Earnings Labs

Canopy Growth Corporation (CGC)

Q2 2018 Earnings Call· Tue, Nov 14, 2017

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. And welcome to Canopy Growth Second Quarter Fiscal 2018 Financial Results Conference Call. Earlier this morning, Canopy Growth issued a news release announcing its financial results for the second quarter fiscal 2018 ended September 30, 2017. This news release will be available on Canopy Growth’s website and filed on SEDAR. On this morning’s call, we have Bruce Linton, Canopy Growth’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Tim Saunders, Canopy Growth’s Chief Financial Officer. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Certain matters discussed in today’s conference call or answers that may be given to questions could constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated. Risk factors that could affect results are detailed in the company’s annual information form and other public filings that are made available on SEDAR. During this conference call, Canopy Growth will refer to supplemental non-GAAP measures weighted average cost per gram, gross margin and adjusted EBITDA. These measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. Weighted average cost per gram, gross margin and adjusted EBITDA are defined in the press release issued earlier today, as well as in this period management’s discussion and analysis document that will be filed on SEDAR. Please note, that all financial information is provided in Canadian dollars unless otherwise specified. Following prepared remarks by Mr. Linton and Mr. Saunders, the company will conduct a question-and-answer session, during which questions will be taken from analysts and investors. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the meeting over to Bruce Linton. Bruce, please go ahead.

Bruce Linton

Analyst

Great. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. So the way I like to approach this quarter is, I am going to leave as often the case much of the details and really all the narrative around the historic numbers to Tim, because it seems that with our company and maybe this sector generally, the subsequent events are greater than the prior period’s total events and our subsequent events, and what we did in the quarter really are to set up where we’re going. So Tim will give a fulsome disclosure on that. What I want to focus on is, what we have done and where we are going, and where we are on track. And so, as you look around our company now, events that I think signal that we are in the right spot and what we are doing is on the right track is, getting the historic first province MOU in place for supply for 2018. And I highlight that, there are a lot of other things I could have hit first, but a big part of what makes a prudential bureaucrat comfortable and -- or for my friends in U.S. a state leader, is certainty and probably two things that they have enjoyed most in dealing with us, I think, is the fact that we have been able to deliver reasonably large quantities of product, have built an inventory capacity and have built and are expanding not just creating the platform. And so when you look at our expansion, we have kind of announced about 2.4 million square feet of indoor and greenhouse growing, much of which is an expansion on either in an existing location or existing practices, and so we could talk bureaucrats through the reasonable certainty that, whether it’s a big greenhouse in British Columbia…

Tim Saunders

Analyst

Thank you, Bruce, and good morning, everybody. To begin my remarks, I’ll briefly touch on the refilling of our annual statements for the year ended March 31, 2017 on SEDAR yesterday and which is also disclosed by way of press release after the close of financial markets. The restatement accounted for firstly the understated value of the 11% interest that we have in AusCann Holdings, as well as the options that we also hold in AusCann. The adjusted fair value increased the investment by $18.3 million and the options by $5.7 million at March 31, and the value was previously carried and its cost base was nil, which was the consideration that we paid for that minority investment. The AusCann investment is considered under IFRS as a category called available for sale, which is a financial asset in an IFRS term. In addition, the options are considered a derivative financial instrument that is measured and re-measured to its fair value at the end of each reporting period. So background to that is prior to February 3, 2017, the AusCann shares didn’t have a quoted market value and the fair value of its equity interests and options in AusCann couldn’t be reliably measured. So the equity interest and the options were carried at the cost amount was nil. In the quarter ended March 31, AusCann completed a capital reorganization became listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. And following the IPO, Canopy gross shares and options in AusCann were escrowed until February 3, 2019. So we’ve gone back to account for it as an asset held for sale under IFRS, which is measuring and re-measuring its fair value at each period end. In addition of matter of housekeeping, we also adjusted for the immaterial non-cash change related to the valuation of biological…

Bruce Linton

Analyst

Great. Thanks, Tim. And I’ll ask to open it up for questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from the line of Jason Zandberg with PI Financial. Your line is open.

Jason Zandberg

Analyst

Good morning, guys.

Bruce Linton

Analyst

Good morning, Jason.

