Now to get us started with opening remarks, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Stuart Boucher. Welcome, sir.
Good morning, thank you for joining Decibel's first quarter 2026 financial results conference call. With me today is Ben Sze, our Chief Executive Officer. We'll take questions following the prepared remarks. On our first quarter earnings press release, which was issued this morning, all materials are available on our website and on SEDAR+ under the company's profile. Today's discussion includes forward-looking statements and financial outlook information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Such statements are based on our current expectations and information. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control. Decibel disclaims any duty to update forward-looking statements except as required by law.
Please review our disclaimers and risk factors in today's press release and in our management's discussion and analysis for the period ending March 31st, 2026, which contains additional information and a description of the risks that may result in actual results differing materially from those contemplated by our forward-looking statements. We will present results on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. Non-GAAP measures like adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow and their GAAP reconciliations are detailed in our Q1 earnings release. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be used as a substitute for our results reported in accordance with GAAP. Attendees are similarly advised to review the disclaimers in our Q1 earnings release and Q1 MD&A relating to non-GAAP measures. Today's discussion also includes market data derived from third-party sources, which management believes to be accurate but has not independently verified.
Attendees are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. With that, I'll turn it over to Ben.
Thank you, Stuart. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Q1 was a strong start to 2026 and an important proof point for our strategy. Year-over-year revenue was up 41%, international sales more than tripled, and adjusted EBITDA doubled. We did all this while strengthening our balance sheet and gaining domestic market share back. This performance is especially meaningful because it came right off the back of Q4's headwinds, and the momentum we are seeing heading into peak summer season gives me genuine confidence in where this business is going. Our domestic business returned to growth in Q1 with overall market share climbing 10% during this quarter, setting us up well to enter the strongest period of our domestic portfolio with real momentum across all three brands.
We remain the top LP in the infused pre-roll category with over 20% share, a position we've worked hard to earn, maintain, and one we will continue to defend. General Admission remains the number one infused pre-roll brand in Canada. Tiger Blood the number one flavor. In Q1, we converted the entire infused pre-roll portfolio to diamond-based formulations. The timing is deliberate as we head into peak pre-roll season this summer with our strongest lineup yet. We also refreshed General Admission's vape portfolio in Q1. The results speak for themselves. We are now the number 1 liquid diamonds 510-thread brand and the number two liquid diamonds all-in-one brand in Canada. Our overall vape market share has grown by 1.5% year to date. Our newly launched Standard Issue brand has exceeded every expectation since launch. It's already eighth overall in the vape category with 2.5% share.
It expands our reach to a broader consumer base while creating clear segmentation between General Admission and Qwest. We also refreshed our flower offerings with four new strains, all of which are available both domestically and international. We see Qwest as a key platform for growth in this area, with clear white space opportunities such as standard pre-rolls. International continues to be the defining story of our business in Q1. We delivered CAD 9.6 million in international sales, over three times of last year's Q1. A record quarter for our international, and one that was still constrained by German import permit timelines rather than any shortage of demand. The setup for the rest of the year is very compelling as these processing timelines improve. Another milestone I'm proud of is in Q1, we shipped our first GMP extracted product into Germany.
Germany is one of the largest and fastest-growing medical cannabis markets, and this is a significant step in AgMedica's ability to participate in fast-growing supply chains. We now have executed supply agreements with 16+ international customers and 45+ GACP cultivators, a network we continue to add to. Germany and the U.K. remain the largest and quickest-growing markets for us, but we are actively developing relationships in additional markets and expect to enter at least three new ones this year. Our EU GMP certification for both dry flower and extracted products remains a critical competitive differentiator and increasingly so as the industry migrates from flower towards extracted products. We are actively expanding EU GMP extraction capabilities to meet growing demand for vapes and oils and are already shipping into multiple countries.
