Organigram Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
July 14, 2023

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning. My name is Rob, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the OrganiGram Holdings Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session.

Operator

We ask you to please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. You may re queue if you have further questions. Thank you. Mac Schwartz, you may begin your conference.

Speaker 1

Good morning and thank you for joining us today. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and a recording will be available on Listeners should be aware that today's call will include estimates and other forward looking information from which the company's actual results could differ. Please review the cautionary language in our press release dated July 13, 2023, on various factors, assumptions and risks that could cause our actual results to differ. Further reference will be made to certain non IFRS measures during this call, including adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow and adjusted gross margin among others. These measures do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS and are intended to provide additional information and as such should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS.

Speaker 1

Our approach to calculating these measures may differ from other issuers, so these measures may not be directly comparable. Please see today's earnings report for more information about these measures. Listeners should also be aware that the company relies on reputable third party providers when Certain statements relating to market share data, unless otherwise indicated, all references to market share data are sourced from HiPhire in I will now introduce Pina Goldenberg, Chief Executive Officer of Oganogram Holdings, Inc. Please go ahead, Ms. Goldberg.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Max, and good morning, everyone. With me are Tim Enberg, our Chief Commercial Officer and Derek West, our Chief Financial Officer. For today's call, we'll discuss the results for the 3 9 months ended May 31, 2023, and a general business update. We will then open the call for questions. In Q3, the team at OrganiGram continued to position the company For sustainable long term success, while navigating the short term challenges present in the industry.

Speaker 2

We were successful in the continued growth of our Canadian recreational business versus last quarter with a 7% increase in net revenue, driven largely by success in Hash and a late rebound in Flower. Year to date, recreational net revenue also increased by $8,000,000 or 10% over the same prior year period, reflecting growth in pre rolls, gummies and hash. Despite this positive momentum, three factors outside of our control contributed to the softening we saw in our Q3 financial results. Lower than expected growth in the flower category for OrganiGram, delayed international shipments and the impact of our patent pending Edison Jolt being removed from the market had the largest impacts on our net sales and gross margin for the quarter. Regarding our flower growth trajectory, I want to first address the issue of THC inflation.

Speaker 2

The increasingly widespread practice by certain licensed producers of inflating the stated THC potency on flower products through selected sampling and testing practices. As Health Canada's regulations prevent dialogue and education around Canada's products, the consumer is left with fewer tools to make educated decisions about which product That suit them. The result is that price and THC content have become their paramount decision drivers when purchasing flower, which has led LPs to race to the bottom on price with many falsely overstating the THC content of their products. Let me be clear, as an industry leader in the nascent cannabis industry, OrganiGram has not nor do we intend to engage in the practice of inflating THC levels on our labels. We firmly believe that we have a responsibility to act ethically and responsibly in our regulated industry.

Speaker 2

We are dedicated to our consumers and believe they have the right to transparency when it comes to our label. And we also believe that it's our responsibility to build an industry that we can be proud of. THC fixing deceives consumers and hurts our credibility as an industry. In the context of today's regulations, This is happening because Health Canada has not yet prescribed specific and rigorous testing standards for cannabis as they have in other categories like Given the strength of our balance sheet, OrganiGram can weather the financial impact of irrational pricing and THC fixing, And as such, we are tackling the issue the right way. First, the THC content of our flower cultivars is trending upwards through recent operational optimizations and the addition of new more potent cultivars.

Speaker 2

2nd, we are working collaboratively Key stakeholders in the industry on several initiatives aimed at bringing solutions regarding standardized testing and sampling. The second event impacting our results in Q3 was our international sales. In Q2, we achieved a banner quarter in sales due to a pipeline of new cultivars. We anticipated that Q3 would return to normal replenishment levels. However, a newly enforced CUMCS testing protocol meant that we were unable to ship product to Israel in the quarter.

Speaker 2

During Q3, we have refined our testing protocols in line with these regulations and have built inventory to meet demand going forward. The 3rd event impacting our results was the stock sale of Health Canada on our high margin patent pending Edison Jolt's product. We remain confident in our categorization of Jolt as an ingestible extract and await the judicial review in late July that will determine whether OrganiGant can resume producing and selling Jolt under the ingestible extract category. We still believe that Joltz is an important product within the Strep category as its format, potency and price point was highly successful in converting illicit market users to legal product. Now I'd like to move on to discuss some of the exciting developments from this quarter and what they mean moving into Q4 and fiscal 2024.

Speaker 2

Our strong balance sheet continues to be an asset in this competitive landscape and has allowed us to make investments in synergistic companies, while maintaining our competitive edge in both consumer centric innovation and production efficiency. In March, we made a US4 $1,000,000 investment The investment provides OrganiGram with access to new industry leading vaporization technology that will be exclusively available with OrganiGram products for a period of 18 months post commercialization. This technology not only solves the clogging and flavor performance issues we see in the legacy vapes in the market, but we anticipate that consumers will experience a noticeable difference in potency. Green Tank enabled vape cartridges are slated to hit the market in Q4 with 2 new SKUs and an additional SKU bending through into 2024. Our investment in Green Tank reaffirms our commitment to accelerating our focus on the vape category by delivering meaningful differentiation to consumer.