Jason Zandberg

Analyst

I just wanted to, lot to go over here just -- and I don’t want to hog the floor too long. But just -- I wanted to first of all just talk about the upcoming rec market and provincial supply agreement. So, we’ve seen you were successful in New Brunswick with getting a supply agreement there. Just wondering if, in that situation, the province looked upon those that were investing and supplying product from within the province, I am just wondering if that tends to be the same viewpoint from other provinces that you’ve spoken with in terms of having that local supply, given that Canopy, you guys are spread out throughout the country and are well-positioned for that, I was wondering if that is a key negotiating part to dealing with the provinces on rec?

Bruce Linton

Analyst

So I would say it varies by province, probably New Brunswick has been…

Jason Zandberg

Analyst

Yes.

Bruce Linton

Analyst

… the fastest to establish that, I would say similar to many European geographies, this is not actually about marijuana production, it’s about economic outcomes, it’s about job generation and so in that province is a factor. I would say uniform across all the provincial discussions we’re engaged in is making sure you have the product that there is certainty that the product will be available, because they’re signing up to a commitment of you will get me this much and you’ll have some flexibility in format, but it has to be here. And so job creation and embarrassment wouldn’t work, but it is a factor and I would say it’s more of a factor in the smaller provinces. So, I think, will be a helpful checkbox, but it isn’t the first thing we’ll look at.

Jason Zandberg

Analyst

Okay. No. Perfect. As well, do you have an estimate in terms of your capacity at the launch of rec, it’s -- like let’s assume it’s July 2018, do you have an idea what your capacity would be at that point in time?

Bruce Linton

Analyst

We haven’t put it out there, but assume inside the place that for, since day one we’ve run construction review meetings, run these with think of Gantt charts and budgets, and delivery dates, and that we’ve amped up that capability year-on-year, so that now for every site we look at a schedule delivery obligations who is contracted for them and when the first day we expect to have product in for each site that we’re building out. And so because we’ve done enough builds, we’re pretty comfortable that we know how to deliver it on time and the effect of that is that that we can -- we think we can make a very big hit in each of the provinces that are going to commit and I know that’s not a specific thing, but look at the number of sites we built, bringing the first greenhouse on. We acquired a greenhouse in Niagara. I believe it was the 18th of June or 19th of June and we had plans going in on the 11th of August. The site had no fencing, no security and no approvals other than it had been proposed as a site and so I think we have a pretty strong history on both construction and meeting the criteria, and so I would expect with all those numbers of expanded square feet, we have a plan that they are going to be contributing for the 2018 window.

Jason Zandberg

Analyst

Okay. Perfect. And last question, I just wanted to ask you about those gel caps. It seems to be a strong category within the oils component. I know when I was visiting Smith Falls, back in September, it’s a -- it seem like you could -- you couldn’t ship it out fast enough. I just wanted to get some color in terms of what you -- what you’ve seen since launching gel caps and what do you expect going forward?

Bruce Linton

Analyst

Yeah. So gel caps is the a category. I think we are the ones who have launched what I would call is a Softgel cap created in a GMP 1 environment, so you can get it to a different category of dosage and structure and delivery, and definitely strong demand. Part of our capital plan is we expect to see quite a lot more of that. So we’re lined up on how to produce those. Where we see them taking up, I think you know, there’s a question of which clients do you migrate or patients do you migrate versus those detailed today by our physician reps who the first time they buy cannabis it is a gel cap. And so you’ll probably find there is a higher adoption rate as new clients come into a portfolio and probably similar formats for the adult access than when you have already a base of people -- customer buying a certain style of product. But the demand and the margin and it’s like everything, where we’re going is to take the plant as an ingredient and turn it into a finished good, because you move from a cost plus to multiples on margin and that’s our path for every category.

Jason Zandberg

Analyst

Okay. Perfect. I’ll turn the floor over.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from line of Daniel Pearlstein with Eight Capital. Your line is open.

Daniel Pearlstein

Analyst · Eight Capital. Your line is open.

Hey. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Let’s start-off again a little bit more on the provinces. Can you talk about some of the logistics needed to be prepared for next summer, working in coordination with them, with the liquor boards, across multiple different provinces, can you give us a bit of a flavor over what needs to happen between now and being ready?

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Eight Capital. Your line is open.

