Quebec’s provincial cannabis monopoly says adding more stores has helped weed sales rise almost 24 per cent compared to last year.
On Friday, Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) released its first fiscal quarter earnings report, for the 12-week period ended June 19, with sales totalling $136.5 million, up 23.6 per cent from $110.4 million during the same period last year.
That’s from 24,538 kg of cannabis sold in the province’s regulated market.
The “significant” growth, SQDC says in a statement, is largely due to more stores. Since June 2020, SQDC has added 26 more stores for a total of 68.
Read more: SQDC diverts 53% of weed sales away from illicit market, doubles net income
In this quarter, SQDC brought in a net income of $14.8 million, an increase of $ 5.1 million or more than 50 per cent from last year’s Q1.
The majority of sales ($127.2 million) are from the company’s network of stores and the rest ($9.3 million) were online.
Net expenses reached $20.3 million, for a ratio of 14.9 per cent of sales, SQDC says.
The number of transactions climbed to about 2.9 million from last year’s 2 million, a 45 per cent increase.
In Q1, SQDC launched a pilot project for same-day delivery from stores in Quebec City.
“The company is thus continuing its efforts to improve and diversify its home delivery offer, while ensuring the responsible sale of cannabis, in particular by validating the age at the time of receipt of the package,” reads the statement.
Read more: SQDC reports record $23.3M Q3 profit, expands store count
SQDC’s 16-week Q3 results ended Jan. 2 saw sales of $173 million, or about $10.8 million a week. Q1’s weekly average of sales is slightly higher at about $11.4 million.
Rate of transactions in the first quarter was roughly 241,666 a week, a 17.2-per-cent increase from about 206,250 transactions a week in Q3.
The first fiscal quarter’s $14.8 million in profits will be remitted as a dividend to Quebec’s Minister of Finance and reinvested in cannabis prevention and research as well as “in the fight against the harms associated with the use of psychoactive substances,” the statement continues.
The firm adds that a total of $46.1 million from taxes revenues, derived from consumption and excises taxes, will be paid to the government as well, of which $32.9 million goes to Quebec and $13.2 million to the federal government.
In all, SQDC is paying a sum of $60.9 million to governments.
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