Canadian marijuana producer Aurora Cannabis has laid off 8% of its workforce after the closure of its Polaris facility in Edmonton, Canada.
No actual number has been disclosed of how many employees were impacted by the closure.
The facility at one point had been said to be a “centre of excellence” for Audora Cannabis’ higher-margin cannabis 2.0 products.
The closing of the facility was announced by the company on Tuesday. A company spokesperson initially said the move affects approximately 12 per cent of the company’s global workforce, and later advised Yahoo Finance Canada the figure is roughly eight per cent.
“As we work through the changes, we’ve identified opportunities to move talent within our organization and the impact will be approximately 8% of our global workforce.”
The spokesperson said that distribution of medicinal cannabis will be shifted from Aurora Polaris to nearby Aurora Sky. Manufacturing capacity will be moved to Aurora River in Bradford, Ont.
“We aspire to be a leaner, more agile organization that keeps pace with our competition and is on a path to profitability,” a spokesperson told Yahoo Finance Canada in an emailed statement. “After painstaking review and thorough consideration, we are taking the necessary steps to strengthen our core operations to meet current and future demand.”
Shares of the company have fallen more than 67 per cent from its recent high in February.
According to analysts, it’s not looking so good when you consider Aurora’s cash position, their diminishing market share in Canada, and slow-moving progress in the CBD market in the U.S.
The company laid off more than 1,000 workers in 2020.
“On Aurora’s current operations, there is not much to get excited about. Particularly worrying is its top line trends, largely in Canadian adult-use, but U.S. CBD has also done little to build any sort of conviction,” Jefferies analysts Owen Benntt wrote on September 3rd.
“If we look at its Canadian market share trends, recent performance has been very poor. Further, the company is still losing money — its cash from operations seeing another outflow of $66 million in the most recent quarter.”
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Pablo Zuanic wrote in a Sept. 16 research note that his three-year projections do not assume profitability by that measure.
“With leadership in domestic medical, and status as Canada number one exporter, we think the company’s non-rec franchise could be attractive to those consolidating the industry,” he wrote.
