While they are immediately adjacent to any domestic and international cargo services, Aurora will face greater shipping distances to Germany and Italy than a competitor situated reasonably near the Toronto airport.
I guess the final question will be whether cost to ship to an Eastern airport will offset the flight distance advantage for Aurora's competition.
Flight distances:
Edmonton to Frankfurt 7?309 kilometers (4,542 miles)
Toronto to Frankfurt 6,352 kilometers (3,947 miles)
Edmonton to Rome 8,240 kilometers (5,120 miles)
Toronto to Rome 7,100 kilometers (4,412 miles)
Of course, this assumes direct non-stop flights to those locations. While non-stop connections from Toronto are likely, non-stop connections from Edmonton are perhaps less so. Western Canada flights to Europe often make a stop in Toronto or Montreal before crossing the Atlantic Perhaps a better comparison can be obtained by looking at shipping rates for parcel service from each City. While this method certainly won't reflect the rate a corporate customer would pay, it will reflect at least a preliminary price differential for shipping to international locations from the two locations. It also provides a basis for comparison of cost differentials that can be expressed as a percentage for Aurora vs the competition, based on the competition's locations. For example:
T9E 0V6 (postal code for Edmonton International Airport. locations of Aurora Sky)
K7A 0A8 (Smith Falls Ontario, location of Canopy Growth Hershey's factory)
First I will try Canada Post Xpress post. This is a 5 day delivery guaranteed delivery service to Germany.I am going to use an arbitrary number for the volume of 1 kg of marijuana as 6" x 6" x 10" and get a rate to ship 1 kg for each destination:
T9E 0V6 to Germany $84.48 CAD
K7A 0A8 to Germany $84.48 CAD
Ok so Canada Post doesn't differentiate, at least for their online retail shipping cost estimator. What about say Purolator? Destination is more specific with Purolator, so I am using Frankfurt as it is a major international airport hub. This time I am using 10 kg and a shipping date of April 2nd(Purolator doesn't ask size for their basic online cost estimator). I am not declaring a value. Delivery is 3 business days from Edmonton, equivalent service is 2 days from Smith Falls.
T9E 0V6 to Frankfurt $429.20 CAD
K7A 0A8 to Frankfurt $429.20 CAD
Shipping to Rome produced the same results. Based no this preliminary survey, their is no cost advantage to either location. The only advantage goes to Smith Falls, based on delivery time. Of course, a regular commercial delivery contract would bring out sharper pencils ...
In terms of domestic shipping, without bothering to run rates, I think it would be fair to say that Aurora would have a definite advantage for Western Canada, with Canopy likely holding the advantage for Eastern Canadian destinations.
