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spk01: Thank you, and welcome to BetterWear's second quarter fiscal year 2022 earnings conference call. With me on the call today are BetterWear's Executive Chairman, Luis Campos, Chief Executive Officer, Andres Campos, and Corporate Chief Financial Officer, Carlos Dorman. Before we get started, I would like to remind you that this call will include forward-looking statements which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Any such statement should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements and the safe harbor statement in the earnings release and risk factors discussed in reports filed with the SEC. BetterWear assumes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements or information. A reconciliation and other information regarding non-GAAP financial measures discussed on the call can be found in the earnings release issued yesterday, as well as the investor section of the company's website. Now I would like to turn the call over to the company's Executive Chairman, Luis Campos.
spk02: Luis Campos Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I would like to begin my remarks by providing a summary of what we have been doing in Jafra since the acquisition was completed on April 7, 2022, and the ambitious plans that we have for the company to accelerate growth at increasing rates of profitability. Then, Andrés will discuss some of the advances we have made in our business strategies for better work to position the business for growth. which are based on our three strategic pillars of product innovation, technology, and business intelligence. And finally, Carlos will discuss our quarterly and year-to-date financial results, which include Jafra's financial results from April 7, 2022 through quarter end, our expectations for the rest of the year for both Better World and Jafra, and our dividend policy going forward. As announced on April 7, we successfully completed the acquisition of 100% of Jafra's operations in Mexico and the US, along with Jafra's trademark rights worldwide. This acquisition provides a unique opportunity for us to become a multi-channel company with unique and complementary products segments. Enter an attractive beauty and personal care market with estimated annual revenues in Mexico and the U.S. of approximately $100 billion, as well as leverage Jafra's strong and well-positioned international brand with access to millions of households through its more than 430,000 average consultants and leaders as of Q2 2022. Since the acquisition was completed, we have been working very closely with Jafra's talented management team to identify and execute synergies and efficiencies in the short term and to replicate BetterWars' business model supported by our strategic pillars of product innovation, technology and business intelligence, which will enhance Jafra's growth prospects and profitability in the mid and long term. Our main objective is to accelerate Jafra's revenues to a high single-digit to low double-digit growth rate in the near term, as well as improve its profitability and cash flow. To this end, as mentioned in our earnings release yesterday, we have executed several actions within our three strategic pillars to achieve these targets. First, in terms of product innovation, Our objective is to implement our best practices to achieve a successful and enhanced innovation pipeline within Jafra's product line. To that end, we have assembled a new product innovation committee led by a talented team, which will allow us to streamline decision making and increase efficiencies. The new committee members have significant experience in our three main product categories, namely fragrance, color, and skin care. We relocated Jafra's research and development team from LA to our manufacturing plant in Querétaro, Mexico, which will allow for easier and faster joint product development. We have already seen some benefits of this change, reducing the time to market of products to eight months from 18 months. We are increasing Jafra's focus in product innovation across every category, mainly in fragrance, which we are the leaders in Mexico, and skincare and color, where we already participate but have lost market share in recent years. Second, in terms of technology, we have increased our focus on our digital efforts in Jafra to a comprehensive strategy that prioritizes the use of technology to provide a better experience for our customers and consumers. We have already deployed BetterWorks' previous commercial application for Jaffa Mexico, allowing our leaders and consultants in Mexico to perform their most critical business transactions digitally, including placing their orders and monitoring their sales and benefits, among other key features. We are also working on our B2C digital platform and expect it to be ready for Jafra by Q2 2023. And finally, in terms of business intelligence, we are in the process of replicating our big data capabilities to improve Jafra's understanding of the market and accelerate its growth. For this purpose, we designated Better Words Chief Business Intelligence Officer as a new Corporate Chief Business Intelligence Officer overseeing both companies. For the last 10 years, he has been instrumental to developing our data analytic capabilities, and hence, we are confident that under his leadership, it will allow us to leverage our analytical capabilities in Jaffa. We are also building the appropriate team to lead our business intelligence efforts and to boost the consolidated group's capabilities. And we have already started the process to significantly improve Jafra's sales catalog backed by Betterworld's decade-long experience and realign our strategies to focus on personal contact with our sales force throughout the country. As for financial efficiencies and synergies, we have identified great opportunities which are expected to amount to approximately 200 and 300 million pesos in 2023. Some of these, which we are already carrying out, include, among others, the elimination of Jafra's global expenses in the U.S., the relocation of U.S. offices in U.S., and the relocation of our R&D team from Los Angeles to our manufacturing plant in Querétaro, Mexico. Additional details were disclosed yesterday in our earnings release. In summary, we are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. And we are confident that Jafra's talented management team will continue executing against our strategy based on the three strategic pillars of product innovation, technology, and business intelligence to capitalize on these opportunities and achieve a greater market reach in Mexico and the US. I will now turn the call to Andres to discuss better or worse performance for the quarter and our business strategies.
