Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss Tilray Brands, Inc. Financial Results for the Fiscal Year 2023 First Quarter Ended August 31, 2022. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session for analysts and investment firms conducted via audio and participating retail shareholders conducted through the Say Technologies platform. Question submission and uploading through the Say Technologies platform has already been concluded and the company will read aloud and answer the top questions. Ms. Noorata, you may now begin the conference.
Thank you and good morning. By now, everyone should have access to the earnings 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. On today's call, please note that we will be referring to various non-GAAP financial measures which 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. Today's 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 these forward-looking statements. The text in our earnings press release issued today includes many of the risks and uncertainties associated with such forward-looking statements. Today, you will hear from key members of our senior leadership team, Irwin Simon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tilray Brands, Inc. Denise Faltischek, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of our International Business, who will update us on global market developments, including the increasingly sanguine outlook of legalization across Europe. Blair MacNeil, President of our Canadian business, who will update us on the focused, impactful investments we are making to grow our leadership position in the Canadian market.
Carl Merton, Chief Financial Officer, who will provide a financial review, including details on our strong balance sheet. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Tilray Brands' Chairman and CEO, Irwin Simon.
Thank you, Berrin, and hello, everyone, and good morning. Thank you all for joining this morning for our fiscal year 2023 first quarter results. Our first quarter results reflect early tangible returns on what we discussed at length during our fiscal 2022 report, namely realigning the business around three priorities, pursuing our most profitable core business across Canada, Europe, and the U.S., optimizing our global operations while taking out over $100 million in cash cost savings, and strengthening our industry-leading balance sheet that affords us distinct opportunities for growth and expansion amid market challenges. These are differentiation foundation steps for profitable and sustainable growth for our worldwide cannabis CPG platform across medical, adult-use, wellness, and beverage alcohol.
While we certainly made great strides through the 2022 fiscal year, including growing distribution across our core businesses in Canada, the U.S., and internationally, our Q1 2023 results validate the approach and our overall execution. Our success is most evident in our significant work in reducing operational costs and strengthening our balance sheet, which has been our focus given the challenging macro environment. We know that an efficient and agile foundation will pay incredible as the cannabis industry matures. It's instructive to think about our efforts in these categories, all which complement and build upon the other. The first and most impactful are the cost synergies from the Aphria-Tilray business combination. As announced during our fiscal year 2022, we've revised target of $100 million in annualized cash cost synergies, and through Q1, we've realized $95 million in cash cost of that $100 million dollar goal.
The remaining $5 million will be delivered by the end of fiscal 2023. It's important to contextualize this achievement. $95 million in achieved cash cost synergies represents approximately 14% of the combined pro forma revenue of $682 million at the time of Aphria and Tilray transaction. With these specific synergies, I want to spotlight the G&A costs, which fell by nearly $9 million in Q1 compared to last year. Highlights here include large savings on office and general expenses. Our work is far from done in this respect, and we continue to target specific line items in our G&A that can improve margin and maximize efficient operations. Alongside the Aphria and Tilray synergies, we launched an additional $30 million of cost optimization plan for existing cannabis business in Q4 of last year, and to further solidify our status as the industry-leading low-cost producer.
This involves identifying opportunities to leverage technology, supply chain procurement, and packaging efficiencies while driving operational efficiencies and significant savings. As of the end of the first quarter, we've achieved $13 million in savings on an annualized run rate basis related to this next level cost reduction plan. When complete, these aggressive, yet purposeful measures will have removed approximately $130 million in costs without compromising our ability to deliver growth and capture opportunities. Second, Tilray-HEXO strategic alliance that closed in July is expected to deliver $40 million to Tilray, including $31 million in revenue and $9 million in interest over the fiscal year.
Finally, with the strength of our balance sheet, with approximately $500 million in cash, $638 million in working capital, and over 70% of our debt set with fixed interest rates, Tilray Brands is now in the best position to capture leading market share across the global cannabis industry where opportunity abounds. The totality of this work is that we anticipate delivering significant growth in our Adjusted EBITDA to between $70 million and $80 million in fiscal 2023, which at the high end of the range would amount to 67% growth compared to fiscal 2022. As previously stated, we also forecast generating positive free cash flow across all our operating segments this year. Our cost structure initiatives and the strength of our balance sheet provides our key differentiators.
To be sure, but the promise and potential of Tilray Brands is also predicated on top-line opportunities and the specific purpose of our strategic plan, which we set in place in fiscal 2022. This involves seizing opportunities across both geographies and business lines, specifically. In Europe, where I recently just spent some time with the team in Portugal and Germany, our opportunity is based upon an unrivaled platform, smart, disciplined, and strategic planning and execution and Pan-European momentum towards adult use legalization. The European market, which is estimated to be worth as much as $37 billion by 2077, has already embraced a medical cannabis business and is nearing broad-scale adult use legalization.
Germany, in particular, is taking concrete steps towards adult use legalization, with German lawmakers from the country recently toured Canada and California cannabis businesses to hear from provincial leaders, state officials, experts, and advocates about lessons learned from cannabis legalization. With two EU GMP-certified operations positioned ideally in Portugal and Germany, Tilray is positioned for significant advantages as legalization spreads. In Canada, with difficult trading conditions in a high tax environment and putting pressures on many licensed producers, Tilray is uniquely positioned to thrive as the industry consolidates. In the U.S., we've set the stage in the footprint for a broad set of cannabis-focused CPG and craft beverage brands, and additional revenue in adult use cannabis, pending federal legalization. While it seems elusive, we continue to see signs of progress.
Just this week, of course, President Biden said he would pardon federal offenders for simple cannabis possession and ask for a review on marijuana's current status as a Schedule I controlled substance under U.S. law. It is important to recognize these initiatives for what they are, relatively modest, but any sign of progress is important at this time. In the current environment, if legalization was to occur, we believe we are best positioned given our strong balance sheet, our cultivation know-how, our CPG experience, our global footprint, and our existing investment in MedMen. On that note, the biggest component of our craft beverage business, SweetWater, is available in 42 states across the U.S., including most recently in California, which is the number one beer market in the U.S.
The brand also operates a 32,000 sq ft production facility in Taproot in Fort Collins, Colorado, and a taproom at the Denver International Airport. Stop by on your way through Denver. SweetWater's West Coast presence and brand awareness remains in nascent stages, but we are confident that our work with the nation's largest beer distributor, Reyes, will yield tangible results. Their network marketing acumen and deep relationships throughout the region will ensure broad availability at restaurants, bars, supermarket chains, liquor stores, and other retail outlets. On a go-forward plan for SweetWater, it includes launching innovative products, new spirit-based ready-to-drink beverages, expanding our presence in Canada and other international markets, improving product utilization, and evaluating strategic acquisitions. In the meantime, we're also pleased with what we're seeing with our iconic West Coast brands, Green Flash and Alpine, which have also added and brought new distribution across the U.S.
