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spk08: Hi, everyone. Welcome to Planet 13 Holdings 2022 First Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded on May 16, 2022. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for research analysts to queue up for questions. If you have difficulty hearing the conference, please press star followed by the zero for operator assistance at any time. I will now turn the call over to Mark Kendersma, Head of Investor Relations for Planet 13.
spk02: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Planet 13 Holdings' first quarter 2022 financial results were released today. The press release, the company's 10-K, including MB&A and financial statements, are available on the SEC website, EDGAR, and CDAR, as well as on our website, planet13holdings.com. Before I pass the call over to management, we'd like to remind listeners that portions of today's discussion include forward-looking statements. There can be no assurances that such information will prove to be accurate, that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances, or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, the results or events predicted in these forward-looking statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Risk factors that could affect results are detailed in the company's public filings that are made available with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and on CDAR, and we encourage listeners to read those statements in conjunction with today's call. The forward-looking statements in this conference call are made of the date of this call. Plan 13 disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law, and does not assume any liability for disclosure relating to any company mentioned herein. In addition, we will refer to both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. For information regarding our non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, please refer to today's press release posted on our website. Plan 13's financial statements are presented in U.S. dollars, and the results discussed on this call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. On the call today, we have Bob Grosbeck, co-chairman and co-CEO, Larry Scheffler, co-chairman and co-CEO, and Dennis Logan, CFO. I will now pass this call over to Larry Scheffler, co-chairman and co-CEO of Plan 13 Holdings.
spk01: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in our first quarter call. We'll keep this call short since we last talked to you about a month and a half ago. We're going to discuss our performance in Nevada and California and have Bob provide an update on our other growth initiatives later in the call. As we talked about last quarter, January and February are some of the slowest months for tourist traffic in Las Vegas, and this year was also impacted by the peak of Omicron. We saw traffic improve in March and into April as tourist season starts to pick up, and COVID becomes a lesser concern. Despite this slower macro market, significantly less tourist traffic, and all the new dispensaries added in Nevada over the last year, we still maintained our share around 10% for all retail sales. We continue to compete extremely well in Nevada in a very tough environment, more tilted towards locals than tourist customers. In Q1 in Nevada, we generated $16.3 million from a superstore, $2.2 million from curbside and delivery, and $2.3 million from medicine and $2 million from wholesale and other total Nevada revenue of $22.8 million. The lower sequential Superstore revenue was directly related to lower tourist traffic in January and February. Based on Las Vegas tourist statistics, visitor volume was down 18% compared to December. Our offerings targeted at locals, like curbside and delivery, and our medicine dispensary had sales in line with the state's sales figures. Our Nevada wholesale continues to perform incredibly well, growing 26.7%, sequentially as we've taken more shelf space in dispensaries across Nevada. This is after growing 15.4% sequentially in Q4. This is especially impressive when you consider sales for the entire state was down roughly 7% in Q1. Our portfolio is showing broad base strength, according to a research firm headset, trending at 5% of the Nevada market for both the concentrate and vapor categories in Q4, Uh-huh was 10% of edibles and 5% of beverages. Looking ahead in Nevada, we're starting to see sales pick up in line with typical seasonal trends. We're carefully monitoring how tourist trends develop with increased inflation and higher gas prices, which can impact Las Vegas tourist numbers, especially for visitors from California, which typically over-index as plant 13 shoppers. Excuse me, plant 13 shoppers. We continue to update you on how we see these trends progress through the year. Turning to California, sales were down from Q4 due to weaker consumer and significant Omicron COVID disruptions, including staffing and restrictions. We closed the acquisition of Next Green Wave on March 2, 2022, allowing us to vertically integrate and expand into wholesale for the first time. We've been very impressed with the cultivation facility and with the quality of the employees. Seeing this firsthand has given us added confidence in our decision to build out our Florida cultivation facility patterned off of the next Green Wave California facility. On May 2nd, we introduced Trendy, our first brand crossover into California, with lines of small batch unique flower strains. We will be launching vapes and concentrates in the coming months, followed by ha-ha or super popular edible lines. These will be available at both our store initially and then at wholesale once we've built up enough supply. In total, we generated 2.9 million in California during the quarter. Looking ahead in California, the major unlock for our store will be the completion of the highway on-ramp that directly adds about 20 minutes of driving time to anyone coming from the beach or using the 405 freeway. On the wholesale side, we recognize that California is one of the most challenging wholesale markets in the world, and our focus will be on the small profitable operations that expand our brand presence. With that, I'll pass it over to Dennis to discuss our financials.