spk04: Thank you, Luis, and good morning to everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Our second quarter results were negatively impacted by lapping strong comparisons from last year, combined with a softer economic environment and weaker consumer spending. Despite the significant headwinds from the pandemic, and the economic softness that has ensued, we remain confident in our business model and our management team as we navigate the difficult operating environment. As we mentioned in our Q1-22 earnings release, we have received the results for the third wave of an independent market research conducted by one of the most prestigious companies in its field in Mexico. We have been gathering data since 2017. And now, after four years of diligent and consistent work, we are pleased to share our results. During 2020, the home solutions market in Mexico experienced exceptional positive tailwinds, especially when the pandemic hit, temporarily expanding approximately 63% according to this market research, due to an unusual spike in demand for household products during lockdowns. Additionally, in April 2020, 21% of economically active population lost their main source of income, according to INEGI, creating an enormous need to find an alternative income. Our differentiated business model together with our experienced and hands-on management team enabled us to capitalize this opportunity, resulting in an acceleration of our growth from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021. This period was followed by a slow back-to-normal adaption in consumption trends as people started going back to their normal lives, resulting in a normalization in the home solutions market back to the pre-pandemic level, according to this mentioned market story. In better words, we were not immune to these trends, but our business proved its resiliency, and now Q2 2022 average weekly sales are 100% higher than pre-pandemic comparable period, namely Q2 2019. representing a 26% CAGR. And according to the market study, we expanded our market share to 7.7% in 2021, up from 5% in 2020 and 2.6% in 2017. We also expanded our household penetration to 29% in 2021, up from 24% in 2020 and 10% in 2017, attaining thus a stronger brand positioning and market dominance. In this uncertain and unusual period, we have remained focused on maintaining profitability while taking internal action to stabilize our sales trend and return to growth. Along these lines, During Q1 2022, we recovered our profitability levels thanks to the flexibility and resiliency of our business model. While during Q2 2022, we saw our network of associates and distributors stabilize. During the last eight weeks of the quarter, our base remained at approximately 880,000 and 44,000 respectively. showing signs of recovery in the last two. In fact, month to date in July, we have seen growth in our associates base, which is the first month since February 2021 that our sales force has shown growth. This trend gives us confidence that our network will start to grow again before year end and continue growing going ahead. We believe that BetterWare's unique business model will continue to have results going forward, despite the current normalization in the home solutions market. To this end, we were not only able to create a pre-pandemic 39% CAGR from 2014 to 2019, but we're also able to seize a complex opportunity, both in expanding and contracting times during and after the pandemic, showing our ability to build a strong and resilient business model. Importantly, the home solutions market pre-pandemic secular trends remain valid and stronger than ever, as consumers' appreciation for an organized, practical, and enjoyable home has taken a new relevance. To seize the opportunity that these trends bring and return to grow, we are deploying several initiatives based on our three strategic pillars. First, in terms of product innovation, based on the results of the market study recently received, we are increasing our focus in our core categories, which have lost share in our sales during the downturn. These categories include home organization, space optimization, cooking, and commuting solutions. We will also expand our portfolio into promising concepts with relevant market opportunities. These concepts include bedding, entertainment, kids, pets, tabletop, and drinkware. We are currently working on an innovative cleaning product line, which could increase recurring purchases from our customers, thus boosting frequency of purchases of these and other product categories. In terms of our second pillar, technology, we are in the process of upgrading our e-commerce website, which will be implemented in both BetterWear and Jaffa. and allow us to increase our penetration, attracting new customers that currently are not reached by our traditional model, while increase our data analytic capabilities and understanding of the customers. We have learned a lot since we launched the platform in December 2020, and we are adapting it to make it