Green Thumb Industries Inc. (GTII) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, and welcome to Green Thumb's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, a live audio webcast of the call is available on the Investor Relations section of Green Thumb's website and will be archived for replay. I'd like to remind everyone that today's call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Shannon Weaver, Vice President of Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Betsy. Good afternoon, and welcome to Green Thumb's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. I'm here today with Founder and CEO, Ben Kovler; President, Anthony Georgiadis; and Chief Financial Officer, Matt Faulkner. Today's discussion and responses to questions may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in the earnings press release issued today, along with the reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian Securities Regulators, including the 2022 annual reports filed on Form 10-K. This report, along with today's earnings release can be found under the Investors section of our website. Green Thumb assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this call. Throughout the discussion, Green Thumb will refer to non-GAAP financial measures, including EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is included in our earnings press release and SEC [indiscernible] filings. Please note all financial information is provided in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated. Thanks, everyone, and now here's Ben.

Thank you, Shannon. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our second quarter 2023 conference call. I'll lead off with an overview of our results and some observations on the current state of the industry. Anthony will discuss our operations. Matt will dive into the financials, and then we'll open the call to questions. Reflecting on the cannabis industry and the economy as a whole, not much has changed since our last call. Inflation continues to dampen consumer spending, pricing pressure is still with us and there has not been any meaningful action on the federal front. So given the environment, we feel pretty good about our second quarter performance. We posted $252 million in revenue, which was up slightly from the first quarter and kept us on pace to exceed another $1 million in revenue for the full year 2023. GAAP net income was $13 million or $0.05 per basic and diluted share in the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $76 million or 30% of revenue. For the quarter, cash flow from operations was $18 million after paying Uncle Sam $52 million. Importantly, 6 months cash flow from operations was $93 million, up from $40 million in the comparable 6-month period of 2022. This cash flow gives us the confidence to continue to play offense as we ended the quarter with a strong balance sheet and $149 million in cash. We believe our cash flow generation, coupled with a strong balance sheet is one of our most significant competitive advantages. Right now expensive capital is a problem for most industries, but it is especially deadly for the cannabis sector, which is blocked from traditional capital sources and saddled with a punitive tax structure. At Green Thumb, we have been able to navigate a path to profitability while remaining fiscally strong. Since our founding, our intense focus on generating cash and investing and spending it like it's coming from our own pockets has been our team's not-so secret, secret sauce. This gives us the ability to execute our long-term growth strategy in a patient and deliberate manner. We not only sleep well at night, but we also wake up early excited about the opportunity in front of us. And there's a lot to be excited about. This quarter, we opened 6 new RISE stores in New Hope, Minnesota, Grove City in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bristol and Danville in Virginia and Las Vegas, Nevada. Now we are in even better positioned to expand our brand awareness in these key markets. Opening new stores is a challenging process with time lines that are hard to predict and we are proud of our team for their tenacity on this front. We now have a total of 84 locations supported by 18 manufacturing facilities and we plan to open several more stores this year. This is all part of our long-term strategy that continues to unfold, which includes building brands that resonate with Americans. We see these lifestyle aspirational brands as key to our long-term growth. Over the last 12 months, we have made capital investments of approximately $240 million to position ourselves to grow. This all plays out against our original strategy to enter open-end scale with disciplined capital allocation. We are also excited about the July 1 commencement of adult-use sales in Maryland, where we have 4 dispensaries and a healthy wholesale business. If Maryland follows the pattern of the adult-use sales in other states, there should be a nice lift in that market. We have made real progress in the quarter in executing our growth strategy and have a long runway of opportunity ahead. Legal U.S. cannabis sales in the U.S. is on a $28 billion industry growing to an estimated $75 billion over the next decade. And that's a new record with regulated sales accounting for over $7 billion in the second quarter. But it's very important to note that that number does not include the sizable gray market of untested, unregulated products such as Delta and hemp-derived THC. And if you're curious what I'm talking about, take a walk in Lower Manhattan. Despite that, our 15 operating states are among the most attractive in the nation and offer access to 50% of the U.S. population. So we believe we are in a terrific position to keep growing profitably and sustainably. While there are very few sectors with outlooks as compelling as cannabis, there's no denying that the industry is going through growing pains right now. The tide continues to recede. For some time now I've stopped speculating on what government officials, many of whom have passed their expiration dates will do to lift punitive taxes and make some headway on safe banking practices or let us list on a U.S. exchange. I'll stop trying to predict when some states, notably New York, will get their cannabis program in working order. All I can say is that we stand on our record for clear, not wishful thinking and feel good knowing our business is positioned to withstand old guard politicians who have failed to facilitate needed action in cannabis reform. Above all, we never lose sight of our mission to provide consumers with safe, high-quality products that improve their well-being and help them live more comfortably in this ever chaotic world. Along the same line, we will never stop advocating for justice for the many people who have suffered a failed war on drugs. You may not be familiar with the case of Allen Russell. But Mr. Russell is currently serving a life sentence with no parole in Mississippi for his possession of 1.5 ounces of cannabis. That's an amount we sell every day legally in our stores across the country. He is just one of the estimated 40,000 Americans who today are incarcerated for cannabis offence, even as state after state legalizes its use. And the damage of this causes extends far beyond the person in prison. It affects their families and their communities, many of which are black and brown. So our Green Thumb team will never stop focusing our efforts on this devastating injustice. Now I'll turn the call over to Anthony for his thoughts on the second quarter. Anthony?