spk05: Thank you, Larry. Before I begin, I would like to remind everyone that all numbers discussed on today's call are stated in U.S. dollars, unless specifically stated otherwise. and that we are reporting under U.S. GAAP and are classified as a U.S. domestic issuer. So the macro headwinds from Q4 carried over into Q1 with Omicron, disrupting operations and tourism in California and Nevada, along with increased inflation putting pressure on the consumer. Despite these headwinds, we generated approximately $25.7 million in revenue during Q1 2022, an 8% increase over the prior year period. The increase was attributable to our California expansion and significant growth in our Nevada wholesale business. Looking ahead at Q2, we have seen stronger tourist traffic in April, more in line with typical seasonal trends, but are very aware of the macro pressures facing the consumer and the impact that could potentially have on the Las Vegas tourist traffic. Specifically, California tourists who typically drive being impacted by the price of gas and The tourist consumer this year is in a different position than they were last year when interest rates were lower, inflation was lower, and stimulus checks were in hand, among other factors. The weaker Q1 2022, coupled with the change in consumer dynamic, is leading us to take a more cautious view of sales growth over the balance of the year. Gross margin decreased to 50.2%, down from 54.7% in Q1 2022 compared to the prior year quarter. Lower gross margin in the quarter was due to a higher portion of local customers compared to tourists in Las Vegas, pricing pressure in California, and a higher portion of wholesale as part of the overall sales mix. We continue to target 50% or higher gross margins for the long term with gains from vertical integration and automation offsetting pricing pressures. Sales and marketing expense was $603,000 this quarter, down from $1.8 million in Q4. We continue to experiment with the optimal sales and marketing expense mix with a focus on maximizing profitability over top-line revenue. The company spent approximately $11.4 million on general administration expenses. This excludes share-based compensation in the quarter, down from $12.3 million during the Q4 quarter of 2021. SG&A in Q1 2022 was inflated by approximately $1.5 million, with one-time expenses associated with the next green wave transaction, and the company's transition to the U.S. domestic issuer status that we finalized in Q1. For the balance of the year, we anticipate some cost pressure, with the biggest one being on wages. We are acutely aware of the current macro environment and are focused on prioritizing profitability and cash flow over unprofitable revenue growth. The company generated positive operating cash flow in the quarter, and as of March 31, 2022, We had a cash balance of $62.1 million, no debt, and are current on our sales and income tax payment obligations. In a constrained capital market, we have one of the cleanest capital positions, providing the company with immense flexibility and removing the risk of being forced into any unfavorable debt or equity financing to fund operations. Our capital priorities are the continued build-out of our Florida operations and expanding our Nevada cultivation capacities. We have the capital on hand to complete all of our priorities and will continue to update the market periodically on the build-out and CapEx requirements of each of our strategic initiatives. And with that, I'll pass the call over to Bob.
