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Tilray Brands (TLRY -0.56%)
Q3 2024 Earnings Call
Apr 09, 2024, 8:30 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Thank you for joining today's conference call to discuss Tilray Brands' financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 ended February 29th, 2024. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session for analysts and investment firms conducted via audio. I will now turn the call over to Ms.
Berrin Noorata, Tilray Brands' chief corporate affairs and communications officer. Thank you. You may now begin.
Berrin Noorata -- Chief Corporate Affairs and Communications Officer
Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. By now, you should have access to the earnings press release which is available on the investors section of the Tilray Brands website at tilray.com and has been filed with the SEC and SEDAR. Please note that during today's call, we will be referring to various non-GAAP financial measures that can provide useful information for investors. However, the presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP.
The earnings press release contains a reconciliation of each non-GAAP financial measure to the most comparable measure prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, we will be making numerous forward-looking statements during our remarks and in response to your questions. These statements are based on our current expectations and beliefs and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may prove to be incorrect. Actual results could differ materially from those described in those forward-looking statements.
The text in our earnings press release includes many of the risks and uncertainties associated with such forward-looking statements. Today, we will be hearing from key members of our senior leadership team beginning with Irwin Simon, chairman and chief executive officer, who will provide opening remarks and commentary; followed by Carl Merton, chief financial officer, who will review our quarterly financial results for the third quarter and update our financial guidance for the fiscal year 2024. Also joining us for the question-and-answer segment are Denise Faltischek, strategy officer and head of international; Blaire MacNeil, president of Tilray Canada; and Ty Gilmore, president of our U.S. beer business.
And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Tilray Brands' chairman and CEO, Irwin Simon.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Berrin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. At Tilray Brands, we take great pride in our mission to be the most responsible, trusted, and market-leading cannabis and consumer products company across the globe. Today, with our complementary business units, we believe Tilray Brands is the best-positioned company in the world to take advantage of all the positive regulatory tailwinds happening globally with cannabis legalization and drug policy reform.
In Canada, Tilray continues to lead the cannabis industry with the leading portfolio of adult-use brands and the No.1 market share. In the event the current excise tax regime were to be replaced with a 10% ad warrant tax based on the value of the product sold and not a per gram tax, we expect an annual savings of $80 million. We also expect to benefit from additional cannabis-related regulatory reforms around marketing and THC potencies. I'll take a deeper dive in the Canadian market shortly.
In Germany, Tilray has the leading cannabis market share by revenue for the trailing 12 months, and we believe we are best positioned to capture a large portion of the expected growth in the medical market with both our in-country cultivation facility in Germany and our state-of-the-art facility in Portugal. We also have the ability to ship products from Canada to Germany. In the U.S., Tilray has multiple options and, in particular, is well positioned to benefit from the federal legalization of medical cannabis as a result of rescheduling. Yes, we believe that the rescheduling of cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 in the U.S.
would provide a path for Tilray to sell pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis in the U.S., subject to doctor prescriptions. This is a different strategy from what MSOs are doing today. We believe there's an opportunity to supply medical cannabis products from our existing operations into the U.S. for medical purposes.
Further, in the event of a future federal adult use and medical cannabis legalization in the U.S., we believe Tilray is well positioned to immediately leverage its strong global leadership position, know-how, and strategic strengths across operations, distribution, and brands to sell THC-infused products across its robust distribution network and sales channels in the U.S. Today, Tilray is a clear outlier in the global cannabis industry because we're the only company with global expertise in both adult-use and medical cannabis. Our innovation comes from GMP-certified pharmaceutical-grade medicines to all recreational cannabis formats, including THC-infused beverages, which also parlays into our beverage strategy. We have rigorous cannabis quality control, regulatory affairs, branding, marketing, sales, and distribution.
We also have the No.1 cannabis market share in Canada, the No.1 cannabis market share in Germany as measured by revenue, and we distribute medical cannabis in over 20 countries around the world. Since 2019, we quickly developed a diversified and award-winning portfolio of brands backed by best-in-class operations in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Latin America that supports our goals of becoming a multi-billion-dollar cannabis and consumer products company that addresses the needs of consumers and patients we serve today. As you know, the leadership team at Tilray has the expertise of buying CPG brands and building them into somewhat greater than they were before. Our creative portfolio of beverage brands includes craft beers, spirits, ready-to-drink cocktails, ciders, and nonalcoholic beverages.
We are now the fifth-largest craft brewer in the U.S. with a 4.5% share of the craft beer market. With over 500 beer distributors alone. Tilray is now dominating key regions across the U.S.
with our craft beer brands in the northeast, Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and southeast, along with one of the most awarded bourbon brands with Breckenridge Distillery, which continues to gain market share across whiskey, vodka, and gin products. Our wellness brands include Manitoba Harvest, hemp-based food products, ingredients and snacks; as well as our Happy Flower, our CBD-infused beverages; and our recently relaunched HiBall energy drinks which, in its first month on Amazon, received over $1 million in orders. With the appropriate approvals, we're also looking to introduce hemp-based delta-9- beverages and products with our Happy Flower brand and across other wellness brands in the U.S. And finally, we own and operate a European medical cannabis and pharmaceutical distribution business in Germany, CC Pharma, also known as Tilray Pharma, with a robust footprint reaching 13,000 pharmacies in Germany alone.
With broader medical cannabis use, doctor prescriptions in Germany, we expect there to be tremendous demand for medical cannabis within pharmacies. I can't predict the future, but my belief is there will be a lot of cannabis regulatory changes we've seen with Germany, in Canada, and the U.S., and Tilray is best equipped to reach these underlying opportunities. And we have the assets and the tools to reach our goal for Tilray Brands to deliver industry-leading profitable growth and sustainable long-term shareholder value through a focus on these three fundamentals, maximizing profitable revenue growth through organic growth and strategic acquisitions with strong synergy opportunities, realizing the benefits of optimized asset utilization and cost management to ensure an efficient cost structure across all our business segments, and to strengthen our industry-leading balance sheet and cash position. During Q3, we achieved net revenue of $188 million, representing approximately 30% growth over the previous year.
We grew our revenue across our core business segments. This was achieved by focusing on organic growth of legacy brands and enhancing the performance of our more recent strategic acquisitions. Gross profit was 49.4 million despite impact of the newly acquired craft beverage brands which have a lower margin. Our net loss was 105 million, which only 4.5 million represented loss from operations, and cash used in operating activities was 15.6 million.
Adjusted gross profit was 51.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA was 10.2 million, adjusted net income of 900,000, and adjusted EPS of $0.00. We delivered positive adjusted free cash flow for the quarter. Over the last three quarters, we significantly reduced our convertible debt by 205 million, decreasing our net debt to approximately 175 million, and will work to continue reducing our indebtedness, optimizing our capital structure, and enhancing our financial flexibility.
The net reduction in our convertible debt will decrease our annual interest expense by $9.8 million, which flows directly to adjusted net loss and adjusted free cash flow. Let's now dive deeper into each of our business segments. We grew our global cannabis net revenue by 33% to 63.4 million in Q3 compared to the previous-year quarter, driven by our acquisition of HEXO and Truss as well as our international business and innovation in the Canadian markets. Net Canadian cannabis revenue grew 31% to 49.4 million in Q3 compared to the previous year.