As a reminder, our flower processing capacity at AgMedica is 60 tons per annum, and we exited Q1 at approximately 30% utilization. Significant headroom to grow without material capital investment. We are seeing early signs that new markets coming online could replicate the growth trajectory we have seen in Germany and the U.K. We expect to enter at least three new international markets this year, and the backlog we are building gives us high confidence in continued double-digit international growth. Very proud to call our supply chain one of the fastest and most reliable exporters of EU GMP Canadian cannabis. With that, I'll turn it over to Stu to cover off the quarter in more detail. Turning to the financials.
For the quarter ended March 31st, 2026, we had another strong period of growth, driven by level setting international sales that were a record, coupled with stabilization in our Canadian recreational sales. Consolidated net revenues were CAD 30 million, up 41% from the prior year. Again, record-setting international sales of CAD 9.6 million, up over 300% to the prior year, and domestic sales of CAD 20 million, up 7% from the prior year. These contributed to adjusted EBITDA of CAD 6.9 million, which doubled year-over-year, and resulted in adjusted net income of CAD 3.1 million, which was an increase of CAD 3.2 million to the prior year. Notably, our free cash flow was negative CAD 14.6 million, which reflected a CAD 13.2 million one-time reduction in payables settled in connection with the company's February 2026 debt refinancing, which we'll get into in a moment.
We are reconfirming our 2026 guidance with net revenues of CAD 130 million-CAD 135 million, which implies 18% growth to the midpoint of the range, and adjusted EBITDA of CAD 27 million-CAD 31 million, implying 26% growth to the midpoint of the range. We are introducing Q2 2026 guidance for net revenues of CAD 33 million-CAD 35 million, which implies 14% growth to the midpoint of the range. Our first quarter showed continued progress as we grew our international network and backlog, achieved record international sales, reinvested in our brands here in Canada, and ultimately regained market share. We continue to expect to grow by double digits given the unconstrained international demand we see ahead and a much-improved domestic outlook. On the international front, we continue to see immense demand for cannabis exports, particularly from Germany and the U.K. Specific to this quarter, we were still impacted by import permit delays.
However, much less of an impact when compared to Q4 of 2025. Again, I would note this was a broad industry issue. Timelines for process applications following the increase to the ceiling by the German government were as high as 11 weeks, given the backlog in applications, and this timeline gradually improved to only six weeks from application to receipt of a permit by the end of Q1 or entering into Q2. This is a notable improvement for us and streamlines our supply chain further. We would note that, in particular, it will improve Q2 results, and we would expect that to be more material in the back half of the year. Where it was impacting us most in this quarter was the timing of our sales, which were highly weighted towards the end of the quarter and led to higher accounts receivable within the period.
This constraint again is much improved in Q2. We remain focused on growing demand that we continue to see ahead with our capacity now scaled to 60 tons. We are focusing on growing our utilization, which will, in turn, drive operating leverage. On the domestic front, domestic sales grew, which was a very positive sign following Q4, and overall market share within the quarter went from 4.1%-4.4% exiting the quarter. This is a continued view of strong success with Standard Issue launches, new products, and the repositioning of General Admission product offerings. These in turn drove higher promotional activity. We ultimately view as a net positive in that we can reinvest in our brands and grow consumer loyalty over time. This business remains core to our ability to support broader organizational growth with strong cash flow generation and margin stability.
From a gross margin perspective, consolidated gross margin in the first quarter was 51%, an increase to the prior year, and was driven by improvements in material input costs, largely related to extracts sourced in the domestic market and sold in our various ready-to-consume products. International gross margin was relatively flat and consistent with our expectations for the business near term. We still believe long-term international markets have the potential to be higher margin as we see legalization occur, supply chains normalize, and ready-to-consume products become the dominant consumption method, similar to what we see here in Canada. Our SG&A grew by 12% year-over-year, slower than our net revenue growth. We saw moderate growth in salaries and wages with increases in volumes, particularly offset by spending growth. Sales, marketing expenses continue to grow with additional promotional and brand-building activities supporting Standard Issue launches, which have gone exceptionally well.