Yeah. And it’s interesting, Daniel, because, I am going to give you the best answer I can without fully informing others in the sector what they are not doing. But what you’ll find is, these provincial authorities tend to have very specific and structured IT system that are not the same, but well-structured in each of the provinces from their liquor experience. And so whether or not they’re going to warehouse have us drop-ship to specific locations, they can have a combination of fulfillment options, which you need to make sure your IT system can plug into and that your inventory control system can actually reflect to the provincial buyers, what’s in the vault and what they can buy. And so there is no uniform method in the country, other than I would say, you need to have an advanced platform capability and you need to be able to make sure that, if you’ve made allocations within your inventory control system, you actually have the ability to partition or effectively schedule your incoming growth finished products to replace products that get moved to different provinces, so you maintain your obligation of fulfillment. And so it’s a bit more like running a very advanced airport where the initial business we are in is much more about the production-only side and getting it to finished goods and making sure it is shipped to the right person. I would say the off-take process is going to be way more complicated than our current system and you have to thought about that.

Daniel Pearlstein

Analyst · Eight Capital. Your line is open.

Yeah. Okay. That sounds great. Appreciate it. Secondly, can you comment on some of the branding and marketing rules, as well as the suggestions suggested by a group of LPs, I believe it was last week. Can you talk about what was new or what some highlights were or some takeaways and how that may solve some misconceptions in the market about how the LPs will be able to brand and advertise?

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Eight Capital. Your line is open.

Yeah. So I don’t believe we were overly allowed voice many of the LP groups. You are describing where we are in interacting with the regulators over the last year-and-half, two years since change the government is the expectation is that the point-of-sale, there will be a ability to have the name brand on the product, details about the product and contact information on the product. Now that’s the point-of-sales, depending on the province, you will also have things that are advertising tear sheets. So that the customer can make an informed decision and recognize the brand that they want to select and return to if they got what they wanted. And the reason they need to do that is if we all throw in the Ziploc bag, put it behind the counter or may be in somebody’s puffy coat, we’re not too different than the black market. And so, I think, you’re going to find slight regional variances. Some of the provinces we’ve interacted with our way out there and what they like to enable. And I think that this is a first day, first position, but it’s going to give the customer the ability as an adult to be informed before they go in the store, bought a name they like, see that brand, buy that brand, but it’s not going to have 25 color hippy-dippy packaging. It’s not going to be super appealing to kids. It’s going to be informative to an adult. And that I think you’ll find that that’s a pretty good starting point and we’re quite well for the brands we’ve built out and that it will get more open over time as more different products come in.

Daniel Pearlstein

Analyst · Eight Capital. Your line is open.

Okay. Great. Thanks. That’s it for me for now. I appreciate that.

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Eight Capital. Your line is open.

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Martin Landry with GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Martin Landry

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning, Bruce and Tim.

Bruce Linton

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Good morning.

Tim Saunders

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Good morning.

Martin Landry

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

The -- my first question is again on capacity, it would be very helpful if you can help us understand with precise numbers where you are in terms of capacity. I know that you’ve harvested around 4,000 kilos this quarter? And if you could walk us through a little bit how that capacity is going to evolve to the opening of the rec market that that would be super helpful, because there’s a lot of moving parts here that makes us -- makes it hard for us to just really pin down a number?

Bruce Linton

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Tim, do you want to tackle a bit where we had the harvest from and then I’ll explain what -- where we are with the various projects in the different geographies in terms of that the platform we have that’s expanding.

Tim Saunders

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Look, I mean, yeah, principally the harvest in the quarter when the 12 additional grows, the 24 rooms now fully operating at Smiths Falls, that was a big part of it. The Tweed Farms harvest of course what happened after September 30th hadn’t started quite yet, so that was happening in the third quarter, which we’re currently in. But also the Bowmanville also back up and running, remember if you are -- it was in idle mode during a good part of the first quarter, part of the fourth quarter. So between Bowmanville back and running, and 24 grows being harvested, that’s where it all came from.

Bruce Linton

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Right. And what we have Martin is, we began to harvest now as the quarter ended for the first harvest out of our Saskatchewan facility. We have -- during the quarter made the acquisition of the adjacent property in Niagara-on-the-Lake, which has a short fuse towards turning a portion of that building over to a production expansion. And we have a substantially moving through completion 220,000 greenhouse expansion at that site at the back of our current greenhouse. So, those we would expect to see begin to be ready for approval and then product going in, in call it calendar Q1. And as we look east, we’re in demolition and evolution of the site in Fredericton. We have our Québec site awaiting approval. So it’s essentially done and inspectors have been through we kind of open the mail every day, wondering if the approval’s in there, so that’s one at that stage. As we go west beyond Saskatchewan, we’ve gone through the process of designing and electrical upgrades in the works for the Edmonton site and we have a pretty aggressive plan on the British Columbia one, so that it can have assuming we execute properly, plants in early 2018 would be our target for that one. So really what you’re seeing is current platform in Smiths Falls cranking up substantially, the one in the former Mettrum site up and sort of running fully now and expanded and then a whole bunch of stuff that we think falls into Q -- calendar Q4 for the farm, Q1 starts to see stuff with the other sites.

