cbdMD, Inc. (NYSE: YCBD) reported Q4 revenue for the quarter came in at $9.54 million versus the consensus estimate of $10.04 million.

“We are extremely proud of that fact that cbdMD is reporting another quarter of record revenue and we believe that this trend will continue. In just one year, we have built two of the leading CBD brands in America, cbdMD and Paw CBD. We have built an infrastructure that is more advanced than most of our competitors in the US CBD industry, with over 130 total SKU’s, 170 employees, 11 departments, full scale manufacturing, distribution and warehousing facilities. Building this infrastructure now has been an important part of our plan, since we envision significant growth over the next several years,” said Martin Sumichrast, Chairman & co-CEO of the Company.

“We continue to experience rapid growth and our sales metrics continue to remain very strong as we continue to drive online sales through the use of gorilla marketing, social media, athletic sponsorships, and influencer affiliate programs. As of November 2019, we had over 200,000 active e-commerce subscribers, our average repeat online order exceeded $130 per order and our online customer re-order rate increased throughout the year. These are very strong metrics. On the brick and mortar side of our business, we are also experiencing tremendous success in growing the amount of retail stores who currently carry our brands. Our retail reach is now over 4,000 retail doors and climbing. We have started to add national retailers as well as travel retailers. Our wholesalers have experienced demand for our products in several international markets and they are now reselling our products in 10 international markets including the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Bermuda, Guam, Peru, South Africa, Ireland, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico,” continued Mr. Sumichrast.

“The sponsorship and influencer partnerships we have built are first-in-class in the CBD industry and include The BIG3, Life Time Fitness, The World Surf League, Supercross, Nitro Circus, ARX (Rallycross) and Bellator (MMA). Our social media reach is enhanced by our podcast relationships that include some of the biggest names in podcast, including Barstool Sports. Our Team cbdMD Athletes, including PGA Golfer Bubba Watson, Olympians Kerri Walsh Jennings, and Lolo Jones, MMA Champions Jorge Masvidal and Daniel Cormier, Rally Cross superstars like Ken Block and professional skateboarder Ryan Sheckler to name a few, continue to be tremendous ambassadors for our brand. Now that we have assembled all of these assets, we will be activating significant campaigns in fiscal 2020 with all our partners and ambassadors. We believe this will help accelerate the brand building momentum we have built in fiscal 2019, convert more customers to cbdMD and Paw CBD, which will result in more market share and ultimately additional growth of our brands,” added Mr. Sumichrast.

“Our brands have also received leading brand recognition in the CBD industry. In July, 2019, the Brightfield Group, one of the leading predictive analytics and market research firms for the legal CBD industry, named cbdMD not only a Top 10 domestic brand in two booming categories, Topicals and Skincare/Beauty, but also named cbdMD the “Brand To Watch,\" in part saying, \'Trend followers should look to emulate cbdMD\'s efforts, using creativity and strategy to move forward.\' And in November, in a newly released survey conducted by Brightfield of more than 3,500 CBD users, cbdMD ranked the highest in terms of overall consumer satisfaction as well as the highest in unaided consumer awareness of any of the top 20 CBD brands. In addition, according to media intelligence and monitoring company Meltwater, cbdMD had the highest \'share of voice\' throughout the entire CBD Industry for the three months ended September 30, 2019,” added Mr. Sumichrast.

“Our flagship pet line, Paw CBD, is also growing strong. Paw CBD’s product offering consists of a comprehensive line of CBD pet products for dogs, cats and horses that includes 34 unique SKU’s. The brand is currently sold via independent pet store channels and online at www.cbdMD.com, with the goal of big box retail deployment in fiscal 2020. And despite only being a few months to market, Paw CBD has already received top honors, as Pet Business Magazine named Paw CBD\'s Calming Turkey CBD Soft Chews the top CBD product for pets in their dog calming aids category. Our goal is for Paw CBD to be in over 1,000 retail stores, grooming salons and veterinary clinics by the end of calendar 2020,” added Mr. Sumichrast.

“We are spending a significant amount of our budget on R&D and testing to ensure the safety and quality of our products. We have established a secure supply chain with dedicated, 2018 Farm Bill compliant hemp farms and extraction facilities to ensure the highest quality and integrity of the raw materials we use. Every batch of finished goods are tested with a full panel by an ISO certified testing laboratory to ensure the quality and purity, as well as to ensure we meet our label claims for potency. All of our products are manufactured pursuant to GMP standards, and we are scheduled for a GMP third-party certification on an upgraded manufacturing facility before the end of the year. We intend to conduct third party GMP audits multiple times per year to ensure our continued compliance and to seek NSF GMP and Product certifications in 2020. Safety testing is conducted on our formulations, and we are currently exploring options with regards to both GRAS and NDI applications with the FDA. In fiscal 2020 we will be conducting further safety testing on new formulations and also plan to initiate clinical trials in anticipation of submitting claims substantiation to the FDA. We are also in the process of obtaining our NASC certification, which many larger retailers in the pet industry require for product placement,” continued Mr. Sumichrast.

GUIDANCE:

cbdMD, Inc. sees FY2020 revenue of $62-70 million, versus the consensus of $72 million.

“We believe expanding our market share, growing our revenue base and attaining top brand recognition are the most important elements as we head into fiscal 2020. While we have invested significantly to achieve high growth we are focused on attaining positive cash flow from operations, which we believe we can now achieve by October 2020. We still anticipate a 250% increase in sales from fiscal 2019 to fiscal 2020, but as we begin to focus on cash flow, we are adjusting our net sales guidance to between $62 million and $70 million for fiscal year ending September 30, 2020. This new revenue guidance is based on a trajectory of approximately 55% e-commerce sales and 45% retail brick and mortar sales. This guidance does not include the addition of any potential significant mass retail relationships, many of which we are in the process of developing,” concluded Mr. Sumichrast.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on cbdMD, Inc. (YCBD) click here.