Aurora Cannabis Net Loss Of $1 Billion – Cannabis News, Lifestyle

Aurora Cannabis announced net losses of $1 billion for the third quarter. They will close their Aurora Sky facility in Edmonton and two others in British Columbia.

Aurora says the move is an attempt to make the LP “a leaner, more agile organization.”

Aurora employs 13 percent of its workforce at the Aurora Sky facility. Aurora spokeswoman Kate Hillyar declined to share the number of people. Expect the facility to close by Q3 2023.

The two BC facilities are Aurora Anandia and Whistler Alpha Lakes. Expect both to close by the end of the year.

How did this happen?

Aurora Cannabis is one of Canada’s biggest LPs, so how exactly do they post a $1 billion net loss?

Aurora CEO Miguel Martin told analysts that the company is suffering from excess inventory and stiff competition.

He called the market “irrational” but said: “We expect the recreational market in Canada to correct. When this process is complete, we will have additional opportunities for market share and pricing.”

In other words, we created this speculative market, we’re weathering the storm, and once the market corrects, we’ll be one of the few LPs left supplying cannabis to Canadians.

Aurora Cannabis pulls a hammer time

Aurora Cannabis’ $1 billion loss comes as no surprise. According to an anonymous insider, the company has never sold cannabis. “They only ever sold stocks.”

And nowhere is this more evident than at Aurora Sky, its Edmonton cultivation facility, which is costing the company $7 million per quarter.

In the facility, designed as a sea of ​​green, computers and machines would automate everything. Huge cranes would handle the plants. No human hands were required to touch the cannabis.

But then consumers started buying the products. And they wanted premium brands and were willing to pay for them. Few wanted the mass-produced generic flower Aurora Sky was designed for.

Aurora Sky is the equivalent of MC Hammer’s house. For those too young to remember, MC Hammer was a hip hop artist in the 1980s. Succeeding beyond his wildest dreams, he bought a mansion to live up to his fame. The house made headlines because it was unthinkable to spend $20 million on a house in the 1980s.

But as MC Hammer’s hip-hop style grew in popularity, so did his album sales. And within a few years he filed for bankruptcy. Unable to afford the 40,000 square foot home with Italian marble floors, a bowling alley, a recording studio, two swimming pools, a movie theater, tennis courts, a baseball field and a 17-car garage.

Sounds like a cannabis company we know? One that has hyped its Aurora Sky facility. Even if on the eve of legalization the building was just a concrete foundation?

Booth looks like a bandit

Terry Booth is an Edmonton electrician-turned-pot investor. Booth co-founded Aurora with $2.5 million from his own fortune. Requiring this kind of seed capital shows what a legalization system the Trudeau administration created.

Booth never wore a suit to meetings. He was a blue-collar CEO, or at least that’s the image he’s given. A former employee says: “[A]Being the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, you really feel like something was forced on him.”

Terry Booth resigned from Aurora in early 2020. The previous year had not been good for the company. Aurora laid off a significant portion of its employees, closed several facilities and posted a $1 billion loss in value.

Booth is now CEO of Australis, a Massachusetts-based cannabis investment firm. Like many other LP executives who have cast false (some would even say fraudulent) trust in the Canadian market, he has retired to the US.

Meanwhile, Aurora continues to lose money. “Aurora Cannabis Posts Net Loss of $1 Billion” becomes a typical headline.

The idea is that Aurora can afford to sell at a loss while crafting producers can’t. Over time, only the top LPs remain. This is the legacy of Terry Booth’s Aurora Cannabis and Justin Trudeau’s legalization scam.