We achieved this growth with the HEXO acquisition despite price compression totaling 3.1 million from the prior-year quarter and a crippling tax structure that has allowed taxes to spike while prices declined by more than 50%. Excise tax increased by 8.2 million and amounted to 21.8 million, or 32% of our gross Canadian cannabis revenue in Q3, compared to 13.6 million, or 26% in the same quarter last year. Recent enforcement efforts by Canada Revenue Agency garnishing LP payments from the provincial boards is already having an impact on our competitors, over 1,000 of whom have negligible market share. The continued enforcement by CRA, we believe, will lead to further and necessary industry consolidation perhaps on a mass level.
Canada continues to be the largest federally legal and commercial adult-use cannabis market in the world, and Tilray Brands maintains that No.1 market share position in the country. We are No.1 in Ontario, No.1 in Quebec, No.1 in British Columbia, which together represents over 60% of the population of Canada. We're also No.1 in cannabis flower, oils, concentrates, and THC beverages; No. 2 in pre-rolls; No.
4 in vapes; and in the top 10 in all other categories, all while operating under rigorous high-quality control standards. Our focus in Canada is on two things: first, growing sales primarily through continuous launches of new product innovation; and second, taking more and more costs out of our businesses. On the latter, a large part of our acquisition strategy for HEXO and Truss involves removing legacy costs and SKU rationalization from these businesses. For HEXO, we originally target $27 million but then increased that to between 30 million and 35 million, of which we've already achieved 27.5 million in savings on an annualized-run-rate basis, of which 15.6 million is realized cost savings during the period.
Our HEXO integration plan includes streamlining our Canadian operations, improving utilization of our core facilities, improving margins, and maximizing cash opportunities by pursuing divestitures and consolidating facilities. We plan to close the Cayuga facility and move its cannabis cultivation to our existing Canadian production lines; sell our Masson facility in Quebec, which is currently cultivating cucumbers as a vegetable operator; and sell the Belleville facility and move our manufacturing to our London facility for our beverages. We expect this plan to result in one-time $70 million to $85 million of Canadian cash flow inflow opportunity and accretive to margins and net income by $5 million to $7 million on an annual basis. From a regulatory standpoint, the expert panel appointed by the federal government clearly highlights three areas of focus which Tilray would benefit from once implemented.
First, excise tax reduction, which I've talked about, both in adult recreation and medical, would benefit Tilray $80 million. Secondly, there is a proposed opportunity for pharmacies to carry CBD and medical cannabis for medical patients, which would move plant-based medicines into the mainstream as an options for patients to treat ailments. And finally, enforcement against illicit websites, dispensaries that don't contribute to excise tax and put youth at risk through unregulated product channels available easily online with e-transfer and Canadian Post mail. We think Canada Post and the Canadian banking system are responsible for shutting down access to these unlawful establishments.
Turning to international cannabis. We grew net revenue organically by 44% year over year to $14 million, and we remain the No. 1 market leader in medical cannabis across Europe with a leading market share in Germany and Poland. Tilray's international growth has also been driven by increased sales in our existing markets such as Portugal, Italy, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand.
The new German medical market opportunity is projected to be approximately 3 billion in the medium term, while the European opportunity could represent a potential $45 billion medical market alone in the long term. Our presence in Europe allows Tilray to grow our global brand portfolio to a base of over 700 million people in Europe, which is twice the population of the U.S. While much of the media attention related to the new cannabis reform in Germany has been centered around cultivation for personal use and the establishment of cannabis social clubs, the new opportunities for Tilray flow mostly from the removal of medical cannabis from the Narcotics Act. This schedule change is expected to significantly expand the medical cannabis market in Germany as it would allow for more doctors to prescribe medical cannabis more easily to patients and potentially allow for broader health insurance coverage.
We will therefore be increasing our educational efforts to bring more and more health professionals on board with medical cannabis as therapeutic options. We estimate that less than 0.4% of the population in Germany are presently buying medical cannabis, compared with 4% in states like Pennsylvania. In Germany, we also stand to benefit from the abolishment of the tender process for in-country cultivation of medicinal cannabis, which is being replaced with a licensing scheme. We are currently one of the only three in-country cultivation facilities in Germany today, and these legislative changes would allow us to better meet patients' need by expanding our medical cannabis product offerings.
This would, in turn, significantly increase our cannabis production in Germany by five times more than double our revenue opportunities. Tilray opportunities in U.S. cannabis remains strong. Over the past several years, our playbook of expanding our business beyond cannabis to adjacencies and complementary markets has positioned Tilray well for the current environment as well for future growth opportunities.
While we currently do not engage in any U.S. cannabis operations because of federal regulations, we're well positioned to participate and win in a federally legalized market when that changes either rescheduling or medical cannabis or the passage of federal cannabis legalization given our deep knowledge, global expertise in medical and adult-use cannabis, and the regulatory compliance at play. Tilray's playbook in the U.S. is to build and deliver iconic sought-off brands in the beverage alcohol and the CPG, backed by product excellence and innovation; educate consumers about our brands and our stringent quality standards to encourage trial and foster loyalty; and last but not least, to drive and scale and distribute to get our brands into consumer hands to grow our market share.
Moving to our beverage segment, which is quickly approaching approximately 300 million annualized. As mentioned earlier, Tilray Brands is now the fifth-largest craft brewer in the U.S. with a 4.5% craft beer market share, and we aspire to be a top 12 beverage company in the U.S. Q3 beverage alcohol net revenue was 54.7 million, representing 165% growth year over year.
Tilray now holds a 4.5% of the craft beer market share in the U.S. and we're just getting started and ramping up. Of this, our legacy brands of SweetWater, Montauk, Alpine Nelson, and Green Flash demonstrates our ability to successfully grow existing brands along with our recent acquisition of 12 craft brands from AB InBev, we have gained a state -- we have gained in scale and see further expansion opportunities. SweetWater remains the No.
1 brand family in Georgia multi-outlets. Montauk remains the No. 1 brand family in metro New York. Having increased its distribution by 28% versus last year, Tilray is now the No.
1 craft supplier year to date in the Pacific Northwest. 10 Barrels volume growth increased by 413 basis points since Tilray took over the brand, and we're now capitalizing on the success of 10 Barrel Pub Beer brand extensions by adding Pub Ice, Pub Cerveza line extensions. Both innovations, we are extremely excited to launch. Growing 24%, Pub Beer is now a top 20 brand on the West Coast with only half the distribution of top competitors due to its focus on the Pacific Northwest states.
Still, our vision is to be much higher as we're aiming and uniquely positioned to become a top 12 beverage alcohol business. This will be accomplished by leveraging our portfolio to win more occasions through core products such as craft beer and beyond through innovation to categories like flavored malt beverages, ready-to-drink cocktails, and spirits. But ultimately, our plans go beyond alcohol as we will be expanding into sparkling water, energy drinks, and other categories. This is important because we have the manufacturing facilities, the distribution, and the sales and marketing infrastructure to drive Tilray businesses. Working with BCG, we developed a clear and focused strategy to drive top-line and bottom-line growth for our beverage businesses.
