Earnings Labs

GrowGeneration Corp. (GRWG)

Q3 2018 Earnings Call· Fri, Nov 9, 2018

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Leone, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the GrowGeneration Corp. Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks [Technical Difficulty]. Right now, I'd like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Michael Salaman, President. Please go ahead, Mr. Salaman.

Michael Salaman

Management

Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Michael Salaman, Co-Founder and President of GrowGeneration Corp. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the GrowGeneration Corp. third quarter 2018 earnings conference call. After our remarks, we will answer a few questions that have been submitted via our email. I'm going to read our forward-looking statements. This earnings call may include predictions, estimates or other information that might be considered forward-looking within the meaning of applicable securities laws. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgments, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect our opinions only as of the date of this call. Please keep in mind that we are not obligating ourselves to revise or publicly release results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements in light of the new information of future events. When used herein, words such as look, forward, believe, continue, building, or variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from contemplated in any forward-looking statements made by us herein are often discussed in filings we make with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission available at www.sec.gov and on our website at www.growgeneration.com. This week's voting reinforced our country's support for legalized cannabis. With recreational legalization passing in Michigan and medical passing in Missouri and Utah, the U.S. legal landscape now stands at 10 recreational legal states and 33 medical legal states. GrowGen's market advantage is that we can open or acquire a new store location in less than 90 days. Our strategy is to anticipate this law is changing and be first to market like we executed in Las Vegas and Oklahoma this year, opening locations the same week legalization passed. With three active stores today in Michigan, GrowGen is well positioned to serve the thousands of new license holders who will be granted a cultivation license. Michigan's cultivation rules allowed for micro-cultivation licensing as well as home-growing where households can grow up to 14 plants. Missouri and Utah as medical legal states have set the framework in place to begin issuing licenses for both dispensing and cultivation. Missouri were allowed for up to 24 dispensaries per congressional district, issuing around a 192 licenses. Both Utah and Missouri will allow for home-growing. What this all means for GrowGeneration is continued and future growth in states that are legalizing cannabis. We continue to monitor and set in place our plan and strategies to open or acquire a new store location in these legal states today and in the future as our country and the will of the people seek national legalization. I will now turn the call over to our CEO and Co-Founder, Darren Lampert who will present our third quarter results. Darren?

Darren Lampert

Management

Thank you, Michael. Good afternoon, and welcome to our third quarter 2018 earnings call. I'd like to start by apologizing for the timing of this call. We know it's Friday afternoon and certainly it wasn't our desire to have the call on a Friday afternoon. Next week is MJ Biz; majority of our staff will be out there presenting GrowGeneration and meeting with customers for the 2019 season. We'd like to begin our call by thanking our shareholders, management and employees for their continued support and belief in the mission Michael and I set forth almost five years ago to build the largest national chain of hydroponic stores in the U.S. Today GrowGeneration owns and operates a chain of 18 retail hydroponic gardening stores with 5 stores located in the State of Colorado, 6 stores in the State of California, 3 stores in the State of Michigan, 1 store in the State of Nevada, 1 store in the State of Washington, 1 store in the State of Oklahoma, and 1 store in the State of Rhode Island and an online e-commerce store HeavyGardens.com. Today our 18 facilities operate in seven states around the USA. In 2018, we acquired $25 million of store revenue and we continue to achieve our growth goals 100% year-over-year. We continue to project similar growth rates in 2019. For the markets that have been soft for this company, Colorado, Northern California, Las Vegas and Washington in 2018, we firmly believe these markets will begin to show growth again in 2019 as more consolidation occurs in both the cultivation arena and hydroponic equipment sales space. Our operations today span over 100,000 square feet of retail and warehouse space. We employed today 75 agronomists and horticulturists that we have brand and growth for us. In addition to our…

