FLUENT Corp. (FNTU) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to FLUENT's First Quarter 2025 Conference Call. Joining us today is the company's CEO, Robert Beasley; and the company's CFO, Patricia Fonseca. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.getfluent.com. Please note that certain subjects discussed on this call, including answers the company may provide to questions, may include content that is forward-looking in nature and therefore, subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results, future results or performance to differ materially from any implied expectations. For additional details on these risks, please consult the cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information contained in the company's financial results, press release, MD&A and annual information form, which are available on SEDAR. The company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws in Canada. In addition, during this call, the company will refer to supplemental non-IFRS accounting measures, including adjusted EBITDA, which do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. As a final reminder on today's call, unless otherwise indicated, all dollar amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Robert Beasley, the company's CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Nick, and good afternoon, everyone. In the first quarter of 2025, our revenue was $26.8 million. That's up 5.9% year-over-year, and this is despite increased price compression and market saturation in the state of Florida, which is our core market. The adjusted EBITDA came in at $3.5 million, reflecting the ongoing start-up and ramp-up investments in New York following our recent acquisition of the RIV entity as well as the continued softening of the Florida market due to competition and price compression. Our cash position has improved significantly due to the RIV's acquisition, rising to $30.7 million. That's from $8.5 million a year ago, providing strong flexibility to support both near-term priorities and long-term growth to include additional acquisitions. Moving to operational highlights. In Florida, the construction of the Rosa cultivation facility in Tampa was recently completed. Plants are in place now, and we expect the first harvest to be in August of 2025. We also relocated our North Miami Beach dispensary, one of our worst performers over to Aventura, expanding storage capacity in that site and enhancing the patient experience and moving closer to the more profitable zone of the market. On the product front, we launched 2 new whole flower brands, KNACK, which offers quality at an affordable price and Bag-O, which is a more value-driven large-format option. This reflects progress we've made in refining our flower quality standards and continuing to differentiate the various quality brands that we have on offer. Additionally, we offered our first single-serve edible, a 10-milligram THC chocolate bite, offering a lower entry price in the smaller format. In New York, the Chestertown facility has witnessed tremendous improvement. We've cut almost $400,000 out of OpEx while nearly doubling the output and increasing quality. The harvests have now started to reach THC values in the 30% consistently, and we're very proud of that team up there for bringing that facility online and around. In New York, also the Buffalo cultivation facility is complete. The infrastructure to support the grow environment is being installed now with the humidification and fertigation systems going in. Once that occurs, we anticipate having plants in place by mid-June and hope to have the first inaugural harvest out of there by Q4. We brought the KNACK product line to New York. We expanded it now to include the notable flower strains as mentioned above, but also to include pre-rolls, and we hope to have infused pre-rolls on the market soon within the next 30 days. In Texas, interesting developments. We continue to monitor House Bill 46 and look forward to expanding the state's medical program. We have been set and ready for expansion in Texas. We needed the regulatory environment to be conducive to grow that business model. We are nearing completion of the construction of the Houston Education and Pick-Up Center, and we anticipate its opening in Q3 2025. Pennsylvania, we are actively tracking the legislative developments and remain encouraged by the growing momentum towards the adult-use legislation. Our 3 stores remain a flagged position planted in that state for future growth. We continue to look for growth opportunities in Pennsylvania. Overall, while the macroeconomic and regulatory uncertainties still persist, we remain focused on strengthening our core markets. We're managing cost effectively and positioning this company to adapt and grow as the market conditions evolve. We have found ourselves to be steady and strong, while many of our competition has started to falter and fall aside. We're happy with our position. We feel strong and capable to move forward into the future. I'll now hand it over to Patricia to walk through the financial highlights.

Thank you, Robert, and good afternoon, everyone. Before we begin, please note that all variance commentary is on a year-over-year basis, unless otherwise stated. Total revenue for the quarter, as Robert mentioned, was $26.7 million, up from $25.2 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue for Florida was $19.2 million compared to $21.1 million in the prior year period. Adjusted gross profit for the quarter was $12.5 million, representing 46.8% of revenue versus $12.3 million or 48.6% in Q1 2024. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $3.5 million, reflecting the ongoing start-up and ramp-up investments in New York, as mentioned by Robert as part of the RIV acquisition as well as the softening of the Florida market. Cash flow used in operations for the 3 months ended March 31, 2025, was $1.5 million compared to $4.1 million in operating cash flow generated in the same period last year. The decrease was mainly driven by the settlement of obligations carried from prior years. As of March 31, 2025, the company held approximately $3.7 million in cash and cash equivalents with total debt of $79.1 million and approximately 700 million shares outstanding. That concludes our financial highlights. Operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Seeing no questions, this will conclude our question-and-answer session and today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.