The three-pronged approach will deploy our regional strategy called fuel to stabilize scale brands such as SweetWater, Montauk, and Blue Point in their respective key adjacent regional markets across the U.S. and maximize their potential to gain market share from competitors. Fuel is already paying off. According to BI sales to retail data, Tilray has increased its market share of total beer in 13 states, including key beer markets such as Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, and Arizona when comparing share before and after the Craft acquisition. In the southeast alone, we've improved trends by 4.6% post acquisition.
For Q3, 10 Barrel has seen a 12.3% increase in distribution among our top 10 distributors when compared to the same time last year. And when comparing six months pre-acquisition with the five months post-acquisition, overall trends have improved 3.5%. Overall trends for Blue Point have improved 1.3% while No. 1 distributor has improved trends by 3.8%.
And those are just a few examples. We are also executing a national brand strategy, beginning with revitalizing Shock Top, to win as a national craft beer over time by targeting share and connect occasions to reach mainstream male and female drinkers. We think there is tremendous upside with Shock Top as, according to our qualitative research, Shock Top has the highest purchase intent among 12 of the largest beer brands. This is why we're focused on increasing distribution and getting this brand back into the hands of consumers. We are already on our way.
In Q3, Shock Top No. 1 distributor has increased distribution 24% versus last year, while on-premise distribution has increased a half a percent over last year among Shock Top top 10 distributors. We are aggressively launching new and often disruptive innovation across our beer and nonalcoholic craft to increase portfolio brand appeal to new consumers and new occasions. Many of our newly acquired brands have not had innovation in the last couple of years. Among many others, recent examples include Liquid Love for heartfelt hydration; Runner's High, a nonalcoholic craft brew for athletes; HiBall and HardBall, a non-carbonated 10% ABV product sold in 16.9-ounce plastic resealable containers; and non-carbonated Shock Top LiiT Hard Tea.
Let me say that we're working to get the cost structure right, transforming the productivity and profitability of the breweries we acquire. We expect that our beer gross margins will increase once we fully realize the cost savings achieved in connection with the fully integrated beverage alcohol platform as we move away from the existing capacity manufacture agreements with ABI and increase our productivity in our newly acquired breweries and 13 brew pubs. Finally, let's discuss our wellness segment represented mostly by Manitoba Harvest, which is fostering a positive impact on people and the planet through hemp by making ongoing commitments to sustainability with breakthrough initiatives such as investment in regenerative agriculture. Revenue grew 12% in Q3 to 13.4 million compared to last year. We partnered with bioactives company Brightseed to revolutionize the functional fiber market and breakthrough product, Manitoba Harvest Bioactive Fiber, which is now exclusively available at Whole Foods markets nationwide.
Incredibly, 95% of Americans do not consume the recommended daily intake of fiber. This product provides six grams of both soluble and insoluble fiber per serving and is the only fiber solution containing two powerful hemp-based bioactive for gut health. Moving forward, the team continues to assess the opportunity to bring hemp derivative delta-9 beverages to market under Happy Flower and Tilray brands. With that, I now turn the call over to Carl discuss our financials in greater detail. Carl?
Carl Merton -- Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Irwin. Recall that we present our financial results in accordance with U.S. GAAP and in U.S. dollars.
Throughout our discussion, we will be referring to both GAAP and non-GAAP adjusted results, and we encourage you to review the reconciliation contained within our press release from our reported results under GAAP to the corresponding non-GAAP measures. Let's now review our quarterly performance for the three months ended February 29th, 2024, Q3 total net revenue rose to 188.3 million compared to the prior-year quarter of 145.6 million, representing almost 30% growth. Excluding acquisitions completed within the fiscal year and the $8.7 million HEXO advisory fee captured in the prior year quarter, our legacy businesses remain consistent despite a 13% revenue decline in our lowest-margin segment. We continually see emphasized the strategic importance of our adjacency business model, which is a key differentiator for us. This is best reflected by the contribution of our four segments to our overall results, which shows that we are not too dependent on any individual segment having a disproportionate impact on our sales or profit growth. Each segment is also, in our view, on a path to sustainable long-term growth.
Looking at each segment now. During Q3 and compared against the prior-year period, net beverage alcohol rose 165% and represented 25% of our total revenue mix, more than double relative to last year's 14% of total mix. Net cannabis revenue rose 33% and represented 34% of total mix, up slightly from 33% last year. Distribution revenue decreased 13% and represented 30% of total mix, down from 45% last year. And wellness revenue rose 12% and represented about 7% of total mix, down only slightly from 8% last year, respectively.
Diversification is also reflected in our geographic footprint. During Q3, more than 62% of our net revenue was generated in North America, roughly 36% was generated in EMEA, and the remaining 2% coming from other parts of the world. This compares to about half from North America and EMEA in Q3 last year with the variance related to the North American acquisitions we completed since that time, namely HEXO, the Craft acquisition brands, and the remainder of Truss Beverages. Let me first touch on the key current item related to cannabis before moving on to a discussion on profitability. We incurred 21.8 million in Canadian cannabis excise taxes during Q3, which are a reduction to revenue, compared to only 13.6 million last year.
The increase in excise taxes is reflected by a sharp increase in cannabis revenue generated in Canada versus the year-ago period due in part to the HEXO and Truss acquisitions and a change in our revenue mix due to higher excise tax products. Through the first three quarters of our fiscal year, we've incurred more than $75 million in excise taxes versus 47 million for the year-ago nine-month period. For many quarters, we have been on the record with respect to the inherent unfairness as to how the excise tax is predominantly computed, which is largely a fixed price on gram sold rather than as a percentage of the selling price. Because the selling price has declined meaningfully since the law was first enacted in 2018, it has made the excise tax a larger and larger component of net revenue over time, particularly as current growth categories like infused pre-rolls and concentrates become the biggest part of our sales mix. To prove this point further, excise tax amounted to 32% of gross Canadian cannabis revenue in Q3, compared to 26% in the same quarter last year.
All through the first three quarters of the year, excise tax came to 34% of gross cannabis revenue versus 27% for the first nine months of fiscal 2023. In our view and in the view of so many others, this price-based tax structure is crippling as it has allowed taxes to spike as the price of cannabis has declined by more than 50% since legalization. In late February, the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance issued a report outlining several recommendations regarding the regulated adult-use cannabis industry, including the recommendation to adjust the tax structure. Recommendation three to nine in particular calls on legislators to make adjustment to the excise duty formula for cannabis so that it is limited to a 10% ad valorem rate. If enacted, this would be a welcome change that could result in 80 million in annualized revenue for our cannabis business, which would largely fall to the bottom line. The key to the government's plan and needed relief for our industry is that the provinces not enact their own excise tax to reflect the loss and taxes they are reaping from the status quo, increase their profits at the boards, or mandate that the tax savings are passed on directly to the consumer in the form of lower pricing.
