GrowGeneration Reports Q1 2026 Results: Full Earnings Call Transcript

GrowGeneration (NASDAQ:GRWG) reported first-quarter financial results on Tuesday. The transcript from the company's first-quarter earnings call has been provided below. This content is powered by Benzinga APIs. For comprehensive financial data and transcripts, visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/. View the webcast at https://app.webinar.net/BV1vzDxzAqQ Summary GrowGeneration Corp reported first quarter 2026 net sales of $38.4 million, a 7.5% increase compared to the same period last year, driven by commercial B2B business and storage solutions segment growth. The company focused on expanding its commercial B2B platform, proprietary brands, and improving operating efficiency through cost reduction initiatives, which have led to improved profitability and a strong balance sheet with $41.1 million in cash and no debt. Guidance for 2026 includes expected second-quarter revenue of $42 million to $44 million and approximately breakeven adjusted EBITDA for the full year, with strategic initiatives centered on revenue quality and proprietary brand penetration. Full Transcript OPERATOR Hello everyone and welcome to GrowGeneration's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. My name is Matthew and I will be your operator for today's call. At this time participants are in a listen only mode. Following prepared remarks, we will open the call to questions from analysts with instructions to be given 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 Corp website. I will now hand the call over to Phil Carlson with KCSA Strategic Communications for introductions and the reading of the safe harbor statement. Please go ahead Phil Phil Carlson thank you operator and welcome everyone to GrowGeneration's first quarter 2026 earnings results conference call. With us today from GrowGeneration are Darren Lampert, Co Founder and Chief Executive Officer and Greg Sanders, Chief Financial Officer. The company's first quarter 2026 earnings press release was issued after close of market 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 provide reconciliations of non GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are all available on our website. Following prepared remarks we 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 re enter the queue and we'll 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. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) Thanks Phil. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us to review GrowGeneration's first quarter 2026 financial results and to discuss our outlook for the rest 2026. Over the past several years we have transformed GrowGeneration into a more focused and efficient business. Our first quarter results reflect our continued progress highlighted by our second consecutive quarter of year over year growth, improving profitability and continued expansion of our proprietary brand mix. While the first quarter is typically our seasonally slowest period, revenue exceeded our expectations driven by momentum in our commercial business and meaningful contribution from our Storage Solutions segment. As we move through 2026, we remain focused on three priorities expanding our commercial B2B platform, growing our proprietary brands across additional channels and continuing to improve operating efficiency through the cost reduction initiatives we have implemented over the past several years. Together, these initiatives are helping improve revenue quality, support margin expansion over time and position the business for more sustainable profitability. As I mentioned, our commercial B2B business remains the core driver of our growth strategy. Through GrowGen Pro, we continue to expand relationships with multi state operators, greenhouse growers and other commercial cultivation customers across North America. Within our commercial business, we continue to see increased adoption of proprietary brands such as Charcoir and Drip Hydro as customers standardize around recurring consumable programs. At the same time, we continue to reposition our legacy retail footprint into commercial sales and service centers, allowing our technical sales team to deepen customer relationships and support larger commercial accounts more efficiently. Beyond our core commercial business, we're also expanding our proprietary brands into adjacent channels and new customer categories. Because these brands were developed for professional cultivators, we believe they are well positioned to expand into broader horticulture and consumer markets. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) Early adoption has been very positive. During the quarter, we continue expanding distribution into lawn and garden channels through online big box retail and our direct to consumer platform the Harvest Company. We also continue expanding our commercial presence in Canada and advancing additional international distribution relationships. Importantly, these initiatives leverage the same proprietary brand portfolio and supply chain infrastructure already supporting our commercial business, allowing us to pursue growth opportunities without materially increasing complexity across the organization. We also continue to benefit from the structural cost reduction initiatives implemented over the past several years. Much of this work is now reflected in our operating structure, positioning the business to generate, improving profitability as revenue scales. We also continue to maintain a strong balance sheet, ending the quarter with 41.1 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and no debt. This financial flexibility supports continued investment in our strategic priorities while maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation including our share repurchase. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) Turning to the quarter itself, first quarter revenue exceeded our expectations and marked our second consecutive quarter of of year over year revenue growth despite operating with a smaller and more efficient footprint. This performance was driven primarily by continued momentum in our commercial business, expanding proprietary brand penetration and strong growth in our storage solutions segment Proprietary brand sales represented 37% of cultivation and gardening revenue during the quarter, reflecting continued progress in shifting our sales mix towards higher value recurring consumable proprietary branded products. We also saw strong performance from our Storage Solutions segment where revenue increased 35.5% year over year. This segment continues to benefit from increasing capital investment activity across a broader range of end markets and contributed meaningfully to both revenue growth and profitability during the quarter. Overall, we believe the quarter reflects continued progress against our strategy to build a more focused, commercially driven and profitable business from a profitability standpoint. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) Our first quarter results highlight our continued progress in improving the quality and efficiency of our business. While gross margins were impacted by factors related to store consolidation activity and product mix during the quarter, we believe these pressures are largely short term in nature. At the same time, we continue to see meaningful benefits from the cost reduction initiatives implemented over the past several years which contributed to improved profitability during the quarter. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) As we move through 2026, we expect improving gross margins, continued operating discipline and increasing operating leverage. Looking to the second quarter, we expect revenue in the range of 42 million to 44 million along with a return to positive adjusted EBITDA for the full year. We remain focused on expanding proprietary brand penetration towards our approximately 40% target and achieving approximately breakeven adjusted EBITDA for 2026. Before I hand the call to Greg, I'd like to briefly comment on the regulatory environment. On April 22, the Acting Attorney General signed an order moving state licensed medical Cannabis to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substance act, providing immediate 280 e tax relief to qualifying operators. This is a meaningful tailwind for our customers and as their financial position strengthens, their capacity to invest in the cultivation infrastructure we provide grows with it. While the process remains ongoing, we believe GrowGeneration is well positioned to support our customers as the industry continues to mature and evolve. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) That concludes my remarks. Now I'll turn the call over to our CFO Greg Sanders. Greg Sanders (Chief Financial Officer) Thank you Darren and good afternoon everyone. I'll begin with a review of our first quarter 2026 results and then I'll provide additional context on our outlook for the year. Overall, our first quarter performance was consistent with our expectations and reflected continued progress on our key operating priorities including proprietary brand mix expansion, cost discipline and improving adjusted EBITDA. For the first quarter of 2026, GrowGeneration reported net sales of 38.4 million, up 7.5% compared to 35.7 million during the same period last year. Greg Sanders (Chief Financial Officer) This year over year revenue growth was led by our commercial B2B business net sales in our cultivation and gardening segment were 31.9 million for the quarter compared to 30.9 million in the same period last year. Proprietary brand sales represented 37% of cultivation and gardening revenue, up from 32% in the prior year. This was largely driven by our strategic initiatives to increase our sales mix of higher margin proprietary products, which remains one of the primary drivers of our margin expansion and long term profitability strategy. Greg Sanders (Chief Financial Officer) In our Storage Solutions segment, net sales were 6.5 million for the quarter, up from 4.8 million in the first quarter of 2025. Growth in the segment is being driven by increasing capital investment across a broader set of end markets as customers continue to invest in infrastructure, automation and facility expansion. This trend is supporting both volume growth and a more diversified demand profile. Gross profit was 9.7 million for the first quarter of 2026, consistent with the same period last year. Greg Sanders (Chief Financial Officer) In cultivation and gardening, gross profit declined year over year, primarily due to inventory related charges from four store closures and a higher mix of lower margin durable products. Excluding these items, margins would have been generally in line with the prior year. This was partially offset by strength in storage solutions where higher volume and a 200 basis point improvement in gross margin to 39.6 drove a 42.7% increase in gross profit dollars. Total company Gross margin was 25.4% for the quarter compared to 27.2% in the prior year period. Now, turning to expenses, in the first quarter of 2026, store, and other operating expenses declined by approximately 27.2% to 6.4 million compared to 8.8 million in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting the benefits of our cost reduction initiatives. Selling general and Administrative expenses were 6.9 million, a 2.6% improvement compared to 7.1 million last year. Greg Sanders (Chief Financial Officer) Total operating expenses decreased by 4.6 million or 23.4% to 15 million, compared to 19.6 million in the comparable 2025 period. Depreciation and amortization totaled 1.6 million, down by 2 million or 55.1% compared to 3.6 million in the same period last year. The decrease primarily reflects asset retirements related to cost reduction