4Front Ventures Corp

Good morning. Welcome to the Forefront Ventures' first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. As a reminder, during the course of this conference call, Forefront's management may make forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. These results are outlined in the risk factors section of the company's filings and disclosure materials. Any forward-looking statements should be considered in light of these factors. Please note that as safe harbor, any outlook presented speaks as of today and forefront management does not undertake any obligation to revise any forward-looking statements in the future. Also, please note that on today's call, we will refer to certain NANGAP financial measures such as EVITA and adjusted EVITA. These measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Forefront Ventures considers certain NANGAP measures to be meaningful indicators of the performance of its business in addition to but not as a substitute for our GAAP results. A reconciliation of such non-GAAP financial measures to their nearest comparable GAAP measure is included in our press release issued earlier today. I will now turn the call over to Andrew Toot, Chief Executive Officer of Forefront Ventures. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and welcome, everyone. Joining me on the call today, Carl Cescano, our consulting president, Peter Campion, our CFO, Ray Landgraf, president of corporate development, and Brandon Mills, EVP of operations. It was just a few weeks ago that we reviewed our Q4 results. And since then, we've continued to make meaningful progress. The team and I look forward to sharing more details that support why we believe 2024 is the pivotal year for Forefront. They're so optimistic about our future. I want to begin by outlining our vision in Illinois. Illinois represents a significant and strategic growth opportunity for our company, one that we have been diligently preparing to capitalize on. As we continue to operationalize our footprint across the state, we are poised to tap into a substantial market with considerable growth potential. With the state allowing a maximum of 10 locations per operator, each new establishment we launch is expected to not only broaden our reach, but also significantly enhance our financial performance. These locations are forecasted to generate an additional $850,000 to $1.2 million in monthly revenue, offering strong returns and a rapid payback period due to our vertically integrated structure. This quarter, we've continued to leverage the positive momentum from Q4, focusing particularly on bringing the Mattson facility online, a pivotal development in our Illinois operations. Within the next few weeks, we anticipate introducing plants to this facility, a move that will greatly increase the availability of flour and derivative products by this summer. Scaling of our operations in Illinois is set to alleviate existing supply constraints, leading to a substantial increase in wholesale revenue. Furthermore, this expansion enables us to enhance our retail offerings, providing customers with a diverse mix of high-quality forefront brands and products, along with popular third-party brands, thereby solidifying our market presence and driving further revenue growth. in retail expansion news we are excited to share the construction of the norwich store is complete and the team is in place and ready to open we are pleased to report that we have completed our final inspection and are now submitting final requests into the state before receiving licensure which could happen as early as monday that store has all the elements of a strong performing retail location including a large addressable market with an attractive demographic profile limited and capped competition, plentiful parking, and a strong co-tenancy with other high-traffic retail stores. In designing the Norwich store, we focused on an engaging yet streamlined customer journey, supporting both online ordering with accelerated checkout, as well as in-store shopping, opportunities for education, and a personalized customer service. These enhancements will speed up transactions, provide more personalized service, and help manage inventory more efficiently. creating a smooth and enjoyable shopping experience for every visitor. On the financial front, we've seen market improvement for the quarter. We successfully converted a significant amount of debt into equity, strengthening our balance sheet and positioning us for sustainable growth. This strategic gesture is a pivotal one on our path to sustainable profitability. Our commitment to innovation remains unwavering. This quarter, we've launched several new products, are continuously optimizing and improving our existing offerings to better meet changing customer demands as an example of this in the first quarter we launched several exciting brands and products across different states our new hunt brand in illinois in january our new mission flower brand in both massachusetts and illinois and a 1988 blunt with a glass tip in massachusetts all in february additionally Easy vape disposables were introduced into Washington in February, followed by Marmabars in March, and not stopping there, Crystal Clear Blast was released in both Illinois and Massachusetts in March and April. Following their tremendous popularity in other states, I'm excited to announce that we'll be adding our signature chocolate edibles, Cocoa Gems, to our Illinois product lineup. These edibles are crafted with premium Belgian chocolate and deliver a luxurious taste experience, blending rich and indulgent flavors. Looking to the second half of 2024, our strategic direction is crystal clear. We will leverage our leading cultivation and production capabilities, along with deep market insights built over nearly a decade of operating experience across several large and highly competitive markets, to aim to double our revenue by the end of 2025. The investments we've made in infrastructure and innovation are expected to yield significant returns. We were also hopeful about the potential federal regulatory changes in the cannabis industry, signaling a shift towards more favorable conditions. While these developments are encouraging, our strategy does not solely rely on, we remain fully prepared to operate effectively under the current regulations, ensuring our resilience and continued success regardless of the pace of change. In sum, 2024 is shaping up to be a transformative year for Forefront. We are making strategic advancements focusing on our core competencies of operational excellence and delivering high-quality products at attractive prices, and expanding our retail presence to reach significantly more consumers. Your continued support is invaluable to us, and we are committed to executing our strategy to ensure long-term success and enhance shareholder value. With that, I will now pass the call over to Brandon to discuss trends and our performance in all key markets. Brandon?