The budget announcement is next week, and we'll be following developments closely but are resolute in our view that reform is greatly needed and measures must be enacted to stabilize the Canadian cannabis industry. Turning back to our performance. Gross profit was $49.4 million, compared to a loss of 11.7 million in the prior year quarter, while gross margin increased to 26% from negative 8% in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted gross margin decreased to 27%, compared to 30% in the prior-year quarter. I will discuss adjusted gross margin by individual segment in a moment. However, the majority of the decrease relates to the addition of the new craft brands, which are subject to a co-manufacturing agreement with ABI until at least the end of Q1 next year and the prior-year figure including the HEXO advisory fees.
Net loss improved to $105, million compared to a net loss of 1.2 billion in the prior-year quarter which included $934 million of impairments. On a per-share basis, this amounted to a net loss of $0.12 versus $1.90 in the prior-year quarter. Recall that last quarter we introduced two new reporting metrics to our discussions: adjusted net income loss and adjusted earnings per share. The definitions of both are identified in the press release along with the relevant reconciliations and calculations.
For Q3, we are reporting an adjusted net income of $900,000, which, when calculated on a per-share basis, results in EPS of zero for the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $10.2 million, down from 13.3 million in the prior-year quarter. This is mainly a consequence of the negative impact the cannabis gross margin related to wholesale revenue, the termination of the HEXO advisory services contract on our acquisition of HEXO in June, and the co-manufacturing agreements with the new craft brands, as I will explain shortly. During the quarter, we made great progress against the HEXO synergy plan which we had previously increased to between $30 million and $35 million. As of the end of Q3, we achieved 27.5 million in savings on an annualized run rate basis, of which 15.6 represented actual cost savings during the period. Operating cash flow was negative15.4 million, compared to negative 18.6 million in the prior-year quarter. This improvement in cash used during Q3 this year was primarily related to achieved synergies of previously identified cost savings plans.
Moving now to our four big business segments. Beverage alcohol revenue was 54.7 million, up 165% from 20.6 million in the prior-year quarter. The positive delta was due to contributions from the craft brands which were purchased last fall. However, we note that the impact of dry January was far more of a headwind than it was for the industry in previous years. Average alcohol gross profit increased to 18.9 million compared to $10 million, while beverage alcohol gross margin decreased to 34% from 48% in the prior-year quarter.
Adjusted gross margin fell to 38% from 53%. Both of these outcomes were a result of the craft brands, which currently have lower margins than our historical business. This is primarily due to the co-manufacturing agreements for brewing. For greater context, adjusted gross margin for our legacy beverage business was 59%, compared to the prior-year quarter of 53%, primarily as a result of an agreement with the distributor related to our spirits business. Adjusted gross margin from the craft brands was 26%.
The improvement of gross margins in the beverage alcohol business, primarily in the beer portion of the business, represents a major focus for the organization. Gross cannabis revenue of 85.2 million was comprised of 62.1 million in Canadian adult-use revenue, 14 million in international cannabis revenue, 6.4 million in Canadian medical cannabis revenue, and 2.8 million in wholesale cannabis revenue. Net cannabis revenue, which excludes the aforementioned 21.8 million in excise taxes, was $63.4 million, representing a 33% increase from the year-ago period. The positive variance is related to the increased organic growth of over 14% combined with contributions from the acquisitions of HEXO and Truss. Offsetting the increase in net cannabis revenue was the elimination of advisory services revenue totaling 8.7 million from the prior-year quarter due to the HEXO acquisition, which terminated the previous strategic arrangement that was in place. While revenue from Canadian medical cannabis grew only slightly as a category is being impacted by competition from the adult-use market and its related price compression, revenue from Canadian adult-use rose 37%, which was driven by new product innovation and increased revenue from HEXO and Truss. International cannabis grew 44% largely because of growth in our existing markets and the expansion into emerging international medical markets. Wholesale cannabis revenue increased to 2.8 million from essentially zero last year as these sales are opportunistic and variable.
We entered into this wholesale agreement to optimize our inventory levels and prioritize the generation of positive operating cash flow. However, it unfavorably impacted our gross profit and EBITDA. Cannabis gross profit was 20.9 million and cannabis gross margin was 33%, compared to negative 32.8 million and negative 69% in the prior-year quarter. Excluding the impact of the noncash fair value purchase price accounting step-up and inventory valuation adjustments, adjusted gross margin decreased to 33% from 47%. As I said earlier, a portion of the margin decrease as a result of the termination of the HEXO advisory services agreement, which contributed zero gross profit in the current year compared to 8.7 million in the prior year, which, if excluded, would decrease adjusted gross margin to 35%, essentially meaning that our cannabis gross margin was largely flat year over year. Distribution revenue derived predominantly through Tilray Pharma decreased 13% to 56.8 million from 65.4 million in the prior-year quarter.
Revenue was negatively impacted by infrastructure outages and weather, which impacted revenue by just over $3 million and short-term challenges related to new rebate regulations. Tilray Pharma gross profit decreased to 5.6 million, compared to 7.5 million in the prior-year period. Tilray Parma gross margin decreased to 10% from 11% in the prior-year quarter because of product mix. Wellness revenue grew to 12% at 13.4 million from 12 million in the prior-year quarter. The increase was driven by our strategic focus on targeted advertising campaigns aligned with emerging trends in healthier lifestyles, particularly around the new year, coupled with our continuous innovation efforts.
Wellness gross profit was $4.1 million, up from 3.7 million in the prior-year quarter, and gross margin held at 30% compared to 31% in the prior-year period as we experienced a change in sales mix toward more bulk retail sales. Our cash and marketable securities balance as of February 29th was $225.9 million, down from 408.3 million in the year-ago period. The majority of the variance was related to the payment on maturity of the Tilray 23s, our cash acquisition of the new craft brands, and settling assumed liabilities from HEXO, including unpaid excise tax as well as legacy litigation settlements. Having now completed three quarters of our fiscal year, it is clear that our prior fiscal 2024 guidance of adjusted EBITDA between 68 million and 78 million is no longer feasible. We have therefore lowered our adjusted EBITDA range to be between 60 million and 63 million, which takes into consideration our performance through the three quarters, over $12 million year-to-date price compression in the cannabis business, and continued expectations for the fourth quarter. Still, the fourth quarter represents a major increase from the current quarter, which is traditionally our lowest quarter due to the seasonality within our segment. The fourth quarter seasonality improvement is a function of our beer business leading up to the summer, a historically busy season; new innovation scheduled to be launched as part of the spring reset; new innovation in our cannabis business along with expected wholesale sales; and in our distribution business as pharmacies buy in bulk for their customers ahead of them going on summer vacation. Recall that we also projected positive adjusted free cash flow from operations for the entire fiscal year, excluding our integration costs for HEXO Trust, the new craft brands, and the cash income taxes associated with Aphria Diamond.
Due to the timing of collecting the cash on the various asset sales mentioned, we now do not expect to achieve this prior adjusted free cash flow guidance. While we were adjusted free cash flow positive in the current quarter, our current expectations are for a very strong fourth quarter of adjusted positive free cash flow. Of course, we will continue managing capex as part of our efforts to strengthen our industry-leading balance sheet. Let me now conclude our prepared remarks and open the lines for questions from our covering analysts. Operator, what's the first question?
Questions & Answers:
Operator
Thank you. [Operator instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Carter with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.
