MariMed Inc. (OTC:MRMD) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

MariMed Inc. (OTC:MRMD) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript May 14, 2026

Operator: Thank you for standing by. My name is Tina, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the MariMed Inc. First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Call. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Alex Swartz, Regional Store Director for MariMed. You may begin.

Alexander Swartz: Hello, and good morning, everyone. I’m Alex Swartz, Regional Retail Director for MariMed in Maryland and Delaware. I’m honored to kick off today’s 2026 first quarter earnings call. I’m privileged to work with amazing teams in both states to deliver our high standard of exceptional service to our customers every day. Through constant collaboration with my retail teammates in MariMed’s other regions, I know that every Thrive employee across 13 dispensaries is dedicated to doing the same thing. We have a unified brand, but more importantly, we have a unified mission, and it’s a huge part of what I believe makes Thrive the dispensary of choice for so many people. Joining the call today are Jon Levine, our Chief Executive Officer; Ryan Crandall, our Chief Commercial Officer; and Mario Pinho, our Chief Financial Officer.

This call will be archived on our Investor Relations website and contains forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. These risks are discussed in the Risk Factors sections of our 10-K and 10-Qs available on our website. Any forward-looking statements reflect management’s expectations as of today, and we assume no obligation to update them unless required by law. Additionally, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are reconciled in our earnings release. I will now turn the call over to Jon for his overview.

Jon Levine: Thank you, Alex, and good morning, everyone. Last night, we reported first quarter 2026 revenue of $39.5 million and positive adjusted EBITDA of $3.6 million. Additionally, we once again generated positive cash flow from operations. That performance was the result of our operational discipline and the strength of our brands and was achieved despite the adverse market dynamics that persist across our industry. Of particular note was our wholesale performance in Illinois and Delaware, where our cultivation, manufacturing, distribution and marketing teams delivered outstanding results. We grew quarter-over-quarter wholesale revenue in Illinois by 25% and in Delaware by 13%, widening our leadership position in Delaware, where we are already the #1 wholesaler.

In fact, our products maintained market-leading positions across all of our core markets. Betty’s Eddies was once again the #1 selling edible across Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland and Delaware combined. And our Vibations powdered drink mix maintained a top 5 share across the same states. Ryan is going to provide a deeper dive into our first quarter results in each of our markets. I’ll now turn to the status of our primary growth drivers I have outlined during our March earnings call. In Pennsylvania, our licensing partner is awaiting state approval of our products and packaging. We remain confident about the revenue potential of our brands in Pennsylvania, especially with adult-use sales likely to commence in the near future as well as our success to date in neighboring states of Maryland and Delaware.

In New York, we remain on schedule with our plan there. Construction has begun on the processing kitchen we are building with our licensed partner in the Bronx. We are forecasting licensing revenue generation in both states early next year, while doing everything in our control to help speed up this time line. In Maine, where we also maintain a licensing agreement, distribution of Betty’s Eddies continues to expand. Our commercial partner began sales during the fourth quarter of 2025 and has continued to sell into new dispensaries through the first quarter. Licensing allows us to generate revenue and expand our distribution in capital-efficient manner. We will continue to pursue additional agreements in tandem with M&A, which remains a focused avenue of growth for MariMed.

To that point, we are excited about recent developments in Massachusetts, where the dispensary limit cap has increased from 3 to 6. We’re very interested in pursuing opportunities to add additional stores in our home state. Our dispensary footprint will expand in Ohio first, where we’re leveraging our second retail license there to open a new Thrive location in the Columbus area. We anticipate that store will open before the end of the year. We also look forward to the benefits that the recent rescheduling of medical cannabis will have on MariMed and the nation. Near term, it locks in the elimination of 280E-related taxes for medical portion of our business. There are still many questions to be answered about the rescheduled. But make no mistake, this is the single biggest piece of federal drug reform in our country’s history, and we’re thankful for the administration for getting it done.

For me, it’s particularly a personal moment, Bob Fireman and I founded MariMed more than a decade ago as a medical cannabis company born out of the passion, belief in the plant’s medicinal value. In fact, our name MariMed was created as shorthand for marijuana medicine. I am beyond grateful that the federal government has finally acknowledged what we’ve always known about the plant’s medicinal value. That said, this is only step one. We are hopeful that the rescheduling of recreational cannabis will soon follow. In the meantime, we are in the process of registering with the DEA, and we will keep our eyes on the treasurer’s guidance with respect to the details about the implementation of 280E tax relief. To our investors, thank you for your continued support.

