Charlotte’s Web Holdings, Inc. (OTC:CWBHF) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Jacques Tortoroli: Yeah. Great, Pablo. Look we’ve touched on this before, we were going to be having meetings with the kind of the retailers you’ve talked about two reasons, as we said, MLB and the NSF certification for sports products, for us not only opens up sports, if you will, right, but it opens up adjacencies in other industry verticals that heretofore haven’t wanted to take CBD, including the big box retailers. So, our position is simply, if it’s good enough for MLB it should be good enough for you and why wouldn’t you stock our products on your shelves. So those conversations will be happening we’re getting through sort of the holidays here but into early next year. Those are exactly the conversation we want to be having, which is, why not now and not wait for FDA approval.

So we’ll see, in terms of the share of shelf and losing facings. As we said, it’s in the FDM channel, it’s in the national. And the good news for us is, some of those facings that, these other brands are going away, that the stores are no longer stocking. Gives us an opportunity with the sports line, when we launch middle of next year, to take that incremental shelf for the sports line and put it side by side with our existing portfolio. And the beauty of the sports product is nobody can compete with us. There is no competitive set. And therefore, we determine the size, we determine the value and we have that date, if you’d like Monopoly for a period of time, and it’s on us to take advantage of that as we talk to customers going forward.

Pablo Zunk: Just a quick follow-up. And I know that the experiences are not comparable. But one of the questions I’ve received from investors was the UFC Aurora deal that in the end didn’t amount too much. Why is this different? I think I know the answer to that question. But maybe you can share in this public forum?

Jacques Tortoroli: So it’s a great question and we’ve talked about this, and I’ve talked about it a lot. This is not a pure play rights deal. The MLB deal is a strategic partnership, I mean, they have a right to participate in revenues, after certain threshold is reached on the co-branded product. They are a shareholder of the company and they have absolute alignment on what our products do and why they’re — they’ve opened up to CBD and our products. And so, it’s not a rights deal, where we cut a check and see you three years from now when it’s time to renew. This is an act of participation and partnership with MLB, that is unlike any other deal and I’m not going to do a right deal. I don’t believe in those, and they don’t return on the investment.

And this is a way, this is a type of deal that we wanted to do. They agreed they saw the upside and the value that we could create together for Charlotte’s Web and then as a shareholder. And more importantly, the benefit that they believe this will do for their, their players and up and down the ranks of professional baseball. So it’s a very different deal and it’s a very strategic partnership. And I’m excited by it, and it’s the types of deals that the only type of deal that I do have of this nature.

Pablo Zunk: And one last one, if I may ask, intensely discussions with BAT. Why not an equity stake, I mean, was that considered, I mean, obviously, BAT to get 19.9% stake in Organigram. Here is a convertible debenture. I don’t know how much you can share about that. But I’m trying to understand why they went that route. And although you partly touched on it, in the near-term besides the cash inflow, what are the other benefits of working with BAT, they’re going to be distribution opportunities overseas or in the U.S., research, if you can to expand on that.