Auxly Cannabis Group (OTC:CBWTF) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Monday. Read the complete transcript below.

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The full earnings call is available at https://app.webinar.net/0YwVgEegekG

Summary

Auxly Cannabis Group Inc reported record Q1 2026 financial results with a net revenue of $39.8 million, a 22% year-over-year increase, and adjusted EBITDA of $12.3 million, reflecting a 65% increase year-over-year.

The company's strategic focus includes maintaining market growth through innovation and distribution investments, with plans for $10 to $12 million in capital projects to enhance product quality and capacity.

Auxly Cannabis Group Inc maintained a strong balance sheet with over $42 million in cash and a debt of $45 million, planning significant free cash flow generation in 2026, while exploring strategic acquisitions and share repurchases to enhance shareholder value.

Operational highlights include strong demand for the Back 40 brand, which remains Canada's top cannabis brand, and improvements in manufacturing and procurement processes that supported a gross margin increase to 55%.

Management reiterated confidence in the company's ability to grow above market rates, driven by product quality, consumer trust, and strategic initiatives focused on efficiency and cost control.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Auxly Cannabis Group Inc Q1 2026 Financial Results Conference call. At this time, all lines in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, May 14, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Hugo Alves, CEO. Please go ahead.

Hugo Alves (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer)

Thank you operator Hello, Good morning. I'm Hugo Alves, Auxly's co Founder and Chief Executive Officer. I'd like to welcome all of you to Auxly Cannabis Group Inc's Q1 2026 conference call and webcast. Joining me on the conference call today are Travis Wong, our Chief Financial Officer, and Marc Charbin, our Head of Investor Relations. Today I'll share key takeaways from the quarter and then we'll open the call up to questions from analysts and answer some questions that have come through our Investor Relations inbox over the last few days. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that our remarks may contain forward looking information and actual results could differ materially. Forward looking information is subject to many risks and uncertainties. Certain factors or assumptions applied in the forward looking information can be found in our latest annual information form and management discussion and analysis. These documents are available on our website and sedarplus.ca. More generally, if you have questions once this call is completed, please reach out to our Investor Relations. Our contact information can be found at the end of our earnings press release. Turning to our Financial Results Our Q1 2026 financial results represented seasonal records in net revenue, adjusted EBITDA and cash flow from operations. Net revenue reached 39.8 million, an increase of 22% year over year against a backdrop of industry growth of approximately 2% over the same period. Gross margin on finished cannabis inventory sold increased to 55%, up from 48% in Q1 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was 12.3 million, an increase of 65% year over year and representing an EBITDA margin of 31%. Cash flow from operations before working capital changes reached 11.3 million, an increase of 102% year over year and representing a 92% conversion from adjusted EBITDA. Our 22% net revenue growth is driven by the continued success of Back Forty as Canada's number one cannabis brand by dollars sold, a position Back Forty has held since December of 2024. The seasonally slow first calendar quarter of the year typically results in a sequential decline in net revenue for Auxly of 3 to 6%. In Q1 2026, our sequential decline was less than 1%, just shy of an overall quarterly record. We are seeing strong demand across the board for our flower pre rolls and vapes. Consumers continue to be drawn to the back 40 value proposition of high THC and consistent quality at a competitive price compared to Q1 2025. We are also benefiting from higher incremental volumes across the portfolio and improved pricing in the flower portfolio, which was partially offset by price compression on VAPE products. Our gross margin of 55%, an EBITDA margin of 31% reflect improved manufacturing processes to reduce operating costs, higher cultivation yields, efficiency improvements across the operating footprint, strategic procurement initiatives that further reduce costs and a relatively fixed overhead cost base. We believe these margin improvements are structural and sustainable over the long term. Our improved profitability is translating directly into cash flow. With interest expense down by almost half relative to Q1 2025 and little change to working capital as compared to year end, Auxly ended the quarter with over $42 million in cash and $45 million in debt on the balance sheet. This is the strongest our balance sheet has been in years. Our outlook for 2026 is unchanged from when we reported Q4 25 results just two months ago.

Hugo Alves (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer)

We believe Auxly can continue to grow net revenue above market rates through continued investment in distribution and innovation and increased quality and capacity at Auxly and Edington. We plan to maintain profitability through continued investments in efficiency and rigorous cost control across the organization and we expect the conversion of profitability to cash flow from operations to improve through the reduction of interest, expense and stabilization of working capital investments.

Hugo Alves (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer)

And the continued strong demand for our products gives us the confidence to keep building for the Future through a $10 million to 12 million dollar capital program at Auxly and to increase quality, capacity and efficiency and also give us greater optionality for international sales in the future. As our financial position strengthens, capital allocation is becoming an increasingly important part of how we create long term value. Our trailing twelve month cash flow from operations before working capital will was approximately $44 million and we planned on improving that figure over the next 12 months.