initiatives and certain intangible assets reaching the end of their useful lives. GAAP net loss decreased to 4.9 million or negative $0.08 per share, a $4.5 million million improvement compared to a net loss of 9.4 million or negative $0.16 per share, in the prior year period. The improvement was primarily driven by higher revenues, reduced operating expenses lower depreciation and amortization partially offset by lower gross margin percent non GAAP adjusted EBITDA as defined in our press release was a loss of 1.6 million, a 2.4 million year over year improvement compared to a loss of 4 million in the prior year, primarily reflecting the impact of our cost reduction initiatives and improved operating leverage. Now turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with 41.1 million of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and no debt. This reflects our continued focus on liquidity, working capital discipline and inventory quality. Our balance sheet strength provides us with the financial flexibility to execute our strategic priorities while maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation. During the first quarter, our Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase program of up to $10 million of the company's outstanding common stock, reflecting our view that the current share price does not reflect the long term value of the business. We intend to execute the program opportunistically subject to market conditions, capital allocation priorities, and the applicable securities laws. Now turning to our outlook, we are reaffirming our full year 2026 guidance. We continue to expect net revenue in the range of 162 to 168 million and approximately breakeven adjusted EBITDA for the full year. Our outlook reflects a continued focus on revenue quality, proprietary brand mix and disciplined cost management. For the second quarter we expect net revenue in the range of 42 million to 44 million with a return to positive adjusted EBITDA. To summarize, our year over year revenue growth in the first quarter was driven by continued strength in our commercial business and a meaningful contribution from our storage solutions segment. We also delivered improved profitability reflecting the impact of our cost reduction initiatives and a more efficient operating structure. We ended the quarter with a strong liquidity position and no debt providing flexibility as we continue to execute our strategy. Looking ahead, we remain focused on driving revenue quality, expanding proprietary brand penetration toward our approximately 40% year end target and delivering breakeven adjusted EBITDA for the full year. With that, I'll turn the call back Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) to Darren for closing remarks. OPERATOR Thanks Greg and thank you again to everyone for joining us today. In closing, we believe the first quarter reflected continued progress against the strategic and operational priorities we have been focused on over the past several years. We delivered another quarter of year over year revenue growth, continued, expanding proprietary brand penetration, improved profitability and maintained a strong balance sheet. As we move through 2026, we remain focused on on growing our commercial platform, expanding higher margin proprietary brand sales, driving operating leverage and executing with discipline across the organization. We believe these initiatives position the company well to continue improving profitability and creating long term shareholder value. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator. Please open the line for questions. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press Star followed by the number one. On your touchtone phone, you will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish a decline from the polling process, please press Star followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please leave the handset before pressing any keys. One moment please for your first question. And your first question comes from Aaron Gray of Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Aaron Gray (Equity Analyst) Hi, good evening and thank you very much for the questions. First question for me just on the rescheduling news, want to talk about maybe some of the more near term impacts and through the mindset of maybe durables and some of the delays and refresh, just given, you know, some of the tough cash flow issues and balance sheet issues some operators have had, it might be a bit too early, but could you talk about some potential impacts of now getting Clarity on the 280e on the go forward and potentially getting some forgiveness on the legacy taxes owed and what impact that could have to open up to refreshes and your durables business? Thank you. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) Yeah, and we've been talking about this for a while. We certainly think it's a meaningful tailwind for our customers, you know, as their financial position strengthen and their capacity to, you know, reinvest money in infrastructure. We believe we'll provide Grogen with a probably a long term, you know, durable mix going forward into the future. We're starting to see it now. We have never been, we haven't been this active since 2021, bidding out lighting dehumidification and infrastructure for facilities. So we're pretty excited about it. And as we focus on the B2B side of our business, we're in a favorable position right now, and we are able to finance. So we think you will see continued movement, the durable side of the business throughout the year. There's some important, you know, certainly important conversations coming up in June on the recreational side of it. But the money that's coming back to these balance sheets will be spent. A lot of facilities right now need refurbishing. So we're pretty excited and we saw the mix starting even in the first quarter. But right now, you know, our Pipeline hasn't been this strong from since 21 and we certainly are looking for a long term boom on the durable side of it which also comes into play on the consumable side of it also. Aaron Gray (Equity Analyst) Okay, great. That's helpful. Color. Darren, second question for me just as we look at 2Q and for the remainder of the year is as we think about some sequencing of the gross margin. You talked about 2Q being positive, EBITDA. How should we think about the role of gross margin and potential step change there and then how we think it sequencing through the year to get to the full year guide? Thanks. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) Yeah, Aaron, thanks for the question. So we were happy with the first quarter results coming in at 38 million against our full year goal of 162 to 168 million in sales. As we look at Q2 Q3, we see the business ramping, Q2 42 to 44 million in sales and margin profile back into that 27 to 29% range. I think what you saw in the first quarter was we closed four stores and it had a point and a half impact on margin. So slightly lower than expectation. But I think the good news is as we look at the remainder of the year, we have less store closures scheduled as of this point in time. So we expect less impact in future reporting periods from the closure activity. And we think with, 125 to 130 million in revenue remaining in our full year guidance that we'll be able to position the business back into that 27 to 29% range for the full year. Yeah. And the other side of that also in the first quarter, you know, as we transition this company into a business to business opposed to business consumer, our private label brands are growing, you know, certainly quicker than we had expected. And we believe you'll see those in the 40s, you know, before the fourth quarter of this year, you know, we have had some inventory issues with some products that have been sitting around that have become obsolete and slow moving. Not our brands, but other brands. So we have gotten a little more aggressive in the first quarter marking some products and selling some products at discounts. And you know, you'll see that moving, you know, you'll see that, you know, moving positively through the end of the, through the rest of this year. So you will see margins start ticking back up. Aaron Gray (Equity Analyst) Okay, great, Darren, appreciate the detail. I'll go and jump back in the queue. OPERATOR Thank you. And your next question comes from Brian Najil of Oppenheimer. Please go ahead. Your line is Open. Brian Najil (Equity Analyst) Hey guys, good afternoon. Nice progress here. Congrats. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) Thank you. Brian Najil (Equity Analyst) So there are a few questions, Darren, but I guess I want to go back to the question we just asked. And look, I recognize that there's a lot of moving parts happening over the GrowGen in the sector, but as you think about, you know, you mentioned in response to the prior question that, you know, you've seen this, you know, the most build out activity. I'm probably not using the right words, most build out activity since 21. Do you think, is that a function of, you know, I guess this, you know, the rescheduling or is there another factor of players, some combination of factors? I think there's a couple of different functions, Brian. You know, to start with, a lot of the facilities do need to be refurbished like grow gen. A lot of our, a lot of our customers have been extremely concerned about their balance sheets as we have, and they have pushed, you know, they have pushed refurbishment and building, you know, out another year or a year longer than they could have. So I think, you know, everyone's been managing balance sheets, but the other side of it, you know, we do believe that, you know, with rescheduling, the amount of money coming back into this industry, you know, anywhere between a billion and two back onto balance sheets, I mean, people are looking for, you know, more efficient ways to grow and there are more efficient products out there today. Most of our customers, you know, are growing much more efficiently than they used to, getting many more, you know, getting more pounds, you know, per light than they used more ounces per light. So, you know, it's this trade off that you're starting to see. But on the other side, on the other side of it also, you know, Grosgen is well positioned from a balance sheet side to lend money to our customers and to help them refurbish facilities. So I think it's coming from everywhere. What you're also starting to see, as you probably heard from the MSOs, that supply demand is starting to come into balance with rescheduling. On the medical side, there is talk about certain of our companies, the MSOs, exporting cannabis over into the European markets, which will bring again less supply offline here. So hopefully prices stabilize and start going back up. So, you know, we haven't seen the industry in this shape since 2021. And I'm a firm believer right now, you know, most of the companies that are in business that are doing well, that have retained balance sheets, you know, they're going to be around for a long time to Come, you're going to see a tremendous sea change in this industry. And I do believe from our side of it, from the equipment side of it, Grogen is going to lead it. You know, we have changed this business tremendously. We have hired facility advisors, technical advisors. You know, we have groups of Grogen employees going into facilities on a daily basis, helping with grows, recommending different products to our customers. So the business is just tremendously different. You know, we're down to 19 facilities right now from 65. And what you saw in the first quarter was year over year growth with 12 facilities. And I think we've been pretty transparent that usually when we close, when we close facilities, we've been losing up to 50% of walk in