Ahead of football season, Breckenridge Distillery, which is one of the most highly awarded craft bourbons in the U.S., launched two new limited editions, Mile High Bourbon Blend. As the official bourbon of the Denver Broncos, these blends pay homage to the Broncos Mile High era and include the team's classic 1962 logo on their label. This collaboration is now in its second year and is one that bourbon consumers love. Last month, we announced a renewed and expanded distribution agreement with Republic National Distributing Company that provides Breckenridge with direct access to our expansive distribution network on- and off-premise retailers and customers across the U.S. in 38 states and the District of Columbia. This opens new doors for Breckenridge and gives us full access to their premier distribution network, setting a new stage for accelerated brand growth.
Finally, turning to our wellness business, Manitoba Harvest is the world's leader in hemp-based foods, with production distribution across 17,000 North American supermarkets, 50% share in hemp seeds, and a presence in 15 established international markets. Our go-forward strategy on this inevitable scale and consumers' interest in hemp production align with plant-based, low-carb, and keto diets. In the near term, we are launching culinary oils, plant-based protein blends with hemp and pea protein, along with a snack bar and other product extensions with super seeds. We further plan to enter new international markets later this year with Manitoba Harvest. We also recently signed a distribution agreement with Southern Glazer's, the leading distributor of beverage alcohol and CBD beverages in the U.S., to serve as the exclusive distribution partner for Tilray Wellness CBD beverage portfolio across 13 states in the U.S., with additional opportunities to scale nationwide.
This strategic agreement allows Tilray Brands to launch awaited U.S. CBD beverage portfolio within familiar retail channels such as independent natural grocery chains, convenience stores, local bars, restaurants, and gas stations. Beyond CBD beverages, we intend to grow our U.S. Tilray Wellness business into CBD personal care products and related adjacencies. Upon federal legalization in the U.S., we will have a clear advantage to lead the U.S. market with strategic infrastructure and operations in place to parlay into the THC-based product as well. With that, we'll now hear from Denise what's happening in Europe. Denise.
Thank you, Irwin, and good morning, everyone. Internationally, and particularly in Europe, we are seeing more progressive cannabis legislation being introduced across the continent and around the world, reflecting a positive shift in attitude and acceptance of medical cannabis as treatment for numerous conditions, as well as the legalization of cannabis for adult use. We are well-positioned and well-resourced to capture this wave of change that will yield considerable economic growth for our industry and for Tilray Brands. Despite the current economic environment in Europe today, the war in Ukraine, and its impact on inflation and rising energy prices, our medical cannabis business performed well in the quarter. Our international medical cannabis business was up 2% versus the prior year period and was up 16% after removing the impacts of foreign exchange. Consistent with our approach across our other businesses, we are relentlessly focused on our cost structure.
At the same time, we have been focused on continuously improving the quality and consistency of our medical cannabis products in order to fulfill our commitment to supply our patients with high-quality, safe, and consistent products. As Irwin noted, Germany remains the largest medical cannabis market in Europe and emerges as one of the largest adult use markets upon legalization. We are already the market leader in medical cannabis, leading both the whole flower and extract product categories in Germany. Based on Insight Health sales data, we have approximately a 20% market share across our flower, extracts, and dronabinol products. In Germany, our revenue was up 22% versus the prior year period. Today, we have the leading and broadest portfolio of medical cannabis whole flower with one of the most recognized brands in the German market. Further, we have maintained our premium pricing position.
As of today, we sell approximately 85% of our whole flower medical cannabis products directly to pharmacies. This, combined with our end-to-end EU GMP supply chain, uniquely primes Tilray Brands for the recreational market, where we believe we can seize a sizable portion by exponentially ramping up capacity with two state-of-the-art EU GMP facilities in Portugal and Germany. Our ability to leverage these existing assets to meet the demand for medical and adult use cannabis is a distinct competitive advantage. A draft bill on German adult use cannabis is slated to be published in late fall, and the first commercial sales are likely to commence in the beginning of calendar 2024. In Portugal, we continue to have the only registered medical cannabis product with our T18 whole flower. In the quarter, our revenue in Portugal was up 89% versus the prior year period.
In the U.K., the market remains relatively small private payer market, but patient numbers continue to grow, and we remain focused on reaching as many patient segments as possible with a broad portfolio of high-quality whole flower products. In Italy, we were approved by the Italian Ministry of Health to import and distribute certain medical cannabis extracts aimed at compounding use in the country. In Ireland, we have recently reinstated a commercial presence in Ireland, and are pleased to have made our medical cannabis products available to patients there. We have one of only a handful of products that have been approved by the Irish government as part of the medical cannabis access program, and are pleased to have received reimbursement approval, which ensures our products are made even more accessible to Irish patients.
In Poland, we were approved for pharmaceutical distribution of both Tilray branded and unbranded medical cannabis products, and we have concluded our first shipment to Poland after the quarter end. In Switzerland, the government lifted a ban on cannabis for medical use in August, facilitating access for use by patients who no longer have to seek exceptional permission from the health ministry, and the first sales pursuant to an experiment for adult use are imminent. In Israel, we continue to remain less than bullish because of the large oversupply caused by Canadian LPs. We are seeing patient numbers stagnating, sales declining, and a lot of price discounting with special deals. We are therefore continuing our pause and determining what is the right strategy for that market. Finally, in Australia, our medical cannabis business continues to perform well. Net revenues in Q1 increased 28% over the previous quarter.
In addition, our business is well-positioned in Australia as we are already compliant with the EU GMP regulations that take effect next June, and are viewed as a trusted cannabis partner with a complete range of medical cannabis whole flower and extracts to meet consumer needs. We also recently received approval and verification from the Natural Health Science Foundation of our flagship product, Tilray Purified Oral Solution CBD100, to be used in clinical trials in Australia and New Zealand. The sum total here is that across Europe and around the world, we have tremendous opportunity, and the strategy, assets and resources to seize it. It's an exciting time. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Blair MacNeil, President of our Canadian business. Blair.
Thank you, Denise, and hello, everyone. The first quarter of FY 2023 represented a significant momentum change for Tilray Brands Canada. We grew our number one market share position nationally by eight basis points to 8.5% for the quarter. This leads number two HEXO by 54 basis points and number three Organigram by 196 basis points. A reminder, this is using Hifyre for all markets except for Quebec, where we utilize WeedCrawler for a more accurate reflection of the market. We also grew our revenue 23% versus Q4 FY 2022, and 4% if you exclude HEXO revenue. Although positive, our revenue was muted by approximately $2.5 million due to the cyber attack in Ontario and strikes in BC and Quebec. Canadian cannabis revenue would have been 6% higher when accounting for these events.
Finally, we achieved 53% of our full year cost savings, targeting Q1, lowering our labor cost per gram by an incredible 43%. You will recall we established our beta program midway through FY 2022 with a pipeline of 46 new genetics. In Q1, strains from this program allowed us to grow our flower category 2.7% faster than the market. Good Supply, Monkey Butter and Sweet Berry Kush hit limited markets with great success, delivering 5% of our net sales and delivering almost 2x the sales of Jean Guy, our most popular strain. Additionally, our genetics deliver 3.5x the average market dried flower innovation sales volume. We have four additional genetics entering the medical market in Q2 and recreational market in Q3.
