Marimed Inc

Thank you for standing by. My name is Tina and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Merriman Incorporated First Quarter 2026 Financial Results 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. To ask a question, simply press star 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Alex Schwartz, Regional Store Director for Merrimed. You may begin.

Hello, and good morning, everyone. I'm Alex Schwartz, Regional Retail Director for Merrimed in Maryland and Delaware. I'm honored to kick off today's 2026 first quarter earnings call. I'm privileged to work with amazing teams in both states to deliver our high standard of exceptional service to our customers every day. Through constant collaboration with my retail teammates and Merrimed's other regions, I know that every Thrive employee across 13 dispensaries is dedicated to doing the same thing. We have a unified brand, but more importantly, we have a unified mission, and it's a huge part of what I believe makes Thrive the dispensary of choice for so many people. Joining the call today are John Levine, our Chief Executive Officer, Ryan Crandall, our Chief Commercial Officer, and Mario Pena, our chief financial 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. These risks are discussed in the risk factors sections of our 10-K and 10-Qs available on our website. Any forward booking 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. I will now turn the call over to John for his overview.

Thank you, Alex, and good morning, everyone. Last night, we reported first quarter 2026 revenue of $39.5 million and positive adjusted EBITDA of $3.6 million. Additionally, we once again generated positive cash flow from operations. That performance was the result of our operational discipline and the strength of our brands and was achieved despite the adverse market dynamics that persist across our industries. Of particular note was our wholesale performance in Illinois and Delaware, where our cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing teams delivered outstanding results. We grew quarter-over-quarter wholesale revenue in Illinois by 25% and in Delaware by 13%, widening our leadership position in Delaware where we are already the number one wholesaler. In fact, our products maintain market-leading positions across all of our core markets. Zetty Zetty's was once again the number one selling edible across Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Delaware combined. And our Vydations Powder Drink Mix maintained a top five share across the same state. Brian is going to provide a deeper dive into our first quarter results in each of our markets. I'll now turn to the status of our primary growth drivers I have outlined during our March earnings call. In Pennsylvania, our licensing partner is awaiting state approval of our products and packaging. We remain confident about the revenue potential of our brands in Pennsylvania. especially with adult use sales likely to commence in the near future, as well as our success to date in neighboring states of Maryland and Delaware. In New York, we remain on schedule with our plan there. Construction has begun on the processing kitchen we are building with our licensed partner in the Bronx. We're forecasting licensing revenue generation in both states early next year while doing everything in our control to help speed up this timeline. In Maine, where we also maintain a licensing agreement, distribution of Betty's Eddies continues to expand. Our commercial partner began sales during the fourth quarter of 2025 and has continued to sell into new dispensaries through the first quarter. Licensing allows us to generate revenue and expand our distribution in capital-efficient manner. We will continue to pursue additional agreements in tandem with M&A, which remains a focused avenue of growth for Merrimid. To that point, we are excited about recent developments in Massachusetts, where the dispensary limit cap has increased from three to six. We're very interested in pursuing opportunities to add additional stores in our home state. Our dispensary footprint will expand in Ohio first, where we're leveraging our second retail license there to open a new Thrive location in the Columbus area. We anticipate that store will open before the end of the year. We also look forward to the benefits that the recent rescheduling of medical cannabis will have on Merrimed and the nation. Near term, it blocks in the elimination of 280E related taxes for medical portion of our business. There are still many questions to be answered about the rescheduling. But make no mistake, this is the single biggest piece of federal drug reform in our country's history. and we're thankful for the administration for getting it done. For me, it's a particularly personal moment. Bob Fireman and I founded Meromed more than a decade ago as a medical cannabis company born out of the passion, belief, and the plant's medicinal value. In fact, our name, Meromed, was created as shorthand for marijuana medicine. I am beyond grateful that the federal government has finally acknowledged what we've always known about the plant's medicinal value. That said, this is only step one. We are hopeful that the rescheduling of recreational cannabis will soon follow. In the meantime, we are in the process of registering with the DEA, and we will keep our eyes on the treasurer's guidance with respect to the details the implementation of 280E tax relief. To our investors, thank you for your continued support. Our equity remains significantly undervalued given the strength of our balance sheet. The fact that we own our real estate and the value of our brands, we are confident it is only a matter of time before the markets appreciate what we have created at Merrimed and the bright future ahead of us. I'll now turn the call over to Ryan.