Medicine Man Tech Inc

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Michelle and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the SHWAS third quarter conference call. Please note all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Joanne Jobin. Please go ahead.

Greetings and welcome to the 2022 third quarter conference call and webcast for SHWAS. We are being hosted by Justin Dye, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nirup Krishnamurthy, President, and Nancy Huber, Chief Financial Officer. Following their presentation, management will take questions submitted via the web link found on Schwoz's Investor Relations website and in the earnings press release. I would also like to remind you that management's prepared remarks and answers to your submitted questions may contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements regarding federal and state legislation and regulation, and Schwoz's future results of operations and financial position, business strategy and plans, and objectives for future operations. Such forward-looking statements may be preceded by the words plan, will, may, continue, anticipate, become, build, develop, expect, believe, poised, project, approximate, could, potential, or similar expressions as they relate to Schwoz. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, results, performance, or achievements to differ from those anticipated by Schwoz at this time. Additional information concerning factors that could cause events, results, performance, or achievements to differ materially is available in Schwoz's earnings release made available before this call and available on Schwoz's investor relations website and in Schwoz's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2021. In addition, other information is more fully described in Schwoz's public filing with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission, which can be reviewed at www.sec.gov, on www.cr.com, or on the company's investor relations website. Also, Schwoz may discuss non-GAAP financial measures during today's call. A reconciliation of the differences between the non-GAAP financial measure discussed during the call with the most directly comparable GAAP measure can be found in Schwoz's earnings press release made available before this call and available on Schwoz's investor relations website. I would now like to turn the call over to CEO and Chairman Justin Dye.

Hello, and thank you for joining us this afternoon. I will provide a brief overall business review, and our newly appointed president, Naroop Krishnamurthy, will provide operational details before our CFO, Nancy Huber, reviews our quarterly financial results in detail. I will then conclude our presentation with some final thoughts, and afterwards, we would then be happy to take your questions. For the third quarter of 2020, 2022, Schwoz continued to outperform the Colorado market despite a continuing challenging environment. I'm extremely proud of the Schwoz team for their commitment and dedication over the past year. Despite a challenging economic backdrop, we outperformed our markets in Colorado by 12%. We've worked hard to continue to grow our market share, increase our profitability rate, and generate free cash flow from operations. And that's after paying taxes and CapEx, placing us in an exclusive club within the cannabis sector. Our team continues on our vision and journey to become the most admired cannabis company by making a difference in our communities and providing trusted products, brands, and experiences that improve the human condition. Our growth plans remain on track, and despite challenges for the entire industry, we maintain our conviction in our long-term plan of building a regional powerhouse, developing scale with a customer-first approach, curating a distinguished house of brands that are driven by passion for innovation, craftsmanship, efficiency, and teamwork, and leveraging data analytics and technology to drive decisions. And now I would like to officially welcome newly appointed president, Narup Krishnamurthy, to take us through some of our accomplishments this quarter and since the beginning of the year. Before we continue, I would like to say that as president, Narup has assumed oversight and responsibility for strategic planning, growth initiatives in our core markets and operational execution. He works directly with the executive leadership team to accelerate innovation, growth, and our performance. Maroot joined Schwoz in 2020, bringing more than 25 years of experience in innovation, technology, retail operations, and M&A at Fortune 500 companies. And Maroot has played an integral role in building the company and growing revenue from $9 million to a run rate of $176 million and run rate EBITDA of $60 million. Under his leadership, Schwoz has grown from less than 20 employees to over 725 today. Prior to joining the company, Naruk held C-level roles with United Airlines, Northern Trust Bank, and formal national grocery retailer A&P. He earned a bachelor's in mechanical engineering and a doctorate in industrial engineering from State University of New York, Buffalo.