This helped Good Supply become the number one brand nationally in September for the first time since July of 2021. Over the past year, we have allocated significant resources into being a consumer-first commercial organization. This includes our structure, data intelligence, and market research investments. Although early, our investments are starting to pay off. In Q1, 7.5% of our sales came from innovation. This is considerably better than Q4 FY 2022, and we expect it will continue to grow in future quarters. Long term, we expect this to lead to stickier innovation which resonates with consumers. Market-leading coverage has been a hallmark of Tilray in Canada. As store count continues to grow beyond 3,200 stores, we believe this competitive advantage also grows. Through Q1, we conducted 8,247 sales calls and 2,027 product knowledge sessions with budtenders.
This resulted in a market-leading 14,132 new points of distribution. It also means innovation gets the consumer trial needed for repeat sales. Recently, we had our entire Great North team together with our sales and marketing leaders from Tilray for two days. This allowed us to show the consumer-first innovation plan and ensure they are ready to execute. We have also invested in data for our medical channel, both in consumer insights and in consumer feedback mechanism to improve our product portfolio. For our patient community, we launched CannaPoints, a new program designed to support patients through their medical cannabis journey. As a complement to physician advice, Tilray Medical patients use CannaPoints to explore new offerings, learn more about strains, and record the effectiveness of their products. This app makes it easier for them to curate optimal personal consumption schedules and tailor their own experiences.
As a result, we have broadened our offerings under the Tilray and Aphria brands to include a comprehensive range of THC and CBD products, which in aggregate have demonstrated effectiveness against a variety of medical conditions. Tilray checks all the boxes to be a leading, sustainable, and agile licensed producer. Our low-cost cultivation in Leamington, premium cultivation in Broken Coast, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, partnership with HEXO, and our Avanti facility allow Tilray to thrive and shape the future of the cannabis industry. Recently, the Health Canada Advisory Board recommended CBD products be permitted outside of cannabis dispensaries, an estimated $300 million opportunity. Avanti, owned by Tilray, located in Brampton, has the facilities, licenses, people, and equipment in place now to fulfill GMP CBD products when they become available outside of dispensaries. It also allows us to produce Cannabis Health Products 3.0 as the market transition.
Additionally, Avanti fulfills 80% of our testing needs within our current portfolio, contributing to our low-cost mindset. Finally, we have seen revenue growth, improvement in market share, and cost reduction continue through the month of September. I will now turn the call over to Carl Merton, our Chief Financial Officer, to discuss financials in greater detail. Carl.
Thank you, Blair. We place great emphasis on Tilray's brands and are relentlessly focused on managing operational expenses, proving we have the right strategy in place. This is especially important as we contend with changing market dynamics and more recently, inflationary challenges. Before I begin my review, let me remind everyone that we follow U.S. GAAP. Our financials are presented in U.S. dollars, and throughout our call today, we will reference results in accordance with GAAP as well as non-GAAP adjusted results. Our earnings press release contains a reconciliation of our reported results under GAAP to the non-GAAP measures identified during our remarks. Let's begin with our top line. Net revenue in Q1 was $153.2 million, which is roughly equivalent if compared to the prior quarter in Q4 fiscal 2022.
A 9% decline compared to the prior year quarter of $168 million, which was largely due to brand and SKU rationalization as well as foreign currency rates. Our revenue, income, and Adjusted EBITDA continue to be impacted by the ongoing strength of the US dollar, particularly given our largest revenue sources currencies are the euro and the Canadian dollar. On a constant currency basis, our net revenue remained relatively flat at $166.5 million, with all of our distribution, international cannabis, and beverage alcohol businesses being up in their base currencies compared to the prior year quarter. Reported gross profit was $48.6 million in Q1, a 5% decrease from $51 million in the prior year quarter. Adjusted gross margin, however, increased 200 basis points to 32% from 30%.
The higher margin was made possible by our success in implementing our numerous cost-saving programs and the revenue associated with our HEXO transaction. While our net loss was $65.8 million in Q1, compared to a net loss of $34.6 million in the prior year quarter, we are reporting both our second highest ever Adjusted EBITDA at $13.5 million and our 14th consecutive quarter of positive Adjusted EBITDA, an unprecedented achievement in our industry. This is up 7% from the prior year quarter of $12.7 million. It is worth calling out the meaningful headway we made in reducing operating expenses, which decreased 42% or over $50 million from the same quarter in fiscal 2022.
While the reduction in transaction costs year-over-year accounted for $37.2 million of the variance, general and administrative expenses decreased 18% to $40.5 million. This was made possible by the synergies previously discussed. In addition to the $100 million dollar target in cost savings from the Aphria and Tilray transaction, we achieved $13 million dollars of annualized run rate basis of our $30 million dollar cost optimization plan. Of this, $2 million dollars was recorded in cannabis cost of goods sold, as well as our operating expenses during the period. We reported $7.8 million dollars of revenue and $1.2 million dollars of interest income from our strategic alliance with HEXO. Noteworthy to our quarter, we recorded an $18.3 million dollar gain in transaction costs on the purchase of the HEXO notes from HTI.
As part of our issuance of 33.3 million shares to satisfy the purchase price of the notes, both upside and downside protection existed. Based on our stock price during the contract period, we received a cash payment from HTI subsequent to quarter end of this amount. Turning now to our business segments, which I will review in greater detail. Revenue in our cannabis segment was $58.6 million, but on a constant currency basis would have been $61.6 million.
Gross cannabis revenue consisted of $6.5 million in Canadian medical cannabis revenue, $58.4 million in Canadian adult use revenue, $10.4 million in international cannabis revenue, which is a 2% growth from the prior year quarter of $10.2 million, and $17.1 million of excise tax, all for net cannabis revenue of $58.6 million. However, in comparison to the preceding quarter, net revenue increased 10% from $53.3 million. Canadian adult use cannabis revenue was impacted by a number of factors, including price compression, challenges with provincial boards, including strikes in B.C. and Quebec, as well as cyberattacks in Ontario. Both the B.C. and Ontario incidents caused provincial boards to close deliveries for approximately 10 business days.
During that period, we were denied multiple delivery spots, impacting our revenue by approximately $2.5 million in the quarter. While the provincial boards did not open up the additional delivery windows to make up for the shortfall, they did increase order sizes shortly thereafter to make up for demand. As a result of our quarter end being so close to these incidences, we were not able to make up for the lost revenue this quarter, but anticipate making it up next quarter. Over the last year, shifting consumer demand impacted our flower products, particularly as it related to potencies and our strain rationalization that negatively impacted us in Q1 compared to the year ago period.
Despite the change in our demand over the longer period of the last year, our recent launch of numerous beta flower strains during the current period yielded an 11% increase in flower sales compared to our fiscal Q4 2022 period according to adjusted Hifyre data. International cannabis revenue increased 2% to $10.4 million from $10.2 million for the prior year same period, but would have increased 16% to $11.9 million on a constant currency basis, despite ongoing global conflicts as well as the overall economy in Europe. International cannabis continues gaining traction, and we are uniquely suited to capitalize on these opportunities given our infrastructure, which includes two EU GMP cultivation facilities within Europe, our distribution network, and commitment to product consistency, quality, and safety.