Andrew Carter -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
Hey, thank you. Good morning. I wanted to ask about the German changes. I mean, obviously, that it's going to likely manifest in a big uptick in patients with doctors now having more more freedom to prescribe cannabis.
But kind of thinking through this competitively, how do you -- how do you see this as your position unique and being able to attack this market? I know that, you know, for the past five years, we've seen a lot of decks with German -- German -- Germany circled and capacity to hit that market. Is that capacity still out there, and how expensive it is to maintain this? And can you give us a reminder of kind of the stringent quality standards you have to have in place to serve the German market? Thanks.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Andrew, thank you and great question. Number one, listen, we see the opportunities in Germany in multiple ways. We have a facility in Germany today, and the Germany before only with service of tender to the German government. Now, that tender process will go away, and we'll be able to sell product into the marketplace. So, that's number one.
Number two is, before, only a certain amount of doctors were able to prescribe cannabis, and it was a very small amount for specialty reasons. And now, every doctor, because it's no longer a narcotic, will be able to prescribe cannabis. Number three, you know, we also have a facility in Portugal which will be able to supply Germany. Number four is we have something called Tilray Pharmacy, CC Pharma, which is a distribution company that distributes cannabis and other medicines to over 13,000 drugstores. We have a team based in Germany.
We have a sales team based in Germany. We have R&D. We have quality assurance. So, we've been there for four or five years, and we've had some tough four or five years because of what's happening. The other big thing here is, you know, Europe is a big country.
And, you know, with no longer being a narcotic and decriminalized, we see lots of other places -- you know, countries opening up. I have Denise Faltischek here as head of Europe. Denise, anything I missed here or anything that, you know, you should add?
Denise Faltischek -- President, International Business and Chief Strategy Officer
Yeah, no, Irwin, you did not miss anything. Just to add a little bit more in terms of facts. So, in terms of that abolishment of the tender that Irwin spoke about, and the fact that under the new -- under the new regulations, we'll be able to apply for a license with our facility in Neumunster. So, today, just to refresh, you know, everyone's memory, we are subject to a tender contract. We are capped at about 1,000 kilograms that we can grow every year and that is done pursuant to certain pricing.
So, with the abolishment of the tender, we now open up into a licensing process where we are now subject to just market conditions as relates to patient demand. And so, we can utilize that facility to meet that demand, which would allow us to increase our capacity. We have the ability to today grow up to about 5,000 to 6,000 kilograms without any additional capex, and we can basically then also have pricing that is subject to market demand today. So, that -- that is an immediate benefit there. In terms of the ability to prescribe, we are amping up our ability to be in front of doctors and working on symposiums and educational platforms.
On the -- one of the things we've done on the prescription platform software, if a doctor wants to prescribe medical cannabis, they can -- they go to that page and there's a Tilray banner at the bottom which shows all of our portfolio of products, what the conditions are, how to prescribe. So, we are out there also providing basically information for doctors who are willing to prescribe and want to prescribe.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
I think the big thing is we do have a brand in Tilray brand, but you know, the whole thing is socialized medicine and prescription and paying for it. We see lots of changes happening. So, you know, we have been working in the German market in regards to, you know, products for pain, for anxiety, for sleep, for cancer, for epilepsy. So, we've been all over that and take our expertise of what we do at medical cannabis, you know, in Canada and translate it there.
And secondly, like I said, there is a market out there that will be looking for medical cannabis but ultimately using it for recreational cannabis. So, from a standpoint, we really are excited about what's happening in Germany. It does not affect us in regards to the social measures that have come in place there. And, you know, we have the team, we have the grow, we have the infrastructure, the research, and development ready to-to go here, and it's, you know, effective now.
Andrew Carter -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
Thanks. I'll pass it on.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nadine Sarwat with Bernstein. Please proceed with your question.
Nadine Sarwat -- AllianceBernstein -- Analyst
Hi, thank you. Two for me, please. First, on the guidance, I appreciate the added color that you gave. Could you be a little bit more specific and perhaps what exactly has changed versus last quarter and this quarter, what sort of surprise to the downside, and how do you see that progressing over the quarters to come? And then, my second question, I know you guys called out your No.1 position in Canadian cannabis.
So, looking at the market share numbers you guys quote in the press release, I think that's on the downward trend for the last couple of quarters. So, could you break down what's driving that, and if you think you can regain that over the quarters to come, and if so, how -- how do you anticipate doing that? Thank you.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
So, I'm going to take -- start part of it. Number one, not all quarters are equal, this third quarter being one of our lowest quarters in regards to bev alcohol and our cannabis business, our fourth quarters, and our first quarter, second quarter. So, that's you know, as you look at our quarters and absolutely there's seasonality within all these businesses. Secondly, you know, we did lose some share in Canada. Some of it was again coming back to price compression and some of it was coming back to some of the prices in regards to our flower.
The other thing, what happened is we have a lot of innovation that was coming into the marketplace that we didn't get into the market, you know, in our third quarter, which we expect, you know, to get back in our fourth quarter. I think, you know, what's important here, again, there's been lots of price compression in Canada where, in regards to -- we talked about our percentage in excise tax, and the market is changing dramatically there in regards to potencies, and being, you know, infused pre-rolls etc. So, some of it is just timing. And do I expect to get it back? Blair, you're on the line. Do you expect to get your -- your share back?
Blair MacNeil -- President, Canadian Business
Yeah, thanks, Irwin, and thanks, Nadine, for the call. Just to add a little bit more color to what everyone was talking about, Q2 and Q3 were our most operational complex periods. So, in addition to what Irwin talked about, what we also saw is when you were moving the location of SKUs and where they're going to be distributed from, and one of the things we've done is centralized all our packaging and logistics out of Leamington, that requires us to draw down inventories in each of the boards and then rebuild that inventory once we've changed the source location. So, what you're seeing in some of the numbers is, in addition to the price compression Irwin talked about and the -- and the innovation side, is just a reflection of the operational complexity we -- we implemented in Q2 and Q3.
Once that is completed and it was all completed inside of Q3, that will generate very strong operational efficiencies for us moving forward as everything outside of beverages will be shipped out of one location.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Carl?
Carl Merton -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, yeah, so just to align a couple of things to -- to the explanation as well, you know, in our beverage alcohol business, and I think in the entire industry, was hit -- it was hit a little bit harder than it has in the past in terms of -- in terms of dry January. And so, that took away a bit of a portion of our -- our sales expectation for the -- for the year. You know, the beverage alcohol business with the new acquisition of -- of the new brands, those brands are adding lower gross margin than they -- than the rest of our businesses. We're working very hard to -- to -- to bring those -- those pieces up and we will get that up over time. As I said in the script, you know, we expect to be able to bring those up much closer to to the historical margins that we've achieved.
But it's going to take -- it's going to take a few quarters, and so it's just -- it's -- it's coming. It's really a function of the manufacturing agreements that we have and getting that production moved into our facilities and organize them in an effective manner while not clogging operational problems during -- during that move. And in terms of the free cash flow guidance, we had some expectations on cash receipts on some of -- some of the bigger things including some of the make whole provisions inside of the spirits business, which we now see coming in in -- in June or July as opposed to in May, and that's really what's led to that thing.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
I think the big thing here is just timing and that's -- you know, I can't always predict things. And, you know, with our beer businesses, you know, the ABI businesses bought lower margins. But just from an integration standpoint, we had a service agreement, you know, with ABI, we're moving away from that at the end of May, moving into our facilities. You know, we expect to get our margins up into the high 30s, low 40s today. But our SweetWater and our legacy businesses, we're running margins at that rate.