Thanks, Ben, and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us. As you just heard, the company had a respectable print in the second quarter. Even with continued price compression and persistent inflationary pressure, we generated over $250 million of revenue and approximately $76 million in adjusted EBITDA. In addition, despite making over $52 million in tax payments to our state and federal partners, we generated $18 million in cash flow from operations. Cash flow generation and balance sheet stability remains the name of the game for Green Thumb. During the quarter, we invested $64 million across our CPG and retail fleet, bringing our year-to-date spend to $129 million. We anticipate spending an additional $90 million to $100 million in CapEx over the third and fourth quarter, highlighting our confidence in our team, our brands and investment opportunities. During the quarter, in addition to CPG facility investments in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota and Virginia, we opened 6 new stores and continued setting the foundation for the additional 6 to 8 stores in Nevada, Florida and New York, we anticipate opening before year-end. Another recent highlight was our [ Thanks Dick ] campaign, a sarcastic commemoration of Richard Nixon's signing of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970. This act effectively initiated the failed war on drugs and decades of farm communities of color. Our goal for the campaign was to educate our patients and customers on the impact from the failed war on drugs and the state of cannabis today. We are proud of the campaign's success as our team, patients and customers are incredibly excited to support this very important awareness project. Looking ahead in September, on September 9 and 10, across the street from a RISE Dispensary in Mundelein, Illinois, Green Thumb will host the miracle on bundle line, a first-of-its-kind 2-day cannabis centric Music Festival. We have an incredible lineup that includes Cypress Hill, JRAD, Stephen Marley, Lettuce, Action Bronson and other great artists. We have a number of attending packages still remaining for those who want to make history with us. Our story is just a short ride north from the O'Hare Airport and the buy will be something extraordinary. On our last call, I highlighted some of our strategic initiatives for the balance of 2023. They include driving operating efficiencies, proper resource allocation, both micro and macro and a successful Maryland adult-use launch. I'm excited to report that the team's work in Maryland is off to a strong start. And rest assured, we are continuing to optimize our opportunity within the market. On another note, we want to call out the increased activity we are seeing of unregulated cannabis and farm build compliant and non-compliant cannabis products. As most within the industry know, many of these products lack testing, basic standards and utilize questionable inputs. In addition to posing consumer safety risk, we are also monitoring the impact these activities could have on future industry growth prospects and subsequent regulatory response. In conclusion, while we recognize our industry continues to experience regulatory, political and industry-related headwinds, we remain incredibly bullish on our business and our team's ability to navigate these turbulent waters. As we've said before, the star of the team is the team and we have a special one. With that, I'll turn the call over to Matt to review our financial results.