In terms of profitability and margins, cannabis gross profit decreased 2% to $29.7 million in Q1 from $30.3 million in the prior year quarter, while the gross margin percentage increased 8% to 51% for the quarter. When normalized to remove the $7.8 million of HEXO revenue, gross margin was flat at 43% despite the significant price compression experienced over the last year. A reflection of our status as a low-cost producer, along with our synergistic initiatives and focus on higher margin sales. Q1 revenue for our distribution business, which is overwhelmingly CC Pharma, was $60.6 million, a 10% decline from the $67.2 million in the prior year quarter, impacted by the strengthening of the U.S. dollar relative to the euro compared to the same period last year.
In fact, revenue would have actually increased 5% to $70.6 million on a constant currency basis for an additional $10 million of revenue. Adjusted distribution gross profit decreased to $5.6 million in Q1 from $7.9 million in the prior year quarter, while distribution gross margin declined to 9% from 12%. The decline was driven by product mix, where a change in consumer demand trended to lower margin products over the last year. Turning to our beverage alcohol segment, we generated $20.7 million in net revenue in Q1, which was 34% higher than the prior year quarter of $15.5 million. This was primarily due to our acquisition of Breckenridge last December.
We remain bullish on expanding this segment over time as we leverage our increased distribution, particularly in California, regaining brand acceptance with Green Flash and Alpine while building brand acceptance for SweetWater, and building out an extensive innovation pipeline and potentially pursue other acquisitions. Adjusted beverage alcohol gross profit increased 24% to $10.9 million in Q1 from $8.8 million in the prior year quarter. As a result of the SweetWater Colorado expansion in the quarter, which is still in the early stages of operation and yet to be fully utilized, beverage alcohol gross margin decreased to 53% from 57% during this period. Finally, our wellness segment revenue contribution decreased 10% to $13.4 million from $14.9 million in Q1 last year.
On a constant currency basis, wellness revenue decreased only 8%. This decrease is a result of a one-off private label sale in the prior year that did not recur in the current quarter, as well as a higher volume of distressed retailer sales, which resulted in a higher volume of lower margin sales in the prior year quarter compared to the current period. Adjusted wellness gross profit decreased 13% to $3.5 million in Q1 from $4 million in the prior year quarter, while gross margin decreased only slightly to 26% from 27%, but decreased from 31% in the previous quarter. Impacting gross margin for the quarter was seed costs, which is the primary driver of the decreased gross margin from the previous quarter.
While seed costs rose almost 30% for organic hemp seed and 50% for conventional hemp seed in Q1 2023, our negotiated price increases did not take effect until Q2. As a result, we will see the benefit of those pricing actions in the next quarter. Together, this demonstrates that we are effectively managing our costs. Turning to free cash flow and liquidity. Free cash flow improved to negative $47.8 million in Q1, an improvement from negative $101.8 million in Q1 last year. Traditionally, Q1 is a period where we experience a greater than normal amount of annual payments than the rest of our year, negatively impacting our free cash flow in this period.
Despite the negative free cash flow in the current period, we are reiterating our previous guidance of being free cash flow positive across all our business segments for fiscal 2023. Our cash and cash equivalent balance as of August 31st was a healthy $496.6 million, a nearly $75 million increase from our fiscal year-end. Our working capital balance, which allows us to meet our operational and capital requirements, more than doubled to $637.6 million over that same time horizon. During the quarter, we completed our outstanding ATM program, issuing 32.5 million shares and raising net proceeds of $129.6 million.
After quarter end, we utilized some of our cash on hand to purchase $50 million of our Tilray 2023 convertible notes for cancellation at a discount of $1 million, and we'll save over $2.5 million in interest costs between now and their maturity date. The outstanding principal balance on these notes has now been paid down by $138 million since the transaction with Aphria and is down to under $140 million. For fiscal 2023, we are reiterating our expectations of generating $70 million-$80 million of Adjusted EBITDA, and as I just mentioned, to be free cash flow positive across all of our business segments for the year. This Adjusted EBITDA range will be generated through the following means.
First, we are strengthening our position from current levels as the Canadian market continues consolidating and less agile competitors contract. This will be accomplished by maintaining our leadership as a low-cost producer, while offering high-quality strains and formats across our medical and adult-use portfolios, which are continuously being optimized for their respective markets. The investments we make at the retail level, such as our budtenders outreach and physician relationships, leveraging our scaled low-cost production facilities and our strategic alliance with HEXO. Second, internationally, we have a vast medical opportunity beginning with Germany in addition to other surrounding and emerging legal markets. We are already utilizing our expertise from Canada to support responsible regulations that will enable us to enter and build a presence in these medical markets when feasible. These regulations should also pave the way for eventual adult-use as well.
Third, in the U.S., our foothold beverage, alcohol, and wellness brands are already strong, high-margin businesses, contributing meaningfully to our overall revenue and Adjusted EBITDA while diversifying our CPG portfolio. We look forward to U.S. federal legalization. When that happens, these brands can be properly leveraged for cannabis. As we build our multi-billion-dollar portfolio of best-in-class medical, adult-use, wellness, and craft beverage brands, we will only pursue opportunities that provide us with the highest possible return and enable us to gain efficiencies through scale, integration, and partnerships. This is our roadmap to building sustainable shareholder value. With that, I will conclude our prepared remarks and open the lines for questions from our covering analysts. Afterwards, we will take a few questions from our retail shareholders through the Say platform. Operator, what's the first question?
Thank you. Before we take our first question, I'd like to instruct you to please press star one on your telephone keypad to join the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. In the interest of time, we ask you each keep to one question and one follow-up. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Vivien Azer with Cowen and Company. Please proceed with your question.
Hi. Good morning.
Vivian.
Irwin, I'd love to just start off by addressing the U.S. regulatory landscape. I really appreciated your prepared remarks, which were awfully clear that legalization remains elusive. I think we're very much aligned on that, and the Biden administration's announcement yesterday was symbolic. No 280E relief, no capital markets access. While that might be disappointing to anyone who's involved in the U.S. cannabis industry, certainly retail investors and some other industry watchers have just read this announcement. It actually could be good news for you. If realistically, you know, a narrow version of SAFE is the only viable catalyst, you know, how do you guys continue to take advantage of kind of this period of uncertainty where there's no interstate commerce? You guys have placed your bets.
Do you just continue to work on building that route-to-market infrastructure and, you know, just wait patiently? Or are there other opportunities to continue to establish the business for readiness when that eventually happens?
Excellent question. I think the big thing is what we saw, this was the first step that Biden and the administration have taken towards cannabis. I think in regards to pardoning, you know, all those that have been convicted, and the social effect of it is a great sign, and that it's on the agenda here and that he's asked, you know, from a health standpoint to look at it, from, you know, a standpoint there. You know, since the Biden administration has been in place, nothing has happened. That's the good news, Vivian. I think the big thing which I said in my remarks is this here. You know, our plan, we have, you know, close to a half a billion dollars of cash, so we have abilities to do acquisitions.
