Editors’ Note: This is the transcript version of the podcast. Please note that due to time and audio constraints, transcription may not be perfect. We encourage you to listen to the podcast, embedded below if you need any clarification. We hope you enjoy!
The Costco of Cannabis, what does that mean, and how does the ecosystem feed opportunities during the most challenging time?
This week on The Dime, we host Raj Grover, CEO at High Tide, to discuss the following:
- How does the ecosystem business model work
- Exclusive Paid Membership “Cabana Elite”
- Diversified Revenue Streams
- And so much more
About High Tide:
Founded in 2009, High Tide Inc. has become the largest revenue-generating cannabis company in Canada¹ with over 400 million dollars in annual revenue run rate. High Tide’s subsidiary, Canna Cabana, is the largest non-franchised cannabis retail chain with over 150 retail locations operating across Canada, including the largest bricks-and-mortar loyalty plan in the country with nearly 1 million Cabana Club members. Our company’s portfolio is also comprised of global e-commerce assets, including the two most popular consumption accessory e-commerce platforms in the world², as well as three of the top international CBD brands serving the U.S and the U.K. Combined, our online platforms saw over 155 million page views throughout 2022³.
About: RAJ GROVER
Since starting his first company at the age of 22, Raj has established himself as one of Canada’s foremost business strategists and deal-makers. He is the founder of High Tide and its subsidiary companies Valiant Distribution and Canna Cabana and is the co-founder of High Tide’s subsidiary, Famous Brandz.
Through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, Raj has grown High Tide from one small shop of 2 employees in 2009 into Canada’s largest non-franchised cannabis retailer with over 1,450 amazing team members and business interests spanning North America and Europe.
While committed to building a strong, profitable, and sustainable business, Raj also believes passionately that those who enjoy success hold a particular responsibility to give back. That is why he has spearheaded High Tide’s support of World Vision, which has seen the company sponsor a growing number of children from developing countries. This support has grown substantially since its inception, from the initial sponsorships of 3 children in 2006 to over 300 sponsorships in 2022. Under Raj’s leadership, this number will continue to grow.
On a personal level, Raj has also been a long-time supporter of Operation Smile, an organization that works to deliver free, safe cleft surgery to children in need saving them from a lifetime of pain and isolation.
Guest Links
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https://www.linkedin.com/company/hightideinc/
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[00:00:00]Bryan Fields: What’s up guys? Welcome back to another episode of The Dime. I’m Brian Fields and with me as always, this Kellen Finney. And this week we’ve got a very special guest, Raj Grover, founder and c e o of High tide. Raj, thanks for taking the time. How you doing today?
[00:00:13]Raj Grover: Brian Kellen, thank you for having me. I’m doing fabulous.
[00:00:17] How
[00:00:17]Bryan Fields: are you guys? I’m doing great, Kellen. How are you doing?
[00:00:20]Kellan Finney: I’m doing really well. I’m out here in uh, California. Really gonna hold the West coast down, but I’m even more excited to talk garage and learn as much as we can
[00:00:27]Bryan Fields: about high. Yeah, as well. Raj, you got a big following on Twitter. I’m excited to kind of dive in.
[00:00:32] You were one of our most requested guests, so I’m really excited to kind of highlight some of these topics. But before we dive in, we’ve got a little east coast, west coast battle. So I’d like to know from your standpoint, do you have a a, a preference or a loyalty to the East coast of the West coast?
[00:00:45]Raj Grover: Look, um, I, I love the world.
[00:00:47] East Coast, west Coast. We’re all one. I always say, you know, we, we have to remember that we’re all one. I’m at West Coast, you’re east coast, you know, we’re brothers from another mother. It’s all good. I
[00:00:56]Bryan Fields: love it. I love it. So, ra, for our listeners that aren’t feeling about [00:01:00] you, can you give it a little background about yourself?
[00:01:02]Raj Grover: Sure. So, uh, I’m the founder, president, and CEO of High Tide. Uh, you know, I started the company over 14 years ago. Uh, lots of experience in the cannabis industry. There’s not many operators today in cannabis that have that level of experience. Of course, I started in the consumption accessory space, but it’s the same customer that’s, that continues to buy cannabis products today, is also buying those accessories to facilitate the use of cannabis.
[00:01:26] You know, we have that unique experience edge being in the industry for so long. Uh, we’re also a retail focused company, Brian. Uh, we’ve always have been since, since inception. We have a very unique and diversified ecosystem that I’d love to dive into with you. Uh, little bit more background, uh, about me. I come from a family of entrepreneurs.
[00:01:45] I’ve been an entrepreneur from a very young age. I learned early on from my father in India, moved to Canada, uh, when I was 20, started my first retail store at 22 and, and never looked back since. Have run multiple small businesses, successful small businesses, [00:02:00] thankfully, sold those businesses in Toronto, moved to Calgary, started Smokers Corner, which was back in 2009, 14 years ago.
[00:02:07] Time flies. Um, and just started that with two employees today. And you know, today we’re 1500 member team strong. Largest non-ed cannabis retailer in the country with over 51 locations and, and counting and growing. And, uh, here we are for the next innings in cannabis. I love it.
[00:02:25]Bryan Fields: So I guess my first question to you is why cannabis and early on was there hesitations kind of getting into the space?
[00:02:33]Raj Grover: No, um, cannabis just happened to be a fortunate accident for me. So I was in the fashion accessories industry and I was shopping for body jewelry in India, and I’ve, I’ve spoken about it on multiple interviews that I stumbled across consumption accessories by having a good eye in business in general, on designs, on margin, et cetera.
[00:02:49] You know, I kept on top of what was happening, uh, back home in Canada in terms of consumption accessories, although I was never a user at that time. . Um, you know, but I, I, I knew, [00:03:00] I knew the margins that were involved in the business, so I took a little bit of gamble and bought $10,000 of consumption accessories in new deli, shipped to Canada by d Hhl.
[00:03:08] By the time I got home, those accessories were already there, sold it within a week, and I said, I can do this rinse and repeat again. So, you know, and then I found myself opening up a consumption accessory store, smoker’s corner. And again, you know, I, I checked out two competitors at that time and, and I just thought that they.
[00:03:24] You know, Luke warm in their representation of what they were trying to do and not being a cannabis guy, I thought was very refreshing for the industry. Um, so, you know, this is, that’s how I got into cannabis. And, uh, quickly grew that company into 19 stores at its peak, uh, until 2017. And it then decided to take the company public on the cse and, and that company’s.
