As of today, Canada’s new cannabis retailing leader is Fire & Flower Holdings (CAN:FAF / US:FFLWF). Fire & Flower has announced that the company now has 46 licensed cannabis stores in operation. This milestone exceeds the previous corporate goal of 45 operational cannabis stores by February 1, 2020.
Fire & Flower’s (nine) newest stores are all located in the province of Alberta, Canada’s cannabis capital.
CEO Trevor Fencott addressed the company’s operational success.
“Achieving this aggressive goal is a testament to our deep retail experience and strong management team. As the cannabis industry continues to face headwinds, Fire & Flower is well positioned to continue to achieve growth and demonstrate leadership in the category.”
Alberta now has well over 350 cannabis stores in total. Ontario, Canada’s largest province has a new licensing framework for cannabis stores. With 20 new store licenses expected per month, Ontario’s cannabis stores could multiply by nearly a factor of ten in 2020 from the current (meager) total of 25.
Then there is Cannabis 2.0.
Phase 2 of cannabis legalization in Canada is now quickly ramping up. New cannabis derivative products available for sale include concentrates, edibles and tinctures. Edibles and concentrates have led cannabis-legal states in terms of sales growth.
- 20% for dried flower
- 33% for cannabis edibles
- 41% for vapes and other concentrate products
[Source: Arcview/BDS Analytics]
In Canada, this is expected to generate 3 million new cannabis consumers for the legal market. This would represent roughly a 50% increase on the current consumer base.
Of equal importance, these cannabis derivative products are much more popular with female consumers. Canadian women are almost twice as likely as men to consume only these value-added products (23% to 14%).
Fire & Flower is currently up 11.83% on the day to CAD$1.04.
Since its November low of CAD$0.75, Fire & Flower is now up 39%. As opportunity opens up in Canadian cannabis retail, investors can’t afford to spend too much time on the sidelines.