Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Indiva Limited Year-End 2022 earnings conference call. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded today, April 18th, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Niel Marotta, CEO of Indiva. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you, operator. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning to discuss Indiva's financial results for the fourth quarter and year-end December 31, 2022. Matters discussed in this conference call include forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in such statements. Certain material factors and assumptions were considered and applied in making these forward-looking statements. Additional information regarding these forward-looking statements, factors, and assumptions is available in our earnings press release issued today, as well as in the Risk Factors section of the annual MD&A and other public disclosure documents available on Indiva's SEDAR profile. I'm pleased to report financial results, including record net revenue and record gross profit for our fiscal year ended December 31st, 2022. Revenue in the fourth quarter was primarily driven by new product introduction, offset by decreased sales in other edible products. Our distribution in Canada reaches all 13 provinces and territories. Indiva also continues to distribute nationally through medical platforms, now including Tilray, where Indiva's edible products are now available for sale on the medical platform. Indiva's market share in the adult rec channel remained robust in the fourth quarter. As per Hifyre data, Indiva continues to lead the edibles category with 29% market share, and Indiva ranks 13th out of 164 LPs across all product categories. Looking closer at Hifyre market share data for the fourth quarter of 2022 and focusing on the big five provinces where edibles are available for sale, namely BC, Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, edibles category increased by 7% in Q4 to CAD 61.8 million, from CAD 57.5 million last quarter, and increased 24% year-over-year when compared to CAD 51 million in retail sales in Q4 of 2021. Our product ranked four out of the top 10 in Q4 of 2022 as per Hifyre data. Looking back at 2022 highlights, Indiva began production of Pearls by Grön gummies in mid-2022, and these gummies have quickly become one of the best-selling edibles in the country. We completed initial deliveries in Ontario in August 2022, followed by deliveries to BC, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, where we now have seven Pearls SKUs available in market. Grön recently received its registration in Alberta, initial deliveries of Pearls into this important market are planned for May of 2023 and should contribute meaningfully to revenue and market share. Pearls was awarded Best Edible Innovation by High Times magazine in 2022 as well. Turning to Indiva Life, we introduced several new products under the Indiva Life brand, including Double Stuffed Sandwich Cookies available in vanilla fudge and fudge flavors at 10 milligrams of THC per cookie, adding substantially to Indiva's market share in the baked goods subcategory. Subsequent to year-end, Indiva introduced cookies in strawberry and golden vanilla flavors. We introduced three new 30-count capsule formats under Indiva Life, including Zen CBN/CBD, Sunrise CBG:THC, and Sunset CBN:THC. We also introduced Indiva Life chocolates. Irish white chocolate THC delivered in Ontario with evening milk chocolate, CBN, CBD, and afternoon trail mix milk chocolate becoming available in Ontario and BC in Q4 of 2022. Indiva Life Lozenges, these innovative extract products were available in lemon and wild cherry flavors. I should say are still available, albeit not for much longer, in 10-pack, 25-pack, and 50-pack counts. We signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Dime Industries in the spring of 2022. Indiva launched Dime's proprietary and innovative vape products in Ontario in Q3 of 2022, marking Indiva's first entrance into the vape category. Recently, Indiva introduced Wedding Cake Hybrid rechargeable all-in-one vape in Ontario. We're hopeful we'll be able to expand our distribution of Dime products to other markets in 2023. Turning to Wana, we introduced five new Wana SKUs in 2022, including Wana Quick Midnight Berry and a classic Midnight Berry indica, as well as Lemon Cream and Island Punch under Wana Quick. Finally, Wana Passion Fruit under Wana Classic. For Bhang, we introduced Bhang THC Toffee & Salt Milk Chocolate, bringing total SKUs in market to nine, with Bhang continues to hold the number one market share in the chocolate subcategory. For licensing, Indiva was granted a research license from Health Canada, which will allow us to conduct sensory evaluation trials on-site for medicated samples. This is obviously very helpful for launching new innovative