The New York Office of Cannabis Management held a Control Board Meeting today that was broadcast online. Two months ago, we provided an update regarding the state’s strong growth in adult-use sales, and this extremely bullish story has become even more bullish. Sales growth is very strong, and the state is on track to do $1 billion in 2024:
John Kagia, Director of Policy, who was sharing the slides with the Board, pointed out that the November strength was overstated due to there being 5 weeks in November after 4 in September and October. He suggested that the $919 million year-to-date would be boosted in December to over $1 billion. The weekly sales have expanded from $12.9 million to $29.0 in six months. Two months ago, it was $22.4 million per week.
Growth is being driven by more stores and fewer unlicensed stores. In our newsletter in July, when we called the New York cannabis market booming, there were 144 open stores. Now there are now 261. This is a huge increase, but it is still a small number of dispensaries given the large population of the state.
Non-flower sales have expanded over the past two months from 52% of sales to 55%, and the medical cannabis companies, most of which are publicly-held, are the source of 23% of the flower sales.
I am very bullish on New York, but they can do a better job on getting the data out. Many states issue monthly updates and include the data on their websites. New York can do better on this front. Still, this big state has come a long way. Investors should be paying attention.