business. So you're still seeing revenue growth on that side, you know, with many less stores. So the revenue growth that you're seeing in the first quarter, albeit small, was really greater than it looks. And we believe you'll see this growth throughout the year. One of the exciting parts, even, you know, you're seeing, you know, on the expense side, the expenses coming down, but you're, you're seeing revenue starting to go up. And we think we're just, you know, we think this is a reset like anything else, Brian, you know, we spent from 2021 to 2026 resetting GrowGen. And we believe right now, we're in that position right now where you'll see, you know, you'll see quarters over growth and you'll see grow gentle returning to where it was back in, you know, back in the early 2000 and twenties. That's very helpful, Derek. And that. So my second question, and you just touched on there again, if I make sure I'm looking at the numbers correctly, but you know, the revenue. This is your second consecutive quarter of revenue. You told the company you on your revenue growth. And it looks, I mean, if I'm reading the numbers right, the revenue growth accelerated rather significantly. The rate of growth accelerated rather significantly, you know, Q4 and Q1. That's correct. So what, what's a, what's that? I mean, how should we think about, you know, what happened basically between those two quarters? I think there's twofold. One is year over year revenue growth that you saw two quarters in a row, Brian. We usually see revenue growth from first, fourth quarter to first quarter. And then you'll see tremendous revenue growth in second and third quarters, which are usually our strongest quarters. But we're looking year over year growth. And when you look at last year first quarter, you know, we had 31 stores and we're down to 19 stores, you know, 19 locations right now. And you're still seeing revenue growth, you know, with 12 less locations. That's helpful. I appreciate it. Thank you. OPERATOR Thank you, Brian. Thank you. And your next question comes from Mark Smith of Lake Street. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Mark Smith (Equity Analyst) Hi guys. I wanted to dig in just a little bit more on some of the inventory in the closed locations and sales. You know, I realize this, this put some pressure on gross profit margin, you know, as you're clearing some of this out. But I'm curious if you can quantify at all maybe, you know, how much of the sales kind of came from these closed locations inventory, you know, and if there's still some inventory out there to work through in Q2. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) Yeah. Mark. Greg Sanders (Chief Financial Officer) So in the first quarter we closed four locations and you know, with that we include some level of detail in the adjusted EBITDA add back schedule. We estimate that the actual impact on gross margin was about a point and a half to kind of push us back into guidance range if we hadn't closed those locations from, you know, activity that's really twofold. One is what ends up getting discarded and two is what's liquidated throughout the course of, you know, the pre closing activity. And then there's incremental freight and certain things potentially as well in terms of moving the inventory from those activities. And I think when you look at the business and maybe the outlook for the rest of 2026, I don't think you'll see as many closures as we had in the first quarter in the next three quarters combined. So we expect lesser activity on that end from a closure perspective. And outside of that we expect business as usual. We have sufficient reserves in place on our inventory right now. So we don't expect quite the impact that we had in Q1 throughout the duration of 2026. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) Also on the other side of it, you know, there was certain margin pressures from tariffs in the first quarter. You know, one of our largest product or largest internal product is Charcor. And you know, we were dealing with 50% tariffs, you know, in the first quarter. So you know, again, products that came in, you know, usually third, fourth quarter had a very large tariff on it. So those will start dissipating also going into the second quarter as new product comes into grow gen. So you know, besides what you saw margin, you know, degradation with closed stores and some inventory, you also saw some tariff impact in the first quarter. Mark Smith (Equity Analyst) Perfect. And tariffs was actually my next question just kind of curious, you know, impact in tariffs, what you're looking at today. And you know, if you can quantify at all, Greg, maybe, you know, any potential refund that you can get on IEFA tariffs. Greg Sanders (Chief Financial Officer) Yeah, we're, I mean, like all companies Mark Smith (Equity Analyst) right now that had tariff impact over the last year or so, we're actively, you know, pursuing claims that could be refundable to the business. It's too early to comment on what the impact might be. I think all companies are wrestling with, you know, kind of the forward looking expectations through the federal government. But we are, we are pursuing, you know, our IEPA refunds and are hopeful that things will progress in a way that will help the business throughout the back half of the year or into 2027, depending on timing and how things continue to progress. Thank you guys. OPERATOR Thank you. And there are no further questions at this time. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Darren Lampert, chairman, co founder and CEO for closing comments. Darren Lampert (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer) Thank you. I'd like to thank our shareholders for their continued support and we look forward to updating you on our second quarter results in August. Thank you very much and have a beautiful night. Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.