Green Thumb Indus Sub Vtg

Thank you for continuing to hold we will begin the conference momentarily. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . . . . . . Good day and welcome to the Green Thumb Industries second quarter 2024 earnings conference call and webcast. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. On today's call, management will provide prepared remarks, and then we will open up the call for your questions. To ask questions, analysts may press star then one on their touchtone phones. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Shannon Weaver. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Thanks, Max. Good afternoon and welcome to Greensum's second quarter 2024 earnings call. I'm here today with founder and CEO Ben Kozler, President Anthony Torgadis, and Chief Financial Officer Matt Faulkner. Today's discussion and responses to questions may include forward-looking statements which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in the earnings press release issued today, along with the reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulators, including our most recent annual report filed on Form 10-K. This report, along with today's earnings release, can be found under the Investors section of our website. Green Summit is no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this call. Throughout the discussion, Greenspun will refer to non-GAAP financial measures, including EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is included in our earnings press release and SEC and SEER filings. Please note all financial information is provided in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. Thanks, everyone, and now here's Ben.

Thank you, Shannon. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our second quarter 2024 conference call. I'm pleased to report that our team delivered another strong quarter with revenue of 11% over the prior year to $280 million and over $90 million in EBITDA. Importantly, cash flow from operations was $20 million after paying almost $53 million in two tax installments this quarter. On June 28th, the IRS issued a statement that made it clear that cannabis companies were obligated to pay taxes under 280E while cannabis remains a Schedule I controlled substance. Thus, the regulatory attention is squarely on the DEA and Leader Ann Milgram and whether or not she chooses to reschedule cannabis to Schedule III, engage in an AOJ review process, or stay silent until the next administration. For the good of the country, we encourage Ann Milgram to do her job and reschedule cannabis immediately. No more waiting. During the second quarter, we also repurchased 1.6 million shares for approximately $20 million, bringing the aggregate spend under the share repurchase program to $73 million for approximately 6.6 million shares. Under the current program, we still have the option to repurchase almost $27 million in shares. We believe in the value-creating nature of share buybacks at attractive prices. We ended the quarter with $196 million in cash. That's plenty of dry powder to execute our capital allocation plan for 2024 and beyond. From an industry perspective, there is still price compression in most markets, as well as inflationary pressure. Not to mention national anxiety around the upcoming elections. Despite this uncertainty, we are focused on the product, our brands, and the relationship with the consumer. Green Thumb will continue following our same playbook since day one, scaling our business through retail store expansion, building out our wholesale business, leveraging operational efficiencies, and carefully managing our balance sheet. Green Thumb has some of the top-rated brands in the business, Rhythm, Dog Walkers, Incredibles, and Bebo. and we're focusing a lot of energy this year on expanding brand awareness by creating meaningful experiences for consumers, authentic relationships, especially through the power of music. We recently announced that our Miracle in Mundelein two-day festival will be back this year with a highly anticipated lineup of musicians, including cannabis icon Wiz Khalifa. The Rhythm Artist Series features strains, Tinashe. Tinashe's green team has created a lot of great bugs. Music is also at the core of Bug Ball, an annual concert we throw in-market, which we opened up to Philly for the first time this year. We saw record turnout at these events, and the find-your-rhythm lifestyle was on full display. We are also excited to bring more of our brands to new markets, with Bebo launching in New York just last month, and that's going well, and plans to expand to New Jersey very soon. We like the progress in our brands, but believe this is just the beginning of how these lifestyle brands will live in America. We want our brands to become integral to the American experience, and we are intensely watching consumer trends. We believe alcohol is melting, and for folks under 35 years old, alcohol is a lot less appealing than it was for their parents. This line of thinking led us to approach Boston Beer about a possible combination. Green Thumb has 50% more EBITDA than Boston Beer, and we think consumer trends will force Boston Beer and others to diversify away from alcohol into products the future American consumer wants. I outlined the benefits of combining our two businesses, including a potential U.S. listing for Green Thumb, in my letter to Boston Beer's chairman and founder, and posted that on X. It often takes time for an incumbent industry to recognize and embrace change. In the meantime, Green Thumb will do what we have always done, keep our head down and execute, focus on building shareholder value through prudent capital allocation, all the while using the consumer as our North Star. Stopping for a moment and looking around to where we are, we feel good. Green Thumb is gaining market share in U.S. cannabis as our brands build momentum. We are well-positioned to the emerging cannabis markets like Ohio, where we will kick off adult use sales at all five of our RISE dispensaries tomorrow morning. Looking forward to seeing our incredible team in action on day one in the Buckeye State. We see a nice, long runway for growth and are confident in our team's ability to strategically and profitably scale our business in Ohio. With that, I'll turn the call over to Anthony. Anthony?