Martin Landry

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Okay. Okay. Any chance you can give us some sort of a range of production that you hope to have once the rec opens up.

Bruce Linton

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Well, I think, the last number the Health Canada, which was quite some time ago had rated us that was about 31,000 kilograms, 32,000 kilograms. And I can’t even say how historic that number might be, but many, many months. So we’re starting with that base. And the intent had been and it’s been stated before that we would expect to be sort of triple that as we get to the start of the second half of next year as sort of a baseline minimum and as you would observe, we’ve historically not been big on making grandiose commitments but just delivering.

Martin Landry

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Okay. Okay. Well, that’s a number to start with so thank you for that. Second question is on the patients at quarter end, we saw a big jump in your patient number in Q4 from Q3, but in Q1 and Q2, it looks like the growth has slowed down a little bit. Is this what you are seeing in the market, are medical patients growth, is the number slowing down a little bit from what we have seen historically?

Bruce Linton

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

I think it’s slowing a little bit, but I also find that through our Mettrum acquisition we ended up with some range of clinics and we had services revenues from those clinics, because we found there were -- there are parties out there who would pay more to get a patient in this window than we think is reasonable in terms of referral fee. So, I think, we’re finding is there are a number of parties out there including ones that really had a heavy load from that and some others that are absolutely doing all they can to put something up on the Board today and they’re engaging in a process that in my opinion, well, frankly just to understand why would you be so aggressive to put a number up unless you just need a financing or something of that nature. So we could have stomped on the gas and probably push another $2 million or $3 million onto the revenue line. But under a model it strikes me is irresponsible versus having an increasing inventory and a reasonable approach to business and so it’s a bit slower, a bit tighter and there’s a bit of irrational effort to get clients out there.

Martin Landry

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Okay.

Bruce Linton

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

In my opinion.

Martin Landry

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Yeah. I am sorry, I may have missed it, but do you have exports during the quarter?

Bruce Linton

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Yeah. We had -- in Germany we had some sales. Frankly the rate at which the German demand has grown has been pretty aggressive. So we’ve sort of reallocated and aligned some product that was for Q3 into these markets and we would expect to push more through. There’s been an ongoing extension of activities in some geographies to try and get our fees done and so that just means that the domestic supply is further out than was anticipated. So we’re just kind of, okay, let’s move a bit more over to there, and I think, you’ll see that in the coming quarters.

Martin Landry

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Okay. And a last question for me, in terms of your sales mix, oil extracts and gel caps were18% of your sales, it was stable or maybe just a little down sequentially, any reason or should we expect that proportion to move up over time, I mean, is that what you anticipate?

Bruce Linton

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Yeah. I think, as a percentage, it was about the same 17%, 18%, but on a much bigger number. And I think, you’re going to keep seeing formats evolve up and the percentage of sales, and I’d be completely shocked if we’re on a call about a year from now, where we’re not talking about the whole sector having a much higher ratio of that sort of finished product and just right cannabis. And at the end of the day, it’s -- if you want to have someone purchase a gel cap, often it helps the physician who they see has been detailed about the product and that there are packaging and branding opportunities around it. And so, there is an initial onset of, oh, my god, there’s something new, I’m going to try it, I’m going to buy it, but the sustained growth really relates to our program and we get that we’ve been running that program now for about two quarters of education on these products.

Martin Landry

Analyst · GMP Securities. Your line is open.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Vahan Ajamian with Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Vahan Ajamian

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning. A couple of questions, first off, in terms of inventory management, how do you allocate your inventory between satisfying your patients today, which I imagine is your top priority but then making sure you have blocks of inventory available come July 2018, will you have to take your foot off the gas a little bit on acquiring new patients for the next six months, seven months to make sure you have those blocks available for the rec market?