Thanks, Andrew. I'll now begin with the breakdown of our performance state by state. First up, Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, on the retail front, while we continue to experience challenges with our Brookline location, our Georgetown and Worcester locations were stable and flat quarter over quarter, despite the historical macro trends of seasonal softness due to fewer days and holidays in Q1, combined with a market-wide drop in flower prices of 3% in Q1 compared to Q4. As we look forward, we expect to be able to return to metered retail growth on the back of improved product quality and innovation from forefront, as well as an improved assortment of third-party brands and products, which I'll touch on in just a minute. As I mentioned about a month ago, our cultivation facilities have undergone significant enhancements, which have already begun to manifest in increased production yields and quality of our flour, with upgraded genetics and new strains being added to our menu weekly. This has supported our strong wholesale growth in the state, which we expect to continue building on as we fundamentally shift our business model. We plan to rely less on forefront brands and products in our mission stores and instead introduce these SKUs to the substantial wholesale market. This will also allow us to offer our mission customers a broader and deeper assortment of leading third-party brands and product choices while reaching a larger total consumer audience through both channels in the state. We are pleased with the successful launches of our new products in the first quarter, including Mission Cannabis Flower, 1988 Blunts with Glass Tips, and our Crystal Clear Blast Vape Offering in both disposable and rechargeable hardware. Notably, the first full month of Mission Flower sales totaled almost $900,000, surpassing the combined peak sales of our other established flower brands by nearly $200,000. The positive reception of these offerings has been encouraging, and underscores the strong market demand for innovative and high-quality products at fair prices. Looking ahead, we are excited about upcoming launches like SmokeBreaks, a five-pack of mini 0.35-gram pre-rolls for on-the-go consumption, and the expansion of our Marma's line with new edibles and flavors. As we progress through 2024, we are thrilled to be armed with the strongest and most diverse product portfolio in our company's history. a portfolio informed by our mature market leadership and insights. And as we overcome the capacity constraints that held us back in 2023, we expect to ramp up our wholesale channel significantly. Catching on our loyalty programs in both Illinois and Massachusetts, we are extremely encouraged by what the data is telling us, namely that we are consistently outperforming market averages and boosting average cart size, repeat purchase behavior, and the lifetime value of our loyalty customers. As reported by Spring Big, amongst all Spring Big customers in those states, between a quarter and a third of our loyalty customers visit a Mission store to redeem points in a given month, which is higher than each market average. And Mission customers also redeem at a higher rate than competitive retailers, resulting in a blended average basket value of $70 versus our competition's $68 in Illinois and $60 in Massachusetts. These statistics not only underscore the attractiveness and stickiness of our loyalty programs, but will be instrumental in fostering deep customer loyalty and satisfaction as we grow our loyalty member base. We look forward to building on this success as we migrate our SMS loyalty customers to their mission app. To that end, in February, our retail efforts included a strategic text-to-app migration campaign where we successfully converted 29,550 SMS customers to our Mission app in just 29 days, more than 1,000 per day. Additionally, we introduced Mission Money in both states, a unique program that allows customers to use their rewards for both cannabis and non-cannabis products, a first for our market where previously redemption was limited to only non-cannabis items. Our vision for growth within Massachusetts is clearer than ever. We continue to prioritize being among the top producers of high quality flour, and we're enhancing our product offerings at Mission retail stores, including first and third party products and strains, to ensure our customers receive the outstanding experience they expect. Our commitment extends to innovation across key product categories like pre-rolls, infused products, edibles, and vapes, all of which are essential for driving our wholesale growth. Turning the focus to Illinois, Our retail sales remain flat quarter over quarter, similar to Massachusetts, despite challenges such as fewer sales days in February, a decline in consumer spending after the holidays, and closures due to adverse weather conditions. As we prepare to significantly scale our operations in Illinois, we are excited to further strengthen our leadership team to drive growth. Matt Stephens, our head of cultivation in Massachusetts, and the architect behind our state-of-the-art NECC facility in Holliston, will now oversee the Madison facility. This facility is poised to become a critical growth engine for our company this year. Given Matt's successful track record at NECC and his integral role in the design and planning on the Madison facility, we have the utmost confidence in his ability to launch, scale, and manage an operation of this magnitude. Additionally, in Q1, Nick Ursel joined the team to run Illinois wholesale operations. Nick comes to forefront from a VP of Business Development role at a leading regional cannabis hemp and testing lab, and he previously held senior sales leadership roles at Merck for