These expenses grew 70% year over year, which slowed relative to Q4 2025, and we expect this growth rate to continue to slow further throughout this year. These are primarily related to the Canadian recreational market. This is a reflection of our continued focus to develop our brands as a means to differentiate, and we look towards gross margin expansion and SG&A savings opportunities elsewhere to offset growth in our sales and marketing as we view it as a critical means to compete. Turning to our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with further improvements, increasing our flexibility to invest in future growth and optimization initiatives. We refinanced our debt with ATB during the quarter, which included a total of a CAD 61 million credit facility comprised of CAD 40 million of senior term debt, a CAD 10 million operating facility, and CAD 11 million of subordinated term debt.
These facilities collectively extend Decibel's debt maturities out beyond 2030, reduce our 2026 payment obligations by CAD 5 million, and provide up to CAD 10 million in available capital. Of note, the CAD 11 million in subordinated term debt went to clearing our excise tax balance, which is now at zero, and the CAD 10 million operating facility is undrawn. We expect it to remain undrawn for the time being until we see exciting opportunities with a high return on capital. The new facilities include new covenants as detailed in our MD&A and financial statements, which include a fixed charge coverage ratio, senior and total funded debt to EBITDA ratios, and a minimum secured cash balance. All covenants we expect to be compliant with and give us further flexibility when compared to our prior debt. Of note, we had a number of working capital changes within the period, which augmented our free cash flow.
Specifically, our accounts receivable grew to CAD 23 million from CAD 19 million at year-end. This is a reflection of the timelines to receive German import permits, as I noted previously, as well as operational delays, which resulted in a high degree of sales occurring near the end of the quarter. The CAD 23 million of accounts receivable are in good standing, and we expect to reach a more normalized level in the second half of this year. Accounts payable overall reduced by CAD 15.8 million, which in large part was driven by the debt refinancing, which was roughly CAD 13 million, and which reflected a one-time catch-up on excise taxes, so our go-forward balance is now zero. These were partially offset by reductions in our inventory, which was driven by improvements in our end-to-end planning, which led to higher efficiencies. Overall, these changes had a materially negative effect on free cash flow.
We expect material free cash flow generation to follow in subsequent periods as the AP reduction was 1-time in nature, and our accounts receivable should reduce over the course of this year. The previously announced conditional sale of our Creston facility for CAD 2.5 million is expected to close before June 30th, 2026, with the proceeds going immediately towards repayment of debt. This sale is a reflection of our belief that the facility was subscale and long-term, we need economies of scale to compete effectively. This move further optimizes our asset profile, and we anticipate savings of CAD 4 million annually. These wind-down costs related to this facility are expected to occur largely in Q2, with savings fully realized in Q3 onwards. Our near-term funding outlook remains unchanged.
We are well-positioned for material free cash flow generation over the rest of this year. We have minimal capital expenditures required to unlock further growth. We believe that strengthening our balance sheet is critical to success as we try to navigate very quick-moving and volatile international markets, grow this segment of the business as fast as we can, while we as well capitalize on opportunities as they come up. With that, we believe we've made material strides over the past few quarters and are better positioned than ever. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ben for closing remarks.
Thanks, Stuart. As we get deeper into 2026, I'm very excited by where Decibel is positioned. Q1 demonstrated that our strategy is working. Domestic market share is growing. International is scaling quickly, we are heading into the strongest seasonal period with real momentum. Got a Domestic business with new brands gaining traction, reinvigorated product lines, and a proven ability to lead categories. Our International platform continues to have a growing backlog, an expanding customer base, and a network of suppliers that are already onboarded with the infrastructure to scale without proportionate capital investment. International demand for Canadian cannabis continues to grow, we believe Decibel is one of the best-positioned companies in the world to serve it. We remain disciplined in how we operate, we continue to actively look for opportunities to grow the platform, both organically and otherwise. Our best chapters are still ahead of us.
