Craft beer boosts Tilray’s revenue as cannabis sales wane

Tilray Brands net revenue from its alcohol business increased 117% to US$47 million in the second quarter of 2023.

The growth follows the Canadian company acquiring eight beer brands from AB InBev last August and has reflected Tilray’s diversification into beer was a savvy move to offset challenges in the cannabis sector.

According to reports via Bloomberg, the positive second quarter figures for the business coincided with plans to also begin planting vegetables and fruit to help monetise some of the firm’s unneeded cannabis cultivation space in Quebec.

Ongoing competition for Tilray’s cannabis business arm reportedly comes from the illicit market, low wholesale prices and an oversaturated Canadian market.

Tilray CEO Irwin Simon said: “We feel there wasn’t a focus on these brands previously, and with us focusing on them, we’ll see great growth opportunities,” and revealed that the company plans to make Shock Top, a Belgian-style beer, a national brand in the US.

Simon also hinted that the business’s newly-acquired drinks portfolio essentially establishes Tilray into a good position to get into THC beverages should the US cannabis laws change in the future, giving the business scope to grow throughout America.

Back in 2018, AB InBev and Tilray to invested $100m in non-alcoholic cannabis drinks in a bid to develop a “deeper understanding” of non-alcoholic beverages containing THC and CBD in order to “guide future decisions”.

The decision, which positioned the companies at the forefront of trends across the beverage and cannabis sectors, can now be considered an insightful move showing that rather than one product cannibalising the other, the assets are in fact complementary.