Marimed Inc

Good morning. My name is Alan, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Merrimed, Inc. first quarter 2024 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 would 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 from the question queue, please press star, then the number two. Thank you. I will now turn the line over to Mr. Steve West, Vice President of Investor Relations, to begin the conference. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Merrimid's first quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining me today are John Levine, our Chief Executive Officer, Tim Shaw, our Chief Operating Officer, and Ryan Crandall, our Chief Revenue Officer. This call will be archived on our investor relations website and contains forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. A discussion of some of these risks is contained in the risk factors section of our 10-K, which is available on our website. Any forward-looking statements reflect management's expectations as of today and we assume no obligation to update them unless required by law. Additionally, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures which are reconciled in our earnings release. Finally, our second quarter 2024 earnings release is tentatively scheduled to be issued after the markets close on August 7, 2024, and our analyst call is tentatively scheduled to be held the morning of August 8, 2024 at 8 a.m. I will now turn the call over to John.

Thank you, Steve. Good morning, everyone. With the first quarter now in the books, I am pleased to say we are on track with our strategic plan and annual financial targets we shared on our last call. The highlight of the quarter was undoubtedly the tremendous growth in our wholesale business, where we continue to grow significantly faster than the industry in all of our wholesale markets. At retail, I'm pleased, but I am not satisfied. According to headset data, we outperformed our competition in every state in which we operate, including Illinois. At the same time, our retail sales were not immune to the macro factors that hurt the entire industry, such as increased competition, lower discretionary spending, and seasonality. In aggregate, Merrimet again outpaced the overall industry in terms of revenue growth in both wholesale and retail channels. Let me quickly highlight a few of the key achievements this past quarter. We commenced wholesale operations at scale in Illinois. Our branded products are now widely accessible throughout the state and sales are ramping well. Additionally, we acquired our second adult use dispensary in Maryland, which we expect to open later this year. And after the end of the quarter, we announced the transfer of the dispensary license in Casey, Illinois. Moving forward, we will reflect 100% of the P&L on our financial versus management fees. We are off to a fast start in 2024 due to the groundwork we laid over the past couple of years, and we should continue to reap the benefits for the foreseeable future. That concludes our first quarter recap. With that, I turn the call over to Ryan, who is joining us for his very first earnings call for our sales update.