💸 The Tape

High Tide just closed the books on fiscal 2025, and the headline is simple: scale is now translating into sustained operating leverage.

The Canadian retail heavyweight reported record Q4 revenue of $164 million, up 19% year-over-year and 10% sequentially — its fastest quarterly growth in years. That pushed the company to a revenue run-rate north of $650 million, a figure that would have sounded aspirational for most retailers in this sector not long ago.

More importantly, High Tide continues to do something rare in cannabis retail: generate real cash while growing.

The company delivered $12 million in free cash flow for the full fiscal year, meeting its stated objective of staying FCF-positive even while opening 27 new stores and expanding internationally. Q4 free cash flow came in at $1.3 million — lighter than prior quarters due to working capital investments and the Remexian acquisition — but still in the black.

Retail Engine: Loyalty + Density = Margin Expansion

Canna Cabana remains the core economic driver. High Tide ended the period with 218 stores, firmly maintaining its position as Canada’s largest cannabis retailer.

The key differentiator remains the Cabana Club and ELITE loyalty ecosystem, now at:

• 2.5+ million Canadian members

• 151,000+ ELITE members

• 6.56 million global members

This data-driven model continues to show up in store performance. Same-store sales were up 5.5% YoY in Q4, and retail EBITDA margins hit a record 9.4%, with management targeting 12% long term. Annualized retail sales per square foot came in at $1,775, competitive with top-tier global retailers — not just cannabis peers.

Profitability Snapshot (Q4)

• Gross profit: $42.5M (+19% YoY)

• Adjusted EBITDA: $12.4M (+51% YoY) — 22nd consecutive positive quarter

• Gross margin: 26% (steady YoY)

Reported net loss of $46.7M was largely accounting noise tied to non-cash impairment and derivative fair value adjustments. On an adjusted basis, Q4 would have shown positive net income.

Germany: The Remexian Variable

High Tide’s majority acquisition of Remexian Pharma marked its formal entry into the German medical cannabis market. Early post-close performance was impacted by legacy supply chain issues in Portugal, but management says those disruptions are easing, with December tonnage already rebounding.

Germany gives High Tide exposure to a pharma-style distribution model, a very different margin and regulatory structure than Canadian retail — and one with international optionality.

U.S. CBD Optionality

Management also flagged exploratory work around its NuLeaf Naturals and FAB CBD brands, potentially tied to emerging federal CBD initiatives and pilot reimbursement programs. It’s early-stage, but signals High Tide is positioning itself for federally compliant cannabinoid channels, not just THC retail.

The Bottom Line

High Tide’s 2025 story isn’t about flashy reform bets — it’s about operational execution:

• Expanding store count without margin erosion

• Growing loyalty-driven traffic

• Maintaining positive free cash flow

• Adding international medical distribution

In a sector where growth often comes with balance sheet stress, High Tide is making the case that disciplined retail scale can be both defensive and expansionary — a combination investors have been waiting to see.

📈 Dog Walkers

$TCNNF ( ▼ 4.4% ) Raises Some More Cashish

Trulieve has now fully executed a $200 million raise through its 10.5% senior secured notes due 2030, closing a second $60 million tranche on top of the initial $140 million deal completed in December.

Let’s call this what it is: a meaningful vote of confidence from credit markets in a sector where capital is still expensive and selective.

The Key Terms (and Why They Matter)

• Total issuance: $200M

• Coupon: 10.5%

• Maturity: 2030

• Structure: Senior secured

• Use of proceeds: Capex + general corporate purposes

At first glance, 10.5% sounds high — but in U.S. cannabis credit, that’s not distressed pricing. It’s upper-tier operator pricing in a federally restricted industry still locked out of traditional banking and institutional debt.

More important than the rate is the size and structure. Senior secured paper with a five-year runway signals lenders see Trulieve as asset-backed, cash-flow capable, and survivable through volatility.

What This Says About Trulieve

This isn’t rescue financing. It’s strategic balance sheet positioning.

Trulieve is essentially:

1. Extending duration (pushing maturities out to 2030)

2. Locking in capital ahead of regulatory inflection

3. Preserving flexibility for store upgrades, cultivation efficiency, and infrastructure rather than scrambling later at worse terms

In plain English: they’re raising money from a position of relative strength, not weakness.

Timing Is Not Accidental

This comes as the industry sits on the edge of potential federal shifts (rescheduling, tax relief, research normalization). Whether those happen fast or slow, operators with liquidity + runway will be the ones who:

• Survive pricing compression

• Scoop up distressed assets

• Invest while competitors retrench

Trulieve is clearly preparing to play offense, not just defense.