Speaker 2

Yet another example of our commitment to innovation is the strategic investment we made in May into Filos Bioscience, an industry leader in seed genetics. Aside from being our first U. S. Investment, This arrangement is exciting from multiple perspectives. First, Filos has delivered cultivars with THC concentrations that are significantly higher than anything else we've seen in the market.

Speaker 2

This makes these cultivars commercially viable for extraction for derivative products containing THCV. Given that it's very difficult to grow cultivars with high concentrations of THCV, it is our belief that we will maintain a Competitive advantage in whole flower derived THC products. Now consumers are excited about THC because like CBD, it is non psychoactive This and acts as an antagonist for some of the qualities associated with THC. For example, THCB is reported to mitigate the appetite stimulation associated with THC, earning it the nickname Diet Weed in the media. Further, it is reported to enhance focus, creativity and confidence.

Speaker 2

We intend to incorporate THCV into various formulations across different formats, starting with gummies, followed by vapes. Our investment in Filos goes beyond THCV. Our technical relationship with Filos will allow us to convert a portion of our garden seed based production as opposed to the clone based propagation we see across the industry today. This is exciting because seed based production is cheaper, Faster and results in more robust, disease resistant and consistent plants across key characteristics such as potency, terpene content and aroma. Clone based production has a foothold in the industry now as it is faster for creating and experimenting with different cultivars.

Speaker 2

However, given its many advantages, we believe that seed based production is the future of cannabis, while phone based experimentation will remain on a smaller scale. We have already begun converting a portion of our garden to seed based production and will increase our seed footprint over time. Our investment in Filos is consistent with our commitment to becoming the most advanced cannabis company in Canada. On the international front, in May, we Germany to our list of export partners for medical cannabis through our supply agreement with Sanity Group. We continue to grow our list of international business partners and are actively pursuing opportunities in this business segment.

Speaker 2

Operationally in Mountain, we have invested in a variety of Efficiency improving and cost cutting CapEx projects that will realize $7,000,000 in annualized savings. We have internalized some of our testing requirements, implemented remediation in house, commissioned rapid drying machines, which decreased drying time, while increasing the available footprint in our Moncton facility for hang dried flower. We automated our shred packaging, which reduced headcount. Our new Cantos pre roll machine is producing tube style pre rolls at scale and our new speed mixer has allowed us to infuse our milk cannabis Further productivity savings of $8,000,000 over the next 12 to 18 months. It's amazing to see how our Moncton facility has developed over the 10 years Organogram has been in operation.

Speaker 2

This quarter, we achieved a company milestone, our 2,500 harvest. Over a decade ago, our first harvest At 13% THC, given our steady approach to growth and our disciplined data driven strategies to optimize micro environments, our 2,500th Harvest tested over 26% THC with over 3% terpene content. Incredibly, we have now cultivated and harvested over 200 different cultivars. At our Hash and Craft Cannabis facility in Lac Couricure, our newly commissioned ultrasonic knife and automatic labeling has allowed us to keep up with the strong demand for our newly launched ShredX Rip Strips, while cutting headcount by over 50%. Further, construction of our craft grow rooms is complete and we expect them to come online this October.

Speaker 2

In Winnipeg, our state of the art edibles production continues to drive impressive results, producing approximately 3,200,000 gummies per month to support our Shred'em's and Monjour brands. Finally, I'd like to provide an update on our research and development activities with B18 at our center of excellence in Moncton. Both the product development collaboration and the OrganiGram commercial business are seeing significant benefits from a scientific development standpoint and in terms of revenue driving commercial capabilities. The in house extraction laboratory has resulted in the imminent commercialization of high potency THCV Extract derived from exclusive whole plant flower. OrganiGram has been able to test And learn about the inclusions of several minor cannabinoids, which has allowed it to expand into more complex minor cannabinoid stacks across several brands in the Winnipeg facility.

Speaker 2

The PDC is in late stage development of the suite of emulsions, novel vapor formulations, flavor innovations and packaging solutions, which are planned to be used alone and in combinations across the OrganiGram portfolio of products. The broad focus of the PDC has been the development of improved cannabinoid delivery, rapid and predictable onset and products that target and satisfy a range of consumer needs. For ingestible innovations, OrganiGram is currently beginning recruitment for clinical studies so that the company can quantify and substantiate the benefit of these innovations. So after 2 years of R and D with the PDC, we are excited to begin commercializing the technologies developed within the center of excellence. And so to recap, we continue to grow our recreational business in Canada and despite the softer net revenue and gross margin in Q3, We feel confident that we are entering Q4 in 2024 with a strong foundation in place that sets us up for long term success.

Speaker 2

We have positioned ourselves to drive further cost out of our facilities. We continue to focus on the consumer with our investments in innovation, And we have a strong balance sheet with responsible stewardship of capital, all geared to delivering shareholder value in the long run. And on that note, I'd like to invite our Chief Commercial Officer, Tim Enberg, to provide his insights on Organigram's market share performance this quarter, New product performance and commentary on trends we are seeing in the market.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Bina, and good morning, everyone. As Bien mentioned, Q3 saw the continued growth of our Canadian recreational business. This increase is a testament to our continued focus on growth here in Canada by bringing innovative and consumer focused products to the market and by executing with excellence at retail. With our overall markets while our overall market share dipped in Q3, We quickly reversed this trend at the midway point in April and regained the number 3 position nationally in May June with solid market share gains and positive momentum on several fronts. We continued to strengthen our market share position in gummies in Q3, Growing 1.2 market share points versus Q2 and reaching the number 2 position nationally in May.

