Executive Spotlight: Kimberly Bambach

Full birth name:  Kimberly Ann Bambach

Title:  EVP & Chief Financial Officer

Company:  Jushi Holdings Inc.

Years at current company:  2 years & 4 months

Education profile:   Undergraduate degree from SUNY Brockport – Finance;
MBA from PACE University Lubin School of Business – Strategic Planning

Most successful professional accomplishment before cannabis:   

Worked on 6 high growth startups from 2007-Present
(Bidtellect, HookLogic, Ice.com, Jingle Networks, XpresSpa, Vindigo)

• CFO of Hooklogic growing revenue from $12M to $300M in 3 short years culminating in closing a deal to sell the company to Criteo (CRTO) in for $250M.
• CFO of Jingle Networks turned around the business that was losing over $500k/mth to profitable in 6 short months.  Grew revenue and profits.  Closed deal to sell Jingle to Marchex (MCHX) for $62.5M in 2012.

Company Mission: Jushi Holdings Inc. is a national, multi-state cannabis company developing and operating high-end retail locations, premium brands and state-of-the-art cultivation, processing and manufacturing facilities. Our platform is designed to set the new standard for a sophisticated, modern cannabis experience. The Company’s vision is to create an integrated global community of wellness, mindfulness, and connections through superior retail experiences and products.

Company’s most successful achievement: It is a challenge and difficult to provide only one of Jushi’s many impressive achievements. I would categorize our most successful achievements into three main areas.

The first area is fundraising and capital, both personal and third-party financing, to capitalize a start-up to billion dollar market cap company . Due to all the federal restrictions, access to capital is critical and raising capital is a Jushi core competency. In fact, to date we have raised over $343 million, of which founders and insiders have contributed approximately $47 million themselves. We are unique in cannabis, with significant personal capital contributed to the business. Our investors take great comfort, knowing we are all right-way risked, and our management team will make prudent capital decisions.

The second achievement is building a world-class team by bringing together non-cannabis specialists as well as cannabis industry veterans to create a new-age cannabis company. We combine Fortune 500 management, corporate governance, risk and balance sheet management that influences disciplined corporate management and our M&A strategy. We meld these skills with a decade’s worth of cannabis experience in cultivation, extraction, and retail as we create a modern cannabis company that brings high-quality, tested products at an attractive price to both the medical and adult-use markets. Our core senior team have all built successful companies in prior lives, and we knew we could bring our collective skillset, refined over decades on Wall Street and Main Street, to the cannabis space. Jim Cacioppo, our CEO, has decades of experience as a distressed specialist and financial sponsor. We have benefited from Jim’s unique skillset especially navigating these turbulent markets. Furthermore, through the acquisition of The Clinic™ out of Colorado, we added a fantastic award-winning team to build-out our operations and brands.

Lastly, we have built and scaled a business with a high-quality portfolio of assets.

We have been focused on three core markets:

• In Pennsylvania, where we currently operate ten medical dispensaries and plan on opening another eight, bringing our total to 18 stores. We have also acquired a grower-processor in PA that allowed us to vertically integrate.

• In Illinois, we acquired two medical dispensaries in late-January. Since acquiring the two dispensaries, both locations have been re-branded to BEYOND/HELLO™ and have begun adult-use sales. We opened two additional adult-use stores in Illinois. One dispensary in Sauget opened in December last year and the other dispensary in Bloomington opened last month, bringing our total store count in Illinois to four. We believe either of these two new stores can become among our best performers due to their superior locations.

• In Virginia (“Sleeping Giant”), we have 1 of 5 vertically integrated licenses, and one of only four to have received final approval and permit issuance in this attractive early-stage medical cannabis market. Our license allows us to serve patients in Health Service Area II (or HSA II), which is in Northern Virginia, and home to 2.5 million people (30% of the overall population), and the highest per capita income in the state where 5 of Virginia’s 10 wealthiest neighborhoods are located. We are also able to open an additional five stores in HSA II. We began dispensing medical cannabis to registered patients in VA in December with the opening of our 12th BEYOND/HELLO™ retail location.

As well as in our developing markets, we have been focused on California, Nevada, and Ohio.

• In California, we entered the market last month and opened our 11th national retail location: BEYOND/HELLO Santa Barbara. We are excited to be part of this vibrant community and welcoming local-residents to experience the BEYOND / HELLO™ customer-first approach and state-of-the-art dispensary. Santa Barbara is a limited license market that currently only allows for three dispensaries to operate in the city. Also, the Company is continuing to expand its presence in California with signing definitive agreements to acquire an operating dispensary in Palm Springs and a retail license holder in Grover Breach. Jushi received approval to move forward in the merit-based application process as one of three selected applicants for a storefront retail (and ancillary delivery) permit in Culver City, California. We found an absolutely prime location for our flagship dispensary on the corner of Sepulveda and Venice Boulevard. Our store will be approximately 500 feet away from an exit off Interstate 405. 53,00 cars pass this location daily. This store will be new construction, a ground-up build, focused on modern architecture and environmental sustainability.