Hugo Alves (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer)

After considering our full CapEx budget of 10 to 12 million, we expect significant free cash flow in 2026. What do we plan to do with that cash? In April we updated the market that our Stalking horse bid for the assets of Irecan, another Canadian lp was not selected as the winning bid and we declined to increase our offer for the assets we weighed the opportunity cost of diverting organizational focus away from a business that is delivering strong organic growth and industry leading profitability and determined that we would rather be patient and disciplined than stretch on a transaction. While we are not the winning bidder for the Irocain assets, we believe cannabis markets will continue to present attractive acquisition opportunities and our shareholders can expect that we will continue evaluating inorganic growth opportunities that can advance our strategy and deliver returns well in excess of our cost of capital. In April we also announced the initiation of a normal course issuer bid allowing Auxly to purchase up to approximately 4.9% of of its issued and outstanding share capital.

Hugo Alves (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer)

With Auxly shares trading at approximately 4.8 times EV to EBITDA on a trailing basis. We believe that our current share price does not reflect the intrinsic value we have built and that repurchasing our own shares can generate a compelling return on capital beyond our NCIB and selective M and A. We will continue investing in the organic growth that is driving our results, whether that's capital projects that support additional capacity and quality, continued innovation, leadership in our core categories, or working capital investments that fuel revenue growth. We are thrilled with the growing demand we are seeing for our high quality products domestically and the progress we're making against our winning at home strategy. We are also seeing strong demand for our products internationally and believe that international channels remain a compelling opportunity for continued growth and profitability over the coming years. And underpinning all of this is our commitment to maintaining a strong balance sheet so we can fund these initiatives from our own cash flow without the need to access equity markets. To conclude, the Auxly team is focused and aligned in our pursuit of quality, innovation and profitability. We are delighted with our Q1 2026 results and seeing continued strong demand for our outstanding products as we head into the summer months. I'd like to thank our teams in Leamington, Charlottetown and Toronto whose commitment, passion and resilience are the driving force behind Auxly's emergence as an industry leader. And we are of course also grateful for the continued support of our shareholders, vendors and partners. We are building to last and the best is yet to come. That concludes our prepared remarks. We are going to take calls from analysts and then we will answer some questions that our investors have sent to us over the last few days. Operator ask that you please open the call for questions.

OPERATOR

Thank you. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star two. One moment please. For your first question Your first question comes from Dan Stonkus from Hayward Securities. Please go ahead.

Ben

Yeah, thanks very much. This is Ben on for Neil here. Congrats on the quarter, guys. Just to kick things off here, you alluded to it in the prepared remarks, but can you give us a bit more color on how the Leamington upgrades are progressing operationally? Any early read throughs yet on the yield or quality quality from the work that's being done so far?

Travis Wong (Chief Financial Officer)

Hi, it's Travis here, cfo, thanks for that question. So first off, I can confirm that we are on track to meet our guidance between 10 and 12 million dollars of CapEx this year. Right now we're in the process of confirming what that will look like. We do know and I can speak to that. The key components will be around our post-harvest environment and improving how we do that post-harvest activity. That will include drying, curing, processing and packaging. I can also confirm that we're looking at how that CapEx can be spent to increase capacity and increase our yields at the facility. And this both will improve quality and COGS we expect going forward.

Ben

Great, thanks for that. And then maybe changing gears to revenue mix. You see that dried flour and pre rolls may have about 69% of net revenue in the quarter, which is up notably from 63% a year ago or from 63% a year ago. Can you provide a bit more detail about what you're seeing as to what's driving this strength and how we should think about this mix for the balance of the year?

Hugo Alves (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer)

Yeah, hi, Ben Siegel. We're, you know, what's driving it is very, very strong demand for our flower products. You know, the back 40 value proposition is resonating with consumers. Consistent high quality, high THC at a great competitive price. And then, you know, so right now to give you an idea of what that means from a flower perspective, three of the top 10 cultivars in Canada, when you look at total cultivar sales are coming out of Oxley, Leamington, Liquid Imagination,, Fire Breath and Chemzilla, like no other producer can boast that. So the flower quality I think is number one. We're producing high quality product consistently and then innovation. Our Backpackers product was the innovation hit of the summer last year. You know, right now the top three SKUs, in Canada total market are a back 40 branded product. It's our liquid imagination 28 gram, fire breath 28 gram. But those two have been the top two SKUs, in market for a while now. The number three SKU is now backpackers, Liquid Imagination, and so you're seeing the pull of innovation in pre rolls. You know, that's using obviously a lot of flour, a lot of flower sales. And now, you know, we're going to continue innovating in pre rolls. We've leaned into the backpacker. We launched with two flavors. We've got four new flavors in the market now that are doing really well. And we plan on releasing another pre roll innovation this summer for our consumers for a different occasion that we think will be very popular as well.

Ben

Perfect. That's great color. And then just one last one for me, looking at margins, 55% gross margin in the quarter is pretty consistent with you were in the back half of last year. Maybe a question for you, Travis, but the last call you flagged that margin starting with five is sort of your internal benchmark. Is that the right way to think about it? As Leamington, as the Leamington work starts to come online and is there anything else that could push that higher through the rest of the year?

