Business has been booming at Delta 9
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/05/2020 (1985 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t slowed down Manitoba-based cannabis company Delta 9 at all.
In fact, they’ve actually had to hire dozens of additional staff members to keep up with demand.
Speaking to the Sun earlier this week from Winnipeg, company CEO John Arbuthnot said they’ve hired 76 new staff during the past two months for their retail, production, management and wholesale operations.
“That’s an increase for us in our staffing contingent by about 30 per cent,” Arbuthnot said. “Now that is a mix of temporary, part-time and full-time or longer-term staff positions … but that’s allowed us to continue uninterrupted across all of our operations. I consider us very fortunate to be a business that in spite of the volatile market environment and the global health crisis that we’re encountering, that the company’s operating results are not only strong but that we’re able to be a net job creator.”
Corporate employees at Delta 9 who have largely been working from home are scheduled to start returning to the office on June 1, according to Arbuthnot.
The company also recently released its first-quarter 2020 financial results, which show some promising growth. Delta 9’s first quarter ended March 31, so Arbuthnot said that the financials are likely to show little impact from the pandemic.
Compared to the same quarter last year, Delta 9 had operating revenues of $11.75 million, more than double their 2019 total of $5.63 million.
It’s also an 11 per cent increase from their fourth quarter of 2019.
“It’s not only year-after-year, it’s quarter-after-quarter,” Arbuthnot said about the company’s revenue increases.
“Typically we do expect a downturn in sales in the first quarter as people have run out of money from the holiday shopping season. We saw the opposite here with very strong same-store sales growth across all our stores.”
Arbuthnot said he attributes the strong performance in the first quarter to the company’s diversified revenue strategy.
He added that the retail outlets have seen higher sales of cannabis 2.0 products like vapes and edibles since the pandemic began.
Delta 9 operates four retail cannabis outlets in Manitoba, including one in Brandon. It also grows its own cannabis products as well as providing growing equipment for other companies.
» cslark@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @ColinSlark