• In Nevada, Jushi owns 2, 7,50 square foot buildings that can be easily connected. Attached to these buildings are 2 permits, 1 for cultivation and another for processing and manufacturing. We currently operate out of one building. In this facility, Jushi has a state-of-the-art indoor double-stack cultivation that yields 2,500 pounds of high-quality dry flower per year. In processing and manufacturing, we produce a suite of infused product. We’ve partnered with third-party extraction to produce high quality concentrates and infused products, all for the wholesale marketing in Nevada. We are reviewing options to connect our 2 buildings allowing Jushi to expand cultivation, scale processing and manufacturing.

• In Ohio, we are constructing a new 8,000 square foot state of the art CO2 extraction facility that will utilize ethanol in post process. Once complete, this facility will have the capacity to process up to 32,000 pounds biomass. We’re building out a kitchen and lab that will produce all allowable products in Ohio, anticipate opening in early 2021.

Has the company raised any capital (yes or no): 

Yes, Jushi has raised capital privately as well as in the capital markets.

If so, how much?

Earlier this month, we closed on an approximate $59 million equity offering.  The proceeds of the offering further bolster our balance sheet (approximately $128mm cash/marketable securities as of January 28, 2021) and the proceeds of the offering allow the Company to pursue potential strategic transactions, which may include the acquisition of the 93,000 square foot facility in Prince William County, Virginia operated by the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary and properties adjacent to the facility, and to pursue other strategic acquisitions and business expansion opportunities. Subject to regulatory approvals, the acquisition, together with the planned build-out of the facility, will enable the Company to efficiently produce a consistent supply of medical products as patient access improves and as the medical program matures and expands. In addition, the Company intends to use up some of the net proceeds to partially repay certain of the Company’s outstanding senior secured notes.

In January and October, we closed on an approximate $32 million and $31 million equity offering. The proceeds of the offerings allows the Company to pursue complementary M&A opportunities in both existing and new markets.

In our most recent debt financing, we upsized and raised an additional approximate $33 million, led by insiders and existing shareholders. Approximately $16 million of the funds raised were used to fund the cash portion of the acquisition of a PA Grower-Processor in Pennsylvania that operates a 90,000 sq. ft. facility and contains 45,000 sq. ft. of high-quality, indoor, cultivation. The acquisition solidifies our leadership position in PA, by supplying our 18 Beyond/Hello™ stores and other licensed facilities throughout the state.

In December/January of 2020, we successfully raised approximately $50 million.

Overall, we have raised approximately $343 million, approximately $47 million of which has been raised by management/insiders. We are unique in cannabis, with significant personal capital contributed to the business. Our investors take great comfort, knowing we are all right-way risked, and our management team will make prudent capital decisions. Also, with Jushi’s operations coming online, this will only enhance the ability to raise capital in the markets.

Most important company 3- 5 year goal:

As for future plans, Jushi is focused on being best-in-class along the entire value chain.  However, patients and consumers will really see Jushi’s retail brand BEYOND/HELLO™ expand in the following areas:

• Continue expansion with PA retail footprint – Seven more medical dispensaries opening, beginning late first quarter 2021 and one per month through the fall

• Build out an additional 25,000 sq. ft. of indoor cultivation at PAMs facility for a total of 70,000 sq., ft. We also have an LOI to purchase two additional pieces of land adjacent to our facilities that will add another 50,000 to 75,000 sq. ft. of facility footprint

• Over the next 12 to 18 months in Virginia, we will be adding up to five additional dispensaries.

• Continue expansion into California, specifically in Palm Springs, Grover Beach in Q3 2021 and Culver City by Q2 2022

• In Ohio, our extraction and processing facility will come online in early 2021

• In Nevada, our cultivation facility is producing high quality flower and we are launching in-house pre-rolls and leverage data analytics through BEYOND-HELLO.com platform

• Customize/optimize dispensary formats to improve customer experience, order flow, and maximize the number of transactions

• Introduction of a comprehensive suite of Jushi’s brands, including our award-winning brands, ‘The Lab: Concentrates’ and ‘The Bank: Flower + Genetics,’ as well as our precision formulated line of medical cannabis products ‘Nira Plus’

• Overall, we are aiming to build out a well-balanced portfolio in some of the best medical and adult-use markets in the U.S.

• In terms of operations, innovative technology, metrics and seamless data integration are critical for the optimal shopping experience.

• Long term, we also believe this digital integration will not only contribute to our growth, but also continue to add to overall customer satisfaction at all of our retail locations across the country.

• With respect to new stores that are still in the design phase, we are rethinking how much space is dedicated to pick-up for online orders as well as the number of POS systems we have in place dedicated to in-store pick-up.

• We are also prepping locations for drive-through, for when it is legally permissible to use.

As you may be able to tell, the single most exciting part about Jushi is getting all our stores operational. It is also seeing all of our assets move into the revenue-producing phase and BEYOND/HELLO™, our retail brand, really beginning to elevate itself above competitors in the sense of better operations and design. We love the feel of our stores and have a passionate retail team, not to mention some of the best cultivators and extractors in the market. They are bringing some of the best IP for products out of Colorado to our patients and consumers in our markets.

Another exhilarating part of Jushi is that we are continuously looking for assets to add to our portfolio at attractive prices. As professionals with extensive experience working with distressed assets, we have a lot of opportunities at Jushi to build out our portfolio and pursue opportunistic M&A transactions.