Monty Lamirato

Management

Thanks Darren. Third quarter financial results; net revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2018 increased by approximately $4.4 million or a 109% to approximately $8.4 million compared to the $4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2017. The increase in revenues in 2018 was primarily due to the addition of eight new stores opened or acquired after September 30, 2017 and the new e-commerce site acquired in mid-September of 2018. The eight new stores and the e-commerce site contributed $4.9 million in revenue for the quarter ended September 30, 2018. The company continues to focus on the seven markets and the new e-commerce site noted below and as further discussed below and the growth opportunities that exist in each market. We are also focusing on new store acquisitions, proprietary products and now developing our online in Amazon sales, which we expect to contribute more to sales in the fourth quarter of 2018. Sales in the company's products -- sales of the company's products in the Colorado market declined slightly 1% by $17,249 comparing the quarter ended September 30, 2018 to September 30, 2017 is primarily due to the consolidation of stores and the company's focus on operating larger more profitable stores. Sales of the company's products in the California market have seen growth of approximately $2.6 million from the addition of four new stores through acquisitions, offset by decline in revenues in our Santa Rosa store of approximately $281,000. The California market experienced slower growth and prior and current quarters as a result of a change in the regulatory environment and the implementation of new rules and regulations, which have slowed the issuance of new licenses. However, the company is positioned to grow as new licenses are issued. Sales in our Santa Rosa store decreased $281,000…

Darren Lampert

Management

Thank you, Monty. I certainly got the easier part of that presentation. In conclusion, GrowGeneration's business model is working. Just like other industries, consolidation occurs when hypo growth in industry happens. This is exactly what is happening in the hydroponic equipment space, stores are consolidating or closing and the amount of cultivation for CBD and cannabis is exploding. GrowGen has perfected the acquisition and new store opening model, reaching a tipping point of scale and nationalization. In 2019, we see continued triple digit sales growth, margins expanding through strategies where it's sitting in place today and profitability. Our future is bright and we look forward to sharing our successes with our shareholders, our management team and partners. Now we will answer a few questions.

A - Michael Salaman

Management

Thank you, Darren. A couple of questions that have been submitted via our email. First question. Discuss the new corporations have reformed this year, their relevancy and impact on the overall business. I'll take that one. Basically the divisions that we created this year were created for the sole purpose of driving growth and leveraging the infrastructure that we built in the seven states and the 19 locations. Looking at each division individually, we have a commercial division with very sophisticated and talented outside sales people that are calling on the large commercial customers to gain the build-outs. And as these new states have legalized, there is a tremendous windfall that the company sees in terms of obtaining and winning that business. Our e-commerce site was bought for a strategic reason to not only drive incremental revenue, but also to be a marketing platform at the local store level to create an omni-channel approach so our customers can touch us online and offline. The hemp business, we certainly understand what's happening there. With the upcoming, we believe and I believe everyone, the consensus is that the Farm Act will pass in the near future. It's going to provide just the farmers they cash crop that we think is going to expand the active right now of 26,000 acres, dramatically increasing the amount of activity in terms of cultivation. Our distribution business has been set to develop both internally as well as looking into the markets to identify the newest and latest technologies in agricultural products that will make an impact for the cultivators in terms of increasing yields and lowering the cost for production. And lastly, our GrowGeneration Canada Corp, which we formed as a Canadian operation, which is a wholly-owned division of GrowGeneration was formed to mirror exactly the approach, the acquisition approach as Canada has as we all know recently nationalized. We see tremendous growth in that market. And as reported recently in the news, there is actually a supply shortage up there. So, certainly our position in supplying growers' equipment and mirroring the operations and the strategies that we perfected in the U.S. will be very valuable as we look at acquisition and opportunities in the Canadian market. Second question. Discuss your guidance for the rest of 2018 and your guidance going forward into 2019? Darren, you want to take that?

Darren Lampert

Management

Sure. I'll do it. 2018 has been a tremendous growth year for the company as we continue to execute our national expansion plans. The acquisitions that were made in 2018 closed at various times in the year. And in 2019, we will have the benefit of a full year of revenue under the GrowGen umbrella from these acquisitions. Combining these acquisitions along with our 2019 pipeline of acquisitions, should provide 100% plus year-over-year growth we have seen in 2018. This coupled with our online strategy and new commercial business that we are winning, will make 2019 a transformational and profitable year for GrowGeneration.

Michael Salaman

Management

Perfect. Last question and we're hearing this from many different investors and certainly shareholders. They want to understand the company's strategy relative to as its build, its business and scaled its business, what is the company's strategy to uplist the company to a larger stock market exchange from the current OTCQX. You want to take that?

Darren Lampert

Management

Yes. We are currently working on an application to uplift. We intend to file the application within the next 90 days. We at GrowGeneration are very cognizant of the limitation on trading of a [ph] golden board stock and have made an uplist to a national exchange a financial priority for 2019.

Michael Salaman

Management

That concludes our third quarter conference call. We truly appreciate the support and interest from both our shareholders our management and the investment community. Thank you very much. And everyone have a great afternoon.

Darren Lampert

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen this concludes your conference call today. We thank you for listening. And have a great weekend.