How does Namaste plan to compete with Shoppers?
While Shoppers Drug Mart and CannMart are the only two companies in Canada who hold the very specific type of license we hold (as far as I know), we don’t see Shoppers as direct competition. Yes, there’s an overlap on the B2C medical side, however, there are major differences.
First and foremost, it’s a question of focus. Shoppers doesn’t have a focus on Cannabis and cannabis derivatives. It’s an “add-on” to their platform. In my view, that’s a massive factor when you try and deliver a service to customers. Meanwhile, Namaste has a degree of control and influence over its supply chain, and we are deepening that control. Meaning, while we don’t cultivate, we do process — either in house or via partners who use our processes and our unique formulations. This allows us to be more nimble when addressing customer needs or releasing products with new form factors to the market, which continuously improves our margins. There are quite a few initiatives in the works to improve on this point.
As I noted, Namaste has diversified its revenue streams so the B2C channel of CannMart, where the overlap with Shoppers exists, is no longer our only source of cannabis revenue. We have built our cannabis revenue channels in a way where they complement each other. This is a significant advantage in my view that allows us to not only gather data to fuel decisions but also regulate supply between the channels to maintain consistent supply and optimize sales. This is a point we are still working on as we have experienced fluctuations in supply on the CannMart site, but it is constantly improving.