Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NASDAQ:ACB) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Frederico Gomes: Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Just on your consumer cannabis segment, we have seen a positive market share trend recently or at least stabilization and some gains according to some data providers. So can you talk a little bit about that segment? Is there any chance that you could accelerate market share gains there, especially on edibles. We think we’re seeing a good pickup there. What is it that you’re seeing in that market? Could that surprise for the upside? Thank you.

Miguel Martin: Well, Fred, thank you for the question. So as you recall, we made an acquisition just about a year ago with a company called Thrive that had a wonderful portfolio of products, including a very super premium product line called Gray Beard. And that team, which is really why we went after that asset was wonderfully adepts at navigating the rec market. And the rec market still presents a lot of challenge. We still see price compression, we still see the growth of value flower at pricing that doesn’t make sense. But we do see spots where you can perform and make some money, concentrates, pre rolls and to your point, ingestibles, which we had some considerable success in. So as we look at the landscape, right now we have a little bit less than a three share and it does not appear that if you had a larger share, you would have greater profitability.

So we’re being very, I think, thoughtful in how we look at all of our opportunities in rec. And as opportunities present itself, we’re able to take advantage because of our low cost of production and innovation. I think we’re a little bit of a ways off where there will be strong economics across all aspects of the rec portfolio, but it’s definitely getting better. And we see some glimmers of hope with provincial entities such as the OCS putting in pricing floors and we do see a little bit of the rationalization on pricing, particularly on flower that gives us some hope that in the future you could see more profit opportunities. And with that we’ll definitely take advantage of it because with the genetics and science and innovation that we have implemented in our medical channel that there’s an easy crossover into rec.

Operator: Our next question is from the line of Pablo Zuanic with Zuanic & Associates. Please proceed with your question.

Pablo Zuanic: Good morning. Thanks. Look, regarding the German market, Miguel, it’s a two-part question. What I’m hearing is that, the sources of growth there is mostly coming from the online pharmacy business, right? So the reimbursable business is pretty much flat to down. And even the cash business in brick-and-mortar is flattish. So it’s online pharmacy driving growth. And that could be significant because we know that in terms of patients that’s under penetrated end market. So first of all, is that true? The second question is that the concern I have when I check all the websites of those online pharmacies, they have a significant number of SKUs and they pride themselves in that variety they have there. And if you are a LP shipping a few SKUs, maybe you have a disadvantage. I mean, tell me about that? I know you talked about some new [indiscernible], but if you can stress this assumption. Thank you.