/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.