So, you know, with that, we look -- we look to those margins. In regards to, you know, the Canadian cannabis businesses, as Blair said, integrating HEXO with SKU rationalization with some of the strains and looking at some of the potencies and timing. And when you're dealing with agriculture products, not everything moves accordingly here. You know, we've made some moves in regards to, you know, our Cayuga, in regards to Masson, in regards to Belleville, and consolidating our businesses there, taking note of costs. So, again, as we look at guidance, yes, there's guidance out there, but a lot of it is just timing. And as we move forward, you know, we have four quarters, not six quarters.
If it was six quarters, it would be different.
Nadine Sarwat -- AllianceBernstein -- Analyst
Understood. Thank you.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Aaron Grey with Alliance Global Partners. Please proceed with your question.
Remington Smith -- Alliance Global Partners -- Analyst
Hi, good morning and thank you for the questions. This is Remington Smith on for Aaron Grey. My first question is, in terms of the CRA having the provinces garnish wages, do we start to see any changes in purchase habits from provinces or the overall competitive environment yet, and then, with kind of greater focus on those LPs paying their taxes?
Carl Merton -- Chief Financial Officer
I don't think we've necessarily seen changes in -- in purchasing patterns. I think we saw very quickly, after CRA started garnishing those wages, a couple of LPs filed for protection within the same week. And then, I think there's been a few more that have filed since that period of time. And so, you know, someone who's -- who's excessively behind on their excise tax and -- and having their payments garnished are looking at four or five, maybe six months of time before they're going to get their next payment. They just don't have a lot of choices, and and so they're -- they're having to file for that protection.
You know, I don't think the -- the boards are actually changing those patterns yet. I think that'll probably happen over the next two, three, or four months as more of these LPs realize and get caught up in the garnishment.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
But there's a lot of the boards out there that been asked by this area to garnish excise tax when they sell into it. I think the big thing for us is we're finally seeing, you know, the Canadian government taking this serious, and those that, you know, weren't paying excise tax could keep going and, you know, putting the rest of us at a disadvantage. So, I think we're going to continuously see changes. And, you know, we've talked about the study that's come out there in regards to changes in regards to excise tax and marketing, you know, medical cannabis, etc. I think there's some major things here that could really benefit the Canadian cannabis industry.
Remington Smith -- Alliance Global Partners -- Analyst
Great. Thank you. I appreciate the color there. And then, my second question -- oh, go ahead.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
No, go ahead.
Remington Smith -- Alliance Global Partners -- Analyst
And my second question just on the excise change -- excise tax changes that you mentioned that could potentially occur in the budget potentially next week, you mentioned tax savings potentially of $80 million for -- for Tilray. So, I guess with those savings, you expect it to mostly be realized by the LPs, or could there be, you know, some benefit realized from the provinces and the retail as well? Any color there would be helpful.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
You know, good question, good question. I think, as we know provinces and we know governments, I'm sure they're going to try and grab some of that. But I think, listen, as we've said and we've only said it's about $80 million, you know, to Tilray. And the big thing is you got price compression and you still have the same amount of excise tax that you're paying. And, you know, I think in this quarter it was 32, 33% of our sales was going to excise tax.
So, something has to be done. I don't mind if some of it goes back to the governments on education and promoting the safety, bringing awareness, marketing, and allow us to do these things. So, again, if we got half of it, $40 million back -- invest back in the business, I think it would be tremendous, beneficial, you know, to Tilray and other LPs.
Carl Merton -- Chief Financial Officer
And I think the key -- the key in this piece is that if the government is making the change to strengthen the industry because the tax became, in a way, oppressive, they need to avoid creating new things that -- that -- that pull that money back, and they need to allow it to go to the industry to help the industry continue to grow and strengthen.
Remington Smith -- Alliance Global Partners -- Analyst
Great. Thank you for the answer today.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bill Kirk with Roth MKM. Please proceed with your question.
Bill Kirk -- ROTH MKM -- Analyst
OK, thank you for taking the questions. Maybe I missed it in the prepared remarks, but what is the -- the 29 million in assets that have been moved to held for sale? I imagine some of it might be facilities that you mentioned earlier, but what specifically is in that -- that number, and how is it determined?
Carl Merton -- Chief Financial Officer
So, that number is -- is Cayuga facility, it's Masson, and it's the Bellville facility that we acquired as part of trust. And so, in each case, it's a facility, it isn't the business. The business is being reorganized within our existing footprints, and then we're -- we're releasing or selling them what becomes redundant assets at that point in time.
Bill Kirk -- ROTH MKM -- Analyst
OK, got it. That's what I was looking for on not -- not the businesses, OK. And then, in the third quarter compared to 2Q, selling, marketing expenses up a little bit.
Carl Merton -- Chief Financial Officer
Did we -- did we lose you, Bill?
Bill Kirk -- ROTH MKM -- Analyst
[Inaudible]
Operator
I'm sorry, it seems that his line may have a technical difficulty. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Lavery with Piper Sandler. Please proceed with your question.
Michael Lavery -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Thank you. Good morning. I just wanted to touch on the U.S. And I understand at the moment it's strictly speaking a little bit hypothetical still, but if rescheduling occurs, you laid out at a high level how you're thinking about it in a more pharmaceutical approach.
I guess a couple questions. Is it -- just maybe what's your patience level if it does come to that, just because the FDA certainly is known not for its speed? And so, you know, is your understanding just, you know, that -- that -- that obviously if that door opens, it could still take quite some time? Or how are you thinking about that? And in the release as well, you reminded us about the connection to MedMen. And how would that fit into that potentially? Is that something that would still stay separate or could potentially become sort of like pharmacies? I guess just maybe lay out some of how you're thinking about potential U.S. opportunities should regulatory change come through?
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
So, as you know, as I said, within the U.S., if medical cannabis is rescheduled and medical cannabis becomes legal, we being, you know, a large medical cannabis producer in Canada and Europe and had the expertise and have the research, not knowing what the FDA and not knowing In regards to, you know, what the guidelines will be, you know, Tilray is ready to capitalize on all our expertise. Is there a possibility with NAFTA or with other rules that we can, you know, export cannabis from Canada that's GMP certified. Today, you can export, you know, cannabis from Canada to other parts of the other countries around the world if it's GMP certified. So, I'm not sure why that wouldn't be the case in the U.S.
if that happens. My personal belief if it's rescheduled from the medical cannabis standpoint and they leave it up to each of the states on a recreational standpoint, then you know, that is something different. So, I think the big thing is I look into a crystal ball not knowing where this is going. I think something happens from a rescheduling standpoint. And, you know, Tilray is ready to move from a medical standpoint. If there was an acquisition for us, we're ready to move.
