Hello, everyone, and welcome to GrowGeneration’s First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Joel, and I will be your conference operator for today’s call. At this time, participants are in listen-only mode. Following prepared remarks, we will open the call to questions from analysts, with instructions provided at that time. This conference call is being recorded, and a replay of today’s call will be available on the Investor Relations section of GrowGeneration’s website. I will now hand the call over to Phil Carlson with KCSA for an introduction.

Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to GrowGeneration’s first quarter 2025 earnings results conference call. With us today are Darren Lampert, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Greg Sanders, Chief Financial Officer of GrowGeneration. The company’s first quarter 2025 earnings press release was issued after the market closed today. A copy of this press release is available on the Investor Relations section of the GrowGeneration website at ir.growgeneration.com. I would like to remind everyone that certain comments made on this call include forward-looking statements, which are subject to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future events and are subject to several risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. Please refer to today’s press release and other filings with the SEC for a detailed discussion of the risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any of the forward-looking statements made today. During the call, we’ll use some non-GAAP financial measures as we describe business performance. The SEC filing as well as the earnings press release, which provides reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, are all available on our website. Following prepared remarks, management will be happy to take your questions. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you have additional questions, please reenter the queue, and we will take them as time allows. Now I will hand the call over to GrowGeneration’s Co-Founder and CEO, Darren Lampert. Darren, please go ahead.

Thanks, Phil, and good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us as we review our first quarter 2025 results. Our first quarter results reflect the progress we’ve been making in transforming GrowGen into a leaner, more profitable, product-driven company with a business-to-business customer focus. While we had expected to see some top-line contraction from our reduced store count, sales in the first quarter tracked lower than our initial expectations, particularly in March. This was due to softness in durables and consumable demand as a result of regulatory and tariff concerns. In anticipation of top-line contraction from our restructuring efforts, our focus has shifted to improving the quality of our revenue and building a leaner, more profitable operation. We’re executing a comprehensive plan to right-size GrowGen for sustainable profitability. We are reducing fixed costs, simplifying operations, and transitioning from a legacy retail footprint to a more agile fulfillment-centric model. Several former stores have now been repurposed into regional just-in-time fulfillment centers, enhancing delivery speed and efficiency for our B2B customers. One of the key highlights this quarter was the continued momentum of our proprietary brands. Proprietary product sales accounted for 32% of total revenue, up 22.6% in the prior year. These include our leading brands like Drip Hydro, Charcoir, The Harvest Company, and Ion LED Lighting, all designed to serve the needs of professional cultivators. This shift towards our own brands is not only margin-accretive but also a core pillar of our long-term strategy. Another highlight this quarter was our continued digital transformation of sales. In Q1, we formally launched the GrowGen Pro Portal, our digital B2B platform built for commercial growers, greenhouse operators, and vertical farms. Following a successful soft launch and customer testing in late 2024, the platform is now fully operational and delivering value through features like real-time inventory, automated quoting, and streamlined procurement. This portal represents the future of GrowGen, a digital-first product-led company focused on serving professional growers at scale. Our goal is to migrate more commercial transactions from brick-and-mortar onto our B2B portal while driving operational efficiencies across our supply chain. Despite the revenue decline in Q1, we grew gross margins to 27.2%, up both year-over-year and sequentially, reflecting a stronger product mix and disciplined execution on procurement and freight. This is a critical validation of our strategy of increasing proprietary brand adoption and reducing low-margin dependency. We ended the quarter with $52.6 million in total liquidity and no debt, providing us with ample flexibility to fund operations, invest in core initiatives, and pursue tuck-in acquisitions aligned with our brand portfolio. Our inventory position of $42.1 million reflects strategic investments in proprietary products ahead of stronger seasonal demand expected in Q2 and Q3. Our MMI Storage Solutions segment remained flat year-over-year at $4.8 million in revenue while facing some margin pressure this quarter. While the segment remains an important part of our long-term vision, we are actively managing costs and pricing strategies to protect margins and position the segment for future growth. As part of this, we continue to increase our product diversification as we expand into other areas, including the hospitality and recreation industries. An example of this is the recent launch of our new Mobile Golf Bag System at Bonita Bay Club, Florida’s largest member-owned golf facility. The new system will revolutionize storage operations and drive greater operational efficiency at the club’s existing bag room, which manages over 2,800 golf bags daily. Like many in our sector, we experienced volatility in March due to tariff-related uncertainty. While the 90-day pause has brought some stability back to purchasing behavior, we remain cautious in our forecasting due to the ongoing macroeconomic climate. We’ve taken proactive steps to mitigate these impacts, including diversifying sourcing, renegotiating vendor contracts, assessing different supply chain options like using larger stores as fulfillment hubs, and reviewing pricing where necessary. In terms of guidance for the second quarter of 2025, we currently expect revenue in excess of $40 million. While we are withdrawing full-year guidance today due to the current situation with tariffs, we remain focused on achieving profitability. GrowGen is evolving from a traditional retail model to a customer-centric, B2B-focused business. As part of this shift, we’re moving away from same-store sales as a primary metric and focusing instead on building long-term relationships with commercial growers through proprietary brands and a digital platform. Our success is now defined by customer engagement, product adoption, and operational efficiency driven by a streamlined footprint of regional fulfillment centers and a growing share of digital transactions. We are also evaluating the closure of an additional ten stores to further streamline operations and strengthen margin performance. Our focus is clear: transforming GrowGen into a high-margin, product-centric, commercial business powered by our digital platform and a simplified physical footprint. With proprietary brands driving value, a leaner store base, and a strong liquidity position, we are confident in our ability to return to profitability and create long-term shareholder value. Thank you, and I’ll now turn the call over to our CFO, Greg Sanders. Greg?