Travis Wong (Chief Financial Officer)

So, great question. And I think that the guidance of a margin starting with five continues to be the target we have internally. You know, a lot of the improvements we've made in gross margin are structural, as Hugo alluded in his prepared remarks. These are higher cultivation yields, improved manufacturing processes both at Leamington and Charlottetown,, as well as strategic procurement initiatives that permanently decrease our packaging costs. For example, you know, anything kind of in the kind of mid-50s higher than, you know, in the kind of high-50s that can differ depending on some of the tailwinds we have in the market, what we're seeing in the pricing with our portfolio. But overall, very pleased with that margin performance we had in Q1. That's great color. Thank you. I'll pass the line.

OPERATOR

And there are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back over to Hugo.

Marc Charbin (Head of Investor Relations)

Hi everyone. Marc Charbin here. We'll just take some questions that our investors have sent over the past week. Number one, can Auxly keep pace with the revenue growth for the balance of 2026?

Travis Wong (Chief Financial Officer)

Yes, I think, you know, we are really encouraged by the Q1 results and the demand picture for our products is very strong. As you know, we don't provide strict guidance. However, that being said, we do expect the Canadian cannabis recreational market to grow at approximately 5% and that we think we can do better than that this year. We have a strong innovation pipeline that we expect to be popular with our consumers and we believe back 40 is the best value proposition in the market. And it's becoming increasingly relevant as consumer budgets become more stretched.

Hugo Alves (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer)

Thanks Travis. And that's probably a good segue to the next one, which is how much of your growth is attributable to the Back Forty value proposition versus tighter supply with other Licensed Producers (LPs) allocating product internationally. Yeah, I'll take that one, Travis. I think it's principally the Back Forty value proposition, the incredible quality and value that we consistently deliver to our consumers. It's the strength and success of our product innovation and also the strength of our partnerships and distribution that support our brands in market. So I agree International is taking some supply abroad, but there are also a lot of Licensed Producers (LPs) exiting the market through insolvency or voluntarily, which is taking supply offline. So I think overall we view the supply and pricing dynamics in Canada as stable. But I think the success and growth of our Back Forty brand is driven by quality, consistency and value. Our consumers and customers trust and love the brand and products and we view those dynamics as only getting stronger over time. Thank you. Next, with respect to innovation, can you give us an update on how your recent product launches are performing? Yeah, I'll take that one as well. I think it's a great question. Innovation is a key driver to our growth and I think a core competitive advantage. In our three core categories of flower, pre rolls and bay, we look to take an innovation leap leadership position. And I think the results that we're seeing from each of our recent launches have demonstrated that we really understand our consumers and our customers and that we're able to create great new products that are incremental to our existing portfolio. These innovations are expanding the pie for us, not just reshuffling it. And I think that also plays an important role in protecting our profitability. As we saw recently last year quarter with VAPE price compression, we were able to offset that pressure with the higher price point of our new and innovative Back Forty boosted vapes and also the success of our South Point, branded product which is already a top 20 strain in Ontario. And you know, again, I'll use this opportunity just to shout out the Oxley team for the great continued performance. As I mentioned earlier, in the month of April, all 33 of the top SKUs total market were a Back Forty branded product. Thank you. Any update on international shipments throughout the quarter? Yeah, we continue to make small shipments to test markets, but the revenue is not material. And I would remind our shareholders that our strategy is to win at home. We know our consumers, we know how to innovate, we know how to generate strong cash flows. In Canada, we're going to continue to explore international markets. We think that they provide a good avenue for continued growth and profitability over the long term. And we believe that the factors that have made us successful here in Canada will also apply to those international markets over the long term. Consumers want consistent, high quality products at a great value. We know how to do that exceptionally well. And those competitive advantages, I think, give us the ability to win anywhere in the world that we choose to compete. But we think it's important to be careful to learn by doing as these markets entail new risks and are still very dynamic. Pricing, for example, can change rapidly. So we'll continue to advance our longer term international plans, including enhancing our capabilities at Oxley Leamington. But we are focused on at winning at home. We're not forecasting material international revenue in 2026, but we will continue to make test shipments. And our last question here is, can you provide more details on the IRCAN transaction? Why didn't you raise your bid, Travis?

Travis Wong (Chief Financial Officer)

Sure. Another bidder came into the mix about two days before the auction deadline and did bid more than our original bid. After completing our due diligence, we did revisit our numbers and felt that our original bid was the right price for us. At the same time, we are seeing increasing demand for our branded products. So what's not in the numbers is the opportunity cost of having to divert the time and attention away from the business that is already delivering organic growth. Accordingly, we felt it was better to remain disciplined rather than stretch on this particular transaction.

Hugo Alves (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer)

Okay, so I think that wraps it up. And you know, thank you everyone for joining us today. And if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. Thanks, everyone.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.