Aurora Cannabis To Close Down Edmonton-Based Facility, Lays Off 8% Of Its Workforce

Aurora Cannabis Inc. ACB ACB is shutting down its Edmonton, Alberta-based facility, Reuters reports.

The Canadian cannabis producer said Tuesday that an adjacent factory called Aurora Sky will take over the medical distribution from the Aurora Polaris facility that is being shut down. In addition, manufacturing will move to the company’s Aurora River factory located in Ontario.

Moreover, the company said that roughly 8% of its global workforce will be affected by the closure of the facility.

“We aspire to be a leaner, more agile organization that keeps pace with our competition and is on a path to profitability,” a spokesperson for the company said in an email statement provided by Reuters.

Over the past turbulent year for the cannabis industry, Aurora has halted operations in several facilities due to the pandemic’s impact, which resulted in laying off more than 1200 employees.

Over the same time, the company has been executing its ‘business transformation plan,’ which included cost efficiency initiatives and efforts to improve its balance sheet.

The company’s CEO, Miguel Martin, told Benzinga earlier this year that Aurora made “tough yet necessary decisions” in order to get the company back on the road to profitability.

Taking into account a plunge in third-quarter sales Aurora reported months ago, in addition to a negative adjusted EBITDA of CA$24 million ($28.3 million), Cantor Fitzgerald’s analyst Pablo Zuanic is not expecting a meaningful rebound in recreational sales in the fourth quarter either.

In his recent note published ahead of the announcement of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings, which was rescheduled to Monday, September 27, the analyst also wondered whether getting out of domestic recreational cannabis would make sense for the company,

Price Action:

Aurora Cannabis’ shares traded 0.33% higher at $6.05 per share during a pre-market session on Wednesday.

Photo: Courtesy of David Clode on Unsplash