And, you know, we uphold the debt of MedMen. We think the Medmen name still has a strong -- strong brand name even though it's had its challenges and it's going through, you know, some changes right now to get rid of some of those liabilities and that. And there's an opportunity that, you know, we could execute with the MedMen name across the U.S. The other thing is depending -- and I think one of the biggest opportunities, and we're seeing, you know, some opportunities with delta-9, which is infused drinks with hemp-infused THC. I think the biggest opportunity is in drinks.
And with our distribution systems, with our brands within our beer business and spirits, you know, Tilray could get into that. So, you know, not knowing and not -- you know, what's going to happen, I think, as I said, Tilray is circled in the U.S. And it's not like we'd have to change their model being an MSO where we're, you know, restricted to each state right now. We could take our expertise from around the world.
We can take our medical expertise, we can take our beverage expertise and bring it to the U.S. once we know which way rescheduling happens and it goes. So, that's what I'm excited about is once we know what the guidelines are, once we know what the opportunities are, we could easily jump in there without undoing something that we own today.
Michael Lavery -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
OK, thanks. And just on the beverage side, you touched on your hopes for distribution upside on a lot of the especially recently acquired brands. But do you have a sense how you coming into this spring's shelf resets and what sort of shelf space gains your position for that are already in hand?
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Ty, you're on the call, right? Do you want to jump in there? Listen, I got to tell you in a short period of time, you know, a lot of these brands were just starved on innovation, starved on distribution. We have 500 distributors out there, and I always say to Ty, if each distributor could do $1 million more, which is not a lot, that's $500 million. So, I think the upside on beer is tremendous. You know, as you look at pricing, you look -- you look in regards to the whole spirits industry. I think we're so well positioned on beer, on innovation that we're coming out with, you know, moving into water, we're moving into some energy drinks, moving into some other infused drinks. So, we're well positioned with our distributors.
We have over 100 salespeople and, you know, headquarter people between marketing. So, Ty, you want to just talk about some of the stuff that's happening?
Ty Gilmore -- President, US Beer Division
Yeah, yeah, no, thanks, Irwin, and thanks for the question, Michael. Yeah, no, we -- we feel really solid about some of the distribution gains, not only that we've made in the third quarter, but we also feel solid about the conversations we're having with, you know, several national and regional retailers across on and off-premise with our brands. You know, specifically, if I look over Q3, I mean we've gained north of 1,200 new effective placements on our existing brands, and with the innovation, you know, we continue to see uptick every day with our distributor network and how they're leaning in with us and helping drive distribution. So, you know, chains are going to continue to play a critical role in our success, and we're well suited, as Irwin said, to leverage our partnerships with our distributors and the relationships that we have across the U.S.
Michael Lavery -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
OK, thanks so much.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matt Bottomley with Canaccord Genuity. Please proceed with your question.
Matt Bottomley -- Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst
Good morning, everyone. This one's for Carl. I just wanted to go back to the revised guidance here on adjusted EBITDA going into fiscal Q4 here. So, I'm just wondering if you could give a little more color on the dynamic between, you know, overall revenue progression versus margin expansion.
There's -- there's obviously quite still a big step-up expected even in the revised guidance. And then, specifically within that, I'm wondering how much of that is -- is beverage related given that I think you had commented that you're close to about a $300 million business now in all your beverage portfolios. If you run rate this quarter, and I understand there's seasonality, it's closer to 200 to 225. So, I'm just wondering if there's some step-up on the revenue side specifically in Q4 when it comes to your alcohol contribution.
Carl Merton -- Chief Financial Officer
So, thanks -- thanks, Matt. There -- there is significant increase in -- in sales in Q4 in -- in beer. I think we've talked a little bit already on the call in terms of the spring reset and -- and hitting -- hitting those -- you know, the key summer selling season, which is really driven in our April and May sales results for -- for the organization, particularly in beer. We've also -- we've talked a few times about challenges in the spirits business with -- with sales growth and that, you know, we were going to get resolution of that in Q4 of this year. So, that's also reflected inside of those -- that expectation on the guidance, as you know, potentially driving both revenue and and margins during that -- during that time period.
I think on -- on the beer businesses margin side, you are going to see an increase in margins in Q4 that will be driven by just more -- more volume flowing through the facilities as we -- as we ramp up production in -- you know, in March and April to hit those April and May sales because there's such quick turnaround time and lack of inventory inside -- inside that segment. You know, we've also got the buildup on the cannabis business for the summer period that time and, you know, increases in things like pre-rolls and -- and other product forms in the cannabis business that are -- that are consumed on a more of a, let's call it, a shared basis either in a shared setting or actually shared on its own. And so, that's -- that's a -- that's a part of it. And -- and with that increased sales level comes increases in margins just because of the efficiency on -- on the production side.
Matt Bottomley -- Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst
OK, very helpful. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Doug Miehm with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Douglas Miehm -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
Yeah, thank you, and good morning. Question just has to do with, again, the excise tax. And going back to this, there's obviously an opportunity for your company, but I am curious, if these changes were to go through and you benefit somewhere between 40 million and 80 million the way you expected, what do you -- what's your thinking on the other companies? Because we're starting to lose some of the smaller companies, but is this going to provide the smaller companies with another year or two of life? And I'd say the other thing that I'm curious about as it relates to this, could this result in another leg of downward pricing as they try to maintain market share?
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
So, I think a couple of things. Yes, I think, you know, if companies don't have to pay the same amount of excise tax, that, you know, everybody is, I think some of these companies absolutely will survive. And I think -- listen, I think at the end of the day, we all want a strong cannabis market in Canada. The big thing is, again, what's got to change is the excise tax. And, yes, you know, we probably are the highest -- we are the highest payer of excise tax in Canada.
So, for us to receive back -- it's $80 million is a lot of money. But at the end of the day, it's money that we're going to put into building our brands, building our products, our innovation, and hopefully marketing, and building a bigger category out there. And I think that's ultimately the benefit that the money's not going back to, you know -- taxes is going back in to build a marketplace and back into, you know, continuously grow the industry. So, yes, will -- if more competition be out there, could there be price compression? Absolutely. But I'll tell you what, I don't mind some more price compression.
I don't mind some more LPs being in there. I wouldn't mind that $80 million coming into our -- you know, into our company where we can invest it back in our business and drive growth, drive, you know, innovation, and drive marketing to brands to much bigger category.
Carl Merton -- Chief Financial Officer
I think it's also important to understand that different entities are going to have different amounts of a win related to this, right? And as you get -- as you get closer to the tail end of share, the -- the impact for a lot of those companies is going to be a lot less. And if they're behind on their excise taxes, you know, the excise tax garnishment may have -- may have a bigger impact for them. We're on the -- as Irwin said, we're on the opposite end of that tail because -- because we're the largest. And then, you've got a bunch of companies in the middle where, you know, I think that is more toward where your question was, were you're going to see some people who will be able to survive a little bit easier.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
And I don't think excise tax is going to keep everybody in business here, OK? I hope not. I think, you know, I continuously see more consolidation in the Canadian market. I see, you know, some of the smaller players ultimately going away, and I think that's what happens there, as a new industry, there's just a filtration of, you know, these LPs. If you come back and look at it today, 25 LPs make up about 50% of the market share. There's about another thousand LPs that make up the other 50% market share.
