Cannabis company Aphria saw its shares collapse in Monday’s trading session after the company had revealed that the coronavirus lockdowns in some parts of Canada and Germany had hurt its sales in the third quarter.
Shares were down about 14% on the news.
Wall Street however also learned that the company is now looking to add consumer products to its brands as it waits for the U.S. to move forward with federal legislation of the drug.
CEO Irwin Simon is looking for additional opportunities to acquire brands in the consumer products space and is hoping to grow beyond just marijuana.
“There’s many opportunities in the U.S. right now with food and drink and other consumer products, and I know about how to build consumer brands and parlay that into cannabis once legalization happens,” Simon said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Monday.
Simon was the founder of consumer products company Hain Celestial Group, which specializes in natural and organic food, beverages and personal care items. He was CEO and chairman of the company for over two decades.
“Not knowing when [cannabis] legalization happens in the U.S., I want to continue to acquire certain businesses like a Sweetwater, like a Manitoba Harvest, that can parlay in the cannabis world once legalization happens with great margins, great growth and great distribution for us,” Simon said.
It was last year that Aphria acquired Sweetwater, an independent craft brewer in the U.S. and also announced its merger plans with another Canadian cannabis company, Tilray. Aphria shareholders are scheduled to vote on the Tilray deal tomorrow.
For the three months ended Feb. 28, Aphria reported a net loss of $361 million Canadian dollars on revenue of $153.6 million Canadian dollars.
“In the U.S., we had a solid first full quarter of contribution from Sweetwater even with lower on-premise sales compared to the prior year quarter as many foodservice industry establishments were still operating with limited capacity,” stated Simon.
