Marimed Inc

Good morning. My name is Pam and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Miramed Inc. Second Quarter 2022 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 call over to Mr. Steve West, Vice President of Investor Relations for Merrimid. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Merrimid's second quarter 2022 conference call. Joining me today are John Levine, our Chief Administrative Officer, Tim Shaw, our Chief Operating Officer, and Susan Villar, our Chief Financial Officer. Bob Fireman, our Chief Executive Officer, sends his regrets as he has a family matter to attend to and cannot join us this morning. This call is being recorded and will be archived on our investor relations website at ir.merrimedinc.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. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in our documents filed with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. 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. In addition, we will present non-GAAP financial information on this call. Reconciliations to applicable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release as well as in the supplemental slides which are available on our investor relations website. Now, for your future scheduling purposes, our third quarter 2022 earnings release is tentatively scheduled to be issued after the market closes on November 7th, 2022, and our subsequent analyst call will be held the morning of November 8th, 2022. I will now turn the call over to John.

Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. I am pleased to report Meramed had another solid quarter of financial and operational results. Our revenue grew versus last year. More importantly, our revenue grew 5% sequentially, and we reported positive adjusted EBITDA for the 10th consecutive quarter. Additionally, we delivered on several facets of our growth plan during the second quarter and already into the third. First, we closed our acquisition of Kind Therapeutics, a Maryland wholesale cannabis operation, which will soon be vertical with the opening of a new medical dispensary in Annapolis. Second, we closed on an acquisition of our Craft Grow license in Illinois and purchased a 40,000 square foot building in Mount Vernon, which we will retrofit as a cultivation and processing facility for the distribution of our award winning branded products. Once complete, we will be a vertical in Illinois enabling us to improve our margins. Third, in Ohio, which is the seventh most populous state, we began development of a new medical dispensary in Tiffin with the license we were awarded in the state lottery. We plan to open in early 2023. And fourth, we completed a licensing partnership to produce and distribute our Betty's Eddie's fruit chews in Maine's adult market, which complements our existing license deal to sell Betty's in the Maine medical market. Maine's tourism attracts millions of visitors every year. Our momentum continues in the third quarter. we announced a significant expansion of the kitchen in our Hagerstown, Maryland processing facility, enabling us to bring our entire portfolio of award-winning brands to the state in time for adult use sales, which is expected to be adopted by the voters this fall. We launched Betty's Eddie's Ice Cream and Nature's Heritage Live Flower in Massachusetts. We have launched a new line of gummies in Maryland out of our expanded kitchen. We also partnered with a social equity applicant in Connecticut, which was selected to receive a cultivation and processing license. This award is pending the final approval from the state. And we completed our dual listing on the Canadian Security Exchange. which we believe will increase liquidity and give easier access to retail investors in Canada as well as institutional investors throughout North America. We have already seen the benefit of this dual listing with new institutional investors taking equity positions in Merrimid. Finally, we announced yesterday the acquisition of our fifth dispensary in Illinois. We are thrilled to add another dispensary to our successful Thrive retail dispensary base. We remain focused on financial discipline, building great brands, and executing our strategic growth plan. Our core retail business has never been stronger, and our wholesale business is picking up despite the pricing pressures. With that, I now turn the call over to Tim for his operational update.