Marimed Inc

Good morning, my name is Nicole and I will be your lead operator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Merrimet Inc. 3rd 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 your question, please press the pound key followed by the number one. Thank you. I will now turn the line over to Mr. Steve West, Vice President of Investor Relations, to begin the conference.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Merrimet's third quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining me today are John Levine, our Chief Executive Officer, Mario Pino, Chief Financial Officer, Tim Shaw, 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 these risks is in the risk factors section of our 10-K 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 fourth quarter 2024 earnings release is tentatively scheduled to be issued after the markets close on March 5th, 2025, and our analyst call is tentatively scheduled to be held the morning of March 6th at 8 a.m. I will now turn the call over to John for his third quarter overview. Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone.

Last night, we reported our quarterly results. They included both year-over-year and sequential revenue growth. Additionally, EBITDA and net income improved sequentially, and we continued to generate positive operating cash flow. While pleased with the quarter, we continue to face macro and industry headwinds that still pose risk. I'm confident in our strategy to navigate those headwinds, particularly because we're doing well based on our performance versus our peers. Our revenue gains were once again driven by double-digit growth in wholesale business. Our brands are among the best in the industry, and we continue to increase their distribution. At retail, we saw a slight decline in revenue, like every other retail chain in America. we are not immune to economic forces that impact consumer disposable income. While these forces impacted our average check, we experienced double-digit year-over-year transaction growth for the eighth consecutive quarter. Although customers are spending less, we took steps not to only keep our loyal customers but actually increase our customer base. We sought sequential improvement in our adjusted EBITDA and net income in the quarter. Further, we began to experience the margin improvement we had anticipated. Wrapping up, we've expanded our brand into new and existing markets. Our revenue continues to grow, and we're seeing early signs of improved profitability and margins from new assets. Everything is falling into place as we discussed for some time. It's just taking a little longer than anticipated. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ryan for sales and marketing discussion.