Looking really excited for it. With that, I'll turn the call back to the operator for Q&A.
Gentlemen, thank you. To our audience joining today on the phones, if you would like to ask a question, simply press star followed by the digit one on your telephone keypad. Pressing star and one will place your line into a queue, and I will open your lines one at a time, and you'll be invited to pose your question. That is star and one, ladies and gentlemen. We'll hear first today from the line of Neal Gilmer at Haywood Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks very much. Good morning. Congrats on the quarter and great to see that new accounts payable balance. Maybe I'll start on the international side and the AgMedica. You're talking about the facilities basically operating at about 30% utilization. Where do you think that scales through in 2026? Maybe asked a different way, you've got guidance out there of CAD 130 million-CAD 135 million. What have you assumed that that scales to from a utilization perspective to help you achieve that guidance range?
Yeah, it's hard to give you a fixed % rate. Appreciate the question. That's largely driven by where the market's going. We still will continue to be very strong with flower throughput. We believe that demand will continue throughout this year for sure, especially with, I guess, less scrutiny around the German regulatory environment, at least in the near term. As I mentioned, what I'm really excited for is the consumer shift towards extracted products. With our first shipment a couple of weeks ago and ongoing markets with increased demand, we're going to be certainly utilizing that component of AgMedica, and growing that portion as well.
Okay, great. You sort of led into another question that I had there, was that you made a comment in your prepared remarks with respect to investing in increased capacity for the extracted product. What was required there? It sounds like it's still quite low dollar amounts, but maybe if you could just shed a little bit color what you need to do to expand that.
Yeah. Similar to what we did with the flower throughput capacity, it's more structural, less CapEx, right? We want to make sure, leveraging the experience that we have with scaling up our domestic production, that we've got the resources, both operationally and on a labor standpoint, to grow with the increasing demand of extracts products internationally.
Okay, thanks. Maybe last one for you, Stuart. Gross margin of 51% in the quarter is good and obviously exceeded my expectations. It's higher than the past few quarters of 20%-25%. I know you shed a little bit of color during your prepared remarks. Maybe if you could elaborate a little bit further on where you think that normalized level is. You hit that 50% range on a year basis. I know it fluctuates quarter to quarter. Anything you can provide a little bit more on that side would be great.
Sure. Yeah, I think we've seen compression in input prices, specifically some of the commodities that we use as input materials, like distillate and feedstock material for our pre-rolls and vapes. That's been the large point of savings. In terms of the sustainability, it's up in the air. We see some players who we believe are sustainable at the current pricing and others that aren't, that certainly will affect the supply-demand dynamic. That being said, we also see positive signs that it could continue with a number of large-scale greenhouses expanding their capacity. We think, at least for this year, we assume a fair degree of margin stability to our Q1 for the full year guidance that leads to our EBITDA being CAD 27 million-CAD 31 million. Hopefully, that will continue beyond this year.
Okay, great. Thanks. Appreciate the answers, and I'll pass the line.
Our next question today will come from Frederico Gomes at ATB Comark.
Hi. Good morning. Congrats on the quarter here, and thanks for the question. I want to ask about Germany. Obviously, you guys saw some strong growth there this quarter, but in terms of the demand in that market, I believe they've recently released data showing a decline in total flower import volume in Q1 compared to Q4. Just curious if you think that's related to those permit delays that you were mentioning, or maybe some seasonality, or any other factors at play here. Trying to understand whether the consumer demand in Germany continues to grow and increase sequentially this year, or we're going to see that abate a little bit, and how much of your expectations for double-digit growth are a function of the market growing as opposed to gaining share. Thank you.