Speaker 3

We also maintained our strong number one position in purecbdgummies, driven by continued success with our Mojo brand, which holds more than half of PureCBD Gummy sales in the country, increasing our share in Q3 to 50.2% from 48.2% in Q2. In Q3, we maintained our leadership position in the HAF segment, achieving a 25% growth versus Q2, which was heavily driven by our truly innovative ShredX rip strips. We increased our overall market share by 2.5 points moving from 19.3 percent to a 22% overall national market share. Our success in Hash and Gummies highlights our strength of identifying right targets for M and A that are complementary to our business and leveraging our expertise in consumer insights, Marketing, sales and operations to deliver maximum value to the business. Our acquisition of both EIC and Laurentian in Quebec have proven to be accretive to our business.

Speaker 3

From a flower standpoint, we are really happy to experience a rebound in Q3 with sequential quarter over quarter growth. While our flower volume remained stable year to date, flower dollar sales were down versus the same period last year due to inflated THC levels in the market, essentially forcing us to reduce our prices to maintain our competitiveness in the marketplace. Given our high market share in flower, any type of price compression or questionable competitive practices do impact our flower business disproportionately. As mentioned previously though, we are actively working on industry wide solution to this issue and at the same time we continue to improve Our THC levels on all of our flower SKUs. It's no surprise that we continue to dominate in the milled flower segment with our phenomenally successful Shred brand.

Speaker 3

In May, we achieved our highest market share since November of 2022 as 53% of the Milk Flower segment. So in other words, one of every 2 Canadians that go into a retail store or buy a milled flower online are purchasing our Shred branded milled product. From a pre roll standpoint, we expanded significantly into the fast growing infused pre roll segment with our ShredX Heavy, which are performing extremely well after initial shipments, helping fuel our growth in this segment. Our heavies clocking in at over 40% THC and are infused with both Tanical Terpenes as well as Diamonds and Distillate. We're going to continue to expand nationally in Q4 and are committed to further disruption into this fast growing category.

Speaker 3

We were very active in Q3 with product launches and we listed and rolled out the highest number of launches for us in any given quarter with 28 new SKUs. Many of these new innovations are performing well above expectations with Holy Mountain Tropical Rain, Shred Dessert Storm and ShredX Rifts Strips Hash, which was launched in late Q2 leading the way. The success of ShredX Rifts Strips is yet another first to market innovation Similar to what we've done with Shred Blends and Edison Jolts, it highlights our continued success in delivering consumer centric innovation and addressing unmet needs of cannabis consumers in Canada. From a provisional perspective, we continue our growth momentum in the 2nd most populated market in Canada, Quebec. And based on the latest we call our data, we increased our market share by 0.7 points in the province, moving from 7.6% share in Q2 to 8.3% share in Q3.

Speaker 3

This was our highest market share ever in the province and we continue to grow hitting the 9% market share mark for the month of May. We grew by 17.6% sequentially and almost 28% versus Q3 of last year. We are very much looking forward to our craft growth Rooms at Lac Sapiti, our facility coming online in October to help meet this growing demand. In Ontario, the largest addressable market, we continue to be one of the top We continue to be one of the top LPs in the marketplace. In May June, we maintained the number 3 market position in the province.

Speaker 3

And we continue to hold the number one market position in Atlantic Canada in Q3 with a whopping 14.8% overall market share. As we look to continue our rebound in flower, we are also focused on growing our foothold in our under indexing categories of regular pre rolls, infused pre rolls and vapes. And we are extremely bullish about our innovation pipeline, including the launch of THCV, A full portfolio of new tube style pre rolls and a new and innovative vape technology, which we expect will offer consumers a differentiated experience. We believe this new line of products will help drive growth across these categories as consumers discover the next big thing in cannabis through OrganiGram's relentless focus on innovation. With that, I will now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Derek West, to review our financial results for the quarter.

Speaker 3

Eric?

Speaker 4

Thanks, Tim. In fiscal Q3, gross revenue decreased 12%, while net revenue decreased 14% compared to Q3 fiscal 2022. The decrease over the previous year was primarily due to market share Fluctuations in recreational flower sales. As Tim mentioned, price compression in combination with THC inflation did have an impact on the quarter. The cost of sales in Q3 fiscal 'twenty three was $32,300,000 compared to $29,400,000 in Q3 fiscal 'twenty two, an increase of 10%.

Speaker 4

The increase in the cost of sales on a year over year basis was due to a $2,800,000 net realizable value adjustment on low potency flowers, repurposed as inputs for OrganiGram's growing derivative business and a $2,800,000 provision for excess and unsalable inventories. We harvested approximately 19,000 kilos of flour during Q3 compared to about 13,000 kilos in Q3 of the prior year, which represents an increase of 46%. During the quarter, We accelerated a change in the operational conditions for plant care to increase THC levels. This resulted in a decrease to plant yields, which had a negative impact to our cost of cultivation, which temporarily reduced the company's gross margins and gross margin rate. We have optimized growing conditions during Q3 and we have now realized higher flower yields commensurate with historical levels during June July, while maintaining increased THC levels.