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

So, in Q, I think, October very substantial, very satisfied with the grow plan at the farm. So we have, I think, that’s the fourth year, we’ve done a fall, grow and harvest. And each year you get probably twice as good as you were before as far as how you use labor the quality of the plant. So I think you’re going to see a substantial expected inventory coming out of that. I don’t believe we’re going to have to do anything other than kind of what we’re doing, which is acquire patients in a normal business model, which keeps going ahead and then more detailing we do on doctors, the more I think will come our way, because gel caps are not all equivalent. We’ve told the market every medical patient, who is our customer on July 1st will have access to the products that they seek and need. So it’s a priority market. It’s a right thing to do. But it’s also a good business thing to do and so we’re doing that. So we don’t feel any pressure to take our foot off that detailing program. For what we need for the provinces, I have kind of mentioned a couple of times, we have the platform and it’s a pretty predictable construction platform. We are using a lot of the same constructors or methods that we’ve used over the last four years. So we know schedule. I expect that we’re going to be able to deliver really strongly for what the provinces want and seems that they have pretty good expectations of us.

Vahan Ajamian

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Got you. Okay. And question on the Hemp-based inventory write down discontinuing product lines. Can you just give an update on the Hemp business overall, where the outlook is for that?

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Yes. So we have focused -- we bought a couple of different Hemp businesses and put them together. We put them together under a really, I think, capable individual. And what we focused on is, what we think could happen in the legislation, how many hectors of land do we currently control, what products and formats we have and where the margin points. And so what we’ve moved our focus to is, where the margin is or will be, which means you’re not making as many little crunch bars that in my opinion taste delicious, but in the market’s opinion, yield of margin isn’t practical. And so, where we’re moving to are or have moved to, are certain inventories and certain products that have a complicated sales channel, which are filled with other people who like to make simple food products to much more sophisticated and high margin targets. And because what we’re doing is private, in a separate division, we don’t give out all the details, but assume that we have had a pretty thoughtful strategy on Hemp for over a year, we wouldn’t be putting those pieces together.

Vahan Ajamian

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Right.

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

And now it seems to be fully realigned with what we want to do.

Vahan Ajamian

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

And on another kind of unusual item at Creemore, is that up and running now or is it still idle in the process of being rebooted or…

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

It’s up and cleaned up and running. It is a small site. So it doesn’t currently show a material value as far as inventory. But we think it has a strategic fit. It’s sort of a -- when you look at some of the things that we do with some of the other assets, how you work with them is more important than just running in a straight line and so, we continue to look at the small sites as areas in which we could probably create some better value than just running four growers or eight growers in it.

Vahan Ajamian

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Right.

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

But we are we are doing that now. So you can go up to Creemore and take the 15 minutes and have the whole tour.

Vahan Ajamian

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Yeah. Perfect. Thank you. And it looks like some people are reporting that there should be some news coming out from Québec, possibly as early as tomorrow, I mean, any intel you can provide on what the province might do and where it sits currently?

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

So I mentioned that we were -- we’re satisfied that we’ve done everything at the site in order to be eligible for a license, so now we wait for it. As far as predicting provinces, not good politics for us if we’re interacting with provinces and pushing our agenda, we of course think that’s what they should do. They don’t always do exactly what we want. So I wouldn’t want to misstep on that.

Vahan Ajamian

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Got you.

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

I assume I should clarify for others on line that, in order to get what you want, you usually have started about a year and a half early. So when we entered Germany as a big surprise that we were the first to export there, we have been working on that a year and a half and so part of the reason we have a couple of people in government relations and have had for some time is, you need to have a point of interaction. It’s the same reason as we announced having a Chief Marketing Officer coming over instead of staying and maybe doing the same at Molson and building his team here. These things with provinces, brands, they all need soak time and I wish it could be faster, but I find that it’s at least 12 months and often 18 months to get kind of where you want to go.

Vahan Ajamian

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Right. Okay. And you gave some good color on where your production might be come the start of rec sales in July. But I’m just thinking even sort of longer term, given that JV announced in British Columbia about a month or so ago, based on only the projects that have been announced, once they are complete, is there a sense of what your ultimate capacity would be I guess in Canada?

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Yeah. We are -- I think it’s better for you. I don’t want to take the tension off the trade by giving guidance, whether that’s exact numbers of revenue or platform, but we’ve given you square feet and you’ll start to see what comes out of the greenhouse as a harvest once. Some of the things we’re doing in the other greenhouses include, mixing some portions with curtains and lights, and some portions without. So you’ll be able to make an estimate which is obviously intended to be much greater than the amount I put out there. Don’t overlook the fact that Rivers. Our investment vehicle has really been active investing and that that turns into typically one-third of the assets that they go into if they’re producing asset, that stream comes through our store and let the CraftGrow is going to be bigger and bigger, because I think you’re going to find that, there’s two or three companies in the sector that aren’t for sale and that there’s a whole bunch in the mid-pack that it have to be for sale. And that the small guys will be able to operate efficiently as long as they’re an entrepreneurial in the building and they probably won’t want to have a point-of-sale that allows them to upload a lot of the obligations of dealing with the complicated IT, et cetera that you described. And so, I think, the growth platform has multiple threads for us and we like those bets placed early.