Our equity remains significantly undervalued given the strength of our balance sheet. The fact that we own our real estate and the value of our brands, we are confident it is only a matter of time before the markets appreciate what we have created at MariMed and the bright future ahead of us. I’ll now turn the call over to Ryan.

Ryan Crandall: Thanks, Jon, and good morning, everyone. Let me walk you through our revenue performance at a high level and then across each of our core markets. Our sales, marketing and operations teams delivered another strong quarter with wholesale revenue increasing 4% year-over-year and declining 1% sequentially. Several factors drove our year-over-year wholesale performance. First, we maintained deep penetration with coverage in 84% of available storefronts across our core markets on a trailing year basis. Second were the contributions of our Illinois and Delaware teams, which I’ll review in my state-to-state rundown. The sequential decline was expected and consistent with seasonal trends the industry experiences each year from Q4 to Q1.

Turning to retail. We achieved year-over-year growth of 5% during the first quarter and a 7% decline sequentially. Primary contributors to the year-on-year growth were Delaware’s adult-use expansion that occurred midyear, significant growth that we achieved at our Upper Marlboro store in Maryland and continued growth of our loyalty program, which accounted for approximately 80% of our overall retail revenue. We grew our membership count by 10% during the first quarter of 2026. That’s significant because the average basket of our members was 2% higher than nonmembers during the quarter, an improvement of 100 basis points versus last quarter. We believe it’s directly attributable to the personalized offerings we’re now delivering through the new Thrive app we launched during the quarter.

Turning to our individual markets. In Delaware, wholesale sales continued to grow since the commencement of adult-use sales in August of last year, increasing 13% sequentially and 373% year-over-year on a pro forma basis. Our brand portfolio again achieved the #1 overall market share position in the quarter with Betty’s, Bubby’s and Vibations all owning the top spot in their respective categories. And the combination of Nature’s Heritage and First State branded flower captured the #1 spot in the flower category. At retail, revenue declined 12% sequentially and increased 24% year-on-year on a pro forma basis. The sequential decline was in line with our expectations given the seasonality of that market. In Massachusetts, wholesale revenue increased 1% year-on-year and decreased 4% sequentially.

According to Hoodie, we outperformed the industry in the state, both year-over-year and sequentially on the strength of our brands. Betty’s Eddies and Bubby’s Baked maintained the #1 sales position in their respective edible categories and Nature’s Heritage concentrates captured the #1 position, up from #4 at the end of Q4. Vibations, Nature’s Heritage pre-rolls and InHouse gummies all once again ranked in the top 10 in their respective categories. Our retail revenue declined 9% year-on-year and 10% sequentially in Massachusetts, where average order volume decreased approximately $2 per basket during the quarter. We will continue to double down and refine our loyalty program, our new Thrive app and our digital and in-store customer experiences to drive new customer engagement and existing customer retention.

In Maryland, wholesale sales declined 12% year-on-year and 8% sequentially, the result of isolated production issues that we have already resolved and are recovering from this quarter. The resolve of our brands shined through during the quarter with Betty’s Eddies, Bubby’s Baked, Vibations and InHouse gummies all ranking in the top 3 in their respective categories by market share. Retail revenue in Maryland declined 5% year-over-year, but increased 24% sequentially with our Upper Marlboro store continuing to outperform expectations. Turning to Illinois, where we began distributing our brands in a crowded market just a few years ago, wholesale revenue increased 22% year-on-year and increased 25% sequentially. Our standout performers were once again Betty’s Eddies, which was the 13th best-selling edible in the state during the first quarter and Vibations, which maintained its #6 ranking among beverages.

Notably, Nature’s Heritage Flower, which didn’t launch in Illinois until late 2024, cracked the top 50 flower brands in the state for the first time, moving up 15 places from 61 to 46. Retail sales in Illinois declined 10% year-on-year and 2% sequentially, principally due to AOV pressure. In summary, I’m pleased to see our brands continue to capture meaningful share where they are available. While competitive brands come and go, our core products have stood the test of time for more than a decade. Quarter after quarter and year after year, regardless of changes in the competitive landscape or market dynamics like price compression, Betty’s, Nature’s and our other brands have shown the resilience, the consumer trust and the staying power that the world’s most beloved CPG brands must have to defend their turf.

But we are not standing pat. We are continuing to lean in on our product innovation to grab more market share. To that point, we’ve got a number of new line extensions and limited time special SKUs scheduled to roll out soon that will continue to gain new customers and create deeper loyalty with our existing base. Before handing the call over to Mario for his financial review, I want to thank our teams for executing well within a challenging environment.

