Chalice Brands Ltd

Hello, everyone. We will be getting started in just a moment as we wait for others to join. Thank you.

Greetings and welcome to the Chalice Brands second quarter 2021 earnings call and corporate webinar. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, Thursday, August 26th, and will be available for replay on the company's website at investors.chalicebrandsltd.com. It is now my pleasure to introduce the host of the call, John Varghese, Executive Chairman, and Jeff Yap, President and CEO, who will be going through Chalice's second quarter earnings and investor presentation. At the end of the presentation, management will address some previously submitted questions. If you are interested in asking a question and haven't done so already, please forward them to chalice at rbmilestone.com and we will answer them in a timely fashion. Lastly, RBMG is not a registered investment advisor or broker dealer. For more information, please visit rbmilestone.com. And now I'll hand it off to John and Jeff. Gentlemen, the stage is yours.

Thank you, David. And thank you all for joining us today to review Chalice Brands' performance for the second quarter of 2021. With me on the call today is Jeff Yap, President and CEO of Chalice Brands. I would like to remind everyone that except for historical information, our discussion today will include forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Management can give no assurance that any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements discussed on this call are relevant as of the date of this call and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements except as required by applicable law. Management refers you to the cautionary statement and risk factors included in the company's MD&A by which any forward-looking statements made during this call are qualified in their entirety. Please note that all financial information is provided in U.S. dollars unless otherwise specified. Jeff and I have prepared a few remarks followed by a review of our financial results for the second quarter of 2021, and we will once again read out to you questions that we received frequently during the past quarter. We have now traded under our new name, Chalice Brands, for roughly three months, and under our new symbol, CHAL, post the 23 to 1 share consolidation. Jeff and the management team have done a tremendous job launching the newly named Chalice Brands as we leave the Golden Leaf Holdings era in the past. As a shareholder, board member, and as part of the management team, I'm not satisfied with the performance of the stock price since the consolidation. While I'm not a fan of relative comparisons, our shareholders should note that a review of most cannabis indexes and their returns for the period of February 1st to this past Friday, or those of Chalice Brands versus larger MSOs, or Chalice versus our peer group, the pain is felt similarly across the sector for multiple reasons. Regardless of market sentiment for the sector, we have continuously leaned into business excellence as we work towards our goal of establishing the company as a leader in the state of Oregon. As executive chairman of the company, I believe management has executed on the crawl, walk, run strategy as we continued our focus on operations, continued our expense controls, moved deliberately into the walk phase in California, and boldly executed on the run phase with the acquisition of Homegrown in May in Oregon. Specifically, the second quarter of 2021 represented another pivotal step towards positioning the company as a cash flow positive and leader in the state of Oregon. As we lean into the run phase in Oregon, we have undertaken significant initiatives that position the Chalice brand for growth. In May, the company purchased a 100% ownership in homegrown Oregon, a chain of five retail dispensaries located in Portland, Salem, and Albany, Oregon, increasing our retail footprint from seven to 12 stores, in what we believe is the most competitive cannabis market in the United States. The added fact that homegrown is profitable makes this a highly accretive acquisition for Chalice Brands earnings per share. As part of our West Coast focused growth strategy, we will continue to seek acquisitions like this to demonstrate that we are good allocators of capital. We continue to execute effectively on the business by staying committed to the standards that Jeff and I set for Chalice Brands. We strongly feel that our efforts in summer of 2019 have clearly demonstrated that the philosophy and culture that Jeff has brought, crawl, walk, run, and the business model that goes with it is working for the company. We're not happy with our valuation, but eventually we hope our strong business performance will translate into our share price. I will now turn the call over to Chalice Brands President and CEO Jeff Yap for a few remarks.