[00:03:48] Did you, uh,
[00:03:49]Kellan Finney: I was just gonna ask, did you always like, uh, uh, have the idea of being fully in the actual cannabis space and selling cannabis eventually? Or is that something that just kind of naturally [00:04:00] progressed with the accessory business?
[00:04:02]Raj Grover: Look, Kean, that’s a great question, and I always live for a big business.
[00:04:05] So, you know, starting a small smoke shop, uh, 500 square feet store was never the intention. It was always to how do I build my own chain? Uh, how do I sell to the rest of the country? And that’s exactly what I did. Gradually I started smokers, Poer, then started rgr, which is value and distribution today.
[00:04:21] Started selling products to to other stores in Canada and then also to the United States. Started famous brands in 2016, which was specializing in. Celebrity branded paraphernalia did that very successfully. So the plan always was to, to, to build a really big chain in terms of retail consumption, accessories.
[00:04:38] And I think, uh, we got very lucky here in Canada when Prime Minister Trudeau, you know, said his, uh, intentions forward and said, this is what we’re going to do. It’s going to be recreational legal in Canada. And I very quickly, in 2015, started mapping out all the strategies that. I am the leading player in the country today when it comes to consumption accessories.
[00:04:55] I know how to deal with this customer. I built this customer base, so why not switch [00:05:00] these into cannabis dispensaries? So the idea was born in twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, uh, and then we realized our dream in 2018 by vending it all in high tide and taking it public.
[00:05:10]Bryan Fields: was there challenges you occurred early 20 14, 20 15 when you, when that statement got made and then you kind of pivoted the business.
[00:05:16] Were there early challenges there that you didn’t foresee that kind of looking back, you’re like, ah, I should have identified that kind of getting started?
[00:05:22]Raj Grover: Look, Brian, we’re all a little bit surprised, uh, you know, where we’ve ended up after four or five years of legalization. Um, and you know, but back in 20 14, 20 15, it was all excite.
[00:05:33] It was all, Hey, per we’re doing this right? And, uh, you know, very successfully we mapped out that strategy and, and executed on that strategy and, and there was no sense of what the margins are going to be, but of course it’s going to be great, right? It’s cannabis, it’s going to reign dollars, but. You know, maybe I was, I, I’m always a bit, I’m a very positive person generally in life.
[00:05:53] So, you know, I had a positive attitude getting into a new and exciting business and having done business with cannabis [00:06:00] consumers already, it was not foreign to me on what I was about to get into. So, uh, I wouldn’t say there were early on challenges, but there were some challenges when we got closer to, you know, 2017 and 2018, and we, we knew we had the date coming up October 17th, I believe, was legalization day.
[00:06:15] And, uh, I had to start planning up like, okay, we, we have a few stores that we can convert into cannabis dispensaries. But, you know, the battle was tough. Everybody and their cousin wanted to open a cannabis shop, and that was the reality check for me as well. That, you know, Raj, you can be aggressive at, uh, uh, at your plans, but you have everybody coming at it.
[00:06:33] So, but we were really on top of things. We won. All of our licenses that we applied for, there was intense competition to win those licenses. I’ve shared those cool stories in my, in my previous interview, so I won’t get into it because I can speak forever. Uh, but you know, all of those, those challenges were fun.
[00:06:49] We learned a lot, but I did not anticipate, you know, uh, that we are going to be this big, this quick. And still face the music just like everybody else in the industry. You know, I have [00:07:00] not been forgiven. Uh, you know, our stock price is no secret, but it’s every cannabis company in the industry and all we do is execute Brian.
[00:07:07] So, um, it’s not happened yet, but, uh, I remain positive. Told you I’m a positive person.
[00:07:12]Kellan Finney: So you guys had like a, a headstart, if you will, on the other dispensaries in terms of dealing with kind of the regular cannabis consumer from a customer perspective, what were some of those things that, or items or characteristics that you, you learned in those early days that led to kind of did the design and the, the buildout of your current retail footprint right
[00:07:35]Bryan Fields: now?
[00:07:36]Raj Grover: Great question, Keilan. Uh, so, uh, you know, for us it was more of, uh, because we were in business since 2009 and we had multiple smoke shops and we had different types of, uh, customers coming in that were buying different types of consumption accessories. And these are all different consumption methods, right?
[00:07:53] Like, If I’m smoking cannabis, I might roll a joint, but somebody else likes a bong much better, or somebody else likes a [00:08:00] vaporizer much better. And what we, what we really figured out is where is the consumption, uh, style going? Right? How are people consuming their cannabis? Uh, what are they passionate about?
[00:08:11] What type of new products they like to see? We launched some pretty. Revolutionary pro, uh, promotions, uh, right from the early days in smokers, one of the most important one, or the special one I say was, was called spend hundred, get 50 back. Now, I was also importer of these products into Canada, so, you know, uh, we were able to, to fight the battle really well in Canada.
[00:08:30] But those promotions and. I, I stole a lot of that playbook into what we do in our dispensaries today, in our cannabis retail stores today. I’m forbidden from using the word dispensary in Canada, by the way. Um, but you know, in our cannabis retail stores, we, we built a very similar layout, so very polished looking stores.
[00:08:47] Even if you came to my smoke shops at the time, smokers Corner, they were hardwood floor, pot lighting, uh, you know, a full retails open retail setup. So you. Everywhere you have something to see it’s merchandise. Well, it was [00:09:00] not a plane and boring store. So when we were designing Can Cabana, I was at the forefront of it where I’m always very passionate about design.
[00:09:06] I sat with the designers and told them exactly what we wanted. I gave them the Smoker’s Corner spirit and I said, I want that to be continued into Can Cabana and realized that vision, uh, almost perfectly. I would say, you know, I’m extremely proud of the layout of our stores, how we’ve set it up. It’s very, very different from any other cannabis.
[00:09:23] Retail outlet that you’ll walk into. You know, you’ve got a lot to see and appreciate. Even if you cannot touch the packaging and open it, you can see what it looks like. Uh, and you sell with your eyes first. You know, we’re not a boring dispensary where you walk in, in a 3000 square feet space, you got two, three TV screens, you stay at it, or you got a menu in your hand and you order and you go, right.
[00:09:42] That’s, that’s not, that’s not a fun shopping experience. I wanted to make it a fun shopping experience, which really paid dividends, uh, like you could see through our same store. Sales growth we’re absolutely exploding. Uh, in our accessory sales are triple than any of our competitors in the country. Uh, and again, [00:10:00] this is because we were accessory players to begin with and we know exactly what the customers are looking for, and this is why we continue to sell more accessories than anybody else today.