Speaker 4

These higher yields We'll reduce the cost of cultivation during Q4 and as this flower is sold, we will achieve a higher gross margin rate. Furthermore, we expect to be able to consistently achieve these higher flower yields and lower cost of cultivation through 2024. On an adjusted basis, Q3 gross margin was $6,100,000 or 19 percent of net revenue, compared to $9,300,000 or 24% in Q3 fiscal 2022. The compression in adjusted gross margin was Primarily attributable to lower net revenues and higher flower costs combined with the impact of the lost contribution from the sale of Edison Joltz occurring as a consequence of restrictions imposed by Health Canada. SG and A, Excluding non cash, share based compensation increased to $19,000,000 in Q3 'twenty three from $17,500,000 in Q3 'twenty two.

Speaker 4

The increase in expenses was largely due to higher audit and legal fees and ERP implementation costs. In the quarter, adjusted EBITDA was negative $2,900,000 compared to $583,000 in Q3 'twenty two. The decrease was primarily due to lower net revenues combined with a lower gross margin rate. However, looking at a broader picture, adjusted EBITDA for the 1st 9 months of fiscal 'twenty 3 was $8,300,000 exceeding the $3,500,000 for the full fiscal 2022 fiscal year by 137%. As we dial in on further production efficiency, Consumer trends, resume international shipments to Israel and begin shipments to Germany, we anticipate an improvement in our adjusted EBITDA in Q4.

Speaker 4

International shipments, which for the 1st 9 months of fiscal 'twenty three was $18,300,000 exceeded the $15,400,000 Realized for the full fiscal 2022 year by 19%, and we expect international growth to continue through fiscal 2024. During Q3, as a consequence of the company's market capitalization trading significantly below its shareholders' equity, Combined with the current quarter's operational results, management determined that there were economic indicators of impairment warranting a calculation of the recoverable amount of the assets. This analysis was done on a consolidated basis and also by cash generating units. The impairment test considers several factors, including forecasted operational cash flows, net of the tax impact, Ongoing investments into working capital and sustaining capital expenditures, post tax discount rates, terminal value growth rate And this analysis resulted in the recognition of an impairment loss of $191,000,000 A meaningful contributing factor to the quantum of the impairment charge was related to the impact to flower sales and margins due to THC inflation. When considering the significant sales and margin that Flower product categories, specifically olive dried flower, milk flower, pre rolls, IPRs and international Flower sales collectively contribute to OrganiGram's financial results.

Speaker 4

This was a key driver to the amount of the impairment loss, which was allocated to intangible assets and goodwill in the amount of $38,000,000 $153,000,000 in relation to property, plant and equipment. In the quarter, we had a net loss of $213,000,000 compared to a net loss of $3,000,000 in Q3 'twenty two, This was mainly driven by the $191,000,000 impairment charge. It should be noted that all things remaining equal, This impairment loss recorded on the company's PPE will result in an approximate 5% improvement to the gross margin rate as we move forward. From a statement of cash flows perspective, net cash used in operating activities before working capital change was $5,500,000 in Q3 fiscal 'twenty three compared to $6,400,000 in the prior year period, which is primarily due to favorable changes in working capital, partially offset by lower adjusted EBITDA. Cash used in investment activities in Q3 'twenty three was 3 point $5,000,000 compared to cash provided at $51,700,000 in Q3 'twenty two.

Speaker 4

The net cash outflow for Q3 was primarily from the $8,000,000 related to CapEx at the facilities, combined with $10,000,000 cumulative investment in green tank and filos, Net of redemptions on short term investments. On a year to date basis, the company utilized cash or capital expenditures of $22,000,000 Investments of $10,000,000 $5,000,000 was invested into its net working capital assets. In terms of our balance sheet, On May 31, we had unrestricted cash of $53,000,000 and restricted cash of $22,000,000 for a total of 75,000,000 With very low debt. We believe our capital position is healthy and that there is sufficient liquidity available for the near to medium While the company expects to resume generating positive adjusted EBITDA in Q4 'twenty three, The periods when the company achieves significant increases to sales will result in increases to receivables and this will negatively impact cash from operating activities. The company forecasts a remaining cash CapEx spend of approximately $10,000,000 for fiscal 'twenty three and if completed as planned during This fiscal year, the company expects to generate positive free cash flows by the end of calendar 'twenty three.

Speaker 4

This concludes my comments. I will now turn the call back to Dina.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Derek. As a leading pure play cannabis company, we are constantly evaluating market opportunities, investing in the industry leading R and D, both internally and in partnership with BAT and fine tuning our long term growth strategy to drive down costs and gain market share domestically and internationally. We continue to position OrganiGram to deliver long term shareholder value Through industry leading production facilities, compelling and differentiated consumer product introductions that leverage our highly successful brands and synergistic strategic investments. This vigilant and consistent long term focus combined with our financial discipline are expected to deliver solid results through 2024. Now on a final note on the state of the industry.

