/NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES WIRE SERVICES/
- Achieved 293% year over year increase in quarterly revenues
- Unique visitors grew by 156% and total reviews by 127% in the quarter over the
same period last year
- In February, 2019, the Company launched CannSell with exclusive approval from
the Ontario cannabis regulator as sole approved mandatory training for every
cannabis retail employee in Ontario
TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2019 /CNW/ - Lift & Co. Corp. ("Lift & Co." or the "Company") (TSXV:LIFT) is pleased to report its results of operations for the third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2018 ("Q3"). All amounts are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise specified. Additional details may be found in the MD&A and Financials filed on SEDAR.
Management Commentary
The Company is pleased to report its sixth consecutive quarter of triple-digit revenue growth against prior year, posting revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2018 of $835,050, up 292% from $212,581 during the same period last year. This revenue increase is driven from growth across the Company's platform business of four consumer packaged goods ("CPG")-modelled marketing products.
The third quarter is the Company's first reported quarter following the legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada on October 17, 2018. This is a favourable change in regulation for the Company, which shifted the cannabis industry dynamic to one resembling a new multi-billion-dollar CPG industry. However, unlike mature CPG industries, the cannabis-CPG industry has what management calls a "billion-dollar marketing problem": the inability to market effectively due to restrictive regulations and a lack of marketing-relevant consumer data. The Company's platform is composed of four CPG marketing product lines modelled after a traditional CPG marketing budget:
- Consumer Marketing: Sponsored content and targeted consumer advertising on lift.co
- Trade Marketing: Digital cannabis retail staff training and brand-specific bud-tender training modules
- Data Insights: Marketing-focused data insights and client-commissioned panel studies
- Event Marketing: Sponsorship, booth, and ticket sales
"During the third quarter, Lift & Co. executed on significant steps to expand its platform business model across legalization-ready licensed producers, retailers and consumers," said Matei Olaru, CEO, Lift & Co. "Looking forward we expect continued growth as the addressable market of brands, retailers and consumers continue to scale post-legalization. Our subsequent CannSell Ontario announcement is a monumental win which establishes Lift & Co. as the leader in digital trade marketing. We believe this will provide shareholders with visibility to materially increasing value for many quarters to come."
Q3 2018 Financial Highlights
- Lift & Co. had revenues of $835,050, up 292% from $212,581 for the same period in fiscal year 2018. Specifically, Trade Marketing & Consumer Marketing revenues increased for the fourth straight quarter to $268,534, up 64% from the second fiscal quarter of 2019, and up 390% from the same period in fiscal 2018. With the recent announcement of CannSell Standard and CannSell Expert in the subsequent quarter, Trade and Consumer Marketing are well positioned for future growth.
- The Company had a loss from operations for the three months-ended December 31, 2018 of $2,040,646 compared to a loss of $934,243 for the same period last year. The variance was driven primarily by an increase in headcount and investments in technology to support the Company's accelerating growth in Trade Marketing, Consumer Marketing and Data Insights.
- As at September 30, 2018, the Company had cash on hand of $4,811,306 compared to $1,244,722 as at March 31, 2018.
Q3 2018 Operational Highlights:
- Key KPI Growth: Post-legalization the Company's main website (lift.co) benefitted from a significant increase in traffic, driving growth to a total of 655,812 unique visitors and 78,578 total reviews, up 156% and 127% respectively, compared to the same period last year. Unique visitor numbers underscore the revenue the Company derives from its Consumer Marketing line of business and increases in this KPI should support increasing revenues.
- Strategic Consumer Marketing and Data Insights Product Enhancements: The Company launched several features on lift.co upon legalization on October 17, 2018, which management believes will support Consumer Marketing revenue growth:
- A data-driven product recommendation tool for consumers to assist them in finding regulated products and to increase repeat usage on lift.co;
- Lift & Co. Rewards, the world's first rewards program for federally regulated recreational cannabis, which incentivizes lift.co users to leave comprehensive reviews in exchange for gift cards at major retailers to accelerate review collection; and
- Receipt parsing technology integrated into lift.co product reviews, enabling the Company to combine review data with purchase receipt data to co-relate consumer behavioural data and transactional data in its Data Insights product.
- Brand-Enhancing Assets: The Canadian Cannabis Awards ("CCAs"), hosted on November 29, earned over 48-million media impressions, an increase of 168% over the prior year, and further crystallized the CCAs as a benchmark for licensed producers to market and differentiate their brands.
- Critical Value-Chain Contributor Growth: Lift & Co. added multiple retail clients to the growing portfolio of multi-year Crown and private retailers across five provinces whose employees will be trained by the Company. These cannabis employees are critical in the cannabis value chain and among the most influential in the cannabis purchase decision.1
2019 Strategic Business Initiatives:
- Accelerated Trade Marketing growth: Building off of the recent multi-year mandate from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario to have Lift & Co. – through CannSell – be the sole mandatory training certification in Ontario, the Company will accelerate its revenue growth through the sale of testable brand-specific modules accessible by every CannSell certification holder.
- International expansion: As at the end of 2018, there were over 30 countries that had begun to legalize medical cannabis federally. With a leading platform in Canada designed to address regulatory pain points between consumers, licensed producers and licensed retailers in such a system, the Company announced that it would be launching a beachhead European event in Berlin, Germany in September 2019 and commence a multi-year strategy to ultimately expand its entire platform.
- Transactional data aggregation: Lift & Co. will leverage its complete Ontario cannabis retailer penetration from CannSell to accelerate its collection of transactional data – today done primarily through user-submitted purchase receipts – to further increase the revenue derived from the Company's Data Insights product.
About Lift & Co.
Lift & Co. (TSXV: LIFT) is a publicly traded technology company modernizing the cannabis industry.
Forward-looking statements
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.
There can be no assurance that such forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law, and the Company does not assume any liability for disclosure relating to any other company mentioned herein.
SOURCE Lift & Co. Corp.
Lift & Co., Scott Campbell, Director of Communications, 647-402-4957, [email protected], Investor Relations: Thesis Capital, Prit Singh, 905-510-7636, [email protected]
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