Fire & Flower Announces Fiscal Third Quarter 2021 Financial and Operational Results

Fire & Flower Holdings Corp., announced its financial and operational results for the fiscal third quarter ended October 30, 2021.

Trevor Fencott, Chief Executive Officer of Fire & Flower commented, “Our progress in the third quarter was not only demonstrated by our continued strong financial performance, but by the many growth opportunities that we successfully advanced in order to solidify our high-margin, asset-light cannabis retail business model. We completed the acquisitions of PotGuide and Wikileaf, the industry’s leading online cannabis platforms, setting the stage for the role out of our expanded e-commerce digtal platform strategy. In addition, we expanded our Circle K co-location program to create additional strategically-located, asset-light stores to complement our existing retail network. Finally, last week, we announced our acquisition of Pineapple Express Delivery, the cannabis industry’s leading logistics provider for the delivery of legal cannabis.”

“With these accomplishments, we are rapidly transforming into a cannabis consumer technology platform which allows us to deliver a seamless customer experience from online customer acquisition through to fulfillment via same-day delivery to customers at our 100+ stores across North America,” concluded Fencott.

Consolidated Financial Highlights

Financial Highlights for the Third Quarter period ended October 30, 2021

• Total revenue of $45.4 million compared to revenue of $33.1 million for the third quarter of 2020, an increase of 37%;
• Total gross profit $15.7 million, or 34.6% of revenue, compared to total gross profit of $11.5 million, or 34.7% of revenues in the third quarter of 2020;
• Sixth consecutive quarter of positive Adjusted EBITDA of $2.1 million compared to positive Adjusted EBITDA of $2.0 million for the third quarter of 2020;
• Total principal amount of debt outstanding at October 30, 2021 was $2.4 million;
• Cash and cash equivalents balances of $16.5 million.

Segment Revenue

Segment Adjusted EBITDA 

Retail

• Retail revenue increased by 27.0% year-over-year to $33.7 million;
• Gross profit increased by 12.7% year-over-year to to $10.2 million;
• Gross profit margin of 30.3% for the thirteen weeks ended October 30, 2021;
• Adjusted EBITDA decreased to $2.0 million from $3.4 million in the same quarter the prior year;
• Adjusted EBITDA margin of 6.0% for the thirteen weeks ended October 30, 2021;
• Same-store sales decreased 27% for fifty-four (54) stores in operation during the comparable period in Q3 2021 due primarily to increased competition as the surge in newly licensed retail cannabis stores continues across Canada (in Ontario, 228 new stores were opened in the period);
• Expanded the Company’s retail network, bringing total stores currently to 102.

Wholesale

• Wholesale revenue increased by 54.8% year-over-year to $7.9 million;
• Gross profit increased by 72.4% year-over-year to $1.7 million;
• Gross profit margin of 21.7% for the thirteen weeks ended October 30, 2021;
• Adjusted EBITDA increased by 86.1% year-over-year to $1.3 million;
• Adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.0 % for the thirteen weeks ended October 30, 2021.

Digital Platform

• Digital platform revenue increased 159.7% year-over-year to $3.8 million;
• Adjusted EBITDA increased to $2.3 milion from $0.7 million in the prior year;
• Adjusted EBITDA margin of 60.6% for the thirteen weeks ended October 30, 2021.

Corporate

• Fire & Flower enhanced its strategic partnership with Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT) through its “Co-Location Program” which will allow the opening of new Fire & Flower cannabis retail stores adjacent to existing Circle K stores in new markets across Canada;
• As part of the Company’s expanded digital strategy and asset-light model, Fire & Flower completed the acquisitions of PotGuide and Wikileaf;
• The Company repaid $2.3 million outstanding prior to maturity under a term loan facility with ATB Financial.

Subsequent Operational Highlights Post October 30, 2021

• The Company announced the acquisition of Pineapple Express Delivery, Canada’s largest delivery and logistics company serving cannabis consumers;
• Spark Perks members grew from 45,000 in Q3 2020 to over 346,000 across Fire & Flower’s entire retail network in Q3 2021;
• Continued toward a Nasdaq listing with a consolidation of Common Shares on the basis of 10 pre-consolidation Common Shares for one post-consolidation Common Share. The Company is targeting early first quarter 2022 for its Nasdaq listing;
• Announced $30 million Secured Debt Facility with strategic partner Alimentation Couche-Tard.

Non-IFRS Measures – Adjusted EBITDA “Adjusted EBITDA” is a Non-IFRS metric used by management that does not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and may not be fully comparable to similar measures by presented by other companies. Management defines the Adjusted EBITDA as the Income (loss) for the period, as reported, before income taxes and other expense (income) items such as finance costs, finance income, gains and losses related to derivative liability revaluations and debt extinguishments, and adjusted for share-based compensation, depreciation and amortization, impairment expense, impairment of right-of-use (“ROU”) assets net of lease liabilities remeasurement, restructuring charges, professional fees associated with acquisitions, financing and strategic initiatives.

Adjusted EBITDA has been calculated differently than in periods prior to Q1 2021, where the Company previously included lease liability cash payments as disclosed in accordance with IFRS 16 “Leases” accounting standards. The updated measure reflects the Company’s new approach to analyzing the consolidated operating performance across the business lines. The Company believes the updated definition is an alternative measure to assess performance as it provides meaningful operating results and facilitates period-to-period operating comparisons. As other companies may calculate this non-IFRS measure differently than the Company, this metric may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. We caution readers that Adjusted EBITDA should not be substituted for determining net income (loss) as an indicator of operating results, or as a substitute for cash flows from operating activities. A reconciliation of net income (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA is presented below.

Adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal third quarter ended October 30, 2021 was $2.1 million compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $2.0 million for the thirteen weeks ended October 31, 2020.

Adjusted EBITDA

About Fire & Flower
Fire & Flower is a leading, technology-powered, adult-use cannabis retailer with more than 100 corporate-owned stores in its network. The Company leverages its wholly-owned technology development subsidiary, Hifyre Inc., to continually advance its proprietary retail operations model while also providing additional independent high-margin revenue streams. Fire & Flower guides consumers through the complex world of cannabis through education-focused, best-in-class retailing while the Hifyre^TM digital and analytics platform empowers retailers to optimize their connections with consumers. The Company’s leadership team combines extensive experience in the technology, cannabis and retail industries. To learn more about Fire & Flower, visit www.fireandflower.com.