No local sale or lease announcement in Aurora’s financial report

By COLLIN GALLANT on November 11, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

A deal to sell or lease the vacant Aurora Sun cannabis greenhouse in Medicine Hat is likely close, but no cigar, according to sources, in time to make it into the company’s first-quarter financial report.

That report, released Tuesday afternoon, includes general notes that include the sale of one production facility and the sublease of another, by the company that closed a number of greenhouses this year to slash operation costs.

This week the company said it was making good on its plan to reposition as a premium brand supplier and had aligned production to market demand.

Overall it posted a $11.9-million net loss in its most recent quarter, but uncovered millions more in savings from an ongoing restructuring to shrink the loss from $101.4 million in the same quarter last year.

“So overall, there’s a big focus on innovation,” said CEO Miguel Martin. “We get benefit out of it both in our recreational and medical businesses and we see that as a key component of our strategy.”

The Edmonton-based company has so far identified cash savings of $60 million to $80 million, but only executed on $33 million in annualized run-rate cost savings to date.

Chief financial officer Glen Ibbott said on a conference call that about 60% of cash savings found during the business transformation program will be realized through the cost of goods as the company moves toward lower production cost strategies.

The company announced last spring it would halt on completing and licensing the 1.4-million square-foot Aurora Sun facility in Medicine Hat’s north end, which is attached to a 300,000 square-foot processing and warehousing building and sits on 72 acres of land.

It was advertised in March by global real estate firm Colliers as the “Solar Fields” facility with a substantial power hookup and convertible space that could lend itself to ag processing, distribution, manufacturing and even cryptocurrency and data processing.

More recently, officials with the City of Medicine Hat have highlighted potential benefits of a new tenant at the huge facility, which has a major power contract with the city’s power utility.

Sources close to Aurora told the News that facility sales and subleases described in the report likely relate to others closed down by Aurora this year and last.

The company has not confirmed that information.

— with files from The Canadian Press

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