Speaker 2

We take no pleasure in saying this, but the majority of Canadian publicly listed LPs are now trading at market capitalizations of less than $50,000,000 and in many cases are carrying material debt balances, stretching payables, are in arrears on paying their excise taxes to Canada Revenue Agency and regulatory fees to Health Canada. Many may not have enough cash to operate as going concerns. We've also seen trading stock market volumes shrink for many of these And the ability to successfully pull off financing diminish. As a result of this, we believe we are going to see the pace of corporate restructurings, including bankruptcies increase. And as this unfolds, we will capture market share that becomes available.

Speaker 2

Our plan is, As it has always been, to remain prudent from a financial management perspective

Speaker 4

and

Speaker 2

to ensure that our actions are aligned with being a respected industry leader. Thank you for joining us today. Operator, you may open the call for questions.

Operator

Your first question comes from the line of Tamy Chen from BMO. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Hi, good morning. Thanks for the question. I wanted to ask about the THC inflation. The phenomenon you're describing, I think it's been happening for Quite some time now just given consumers are very fixated on higher THC. So I'm just wondering why all of a sudden this quarter You're calling it out and it seems to have quite an impact on your flower business.

Speaker 2

Thanks for the question, Tammy. And yes, while it might have been happening for a very long time, it really just increased the it was more widespread in the last year, I would say, really started to unfold. And just to give you some stats on that, we look at, like in the 3rd quarter, Almost 50% of flower sales came from 26 plus THC flower. And the number of SKUs that have THC labeled values above 26% has doubled in the last 10 months. And really, another stat That we look at is the number of SKUs labeled above 30% grew tenfold versus last year.

Speaker 2

So while this might have been out there for longer, The prevalence of this has really shown up in the last year, in the last 10 months. And In particular, and where the impact has really been felt by us has been in the 28 gram flower category, where the number of SKUs above 27% THC has increased fivefold since last July, where historically there's been no product selling on 28 gram at that level. So we look at this data and there is a national retailer out there that does Post data flower sales based on the different THC levels. And we see that there are some licensed producers We were averaging sales of flower in the 21%, 22% range and all of a sudden had step change and now are Going 28% to 32%. This is not something that even the most advanced cultivation techniques can make happen.

Speaker 2

There is something and I think it's the increasing behavior that's really starting to impact the results. And as we said on the call, really we get felt we get the impact disproportionately because of our reliance on whole flower, Especially in the 28 gram. So it started to have its effect. We did have to respond by taking Pricing down so we could address the value equation to consumers because our lower potency and I'd say that Potency at 23% flower should be considered good quality product and yet we had to discount our Pricing to get the movement because they were seeing a lot of product at the 27%, 28%. But then when you test it, it's not really 27% or 28%.

Speaker 2

So it's that substantial impact and the more widespread Of this practice that has been impacting our results. Basically, we started to see the dip in our flower Market share in January, we took actions in our own facility. We accelerated some changes to really get to the higher potency product to get it out there to compete. And it did have a short term impact on Our cost of flour as we made those changes in our facility. But we're doing what we can to move up our potency in a proper way with proper testing.

Speaker 2

And at the same time, we have been talking to key stakeholders. We've been Speaking sending in comments to Health Canada, we've been talking to the Board, And really looking at finding solutions to address this issue because we feel strongly that is not Fair to our consumers, it's deceiving them. And so that's our way of approaching this issue and what we Consider a leadership position. I see. Okay.

Speaker 2

Thank you for

Speaker 5

the added context on that. So it impacted particularly the 28 gram format for you. We also noticed looking at Hi Fire, The top products that are sold every month, I think Shred before would quite dominate the top 5. I think 3 of your products before were in the top 5, but it since dropped out of that. So did this THC phenomenon also impact shred and your milled flower products too?

Speaker 2

Yes. So certainly it impacted all flower and it affected pre rolls, it affected our milk flower. But you could find milled flour out in the marketplace that claims 30% plus. And everybody knows that when you mill flour, you lose tri And that's just not something that could happen. Like that's just not a correct label.

Speaker 2

So there is impact there as well. But I think the other impact to our shred milled flour is that because pricing has come down so significantly on whole flour, The value equation of milled is not as it used to be, as people are getting higher potencies at lower prices on just whole flour. And so to address this on Milled Flour, we started to see again some good momentum as we moved out of the quarter. We started to introduce some new flavors. We brought in a strong Dessert Storm offering, that has received great reviews.

Speaker 2

But on top of that, we started to introduce a 14 gram offering. So, we have historically been in 7 grams. So, We are addressing it, but yes, absolutely, we're seeing it in Millflour. And just one more comment around pre rolls. You're seeing it in pre rolls as well.

Speaker 2

And we had a 3rd party lab go out and had, sorry, 8 different labs testing a sample of pre rolls for their potency. And the 8 labs on average came in at 18.7% potency for those pre rolls And yet the package was labeled at 25.5%. So we are seeing this across formats in flower and pre rolls And it's an issue, and it's why we've highlighted as a big important issue the industry has to deal with. Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Federico Gomez from ATB Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

Hi, good morning. Thank you for Thank you for taking my questions. Still on this KHC inflation topic and this higher KHC trend, I'm curious what is this strategy to better compete with these high efficiency flower pre rolls going forward? Is it just about Adjusting your cultivation, or is there anything else you can do to differentiate your product given that consumers are mostly interested about KT content. And then longer term, what is your view on this sort of KT rates?