[00:10:08] So, you know, a lot of that has played into our tactics. And one other point that I can mention, Is, uh, just the, just the selection in our stores, right? So selection matters. We never let a customer gets bored. They’re always looking for something new and exciting. It’s like you, you, you know, you use a strain, a cannabis strain, you know, 3, 4, 5, 7 times, then you’re bored of it.
[00:10:28] Then you want the next strain, and then you want the next strain. So, Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a dilemma for licensed producers because they have to constantly innovate and constantly grow and make sure those plants are looking good and they’re healthy and happy. Uh, but for retailers it’s fun. You know, you are providing something new and exciting to your customers all the time.
[00:10:47] We do that with our accessories. We do that with our cannabis. Not only do we have a very shoppable. And, and, uh, and a fun retail layout. We also have one of the largest selection in cannabis. You can see cannabis products, C B D, [00:11:00] and consumption accessories.
[00:11:01]Bryan Fields: I appreciate you breaking that down, but I wanna take one step back just for our listeners that may be unfamiliar with High Tide a little specifically, cuz one of the things that I was really fascinated back was the diversification of the revenue stream.
[00:11:10] So can you give us kind of like an overall view of how the revenue streams work and then kind of, we’ll, we’ll move into the ecosystem on and how it all kind of feeds itself.
[00:11:19]Raj Grover: Sure. So again, the, you know, uh, we are, we are a strategic company that’s always planning, uh, you know, where we are going, where, which innings are we in, feeling the pulse of the moment.
[00:11:30] So, you know, back when we, we found out that Ontario was initially going to be a lottery, Ontario, which is the largest province here in Canada, was initially going to be a lot of e system. And then when the regs came out more in. There was no distance requirement between cannabis stores. You could practically locate next door to a cannabis shop or across from each other.
[00:11:50] And you know, we knew being a public company and having access to capital. Well that’s great. You know, you can be the last man standing if you run your business really well, which is exactly what is [00:12:00] happening today. But we saw it coming early. We’re like, if there’s a cannabis store here, there’s a cannabis store here.
[00:12:04] This is not, you know, the opportunity. We all thought it was going to be like you. In the medically legal states or recreational legal states in the US where dispensaries are few and far between. There’s not one across from each other for sure. We know that. Um, so, you know, we knew that, that this is going to disturb the landscape a little bit.
[00:12:21] And what we did was, uh, you know, right from inception when these rules were just, Um, being talked about and, and they were about to come into play. You know, I acquired a company called grasscity.com uh, out of Netherlands, uh, which is an e-commerce platform, world’s oldest online platform selling consumption accessories.
[00:12:40] It was formed in 2000. Super proud and super excited to have this platform. You know, it gets about. 24 to 26 million site visits annually. So a lot of cannabis customer traffic, uh, which we are intending to use, uh, in the future in the United States for THC sales, uh, which we can also discuss. But because we had that and we had that because we were also [00:13:00] manufacturers and, and distributors of consumption accessories, so having your own retail, making it in, you know, in, in, in, uh, uh, uh, contracted factories in China, Indonesia, and Thailand, and bringing them, uh, into, into Canada.
[00:13:14] You know, we wanted to expand that opportunity. We, we wanted to leverage that base further, that manufacturing base that we had. So we decided to do more M&A because that turned out to be really good. You know, grass City was a customer of ours buying wholesale products for us. And we have the Rolodex in the US we know everybody selling consumption, accessories, selling, you know, cleaning products, selling grow products, hydroponics, you name it.
[00:13:36] Right? So we wanted to leverage that part and say, while Canada’s going to be tough for the next 2 to 3 to 5 years We got extra margin here, which we can, we can, you know, use right now. We can show our shareholders. We know how to operate a business. We know how to feel the pulse of the industry and be present in what’s happening, you know, in cannabis today.
[00:13:56] And we started plotting those moves and then to double down [00:14:00] on that opportunity, you know, we also got into the c b business, which is an extremely high margin business. Now, mind you, it’s going through a tough time right now. You know, things are, things are tough right now. We saving and you have to prioritize essential.
[00:14:12] You’re not going to buy a 60, $8,000 bottle of CBD so easily, but what goes up must come down and vice versa. Things will change. Again, change is inevitable. So we know eventually, you know, we have a global CBD opportunity in our hands considering the type of CBD brands we purchased. They’re, they’re extremely loud and top tier CBD brands.
[00:14:31] Same with consumption accessories. We make our own and we have our own distribution platforms. When, when times are tough in the dispensary business in Canada, no problem. We can go to our ancillary. When times are tough on the ancillary side, like we’re experiencing in C B D right now? Well, we’ve got our core business of brick and mortar, which we ventured to do in the first place.
[00:14:50] So I think we’ve done things pretty smartly. And, you know, uh, Brian, we, we acquired six e-commerce platforms in 2021 alone. Okay, so three in the consumption [00:15:00] accessory space, three in the CBD space, five in the us, one in the uk, and we acquired nothing in 2022. Just some brick and mortar acquisitions. Again, we slowed down and we knew exactly what we had to do, and 2023 is going to be another different approach.
[00:15:14] You know, we are completely focused on, on our operations, on, on. Tightening our operations even further. We are already known for our proven execution, but we’re gonna take it one step further. You know, if we can be the, the top revenue generating cannabis company in Canada have the largest non-franchise brick and mortar portfolio.
[00:15:32] I would like to be amongst one of the first cannabis companies in Canada to, to, you know, generate free cash flow. And, and we are working on that and very proud of our strategy. And again, you’re going to see shift in these strategies because we. To our approach. We are not married to one. How can you be when you see what’s unfolding in the cannabis margin?
[00:15:52]Bryan Fields: I, I think that’s so critical. Right. And I think I haven’t seen any other companies that are focused on the digital footprint as, as well as your team has, because I, I think that’s an area that’s kind of [00:16:00] overlooked. Everyone’s kind of rushing for specific locations and for retail. But what’s most critical is what you’ve done is put the cannabis consumer in the center of the ecosystem and kind of build around that to kind of.
[00:16:09] Protect yourself is probably not the best term to use, but diversify yourself off of the waves and the unknowns, which is cannabis. So kind of setting out the ecosystem model, was it in the original playbook or was it one where as you got started you realized, you know, it would be really beneficial for the business to add on this?
