures are for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018)

• Produce sales were US$38.3 million compared with US$39.7 million;
• Net loss before tax of (US$6.5 million) and included the loss from Pure Sunfarms Corp. ("Pure Sunfarms") of (US$0.9 million) (Village Farms' share based on its 50% ownership). This compares with a net loss before tax of (US$2.7 million);
• Loss per share was (US$0.10) compared with loss per share of (US$0.04);
• EBITDA loss was (US$2.4 million), including the positive contribution from Pure Sunfarms of US$5.0 million (C$6.6 million) (Village Farms' 50% share). This compares with an EBITDA loss of (US$2.0 million); and
• Subsequent to quarter end, completed a bought deal offering of 3,059,000 common shares at a price of C$9.40 per share for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of C$28,754,600.

The Company's joint ventures for outdoor hemp production and processing in the U.S. recently completed harvesting of approximately 625 acres of the approximately 870 acres of hemp planted in 2019, achieving an average yield of approximately 1,600 pounds per acre harvested, well in excess of its projections. The Company expects to commence sales of hemp biomass as early as the fourth quarter of 2019.

"We are pleased to report another quarter in which Pure Sunfarms continued to set the standard for performance as a best-in-class cannabis operation, which again drove strong financial performance," said Michael DeGiglio, Chief Executive Officer, Village Farms. "Pure Sunfarms' achieved its fourth consecutive quarter of positive EBITDA, with an industry leading all-in cost of production of C$0.63, gross margin of 69% and EBITDA margin of 56%. In the 12 months since adult-use cannabis was legalized in Canada in October 2018, Pure Sunfarms has already generated C$47 million in EBITDA, an especially impressive number given that its operations were ramping up throughout most of that period."

"Pure Sunfarms is now proving itself as a leading cannabis brand, ranking as the number one selling dried flower brand by a wide margin with the Ontario Cannabis Store in October, and having the overall top selling dried flower product, as well as three of the seven top-selling dried flower product. We look forward to Pure Sunfarms building on this tremendous initial success as it launches its pre-rolled dried products, adds provincial supply agreements, starts its extraction operations online for the roll out of oils and other new product forms under Cannabis 2.0 in the first half of next year, and more than doubles its output, further supporting its low production costs."

"Pure Sunfarms continues to execute very well on what is under its control. Even as one of the largest Canadian adult-use cannabis suppliers by dollars sold, third quarter sales were constrained by the limited physical retail store infrastructure in Canada, as well as the C$7.2 million that could not be recognized. We built Pure Sunfarms, however, for profitability out of the gate, even in a commoditized environment, and it is one of the few and most profitable Canadian cannabis companies. With industry-leading cost production and a brand and products that are clearly resonating with consumers, Pure Sunfarms remains well positioned to continue to be a dominant supplier as the Canadian adult-use cannabis market continues to develop and expand."

"In our U.S. outdoor hemp program, we recently completed harvest of our 2019 crop, highlighted by yields that were well above our projections. We remain on track to begin generating profitable hemp sales as early as the fourth quarter of this year. Importantly, our first growing season has provided significant learnings that will be invaluable going forward. In our greenhouse hemp program, we continue to work with Texas Department of Agriculture on the implementation of its hemp regulatory framework subject to the recently published US Department of Agriculture rules and are optimistic that licensing could commence in the first quarter of 2020. As we did in Canada with Pure Sunfarms, we are building a rock-solid foundation of exceptional growing operations from which to aggressively pursue our objective to launch our own white-labelled and branded CBD products in 2020."

"In our produce business, we continue to make steady progress in the transition of the production displaced for cannabis and hemp production to third-party growing partners, recently adding approximately 120 acres with partners in Mexico and Canada to bring the total to nearly 300 acres. During this period of transition, we will continue to experience some impact on our financial results, more so in some quarters than others, which in the third quarter contributed to a net loss for the produce business of US$5.1 million."

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Village Farms (VFF) click here.

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