Speaker 6

Well, where are we going to end up here as we continue to get flowers with higher and higher KT levels. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Right. Thank you, Fred. And Yes. So there's a lot of things that we're doing and there's sort of short term and then there's longer term. We recognize that going To government and Health Canada, those are the right things to do.

Speaker 2

We need to get standardized testing protocols regulated from Health Canada, but those things take longer term. We have approached the provincial boards And they are exploring the potential of requiring A second certificate of analysis from licensed producers on any flower over a 27% or 28% potency. And they're exploring it and what's interesting about this is that has been put into place in Michigan where they saw similar issues with Elevated potency levels. So this isn't a unique phenomenon in Canada. It happens wherever cannabis is sold and in the legal market.

Speaker 2

So there is an opportunity to force secondary certificates of analysis in the short term that might Cut down on this. But interestingly, yesterday, Health Canada came out with an article came out in which they were saying that they are now going to Start testing, potencies. So they're feeling, the pressure because this is widespread And they're looking at ways to address it as well. So I think from a marketplace, there are some things that could impact short term. For us internally, we are working on new cultivars, introducing new cultivars with higher potency into our garden.

Speaker 2

We are looking at we have started to hang dry some of our flower to drive higher potencies and We are seeing our potency rate in our Garden go up. So this is just as an example, in Q1 of this year, 25% of our flower was above 23%. And in Q3, almost 50% of it is above 23%. So we're making the moves Internally, as well. And while this is going on, our focus really will be on our gummies, our hash, Bringing innovation to the market and really, while we have to make sure we have the right value equation Out there for consumers, we're looking at putting in these cost savings initiatives to drive our costs down to improve our margins.

Speaker 2

So There was a lot of talk about how much capital we were invested in our facility, but we're starting to realize The savings, we've identified the $7,000,000 that will start to flow through our P and L, and we have $8,000,000 more in savings that we expect will come. We're here for the long term, Fred. We're here. We have the balance sheet to live through this short term issue. We're doing the right thing and trying to address it through all stakeholders.

Speaker 2

But at the same time, we're working on getting our costs down so we could Become again improve our margins in this price compressed margin. And sorry, I forgot one last As you know, the Ontario, the OCS has changed their markup model. We expect to see that flow through in the Fall and again that's something that one of the boards is doing to help us address margins in this category. So the boards are involved, The government Health Canada is involved. We're acting we're working with other labs to get this addressed.

Speaker 6

Thank you. And then just about your investment On Sea Based production, can you maybe provide a little bit more color about why have you decided to make this investment At this moment, given that it appears that you are one of the first movers in this regard and when should we expect to see Some impact of that in your financials as well as what are the potential risks that you see in that initiative given that again you are one The first mover is to try to move to a sea based production at scale. So how should we look at those risks? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Right. Thanks for that question. So we're going to be rolling out our seed based production Slowly with a test and learn. We're not obviously going to go out and convert our whole facility. So this is going to be something that rolls out.

Speaker 2

We have Started already in 4 grow rooms. We're excited about this because it is a significantly faster growth. So When you have cloning and propagation, it takes 21 days. And when you cultivate with seeds, it's 0 days, right? Just Put a seed into the pot.

Speaker 2

The flower grows probably in the same amount of time, But in total, you're going from what is like 100 days to like 65 to 80 days. So you're reducing significant number of days in Like in the grow, but that reduces significant amount of labor. And then we One of the things that's really great about working with seed production is that, you don't have Some of the disease that you would get in normal clone production, so something like powdery mildew, you have the every seed is Clean and grows clean. And so you have, more standardized flowers. So the lollipopting and de leafing becomes more So there's a whole bunch of reasons why this is good.

Speaker 2

It's less cost. It will turn our rooms faster. And we're excited about it. Now we're not, as I mentioned, going to change our whole production facility over. There is currently still a need to experiment with new cultivars, Bringing new, because new is always what consumers are looking for.

Speaker 2

So there will always be a portion of our garden that's going to be cloned. You get that faster because it takes a long time to get F1 seeds that are strong and will be able to produce predictable plants. So this is going to be a process. We expect to see some cost savings into next year. Part of the $8,000,000 that I Identified as next year's over the next 12 to 18 months, part of that is coming from the benefits of seed based production.

Speaker 6

Thank you. I'll hop back in queue.

Operator

And your next Question comes from the line of Aaron Grey from Alliance Global Partners. Your line is open.

Speaker 7

Hi, great. Thanks for the question. Just one for me. So just in terms of your commentary at the end, in terms of The restructurings and bankruptcies increasing that you're expecting to come. Can you talk more about the timing that you might expect this Come in to fruition, it's something that a lot of people call for in the industry sometimes, consolidation, obviously more of a shift to people saying that we need shakeout.

Speaker 7

So what do you see kind of giving more of the confidence that we might start to see that now? You talked about some of the payments in arrears, some of the tax So do you think there's going to be more portion of that? Can you just talk about some interesting in the industry to why that market now starts to come to fruition? Thanks.

