Cv Sciences Inc

Greetings. Welcome to the CVSciences first quarter 2022 conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode, and this conference is being recorded. Following the formal presentation, management will take questions from the analyst community. I would now like to turn the call over to CVSciences for an introduction.

Please go ahead. Thank you, and good morning, everyone. With us today with prepared remarks are CVSciences Chief Executive Officer Joseph Dowling and Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to remind you that during this call, management's prepared remarks may contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by CV Sciences at this time. When using this call, the words anticipate, could, estimate, intend, expect, believe, potential, will, should, project, and similar expressions as they relate to CV Sciences are as such forward-looking statements. Finally, please note that on today's call, management will refer to non-GAAP financial measures in which CVSciences excludes certain expenses from its GAAP financial results. Please refer to CVSciences press release from earlier today for full reconciliation of its non-GAAP performance measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures. This morning, the company issued a press release announcing its financial results. Participants on this call who may not have already done so may wish to look at the press release as the company provides a summary of the results on this call. The press release may be found at www.cvsciences.com. I'd like to now turn the call over to CV Sciences Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Joseph Dowling.

Joe? Thank you, Dan. Good morning, everyone. We all know the impact from the external environment on our industry and company. In spite of this, we continue to make progress in developing products that customers want and that specifically address their need states. We are getting our products on the shelf at retail during a very challenging time, and we are selling our products more effectively than ever from our e-commerce platform. Our call this morning will cover areas that we are focused on to add long-term value. Let me start with product development. Consumers have been very clear about the type of products they want from us. In today's stressful environment, products that address specific need states that help with sleep, anxiety, pain, to name a few areas, are precisely what our customers are telling us they need to supplement their health and wellness plan. Over the last couple quarters, we have launched a complete wellness line of products. Our PlusCBD Sleep, PlusCBD Calm, and now during Q1, we released our PlusCBD Relief that is an adjunct to helping consumers with pain symptoms. These products are exactly what consumers have been asking for and early sales indications confirm this. Also during Q1, we launched four unique over-the-counter pain relief topical products that are formulated to address minor aches and pain. The feedback from our retailers and customers is overwhelmingly positive on these new products and most importantly, how these products are specifically addressing everyday health and wellness challenges that we all face with natural plant-based alternative medicines and self-care products. We are getting these products on the shelf. They are selling through. We expect strong replenishment orders and believe this type of product development positions the company for growth even during tough times. The market is telling us that we are on the right track. An example of this is the recent People's Choice Award that we just received from one of the largest retailers in the natural products channel. This award goes to the top brand across all categories and is based on a couple of factors, and they are what is the best product, in-store support, and importantly, customer service. We are very proud of this award, but more importantly, this recognition lets us know we are on the right track. Beyond product development, we plan to focus our sales and marketing efforts on our top selling products. While some companies may choose to develop and sell every product in every sales channel, our strategy going forward will be to focus on our top-selling products in the sales channels that provide the best return. Evolving our product offering to consumer needs and trends is critical. As we mentioned during our year-end 2021 earnings call, where we indicated that 44 percent of our net revenue for the year-end of December 31, 2021, was from new products launched since 2020. We will continue to innovate, develop, and launch new products that meet the needs of our customers. Our product development pipeline is innovative and will include high quality proven products that we believe position the company for future growth. And we will focus on the most profitable sales channels rather than trying to be all things to all people. We know that focusing on the right sales channels is paying off, as indicated from recent SPINS data during the first quarter of 2022, which shows that we have regained the top spot as the leading brand in the natural products retail channel. We achieved this with far fewer resources than our competitors. We are very proud of this accomplishment. The next area of our focus is scaling our business to the new economic reality, achieving cost efficiency in every area of the business, managing our working capital to optimize cash flow, and taking steps to get our margins back in line. Over the last two years, we have taken numerous steps to right-size and operate as efficiently as possible. This is an ongoing and constant effort. We have evaluated every functional area, every vendor, every relationship of the company, and have made tough decisions to become more cost efficient. Jorg will discuss more specifically some of the initiatives that have and will realize significant cost savings. We are managing our working capital very closely. Actions to accelerate collections have been implemented. Also, we have a strong level of saleable inventory and are working diligently to ensure that we convert this valuable asset to cash timely and profitably. Because it is so critical to our industry, we will continue to play a leadership role at both the state and federal level to achieve a regulatory framework that will allow our industry to realize its potential. Of course, federal inaction has hurt our industry, created uncertainty for consumers looking for regulatory clarity, and has chilled investment. However, we see progress every day at both the state and federal level and will continue our role as a respected leader in the space to achieve regulatory clarity. The CBD addressable market is big. and has significant upside as we work to resolve the current challenges. We remain optimistic about our future growth prospects. The CBD industry continues to undergo a repositioning, and we expect to benefit from the evolving regulatory framework as well as further consolidation. Given the current market dynamics, we remain focused on driving cost efficiency achieving cash flow positive in the near term while also continuing to advance our brand awareness and innovation initiatives. Despite near-term challenges and uncertainties, we have positioned our company to participate in the consolidation and brand contraction of the CBD market by continuing to execute on our key strategic initiatives and leveraging core competitive advantages to drive long-term growth and shareholder value. I will resume my comments in a few minutes. Let me pause now, and I will turn the call over to York.