Mario Pinho: Thank you, Ryan, and good morning, everyone. Turning to our financial results for the first quarter. Revenue for Q1 was $39.5 million, reflecting expected seasonal softness sequentially while continuing to grow year-over-year. On a sequential basis, revenue declined $2.2 million or 5.2% compared to Q4. This decline was primarily driven by lower retail volume, which was expected due to seasonality. AOV remained stable and across our markets, we continue to see healthy unit demand, particularly in wholesale, where increased distribution and brand penetration are driving volume growth. Within wholesale, lower realized pricing in Delaware was partially offset by stronger unit volumes, particularly in that state as well as in Illinois.

On a year-over-year basis, revenue increased $1.6 million or 4.2%, driven by continued retail expansion, including adult-use in Delaware and increased penetration in wholesale distribution. These gains more than offset lower pricing in our more mature markets. Overall, our revenue performance reflects continued underlying demand for our brands, stable market share and the strength of our wholesale platform. Importantly, this demonstrates the resilience of our model with volume growth and distribution gains helping to offset a more competitive pricing environment. Gross profit was $15.8 million with a gross margin of 40.1%. On a sequential basis, gross margin was relatively stable, increasing approximately 20 basis points. This reflects continued operational discipline with retail performance and contributions from our Delaware operations largely offsetting expected mix shifts towards wholesale.

On a year-over-year basis, gross margin declined approximately 110 basis points, reflecting mix shifts towards wholesale, partially offset by retail margin improvement and operational efficiencies. Overall, we continue to maintain margins at or above 40%, supported by strong brand positioning, disciplined cost management and efficiencies across our vertically integrated platform. Operating expenses were $14.4 million. On a sequential basis, operating expenses decreased slightly by approximately $100,000. On a year-over-year basis, operating expenses declined by approximately $500,000, driven by lower bad debt expense and reduced marketing spend, partially offset by investments in infrastructure, including IT and finance capabilities. Operating income was $1.4 million in Q1 compared to $2.4 million in Q4, reflecting the impact of lower revenue and margin pressure sequentially.

On a year-over-year basis, operating income improved significantly from $700,000, demonstrating improved scale and cost discipline. Adjusted EBITDA was $3.6 million, representing an EBITDA margin of 9%. On a sequential basis, EBITDA declined by approximately $800,000, primarily driven by lower revenue and mix, along with modest increases in personnel-related expenses. On a year-over-year basis, EBITDA increased by approximately $1.1 million with margin expanding from 7% to 9%, reflecting revenue growth, improved operating leverage and lower bad debt expense. Taken together, these results highlight improving operating leverage in the business. As we scale revenue, we are maintaining cost discipline, which is translating into stronger year-over-year profitability.

GAAP net loss for the quarter was $3.8 million compared to a net loss of $4.6 million in Q4, driven primarily by an accounting gain we recognized on the refinancing of our legacy Series B preferred stock and by improved operating performance. On a year-over-year basis, GAAP net income improved significantly from a loss of $5.4 million in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting both stronger operating results in 2026 and a nonrecurring bad debt accounting write-off taken in 2025. Turning to our balance sheet and liquidity. We ended the quarter with $7.9 million in cash and cash equivalents, down $1 million from $8.9 million at the end of 2025. We generated positive operating cash flow in the quarter while investing modestly at approximately $800,000, primarily related to targeting capital expenditures and license renewals.

From a capital and finance perspective, after restructuring the Series B preferred shares with Navy Capital, our current liquidity position will provide sufficient flexibility to support operations and execute on our near-term growth initiatives. Overall, Q1 results reflect continued year-over-year growth, supported by retail expansion and wholesale distribution gains, stable gross margins, demonstrating the strength of our model despite a more competitive pricing environment and targeted capital allocation to fuel our growth. As Jon mentioned, we are thrilled with the rescheduling news announced on April 22. Approximately 20% of our first quarter retail revenue were medical sales. Therefore, this change should drive an immediate benefit from a tax perspective.

Pending further movements in Washington and further guidance on implementation, including timing and any transitional considerations, we will continue to monitor developments, including the outcome of the planned midyear hearings. In the meantime, we remain focused on execution and believe MariMed is well positioned to benefit as clarity emerges. I’ll now turn it over to Jon for closing remarks.

Jon Levine: Thank you, Mario. Before we take questions, I want to thank our employees. They are what fuels my optimism about our future every day. Their tireless efforts and contributions are the backbone of our success. Operator, you can now open the line for questions.

Q&A Session

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Pablo Zuanic with Zuanic & Associates.