[00:16:23] How, how did that unfold and, and take us
[00:16:25]Raj Grover: through those steps. Look, we were, we were definitely a diversified company since inception. We were, while I was building the smoke shop, uh, um, portfolio in Canada, I also started a manufacturing distribution company called RGR Canada, which we call, uh, Valiant distribution today.
[00:16:41] And the plan always was, How do we become big enough? You can’t do that with 1, 5, 10, 20 smoke shops. You got to be large enough to, to buy at the right price, to buy what you want and not be having to sacrifice and have same designs that your next competitor does. We want to completely differentiate ourselves, so we, we [00:17:00] became a diversified cannabis company.
[00:17:02] Even back then when we diversified into manufacturing distribution in 2011, then we supplemented it further with famous brands. So we’ve always been a diversified cannabis company, which is in our, which is built in our roots, and we’re just showcasing that now with, with cannabis display in, you know, furthering that intent and still being present in terms of what’s.
[00:17:23] needed Gross margins that needed in cannabis. So it’s almost like a must do playbook. But fortunately for High Tide, we were already in that diversified game. We just took it one step further.
[00:17:35]Kellan Finney: Being diversified is great. Um, I mean, gives you a bunch of revenue streams, but, but how do you focus on the right revenue stream at the right time?
[00:17:43] Like what are some of the metrics that your guys’ team looks
[00:17:46]Bryan Fields: at
[00:17:47]Kellan Finney: strategically to kind of be like, okay, next quarter we’re gonna focus on manufacturing because it needs to be shore up. Like how do you make those decisions internally?
[00:17:56]Raj Grover: Those are not hard. You just gotta know your numbers, know your [00:18:00] pi. Be on top of your business and you can always make the right decision.
[00:18:03] So, you know, um, when you say, how do we know, 87% of my business is brick and mortar. Today we have the most, most loved, you know, cannabis retail concept in Canada. We, we are called the Costco of cannabis. I don’t, you know, don’t quote me on it, but look me up. And you’ll see that’s what people are saying about us, right?
[00:18:21] So we know that’s our core business. We know we are winning the landscape. We know CBD slow right now. So where do we focus highest quality location opportunities furthering our discount club model in towns and cities and communities. All over Canada, and we did exactly that. This is how we were able to get, look, we have never been one of the most, uh, strongly capitalized companies just by the sheer nature of the innings that we’ve played in cannabis.
[00:18:45] Right? But look at where we are today. You know, I, I, I recently, Disclosed that I, I guess it was one of my ports in one of the press releases that we put out of earnings releases where I said, we’ve never had more than 29 million in our bank account at any given time. And we [00:19:00] are the largest revenue generating cannabis company in the country today with, you know, current revenue runway rate exceeding 450 million.
[00:19:07] That is a big deal. How did we do that? We did not do that. We’re constantly diluting ourselves and buying nonsensical assets. We did that by buying strong companies, fitting them really well in our ecosystem, in our portfolio, and focusing on what is working in the pulse of the moment. I keep saying it’s very under very important to understand where cannabis is today.
[00:19:27] Not to be very different in four months if you have a rescheduling event or a rescheduling event. But lemme tell you, I never count on those things. I don’t have to. Luckily we are diversified. Fortunately for us, um, you know, in comparison to our competitors, we are not dependent on US federal legalization.
[00:19:45] If it happens, I’ve made my intentions very clear that we want to be a top five multi-state operator in the United States. Um, and people have asked me, Raj, uh, that’s an ambitious goal. Yes it is. But again, look, proof is in the pudding. Look at what we’ve done in [00:20:00] Canada. What is stopping us from doing that in the United?
[00:20:02] States
[00:20:04]Bryan Fields: Especially with the data trends your team has, right? Because you have access to information that can convert one user into another and potentially upsell them, right? So a lot of people focus on the acquisition of a customer, but what you really can focus on is the lifetime value of that customer, cuz understanding what they’ve purchased, what they also want, and use those trends to, to give them other opportunities of other products they might
[00:20:22]Raj Grover: be interested in.
[00:20:24] Oh, it’s absolutely huge, you know, to have 4.2 million customers in your database. That’s where we’re sitting right now. I love that number because nobody else has it. Uh, you know, 3.2 million is, is in the United States out of that number 960,000 plus or 950,000 plus Cabana Club members here in Canada, so, you know, and then, then another 300,000-400,000 international customers.
[00:20:47] And all of these customers have purchased pipes, bonds, vaporizers, rolling papers, CBD products. And everything else in between, but it’s all tied to cannabis. So, you know, given the opportunity of federal legalization, again, we are [00:21:00] NASDAQ traded, which is be, much better to attract institutional capital.
[00:21:04] And, and, you know, for your listeners, I would like to reiterate that prior to going to nasdaq, our institutional participation and our stock was at 0.5%. Now it’s close to 8 9 10% and it’s fluid. It also goes up and down, but it’s come up a lot, right? So again, we, we, made that, move Because we knew that we could get more, more things out of it, but because of that move we could get more access to capital out of it.
[00:21:27] But because of that particular move, it also resulted us in not being able to touch the plant in the United States. And I’ll wait my turn. We’ve got lots of opportunity in Canada here still. We are on our way to realize that opportunity. So, you know, we’re not in an, in an absolute rush of any sort, but we are accumulating those customers in our ecosystem today.
[00:21:46] We’re not waiting. These are cannabis consumer. C b d consumers, they’re buying consumption accessories, they’re buying seeds from us, a new vertical that we got into. Uh, you know, it all, it’s all tied to the plan. So we are looking forward to converting these [00:22:00] customers. Um, uh, you know, through our sophisticated e-commerce platforms that we have, we can turn a state on, we can turn a st off as needed, as the as and when the wrecks come out.
[00:22:09] So we’re in a really good position and, and we know how to buy companies. We know how to do m and a. So when it’s time, we can start doing brick and m, brick and mortar m and a in the us.
[00:22:19]Bryan Fields: Yeah, those trends, those trends can lead to purchasing decisions based on understandings, behaviors, and demographics, and most beneficial to integrate back into the overall portfolio.
[00:22:26] So I wanna stay on Cabana Elite. Take us through what that is and how it brings to the market.
[00:22:32]Raj Grover: Sure. So Elite is the, um, you know, part of Cabana Club, of course, and Cabana Club is the largest brick and mortar loyalty program in the country. , uh, we have close to, uh, like I said, 950,000-960,000 Cabana Club members in our program.
[00:22:48] Um, elite was, uh, uh, the first of its kind paid membership program in cannabis. So think Costco, right? You know how Costco has their executive membership and their basic membership. Cabana Elite is very similar. We only have. [00:23:00] One type of membership, which is called Elite, we charge $30 a year. At the moment, the, the actual price of the program is $60.
[00:23:07] But because we live in inflationary times, we wanted to show our love to our customers and, uh, you know, show them a easy way to, get into the Elite membership. And we have started signing our, uh, customers into Elite. We have 6,000 plus members as of last report quarter. I’m happy to share those numbers again in a few days, uh, or in a couple of weeks when we, when we report our next quarter.
[00:23:28] And Elite offers a lot of amazing benefits to our customers. Like even more deeper discounts on cannabis, uh, cannabis products, consumption accessories, CBD products, elite flash sales, uh, limited edition and exclusive elite products including cutting edge consumption accessories. So, you know, autographed by, uh, a celebrity where applicable, where we can, that’s the kind of stuff we want to offer to our customers.
[00:23:50] Of course, being within the regulations in Canada. Um, discounts at 5,000 plus non-cannabis retail and restaurant partners in the country. That’s also part of the [00:24:00] program. We also provide a 50% off delivery discount to our elite members. And, you know, we were the first company in, in cannabis amongst many firsts that we’ve launched in cannabis to launch the four 20 car giveaway annual four 20 car giveaway.
[00:24:13] Last year we gave away a $42,000 Toyota. On four 20 at 4:20 PM and this year it’s going to be a hundred thousand dollars Tesla. So if you’re elite member, well you get three entries in that draw. If you’re non elite member, you’re still welcome and you get one. .
[00:24:29]Bryan Fields: I think that’s my favorite thing. I mean, the SAS numbers obviously is a, is a nice thing for the business standpoint, but also for the consumer doesn’t have to then rely on purchasing everything at the dispensary.
[00:24:37] Right? You’re getting some, some of the value from the consumer on a regular basis. You can kind of rely on that kind of income opposed to hoping that Kellen, who might be in more infrequent purchaser comes in every once every six months. You get that money up upfront. I, I, I think that’s genius. So where did the origin of that idea come from?
[00:24:52] Was that one originally on, you wanted to kind of lock that in. You liked the Costco model. Take us through how that idea
[00:24:56]Raj Grover: came. Oh, that’s a, that’s a cool question to ask me. [00:25:00] So, you know, la uh, when we first got into the discount club model 15 months ago, prior to that, I, I ran a pilot for, for six months on consumption, accessories and cannabis products in, in all of our provinces, in three locations, in three provinces, or four locations, I don’t remember exactly.
[00:25:16] I think it’s three in three provinces that clearly spat out the data on where we were headed. If we use this approach, uh, of discounting consumption access, And cannabis together because, you know, we have a very different approach. And then we realized we are amongst one of the very few cannabis companies that even have a membership program.
[00:25:36] Our largest competitor, which is another value focused retailer. At that time, uh, you know, uh, was already doing discounts and, and, and discounts and cannabis products and accessories. I always thought, like, what does what? Differe differentiates our model than everybody else, right? Anybody can just discount on price and anyone can say, oh, I’m gonna drop my price and you know, I will attract more customers.
[00:25:58] Well, the next guy is going to do that, [00:26:00] and then the next guy is going to do that. That’s a race to the bottom. What we wanted to do is create an efficient ecosystem. We looked at our ecosystem. We have top international CBD brands. You know, we have some of the best consumption accessory platforms in the world.
[00:26:14] We have some of the brands in consumption, accessories, topnotch brands of consumption accessories in the world. So we decided to leverage all of those elements in our overall ecosystem, bring them into our Canada Cabana stores and make it into a membership model. Because I believe at that time we already.
[00:26:29] have I think we had exactly to be precise. When we launched the model, we had 245,000 members of the Cabana Cloud, which is not a small number. So we wanted to leverage that number that we already had considering our next competitor has zero, right? Uh, the next value focused competitor. So we really focused on that part.
[00:26:46] We devised this, uh, strategy early on. We messaged to the market that eventually, in fact, as soon as we launched the the model, we said, we intend to monetize this membership base as. Going forward. And we did exactly that. We, [00:27:00] you know, Brian, we, we say things to the market and we, we always keep our promise and you can look us up on that.
[00:27:05] And we did that with our membership model as well. And, uh, today it’s paying dividends and, and you know, this is why we’re called the Costco of cannabis today. Yeah, I
[00:27:13]Bryan Fields: love that one because you can do small drops of products and get consumers access to one that maybe is a little more exclusive. Plus you’re kind of testing the market and say, Hey, we’re not sure if this is one we wanna roll out wide.
[00:27:22] We’re gonna test it out first to our small elite. , but on the backside you can also use that massive database you have and kind of push more people towards the model, allowing you kind of feed that ecosystem model so that everyone
[00:27:34]Raj Grover: wins from it. Absolutely. We have all kinds of data, uh, Brian, that we continue to leverage and, you know, we have all kinds of sources as well to please our customers, which means, you know, we can, we are now getting into elite drops, so we are going to do one fancy nice consumption accessory drop a week.
[00:27:53] You know, very different. Very different than what we offer to our cabana club and very different to what you’ll see in Canada [00:28:00] and the us. It’s going to become very hard to say no to becoming an elite member in our stores. You know, currently only less than 2% of our inventory. Reflect elite inventory down the road long term, three to four to five years out.
[00:28:15] We want close to 40 to 50% of our inventory reflected as elite. So if you’re not elite, it’s going to become less attractive to shop in our stores. But you know, we don’t wanna pull the rug off the feet of our customers. We. We are a gentle company and we understand the opportunity that we have on in our hands.
[00:28:30] So we want to pace this out and slowly grow it because I feel we have kryptonite in our hands. You know, we, we’ve got a great model, uh, elite is taking it to, you know, taking it to the next step further. So we are a great trajectory and we continue to leverage our data points and our diversified ecosystem to continue to make our brick and mortar core business of brick and mortar operations.
[00:28:51]Kellan Finney: Do you think that it’ll ever get to the point where it is like a, a true Costco membership where only people with an elite membership can enter your guys’, your [00:29:00] club, I guess would be at that
[00:29:01]Bryan Fields: point,
[00:29:01]Raj Grover: right? I would love that. And we going to, we are headed in that direction. Uh, but you know, my goal where I would be absolutely satisfied us to.