spk07: Thank you, Dennis, and good afternoon, everyone. In Florida, we've been making significant progress on the build-out of our Florida roadmap. We've announced two of our neighborhood dispensaries so far, and we'll continue to roll out those announcements in the lead-up to the start of sales. Each dispensary is in a high-traffic local market on major thoroughfares and typically adjacent to other destination retail like Home Depot, Walmart, or grocery stores. This is a setup that proved successful at our medicine dispensary in Nevada, making one of the higher-producing local dispensaries in the state. Our cultivation and production build-out were also on track to start producing harvest in line with the dispensary openings. As a reminder, the build-out is prefabricated modular, a building patterned after the next Greenway, California, cultivation facility. It is entirely indoor, climate-controlled, and we've proven the ability to grow premium flower out of the same type of facility in California. Combined with premium genetics, we expect to produce high-quality flower to be the core of our operations in Florida. The modular build significantly speeds up our time to market, reduce costs, all while maintaining the quality Planet 13 has become known for. We're on track for our previously disclosed timeline and feel good about starting sales in the early part of next year. In Nevada, we are working with regulators on lounge regulations and are exploring a plan to convert our restaurant into an infused restaurant and cannabis lounge, allowing us to drive increased revenue and new customer opportunities from the same footprint. At the same time, we're doing diligence with various partners on additional ways to diversify revenue at the Superstore and drive traffic. In addition to our negotiations with the Cannabis Museum, we are working closely with prominent Las Vegas club designers and operators on due diligence around a traditional nightclub that we use the remaining space at the Las Vegas Superstore. We think these entertainment options are potential synergistic fits given our location squarely between the Las Vegas Strip and the Adult Entertainment District. We'll update you further on these plans as they continue to develop. We received approval and began on the build out of a cultivation expansion at our Bell facility in Las Vegas in April this year. This expansion will add 22,000 square feet of indoor premium cultivation space that will be reserved for medicine flower. Once again, We believe this will unlock improved gross margins, increase customer traffic, and ultimately more profitability. In Illinois, the license is still held up by regulatory and legal delays. And at this time, we do not currently have any insight into when that license will be available. But when we do, we have a plan in place that will be implemented once we have more clarity from the courts and the regulators. In 2022, our focus is to maintain our 8% to 12% market share in Nevada and continue to grow wholesale share in the state while executing on accretive and diversified revenue opportunities such as the cannabis restaurant, lounge, and nightclub. In California, we are focused on improving profitability through increased sales and operating leverage our dispensary, increasing vertical integration, and entering into profitable wholesale agreements. In Florida, Our developing operations will continue to drive the growth in 2023. Overall, as a company, we are focused on expanding profitability and cash flow, given the tough macro operating background. With that said, I'd again like to thank everyone for participating, and now I'd ask the operator to open the line for questions. Thank you.
spk08: Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is now open for questions. If you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone at this time. We do ask that while posing your question, please pick up your handset if you're listening on speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Once again, if you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone. Please hold while I poll for questions. Your first question is coming from Bobby Burleson from Canaccord. Your line is live.
spk03: Hi, thanks for taking my question. I'm not sure if this happened to anybody else, but it seemed like the audio was going in and out, so I may have missed a little bit. I had a question about just price sensitivity of consumers, what you're seeing at the superstore, and any contrasts between what those consumers are doing and what you're seeing in Santa Ana, just any color on differences maybe there.
spk05: Sure. Bobby, I'll take a stab at that and the others can jump in. Superstore, I think the biggest impact for us, Q1 22 versus Q1 21 and Q4 was really the number of tourists coming to the store. Average ticket was in line with Q4 21 in that $124 range. That was good. It was up significantly from the Q1 21 at 113, but the numbers were down, you know, same, same with, you know, medicine, you know, the, the number of customers were down, you know, in line, as Larry mentioned in line with the state's decrease in revenue. And our average ticket was around the same, you know, in that, in that same price that it was prior actually increased, increased, you know, Q1 over Q1 and it was in line with Q1 to Q4. So, That's where we're really seeing that in Nevada. It's really a number of tourists coming to the store issue in specifically January, February, more so than March. And as we see those numbers kick back up in April into May. And then at the Orange County location, average ticket was, we didn't have it last year, Q1, so Average ticket was in line in that $80 range in Q1-22 compared to Q4-21. And, you know, number of customers coming in, you know, we were off a little bit, off about 8% in customers in California. But overall, you know, the customer traffic seems solid and is coming back and growing. And I think with that, you know, that 405 on-ramp, off-ramp onto Warner Boulevard should see that traffic number tick up And if we can maintain the, the, uh, the average ticket in that store and introduce, as Larry mentioned, we're vertically integrating that next screen wave acquisition into, into our operations. We will be able to push our own brands into there and capture more margins. So we should see a significant improvement in California over the back half of 22.
spk03: Great. And then just a quick follow up, um, curious, uh, in terms of tourist traffic in Las Vegas, what the tea leaves look like right now, what you guys are seeing in terms of the setup for the summer.
spk05: I'll turn that over to the guys in the ground. Bobby, hi.