Thanks, Anthony, and good afternoon, everyone. We generated over $252 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2023, a 1% decrease compared to the prior year quarter. Well, units sold increased during the period, total revenue declined due to price compression. We continued unit growth in key markets as well as revenue generated from 6 new stores opened in the second quarter helped offset some of the effects of price compression. Overall, retail revenue decreased 2% versus the second quarter of '22. Second quarter comparable sales decreased 3% over the second quarter last year on a base of 76 stores. Consumer Packaged Goods gross revenue increased 13% versus the prior year quarter. Gross profit for the second quarter was $125.3 million or 49.6% of revenue compared to $125.8 million or 49.5% of revenue for the second quarter last year. The effect of price compression was more than offset by cost of goods sold management and verticality. Turning to OpEx, selling, general and administrative expense for the second quarter was $84.2 million or 33.4% of revenue compared to $63.5 million or 25% of revenue last year. SG&A, excluding depreciation, amortization, one-time transaction costs and stock-based comp, which we refer to as normalized operating costs, approximate $57 million compared to $56 million in Q1 and $57 million in the second quarter of 2022. The sequential increase in total expenses primarily reflected costs associated with opening new stores. We continue to carefully manage our costs as we navigate this challenging environment. The company generated net income of $13.4 million or $0.05 per basic and diluted share during the quarter. This compares to net income of $24.4 million or $0.11 per basic and $0.10 per diluted share reported last year. Second quarter last year benefited from an acquisition-related noncash fair value of credit, which did not occur in the current period. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes noncash stock-based compensation and other non-operating costs was $75.8 million or 30% of revenue for the quarter as compared to $78.7 million or 31% of revenue for the second quarter last year. We ended the second quarter with a strong balance sheet, including cash of $149 million and working capital of $166 million, while paying more than $52 million in tax payments during the quarter. In summary, we're pleased with our second quarter performance and execution within this current market environment. We will continue to focus on execution and our stated goals. Thank you for your support and confidence as we look forward to updating you next quarter. With that, I'll open the call for your questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Eric Des Lauriers with Craig-Hallum.

My question is just on the CapEx outlook beyond the end of the year here to the extent that you can provide it. I know previously, you mentioned that you do expect CapEx to decline in 2024. But just given the sort of, I think it was $90 million to $100 million expectation for the second half. Just any sort of indication you can give us for 2024, albeit early would be great.

Great question. Anthony here. So what we'll say is this. Obviously, we've invested quite a bit in CapEx over the last 12 months. We've got a healthy kind of Q3 and Q4 spend ahead of us. Tough to say how much we're going to spend in '24, but goes without saying it's going to -- we expect to be materially less than this year. We're near the end of our capital cycle. And the reality is we'll probably have more visibility on that over the coming quarters as we kind of finish up budgeting exercises for 2024.

The next question comes from Aaron Grey with Alliance.

So I just want to touch a bit on the wholesale. Nice to see that growth sequentially and year-over-year there. Any additional color you could provide maybe geographically on the states that primarily contributed to the wholesale growth, it was more broad-based? And then also at the brand level, whether or not this is more from your premium brands or some of your value-oriented brand?

Sure. I'll take that question. Anthony here again. So let's start with -- I guess the second question was related to kind of brands that we're seeing kind of either strength or lack there of. Was that it?

Yes. Just on the wholesale growth, what might have driven it geographically and then also by brand. So what drove it geographically different states or -- and different brands, whether it be [ Rhythm ] and or otherwise?