Vahan Ajamian

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Excellent. Thank you very much.

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Beacon Securities. Your line is open.

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And your next question comes from the line of Jesse Pytlak with Cormark Securities. Your line is open.

Jesse Pytlak

Analyst · Cormark Securities. Your line is open.

Hey. Good morning, guys. Just kind of coming back to the provincial framework and retail distribution, can you maybe share your thoughts a bit on how you think like the supply contracts might look in some of the different provinces and just kind of our shelf space might be allocated?

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Cormark Securities. Your line is open.

Yeah. I think you’re going to find it varies quite a lot of province to province. But I imagine you have the job of being the, I’ll call it, bureaucratic position of making it happen. You kind of make choices and they are all about risk and downside production. So I think that they’re going to need to have core shelf space covered by one or two parties who can actually supply it and then they’ll cobble together probably at a differential rates not preferential rates, small suppliers into the portions that are available. And the reason they are going to do that at least for the first two years and we’re not all that interested in working with somebody on a one year basis, because I think what’s going to happen is, in the first two years if you structure the deals right, you can probably have a pretty nice structure for selling very simple products. And then you have to recognize that over the next two years, if you’re thinking about running a business for two years, which is kind of we’d like to be here for many years, over the next two years what’s going to happen after adult access happens is the sophistication of the products is going to increase, for sure. And I don’t care if you call it edibles, ingestibles or drinkables. Those are going to be available, [ph] I think, capable (45:41) and I expect the medical market to double again and again, because there are medical outcomes that we achieve. And so on the combination of those items, what I think you’re going to find is that, you can make deals with provinces that cover you off for two years, give them shelf space certainty and that you implement new products over the time that have much higher margins, and that as the provinces want in the third year a better take the product actually has better sharing capabilities. And so, part of the reason I was quite excited to work with Constellation was that, I thought were regulated everywhere in this country by the people who regulate alcohol, not by the people who regulate grocery sales and I think that those parties are going to be quite more comfortable with a liquid structured product than they are with necessarily a gummy bear. And so, all that to say, I think, you have to look at it is layers and waves and probabilities of the evolution of the product and margin and if you’re big enough to help secure the first coverage, you probably have a nice play going forward.

Jesse Pytlak

Analyst · Cormark Securities. Your line is open.

All right. That’s great color. And then just a quick question for Tim, just in terms of the weighted average cost per gram metric, can you kind of maybe talk a bit about the shipping and fulfillment expense, and kind of what are the major components of that number and what could maybe drive quarterly fluctuations and your ability to lower the longer term?

Tim Saunders

Analyst · Cormark Securities. Your line is open.

Yeah. I think probably the biggest part of it is, I think, with the packaging materials that we put in, they are -- if you have seen our boxes like the Leafs By Snoop and DNA Genetics, and well, pretty much all of the brands there, a lot of thought has gone into them in terms of the presentation. If you keep in mind relative to last year Leafs By Snoop was only introduced in October of 2016, so you didn’t see that kind of presentation. So that was one of the biggest things. We have also made improvements as well on the shipping and fulfillment activities themselves, but at the same time, it’s packaging that’s probably driving most of that increase. So in a way it’s -- you could consider it like a marketing expense but is otherwise going to cost of sales.

Jesse Pytlak

Analyst · Cormark Securities. Your line is open.

Okay. That’s it.

Bruce Linton

Analyst · Cormark Securities. Your line is open.

Even if the packaging, it’s kind of more simple in the second half of ‘18, having on people’s shelves and on social media if they wish to share, they are really awesome packaging of today, I think, it’s going to have some very nice residual value.

Tim Saunders

Analyst · Cormark Securities. Your line is open.

With brand affinity and such, yeah.

Jesse Pytlak

Analyst · Cormark Securities. Your line is open.

All right. Thanks guys.

Operator

Operator

I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Bruce Linton for closing remarks.

Bruce Linton

Analyst

Well, thank you, everyone. And I anticipated incorrectly a bunch of questions about a partner we’ve -- a relationship we’ve established. So I guess you all got enough news on that. So we’ll let everyone get to work and thank you for your time.