So, you see some consolidation, you see companies going away, and I think what this creates is a much stronger cannabis industry within the Canadian market. And what happens also, as I said before, there could be opportunities for grow in Canada to be shipped into the U.S. and other parts of the world, which could, you know, enhance the Canadian cannabis industry.
Douglas Miehm -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
OK, excellent. Thank you.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of John Zamparo with CIBC. Please proceed with your question.
John Zamparo -- CIBC World Markets -- Analyst
Thank you. Good morning. My question is on -- on the cost side, both COGS and SG&A, and there's just a lot of moving parts here. And I wonder how much FQ3 represents a run rate because you've got additional synergies coming from HEXO.
It sounds like you have savings on the beverage side as you move away from co-packing agreements, but you're also investing in innovation and product extensions. And it sounds like another variable is selling the production facilities, which I think you said saves $5 million to $7 million annually. So, I wonder when you think about all of this in aggregate, is there a net benefit on the cost side? And do you expect to see total cost come down from FQ3 because it seems like organic revenue growth is a bit more difficult to achieve near term? Thank you.
Carl Merton -- Chief Financial Officer
So, first off, I think, you know, organic growth is going to come particularly in the -- in the fourth quarter as we see the new launches and the new innovation hit the market, particularly in some of these new categories that we're doing on -- on the beverage alcohol side, including -- including the water and the nonalcoholic. And playing in that space, playing in the F&B party space, things like that, are our new categories for us. And so -- so, I think there are opportunities for -- for organic growth. But, you know, if you're using Q3 as a baseline, I don't think that's the right way to look at it. And similarly, you know, I don't think Q4 is necessarily the right baseline for -- and they're for the exact polar opposite reasons. Q3 is traditionally our lowest quarter in terms of revenue and production and Q4 is traditionally our highest quarter in terms of revenue and production.
So, we get -- we're going to get a -- an uptick on margins as a result of that incremental volume, particularly in beverage alcohol in our legacy business, and -- and that's -- that's going to be what drives a chunk of the earnings guidance. And it's going to be what -- what drives our results and exports.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
I think the big thing here is, too, you heard me say before this, the savings we're getting from the integration of HEXO and Truss and somewheres between, you know, close to $35 million, we don't get that up immediately. You know, it evens out over the quarter. So, it takes us a full year to get that amount. The second thing is, you know, as we just own the ABI businesses for two months and just -- you know, two quarters, as we integrate them into our businesses and start from the procurement -- from, you know -- from the distribution standpoint, I mean, there's a lot for us to get done here, but we're -- we're focused on organic growth and we're starting to see that already. We're focused on which facilities to integrate these products to, which states we're going to focus on. We also have 13 brew pubs out there that were focused on growing our brands through these brew pubs.
you know, big event for us 4/20 coming up. April 20th, you know, we have two big events, one in Atlanta and one in Long Island. And there's also -- in every retailer, there's displays built. So, July 4th is one of the biggest, you know, beer category months that is sold out there from occasions. So, you know, right now, as we bring this together and our aspirations is to grow our beer business to a $300 million business -- and you got to remember, in 2020, we sold 2.5 million cases when we first acquired the SweetWater brand. You know, today, we're on a run rate at 12.5 million cases with tremendous opportunity with, you know, all the innovation that's happening.
So, there's just a lot of evening out here and there's a lot of moving pieces to bring all this together. And I think the big thing is -- is as we look at it, when we get a full year behind all of these acquisitions with -- with HEXO, with Truss, and the integration there, and we get all this, you know, full year together with all the ABI stuff, we're seeing some great stuff. And listen, just with Montauk, we've owned it over a year, one of the, you know, fastest-growing beer within New York today. Some of the stuff we're seeing on the West Coast with Green Flash, Nelson's and Alpine. So, the legacy stuff that we've already bought and owned the year, we're seeing good results for it.
It just takes us some time here to get these things integrated.
John Zamparo -- CIBC World Markets -- Analyst
OK, I appreciate the color. I'll pass it on. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That concludes our question-and-answer session. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Simon for any final comments.
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, everybody, for joining us today. Listen, I wish I could predict what's going to happen in the cannabis industry. There's going to be one thing for sure I can predict: There will be change. And we've been waiting for change for a long time, you know, in the German market.
It finally came to fruition, and there's going to be a lot of execution to get it where it needs to be, but it's happening. I do think we've been sitting and waiting through the Biden administration before that change happened within the cannabis industry. There's lots of discussion about rescheduling, and again, it's not something we have control of. But one thing we do have control of, we do know how to grow cannabis. We do know how to sell medical cannabis. We know about research.
We do have within Canada Day over 5 million square feet of growth. We do have in Europe, you know, two major facilities. And with that, depending what happens in the U.S., we will be ready to launch what needs to be launched into the U.S., whether it's taking from our existing businesses, acquiring, putting something together, we will have the opportunity to do that. You know, as I've said, our aspirations is to grow our beer business to a $300 million beer business. We already are the fifth-largest craft brewer today within, you know, the U.S.
We have a great business within Breckenridge Distillery. We've been named some of the No. 1, you know, whiskeys within the world, within the U.S., and some exciting things happening. I'm also really excited about what's happening, you know, in our wellness business in regards to Manitoba Harvest and what's happening with hemp from a high-protein food and now the perception of hemp as a great product and a healthy product. So, you know, you know, as Tilray Brands comes together over the last five years, there's a lot of real good pieces that ultimately will come together. There's tremendous opportunities with our products, there's tremendous opportunity with our distribution, there's tremendous opportunities as we build out, you know, our global market.
So, you know, as I look at Tilray, we've circled a lot of the right wagons and again that dealing with regulatory, dealing with unknowns in regards to rescheduling. But Tilray is there. I'm real happy with the team that I have in place and excited to work with the team. We've done a great job in an industry in regards to banking what we've done with our balance sheet, and we continue to work on that balance sheet. I'm someone personally that does not like debt.
So, how do we focus on our balance sheet? I'm very much in favor, and as I push with Carl and the rest of team, cash flow and taking costs out of our business. And there's not too many other industries out there that are taxed the way we are on cannabis, on beer, and on spirits. And I wish I was -- Tilray was already the amount of money that we're providing the governments of Canada, U.S., and Europe from our taxes that we generate from our business. With that, I look forward to talking to you again soon. I appreciate you getting on the call and have a great week.
Thank you.
Operator
[Operator signoff]
Duration: 0 minutes
Call participants:
Berrin Noorata -- Chief Corporate Affairs and Communications Officer
Irwin Simon -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Carl Merton -- Chief Financial Officer
Andrew Carter -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
Denise Faltischek -- President, International Business and Chief Strategy Officer
Nadine Sarwat -- AllianceBernstein -- Analyst
Blair MacNeil -- President, Canadian Business
Remington Smith -- Alliance Global Partners -- Analyst
Bill Kirk -- ROTH MKM -- Analyst
Michael Lavery -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst
Ty Gilmore -- President, US Beer Division
Matt Bottomley -- Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst
Douglas Miehm -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst
John Zamparo -- CIBC World Markets -- Analyst
