Marimed Inc

Good morning. My name is Pam and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Meramed fourth quarter 2021 financial results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Steve West, Vice President of Investor Relations for Merrimed. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Merrimed fourth quarter and full year 2021 conference call. Joining me today are Bob Fireman, our Chief Executive Officer, John Levine, our Chief Financial Officer, and Tim Shaw, our Chief Operating Officer. This call is being recorded and will be archived on our Investor Relations website at ir.com. Today's call contains forward-looking statements subject to various risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements. Any such information and statements should be taken in conjunction with cautionary statements in our press releases and risk factor discussions in our public filings found on EDGAR as well as our investor websites. Any forward-looking statements reflect management's expectations as of today's date, and we assume no obligation to update them other than as may be required by applicable securities laws. Now, for your future scheduling purposes, our first quarter 2022 earnings release is tentatively scheduled to be issued after the market close on May 10th, 2022, and our subsequent analyst call will be held the morning of May 11th, 2022. I will now turn the call over to Bob.

Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. We are delighted to report another quarter and full year of positive financial results at Maromet. Despite a nationwide slowdown in cannabis sales, we continue to produce and report some of the strongest financials in the industry. John will provide details, but the headline is that Maromet is reporting a second consecutive year of more than doubling our revenue and earnings. We not only met our 2021 guidance, which we increased during the year, but we beat it. We are not the biggest or flashiest MSO. However, we grind it out every day, focused on producing top-quality cannabis flowering products. Our validated and experienced management team maintains strict financial disciplines while executing our strategic growth plan. In an environment of operational excellence throughout all our business units, we have built an amazing team and culture that supports our mission of improving the lives of people through our products, actions, and values. Over the past 12 months, we have continued to make significant progress across all four pillars of our strategic growth plan. First pillar is to consolidate the state cannabis license businesses we developed and managed for our cannabis license clients. Massachusetts and Illinois have been completed, and I'm pleased to say Maryland is on the way as we recently announced an agreement to purchase Kind Therapeutics USA, the vertical cannabis business we help build and manage in that high-growth state. When the State Cannabis Commission approves the transfer, we will then be able to include its revenue and profits in our financial reporting. Our second pillar is to expand our assets and businesses in states in which we operate. In Massachusetts, we've added new technologies at our manufacturing facility that increased our productivity for flowering-infused products. This led to increased wholesale and retail revenue. We also intend to open two additional dispensaries this year. In Illinois, our four side dispensaries continue to generate consistent and improving revenue. We recently announced the acquisition of a craft cultivation and production license. When completed later this year, Malared will become vertically integrated, producing and distributing our branded cannabis flowering products to our stores and to the hundreds of dispensaries in the robust Illinois wholesale marketplace. Producing our own products will increase our margins and profitability at retail and generate new wholesale sales. Banding our footprint into additional states is the third pillar of our strategic growth plan. We have a successful track record winning application in new cannabis programs in states. We recently won a lottery to receive a provisional dispensary license in Ohio. We are supporting new applications in New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, and waiting to respond to other new state opportunities. Concurrently, we continue to explore M&A opportunities that make sense for Merrimet. We are a good fit for successful single-state operators that are facing tougher competition and who could benefit from partnering with an experienced, well-financed company like Merrimet. To be attractive to us, these operators would have to fit our culture and our commitment to consistent quality products. The fourth pillar of our plan is to increase revenue by expanding the manufacturing and distribution of our award-winning brands into additional states. We will accomplish this by licensing or acquiring our own production and distribution licenses. We intend to leverage the success of our brands, our Nature's Heritage Flower and Concentrates, our top sellers in Massachusetts and Maryland, and will soon be introduced in Delaware and Illinois. We are also excited about the potential of expanding distribution for Betty's Eddie's, our top-selling brand, Bubby's Baked, our all-natural baked goods line, and Vibation's high-in-energy powder mix. our entry into the cannabis beverage category. Malamud's brands are currently being manufactured and distributed in seven states, and we are actively pursuing distribution to additional markets across the country. We are focused on our strategic growth plan. We work hard, grinding every day to deliver long-term shareholder value. At the outset of 2021, I said Merrimet had all the ingredients to win, a highly experienced management team, great brands, financial discipline, and more. However, I acknowledge the challenge for us was to do a better job communicating the Merrimet story and its success to the world. We also needed to strengthen our bench with key hires to execute our strategies. In the past 12 months, we have hired world-class sales, marketing and communications, and investor relations professionals to more effectively tell the Merrimet story and to grow the business. I couldn't be louder of their work to date and expect continued excellence from them. Merrimet has delivered its best revenue and earnings during the past two years. We said we would do this. and then we did it. It was not flashy, but I'm proud of the credibility Merrimet has built, and it is my job to ensure it continues. I'm thrilled to turn the call over to Tim Shaw, our COO. Before he details our operations plans for 2022, let me tell you a little about him. Following his service, as a decorated member of the US Army. For about a decade, Tim has dedicated his career to help build Maramed into the successful company it is today. As a core member of our management team, Tim was instrumental in the development of our state-of-the-art cannabis cultivation, production, and retail facilities. He has led the way to develop some of the best products and best practices in our industry. Under his leadership, we have developed and trained a dedicated work staff and established a culture that makes them happy to come to work every day. I'm excited for the investment community to get to know him. So with that, I will turn the call over to Tim.