[00:29:12] About 40 to 50% of our customers converted into elite. I mean, that will present a massive bottom line opportunity for our company. Uh, everything happens with time. It doesn’t happen, you know, overnight. We don’t do things to make them happen overnight. We are setting up strong foundation. Like the elite drops that I mentioned, like the delivery, you know, the delivery discounts that I’m talking about, like the limited, uh, addition accessories that I’m talking about.
[00:29:36] So as our customers, our club members continuously see, you know, we also do a lot of customer service where we get a lot of customer feedback. What would they like to see for Elite and everything else, and why are they shopping and visiting our stores, you know, uh, uh, ahead of our, uh, a competition? Why do they choose us?
[00:29:53] So we’ve got a lot of these data points, and I think we can get to 40 to 50%. All our members switch to [00:30:00] elite. Of course this will be long term. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’m not in a hurry to get there. You know, Rome was not built in a day and slow and steady wins the race. So we are definitely on our way there.
[00:30:10] Do you think eventually
[00:30:11]Bryan Fields: you’ll tier the elite model to have different uh, exclusivities?
[00:30:16]Raj Grover: You know, at the moment it’s, it’s a very simple model to understand and absorb for our customers. And, you know, we, we’ve dropped that price point to 50% to let them try for a year. We are only charging, uh, for the annual membership right now.
[00:30:29] It’s not a monthly membership and things are going well. Uh, we’ve not given it too much thought. Initially we did when we were brainstorming we wanted one or we wanted a silver tier. And the gold tier and makes things complicated as we understand elite and we, as we understand what our customers love and appreciate more and more things can evolve further.
[00:30:46] I never say no to anything, but uh, you know, I think we are, uh, on our way in terms of, you know, continuing to increase our, uh, elite memberships and we’ll continue to do that, but the model may evolve again in the next year or two as we have more data, [00:31:00] as we know what our customers want to see and what they’re willing to pay.
[00:31:03] The model may evolve. In
[00:31:06]Bryan Fields: 2022, buying versus building. Can you talk about the, the differences in, in making those decisions and what component was most critical in selecting whether or not to, to buy an acquisition or to build a facility?
[00:31:19]Raj Grover: Yeah, so, you know, we are, so just to clarify, because we’re retailers, Brian, we’re not building huge facilities, right?
[00:31:24] We’re not building, uh, 20, 30, 40 million facilities we’re building a, uh, an ideal square footage for me is 1500 square feet store. The most important point is that, that it has to be the best location I can get my hands on, you know, so we are very proud of the real estate that we have in our portfolio and how we choose our locations, at least the ones that we’ve chosen ourselves, whether through acquisitions or, or whether through build out of the stores, uh, organic build out of the.
[00:31:51] You know, uh, Brian, typically a store costs me between 300 and, well, $300,000 to build. And we brought that cost down now a little bit, another hundred [00:32:00] thousand dollars or so in working capital for 1500 square each store. So the equation always is, uh, you know, what is the payout time of this location, right?
[00:32:08] Like, you don’t get, you don’t become EBITDA positive in a location or start generating cash from day one. It’s just a ramp up period. It could be three months, six months, nine months, 12. Depending on a location. So if I am getting, and, and you know, everything is available, you know, a dime a dozen right now in the market, we are not touching them because unfortunately, and I feel for them, because I was an independent myself and some of the smaller regional chains, they’re just not gonna be able to make it because of how much competition we have.
[00:32:35] So, For me, you know, and, and being a nice guy, going to a town and creating more competition for everybody else. You know, if we can put some money in somebody’s pocket and take them out in a city that they’re operating and, and you know, bring them into the high tight family, make them into a shareholder and ride the bigger wave together.
[00:32:51] That’s what I always do. I speak very, very transparently about these things and this is why we’re able to acquire a lot of companies and they see the opportunity. They, you know, they, they [00:33:00] understand that High Tide was also an independent platform to begin with. And this is where we are today, and we can ride that wave together.
[00:33:06] And this is why we do. So much brick and mortar m and a. It’s kind of divided in the organic growth and then in the, the m and a growth that we do on the b and m side. Last year we, I believe we acquired 23 locations and we built 22 locations, right? And this year we, we forecasted that we’re gonna add 40 to 50 locations, which was going to be a split of both.
[00:33:27] But you know, I am not, again, feeling the pulse of the moment. We are not dead set on that number either. That number can drastically come down this year. You know, and we are going to reiterate this when the earnings call comes, uh, just in a couple of weeks, I want to talk about this again to make sure our shareholders understand.
[00:33:44] We are very much living in the pulse of the moment in cannabis with changes. Very rapidly and daily, and weekly and monthly, and we are going to be on top of it. So, you know, the, the priority is not, we are already at 150 locations. We’ve already proven, proven a point. We know how to grow. [00:34:00] There’s no doubt in anybody’s mind, high tide can grow.
[00:34:03] Now we are focused on, let’s show you that we can also be, you know, free cash propositive. Not a problem, but nobody anticipated this, right? The point was to grow. The point was to be the biggest. The boldest. The bestest and suddenly it changed trajectory. But no problem. It’s just how business goes. Never goes in a straight line.
[00:34:21] It’s always like this, like the stock market. Uh, the beauty of
[00:34:23]Bryan Fields: cannabis. What is one concept about operating the cannabis industry that would surprise or shock?
[00:34:31]Raj Grover: You know, operating in the cannabis industry, uh, just the regulatory nature of the industry on how much red tape, on how many regulations that we have to deal with, which varies by the different provinces here in Canada, just like you guys have in the United States right now.
[00:34:47] The state by state. That’s what we deal with in Canada. Uh, indeed it can become really difficult for smaller companies to, to navigate these challenges. And even for the larger companies, we want to be focusing on our business. [00:35:00] Cannabis is no different from beverage, alcohol, or tobacco or other retail industries, but it’s, it’s, it’s extremely strict regulations and guidelines for the legal retail operators versus illicit market continues to be strong here in Canada.
[00:35:14] It’s come down quite a bit, but it should have gone down a lot. Where it’s today, you know, so things like that have been the most difficult part to, to, you know, consume, to digest, uh, and what has happened in Canada. Illicit market has been a big one. Competition has been an extremely big one. And then the, which no one anticipated or expected that it’s gonna come this, this fast, this strong.
[00:35:37] You know, and, and the biggest one being just, just the regulations also in multiple provinces, just varying a lot. The caps are different. And BC you can only have eight. I’m hearing you can go now from eight to 16, which is going to be fantastic. In Alberta, it’s unlimited. Uh, your Saskatchewan, manitos unlimited, Ontario is 75.