We have a strong business with lots of growth opportunities in Canada. We have a great infrastructure internationally in both Portugal and Germany. You know, with the U.S. today, we've acquired businesses within the beer industry, the spirits industry, and have a wellness business. From a U.S. standpoint, what we're going to continuously do is look at acquisitions in the consumer area with adjacency to cannabis. In regards to the SAFE Banking Act, depends what we can do. We're one of the largest grower cannabis in the world today. We own multiple brands in Canada and Europe, and we own brands in the U.S. with adjacencies. When we're able to do something and have a clear picture on it, I think whether it's buying, merging, it gives us the opportunity to do that.
You know, we have a good balance sheet. We have good brands. We have lots of knowledge within this industry. You know, being one of the biggest out there gives us opportunistic, you know, ways to go about it. You know, just taking a guess and buying options and not knowing, and there's a lot of unknown out there. What I wanna make sure is for our shareholders that we have a good vision to create the Tilray branded, you know, consumer packaged goods business with a focus on brands and a focus on adjacencies, a focus on profitability, you know, from a standpoint that when cannabis does legalize in the U.S., we're ready to capitalize on it in so many different ways. I think, you know, we're not an MSO that's locked into a multi-state. We're not locked in.
We can go out and do something. We don't have that flag in the ground that we ultimately gotta figure out what's the right thing to do with the flag.
Yeah, absolutely. Lots of optionality for you guys. That's very helpful. Thank you, Irwin. Just to pivot to beverages since you mentioned it as my follow-up question, please. You know, I think that asset is incredibly important. Obviously, we cover alcoholic beverages, and we know how good the growth is in that segment, and bourbon in particular. We haven't seen any signs of down trading yet, though it is a question that I get consistently from institutional investors, in particular, given that we're starting to see more regular pricing emerge in the distilled spirits segment against a very inflationary backdrop. Two-part follow-up, please. Number one, have you guys seen any signs of down trading in any of your alcohol assets?
Number two, how do you feel about the pricing backdrop? Because it does seem like most of your peers are really leaning into it. Thank you.
We have not yet. With that, we've just, you know, started with a new distribution, RNDC. Got some great plans as we come into the holiday season. If anything, what we are seeing, you know, vodka, which is a cheaper product, we are seeing some good pickup in that volume. But listen, we're looking at it. We're making sure in regards to, you know, the consumers, you know, trading down and buying other types of products, whether it's vodka, which is cheaper, we'll be ready for that. But so far we have not seen anything. We've seen some good consumption, you know, within the beer business. We like that. We see lots of opportunities in the beer business in regards to infused beers. You know, and you see a lot happening today with tequilas and rums and that with beer and that.
The big thing is within that industry, you know, Vivien, we have the distribution network set up. With that, we think there's gonna be also additional opportunities from acquisitions in that area for us. The other good thing that's happening, too, is the FDA has, you know, stepped away and will allow CBD products. We're introducing a product called Happy Flower, which we'll start introducing. There's a lot of expansions within the category that we see.
Absolutely. Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Carter with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, thanks. Good morning. I think I wanna take just a little bit of a different angle to kinda yesterday's news. I think number one. You know, you've built this platform to be low cost, serve all, but there's been the issue of fragmentation in Canada and irrational activity. So what we did get, we don't know what we're gonna get from the U.S. ultimately, but what we did get yesterday was a surge in the sector. Does that change your view at all of Canada and maybe the necessary rationalization and how that may be prolonged? I guess I wanna add to that. What you do know is there is a lot of unknowns, but what you do know is you're trading higher.
Does it by any chance change your view that you would wanna go, that you will wanna maybe double down on the investment in CPG versus cannabis, especially as cannabis MSO assets are rerating? Thanks.
Andrew, good morning. How are you? Listen, Canada, it's the only legal market, you know, of recreational cannabis really in the world today. You know, we have incredible facility, incredible brands. It's about a $5 billion market today at retail, going to a $10 billion market. If anything, hey, we're going to do more in Canada. We're gonna grow share, we're gonna innovate products, you know, cannabis 2.0, whether it's edibles and drinks and, you know, stay tuned for what we're looking at, and Blair talked about Cannabis 3.0. We have a big focus on Canada. With that, there's a lot we'll continue to learn in the Canadian market. The other thing, who knows, one day, we have over 3 million sq ft of grow, which I think you visited.
You know, some of the we grow some of the best and cheapest cannabis up there with some of the higher potency. Who knows that we can't export in the U.S. one day and that opportunity there. Canada, for us, from a recreational, from a medical, from a Cannabis 2.0 and Cannabis 3.0, we think and we said there's, you know, an $800 million business with also $200 million in the consumer area to grow there. You know, in regards to, you know, your other question, do we want to become a CPG company? You know, in my prior life, you know, myself and some of my team were part of Hain, and we built the $3.5 billion consumer packaged food business. You know, our medical wellness business has a lot of adjacency to cannabis.
You know, we like the drinks business. We like the consumer packaged food business. But what we're not gonna do is just go out there and sit back and wait until the government makes decisions on which way they're going with cannabis. You know, we want growth, we promised and said, hey, you know, in regards to EBITDA, we'll be EBITDA positive, cash flow positive. We have a strong balance sheet. We're gonna utilize that. Cannabis is a big part of our portfolio, but also, Andrew, we're gonna look at the consumer packaged goods area that has good growth categories, that has good margins, but adjacencies at one time to the cannabis industry upon legalization.
Oh, thanks. I'll pass it on.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Bond with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.
Morning, this is Andrew Bond on the line for Owen Bennett. Thanks for taking our question. Maybe shifting gears to recreational legalization in Germany. There seems to be a view that the United Nations' INCB regulations and prior rulings in EU courts might need to be addressed, and could preclude Germany from legalizing. What's your most recent sense in Germany on the prospects for legalization? What are you hearing? Is this a material legal hurdle to overcome in your view? And then more broadly, maybe until we ultimately see legalization, recognizing you already have a favorable position in the Germany medical market, are there additional actions you can take or are strategically taking to be better positioned for when rec sales do ultimately launch? Thank you.
Number one, I'm gonna let Denise answer that. I think, you know, the big thing is this here, you know, medical cannabis, you know, is legal in Germany right now. In regards to, you know, the German government, they're spending a lot of time. They visit California, they visit Canada in regards to how to do this. Yes, there's going to be hurdles with anything, you know, lawsuits happen within between. We are still very comfortable, as German tenders have been put out there, which we won, that cannabis will be legal within the German market. Denise, you wanna add anything to that?
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Irwin. In terms of legalization in Germany, we also basically are seeing a movement across all of Europe. You might have saw that in September, there was a health regulators meeting for the EU 27 countries, where there were discussions based around cannabis regulation. Essentially, looking at it from an entire EU perspective, looking at the 27 countries working together in order to establish a collaborative effort on cannabis regulation. This is even more than just a German issue, where I think all of the EU is thinking about this and how to address it. The German regulators are very focused on how to overcome the UN convention.