Yes. So look, I mean, one of the things that we've continued to see is a bit of a trade-down by the consumer. So that's led to certainly sizable strength within the &Shine portfolio. But across the board, we feel pretty good about kind of all the brand performance across the board. In terms of market, the softness really continues to be felt in those markets that are experiencing kind of price compression. Those markets generally have a lot more competition on the wholesale side of the business. So to call out places where it continues to be a bit challenging, you've got Nevada, you've got Massachusetts and a few others, a place where there's strength. We feel like we're making solid progress in a number of our important kind of eastern markets, PA, New Jersey. And then obviously, with Maryland turning on, we feel like we've got some opportunity there as well.

The next question comes from Andrew Partheniou with Stifel.

Congrats on the good quarter here. Just wondering if you have this, do you -- can you let us know what the same-store sales growth is if you exclude New Jersey as it's kind of an outlier since last year, REC-launched. Not sure if you have that. But also, I was wondering about production expansions that are expected to come online towards the end of this year, beginning of 2024 in a number of states. Correct me if I'm wrong, but New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Virginia. Could you talk a little bit about how each market is behaving and if it can support additional supply? What are you expecting in terms of your inventory levels and what this additional supply that comes online, how do you think the market can react in terms of volume and price?

Sure. I'll jump on that. Thanks, Andrew. It's Ben. Appreciate it. Let's say, 2 things. One, on same-store sales, we're not going to break out ex-New Jersey, what the same-store sales will be. But I would say New Jersey turns on April 21. So it's most of the second quarter. So that's not a key driver, I don't think, into the comp, especially with how good that market started. So I wouldn't -- it's not a huge factor, but obviously, we'll see in the third quarter where it's lapping a full 90 days during the third quarter. Second part of your question, cannabis new supply coming out. You're right about the timing, which is 2024 and can they support it in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Minnesota. And I think it's a bottom-up answer, a lot depends on the rules and what's going on and what gets an active when. But we have a lot of confidence that people across the country want more Rhythm flower. This is a product and a brand that resonates with people. We know that Dogwalkers is working. We need to make more Dogwalkers. We get questions every day, including a handful today and when can you get Dogwalkers in New York. So we know that we've just got to make the right product, that we have the right formulations here and we just got to go execute against our strategy and we have spots in these markets. We look at total size of market, total population, number of stores, our stores, the adult turn on, the verticality. That's why we spent $50-plus million in several of these markets because we should be able to sell that wholesale product. So yes, we have product turning on. Again, it's been a bottom-up approach, pretty crawl-walk-run, so there's nothing monumental or game-changing, but it's slow methodical growth against the core strategy just as it's always been. So we're pumped about what's ahead.

The next question comes from Michael Lavery with Piper Sandler.

Could you just give us the latest look ahead or kind of where we sit now in terms of price compression? Are you seeing lights at the end of the tunnel? How much -- it varies, obviously, state to state, but can you point to places where maybe just a little state [indiscernible] and give us a sense of where it's -- is it improving anywhere yet, at least stabilizing just sort of a walk around for that?

Sure, Michael, I'll take that. So look, I'll tell you a high level, price compression continues in many of the markets we operate in. I would say that in the third quarter, it's not as if we saw a material slowdown in any of the markets that have exhibited the price compression that we felt all year. And have we seen a real stabilization? The reality is, no, we haven't. Now we did start to see some stabilizing in, call it, Maryland with adult-use coming. But across the board, I think when we look back on '23, I think one of the themes of the year is just going to be the price compression that we felt. But generally speaking, we haven't seen a material slowdown. And what we do continue to see again is a trading down by the consumer, where in terms of the quality of the product they're purchasing and buying greater unit size. So that's been a recurring theme of Q2. We'll see if it continues in Q3 and Q4. But -- and that's one of the reasons why we built the business that we have is we now have a brand portfolio that allows us to kind of -- to service kind of all into the market. And so that's really how we're reacting to the price compression that we continue to be able.

