Cresco Labs Inc. (CSE: CL) (OTCQX: CRLBF) announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2021, with revenue rising 168% to $178.4 million over last year and an increase of 9.9% sequentially. This beat the Yahoo Finance average analyst estimate for revenues of $170 million. Cresco trimmed its net losses to $24 million from last year’s $35 million for the same time period. The company is sitting in a comfortable cash position with current assets at $381.7 million, including cash and cash equivalents of $255.5 million.
“In Q1, we delivered sequential growth from existing assets, demonstrated our ability to reach and sustain #1 market share positions in two of this industry’s top-five states, and we’re gearing up to repeat that success in more markets this year. We’re accelerating growth through a diverse set of initiatives including several organic expansions and M&A that will benefit the Company in subsequent quarters. In order to execute all of our pending growth initiatives, we invested in the operating platform to support the growth. We laid the groundwork in Q4 and Q1 and now our expertise with integrating new assets and producing operating leverage will kick in,” said Charles Bachtell, Co-Founder and CEO of Cresco Labs. “We’re also pleased to take this opportunity at the outset of the year to make the transition to U.S. GAAP, remove the break-out of certain one-time items, and provide investors with clarity on the transition. This represents another step to prepare Cresco Labs for the future opportunities that await in the U.S. capital markets. On a U.S. GAAP basis, we’re pleased with the growth in Q1 and excited about the steps we’ve taken so far this year to put Cresco Labs on the path to accelerate revenue, profitability, and shareholder value in 2021 and beyond.”
Breaking down the revenue, Cresco noted that its net wholesale revenue was $95.6 million, an increase of 5.7% quarter-over-quarter and 150.8% year-over-year. The retail revenue of $82.8 million from 24 stores, was an increase of 15.2% quarter-over-quarter and 193.2% year-over-year.
Outlook
Cresco is now estimating that its annualized revenue run-rate will be more than $1 billion by the end of 2021. The gross profit margins will be in excess of 50% in the remaining three quarters of 2021. The adjusted EBITDA margin run-rate will be at least 30% by the end of 2021.