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5/6/2022
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining today's Anchorage Holdings First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. My name is Tia, and I will be your moderator for today's call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. I will now like to pass the conference over to your host, Steve Gertz, Chief Financial Officer with Anchorage. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Acreage Holdings First Quarter Conference Call. Joining me today is Peter Caldini, our Chief Executive Officer. Today's call will be archived on our Investor Relations website at investors.acreageholdings.com. Before we begin, I would like to remind listeners that today's call contains forward-looking statements subject to various risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements. Any such information and statements should be taken in conjunction with cautionary statements in our press releases and risk factor discussions in our public filings found on CDAR and EDGAR, as well as our investor website. Any forward-looking statements reflect management's expectations as of today's date, and we assume no obligation to update them other than as may be required by applicable securities law i will now turn the call over to peter thank you steve and good morning everyone in 2021 a significant amount of time and resources was spent on transforming our business into the much stronger company you see today that focused effort has generated very positive results acreage has changed in a number of ways For example, in the past, we were unprofitable, but in 2021, Acres achieved four consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA. Today, we have new leadership with extensive commercial experience to navigate through a complex regulatory environment and capitalize on the significant market opportunities ahead. In the past, we pursued over expansion without achieving sufficient scale. But now we have a focused strategy behind our highly attractive core market footprint. In the past, we had an undisciplined operational approach. While today we have a strong operational and financial discipline. And lastly, in the past, we had liquidity issues. While today we have a very strong balance sheet. Now that we've established a strong foundation for acreage, we are carrying that positive momentum into 2022. as we look to capture the significant growth opportunities ahead of us. We will achieve this by continuing to focus on our three strategic priorities, accelerating growth in our core markets, driving profitability, and strengthening our balance sheet. The first quarter of 2022 was a difficult quarter for most of the cannabis industry. Pandemic-related challenges, inflation reducing the disposable income of customers and patients, and continued pricing pressure in competitive markets all contributed to a challenging revenue environment. Given these conditions, we are pleased to report strong year-over-year revenue growth of 48%. The year-over-year growth was primarily driven by the acquisitions of Ohio, California, and Maine operations over the past 12 months and was somewhat offset by revenue declines due to the divestiture of Florida operations in April 2021 and the declines within the company's operations that are being held for sale. Additionally, total revenue for the first quarter of 2022 declined sequentially by 1.2 million, or 2%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. Excluding companies California and Oregon operations, however, which are not considered core, revenue for the three months ending March 31, 2022, increased slightly by 0.5%, on a sequential basis. During the first quarter of the year, we delivered our fifth consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA despite challenging market conditions. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2022 was $8.6 million, increasing from the $1.6 million reported in the first quarter of 2021 and a slight improvement sequentially from the $8.5 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2021. In the first quarter of 2022, we also made significant progress on the development of our brand portfolio. A key part of accelerating growth in our core markets is our focus on further developing our house of brands to deliver innovative and differentiated products to our customers. During the quarter, we executed on several product line extensions and introduced our premium cannabis brand, Superflux, in Illinois, Ohio, and Massachusetts. Superflex is a premium brand focused on honoring the cannabis craft with each step of the development process designed to preserve the essence of cannabis in all product forms, flour, live resin, and cured and dried concentrates. We also launched several new edible products during the quarter, including our new edible format in the Ohio market, the Botanist Fruit Chews. In Maine, we launched the botanist gummies, which are vegan and gluten-free and crafted from natural ingredients. We also launched the botanist gummies in Illinois and Massachusetts. In the vape category, we launched the botanist distillate vape cartridges in Massachusetts. These new cartridges include high THC oil with strain-specific, freshly extracted terpenes. In New York, we introduced the Botanist 85 live vape cartridges, which include bread, in-house exclusive strains, and live terpenes. The Botanist 85 live vape cartridges are one of the only products of their kind in the New York market. In addition to our new market-specific products, we also announced a license agreement with Botanica, the producers of Mr. Moxie's THC and CBD products, to manufacture and distribute their award-winning mints across our core footprint in Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, and Maine as regulations allow. This agreement will effectively double Mr. Moxie's consumer reach and further diversifies our product selection by bringing these popular products to our core markets. Developing a differentiated and scalable product portfolio is integral to the growth in our core states as it unlocks new wholesale and retail revenue streams and attracts new customers across our footprint. We intend to further accelerate this growth throughout 2022 with new dispensary openings, new product launches, and cultivation expansion projects to continue to expand our wholesale business. We will also continue to explore potential partnership and creative acquisitions where we see strong opportunities. Looking ahead in New Jersey, we will now begin to see the impact of adult use sales, which we officially launched in this market on April 21st. We were well prepared for this launch, having previously completed a cultivation expansion project at our Egg Harbor location in 2021 that increased our production capacity fourfold. Our two adult use dispensary locations in Williamstown and Egg Harbor Township saw a significant increase in foot traffic and revenue the acreage team in new jersey did a tremendous job preparing in very short notice for the successful launch of adult sales although we are only weeks into the launch of adult use in new jersey we are encouraged by what we're seeing during the remainder of the year we will focus on further solidifying our position in the state as a top tier retailer and wholesaler including exploring the opportunity to expand our cultivation further as demand ramps up in the rapidly growing market. In New York, we are preparing to capitalize on pending adult use sales. Leveraging our positive experience in New Jersey, we are expanding our cultivation facility in Syracuse, which we expect to be completed at the end of the second quarter of this year. We are also currently looking at our network of retail dispensaries in New York to ensure that we have a solid footprint the anticipated increase in business that will come with the development of this pending adult use market turning to connecticut we continue to prepare for adult use in that state and are exploring opportunities to further increase our leadership position including the potential for social equity partnerships we will continue to focus on the consolidation of our operations in maine we recently announced the consolidation and conversion to adult use of our last retail location operating under a managed service agreement following completion of that conversion we will turn towards consolidation and conversion of the cultivation facility in massachusetts we are looking at possible increases in cultivation capacity as well as adding an additional retail location to serve that more mature market next in illinois we completed a cultivation expansion in 2021 and are ramping up our wholesale operation, leveraging our significant cultivation and wholesale expertise. In Pennsylvania, we completed a cultivation expansion in 2021 and our focus on maintaining our position in the market as a producer of premium cannabis products that are very much in demand in the wholesale market. Finally, in our most recent acquired operations in Ohio, We are continuing to increase the quantity of products we produce in the state to further ramp up our wholesale operations. Innovation will also be an important drive for growth in this market. Having recently introduced edible formats including botanist brand fruit chews, we are excited to see the meaningful contribution this market will make to our business in the first year of full ownership by Acres. During the quarter, we also welcome new members to our senior management team with the appointment of Dennis Kern as our chief operating officer and the addition of Steve Strom to our board of directors. Both have become instrumental members of our team and we are excited to have them on board to help us deliver the growth we expect to achieve during the year. Additionally, last month we welcomed Corey Sheehan as our new general counsel. Before I turn the call over to Steve for a detailed look at our financials for the first quarter of 2022, I want to finish as always by thanking our team whose work this quarter has been fantastic. This has been a solid start to what is we believe will be a very exciting year for acreage. We are in an enviable position to capitalize on the tremendous market opportunities ahead of us. The New Jersey market just went live with adult use sales. New York and Connecticut both have pending adult use sales, and we are growing our premium wholesale operations in several states across our footprint. I am incredibly excited for all that we will accomplish together in 2022. I will now turn the call over to Steve to discuss the financial results for the quarter in more detail before we open the call to questions. Thank you, Peter, and good morning to everyone again. As Peter indicated, Revenue for the first quarter of 2022 was $56.9 million, a 48% increase compared to the first quarter of 2021. Year-over-year growth was primarily due to the acquisitions of Ohio, California, and Maine operations over the past 12 months and was somewhat offset by revenue declines due to the divestitures of Florida in April 2021, declines within the company's operations that are being held for sale, and the non-recurrence of previously unrecognized management fees in New Hampshire that were reported in the first quarter of 2021. Excluding these acquisitions and divestitures, the impact of total revenue decline in the company's Oregon operations, and the increased management fees earned in a comparable period, total