The Investor Signal

A “best efforts” raise doesn’t guarantee demand — it reflects it. Getting $200M done in this environment tells you credit desks see:

• Durable state market share

• Real estate + operational assets that back the collateral

• A company that has navigated multiple market cycles

Not every MSO could pull this off right now.

Bottom Line

Trulieve just did what strong operators do in constrained industries:

Raise long-dated capital before you desperately need it.

It’s not flashy. It’s not headline reform. But from a capital markets standpoint, this is the kind of move that separates companies that endure from those that dilute, restructure, or disappear when conditions tighten.

$GLASF ( 0.0% ) Taps Beer Exec For Board Seat

Glass House Brands just made a board move that says as much about where the cannabis industry is headed as it does about the company itself.

The California-based, vertically integrated operator has appointed Alison Payne to its Board of Directors — a marketing heavyweight whose résumé reads more like the Fortune 100 than the cannabis space. Payne currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer of Heineken USA and previously held senior leadership roles at PepsiCo, Kellogg, and Diageo. In other words: beer, snacks, global beverages, and some of the most tightly regulated consumer categories on earth.

That’s not an accident.

Why This Matters Beyond a Routine Board Seat

Cannabis companies historically built boards around finance, operations, and legal strategy — survival tools for a fragmented, state-by-state market. But Payne’s appointment signals something different: the coming era is about brand scale, not just licenses and cultivation footprint.

Glass House Chairman and CEO Kyle Kazan framed the move in the context of potential federal rescheduling and expansion, calling this a “pivotal moment.” Translation: if cannabis moves closer to mainstream regulatory footing, the competitive battlefield shifts from “who can grow” to “who can build durable consumer brands in a regulated environment.”

That’s Payne’s entire career.

The Skill Set She Brings

Payne’s background checks several boxes that cannabis operators increasingly need:

• Navigating regulated consumer markets (alcohol, food, beverages)

• Scaling brands across international markets

• Managing portfolios where compliance, marketing restrictions, and brand equity must coexist

• Translating product into lifestyle positioning, not just commodity sales

Cannabis is moving — slowly, unevenly, but clearly — toward those same dynamics.

Why It’s Strategic for Glass House Specifically

Glass House is not just a retail brand — it’s a large-scale greenhouse producer with ambitions beyond wholesale biomass. As federal policy potentially evolves, companies with industrial cultivation capacity and CPG-style brand discipline could be positioned to:

• Expand product lines

• Enter new geographies

• Compete in a future where marketing sophistication becomes a differentiator

Adding someone who has helped steer global beverage and snack brands through regulatory complexity gives the board perspective that most cannabis companies still lack.

A Quiet Signal About Industry Evolution

Board appointments rarely move markets overnight, but they often telegraph strategy. This one suggests Glass House is preparing for a world where cannabis companies look less like scrappy regional operators and more like scaled consumer packaged goods businesses.

In short, the company just added someone who knows how to turn regulated products into household names — which may be exactly the muscle cannabis brands will need if the policy environment finally starts to open up.

🗞️ The News

📺 YouTube

What Matt Gaetz’s Tweet Really Means for Cannabis | TDR Cannabis in 5

What we will cover:

✅ In this episode of TDR Cannabis in Five, presented by Flowhub, host Shadd Dales breaks down where the federal cannabis rescheduling process actually stands — cutting through speculation, social media noise, and premature assumptions.

The conversation follows a widely circulated tweet from former Congressman Matt Gaetz suggesting the DEA may be drafting a final rule to reschedule cannabis. That comment sparked renewed debate across the industry, raising a familiar question: is cannabis rescheduling finally imminent, or are expectations once again getting ahead of the legal process?

To clarify what the tweet does — and does not — signal, Shadd draws on insights from leading cannabis attorney Shane Pennington, who recently joined the Trade to Black podcast. The discussion focuses on the legal structure governing rescheduling, including the role of the Department of Justice, the Attorney General, and the DEA, as well as why this stage of the process is largely opaque by design.

The episode also explains why silence from federal agencies does not necessarily indicate delay, how discretionary authority affects timing, and what real procedural signals would actually confirm forward progress. With litigation risk, administrative flexibility, and executive direction all in play, the path to rescheduling is less about deadlines and more about durability.

For investors, operators, and policy watchers, this episode provides grounded context on federal cannabis reform — and why understanding the process matters just as much as the outcome.