Yeah, great question. I would say that the first answer specific to the quarter-over-quarter decrease is related to the permit delays and the seasonality that comes. I think there's a long lead time in exporting cannabis. You see some of the spillover effect from what happened to close off the year. From what we're seeing from our customers, we are definitely seeing continued increased demand, and we expect that flower consumption to increase throughout the balance of the year. There was some discussion around the regulatory environment, perhaps creating some sort of headwinds that have since abated, and general optimism around German flower consumption and export market is going to be very strong. Last part of your question, I believe that a big part of our growth is not just on market share gains, or sorry, market share growth, but the market growing, but us gaining share.
We are adding new participants, whether it's new consumers or new suppliers, to our platform on a regular basis, and we can expect to continue to do that. There's a fair amount of work or switching cost, if you will, to changing over the supply chain. We expect that as we continue to add more suppliers and more consumers, that there creates a compounding effect, if you will, of our export supply chain.
Thank you. Appreciate that. My second question, just on the backlog that you mentioned for international that keeps growing, I guess, this quarter. Can you talk about how long does it take you to work through that backlog and just curious what sort of sales visibility the backlog provides you over the quarters to come. Thank you.
The backlog is less operational. As I mentioned, we are at 30% utilization to end Q1, and so we have a lot of capacity. I would say much of the backlog comes from administrative and regulatory. I think you're asking how long it takes to work through that backlog. My expectation is that our team continues to grow that pipeline, and so as we churn through that, there will be continued build-up in demand.
Great. Thank you. Appreciate that.
We will hear next from Pablo Zuanic at Zuanic & Associates.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I guess good morning in Alberta. Stu, can you clarify in terms of the CAD 9.6 million that you report for international, how much of that is your own product being exported, and how much is it the AgMedica services that are being provided in Canada in terms of EU GMP processing?
Hey, Pablo. The percentage of our own product in Q1 would've been around 40%, roughly. That would have been Decibel-grown product out of our Thunderchild facility or AgMedica. With respect to services provided in Q1, within the Canadian market, it would have been, if I understand the question correctly, it's services provided to other Canadian LPs for domestic purposes.
I guess what I'm trying to understand, the CAD 9.6 million is not just your own products being exported, right?
Correct.
It's services that you're providing to other growers in Canada, where you do the EU GMP for them in Canada, and then that gets shipped out. That you count as international revenue, right?
Yep, that's correct.
Yeah. That would be the other 60% that you're talking about. No, that's good. That's good and clear. That's the answer. I suppose there will be a big difference in terms of profit margins between the 40% that's your own products and the other 60%, which is more like, I don't know if it's a tolling fee, or it's a service that you're providing, right? Is there a big margin difference or not necessarily?
Just to clarify, there is a bit of a difference in that breakdown. Roughly 40% of our flower would be our grown product. Another roughly 6% would be extracts that we've sold. 8% would be kind of contract services that we provide, such as microbial reductions for international export. The balance would be a combination of tolling or amounts where we've bought and sold flower. It's a bit more broken out than that. In terms of what comprises the margin, our own grown product would be higher margin relative to product that we've bought and sold. Tolling would be about the same as the kind of margin on our flower product that we sell. Our extracts would be the highest margin, where it would be well above anything else within Decibel's sales mix. That would be superior to our manufactured goods here in Canada.
That's a little bit more color into the margin.
Right. No, that's good. That's great color. I appreciate it. Just understand, when we talk about permit issues and delays, obviously that's applying everyone. In terms of these companies that you're providing these services for, especially the EU GMP, are you also doing all the permit work and paper administrative work for them, or that's something they do themselves and you just do the EU GMP in Canada, and they take care of all the paperwork?
Yeah. As part of our conversion process, we offer all the permit, at least on the exporting side from Canada. We still liaise with our partners in Germany or the U.K. to help support them on their side too. We offer a comprehensive service where product destined for export out of Canada, we provide all the permitting and the regulatory support to get that done.
Right. Thank you. That's great color. Look, I'm just moving on, a bit of a housekeeping question, but thank you for giving the 2Q guidance. I mean, very few companies give quarter-to-quarter guidance. That implied CAD 3 million-CAD 5 million sales lift in the second quarter. Is that mostly international, or is there some rec? I'm sorry if the question was asked before my line got disconnected for a while. Thank you.
