Organigram CEO speaks out on tobacco partnerships, excise taxes — and why pot companies are still struggling to turn a profit

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Organigram is Canada’s second-largest licensed cannabis producer. CEO Beena Goldenberg spoke to the Star about the company's earnings, her wish list for Ottawa, and partnering with a tobacco company:

Under the leadership of CEO Beena Goldenberg, a veteran of the natural and organic food business, Organigram is taking a more methodical approach to growing its business and, thus far, its business strategy appears to be flowering.in quarterly gross revenue. But Organigram is still struggling against its own business headwinds, including a multimillion-dollar loss in its latest quarter.

Simply put, the pricing in the illicit market is still a lot cheaper than the legal market because of the taxes and regulation attached to selling in the legal market. There are regulations that cap THC in edibles at 10 milligrams per package. You can go to the illicit market and get 100 milligrams, easily. While we have regulations that restrict some things in the legal market, you’re basically keeping consumers in the illicit market.

Why do I think Organigram will make it? We’re now the number two licensed producer in the country and have come with a share point of number one, so we’re a very important player today. We have seen significant growth on our market share in the last year from the sixth-biggest player. And we have a strong balance sheet. We have cash, we don’t have debt, we’re in an enviable position, and we have a strategic partnership with British American Tobacco.

I understand the criticism. I can’t say I ever thought I’d be working with a tobacco company, but I’ve really been impressed with their approach — recognizing where they are today and where they have to get to and approaching it in a very sophisticated way. And I think that’s something the cannabis industry has been missing. We’re not able to make claims because there are a lot of questions around cannabis health products. We don’t have enough research.

We have been expanding our capacity as our business has grown. Some of our peers had way too much capacity for their sales. We’ve been expanding our capacity as our sales have grown. We just recently completed the expansion of our Phase 4C, which added another 30,000 to 35,000 kilograms of flower into our business. We are now just over 80,000. I think we’re just in a different place than several of our competitors.

 

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