products. Turning to automation, building on Indiva's strength as a best-in-class manufacturer and a low-cost producer of edibles, the company commissioned several new pieces of automated equipment in the fourth quarter in its facility in London, Ontario for use in the processing and packaging of edible products. Margin benefit from implementing automation will begin to be realized in Q1 of 2023. Finally, Indiva extended the maturity on CAD 2.8 million of convertible debentures to December 31, 2024, and lowered the conversion price to CAD 0.15 per share, with the coupon remaining at 10%. Turning to events subsequent to year-end, we're delighted to have begun supplying Tilray's medical platform with Indiva products. These products are now available on Tilray's medical patients, including Pearls by Grön, Wana Sour Gummies, Bhang Chocolate, as well as Indiva Life Double Stuffed Sandwich Cookies. We also signed a non-exclusive agreement with Valiant Distribution Canada, a subsidiary of Canna Cabana, for the distribution of its products in the province of Saskatchewan. This agreement will substantially reduce shipping costs to Saskatchewan stores. Finally, as per the press release dated March 14th, 2023, the company received notification from Health Canada of its determination that uncertain has been improperly classified as an extract rather than an edible under applicable cannabis regulations. Health Canada ordered Indiva to cease production of lozenges, we did so immediately. We may choose to continue manufacturing these products in alternative packaging formats. Looking forward, the OCS recently announced standardization and reduction in markups on edibles, which we view as a significant benefit to the category and for our product margins. This will go into effect later in 2023. We expect that Q1 2023 net revenue will be down slightly on a sequential basis and will be higher year-over-year with the benefit of broader distribution of new products offset by seasonal weakness. Margins are also expected to improve sequentially in Q1 2023 due to the benefit of implementation of automation in the production and packaging of edible products. Indiva also expects to continue to drive growth with innovation and introduction of new products through our national distribution platform throughout 2023. I'd like to thank all of Indiva's employees, in particular our dedicated staff for our facility in London, Ontario, for their hard work throughout 2022. Thank you. I'm sure cannabis enthusiasts everywhere in Canada thank you too. I'll now turn it over to Indiva's Chief Financial Officer, Jennifer Welsh, to review the financial results in greater detail. Thanks, Niel. I'll review Indiva's financial performance for fiscal Q4 and the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. Gross revenue in fourth quarter decreased 1% year-over-year and grew 17% sequentially to $10.3 million. Net revenue fell 1% year-over-year and grew 15% sequentially to $9.3 million in the quarter, driven mainly by new product introductions offset by weaker sales of Wana products. For the 12-month period, gross revenue 6% year-over-year to $37.7 million and net revenue increased by 7% year-over-year to $34.4 million. The strong year-over-year growth was driven by the introduction of new edible and extract SKU into the recreational market. Overall, edibles represented 81% of net revenue in Q4 and 89% of net revenue for the 12-month period, primarily due to higher sales of adjustable extracts during the last quarter of 2022. Gross profit before fair value adjustments and impairments was CAD 2.7 million in Q4 and a record CAD 10.4 million for the 12-month period. Gross margin before fair value adjustments was 29.3% of net revenue versus 28.9% in Q3, 2022 and 31.5% in Q4, 2021. The decline in gross margin percentage year-over-year was due to delays in deliveries of automated processing equipment related primarily to new products and a shift in product mix in the fourth quarter towards edible products with higher average cannabinoid content per unit and lower gross margin. The company expects margins to improve in Q1 2023 due to the implementation of some of the new automation equipment for production and packaging of edible products. For the 12-month period, gross margin improved slightly to 30.2%. Operating expenses in the quarter decreased 4.5% year-over-year to 41.7% of net revenue versus 41.8% in Q3 2022 and 43.3% in Q4 2021, mainly due to lower marketing costs, which were partially offset by increased sales expenditures, while DMA costs remained flat. For the 12-month period, operating expenses increased by 15% versus the year ended 2021, primarily due to higher marketing and sales expenses as well as higher research and development expenses resulting from the company's increased focus on in-house innovation. General administrative costs decreased 6.2% for the year versus 2021. As