Canada’s province of Quebec has released figures on their first annual cannabis sales, and it is looking very positive. Recent reports have revealed that in their first year of operation, cannabis shops in the province made $71 Million in sales and sold the most cannabis in Canada in terms of volume and Dollar value, however despite this they still posted a $4.9 Million USD loss that will be covered by the provinces government. The provincial Cannabis corporation (SQDC) said in their most recent statement that the revenues that have been generated from the consumption and excise taxes brought in almost $22 Million CAD between June the 12th 2018 and March the 30th 2019.
The first stores in the Quebec recreational network opened on October 17th 2018 the same day that Cannabis was made recreationally legal in Canada however as with many provinces in Canada, the stores had to reduce their opening hours, as Cultivators tried to keep up with the huge surge in demand for their products. By the end of the fiscal year, all cannabis locations in the province were open five out of seven days a week, and now the majority of stores offering cannabis products are open for the full seven.
The SQDC said in a recent report “Despite the supply issues and its scaled-back expansion plan, the SQDC estimates, based on Statistics Canada data, that during its first months of operation, Quebec was the province with the highest sales in Canada in dollars as well as volume.” The SQDC added to the figures saying that net expenses totaled $18.1 Million CAD, which also included non-recurring startup costs of almost $5 million. Without that initial starting cost holding them back, the provincial cannabis corporation would have ended the year breaking even.
Now that the dust has settled since the legalization of recreational cannabis, the SQDC says it expects that this current fiscal year will become highly profitable. In terms of volume sold store sales totaled around $57.6 Million CAD, which equates to a rough estimate of 8 metric tonnes of cannabis. With the average store transaction totaling around $50 there were over 1.3 million total transactions. However online sales accounted for a large portion of the total also with almost $13.8 Million CAD in sales, equating to 1.9 tonnes of cannabis being delivered. Average sales after taxes saw that the average customer spent almost $62.00 CAD which once more foundations are put in place, may become the staple for consumers.
Geoffrey Bishop – AMT Associates