over 14 years. During this quarter, we've continued to address our internal supply constraints that previously limited our ability to meet demand for our high-quality flower and free rolls, and we are very much looking forward to significantly improving the supply issue once production at Mattson ramps up this summer. As we look ahead, we are diligently executing on our retail expansion plan, as communicated last quarter. Following the successful completion of our final inspection, we are now awaiting to open our Norridge location. As Andrew mentioned earlier, the team is in place and ready to welcome customers. Similar to the innovation we've seen in Massachusetts and Washington, we're also excited about the developments in Illinois. Several new product launches are planned for the upcoming months, including the Marmot Bar, a fruit-flavored disposable vape, and our 1988 premium glass tip blunts, both set to significantly enhance our product offering. Additionally, our product development team is preparing to introduce smoke breaks, our chocolate-lined cocoa gems, and new flavors in the Marmos line this summer, further enriching our diverse product portfolio. At our Madison facility, we are just a few short weeks from introducing plants into the buildings. We plan to bring the 29 cultivation rooms in Massen online at a rate of approximately two per week. This schedule means that by mid-August, we will be harvesting four full rooms per week, which on a square foot basis is five to six times what we currently harvest out of Elk Grove. This step function increase in canopy will uncork our supply constraint and allow us to aggressively pursue market share in the two-thirds of the wholesale channel we cannot currently reach. Regarding genetic diversity, we plan to expand from the 12 to 15 strains currently in production at our Elk Grove facility to 20 to 25 strains at Matson. Additionally, the new facility will enable us to dedicate rooms to more sativa varieties, which are currently in high demand. Due to the layout constraints and the longer flowering cycles of most sativas at our Elk Grove location, we've been unable to scale up sufficiently to meet the strong consumer demand for these varieties. Furthermore, We're now actively expanding our strategic partnerships in Illinois, establishing more reciprocal buy-sell arrangements with MSL partners and securing a stronger presence on promotional calendars, which is boosting our brand consideration. We have introduced a THC pricing tier system, which correlates higher THC content with higher prices. This new pricing model is performing well and keeping us competitive in the market while not leaving margin on the table. Combined with our expanding genetic offering, we expect to significantly improve the selection for our mission customers and have a full wholesale menu to complement it in Q3 of this year. As an early example of our wholesale traction, our average order size has seen a significant increase, roughly doubling from last year's Q1 average. Our expansion into new retail accounts continues with strong momentum as well, adding 16 new stores this quarter, averaging five new stores per month. With the increased footprint in the back half of the year and a significant increase in strain diversity in our menu, we anticipate doubling our wholesale revenue from 2023 to 2024 and are adding at least one wholesale door per week to our penetrated footprint, even in our current supply-constrained environment. This growth is fueled by the exceptional quality of our cannabis in Illinois, which has never been better, and we believe to be amongst the best in the state, which continues to drive demand. We expect to more than double our wholesale revenue again in 2025. This growth will occur without affecting our ability to support the mission retail store expansion, which is also projected to double from 2023 to 2024 and approximately double once more from 2024 to 2025. Shifting gears to Washington, our tenants and IT licensees have sustained an impressive retail penetration rate, maintaining 80% throughout 2023 and into the first quarter of 2024. Sales have remained robust at the start of the year, with flower sales demonstrating stability and reinforcing a strong market position. These results reflect the enduring strategy and the effectiveness of integrating advanced cultivation practices from our Massachusetts operations, which have proven transformative for the Washington facilities. The first quarter of 2024 marked a particularly vibrant phase for the product lineup, reflecting a commitment to innovation and responsiveness to consumer preferences. This period saw the rollout of several new products, including the introduction of Easy Puff disposable vapes and the debut of Marma's Bar disposable vapes. Product expansion continued with the launch of Easy Puff joints early in the quarter and the upcoming introduction of Easy Apes, quarters, halves, and ounces. There is also considerable buzz about the imminent release of new flavors in the Marma's Bar range and the launch of new edibles, like Mary's Mints and Cocoa Gyms. which feature unique cannabinoid profiles and appealing flavors such as huckleberry and elderberry. Looking ahead, we have confidence in the strategy to maintain and extend strong sales momentum and market share in Washington. In fact, based on early indicators, May began with exceptional strength. Halfway through the month, Washington's financial performance has already surpassed that of March. The focus remains on introducing innovative new products, enhancing quality, and staying agile to adapt swiftly to evolving market demands. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Peter to provide an overview of our financial results. Thank you, Brandon.

