Tilray Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:TLRY) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

So, what retailers are doing out there, yes, they’re looking at what’s selling in Whole Foods and is it a beer kombucha combined, et cetera, and some of the new innovation. But my experience before is retailers went to Whole Foods and see what was selling. Not as probably as much anymore, but retailers today in the craft beer industry want new innovation out there. Because if you look at craft beer, there’s a lot of IPAs. There’s a lot of other beers out there, but what’s new and unique and it’s just not an IPA out there. And I think that’s what we’re trying to bring to the party.

Bill Kirk: Excellent. And then, Carl, you mentioned that 4Q buy-in helps beer. Does that load-in explain the sequential difference for beverages in 1Q from that 4Q, about $8 million or so? And should we think about that before the ABI brands coming over? Should we think about that $24 million in beverages 1Q is like a pure volume consumption number, no load-in, no de-stock, that’s more of a volume consumed type number?

Carl Merton: So, I’ll let Ty talk about the volume consumed, but on the profitability side and the margin side and then ultimately down to EBITDA, yes that is a portion of the decline that is going on in that space is just decreasing volume because you don’t have that maintenance bias.

Irwin Simon: Just let me jump on something there. I was just emailed by one of our employees some of our hemp products that were in Whole Foods, I won’t mention the other retailer, but they saw them in Whole Foods and we picked up two other retailers because they were in Whole Foods. And sometimes Whole Foods is one of our best showrooms. So that is something that happened just to answer your question on that.

Ty Gilmore: And on the volume piece, Bill, I’d just say that consumption — seasonality drives consumption. So I wouldn’t use the word load-in, consumption peaks over times, over quarters. And like Carl said earlier, there is a higher seasonality in consumption of beer in our Q4, which is the start of the summer. And as we take on these new brands, as we look into our Q2, we expect to see kind of organic consumption to be in line with what everything else is doing.

Bill Kirk: Got it. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of John Zamparo with CIBC. Please proceed with your question.

John Zamparo: Thank you very much. Good morning. My question is on the regulatory side, and specifically if you do get the DEA following the HHS recommendation, what does that change for Tilray? Does it adjust your M&A strategy at all? Or would you need to see additional developments or clarity from different departments?

Irwin Simon: So, I think I’ve been very clear in regards to classification here. Listen, I’d love to see it happen and I’ve been very clear. It does not affect us day one. But what it does, it helps get some confusion out of the market. The way cannabis is classified today is [indiscernible] same as heroin, the same as other drugs out there, that’s absolutely not. Number two, I think from a medical standpoint, there are so many applications for it. And legalize it from a medical standpoint would be something very important. There is so much confusion out there on legalization and customers want it. I mean, basically it is legalized without being legalized because everywhere you walk, whether it’s New York, California, no matter what state you’re in, cannabis is being utilized.