There's been a lot of different legal analysis, including how to address, cannabis, whether it's classified as a foodstuff or some other way, in terms of the regulations dealing with that. There absolutely is work being done, and German regulators seem very focused. As Irwin mentioned, they've taken great steps in terms of coming to the United States, coming to Canada, trying to understand really how to build a framework that addresses both health and safety as well as a commercialized market, which would be the first one in Europe. Then in terms of your second question, around, you know, what are we doing? I think one of the things to recognize is the fact that Tilray is a company who has invested, very much so into the European, market.
In terms of both our facility in Portugal as well as our facility in Germany, and we are one of only three facilities that exist today in Germany producing medical cannabis. That facility can in fact be converted and/or retooled to address the adult use cannabis market and provide for that market very quickly. We believe we're very well positioned.
I think the most important thing, whether it's the U.S., whether it's Germany, whether it's Europe, voters want this. You know, in Germany today, I think it's about 70% of voters there want cannabis legalized. In the U.S., over 60% want it legalized, and 90% want medical. It's what the voters want, it's what constituents want. That's what the most important thing is. I think what everybody is realizing, the tax dollars and the benefits from it, you know, that really will come. You know, that's what we see out there both for Germany and the U.S.
Thanks, Irwin. Thanks, Denise. Appreciate your insights. I'll pass it on.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Aaron Grey with Alliance Global Partners. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, good morning, and thank you for the question. I just wanna go back towards your prepared remarks on Canada, specifically around, you know, strengthening your position. I believe you said, you know, some of the smaller, you know, potentially some shakeout there. Just wanna get some color on where you believe that stands today. You know, per some of the Hifyre data, September was the first month, you know, over, you know, past 12 or more, where the top five cumulatively actually, you know, gained share and having lost share, you know, the previous months. Do you feel like that was a clear, you know, kind of step change and that will continue?
Do you feel like there's still some more, you know, share losses, competitive nature to go, or that now we're at a point to where some of the bigger players might start to gain share on more of a regular basis there? Thank you.
Number one, I think for the first time, we're getting a good, clear look at Canada, you know, with COVID, with store closures, with only being able to, you know, walk up and order, you know, having vaccines to go in stores. Now we're really getting a good look at it. That's number one. Number two, with all the price compression and consumers going to the illicit market, et cetera. You know, I come back and look at Canada was in a major disarray. With that, and I'm gonna let Blair jump in here for a second. You know, I very much see that we have made tremendous headway in Canada in regards to the importance of potency, importance of strains. You know, we at Tilray, you know, eliminated, you know, some brands. We eliminated strains.
That affected, you know, in regards to our share out there. With that, I step back and I say this here: the Canadian market will consolidate, the Canadian market will condense, and there will be, you know, at 800 LPs, a lot of LPs will go away. The thing is also the consumer today within Canada, you know, cannabis has been legal now for approximately four years. They're educated today on what they wanna buy. They're starting to understand brands. They're starting to understand pricing. The same with the retail market. You know, there's been a fallout of many retailers closing, so it's starting to mature from a market standpoint. It's the same thing with the government. I mean, and excise tax and what we're working on there. You know, you gotta remember, Canada's only four years old.
Now we're starting to get, you know, some wind at our back instead of wind at our face. Blair, you wanna add anything to that?
No, I just think the one thing that Irwin said that's important for people to recognize is how early we are in this journey. The industry just went through a lot of chaos, as Irwin mentioned. I think the big thing I would reiterate is our investment into data and into the consumer insights, and we're using that to make all our decisions moving forward. We're very bullish on where we're going as an LP. We're very focused on being just an LP and not other things, and we're gonna utilize that to win in the marketplace. We're very comfortable with that.
The thing is, you know, we're investing in research, we're investing from a medical standpoint, we're investing in the next evolution of cannabis sales. I think that's what's important today, and we're seeing multiple change in flower versus pre-rolls versus edibles versus drinks. Listen, the Canadian market projected to be at CAD 10 billion at retail. That's not anything that's small to look at, and it is the only, you know, country today where cannabis, you know, from adult use is legalized out there. We're gonna learn in Canada, we're gonna grow in Canada, and we wanna have the biggest share in Canada.
All right, great. Thank you very much for the color, and I'll go ahead and jump back into the queue.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Tamy Chen with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, good morning. I just had one quick question, just a follow-up on a previous one, just talking about the U.S. and SAFE, the SAFE Banking Act specifically. So Irwin, like it sounds like, from your answer to that previous question, that at this point you also are not sure exactly what SAFE's passage might mean for your ability to go in the U.S. 'Cause remind me, I think for you, probably the biggest hurdle to clear would be where the stock exchanges like NYSE and Nasdaq stand with respect to plant-touching U.S. cannabis businesses.
Could you just clarify if you think SAFE passage explicitly might trigger or allow you to go in the U.S. or really you don't know if it will let you 'cause you're more waiting for the stance of the stock exchanges? Thank you.
Number one, I think as I've said before, in regard to, you know, us selling, owning cannabis companies, you know, SAFE Banking is not gonna do anything for us. I'll tell you what I do believe is going to do, and it's interesting, all of a sudden investors and institutional investors start to look at this industry now and start to look at how they invest in this year. Listen, you may get other cannabis companies, you know, with Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange now that could list there, which there's more dollars out there for them to raise. I think from a standpoint for Tilray today is this year.
I mean, you know, having institutional investors, you know, as a part of our ownership was something very important to us, but and the opportunity, you know, for us to grow within other countries to be ready for the U.S.. Is something that we're gonna continuously focus on. It doesn't change anything for us that we can own U.S. Assets. Tamy.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Pablo Zuanic with Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.
Irwin, I just want to ask regarding, you know, a potential CPG partner. Obviously, you know, Constellation Brands and Canopy Growth, Cronos, Altria. As the industry begins to scale and more markets legalize, do you think that could be a strategic disadvantage for you, not having a large CPG partner? How do you think about that?
I think, you know, Pablo is this here. You know, Altria, yes, that's part of Cronos and, you know, Constellation is with Canopy, and you can make your own decision what they've done for them and what they've not done for them, okay? Listen, I've been in the consumer packaged goods business for over 30 years. It gives us the opportunity to build correctly and do the right things and not be whether it's a tobacco company or another alcohol company. We have optionality, and I think that's what's important note that, important out there. We're not forced into making decisions. We're not forced into something in a consumer area. What's good for our business? What's good for growth? What's good for consumers? How can we make a difference?
Last but not least, how do we make money for our shareholders is the right thing for us to do. You know, that's what gives us optionality. I think that's what's so important today because of changing trends, changing times, and changing geographies.
Just a quick follow-up. I know you've said that there's a lot of unknowns in the U.S., and that you don't want to do contingent or option-based deals. Understood. You did MedMen. Why was that different? That, you know, could there be other similar MedMen type of deals that would make sense?
As I said before, and I'll say it again, I thought MedMen had, you know, a great brand, has, you know, great presence in different states within the U.S. And there's a lot we're learning, you know, in regards to consumer trends that we're taking back. We did one, and what I've said is this year, don't want to do another one till I know what we can do. You know, there was a lot of learning, a lot of intelligence, and we think, you know, MedMen has a lot of opportunities upon legalization. That's why, you know, at the time we did that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Lavery with Piper Sandler. Please proceed with your question.
