Medicine Man Tech Inc

Good afternoon, my name is Sergio and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Strass's second quarter 2023 conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Following their prepared remarks, management will take questions submitted via the web link found on Strass's investor relations website and in the earnings press release. I would now like to hand the conference over to the company's external head of investor relations, Sean Mansoury with Elevate IR. Sir, please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Schwoz's second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call are Justin Dye, Schwoz's chairman of the board, Nirup Krishnamurthy, chief executive officer, and Forrest Hoffmaster, chief financial officer. The company will begin with prepared remarks, and then we will open the call for Q&A. I'd 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, Schwoz's future results of operations and financial position, and Schwoz's 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 annual report on Form 10-K for the year-ended December 31, 2022 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 29, 2023. In addition, other information is more fully described in Schwoz's public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be reviewed at www.sec.gov or on www.cdar.com or on the company's investor relations website. Schwoz may discuss non-GAAP financial measures during today's call. A reconciliation of the differences between the non-GAAP financial measures discussed during the call and 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 the company's chairman of the board, Justin Dye, for opening remarks. Justin?

Thank you, Sean. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our financial and operating results for the second quarter of 2023. To start, I'd like to briefly touch on the broader cannabis environment. As many of you are aware, nearly all markets throughout the country are contending with pricing pressure and inflationary impacts to consumer wallets. The capital markets environment also remains a challenge for cannabis operators. which has led nearly all companies to prioritize cash flow generation to fund their growth. We have always emphasized financial stewardship and tight cash management, which has resulted in strong EBITDA margins and cash flow generation. We plan to continue with that philosophy as we pursue our growth strategy. While we are hopeful for legislative change surrounding 280E and safe banking, We're committed to operating our business and driving growth without any government assistance. Before I pass it to Nirup to discuss our second quarter business update, I'd like to take a moment to thank all of our employees, shareholders, and our board of directors for their support while I led the company as CEO for the past three and a half years. When I first invested in and established the company, we had a vision to become one of the most profitable cannabis operators in the industry. And several years later, I'm proud to have been a part of a tremendous growth plan into becoming one of those top operators in both Colorado and New Mexico, as well as one of the most profitable cannabis companies in the US. Naroop's transition to CEO was part of the succession plan we established when he was appointed president last October. Since that time, we've worked closely together as he began to steer the company's day-to-day operations and spearhead our Colorado and New Mexico growth initiatives. I know that Schwoz is in excellent hands with Narup at the helm, and I look forward to advising the company as chairman as we continue to execute on our growth and profitability objectives ahead. Thank you again, everyone.