Debra Borchardt
Emblem Corp. (EMMBF) reported that its revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2018, increased 41% to $1,277,000 in Q1 2018 from $903,000 in Q1 2017. Gross profits increased 304% to $182,000 compared to a gross loss of $89,000 for the same time period in the previous year. The profits were helped by a higher unrealized gain on changes in fair value of biological assets.
During the first quarter, revenues of dried cannabis flower purchased by registered medical patients and Licensed Producers amounted to $457,000 and $394,000, respectively. The average selling price of dried flower for medical patients was $8.59 per gram versus last year’s $8.41 per gram. Total dried flower sold to licensed producers sold at an average selling price of $5.55 per gram versus last year’s $4.02 per gram.
“Along with record sales and registered patient counts, our first quarter progressed rapidly in all areas as we focused on executing against our multi-year plan,” stated Nick Dean, President & CEO of Emblem Corp. He added, “We’ve been incredibly pleased with the quarter over quarter growth of our patient acquisition efforts as a result of our new seven-person sales team, working in parallel with GrowWise.”
Emblem now has 2,950 registered patients as of March 31 and purchased the remaining 50% of GrowWise Health during the first quarter. It also signed a key supplier agreement to become a medical cannabis supplier to Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. The company also increased its cash balance to $83.8 million after doing a $53.8 million financing.
Since Q1 Ended
Since the quarter ended, Emblem has invested in Fire & Flower Inc. and entered into 3-year preferred supplier agreement. It continues to increase the patient count by adding another 22% to roughly 3,600 patients. It has begun its research on oral sustained release formulations in collaboration with Canntab Therapeutics Limited and started to build its inventory as it prepares for the legalization of adult-use recreational cannabis in Canada.
Management Comments
“Our oils now represent close to one-third of our total patient sales. As we continue to introduce new dose-controlled formats and sizes to the market, we expect this trend will continue upward,” said Dean. “We significantly strengthened our balance sheet and initiated plans to increase our annual capacity 10-fold to 17,000kg to serve the domestic and international medical markets, as well as the pending adult-use recreational markets. Reach and end-user access in these markets was enhanced through channel partners, provincial government applications, and key supplier agreements including Shoppers Drug Mart and Fire & Flower. Commencement of R&D activities for our oral sprays, gel capsules, and sustained release formulations position us to deliver leading dosage precision formats and consistent user-experiences.”
Stock Performance
The stock was lately trading at $1.17 on the OTC Markets down from its 52-week high of $2.21 and C$1.48 on the Toronto Venture Exchange, down from its year high of C$2.28.
