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Medmen Entprs B Sub Vtg
2/16/2021
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Men Men Second Quarter Fiscal 2021 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Rhys Fulgham, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead. Thank you.
Good afternoon and welcome, everyone. Today, I am joined by our CEO, Tom Lynch, and COO, Kim Bossidy. On today's call, management will provide prepared remarks, and then we will open the call to your questions. Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing second quarter fiscal 2021 results for the period ending December 26, 2020. The press release, along with our financial statements and MD&A, are available on the company's website and filed on both EDGAR and SEDAR. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that the comments on today's call will include forward-looking statements, which by their nature involve estimates, projections, goals, forecasts, and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, the business and operations of MedMen, our plans for new stores, our financial, operational, and strategic expectations, and our expectations as to future sources of funding. These forward looking statements speak only as of the date of this conference call and should not be relied upon as predictions of future events. Additional information about the material factors and assumptions forming the basis of the forward-looking statements and risk factors are provided in the company's reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulators, including the company's earnings press release and MD&A, which was issued earlier today and is available under the company's profile on both EDGAR and SEDAR. During today's conference call, MedMen will refer to certain non-GAAP measures that do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP, such as EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, and corporate SG&A, which are defined in the earnings press release we issued earlier today. Reconciliations to GAAP measures are contained in the press release and our MD&A. Please note, all financial information is provided in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. Now, with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Tom.
Thank you, everyone, for joining us this afternoon. On the call today, we'll provide an update on the company's turnaround progress and plans to drive future growth, and then discuss our financial performance for the second quarter. First, we're thrilled at the increased enthusiasm in the sector as the U.S. makes continued progress towards broader cannabis legalization, which will lead to better outcomes in our criminal justice system, healthy alternatives in a number of medical applications, and we believe more optimistic and peaceful world to live in. We're impressed with how quickly Arizona was able to flip to recreational sales in 2021, and we are excited about continued progress in our core markets. Jumping into our fiscal second quarter, our sales were up slightly, excluding Evanston, despite the significant restrictions in foot traffic in California, which show both the dynamism in our channels and the robustness of our business to shocks. We also showed significant continued progress in Florida and New York, with sales up 67% and 42%, respectively, from prior year. Critically, we also saw another significant expansion in our retail gross margin. I've been in a number of turnaround situations, and for those familiar with retail turnaround stories, often you will see retailers drastically reducing margins in an effort to liquidate stale inventory or simply to bump sales. We are in the exact opposite position than that. We have expanded retail gross margin now from 51% in Q2 2020 to 57% in Q2 2021, building a phenomenal platform for future profitability. We look forward to accelerating growth in the remainder of our fiscal year and continued progress in our turnaround plan. The core of the turnaround plan remains our four-wall economics. We continued our strong progress from the first quarter, with weekly same-store sales across the portfolio trending up over 3% before retail capacity in California was restricted from 50% to 35%, and ultimately 20%. Still, we were able to hold the line for the quarter in sales and retail EBITDA, despite California taking an outsized COVID-related impact. During the second quarter, we generated $33.8 million in revenue, representing a 1.2% increase from the previous quarter, excluding Evanston. We were roughly flat with regards to adjusted retail EBITDA, and this was the second quarter in a row we achieved positive cash flow after tax across our retail footprint. A significant milestone to note is this had not been done before these two consecutive quarters in the company's history. Other key elements of the turnaround plan we have achieved are continuing to reduce corporate-related SG&A and continuing to attract world-class talent. Both of these build the foundation for a scalable enterprise ahead of all the macro tailwinds beginning to gather behind us. As a reminder, at its peak, the company's corporate-related SG&A was approximately $160 million annually. We continue to reduce our spend with our corporate SG&A this quarter just over $9.2 million, excluding pre-opening costs, as had been previously disclosed. Another $1.1 million decreased quarter over quarter. However, even with this reduction in spending, we continue to improve overall efficiency and talent across the organization, including bringing on leaders like Tracy McCourt, our new Chief Revenue Officer, formerly Chief Strategist at Zappos. It speaks to the strength of the brand and the belief in the turnaround plan that we've been able to retain such talent. With regards to corporate governance, we're also pleased to announce that I accepted the position of chairman of the board and we canceled 815,295 Class A super voting chips. As someone who's been in the chairman and CEO seat before, I pride myself on my accountability to shareholders. It's a responsibility that I and this organization take very seriously. From a balance sheet perspective, we were able to continue the benefits of our deferred cash commitments and attract capital from both new and existing capital partners. During the quarter, we also modified certain covenants for additional flexibility, further evidence of the belief our capital partners have in the long-term value of the business. While there is still work to be done to strengthen our cash position, we announced an additional $10 million in funding from Goff & Green Partners in January. And we believe we are more investable than ever with a line of sight to profitability. Finally, last quarter I hit on my excitement around acceleration of growth in existing markets such as California and Florida, where we have a number of high-profile stores set to open over the next 10 months, as well as new markets like Massachusetts, where we have some of the best locations in the state. We've been slightly delayed in our Emeryville openings in California and our Collins Ave opening in Miami Beach, but we're hard at work to get those stores open in the next several months. We're on schedule for two openings in San Francisco, our two openings in Massachusetts, and our significant pipeline of openings in Florida on the back of our ongoing useless expansion. We believe we have the ability to open up to an additional 10 stores in Florida this year. and we view our growth strategy there as one of the most exciting opportunities we have, given our ability to open an unlimited number of dispensaries as we continue to execute in cultivation and manufacturing. We appreciate the patience and support of stakeholders as we continue to execute, and we strongly believe that patience will be rewarded with a bright future ahead of us. With that, I'll hand it over to Tim Bossidy, our Chief Operating Officer, for Operations Highlights.
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