Thank you, Darren, and good afternoon everyone. Starting with our first quarter results, GrowGeneration reported first quarter net revenue of $35.7 million compared to $47.9 million in the year-ago period. The year-over-year comparison reflects the impact of 19 fewer retail locations. Sector-wide, we continue to see pressure on business-to-consumer demand while simultaneously seeing growth in our business-to-business customer base. Net sales in our Cultivation and Gardening segment were $30.9 million for the first quarter of 2025 compared to $43.1 million for the comparable year-ago period. Proprietary brand sales increased to 32% of Cultivation and Gardening sales for the first quarter of 2025 compared to 22.6% for the first quarter of 2024. While first quarter net revenue reported within our previously issued guidance range, our first quarter proprietary brand sales surpassed our internal expectations, giving us further confidence in our long-term ability to expand gross margin. Net sales of commercial fixtures within our Storage Solutions segment were $4.8 million for the first quarter of 2025, which was flat to the prior year quarter. Based on more recent activity, we are anticipating quarter-over-quarter growth in the second quarter for our Storage Solutions segment. Total company gross profit margin was 27.2% for the first quarter of 2025 compared to 25.8% for the first quarter of 2024, a 140 basis point improvement primarily due to an increase in proprietary brand penetration, partially offset by lower installation margin from our Storage Solutions segment. We continued to lower expenses in the first quarter. Store and other operating expenses declined by approximately 17.3% to $8.8 million compared to $10.6 million in the first quarter of 2024. Selling, general and administrative expenses for the quarter were $7.1 million compared to $7.9 million in the first quarter of 2024, a 10.1% improvement. As noted in our non-GAAP footnote, we incurred approximately $1.1 million in restructuring costs in the first quarter, which primarily impacted operating expenses in the period. We expect to recognize additional cost improvements throughout 2025 and beyond. Depreciation and amortization was $3.6 million for the first quarter of 2025, compared to $3.7 million in the comparable year-ago quarter. We expect continued expense declines in depreciation and amortization in 2025 compared to 2024. Net loss was $9.4 million in the first quarter of 2025 or negative $0.16 per share compared to a net loss of $8.8 million or negative $0.14 per share in the first quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA, as defined in our press release, was negative $4 million, compared to a negative $2.9 million in the same period last year. The decrease in adjusted EBITDA was primarily driven by lower sales volume, partially offset by improvements in gross margin as well as improvements made to our expense structure. Now turning to the balance sheet. As of March 31, 2025, the company had $52.6 million of cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities and no debt. We continue to maintain a strong cash position and do not foresee any near-term financing needs. As Darren mentioned, we are withdrawing full-year 2025 guidance due to macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from global trade policy changes, along with the potential fluctuations in consumer demand. Nevertheless, we are forecasting the second quarter to deliver net revenue greater than $40 million and for both of our reporting segments to generate higher revenue in the second quarter than compared to the first quarter. We plan to revisit our full-year guidance once we have greater visibility in the broader economic outlook. Having said that, during the first quarter, we continued to make progress in streamlining our operations and restructuring our business for long-term profitability. Just as importantly, we have maintained a strong balance sheet and have the resources and financial flexibility to support our future growth. As we move throughout 2025, we will continue to focus on expanding our margins, controlling costs, and exploring opportunities to increase our revenue growth and profitability for our shareholders. With that, I will hand the call over to Darren for closing remarks.