Speaker 2

Sure. Thanks. So look, we're already seeing it. I think somebody said the stat last year was I think 40% of bankruptcies in Canada last year were cannabis companies. We've seen a handful of companies just in the last 2 months that have announced restructurings.

Speaker 2

So it's happening now. We track how much cash these players have and what their payables look like and we see the stretch payables. This isn't new news. CRA has identified over 70% of LPs out there that are behind on paying their excise taxes. And they actually sent out an article saying they would work on payment plans, but they are starting to put their foot down on people that aren't paying.

Speaker 2

And just think about it this way, if companies aren't paying their excise taxes and are using the money perhaps To drive some retail activity with their brands, like this is again not a level playing field, they're using borrowed money. The runway is going to run out. And so we've heard from CRA, the Health Canada stat just came out in an article last week The people that haven't paid is up 2 25%. Back to your original question, how long do I think this is going to happen or when are these changes going to happen? I think it's going to accelerate over the course of the next 12 months.

Speaker 2

The capital markets are very tight. People can't raise money. And they're just their runway is going to be up, right? And We are just we're there, we're watching it, we're understanding and we're going to go after Listings, where a company who's gone into some form of restructuring is likely not going to continue to Replenish at that level and if we have competitive products, we're using our data, which stores, where are the listings, how do we gain that market share And continue to strengthen our business as this turbulence goes on through our industry. I think your comment is right.

Speaker 2

We need to see Consolidation in the industry, it is way too fragmented. And I think the dynamics in the market will see that happen over the next 12 months.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. Thank you very much

Speaker 7

for the commentary. I'll jump back in the queue.

Operator

And your next Question comes from the line of Andrew Partinot from Stifel. Your line is open.

Speaker 8

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to talk a little bit about Your guidance and as well as the impairment reported, So you had lower international sales this quarter that was just a delay And higher production costs from lower yields among some other things. But these do I seem to be the main causes Of the lower EBITDA. So both of these things are Seems to be quickly reversed and you're guiding for positive EBITDA next quarter.

Speaker 8

There could be a maybe a rather large international shipment in Q4 And I could bring your sales back to levels that we saw in prior quarters in the low $40,000,000 range. So that all suggests a pretty quick rebound, but at the same time, You had $190,000,000 impairment. So just a 2 part question. First is, On the positive EBITDA guidance for next quarter, do you think That could occur including R and D costs? And the second part of the question is just to reconcile The quick rebound and the large impairment that If you could talk a little bit more about that, it could be helpful.

Speaker 2

Okay. Derek, over to you.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Beena. Thanks for your question, Andrew. Okay. I think I'll start first with EBITDA And the turn that we're going to see. There's no question that the current quarters was impacted just where we're heavy in flower and where we did have a significant decrease in our yields as we were modulating Some of the plants signed to the facility to get improved THC.

Speaker 4

This increased our cost of cultivation quite significantly, quite quickly and kind of the cost of the flower that essentially was part of our cost of goods sold this quarter. Now by the Very end of Q3 and the 1st part of Q4, we have returned to prior higher yields And that is the main driver on the overall cost of cultivation and the cost of cultivation is the main driver for our flower margins, which accounts for 70% of our revenues. So that flower will need to push through our P and L. I would say we'll get a part pickup During Q4, on the lower cost of flower that we're starting to harvest now, there will be a bit of a drag still from Some of the higher costs that did occur during Q3, but overall, we will see an improvement to our flower margins. I think that Our international, our B2B sales were lower in Q3 than one would be on a normalized quarter for us.

Speaker 4

And we do Those tend to be higher margin category for us. So we do see a pickup there for Q4. As well, we have other cost initiatives that we have done that Dina spoke to and more automation that allows for throughput. So we do feel that we will be able to further improve our margins and throughput the facility with the automation, Helping us for Q4 to get back to positive. Will it cover the IRD and not?

Speaker 4

I'm not going to provide specific guidance on that if we're getting too exact, but We do believe that we'll get back to a positive EBITDA in Q4 and into fiscal 2024 growing as we move forward. As it relates to the impairment, the consequence of the impairment were really driven by 2 factors. 1, Canada share prices being so low for us and others than as compared to what that means for our market cap compared to our carrying value. So that becomes an indicator where there's a review. Secondly, when you consider that our Q3 operational results are below our internal expectations And those 2 combined together to lead us to require to do a detailed analysis and review.

Speaker 4

As we did this review, we're starting at a lower point than we were when we did this review in the past in the sense that there is with THC inflations and And headwinds in the near term on this that does somewhat impact the modeling as we look out despite optimism and innovation that we do plan To bring to the table, allowing for growth to sales and margins, as well The interest rates have gone up. The risk factor for cannabis companies and for forecasting is higher. So the lack of the discount factor is higher than it would have been in the past. And I think that combined to result in the need to book an impairment this quarter. I would say that the small benefit from doing This adjustment is that the allocation to property, plant and equipment will decrease our depreciation and our cost of goods sold moving forward, And we do expect a 5 point improvement to our margin rate as this is fully flowed through the P and L.

Speaker 4

But based on the economic conditions of the market of the industry, it did take us to do this reviewing And given all factors, it did require us to make this impairment.