[00:35:56] So, you know, when you’re planning these strategies and you’re looking at these different markets, [00:36:00] you need a different market for different strategy for every single market. Right? It’s not consistent. It’s not the. , which aspect keeps Raj up at night? You know, just, uh, uh, a coup, well, more than a couple of things in cannabis.
[00:36:13] There’s a lot of different aspects that we have to, you know, we have to worry about in cannabis. Um, I wouldn’t say that’s anything, Brian, that keeps me up at night because, you know, they say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Well, we’ve been dealing with that for the last five years and, uh, you know, we are.
[00:36:30] We are born to fight the, the battle hard. Now we’ve gone through, we’ve battle hardened and we’ve learned so much over the last five years, so nothing really keeps me up at night because I’m not counting on US federal legalization. If we get it. You can see what we did in Canada Times that by 5, 6, 7, whatever number you wish.
[00:36:46] And I think we will eventually get there, but I’m not, you know, holding my breath on it. We are just focused on our operations right now, running the show really tightly showcasing to our shareholders. We can absolutely be cashflow positive. [00:37:00] Uh, when we, when we want to. So now the focus is on, on, on that particular side.
[00:37:05] And I don’t worry about, you know, the, the changing landscape in cannabis too much because one day everybody’s already excited about us. Or Germany, and then it doesn’t happen, and then they have to reset their expectations. I don’t do that. Like I said, you know, we’d be very present in what’s happening right now.
[00:37:21] There’s a lot to thank for. We are the largest revenue generating cannabis company in Canada with a 450 million annual current run rate. So there’s a lot to be thankful for. All we gotta do is stay focused and continue to do the good things that we have been. ,
[00:37:36]Bryan Fields: are there any assets, efforts or strategies you wish more people paid attention to?
[00:37:41] For example, is there an area that your team is excelling that you wish investors paid more attention to?
[00:37:46]Raj Grover: Yeah, absolutely. You know, if you, if you look at what we’ve done in, uh, in Canada, Brian, the proof is in the pudding. Uh, you know, you, you don’t have to take my word for it. You just have to see our hypergrowth, what we’ve been able to accomplish in an absolutely [00:38:00] depressed cannabis landscape.
[00:38:01] There’s cc protections and bankruptcy proceedings happening left and center, and amongst them, there’s a company called High Tide that is cruising in a different lane. Right, but we are not getting any love for it. We created a retail concept out of necessity and very intelligent concept to differentiate ourselves from everybody else in the country.
[00:38:21] No other cannabis player has a concept, and even if they did, they don’t have the ecosystem to support that concept. Again, it’s not a strict price war or a discount war. It’s a lot more than that. It’s well round. Well thought of and well executed game plan that we have in Canada in terms of our retail play.
[00:38:39] And we, we feel we can use this playbook in Germany and in the United States. And that’s why did we, we did that partnership with, uh, with Sanity Group in Germany. So, you know, we, I just wish that investors looked at us as a, as a differentiated retail play. And if they had to pick one player in Canada.
[00:38:56] Well, you can look at us amongst extractors growers, [00:39:00] retail. We shine ahead, right? We’ve had 11 consecutive quarters of positive adjusted ebitda. It’s an anomaly in Canadian cannabis. It’s, it’s very rare to find that, uh, you know, we we’re increasing our revenues a hundred percent year over year. That’s not going to happen going forward.
[00:39:15] Never say never, but we are slowing down and we are tighten up our operations. So we’re not going to see that type of growth, but that’s fine. We are approaching half a billion dollars in sales right now. I don’t know for how. We can be ignored, but I, I feel that there’s almost zero interest in cannabis right now, Brian.
[00:39:33] I think that is what a real problem is, not just zero interest from institutions because of what has happened over the last five years and because of federal legalization not becoming a reality, it’s also, you know, zero interest are becoming near zero because so many retail investors have lost so much money in cannabis.
[00:39:51]Bryan Fields: When you started your journey in the cannabis space, what did you get? Right? And most importantly, what did you get?
[00:39:57]Raj Grover: You know, we’ve got a lot of rights. Uh, Brian, this is a [00:40:00] result of why we are here today. You know, you can’t accumulate that type of revenue. Build a 1500 member strong team, have hundred 50 locations in the country, build a diversified cannabis ecosystem.
[00:40:11] Uh, we’ve got a lot of things. Right. Right. And what I would say, you know, it’s hard to think what we’ve got absolutely wrong, but, you know, I am not perfect. We are not perfect as a team. We have lots of room to improve and we’ll continue improving. You know, when times were good, really. I could have raised 50 million or a hundred million in capital, right?
[00:40:29] And then we are on our way. We would be a lot more stronger than where we are today. But having not, and at that point I was thinking, oh, we can go get capital anytime. Why die new today? Right? There is never what I learn and what I hear from my mentors and from people in the capital markets. There’s never a good time, Raj.
[00:40:47] When the money’s there, you take it. Right? That’s what it comes down to. So that is one of the lessons, um, that I will, I will put out that I’ve personally learned. But I would say we have, uh, 1800 things done right than [00:41:00] the one or two that, you know, we’ve not executed from. You could sum up your
[00:41:04]Bryan Fields: experience in a main takeaway or lesson learned to pass onto the next generation.
[00:41:09] What would. ,
[00:41:11]Raj Grover: you know, uh, one of the lessons that I can talk about going to the next generation, uh, or, you know, the next gen, whoever’s listening here, would be when you think nothing can go wrong, think again, you know, have a contingency plan. And this is not about cannabis only. This is about any business that you get into.
[00:41:29] Eight out of 10 businesses, small business. In Canada, in the us, internationally, they’re bold simply because, you know, there’s not enough planning you need to have, you need to be passionate about what you do, love what you do. If you don’t love what you do, that’s already a recipe for disaster because it’s just a means to an end and you’re just, you know, passing your time there and you half-hearted.
[00:41:49] You have one leg here, one leg there. Be fully focused, fully passionate, and plan your contingencies because they always come handy and everyone needs it. [00:42:00] Even when you think you don. Well said.
[00:42:03]Bryan Fields: All right. Prediction time, Raj. Five years from now, what does the ecosystem model look like and what, if any areas of business could potentially need to be spun off?
[00:42:15]Raj Grover: That’s great question. So I think five years from now, I would like to be a top global retail operator of cannabis. Uh, you know, I, I think I’ve reiterated it too many times our ambition to be a top five player in the us but that goes globally, Brian. So if Germany opens up, we’re there. Of course the opportunities have to be lucrative and have, have to make sense for our shareholders.
[00:42:38] So we will e uh, evaluate every opportunity independently. But like I said, 87% of our business is the dispensary business or the brick and mortar retail cannabis business. So, you know, we are going to remain focused there. And, uh, the, the point is to be we can have 150 stores in Canada. Yes, we can have a thousand stores in the United States when, when the time in the opportunity comes.
[00:42:59][00:43:00] Yes, we can have two, 300 stores in Germany. And that’s just. And then what’s stopping us from becoming a retail giant in cannabis. Right. That’s the ambition. You know, that’s what we live with, uh, in our company and we’re, we’re very focused on that execution. And look, like I said, we are very fluid with our strategy.
[00:43:16] So in five years, your second part of your question that Raj, would a division be spun off? Everything is a possibility. If at that point it comes down to even pride to five years focus is the need of the hour. We’ve we, we’ve got our secret mantra for global expansion, well then that’s what would happen.
[00:43:33] But I don’t think we need to go there because I have just opened up doors or we as a company, we as a team have opened up doors to these. Ancillary cannabis platforms and portfolios that we can leverage when we get, I can go heavy handed on it, I can go light-handed on it, and I can do nothing about it if I want to.
[00:43:52] Uh, but, you know, uh, unfortunately for our peers or our competitors, um, that’s not part of their strategy. So we would like to keep this differentiated approach [00:44:00] as a mindset and then see how things turn out. Well set Kelly.
[00:44:05]Kellan Finney: I think, uh, consolidation is a word that’s thrown around in the industry a lot, and I think that as a lot of people think of it as like businesses going out of, uh, other cannabis companies going out of business, right?
[00:44:16] But I think realistically what Raj is doing is probably the end all be all for kind of consolidation, right? It’s taking all of the different opportunities. That encompass cannabis, right? With accessories, with, uh, consumer behavior, all these other things, and kind of holding them under one house in order to diversify revenue, right?
[00:44:38] You see this with like Tesla and other, like a large successful international corporations, right? So I think it’s kind of a, a no-brainer, if you will. Um, as far as like the strongest. Global cannabis companies are gonna be very, very well diversified across these different revenue streams. Um, I don’t think that, um, these companies are gonna wanna spin [00:45:00] off, uh, some of these other.
[00:45:03] Departments, if you will, that generate significant revenue. I just don’t think it makes a lot of sense. Um, in my mind, I, I’m thinking of like Exxon and, and their plastics division, right? Like they, they play so well with every other aspect of the company that I don’t think it’s gonna make a lot of sense to like, spin off the accessory version when that.
[00:45:24] Is significantly stronger gaining information from, say, the actual plant touching side of, of the business, right? They, they inter, the interplay between them is so strong that they make each other better. So that, that’s my opinion on it.
[00:45:37]Bryan Fields: What do you think Brian? I think the Cabana elite style with the tiered model is gonna be, uh, a game changer for you guys, and I’m shocked and disappointed that some of the US counterpoints haven’t, haven’t taken that play that you’ve ran and run the same exact play because it’s beautiful, right?
[00:45:51] Like you get a consistent revenue stream, you know exactly how it works. Costco has made. Killing. Right? Everyone is obsessed with Costco or or likely obsessed, and it’s a smart, [00:46:00] it’s understanding the navigation challenges that have and building a foundational diversified business. We’ve seen other companies kind of spin their business off into tomatoes and cucumbers, but your team’s taken a different approach.
[00:46:10] You’ve kind of locked down in the cannabis. You’ve put the cannabis consumer. Into the center, you’ve kind of circled around that and understood. Okay, what do their, what are their habits like? They like accessories, they like C, B, D. Here are all the things that we can use in order to leverage the information to upsell them in different areas and kind of wait.
[00:46:26] For the game to unfold the way it is and kind of navigate how it comes out because I think a lot of cannabis companies now are trying to play their hand forward without knowing what, what the forward is. And I think your team with you at the Hammus done a really good job of laying out a bunch of different options and kind of waiting for the game to unfold and then play the cards in the order that is
[00:46:45]Raj Grover: needed to go forward.
[00:46:47] Yeah. You know, uh, we’re taking all the information and we’re taking our infrastructure and we’re marrying that information and the infrastructure together. Right. And, and this was not consolidation and. Purchasing of [00:47:00] assets just for the heck of it. It’s what it was absolutely planned. If we were just buying things to buy them, uh, you know, which many of our competitors have done and, you know, they’re all over the place in cannabis.
[00:47:11] Let’s just, yeah, buy another hundred million company, another 50 million company. And then who’s going to manage all of that? And then you need to show that you’re growing these businesses, not declining the businesses. I have to pace the music in my CBD b d division right now because of a global slowdown inflation war, you know, uh, uh, inflation raging and soar.
[00:47:28] But at least we’ve got very strong brands for the future. We’re perfectly positioned. We are not buying these companies. You know, we, we purchase Grass City and we triple the sales in Grass City. Same goes for all my accessory units. You know, they’ve not been touched. CBD as a whole has taken a, you know, downfall in the, in, in the global landscape.
[00:47:44] But we have some of the best brands in our hands and we, these markets have just started to open up, these are still early innings on a global level at cannabis. And, you know, if we. We can be responsible and we can consolidate and we can diversify our ecosystem and generate [00:48:00] profits out of it while, you know, things remain a little quiet.
[00:48:03] O on the federal legalization, US federal legalization front, what’s wrong with that? And when, once you know that, you know, this is it, US is on Germany, is on full focus, on, on the cannabis retail outlets. So, so that’s where we stand and I think we’ve done it very intelligently and we’ll continue to do the consolidation.
[00:48:22] Yeah,
[00:48:22]Bryan Fields: I saw the page views the seo. I didn’t really wanna nerd out with you on that, but I, I, I saw what you’re doing. It’s very, very smart. Uh, so Raj, for our listeners, they wanna get in touch, they wanna learn more, and they wanna buy high tide stock. Where
[00:48:32]Raj Grover: can they find. Well, they can, uh, our, our symbol is h i t i.
[00:48:37] We trade on the Nasdaq, uh, under the symbol h i t i, also the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture, same symbol, H I T I and Frankfurt Stock Exchange. If our German friends want to look, uh, look into us, uh, or our European friends, I believe it’s too well by. Awesome. We’ll
[00:48:54]Bryan Fields: link it up on the show notes. Thanks for taking the time.
[00:48:55] This was fun.
[00:48:58]Raj Grover: Thank you, Brian. Thank you.