Thanks, Greg, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. Even with a difficult environment, we continued to implement our strategic restructuring plan during the quarter. This includes the official launch of our online B2B portal and increasing revenue from our proprietary branded products, which drove further margin improvements in the quarter. Simultaneously, we have been improving operating efficiencies and reducing costs throughout our business. We continue to maintain a strong debt-free balance sheet. Given today’s environment, we think that’s more important now than ever. We remain committed to executing on our growth plans and look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now start the question-and-answer session. Your first question comes from Mark Smith with Lake Street. Your line is now open.

Hi, guys. I want to ask, first off, just a little bit around tariffs and proprietary products. Can you just give any additional insight on how much products may be coming out of China versus other countries? And then any other steps that you’ve taken thus far in the kind of mitigation process?

Yes, I’ll take that, Mark. Currently, on our proprietary brands, less than 10% is coming from China. So we’re in pretty good shape with our proprietary brand portfolio. We have products coming in from India, our Charcoir brands. Drip, we’re now switching manufacturing. We’re manufacturing the liquids in the United States and the powders are coming out of Mexico. So we’re in pretty good shape when it comes to our proprietary brands. In steps, we continue to negotiate with our vendors on pricing. We are starting, as we spoke about in our conference call, to use more of a hub-and-spoke model. So products are getting delivered where they need to be, and we’re using some of our larger stores as storage to fulfill customer orders, which is starting to save some money on shipping and fulfillment. And when necessary, we are increasing pricing.

So it sounds like you have taken some price so far, but there’s probably more to come on pricing.

I would hope so. Like anything else, it’s very new. I think there’s so much uncertainty right now, Mark. We do have $42 million of inventory sitting on our books right now, which does not have tariff issues. So I think we’re waiting. We don’t want to be the first to raise pricing, but we have raised pricing on certain products, while most of our products remain consistent.

Okay. And then lastly, I just wanted to ask about the potential for these 10 closures. Is this something that you foresee being kind of spread out, maybe at the end of lease terms, or is this something that maybe you move on more quickly to close these stores sooner?

We believe more spread out, Mark. I’d say, half of them probably will be with lease terms expiring and just not renewing. What we’re starting to see in this industry is the consumers are walking away. There’s certainly a vibrant commercial industry right now in the cannabis space. The harder we look right now is proprietary brand penetration, working with vendors on best-of-breed products, and getting best pricing for our customers. But using the portals instead of the stores, we’ve seen a tremendous drop in store traffic, especially in areas that don’t have vibrant caregiver laws. There are certain states where we will always have stores. We do use stores as distribution centers right now. However, you will see GrowGen continuing to cut stores and getting to a place that makes sense for us and our shareholders. But I think the future of GrowGen will be proprietary brand penetration and servicing commercial customers who no longer frequent stores.

Your next question comes from Aaron Grey with Alliance Global Partners. Your line is now open.

Good evening. Thank you for the questions. First one for me, just want to keep going on proprietary brands, but instead think about total addressable market continuing to outperform, gaining mix. So I want to speak more about the incremental distribution opportunities that you see available in the near-term as you look to expand the client base for who your products cater to. I know you’re talking about putting more in the portal versus stores, but I’d love to hear more about maybe incremental distribution channels that might be available for your products. Thanks.

Yes. I think it’s all-encompassing. One is certainly outside our country. We are working with certain countries right now, starting to ship both Drip and Charcoir outside the country. It’s been a slow process but certainly starting to gain traction. We are working with some of the largest stores around the country for distribution, again, outside of the GrowGen stores. We do have a growing clientele on that side that now distributes to their own clients. So as you see, we’re starting to close stores, but even with our store closures, you’re still seeing tremendous penetration. Right now, Drip is going through a significant amount of trials around the country, as is Charcoir. We have new products coming out of GrowGen on a monthly basis right now. So we do believe our relationships are strong through distribution, and we expect many countries and growers outside our country to be using our products in the future.

Okay, that’s helpful there. And just in terms of some of the trials that you just alluded to, a bigger question given the current challenges in the cannabis environment which has obviously impacted hydroponics, can you speak to how you’re positioning those proprietary brands in terms of the value proposition that they offer and how you’re finding the best success in getting those cultivators and operators to switch over to your products, given there’s some stickiness to a brand with cultivators once they find one that works? Thanks.