spk07: It's Bob. We're optimistic. We're seeing a significant uptick, particularly in the events arena. concert area. We're seeing a lot of traffic. We had some really nice traffic the latter part of last week due to several big concert events in town. Again, you know, I say that with some caution, however. It's just the overall economy here, you know, it seems solid, but, you know, with rising gas prices, food, rents, You know, it's going to have an impact, and it's already having an impact, I think, here at the registers. Folks are starting to tighten their belts, even when they come to Vegas. So we're going to continue to watch that very closely. But like I said, as far as traffic goes, you know, we're excited right now where things are and where things are trending to the balance of the summer.
spk03: And do you think that that price sensitivity puts you guys at a little bit of an advantage given – you know, the progress you've made on vertical integration and, you know, wholesale?
spk07: Well, I think it helps for sure. I mean, obviously, you know, the margin we pick up we get through selling, you know, our manufactured products is significant. So it gives us an opportunity to create incentives to drive traffic, you know, and create opportunities for the customer to register. Great. Thank you. Thanks, Bobby.
spk08: Thank you. Your next question is coming from Doug Cooper from Beacon Securities. Your line is live. Good afternoon, guys.
spk06: First, just on our housekeeping thing, what was the revenue contribution for the next green wave in the quarter? Hang on a sec. Doug, let me just pull that up here for you.
spk00: Hang on, hang on.
spk05: It's around 465,000, 466,000 for the month of March. We only had it for the last 28 days of March. So the Santa Ana store did roughly 2.5 million? Yeah, 2.4, 2.38, 2.4. Okay.
spk04: The recent California budget proposal that pertains to cannabis and particularly cultivation tax going to zero, essentially, I guess, starting in July, I believe it is, and collecting excise taxes for the retailer and then increased I guess, increased policing, if I can call it that, for the black market, I think, for illegal activity to create a, I think they call it a more level playing field. If you have any comments on the proposed California budgets and what that means for Negroes.
spk07: Yeah, Doug, Bob, how are you? Yeah, it's obviously... It's a ray of sunshine in what's been a pretty dark market over there for a while. So the big question, of course, is whether the governor signs off on it. But anything we can get by way of tax relief, particularly on the cultivation side, we'll take it where we can. And it's going to take a concerted effort by the state to really rein in the black market. And it's nice to see that they're actually allocating funds to law enforcement to do something along those lines. So from that standpoint, we're positive. But again, until a bill is signed, it's nothing but talk. Right.
spk04: What is the timeline for that in terms of the next step?
spk07: Well, I don't know the exact timetable, but according to our lobbies the other day, it is of the highest priority in the governor's office. So we'll see what happens.
spk04: Just in terms of, you mentioned in your talk, I guess, that you've taken, if I can read my writing, taken a bit more conservative stance to the remainder of the year. Can you quantify that? What does that exactly mean in terms of your expectations for growth year over year? Is that sort of flattish, or what were your thoughts when you say that?
spk07: Yeah, Dennis, why don't you jump in here?
spk05: Yep, yep, hang on. Just make sure I'm asking it. So, yeah, Doug, you know, if we look at Q1, you know, overall revenue was up sort of 7.9% for the company as a whole. We were down in Nevada, you know, kind of 3.5% of the Superstore. I think the Superstore, you know, I think the Superstore turns back around and becomes flat to slightly positive over the balance of the year and we'll start to see some you know, uptake and pick up this negative 3% from Q1. The unknown really is the medicine store. I mean, the locals seem to be a bit more impacted by the, you know, obviously by the inflationary environment than the tourists are. So that's where we're seeing some pressure. The upside to that is though our wholesale business in Nevada is picked up quite nicely because we do have some of the best selling products. So, you know, the mix is going to be, It'll be interesting to see where we come out. I think revenue-wise, again, I think we'll be positive for the year on a quarter-over-quarter, year-over-year basis. Again, if the summer continues the way we think it will go, then we should see that translate into some decent margins. As our average tickets are up and we can push more of our own product through that vertical integration, we get our expanded cultivation facility online.
