Canopy Growth Corporation (NASDAQ:CGC) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Judy Hong: Yes, and to add to David’s point, just on margins, even though revenue was down year-over-year, gross profit dollars were actually up year-over-year. So, I think that continues to show the evidence that we’re really leaning in a profitable growth. And I think even Storz & Bickel, and you’re seeing that profitable growth really come through with gross profits dollar up on a year-over-year basis.

John Zamparo: All right, that’s helpful. Thanks. And then I wanted to follow up on Aaron’s question about profitability plans and cost savings. And I guess you answered it, but just to clarify you, it sounds like you expect both sales growth and additional cost cuts. But do you think you can get to positive EBITDA on a consolidated basis? In the event you don’t achieve the sales growth you want, do you have confidence you can get to the high end of your cost savings plan? And would that require additional actions? If that was the case? Or are those actions already taken? And you’re just waiting for these additional costs through flow to the P&L?

Judy Hong: Yes, look, I mean, John, I’d say our businesses have now a strong foundation for profitability. I think there’s evidence that from a gross margin standpoint, you’re seeing improvement, not just from a cost reduction perspective, but the growth and your mix improvement that’s also driving profitability improvements. And that’s not just in Canada, but you see that in rest of the world and Storz & Bickel businesses as well. It’s a one area is we are a public company costs. So there are costs that are just related to being a public company costs, and we’re actively and then we’ve already identified some of the opportunities and areas of cost savings there. And that will be continued to be an area where we’ll focus on as we really drive towards that profitability targets. But as we said, in our prepared comments, we do believe that we will exit fiscal ’24 with all of our business units in profitable. So, we’re really pleased with the performance so far.

John Zamparo: Okay, understood. Thanks very much. I’ll pass it on.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Question comes from Bill Kirk from Roth MKM. Please go ahead.

Bill Kirk: Hey, thanks for the questions. I want to go back to some that you just said, Judy, just for clarification. So all business units adjusted EBITDA profitable. Does that mean consolidated, profitable or their unallocated expenses, maybe at the corporate level that would make consolidated EBITDA negative even if all business units were EBITDA positive?

Judy Hong: So, Bill, we don’t break out segment information at the adjusted EBITDA level. So all I can say is we are not this year, our goal is to be profitable at the consolidated level. As I said we feel that we are on track to achieve profitability at the business unit level, exiting FY ’24. Does that mean the full quarter is profitable? Does that mean, is it consolidated adjusted EBITDA is profitable, there’s still some areas that we just need to see how that plays out. I would also point out, there’s some lumpiness in some of those corporate costs that sometimes sits on a quarter-over-quarter basis. So those are all the things that they were really focused on mitigating. And I think I would just say, in my view, the performance of the business is very encouraging in terms of the top and bottom line growth. And obviously, we’re focused on generating positive adjusted EBITDA across all of our businesses as we exit fiscal 2024.

Bill Kirk: And, I mean, I think to your point, that’s the best adjusted gross margin since Canadian legalization, I think. And so I guess what was the big surprise when you guided 3Q, or when you talked a couple of months ago, about 3Q, you said you expected gross margins to be — adjusted gross margins to be in the mid20s. So what was new from when you when you had that expectation? I mean, imagine some of the cost saving stuff was notable a few months ago about 3Q. So what’s really new from mid20s to 36?

Judy Hong: So, Q2, I think our gross margin in Canadian business was in the mid-30s, this quarter reported gross margins are 28%.

Bill Kirk: Sorry, when you add 2Q, you guided 3Q gross margins to the mid20s, if I remember correctly, right? So when you were last reported, you said 3Q?

Judy Hong: Yes, so the Canada gross margins were 28%. The consolidated gross margin, which was in the mid-30%, is based on Storz & Bickel margin probably did come in a bit better than we expected, partly driven by obviously, the Venty and then some of the benefits from lower material costs as well. And I’d say even Canadian margin probably came in a bit better than we expected. I think I did call that last quarter where we’d say we had some benefits from opportunistic use of lower cost inputs. We had some of that lingering benefit in Q3, so that helped Q3 gross margin performance in the Canadian business, a little bit better than we anticipated at that point in time as well.

Bill Kirk: I appreciate that. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Matt Bottomley, from Canaccord, please go ahead.