I think to start with, Aaron, we have a tremendously talented commercial team and we also have facility advisors at GrowGen. So we have a team that goes into facilities and works with them on changing over our products. Most of our products go through extensive trials in some of the biggest facilities around the country right now. To the point where you will see lab results comparing our products to other products, and our products are coming out favorably. We do have some of the largest MSOs and single-state operators switching over to Drip and Charcoir as we speak. Both products are, again, continuing to penetrate the markets and gain market share. It’s a lengthy process, and Drip was launched over a year ago. We’re beginning to see a lot of trials resulting in purchases.

Okay, great. That’s helpful color. Last one for me, just touching back on tariffs. I know you gave some color on proprietary brands, but just more broadly in terms of the tariff impact, can you dig into any potential impacts on the business that you’re seeing and how to mitigate those impacts? Do you feel comfortable with your ability to maybe pass on some pricing to the customer? I know you have removed guidance, but will that potentially have more of a margin impact?

Yes. I think in the first quarter, we saw more margin pressure on the MMI side than we did on the GrowGen side. If the MMI margins were consistent with what we’ve seen in the past, our margins would have likely been around 28.5%, close to 27%. We continue to negotiate with vendors, and they have absorbed part of the tariff hit for us. We are negotiating and switching around manufacturing for certain products. On the distribution side, we’re improving as well. So the cost of distribution is beginning to come down for GrowGen. It’s a combined effort from multiple angles.

Okay, great. Thanks for the color there. I’ll jump back in the queue.

Thank you, Aaron.

Your next question comes from Brian Nagel with Oppenheimer. Your line is now open.

Hey, guys. Good afternoon. I want to ask, and I think it’s a bit of a follow-up to maybe the prior two questions. But Darren, if you could talk a little bit more about what you’re seeing from a consumer standpoint. I mean, we’re definitely hearing broadly about pressures on consumers, particularly as the macro environment weakens or the trade war intensifies. Is there something you can discuss regarding the incremental weakness in your consumer that you’ve seen lately, how that’s manifesting itself, and the drivers behind it?

Yes. I think, Brian, there’s been tremendous weakness within the industry and pricing of cannabis over the last few years. What you’re seeing right now is a shift—whether you want to call it the illegal growers that have been around for many years, or the outdoor growers—where the price per pound has dropped considerably, or just individual consumers growing are starting to fade away. On the business-to-business side, it remains strong. But what businesses are doing is managing their balance sheets while taking a long-term outlook in this industry, hoping for changes in 280E regulations and the regulatory landscape. We’re seeing pushbacks on capital builds. We’re not having issues with consumables; it’s more the durable side that’s dropping. Consumable products are the higher margins and the stickier side where our customers return weekly or monthly for their products. This is where we have confidence in our actions as we continue to cut costs. Even though we thought we reached our operational efficiency last year, the industry has not strengthened yet. We have seen a drop in consumer engagement. Looking closely at our portfolio, we see rising costs in rents and employee wages. We’re scrutinizing every aspect of GrowGen. Given the portal penetration we've achieved recently, we’ve moved over 500 customers to use the portal, and it continues to gain traction. We can serve the same customers without the costly presence of physical stores in areas with little traffic. So some areas still justify our stores, as there are still 50 customers visiting daily. But some stores might have only five to ten customers. This reinforces the need for drop shipping from warehouses rather than physical stores.

That’s helpful, Darren. I just want to touch on the balance sheet a bit. It seems like your cash position relative to the size of your business is quite substantial. But how do you view the capital position as you go through this transformation? Is there a baseline amount of capital you want to keep on the balance sheet just to run the business?

I don’t think we look at it that way right now, Brian. We believe that this industry is going to thrive for many years to come. It’s almost reminiscent of the transition out of the wine and spirits industry. We’re only 11 years in; Colorado legalized cannabis in 2014. One thing for us is the legislative future of the industry remains uncertain. We view maintaining capital on our balance sheet as important. Meanwhile, we’re actively pursuing acquisitions in product and distribution, as well as opportunities in the lawn and garden sector. We hope to have announcements regarding this in the next six months, if not sooner. We’re looking at companies daily, and if they’re beneficial to our shareholders and company, we’re well-positioned to handle additional business.

Thanks. Appreciate all the color.

Thank you, Brian.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Darren for closing remarks.

Thank you for joining us today for our first quarter earnings call. We look forward to updating you on our progress on our second quarter call in August. Have a beautiful day. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.