spk04: Pushing our own flower and getting our flower to that 50% you know vertical integration mark where we are with the vapes in there in the edible Okay, I'm in this market environment seems like cash preservation becomes important And obviously becoming a free cash flow positive and so we got a lot of cash now to keep you mean some of which is also allocated to Florida or a bunch of outskirts of Florida and You know, maybe the plans for on-site confession lounges have been tempered a little bit, given for sure that alcohol can't be included, I think, but that's right. What about Illinois? Would you ever, with this license in limbo now, and maybe some of the things that have changed in Illinois in terms of competition or any wholesale prices coming down and so forth, would you consider walking away from that, or is that still a priority anymore?
spk05: I mean, all things are on the table. Dennis and Bob, you can jump in. All options are on the table. We're really waiting to see when that license gets granted. We looked at a bunch of opportunities to vertically integrate in Illinois, but we're taking a cautious approach, as Bob mentioned. If the market's not right, we would sell that license to a third party. If it looks like it's promising, we will you know, take a cautious approach and build it out. I don't think you'll see us put a superstore into that market, you know, anywhere similar to what we have in Nevada and probably, you know, smaller than if we were going to do it, smaller than the one in Orange County. But we're not married to it. And so, you know, given that it's a single outpost, if we can find the right opportunity, we'll take a look at it. Right now, we're not spending any money on Illinois.
spk04: Okay. Give me just a minus here. Maybe Dennis, just remind us what the CapEx budget is in Florida of the $62 million you had as of March 31st. How much of that is allocated to Florida?
spk05: Well, our Florida budget overall was sort of in the $25 to $30 million range. We've already spent probably four of that, four and a half of that on the cultivation assets that we have. And then the approach we're taking on the retail, You know, it's defined, you know, smaller, you know, kind of medicine-sized stores, you know, just like a smaller amount in prominent locations and lease those facilities and, you know, spend between $500 and a million on the build-outs and make sure we can get them rent-free until we get the cultivation asset up and running. So we're having some good success on that one. So, you know, call it total $25 million of the $62 would probably go to Florida. And we're looking at between another five to seven on the cultivation expansion in Nevada coming up through, you know, kind of Q2, part of Q3. That will come online into Q3 with the first crops probably coming off late Q4, early Q1. And then, you know, the other initiatives that Bob had mentioned, you know, we are exploring options and alternatives but haven't allocated any capital to that as of yet, so. We don't have to come back to you guys. I mean, the one, the one caveat being, I think, you know, Bob did mention talking about, about transitioning Tracy into that, you know, on say consumption lounge. We think that that lets us get into that consumption lounge space with a pretty premium offering and not having to spend a lot of capital to convert that, that restaurant into an infused kitchen slash infused consumption lounge. So looking at all options on that as well.
spk04: So the first day of the $62 million, then let's call it, you'll have $30 million that's unallocated.
spk05: Yeah, I mean, that's, yeah, $30 unallocated right now. We're sort of dry powder to do what we want with and make sure we can continue meeting all our objectives. And then we have the omni-endurance. Once Florida is built out, we look at potential sale and leasebacks to recoup some of that $30 million.
spk04: we spend on those on those assets but that's sort of afterwards okay and i guess my final question on the inflationary side when we talk wage growth what are we talking about in terms of wage pressures is it uh you know five percent six percent and can you you know you talked about the belt tightening and the consumer can you pass those along to the consumer or other dispensaries raising prices at all
spk05: You know, so they don't seem to be. I mean, we've pushed through some price increases. You know, our average tickets are up, you know, I would say, you know, the average ticket is up sort of 9%, 10% of the dispensary this quarter over last quarter. And, you know, sort of in line with where we were in, you know, Q4 to Q1. So we did push some price increases through in Q4. They seem to be holding. but the price of the pressure on the wages front and on the labor front depends on, it really depends on the position we're hiring for. Yes, we're seeing sort of, you know, some increased pressure at the bud tender level, but you know, it's, it's not nearly as intense as it is at, you know, the, like let's say the accounting department level, you know, trying to find, we're, we're seeing, we're seeing lots of pressure with China, people trying to poach our talent and people leaving for higher paid positions. So as they, As we go, we look at, you know, this is an opportunity for us to sort of, you know, we can right-size the labor force and hopefully keep the good people and then just sort of let that cost control work its way through as we go.
spk06: Okay. I think that's it for me, guys. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Tyler.
spk08: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes our Q&A session and conference call. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
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