Alcanna Inc.

Good morning. We would like to welcome everyone to Alcanna, Inc.' 's second quarter 2021 earnings results call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the prepared portion of the call, we'll conduct a question and answer session for analysts. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. A copy of the company's earnings press release and management's discussion and analysis is available on their website and includes cautionary language about forward-looking statements, risks, and uncertainties, which also apply to the discussion during today's conference call. All amounts discussed on today's call are quoted in Canadian dollars. I will now turn this call over to Mr. James Burns, Alcanis Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thanks, Laurie. Good morning, everyone. I appreciate your taking the time to listen in on our results in the middle of the summer. Needless to say, if we'd have known that the first, second quarter of this year we would actually be flat to the second quarter of last year, we would have been extremely surprised and never guessed that. So we're very encouraged by what's happened and continues to happen in the marketplace despite smoky weather and so on, sales have been robust. I think we've seen that even though lockdowns are over in Alberta, the fact that there's no lockdown doesn't mean that people are necessarily comfortable yet, and even if they are, of going out to the same degree as before. And even when they do become so, there'll be... Just the economics and lifestyle changes of eating at home and entertaining at home have become somewhat more entrenched than they were prior to March of 2020, which is all things that we see as very positive tailwinds for our business going forward. We're particularly pleased on being able to retain margins, even though it's now a competitive marketplace again where it has to institute marketing and promotional pricing on occasion. margins have largely stayed the same you know with it within range of where they were before so again that is that's encouraging companies on track as we have announced before to to build its for one and beyonds their ones just finishing construction they should all be open within a couple of months which will contribute significantly to 2022 EBITDA And with that, I will turn it over to you, Laurie, to check for questions, please.

Thank you. We will now take questions from the telephone lines. If you have a question and you're using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before making your selection. If you have a question, please press star 1 on your device's keypad. You may cancel your question at any time by pressing star 2. Please press star 1 at this time if you have a question. There will be a brief pause as participants register for questions, and we thank you for your patience. And the first question is from John Zampero from CIBC. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.