Thank you. Good morning. I just wanted to come back to the market share. You've, you know, got some stabilization there, it looks like, and just would love to understand what your expectations are, for that going forward and just specifically what assumptions you've made for market share progressing in Canadian rec, against that $70 million-$80 million EBITDA guidance.
From a standpoint, you know, market share in Canada, you know, I've said this here, with our current business today, we want to be back in that double digit area today. That is focusing on the consumer, focusing on our brands, focusing on innovation. Listen, the consumer has come back and told us they want high potency in different strains, different products. They've come back and said what they want in regards to pre-rolls versus flower, what's infused, what's et cetera. You know, you gotta listen to the consumer. You know, it's very important in two provinces, Quebec and Ontario, which are, you know, the biggest provinces within Canada, of what the consumer is looking for in those markets, but working with all the other provinces. Innovation's key. New products are key. Keep coming up with new products quickly.
Pricing is key from that standpoint. I think the end of the day is, which is really important for us, what's our name? Tilray Brands. How we build brands in Canada. We're not out there just selling a pre-roll. We're not out there just selling flower. We're not out there selling oil. What our brands stand for, and when a consumer goes in, they're gonna buy our brands. Blair, anything you want to add to that?
I think you covered it, Irwin.
Just what share assumptions are reflected in your guidance?
Our share assumptions, basically, you know, high single digits, low double digits, are, you know, what in our guidance out there.
Okay. That's helpful. Just to follow up on the cash flow guidance. I know you say it'll be across all the businesses, which I assume is meant to be clear that it's not one carrying another and that it's broad. Just to make sure I also understand, is there a corporate piece or something that would not make that free cash flow positive at the total company level as well?
Well, corporate, you know, there's a corporate piece too, and you know, there's corporate investment, public company costs, there's insurance costs. There's CapEx costs in there. That's all a piece. It's a combined company. It's not just all the operating units of the company. It's a combined company that's when we say our cash flow positive.
Yeah, that's just what I'm trying to make sure I understand is it's across each business and at the total company level, you'll be-
Yeah. Exactly.
Okay.
Yes.
All right. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Shaan Mir with Canaccord Genuity. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. Congrats on the quarter. Just one from me here. Sticking on the guidance here, so just looking at your Adjusted EBITDA guidance, at the low end, that'd be calling for a bit over a 30% increase from the Q1, run rate Adjusted EBITDA. I just wanted to get a sense for the cadence of that, Adjusted EBITDA growth through the year. Is it more back half-weighted, or is this something that, you know, we should expect to see more step function growth through the quarters? Maybe any commentary on what segments you think will be driving that improvement.
I'm gonna let Carl jump in for one second, but with any business, there's, you know, seasonality here. As we look at our spirits business, we look at our bourbon business, and we look at our, you know, growth within our, you know, Canadian cannabis business, it definitely is more back half. Carl.
Particularly Q4, inside of the beverage alcohol business, Q4 is those three months of our Q4 are the biggest shipping months for beer during the year as it relates to the load-in for summer. You're gonna see, you know, smaller step-ups in the next couple quarters and then a bigger step-up in Q4.
The next two second and third quarter are our big Canadian cannabis quarters. You know, that's when, you know, we see, and that's when our planning around the holidays, and then around our January, you know, and, you know, quarter there. That's when the big product lines and product launches and that come out. What's the total number of new products that we have launching?
Over 100 SKUs this year.
Over 100 SKUs, and they will start to roll out now over the next six months. You know, one of the things Blair mentioned also, you know, was with Alberta being on strike or B.C. being on strike and our issue in Ontario delayed shipments, which you'll see those pick up in this quarter and next quarter.
Thank you. Again, congrats on the quarter.
Sure.
I'll pass it on.
Thank you. Thank you very much, and Happy Thanksgiving.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Glenn Mattson with Ladenburg Thalmann. Please proceed with your question.
Hi. Thanks for taking the question. Also in light of the news in the U.S. yesterday as perhaps it's only symbolic for now, but I also kind of want to hit on the MedMen question just because we haven't heard too much about it from you guys.
I mean, I'm just curious, like, how central that is to the U.S. strategy and just kinda like how involved you are in the decision-making process going on there and in your general sense of like, you know, you know, I guess how you feel about that business, how it's doing and what. You know, is it kind of like the tip of the spear, in other words, in terms of your cannabis touching assets and your strategy for it should things change in the U.S.?
Number one, we're not involved with running MedMen, which we can't be. You know, myself and Denise are observers on the board. We don't have a voting position on the board. There's a lot of data that we get from MedMen. There's a lot of information that we see coming out of the U.S. You know, even though we're not selling into the U.S., there's a lot of information that we're able to see. Listen, MedMen has gone through its challenges. Matter of fact, I'm in L.A. this weekend, you know, visiting some MedMen stores, and seeing what's going on, some of the products. I think they're making some tremendous headway. I think it was an important move in getting rid of selling Florida off, and bringing some money into the company.
There's some things we need to work out in New York, which we think will be a big market, you know, once recreational can be sold here. I come back and say the MedMen name, you know, no different than the Cookies name, has tremendous potential out there, that red bag, that red product. Which gives us the opportunity to let all these things get fixed. If legalization or when legalization happens, it gives us an opportunity to position ourself where we want to, whether it's own 100% of the business, own a percentage of the business, own certain states, et cetera. You know, we have a foot in the game today, and there's a lot of data and a lot of information that we're learning about.
We're not involved in day-to-day operations and decision-making within MedMen today.
Great. That's it for me. Thanks for the color.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Frederico Gomes with ATB Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just have one quick question on the theme of consolidation in Canada. You know, you obviously have your alliance with HEXO and a pretty complete stack of assets here. You mentioned that you expect, you know, some of the smaller LPs to start falling out of this market. Are there any specific capabilities or assets that you think, you know, would interest you in acquiring anything that would make sense from a strategic standpoint? Thank you.
Thank you very much for your question. Listen, I think we're well-positioned in Canada today. You know, we're well-positioned with our grow facilities in Leamington, our Broken Coast facility. You know, there's some assets we still have from the Tilray acquisition. In regards to our processing, we're in good place. In regards to our partnership and relationship with HEXO, and Redecan and some of the pre-rolls and that we can do with those and the readies which we're rolling out. We have a production facility, you know, in London, Ontario, where we can do drinks. You know, we're working with Redecan in regards to edibles. We have a facility, you know, in Ontario that allows us to do some other things with Cannabis 3.0, so which is called Avanti. We're well-positioned in Canada today.
We have 12 brands in Canada today and 12 great brands. You know, it's lined up the pieces within the box. It's just how we roll it out, how we work with, you know, the different provinces, and how we work with consumers to educate them about products, how we educate them about brands, and how we work with them to move them over to the illicit market, and that's an important part. I got to tell you, Blair and his team have done a great job in doing that. There's just a tremendous amount of data that we're accumulating and having in front of us to help us, you know, drive our share in the marketplace, and that's why you're seeing share growth. Again, I think ultimately over the last year, price compression is down.