Pablo Zuanic: Jon, can you expand on the now — how rescheduling as it’s been announced, how does that change your strategy? Does it make you — I know that M&A is part of the growth strategy, but does this make you more acquisitive or more intent on growing through M&A? And if you can give nuance there in terms of growing in an asset-light way in terms of licensing versus actually buying businesses and hard assets in other states. Let’s start with that.

Jon Levine: Pablo, thank you for the question, and thank you for joining the call. Yes. There’s a few factors that have made us change a little bit our thoughts because not just the rescheduling, but also Massachusetts changing their limits here in the state. So we’re looking at expanding more retail in Massachusetts now that we’re able to — which will help us get the additional margins. But that will also give us the ability to also look at additional medical facilities here in Mass so that we can get to our maximum of 6 apiece. So we’re going to look at expansion in other states the way that we still have been to add additional retail and some licensing or purchasing of other licenses in states where we can go in with the process to expand our brand and get the brands into as many states as possible.

We’re very excited about the opportunity in New York and Pennsylvania to bring our brands into those states. And I think that the rescheduling and the adult use in the future in Pennsylvania will be positive impact on us.

Pablo Zuanic: Okay. But just if you can expand on the theme of gaining depth versus entering new states. And by that, I mean, for example, in those licensing states, could you actually be in a position to buy the assets to buy those businesses? Or is it more about entering other states? Just trying to understand the M&A part from a gaining depth component versus actually entering new states.

Jon Levine: With expanding the brands, manufacturing, the rescheduling isn’t as big of an effect. The retail would be the concentration of expanding into additional states, especially ones with medical at first because of the fact that the medical has had the conversion to a reschedule and the adult use is still under review. It’s a matter of looking at the license of our products. We’re still on the same schedule of looking at whether it’s a partnership or if it makes more sense to go out and use our cash flow or raising money to buy additional state licenses for processing. It still hasn’t changed much because the 280E on the retail side causes the fact that people won’t be able to get the credits to have the cash flow if it’s adult only. This is a medical-only change right now, and we’re hopeful to see the adult use change in the near future.

Pablo Zuanic: And then maybe for Ryan, I guess a 2-part question. Other companies are talking about more price stabilization in some markets, not necessarily everywhere. If you can discuss that in your top 4 — in your top markets, what are you seeing in terms of pricing? And are things beginning to stabilize? If you can touch on that. Let’s start with that, Ryan, first.

Ryan Crandall: Sure, Pablo. Thank you for the question. In terms of price stabilization, I think you’re really going to look at it by category. And I think there are still categories that are stressed by price compression in several of these markets. I feel like when we look at Illinois, we still see prices more aggressively pricing, and I think there’s more producers coming online. So as we look at that, I think Illinois still has a way to go. Massachusetts appears at times to have stabilized and start to recover a little bit. But at the end of the day, I think it’s still a dog fight in Massachusetts. Maryland is still a difficult wholesale market with some of the large producers there driving price down. So on the flower side, I think there is still a rock fight going on there in many markets.

I think the edibles have been for the large part, protected, some of the newer innovation products around infused pre-rolls and some of those categories, rosin tend to get a premium and tend to be a little bit more stable from a price standpoint. But then traditional vapes, traditional pre-rolls, Jarred flower, larger format flower, there’s still a lot of price compression in these markets. I think Delaware probably has the least amount of compression at this point, but that will be at some point in the future.

Pablo Zuanic: Right. And then staying with Ryan, in terms of retail, I mean, we track what we call revenue per store by state very closely, right? In some states, little total sales growth, but there’s more stores. So it means that there’s revenue per store erosion. I understand in the case of Maryland, there’s pretty much a cap on total stores, right? But can you just differentiate in terms of how bad has it gotten in terms of revenue per store erosion comparing, say, Illinois versus Massachusetts and I guess, versus Maryland, although in the case of Maryland, there is a cap.

Ryan Crandall: Sure, Pablo. I appreciate the question. I think it depends on the scope of time that you look at. I think there’s been erosion everywhere. I mean, I think eighth of cannabis used to be $60, $70, $65 an eighth in every market. And we’ve seen that consistent decline of both product cost as well as overall basket across markets. And I think the real — the metrics that we’re focused on are increasing our transactions, making sure that we increase our loyalty program, that when folks enter our store, they order it, they’re getting our products that they are returning to buy them again and that we’re making sure that we’re staying in touch with our customers and listening to them. So I think that’s what we’re really laser-focused on.

And ultimately, yes, it’s a challenging environment and same-store sales are — have been impacted in a lot of places. But I think at the end of the day, the well-run businesses that continue to innovate and continue to not accept mediocre results are going to be the ones that succeed in this environment.