Speaker 8

Okay. Thanks for that. And then maybe talking a little bit more about your yield. You talked about changes to your growing condition, which lowered yields, but it increased THC potency. But in the last month of the quarter, the yields rebounded and the CET levels remained strong.

Speaker 8

I'm not sure how much you want to go into details here, but any kind of detail would be helpful Talk about what kind of changes did you make that resulted in a temporary loss of yield? As I would imagine, If you're changing growing conditions in an environment and then keeping those growing conditions stable, Then that yield loss would be permanent.

Speaker 2

Yes. So Andrew, good question. Let me explain that. I think we've talked Earlier calls about the implementation of fractional watering in our facility. And we had done a lot of work in our Plant Science area on the benefits to fractional waterings over the course of the day rather than You know, flooding in an approach to watering the plants.

Speaker 2

We rolled out Watering because we honestly believed it was going to give us higher THC content, but we went Too quickly, we rushed it, we accelerated through, didn't get the right conditions. We saw a drop in our yields, as we We're growing those plants and unfortunately you kind of have to wait 3 months to see the impact of the implementation. As such, we started to adjust our approach to fractional watering. We got it right. We were able to reproduce what we saw in our Plant Science area.

Speaker 2

So we were able to get back to our historical yields yet keep the higher potency that we saw as a result of moving to that practice. So It was a bit of a probably accelerated to get to the higher THC faster and didn't execute as well as we could have. But as we work through these details and optimized it, we've got it working properly now and we're starting to see it. So the THC did come back, The yields did come or the TTS came up and the yields did come back. So, I think that the lesson here was move a little bit slower, But we felt the urgency in the market because our value equation to consumers wasn't working, and we needed to get Faster, higher THC levels into our flower to sell.

Speaker 8

Thanks for that additional color. It's nice to hear that everything is back on track now.

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Ty Bollin from 8 Capital. Your line is open.

Speaker 7

Hey, good morning and thanks for taking my question. Just wondering if you could comment on the price reductions you took in the quarter. These applied pretty broadly across the product portfolio. We're really kind of just concentrated in the 28 gram flower category. And then As an add on to that, do you think there's room to claw some of that pricing back over time as some of your more potent product and new innovations start to hit the market?

Speaker 2

Thanks for the question, Ty. Maybe I'll turn this over to Tim.

Speaker 3

Sure. Thanks for the question, Ty. So we did start looking at price adjustments and primarily on our 28 gram size format. If you look at our overall SKU mix, 60% of our flower volume comes from shreds and 40% comes from whole flower. And really the impact to us was really around the 28 Graham value equation that Bina referenced to.

Speaker 3

So we look to do a price increase on our Big Bag of Buds In early spring. And so that's where we had the biggest impact. In some cases, we took a price decrease of about 20%. So we are retailing at about 142,000,000 originally went down to 119,000,000 and then THC continued to go up, But our value equation was in balance. Our price to THC ratio was off.

Speaker 3

So we had a in order to be more competitive, we had to lower our price even further. So we went down to the floor, for our big bag of buds, about $99 ounce in Ontario and in some other province, it depends on the province. It wasn't across the board, But we did make some changes in certain provinces to ensure that our value equation was balanced. So if we look at the overall market right now, Volume growth is growing in flower. Now your last 6 months versus the previous 6 months, we're seeing volume go up by about 10%.

Speaker 3

We're just seeing sales dollars go down by about 3.5%. So there is price compression in the market and it's likely due to Most competitors or most LPs in the market making adjustments to balance off that value equation or the price to THC ratio. In our case, we've gone as deep as a 20% adjustment, but in some cases, it hasn't been that deep.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. Thanks for that.

Speaker 7

And then, Bina, regarding your continued interest in the U. S. Market, obviously, a couple Key catalyst in play there before year end, including Safe Banking and the Biden admin scheduling review. Are those catalysts Influencing your thinking on how and when to make additional investments in the U. S.

Speaker 7

And to the extent that you're still considering THC assets, how might that sort of investment be

Speaker 2

Right. Good question. So first of all, we do Continue to look at the U. S. Market.

Speaker 2

It's obviously an interesting market for us, but while it remains Not legal federally. We obviously have to protect our TSX and NASDAQ's listings. But we're watching it carefully. I'm not sure Safe Banking makes a big change, but certainly the descheduling is something that we are looking at to understand our opportunities. But at the same time, when you think about what we did with Filos, we dipped our toe into this into the U.

Speaker 2

S. Market with that investment through a convertible loan. We found a way to do that kind of investment and still stay on side with Our listings and so we will continue to look at opportunities. Look, the market is depressed right now. There are assets in the U.

Speaker 2

S. That are depressed as well. And there are opportunities out there. So, we do have the balance sheet. We do have a great strategic investor in BAT And we'll continue to look at ways that we can take advantage of the market conditions, while we focus

Operator

And we have now reached the end of our question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Bina Goldberg for some final closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Well, thank you everybody for joining today. We're really playing the long game here at OrganiGram. We're focusing What is the right thing to do for this industry? We're focusing on innovation and differentiation and getting our costs Lower so we can improve our margins. We feel very confident that we have a winning formula here and we look forward to updating you again on our Q4 results.

Speaker 2

Thank you for joining.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Organigram Q3 2023
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