Sorry. Just to clarify, you're saying the sequential growth quarter-over-quarter, where is it coming from?
Right. Your total sales guidance for 2Q in sales is CAD 33 million-CAD 35 million, right? Your sales in the quarter were slightly below CAD 30 million, right? CAD 29.8 million.
Yeah.
You have a CAD 3 million-CAD 5 million sequential growth. I'm just trying to understand, is that mostly all international growth or some domestic rec also assumed there?
It'll be a combination. We'll see a sequential growth on the international front that continues, and then we'll see kind of the typical seasonal upswing that you get within the domestic market, to which we expect to have growth on a year-over-year basis on top of.
Right. Thank you. Then just moving on, Ben, you talked about this innovation that you're using liquid diamonds for all the IPR portfolio. Can you expand a little bit? I mean, from a consumer standpoint, what's the benefit for the consumer? Is there a price increase implied? Just a rationale behind it all.
Yeah, of course. The liquid diamonds is a higher quality extract. It offers a better overall experience for the user, as well as a higher potency product that we're able to offer.
Is that something that's available from other competitors in the market right now, or are you going to be one of the first ones in IPRs with liquid diamonds?
No, there are some other competitors that are offering diamond-infused vapes or IPRs. We've just gone ahead and converted our entire General Admission portfolio to liquid diamonds.
Understood. The very last question, I know you talked in quite a few calls about trying to get back to the standard pre-roll category with the Qwest brand, but is that being done, or is that still just an idea at this stage?
No. We plan to roll that out with the new strains and have a bigger part in that category.
All right. Okay. Look, if I may, I'm going to ask one more and apologies if there's someone else in the Q&A line here. My last question would be, you talked about growing organically but also through M&A. When you talk about M&A, can you talk about what type of gaps you would be looking to fill upstream, downstream, in Canada, overseas? If you can give more color in that regard. Thank you.
Yeah, of course. Look, I think we've proven that we are successful at integrating and scaling up an acquisition, which in this industry isn't typically the case, right? I'm referring to AgMedica, a one-year payback. Fantastic story. I think I don't have a specific answer to your question, but rather, I think in order to grow, we need to keep our eyes open to all sorts of opportunities. We've got to be very disciplined in our approach and ensure that we fully assess all aspects of the market to see if it complements the overall platform. At the end of the day, we're looking to grow this business in a sustainable and cash flow-generating manner.
That's good. Thank you. That's all for me.
A reminder to our phone audience that it is star and one if you would like to ask a question. We'll hear from the line of Ryan Neil at TD Cowen.
Hey, guys, this is Ryan standing in for Derek. Congrats on the quarter, and thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just to start, we've heard from some of the other players in the space, that they've described a bit of a slowdown generally in the Canadian consumer. Maybe just talk a bit about your strong domestic performance despite the current backdrop and some of the biggest drivers there.
Yeah, look, for all of us in Canada, Q1 was a pretty wild winter. For us specifically, pre-rolls and vapes typically have a seasonal impact when it's cold out there. I'm very proud of the team for being able to provide strong sales throughout, typically, a slower period for us. It's something that we've recognized after operating for the past few years, that this is something that we need to actively address, and I think the team's gone out and took it upon themselves and did a great job doing so.
That's great. Maybe just as a quick follow-up, with the new ATB facility in place, leverage coming sort of below 2x , how are you guys thinking about capital allocation from here?
From a capital allocation standpoint, everything where we can invest organically, we plan to just use our free cash flow generation to fund. We view that kind of CAD 10 million operating facility as something where we can be opportunistic, to Ben's point, if we come across any exciting opportunities that we think are complementary to our overall strategy.
Great. Thanks, guys.
That was our final question from our audience today. This does conclude the Decibel Cannabis 2026 first quarter investor call. We do thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a great day.