Fourteen.
14%, okay. Think about it, that's a big move down 14%. From our standpoint, by taking strains out of the market, by eliminating the Marley brand, it's worth for us about $30-$40 million. What's the total number?
It's on an annual basis, yeah.
Yeah, about $30 million that we've taken out of the marketplace in regards to strains and brands and cleaning that up with the Tilray acquisition. You know, there's still a lot of fallout to do. I think, you know, just stepping back, you know, the industry's four years old. The government's going through its review right now. One of the biggest problems is in Canada, for every dollar we sell, $0.33 goes to taxes. You know, we have to be efficient, and that's why to survive in that market, you got to be that low-cost producer. You got to have the volume on top of that. That's ultimately what's gonna survive in that marketplace.
Yes. Thank you, Irwin. That's a really helpful call. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from line of Scott Fortune with Roth Capital. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, good morning. This is Nick on for Scott. Just looking for some color on Germany, maybe for Denise. Appreciate the roadmap you've provided. Can you just touch on the competitive environment and kind of what you've seen in terms of supply and demand economics there? It appears more suppliers are entering the market in Germany, so just looking for your thoughts around the current state of that market and kind of just the pricing environment there. Thank you.
Yeah. Yeah, sure. No problem. In terms of the market in Germany, as you can imagine, because of the fact, if you looked outside of Canada, Germany is really the largest market from a medical cannabis perspective. You do see a lot of new entrants coming into that market. We believe, as we mentioned in our press release, we are the number one market share in Germany with approximately 20% of market share. We believe that we have a very, very strong brand in terms of Tilray, which is well-recognized amongst physicians, healthcare practitioners, and patients alike. When we look at our pricing, like, yes, there is some pricing compression.
We're pleased to say that we have maintained high prices in the area of medical cannabis, and we think a lot of that is really attributable to the fact that about 85% of our sales go directly to the pharmacy. We are working directly with the pharmacist in terms of selling our products, so we're not losing margin to wholesalers and the like.
Great. That's it for me. I appreciate the call.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of John Zamparo with CIBC World Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Thanks. Good morning. I wanted to follow up on free cash flow and the guide for this year is for positive, but you're at nearly minus $50 now. It's a meaningful step back from last quarter. I wonder if you can elaborate on how you get there and were there certain elements of costs or payments that fell into Q1 and what kind of sales growth do you ultimately need to achieve to get to free cash flow positive for the year?
John, we've always said that our cash flow was back-end loaded this year. We also talked a little bit about it in our scripts and in the documents that'll get released publicly later today. You know, the Q1 historically for us is a quarter where we have a greater share of our annual payments. You know, different things that you have to do, things like insurance and things like those things that represent a big payment and then the benefit gets spread out throughout the year. I also think if you look at that cash flow number, you know, $26 million of that is working capital changes where we think a big chunk of that reverses.
We talked about the HTI receivable on the upside protection from the share issuance. That comes in next quarter and moves against that. I think it's, you know, we were always expecting Q1 to be a negative towards that target, and that we would make it up later in the year.
That's helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no other phone questions at this time. I'll turn the floor back to Ms. Noorata. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Now I'll read questions from the Say Technologies platform. The first question from our retail shareholders is
During the last earnings call, you stated that Tilray was exploring ways to get into the U.S. market. What is the plan?
Thank you, Berrin. You know, I think the plan is very much been laid out. As I said today, we have a strong spirits business, we have a strong beer business, and we have a good foothold in the wellness business with Manitoba Harvest. Continuous focus on growing those businesses. With that, look at other acquisitions out there within the spirits, in the wellness business or in the beer business with adjacency to cannabis. We are gonna be opportunistic as we watch what unfolds in regards to legalization within the US. If it does happen, we would very much be able to jump in there and acquire or merge with some of these MSOs.
I think what's really important today, as I've gone through and talked about our balance sheet in regards to our debt levels, you know, that are fixed out there, and that we will generate free cash and not be out there burning cash. There is going to be plenty of opportunities for us in the consumer area, and upon legalization or some type of legalization, there'll be opportunities for us within the cannabis area.
Thank you. The second and last question is: What are you doing to reassure stockholders that Tilray is worth investing in?
Well, number one, I will commit to this here. We have a team around the world that is working real hard for its shareholders out there and as our consumers. Number two is we have a very, you know, fine strategic plan, which we talked about to get to the $4 billion. A lot depends upon legalization. We're laser focused on our brands. We're laser focused on cost savings, in regards to we took out $100 million of cash cost savings. We're laser focused on our balance sheet with, you know, with our cash that we have on hand today with our fixed debt out there. You know, I know none of us have been happy with our stock performance, but, you know, it's the market, it's the cannabis industry, but nobody out there is happy with our, you know, stock performance.
I will tell you, we're focused on our brands. We're focused on the category. We're focused on diversification. We're focused on free cash. And with that, at the end of the day, I think, you know, we will end up being a winner out there.
Thank you, Irwin. That concludes our questions.
I wanna thank everybody for joining us today. You know, yesterday's news in regards to seeing President Biden talk about the cannabis industry and pardoning those that have been charged with cannabis offense on a federal and encouraging governors out there to do it on a state-wise is the first bit of action. You know, we've talked about it, and there's times you just wanna give up upon legalization and how you go another route. I think, again, as I just said before in the previous questions, you know, we are diversifying as a company, and we have a strong presence in Europe, which I just recently visited and spent time with the team over there.
I'm very proud of what we have in Portugal, what we have in Germany and in 20 different countries where we sell medical cannabis today, and the demand for medical cannabis in regards to so many different diseases and the ability to help patients out there. In regards to our Canadian market, what Blair and his team are doing there, in regards to the changing market, and as we talked about, you know, compression on price points down 14%, which we've gone in and cleaned up, you know, some of our strains, taken out some of our brands that don't make sense.
We're doing the right thing, sitting today with the cash balance that we have and being focused, you know, on our debt, where interest rates are rising the way they are and has caught a tremendous amount of companies off guard and with higher interest rates today. Coming out and being one of the cannabis companies out there that are not focused on having to go raise money, focusing on in regards to where our, you know, debt levels are and can manage through that, and also are focused on a diversification. We're also sitting back and waiting what happens in the US. It's not that we're, you know, locked in today to be in the multi-states and as different states legalize and where the opportunities will come from a SAFE Banking Act. There's a lot of investors that want to be in this industry.
There's a lot of investors that have been ultimately burned in this industry. It's gonna be a $100 billion industry in the U.S.. It's a $10 billion industry within Canada. It's a $30-$40 billion industry in Europe. There's big opportunities. The good thing is we're well-rounded out there with opportunities and, you know, hopefully they all come together. Thank you for your patience. I know sometimes as I read out there, "Hey, you give up on us?" Don't give up on us, because I commit this here, the team, the board, and everybody out there is working very hard. Thank you for your support and sticking there with us. I wanna wish our Canadian friends a very happy Thanksgiving and, look forward to speaking to you soon.
Have a nice weekend and a nice Thanksgiving and a nice Columbus Day. Thank you very much.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.