Podcasts classical CFO THOUGHT LEADER 695: As Public Perception Changes, Opportunity Advances | Louie Reformina, CFO, Turning Point Brands

695: As Public Perception Changes, Opportunity Advances | Louie Reformina, CFO, Turning Point Brands

Published: April 28, 2021, 11 a.m.

Chances are that CFO Louie Reformina never expected to be in the rolling papers business.

Having advanced down a career track populated with different private equity firms, a stint at Goldman Sachs, and a Stanford Business School degree, Reformina could have landed inside any number of industries offering\xa0him multiple C-suite doors of entry.

However, not unlike the pick-and-shovel entrepreneurs who once outfitted troves of Gold Rush \xa0prospectors, Reformina is confident that his arrival inside the CFO office at Turning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) is well timed for an uptick in cannabis sales due to the industry\u2019s quickly changing regulatory environment as well as public perception. \xa0\xa0

In addition to cannabis, Turning Point, a marketer and distributor of \u201calternative smoking accessories,\u201d is now seeking to satisfy its appetite for growth inside a number of product categories such as cigar wraps, hemp paper and paper cones.

\u201cThe majority of our profits now come from our Zig-Zag brand of rolling papers and wraps products\u2014we have now put fixes in place to grow the business to where we can now take advantage of the tailwinds in cannabis,\u201d says Reformina, who first joined Turning Point as vice president of business development in 2019.

\u201cThere\u2019s the changing regulatory framework, and then there\u2019s the changing consumer framework,\u201d observes Reformina, who quotes recent research showing that 7 out of 10 Americans favor legalizing cannabis at the federal level.

\u201cThe perception 10 or 20 years ago was that cannabis was a drug, \xa0whereas today there is a health and benefits \xa0perception to cannabis, and this has been accelerated in part due to the pandemic,\u201d \xa0explains Reformina, who anticipates a domino effect in the wake of New York and Virginia joining the list of states where cannabis is already legal.

\u201cStates will just not want to lose the tax revenue that cannabis will be generating,\u201d adds Reformina.\xa0\u2013Jack Sweeney\xa0


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