And initially, there was at least in some states, scarcity from the limited license environment that drove -- supported pricing and drove value. Historically, in CPG, it's primarily been brand driven. It's still so early for brands in the category, but you've got double brands and put resources behind them. Are you seeing some loyalty developing? How does it look as far as kind of evolution of branding in your portfolio?

Yes. I think your characterization is correct. It's early stages. We're pleased with where we're at. And we look out and play out 3 to 5 years and we think we have a chance to really build resonating brands with Americans to consume this product. We understand that experience. We understand the consumer, and we're playing the medium long game on that. And we have tons of great American brands and great American companies that have done it before. And it's entirely the exact thesis we've had in the business that we talked to you and everybody about is history doesn't repeat, it rhymes, so that we can look towards the rhymes with history to understand how to build value American companies allocate capital well that can survive the cycle and build brands that resonate with American consumers. So it's early, but we're excited about what's going on and gives us just continued increased confidence, especially going into dicier markets that have unregulated sloppy regulations or illegal markets like New York.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Sonny Randhawa, with Seaport.

I just wanted to get an update on the early weeks of Maryland. Some of your peers are saying that sales are tracking at 2 to 2.5x medical volumes. So I just kind of wanted to see if you guys are seeing similar results out of Maryland in the early weeks.

Sure. This is Anthony. Look, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we're off to a good start. We feel really good about the execution kind of that really commenced by July 1. Obviously, our performance is consistent with what others have kind of indicated. We have 4 stores, 4 stores within the state. We've got a healthy wholesale business. And the reality though is that we're less than 45 days into this thing, it's still very, very early. So as we think about as the business of Maryland starts to normalize, as the dust settles and candidly, as more consumers are aware that they can now purchase this product really remains to be seen where that really settles out. But so far, we're encouraged and we're excited about our position in the market.

The next question comes from Matt Bottomley with Canaccord Genuity.

Just wanted to focus my question more on Illinois and maybe just some of the macro level comments that you were giving at the beginning of the call about price compression and inflation, how it relates to that whole market where I know you guys have or are competing for the leading share. What are you seeing in terms of trends in that market and more specifically on the retail front, can you just remind us how many stores have opened in the first 6 months or I guess, first 8 months of the year and what your anticipation is for further distribution on the retail side in 2023?

Sure, Matt. I'll take that as well. Look, there's a lot happening in Illinois. In terms of the number of stores that have opened, I believe the number is approximately 20 to 30 up to this point. And what I'll tell you is that that's a much smaller number than anyone would have anticipated come August of 2023. So the situation there is you've got -- you now have price compression that's happening within the market as additional supply has kind of come online, certainly anticipating greater retail demand. But what I'll also say is that what we're seeing in the market is that it's not as if it's been a stair step. It's been kind of a slow and steady in terms of the compression that we've seen. So it's allowed us and probably others to kind of just react accordingly to it. But the reality is the next 6 months, 6 to 9 months are probably going to tell us a lot and it's really going to be driven by the number of stores that are able to open. For us, with our 10 store portfolio, there has been competition that's opened up around us. It certainly has impacted our retail business and it's something we just continue to watch.

The next question comes from Scott Fortune with ROTH MKM.

I appreciate the color on, obviously, the ongoing price compression and kind of around the stabilization, but can you focus a little more on your side on the cost environment and the improvements that you kind of continue to make there to continue to flow into the margins? I think still expected kind of 50% gross margin, 30% EBITDA margins moving forward. But just what kind of cost efficiencies are you able to kind of drive further for the model here? And then just on top of that, [indiscernible] SG&A, how we look at that kind of continuing to increase as new stores kind of get added throughout the second half here?

