Happy Wednesday Investors. Today, we’re excited to share an update from one of our partners, MariMed. Below is their first-quarter shareholder letter which includes 2023 highlights and a few product spotlights.

MariMed is planning to issue its 4Q23 earnings release on March 6th after the markets close and host its analyst call on March 7th at 8:00 am EST. You can join the call here.

MARIMED 2023 HIGHLIGHTS

What Should Investors Keep An Eye Out For in 2024?

MariMed hit the ground running this year, with several exciting developments in the pipeline. What should investors keep an eye out for in 2024?

MariMed CEO Jon Levine remains as bullish as ever that the Company’s strategic growth plan will deliver the long-term shareholder value investors seek and deserve.

“The plan kept us laser-focused in 2023 and I am proud of what we accomplished during the year. For example, we added four new dispensaries, opened our processing facility in Illinois late in the year, and entered the high-growth state of Ohio,” Levine said. “Our brands continue to perform very well in every state where they are distributed. In fact, to my knowledge, our revenue growth outpaced virtually every other public cannabis company in 2023.”

Levine recognizes frustrations about MariMed’s stock performance, acknowledging the significant construction and regulatory delays that pushed back the opening of the Company’s new facilities.

“Fortunately, all our new assets are finally up and running except for our Illinois cultivation facility and our Missouri processing facility, where licensing and permitting delays continue to be a thorn in our side. Our Illinois processing facility will continue to ramp up and generate meaningful new revenue, with our brands enjoying strong initial demand both among wholesale buyers and by consumers at our Thrive dispensaries.”

“That’s all before MariMed brings Nature’s Heritage to the market later this year,” Levine said. The company is also looking ahead to the expansion of MariMed’s Ohio dispensary to include adult-use sales this year. The work does not stop there.

“At the same time, like every strong company, we are constantly looking inward, examining how we can operate more effectively and efficiently,” Levine said. “Organizational tweaks to processes and platforms are not as visible to investors as physical assets, but some changes we implemented during the year are making a significant impact to things like the real-time data we have at our disposal to make rapid decisions about marketing and distribution.”

Levine concludes by saying this: “The two largest cannabis Exchange Traded Funds added nearly 10 million shares of MariMed to their portfolios and none of our institutional shareholders sold a single share in 2023. They share my confidence that our best days and years are ahead.”

MARKET SPOTLIGHT

The Latest Growth Opportunity

MariMed Inc. continues to advance its vertically integrated seed-to-sale operation. Our latest growth opportunity: Illinois.

In early December, we were finally approved to begin processing our products at the new Mt. Vernon facility, enabling us to bring our award-winning edibles and vape pens to our five Thrive dispensaries.

And beginning in mid-January, our Betty’s Eddies fruit chews, Bubby’s Baked soft baked goods, and InHouse vape pens began hitting the shelves at third-party dispensaries throughout the state.

The work continues as we push to get our full spectrum and hydrating cannabis drink mix, Vibations as well as InHouse gummies out to the market during the first quarter of 2024.

On the production side, construction of our cultivation portion of the facility is nearly complete. We expect to receive regulatory approval for our first planting with the first shipments of our award-winning Nature’s Heritage super premium flower expected later this year.

Another milestone moment will be the opening of our permanent dispensary in Casey, Illinois. At that point, Thrive Casey will transition from its temporary dispensary location on the same site.

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Vibations

We are pleased to announce that our Vibations cannabis and electrolyte drink mix has been released in several flavors. After a re-formulation, each flavor delivers advanced hydration and a faster-acting 15-minute onset.

The drink mix is perfect for any on-the-go activity, providing a replenishing boost of focus and energy from its core formula of full spectrum cannabis and hydrating electrolytes.

Among the new offerings are two new caffeine-free options: Tropical Punch and sugar-free Lemon Lime. A third new flavor, Berry Chamomile Tea, is designed to deliver a better night’s sleep.

The new roster of Vibations products is expected to be available throughout Massachusetts, Delaware, Illinois, and Maryland by the end of the first quarter.

MARKETING

Our Marketing team continues to implement strategic and creative initiatives to raise visibility and drive product trials that turn into brand loyalty.

Here are some of our latest marketing triumphs:

1. We are focused on driving customers into our dispensaries, blending many strategies to make it happen. For example, we are effectively using hyper-local, geo-fencing digital strategies. What does that mean? If you have been identified as a target customer of one of our dispensaries in Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois, or Ohio, you may receive a digital advertisement letting you know that you are close to one of our locations. That ad will come with a hot deal, incentivizing potential customers to come check us out.

2. A high percentage of online dispensary pre-orders are driven by the product descriptions and photography included on the dispensary’s website menus. With that in mind, we recently began implementing a massive overhaul of the product creative assets that we make available to our wholesale customers. This includes the creation of a user-friendly platform through which our dispensary customers can access the assets.

3. We are continually innovating to bring our customers new, high-quality products backed by research into customers’ wants and needs. Among the exciting new products we have launched are Betty’s Bubbly, a champagne-flavored fruit chew offered for a limited time as part of the Betty’s Eddies line-up to help celebrate the brand’s 10th anniversary. This Limited Time Offer (LTO) flavor followed the successful Beachtime Betty’s flavor that was a hit during the summer.

4. Taking a page from the playbook of the best consumer packaged goods marketers in the world, we are bringing new excitement to our product lines through expansion. For example, we did that successfully with the recent addition of a Blueberry bite to the Bubby’s Baked line-up of delicious cannabis-infused baked goods.

5. Our Research and Development team worked with our master cultivators to bring innovation to the flower category with the current test of Nature’s Heritage Double Duos. Available exclusively at our Panacea Wellness dispensaries in Massachusetts, Double Duos features two different but highly complementary flower strains in one ¼-ounce jar, with each strain separated by a freshness seal.

INVESTOR RELATIONS

Video Interviews:

• Jon Levine, Chief Executive Officer conducted a deep dive on MariMed in a fireside chat with industry analyst, Pablo Zuanic of Zuanic & Associates.

• Tim Shaw, Chief Operating Officer did a deep dive on cultivation and brand building in a fireside chat with industry analyst, Jesse Redmond of Water Tower Research. 

• Jon Levine, CEO conducted a podcast interview with The Dales Report.

Calendar: We are planning to issue our Q423 earnings release on March 6^th after the markets close, and host our analyst call on March 7^th at 8:00 am EST.

To stay up to date on MariMed Company and Investor News, sign up for MariMed Email Alerts, or visit us at MariMedInc.com,  X (twitter.com), or  LinkedIn websites for more details.