In the first quarter, forefront reported revenue of $18.8 million compared to $26.3 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous year and $21.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2023. Including Washington revenue, this would add another $8.4 million in the first quarter of 2024, increasing total revenue from product sales to $27.2 million compared to $29.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2023. The company suggested EBITDA remain consistent at $2.5 million in the first quarter of 2024, mirroring the previous quarter's performance. Despite market fluctuation and seasonal effects, our performance remains stable this quarter. In Massachusetts, revenue decreased from $9.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 to $8 million, influenced by seasonal trends and lower flower yields and pricing. In Illinois, revenue slightly dipped from $8.7 million to $8.5 million due to similar seasonal factors. Regarding the balance sheet, As of March 2023, the company had $2.9 million in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash. The total debt principal amount as of quarter end was $66.1 million, with future debt maturities totaling $39.7 million, excluding certain contingent liabilities. During the first quarter, we converted $23 million of senior debt to equity, significantly improving our debt profile and balance sheet. As we look forward to the rest of 2024, we are energized by the strategic initiatives underway and the potential they unlock for substantial growth and profitability. The operational stability we have achieved and the transformative potential of our expansion in Illinois retail and the Madison facility form the cornerstone of our optimistic outlook for the year. We are committed to leveraging our strengthened financial position and operational improvements to deliver enhanced value to our stakeholders and solidify our market presence. I'll now return the call to the operator to open the lines for Q&A.

Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request and your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the number two. And if you're using a speakerphone, please leave the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. And your first question comes from the line of Yewon Kong with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning. This is Yewon King on behalf of Matt Bottomley. How are you guys doing?

Doing well. How are you? Good morning.

Great, thanks. Yeah, so I just wanted to start off the first question regarding Massachusetts. So it seems like revenue sequentially declined about 14% there to $8 million this quarter. This seems to be a bit below the statewide trend of the sequential decline seen this quarter. I wanted to ask how much of that is related to the underperformance of the Brookline location, and if you could provide any more for the color behind what you've been seeing in that market and how you expect the trends to be going forward in that market. Thanks.

Yeah, so our biggest locations in Georgetown and Worcester were very, very steady. Brookline, as we mentioned on the call a few weeks ago, you know, got a competitor that opened up literally, you know, 100 feet down the street. And there's been, you know, a second competitor that came in, you know, subsequent to that. So we are currently, you know, trying to bolster that store and also trying to bolster, you know, whether we can, you know, put some of that shortfall into our wholesale growth. um from a supply standpoint so um we have seen um and then we saw some seasonality or some weather and a little bit of seasonality in mass so with the introduction of the new products this quarter um you know we are really encouraged by what we've seen going into q2 and we also expect you know to see you know further progress as we move through the year um you know i'm both you know capturing more sales and margin in our existing retail and expansion of wholesale. So wholesale is going to be a very big focus of ours, as Brandon mentioned earlier. We are very committed to get these brands that we've spent so many years cultivating out into the market. We are in process of spitting them up and making sure that if we want to be – You know, a big wholesaler sort of across the country in Massachusetts, Illinois, where our facilities already are in Washington. You know, that is a big push for us. The other thing in Massachusetts, which is kind of a wild card, and we should know in the next month or so, is that there might be some easing of the restrictions on ownership limits. So currently, as you know, you're only allowed three retail locations in you know, per license holder. Um, and you know, there's, there's some, a movement of foot to try to, um, ease that cap potentially and, or, um, allow ownership limits to expand and, and, and, and other, and other retail locations. So I think that, uh, in Massachusetts, we've sort of hit the, uh, hit the, uh, the, the bottom and, you know, I'm very encouraged by what we're seeing with product product launches and, um, and how that's showing itself in retail rebound and the growth in our retail channel or wholesale channel. I apologize.

Yeah, thank you for that, Collar. That was very helpful. And if I could just move on to the second part of my question. I know the DA rescheduling announcement just came out yesterday, and I know I asked about this previously on the last earnings call. I was wondering if, you know, any of the movement that we saw yesterday has kind of impacted the way you guys are looking at the potential 280 tax refunds or how you're thinking about, you know, your tax position going forward, just because a lot of your other peers during this early season has called out on the change in their own respective tax strategies.

I think there's no doubt that it's going to be incredibly challenging. to our business and just the free cash flow that it frees up. As it pertains to our specific tax strategy, I'll turn it over to Carl, who is our resident expert there.

Hey, Ewan. Yeah, my answer to this question kind of remains the same as it did a month and a half ago, which is we absolutely plan on following trends, so to speak, in terms of how we refile any historical returns, and also how we go forward with our filing. So we plan to be consistent with industry. We also have other amendments to our returns that we're looking at. We wanted to get the quarter over, which we have, sorry, reported, and now we're going to be focusing on tax as well as the financial statement with respect to tax. So let's just say we're going to be in lockstep with what the industry's doing. That's our intention. Does that answer your question?

Yeah.

Thanks so much. I'll jump back into the queue.

Operator, anyone else in the queue? Operator? Hello? Seems like we've lost our operator. Yeah, we may have. For a second, I thought it was me. That's why I answered. Yeah. I want to go. Andrew, I think we should sign off.

Okay. Well, I want to thank everyone for joining today on today's call. Your ongoing support and engagement are vital to our success. I also want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our team whose dedication and hard work are the driving forces behind our achievements. Looking forward, we remain steadfast in our commitment to our goals and excited about the future. I think we have a great 24 ahead, and thank you all again as we look forward to updating you on our next call.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed.