Speaker 1: These sees Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Stenovic on Bloomberg Radio. Now, over the years, we have
Speaker 1: touch base with the CCWEE team at cure Leaf, including
Speaker 1: the company's chairman, Boris Jordan many times. Cure Leaf, as
Speaker 1: you know, approximately two point seven billion dollars cannabis holding
Speaker 1: company based in Canada, and we wanted to get more
Speaker 1: on the business, including last week's news that Twitter would
Speaker 1: allow cannabis ads, becoming the first major social platform to
Speaker 1: do so. So we welcome cure Leaf CEO Matt Darren
Speaker 1: joining us via zoom in Florida. Matt, good to have
Speaker 1: you here with Mattie and myself. How are you and
Speaker 1: how is business doing? Great? Thank you. Business continues to
Speaker 1: be brisk. It's we're continuing to see that cannabis is
Speaker 1: a recession resistance stable and despite many of the inflation
Speaker 1: crashers and other things going on the economy, people are
Speaker 1: prioritizing their cannabis purchases, which is encouraging to see. All right, optimism,
Speaker 1: you sound optimistic, but in January, you guys did release
Speaker 1: that you're cutting your payroll by about ten percent. You
Speaker 1: were closing operations in California, Colorado, and Oregon at the
Speaker 1: same time, though there's some news just last week that
Speaker 1: you opened another dispensary in Florida. I think it's your
Speaker 1: fifty eighth in that state, one hundred and forty eighth
Speaker 1: nationwide in the US. So, first of all, kind of
Speaker 1: square some things for me. Why the cuts in payroll,
Speaker 1: Why the shutdowns in California, Colorado, and Oregon. So a
Speaker 1: few things. First. You know, Pure got more than doubled
Speaker 1: for a number of consecutive years, and with that hypergrowth
Speaker 1: comes opportunities to continue to optimize the business. So many
Speaker 1: of the decisions that we're making, I think are natural
Speaker 1: for high growth companies that are going through its next
Speaker 1: phase of evolution and is something we're seeing really throughout
Speaker 1: throughout the industry as it relates to our markets in
Speaker 1: the West Coast. Look, there are in a resource constrain,
Speaker 1: capital constrained environment. We want to make sure that we
Speaker 1: are allocating our coal in our resources to the markets
Speaker 1: where we see the greatest opportunities, Florida being one of them,
Speaker 1: with the largest medical market and adult use. On the
Speaker 1: horizon in the coming years, you have some markets such
Speaker 1: as California on the West Coast that have just experienced
Speaker 1: some major challenges for a variety of reasons, from lack
Speaker 1: of enforcement of the illicit market to high tax structures
Speaker 1: in place that have really made it challenging to to
Speaker 1: be profitable in California. So for the time being, we're
Speaker 1: continuing to go asset light in those markets and hopefully
Speaker 1: they're going to stabilize in the coming years and you know,
Speaker 1: we'll be there. You tease this out a little bit,
Speaker 1: but can you talk to me a little bit more
Speaker 1: about why you like Florida as a market to continue
Speaker 1: to expand in. So Florida has been a wildly successful
Speaker 1: medical program with over seven hundred thousand patients in the
Speaker 1: medical program. You know, the licensing structure allows you to
Speaker 1: expand your cultivation and manufacturing capacity as much as you
Speaker 1: would like, as well as to open up as many dispensaries,
Speaker 1: so you can really build scale in the Florida market,
Speaker 1: which we've continued to do by investing in our manufacturing
Speaker 1: and processing capabilities and continuing to open new dispensaries as
Speaker 1: you've seen. So it's really an attractive market and that's
Speaker 1: just in a medical environment. So with adult use on
Speaker 1: the horizon at some point and one hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: million tourists that come to Florida every year, not to
Speaker 1: mention the demographic shift taking place with many people relocating
Speaker 1: to the state. It really is an attractive climate operating.
Speaker 1: How strong is the demand in Florida that you guys
Speaker 1: have so overweighted your exposure to that state. The demand
Speaker 1: is immense. I think part of what we've seen is
Speaker 1: that there's certain parts of the state that have been
Speaker 1: slower to communities flower to zone for dispensaries, and so
Speaker 1: while there are you know, hundreds of dispensaries throughout the state,
Speaker 1: there's some are areas that have really not had much
Speaker 1: accessibility for medical cannabis up until recently. So we're seeing
Speaker 1: some greenfield opportunities in areas outside of Orlando and other
Speaker 1: parts of the state that we're excited to now be
Speaker 1: represented in where we weren't before. Same thing in you know,
Speaker 1: south in Miami Dade County, there's areas that are new
Speaker 1: areas that have been opening up that are now zoned
Speaker 1: for medical dispensaries, whereby previously that was not an option available.
Speaker 1: So we're really we're very very focused on opening up
Speaker 1: a locations in these markets, but the opportunities are continuing
Speaker 1: to open up for that. Well, we got some big
Speaker 1: news last week that Twitter is allowing cannabis ads. I
Speaker 1: imagine that that news was music to your ears. Can
Speaker 1: you talk to me about how big of a deal
Speaker 1: that is for you in the business. We see it
Speaker 1: as a really big deal. Twitter being the first major
Speaker 1: online social media platform to allow cannabis companies to advertise,
Speaker 1: albeit subject to restrictions, I think is a real big
Speaker 1: moment for the industry. Historically, we've been very limited in
Speaker 1: terms of the digital marketing that we can do and
Speaker 1: frankly all types of marketing, and so the notion that
Speaker 1: we can now advertise and participate in social media channels,
Speaker 1: including Twitter, which has been very active in the cannabis space,
Speaker 1: is really a whole new opportunity and something that we're
Speaker 1: really excited for to capitalize on. My understanding to advertise
Speaker 1: on Twitter that cannabis companies must be pre authorized by
Speaker 1: Twitter and meet many requirements. What are you learning about
Speaker 1: those requirements? So, yes, there are a number of requirements. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, in the early stages here, we do need
Speaker 1: to be pre authorized by the platform to post ads.
Speaker 1: There's restrictions on what can be advertised. You know, we're
Speaker 1: not advertising you know, most cannabis products in general, so
Speaker 1: there's some significant limitations on you know, what can exactly
Speaker 1: be advertised, and there's certain pre authorizations that are there
Speaker 1: as well as jurisdictions where we are able to offer
Speaker 1: these ads. So help me help me out. Is this
Speaker 1: correct that one of the most significant restrictions is that
Speaker 1: cannabis companies can't promote or offer for sale cannabis products.
Speaker 1: Isn't that what advertising is? You are correct, We're able
Speaker 1: to offer advertise certain products that are at a very
Speaker 1: diminumous amount of THHC, things like our outstanding topicals, which
Speaker 1: do quite well in places like Florida. But you're right, Um,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of restrictions in terms of actually
Speaker 1: advertising the products that we dispense. But I will say
Speaker 1: that that is still progress from where we have been
Speaker 1: at where we've not been able to have any sort
Speaker 1: of advertising presence on these platforms. So while um, certainly
Speaker 1: we're more limited than conventional CBG companies and others, this
Speaker 1: is progress from what we've been dealing with the last decades.
Speaker 1: So we'll take progress for the moment. Are you also
Speaker 1: a little nervous? And it just harkens back to kind
Speaker 1: of cigarettes, this whole idea that you can't target minors.
Speaker 1: I mean, like, how do you not well? I think
Speaker 1: there's something that we take very seriously. Curley's roots are
Speaker 1: as a health and wellness company coming out of the
Speaker 1: medical space, and that's still very much in our DNA,
Speaker 1: even as we transition to adult use and are offering
Speaker 1: products across a variety of ways. You know, there's certainly
Speaker 1: ways to market and advertise that are not being directed
Speaker 1: towards youth, and that in terms of the way that
Speaker 1: products get presented and you know, many of those things.
Speaker 1: So I think there's absolutely ways to market cannabis products.
Speaker 1: And the reality is a huge portion of our customer
Speaker 1: base is, uh, you know, kind of skewing older than younger.
Speaker 1: There's a reality, And forgive me, I really probably should
Speaker 1: have has phrased it more like it's hard to avoid
Speaker 1: anybody from seeing the ads that are out there. And
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to mean that you guys are necessarily
Speaker 1: going to target young folks, but I mean once the
Speaker 1: stuff is out there, pretty much anybody can see it.
Speaker 1: Matt comeback because I'd love to continue this conversation and
Speaker 1: love to know more as you guys find out about
Speaker 1: the advertising rules. Matt Darren, He's chief executive officer of
Speaker 1: Cure Leaf, joining USBA Zoom from Florida. This is Bloomberg Radio.