Quebec’s provincial retail monopoly the Société Québécoise du Cannabis announced it closed its past quarter with $1.4M in net profit on $45.1M in sales.
Global News
- Though the SQDC has opened fewer than 20 stores, Quebec consumers spend far more in stores ($39.5M) than they do on the SQDC website ($5.6M).
- The SQDC’s principal spending was on employee salaries.
La Presse—In French
The Ontario Cannabis Store lost $42M in the last fiscal year, which ended the day before the province began its problem-plagued retail rollout. Of that number, at least $10M went to pay for renovations and equipment for stores under the previous Liberal government’s plan to open provincial-monopoly Ontario Cannabis Stores, a project the Ford government abandoned almost immediately.
- The Financial Post broke the $42M loss down in greater detail.
Financial Post - Ontario’s loss is confusing: though it had no physical stores in which to sell product, it also had none of the expenses associated with physical stores. Arguing again for greater transparency of the OCS, Brock business professor Michael J. Armstrong concluded, “just running the place consumed 60% of its regular spending. That’s a lot for a warehouse and a website.” (Quebec only spent 24% on operations while it was running 12 stores, and does not rely on a central warehouse.)
Globe and Mail
Processing of applications for new REC stores in Ontario is frozen for at least two weeks due to the judicial review of 11 disqualified applications, but the wait could be longer.
Twitter—Mikey Cannabis
- Abi Roach, owner of Toronto’s Hotbox Café and Lounge, launched a petition against the Ontario REC lottery, saying “Cannabis is legal now. Why can I not apply for a regular license?”
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