a percentage of net revenue, operating expenses increased to 41.4% for 2022 versus 38.5% in 2021. Adjusted EBITDA declined sequentially to a loss of CAD 600,000 in the fourth quarter and was flat versus the same period last year. For the year ended December 31st, 2022, Adjusted EBITDA decreased to a loss of CAD 1.6 million versus a loss of CAD 500,000 last year due to higher sales and marketing expenses and research and development expenses. Comprehensive net loss included one-time expenses and non-cash charges, including inventory impairments and losses on modification of debt totaling half a million dollars in Q4, 2022 and CAD 1.5 million in Q4, 2021. Excluding these charges, comprehensive loss declined to CAD 2.4 million in Q4 versus a loss of CAD 2.7 million in Q4, 2021. For the 12-month period, comprehensive net loss including one-time expenses and non-cash charges increased to CAD 8.6 million in fiscal 2022 versus a loss of CAD 5.4 million in fiscal 2021. The cash balance at year-end was CAD 2.8 million. Thank you, Jen. Operator, I think with that, we'll open it up to questions, please. Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If your question has been answered and you would like to withdraw from the queue, please press star followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before pressing any keys. One moment please for your first question. Your first question will come from Andrew Semple at Echelon Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Hi there. Good morning, Niel and Jen. Morning. Good morning. Just my first question here. I just wanted to ask, first off, on the automation equipment, sounds like that was kind of all installed by year-end. Now that you have kind of a full quarter behind you of that contributing to your operations, is that driving the improvements you had hoped for, I mean, kind of subsequent to the, to the Q4 period? You know, where do you think that drives the business in 2023? Thanks, Andrew. Yeah, no, we are already starting to see the benefits. There are certain pieces, especially with the Pearls that are still being commissioned or there's additional equipment still to come. We haven't seen the full impact on the Pearl itself. When it comes to the existing products, the automation for the kitchen and the packaging are both fully commissioned, and we're seeing those benefits already in Q1. Great. There was a shift towards non-edible products within the current quarter. What do you believe the edible and non-edibles revenue mix would be in 2023, as we move throughout the year? Do you think that swings a little bit more back to the edible side of things? Yeah, probably. I mean, the next shift is really the lozenges, right? The ingestible extracts, which, although we may disagree, Health Canada deemed as non-compliant across the board, and not just Indiva, several companies, as you know, Andrew. I would expect that percentage to climb higher again, given that these products will be out of market, you know, beyond May 31st. You know, we stopped production several weeks ago of these products when we were ordered to. We haven't sold anything in Q2, obviously. There shouldn't be any, I don't believe, any lozenge revenue in Q2 and onwards. There'll be a little bit in Q1, yeah, I would expect that percentage to climb again. Okay. That leads into my next question, which is obviously on the Health Canada notice and the lozenge project products. Could you maybe clarify kind of what% of overall net revenue sales might have been within the fourth quarter? It may be kind of a strategy going forward here. Are you planning to contest that decision? Do you think there is a viable pathway for that to potentially be reclassified as extracts in the future, either more soon or maybe as part of the Health Canada review? What kind of strategies or approaches are you taking with respect to that decision? Yeah, good question. On the first part, it was a little bit over 10% of our revenue in Q4. A meaningful contributor, but, you know, wasn't the majority of our business or anything like this. I expect that with new innovation, we'll more than replace the revenue for those products. As far as the regulations go, I mean, look, we're still really bullish that the Cannabis Act is under review, and that review will be completed in the next nine or 10 months. There is scope for, let's say, within a year's to a year and a half's time, if we get the changes in edible potency that we hope, and maybe not expect, but that we hope, you know, we'll be selling higher potency per package by next summer. Obviously, we can't just bank on that, but it really is important from a public safety point of view, that we're able to offer more than 10 milligrams per package, in terms of driving the illicit market out. You know, the edible category is still only 5% or 6% of the total market. This is massively underrepresented when