Cannabis retailer Fire & Flower ends year with CA$89 million loss

Toronto-based cannabis retailer Fire & Flower ended its 2022 fiscal year with a loss of 89.5 million Canadian dollars ($66 million), according to financial and operational results released Tuesday.

The company revised its fiscal year end to Dec. 31, so the 2022 fiscal year included only 48 weeks.

Total revenue declined to CA$156 million in the shortened fiscal year. Last year, Fire & Flower’s revenue was CA$175.5 million.

Fire & Flower’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) was a loss of CA$15 million, compared with a gain of CA$5.1 million in the previous fiscal year.

Adjusted EBITDA also strips out things such as finance income, gains and losses related to derivative liability revaluations as well as debt extinguishments.

The company launched its so-called Get-to-Green initiative earlier in 2022, with goals of:

• Increasing sales and gross profit.
• Reducing selling, general and administrative expenses.
• Generating positive adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.

To that end, the company said it expects to generate annualized selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) and lease savings of approximately CA$6 million this year by cutting overhead and administrative costs, among other things.

“2022 was a turnaround year for Fire & Flower, represented by three consecutive quarters of same store sales and gross margin growth,” CEO Stéphane Trudel said in a statement.

“We look to 2023 as a transformative year where we anticipate achieving positive Adjusted EBITDA during the first half of the fiscal year through a disciplined approach to our core retail business, driving top line revenue, gross profit dollars and reducing our overhead expenses.”

The CEO said Fire & Flower is actively pursuing opportunities for acquisitions “that are fully accretive to our business with the long-term goal of achieving 10% market share.”

By segment, Fire & Flower revenue for the 48-week fiscal year was:

• CA$9.6 million in digital sales.
• CA$115.8 million in retail sales.
• CA$30.7 million from wholesale operations.

Fire & Flower had 92 stores in operation at the end of Dec. 31, a decrease from 102 stores at the end of the previous year.

The company’s shares trade as FAF on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/cannabis-retailer-fire-flower-ends-year-with-ca89-million-loss/