Aurora Cannabis (ACB) Reports Q1 Revenues of $29.674M, up 260%
Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) reported Q1 EPS revenue of $29.67 million, versus $8.25 million reported last year. Pro-forma Q1 2019 revenue was $35.75 million., including MedReleaf.
Gross margin on cannabis of 70%, up 12% points compared to the first quarter of 2018, and down slightly by 4% points compared to Q4 2018.
"We continue to successfully execute our differentiated and diversified strategy committed towards domestic and international expansion in the medical cannabis market, adult consumer use sales, production scale-up, innovation, plant and medical research, and product development," said Terry Booth, CEO of Aurora. "The commencement of adult consumer use sales in Canada has been very successful for Aurora, with strong performance across all product categories and brands. Our initial roll-out success demonstrates how our high-quality Aurora Standard products and well-positioned brands have resonated strongly with the consumer market and our preparedness for the logistical challenges in effectively bringing our products to market. Given the strong unmet consumer demand evident across Canada, we are confident that our rapidly increasing production capacity will result in continued acceleration of revenue growth."
Mr. Booth added, "We also continue to perform well in our international medical business. With the acquisition of ICC Labs, which we expect to close in the coming weeks, we are establishing leadership in Latin America. In addition to ongoing international growth and expansion led by our team at Aurora Europe, we were also the first non-government organization to export medical cannabis to Poland, a medical market with a population roughly equal to Canada. Across our international activities, we have established significant early mover advantage and market leadership. With the scale-up of our domestic and international production facilities, we anticipate increased availability of product to service these developing markets which will drive further global growth for the Company."
Glen Ibbott, CFO, added, "In Q1 2019, we continued to propel Aurora's growth making critical investments in our corporate, sales, and marketing talent and capabilities. A significant portion of our Q1 2019 marketing spend was in preparation for the adult consumer use market with numerous branding and market awareness initiatives. With more restrictive marketing regulations in effect as of October 17th, we will see a significant reduction in average marketing spend over the remainder of the fiscal year. We also anticipate a reduction in other one-off expenditures, such as the integration costs related to the MedReleaf, CanniMed, and Anandia acquisitions."
Mr. Booth concluded, "As a science, medical and patient focused organization, we are committed to continue serving our patients with the products they require. As we built up inventory levels in anticipation of the adult consumer use market, we prioritized product availability for our over 67,000 existing patients. With production ramping up, we anticipate once again pro-actively driving additional growth in this core medical segment, both domestically and internationally."
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