Pablo Zuanic: Right. And one last one maybe for Mario. In terms of the percent of your own brands being sold in your own stores, is that where you wanted to be? Or is there room to increase that? And if you can be specific about certain states, meaning in terms of your own Thrive stores, how much is owned brands versus third-party brands?

Mario Pinho: Well, Ryan could speak a little bit more to it as well, but that is a significant and a core strategy from a sales perspective. We obviously want to increase the mix of our own products in our stores, and it’s something we even have a dedicated person to that and focusing that across all markets. So that is a permanent strategy that we have working in our business.

Ryan Crandall: I can add on to that, Pablo, if you’d like. Yes, I mean, we are very focused on making sure that our products show up in our stores better than they show up in any store. We — so that’s first and foremost. And then second is we are focused on making sure that we’re recommending our products first, and that we’re giving our products every ability to sell at an increased rate over time within our stores. So that is a core area of focus, and there is a team goal on successful results there.

Pablo Zuanic: Right. And just one last one, and apologies if there’s other people in the Q&A queue here. I mean, Jon or Mario, with all the news flow on rescheduling, are you getting more inbounds in terms of M&A, meaning more bankers reaching out or more brokers reaching out or even more companies reaching out in terms of a supply of businesses available for purchase. Have those inbounds changed since the rescheduling news or not really much.

Jon Levine: Thank you, Pablo. No, the inbounds of the — sorry, the rescheduling has not affected the M&A coming in. There has been no change in any banking because this is not affecting the banks. Banks, credit card companies, they’re all acting the same as if it’s still an illegal situation. This has only been approved for rescheduling of the medical. So there isn’t the wide open change across the industry. I do think you will see it as the adult-use becomes rescheduled and if they pass a banking rule. So there’s more to come. But right now, it’s more about people are seeing more deals coming in Massachusetts with the change of the licensing aspect in Mass more than the rescheduling.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Joe Gomes with NOBLE Capital Markets.

Joseph Gomes: Congrats on the quarter. I’d like to start out on Massachusetts, with the increase from 3 to 6, any geographies in Mass where you would prefer to look at or still more just Boston area focused? Maybe you could touch on that first.

Jon Levine: Yes. Massachusetts is an exciting opportunity, but we’re not going to rush into just trying to buy a license. We have to find one that fits into a good market that the competition around it is going to be something that we feel is the right competition because there’s a lot of stores that are for sale in the western part of the state along the New York border that are one of maybe 50 in an area in a small little 20-mile radius, and we don’t want to go into a situation where there’s an overabundance of store. We want to find markets that will be maybe on the borders of other states, but also have the competition levels that are more reasonable like the existing stores that we have today. .

Joseph Gomes: Okay. And then you mentioned an isolated production issue in Maryland that maybe you could give us a little more color as what happened there? And are we all fixed and back to normal?

Ryan Crandall: Yes, Joe, thank you for the question. Yes, I mean, we did have some turnover issues for some key people there that we have since recovered from. And yes, that has all been resolved, and I think we are in a great position.

Joseph Gomes: Okay. And then, Ryan, maybe just on the loyalty program, impressive quarter-over-quarter increases. How many people are on the loyalty program now? And I think you mentioned like 80% of sales are now coming from members in the loyalty program. What percent of revenues are also coming from online sales.

Ryan Crandall: Sure, Joe. Thank you for the question. So I can circle back with you with an exact number of the loyalty membership, but it’s in the hundreds of thousands at this point of active members. And in terms of online sales, people that put in an order before they get to the store is north of 50% at this point. And as I mentioned, we just launched our new Thrive app. And that app really — it links loyalty well, and it really drives loyalty as a part of signing up for the app. So that’s been a very impactful thing to driving both increased app adoption as well as increased loyalty adoption. .

Joseph Gomes: Okay. And then one more for me, if I may. The Metropolis dispensary, I know that one has been — had some competitive challenges. I don’t know if you could give us an update on how that is going these days.

Ryan Crandall: Sure, Joe. Yes. I mean Metropolis is a fantastic store for us. Very profitable store. We’ve got 2 stores that opened within a mile of us, call it 1.5 miles of us. That impact has been felt. We compete very well with those stores. And ultimately, I feel like the Metropolis store has stabilized and has started to show signs of growth again. And just to circle back on the loyalty number. Yes, Joe, just to circle back on the loyalty number. It’s just short of 400,000. It’s 398,000 active members. .

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And with no further questions in queue, this does conclude today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.