you compare with mature markets, and that's directly related to potency. I would say it's also related to edibles not really being available in traditional formats like gummies and chocolates in Quebec. There's a lot of regulatory change. In terms of the ingestible extracts, I'm not sure where that category will land going forward. If we get the change that we hope for, Andrew Semple, on edibles potency, I think those products become a little bit less relevant. What was interesting to us was to see just how quickly those products were adopted in a market like Ontario, where they were classified as capsules. What we saw there was that subcategory grow from 1% to almost 3% in about three months or six months rather, 6-9 months. That's incredible growth in a category, especially when it's compared with the edible category being at only 5% or 6%. What that means to us is that the demand is there. We also didn't see the edible category decline significantly in Ontario in that period. These folks that have tolerance level that's much higher than 10 milligrams and can't afford to pay CAD 50 to buy 10 packs of gummies to get a dose. These products were serving their needs and they weren't going back to the illicit market. We really hope that the regulator is taking note of this. Certainly, with our work, you know, amongst the various councils and chambers, you know, I think that the chorus is getting louder for why we need higher potency per package. In terms of amending what we did with lozenges and let's say putting one lozenge in a pouch at a time at 10 milligrams, I'm not convinced that the economics are as compelling on such a small scale, I would say relative to the product attributes. We're looking at it. I'm not sure that it's something that we plan to do, but, you know, depending on how the environment changes, we may look at it again. What we need in this industry is regulatory change, and in particular, we really need it badly in the edibles sector. Understood. Thank you. That's helpful color. Final question, if I may. Just wanna ask on the Grön, Pearls and the Wana gummies, and the market share of both those products in their respective subcategories. You know, good to see Grön already at close to 5% market share within the fourth quarter. How do you think that continues to develop in 2023? Do you think that going forward, you know, Wana could begin to see a little bit more stabilization of market share? Do you think that might continue to drift as Grön ramps up and, you know, as the competition improves? It's a good question. I mean, we certainly saw a lot of new competition and Pearls would be a part of that. I mean, on Pearls specifically, market share continues to increase month-over-month sequentially through 2023. In fact, I think I was the number two, if not the number one edible, month to date in Ontario. It's doing extremely well. We're very pleased with that. You know, on Wana, I think Wana might have been a victim of its own success in some ways. It's a pricier product than what we've seen come to market, you know, in the last 12-18 months. You know, I'd also say that the total number of LPs and the total number of SKUs in the edible category in Ontario, for instance, has doubled in the last 12 months. I don't expect you're gonna see that volume of new participants and new products come to market. I think the short answer is that the market share and the unit volumes that we're seeing appear to be stabilizing. It's not just falling off a cliff, but when you get that much new competition in a market where brands are so young, stores tend to default towards what's new. When you get what I would call an ocean of new product coming to market, you know, I think all that choice means that, you know, people are buying new products or new SKUs. If they don't move, that hurts the store's working capital position. All that to say, I think Wana is probably stabilizing here. We don't certainly expect it to keep declining in terms of market share. Pearls products have been very, very well received. They're doing extremely well in Ontario. They're doing very well in BC as well, and we're very excited to open up the Alberta market, you know, in the coming weeks. Great. That's very helpful. Appreciate you taking my questions. I'll get back to the queue. Thank you. Thanks, Andrew. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one now. Mr. Marotta, there are no further questions, sir. I'll turn the conference back to you. Okay. Well, thank you everyone for attending the call. I'm gonna go get back to work and look forward to speaking to you again very soon when we release Q1 in just a few weeks' time in mid-May. We'll talk to everyone then. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for this morning. We thank you all for participating and ask you to please disconnect your lines.
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