Sure. Scott, Anthony, I'll take that one as well. Look, as we felt price compression, there's a couple of levers in the business that we had. I've talked about this on previous calls. One of those is operating efficiency. And I'll tell you that that's an area that we're very focused on. And the way we kind of look at it is we look at it on a facility-by-facility basis and a store-by-store basis. It's something we watch very closely. We're encouraged by the progress. I'll tell you that I think we continue to have plenty of opportunity there, particularly as we continue to grow into the CPG capacity that we've already built. On the kind of SG&A side, I was going to kick it over to Matt, but I can just -- I can just answer it. Look, we've been sitting around, call it, the $56 million, $57 million of normalized operating cost. And as we open up stores, we're going to continue to see additional SG&A. I mean there's just -- there's really no way around it. So one of the things that we're doing is we're constantly looking at effectively the normalized SG&A expenses as a percent of our revenue. And that's kind of how we hold ourselves accountable and we like where it is. And our goal and our plan is to keep it at or around that level on a go-forward basis.

I'll just jump in, Scott, it's a good question. But zooming out a little, let's just look at the whole income statement. You got gross margin above the SG&A, but really below the SG&A, I think is a key area, especially in cannabis. People talk about adjusted EBITDA, it includes a lot of murky kinds of adjustments, but just below EBITDA. So we're all on the same page and we go through a real basic around here, just a cash flow lesson, but EBITDA minus taxes minus interest because you pay taxes in cash, if you pay taxes, you pay interest in cash, most of it usually. And then your CapEx and what's left is the cash balance. There's really not much else. And so for Green Thumb, most basic back of the envelope with a 300-ish run rate just taking this quarter times 4, take $120 million of taxes. That's current year cash taxes on the current EBITDA, a pretty simple story, minus our interest cash payment due annually, which is $17 million. Just as a reminder, if we have a mortgage on a retail property, it shows up in SG&A as rent, if we have a mortgage on a cannabis production facility that will show up as COGS in rent. So that's all above the line. However, the interest is not. And what's left there from our perspective is some number over 150, the number you can do the math yourself. And then minus CapEx, and there's 2 kinds of CapEx, there's maintenance CapEx to essentially keep the lights on and then growth CapEx. And we've been able to really control that dial and understand our position. That cash flow generation after all of that, for us, is what puts us in a position to continue to invest. So the SG&A, Matt and Anthony have done an amazing job. We got it very tight. We understand it percentage of revenue, Anthony's right. But it's the gross profit, it's the taxes, it's the interest and the CapEx also that makes the whole formula work and that's what gives us a cash-producing machine and enterprise here that we're building for the long term on behalf of shareholders and gets us pretty excited. Thanks for the question.

The next question comes from Mike Regan with Excelsior Equities.

A pretty good quarter. Can you help us understand sort of the nature of this $55 million to $65 million incremental cash spending in the second half? Is this sort of incremental spending versus what was guided in May or is this a pull forward from 2024? And just help us sort of understand what changed versus made -- to make this incremental investment?

Yes. It's a good question, and you're right. It's a little here, a little there, a little bit of everything. We're able to see the results of the business and then make decisions on what's going on. So we see the $90 million of cash flow from operations, which gives us the cash to continue to invest. So some of it is discretionary. Some of it's finishing out. We're looking at each project and doing it. I do not think -- and as Anthony mentioned in one of the other questions is that's indicative that '24 is going to also look like '23. We continue to sort of double-underline that we're at the end of the CapEx cycle and that's not an indication of what's happening. It's not even really necessarily a pull forward. There'll be a couple of things in '24 at the moment. We have the ability to play a ton of offense and do lots of different things. We've talked about our priorities of that cash flow being one, CapEx and here we are at the end. 2, debt, and we talked to about the debt. And then, 3, potentially buyback or some advantage for shareholders. So it's really confidence in the operations of the business, finishing out the projects. We have 4 or 5 very large scale projects that we wanted to finish out and a continued retail expansion that's making it happen a little bit of hustle in Maryland to get those stores open and up and running for July 1 that we didn't quite know was going to happen when we gave that first guidance. But little here, little there is the core answer.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Thanks, everybody, for joining us. We look forward to talking to you again in about 90 days. Have a great summer, fall.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.