revenue increased by 4.7 million, or 14%, for the three months ended March 31, 2022, as compared to fiscal 2021. Additional revenue available from completion of expansions at several of our cultivation facilities, coupled with increased demand and production across various states, drove this revenue increase. Additionally, total revenue for the first quarter of 2022 declined sequentially by 1.2 million, or 2%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. Again, however, Excluding the company's California and Oregon operations, which are not considered core, revenue for the first quarter of 2022 increased slightly by 0.5% on a sequential basis, as the company was able to overcome challenges associated with the pandemic and industry pricing pressures, which negatively impacted revenues. Retail revenue increased 60% for the quarter compared to the first quarter of 2021, and was driven primarily by the acquisition of Ohio on October 1st, 2021. Excluding the impact of acquisitions and divestitures and the revenue performance of our Oregon operations, which are being held for sale, retail revenue increased by 6%. This organic growth is primarily a result of increased demand and production across various states. Wholesale revenue improved by 51%, versus the comparable period in 2021. This was due to our increased capacity, as well as our maturing operations in Pennsylvania and Illinois, which resulted in higher yields and better product mixes in both markets, as well as the impact of recent acquisitions. Excluding the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, wholesale revenue increased by 33%. Gross profit continued to benefit from the vertical integration of our operations as a greater portion of the products sold in our retail dispensaries was sourced internally from our own production and processing operations. Gross profit generated from this internally produced product includes both the wholesale and retail margins. Excluding other income, which is earned from management fees and has no associated cost of goods sold, Gross margin during the quarter was up 200 basis points to 52% compared to 50% in the first quarter of 2021. Gross margin additionally was up sequentially from 48% in the fourth quarter of 2021. Total operating expenses for the quarter were 32.2 million, an increase of 13.4 million or 71% from the first quarter of 2021. Excluding equity-based compensation expenses, losses, write-downs and recoveries, impairments, and depreciation and amortization expenses, all of which are non-cash in nature, total operating expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2022 increased $3.6 million, or 19%, compared to the corresponding period of fiscal 2021. The rate of increase in operating expenditures was significantly lower than the rate of increase in revenue and is due to acreage's expanded operations through growth and acquisitions. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes impairments, equity-based compensation expense, and unusual items that are not expected to recur in future periods, was $8.6 million for the first quarter of 2022, increasing 440%, compared to the adjusted EBITDA of $1.6 million in the first quarter of 2021, and a small sequential improvement from adjusted EBITDA of $8.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA from core operations, which excludes markets where the company has entered into definitive agreements to exit, and startup ventures such as beverages and CBD, was $9.3 million for the current quarter. indicating that the company's core markets are still being negatively impacted by its non-core operations. Consolidated EBITDA during the quarter was $1.3 million compared to a consolidated EBITDA of $1.6 million in the previous year's comparable period. Lastly, net loss attributable to acreage for the quarter was $12.7 million compared to a loss of $7.8 million in the first quarter of 2021. Revenue growth and gross margin improvements combined with reductions in equity-based compensation expenses were more than offset by increased compensation expense due to the company's expanded operations and recoveries of prior impairments during the first quarter of the prior year. After the quarter, we completed the sale of our cultivation and processing facility in Medford, Oregon, and closed the dispensary in Powell, Oregon. Total consideration for the sale of the Medford Cultivation and Processing Facility was $2 million, including $750,000 paid to acreage in February 2021, $500,000 due August 1, 2022, and the remaining balance of $750,000 due May 1, 2023. We also completed the consolidation and conversion of a dispensary in Brewer, Maine to adult use. Closing with our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $32.6 million in cash and restricted cash on hand. This cash, together with undrawn amounts under the current debt facility that was arranged in the fourth quarter of 2021, provides funding of $57.6 million until December 31st, 2022, at which time the company expects the additional $50 million committed accordion to be available as well. With that, I will now have the operator open the line for questions. Operator, please go ahead.
Absolutely. We will now begin the QA session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone keypad. If for any reason you would like to remove that question, please press star followed by two. Again, to ask a question, press star one. As a reminder, if you are using a speakerphone, please remember to pick up your handset before asking your questions. We will pause here briefly to allow questions to generate the queue. The first question is from the line of Matt Bottomley, but it cannot curb down on fee. You may proceed.
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