MONTRÉAL – For its fiscal year ended March 30, 2024, the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) posted total sales of $662.1 million, compared with $601.9 million for the preceding fiscal year. The company reported comprehensive income of $104.1 million versus $94.9 million in fiscal 2022-2023. To this can be added the government revenues generated by its operations in the form of consumer and excise taxes, estimated at $217.3 million, with $157.4 going to Québec and $62.6 million to the federal government. The SQDC’s total contribution to the Québec treasury is therefore $258.8 million.
The $104.1 million in net income and the Québec portion of the excise tax are remitted in full to the Ministère des Finances du Québec and earmarked primarily for cannabis-related prevention efforts and the fight against the effects of psychoactive substances.
For the fiscal year ended March 30, 2024, the SQDC achieved a sales volume of 122,478 kg of cannabis, a 15.0% increase from the preceding fiscal year (106,626 kg in fiscal 2022-2023). The SQDC’s market capture rate thus reached 62.8%1 in fiscal 2023-2024. The company’s sales grew 10% from fiscal 2022-2023, totalling $662.1 million. It should also be noted that fiscal 2023-2024 year had 53 weeks, compared with 52 weeks for the preceding fiscal year.
First year of the deployment of the SQDC Strategic Plan 2024-2026
Highlights of the SQDC’s 2023-2024 fiscal year included marking the first five years of its existence, implementing its second strategic plan and the November 2023 appointment of its new president, Suzanne Bergeron.
Guided by its determination to constantly serve customers better, the SQDC, during this first year of its latest strategic plan, added new categories to its product offer and expanded the coverage area of its 90-minute delivery service, all part of a logical process to improve accessibility. It also worked to increase organizational effectiveness by upgrading structuring systems.
In fiscal 2023-2024, the SQDC had sales totalling $662.1 million, corresponding to 112,478 kg of cannabis sold, compared with $601.9 million and 106,526 kg in fiscal 2022-2023. This growth is partly due to the end of the labour dispute in November 2023 and a return to normal operation in the 24 stores targeted by the strike. It also reflects the efforts made by the SQDC to meet customers’ expectations as part of its mission to migrate cannabis users aged 21 and over to the legal market. At the end of the 2024 calendar year, it was estimated that 62.8%1 of users had migrated to the legal market, corresponding to a 6.8% increase over the 2023 estimate.
Sales by network
The SQDC’s network of 97 stores, the same number as last year, generated sales of $622.1 million ($567.8 million in 2023). In volume terms, store sales totalled 114,804 kg of cannabis (100,254 kg in 2023). For their part, sales made through the SQDC.ca website reached $40.0 million (compared with $24.1 million in 2023), giving a total volume of 7,672 kg (6,272 kg in 2023).
All told, the SQDC completed 16.1 million transactions (13.9 million transactions in fiscal 2022-2023), with prices ranging from $3.21/g to $15.69/g, all products taken together.
Responsibility: a core corporate value
Adhering to its value of responsibility during the fiscal year, the company continued building closer ties with local producers in order to carry Quebec products, which are sought by customers. This year, the SQDC increased its proportion of Quebec-based producer partners to 59% and of its Québec Grown product offer to 46% (the Québec Grown identifier is reserved for products mostly grown in Québec).
The 2023-2024 fiscal year also saw the launch of the company’s Social Responsibility Plan 2024-2026. It should be noted that the SQDC had an excellent CSR record in fiscal 2023-2024, reaching all 13 of the 2024 targets it had set for itself. Especially notable is that nearly 76% of the product packaging sold by the SQDC now meets eco-responsible criteria. The company is also continuing to collaborate with its main value chain stakeholders to coordinate efforts aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the cannabis product packaging and containers sold at the SQDC.
The French-language version of the SQDC Annual Report 2024 is now available on SQDC.ca. The English-language version will be published soon.
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1. This rate is based on an estimate made by the Ministère des Finances du Québec during the fiscal year.
About the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC)
The SQDC is a government corporation mandated to distribute and sell cannabis in Québec with a focus on protecting customers’ health and safety. The company is committed to offering quality products and informing and advising consumers on how to minimize the health impacts of cannabis. The goal is to shrink the illegal cannabis market in Québec. All the SQDC’s profits are remitted to the Fonds de lutte contre les dépendances, a fund managed by the Ministère des Finances du Québec, and earmarked primarily in cannabis-related education, prevention efforts and research. For more information, visit SQDC.ca.