successful in the medium term as e-commerce adoption in Mexico continues to gain relevance. Also, the recent rollout of our new Better Work Plus app should yield more retention and activity as our associates and distributors enjoy the new and improved benefits of this new platform. And finally, in terms of business intelligence, We are undergoing a process of evaluation of data analysis capabilities at Jafra and Better World to replicate the best practices in both companies. As we have mentioned before, we have two main avenues of organic growth. Number one, expanding our household penetration. And number two, increasing our share of wallets. And we are convinced that our strategies based on our three pillars will be instrumental to continue capitalizing on these opportunities of growth. Among the relevant opportunities to further expand our household penetration and reach our target 40% as disclosed in our earnings release yesterday are the following. Number one, growing our network of distributors and associates. To this end, We refocused our rewards program to incentivize associate and distributor growth and reactivation, aimed at bringing back the people that turned off in the last 12 months. Number two, reinforcing our hybrid model between personal contact and technology. We relaunched our person-to-person companion program, leveraging on our technological tools developed throughout the years. Number three, revamping our physical and digital catalogs in addition to strengthening our digital catalog design so it can become a more productive tool for all associates and distributors. Number four, increasing our social selling and social influencing which we are currently working on and will share our progress in the coming quarters. Now, to increase our share of wallet with the new knowledge obtained with the market study previously mentioned, we are ready to ride the curve back to growth as the home and life solutions market stabilizes. We will continue increasing market penetration in our core categories and expand to new categories that show a relevant potential for us. In the current high inflation environment, we revised our pricing strategy to focus on delivering great value packages to fuel consumers' desire to buy as disposable income remains pressured. Furthermore, we are adjusting prices to reflect the recent decline in container costs which should be an incentive for consumers to purchase our products. Before I turn the call to Carlos, I would like to mention that we are excited about our international expansion plans to support our long-term goals. We are currently assembling a team to lead the expansion of Better Work to the United States with the aim of starting operations by the fourth quarter of 2023. In the mid-term, we will be focused on our expansion to the U.S. market, while in the longer term, we target further international expansion to South America, namely Colombia and Peru, sometime between 2025 and 2026. I will now turn the call to Carlos, who will discuss our financial results for the quarter and year to date.
spk03: Thank you, Andrés, and good morning, everyone. I would like to review our second quarter and year-to-date 2022 results. Please keep in mind that consolidated results include Jafra's results from April 7, 2022 through the end of the quarter. Additional details can be reviewed in our earnings release published yesterday. I will then share perspectives on how we are approaching the remainder of 2022 and disclose our proposed dividend payments. As mentioned by Andrés, in the case of BetterWear, the effects of the return to normality have been tougher than we anticipated and amplified by a softer economic environment and weaker consumer spending in 2022. Given these factors and the extremely tough comparison, BetterWear's standalone results for the quarter are the following. Net revenues declined 38% compared to the second quarter of 2021, explained by a decline in our average associates and distributors base. Our EBITDA for the quarter was $393.3 million, 49% lower than the EBITDA in the second quarter of 2021, and EBITDA margin contracted by 484 basis points to almost 24%. Explained by lower revenues and lower operating leverage, as our SG&A expenses represented 34.9% of net revenues for this quarter, compared to 28.8% in the second quarter of 2021, despite a contraction of 25% in absolute terms in operating expenses. And for the first half of the year, driven by similar factors persisting in the second quarter of 2022, net revenues declined 37%, compared to the first half of 2021. And our EBITDA was 931 million pesos, 44% lower than the EBITDA in the first half of 2021. And EBITDA margin contracted 356 basis points to 26.8%. That said, after the acquisition of Jafra, we are now a larger and more resilient group with two complementary companies. Our consolidated results for the second quarter and year-to-date of fiscal 2022 include the performance of Better Work for the full periods and Jafra's performance from the date of the completion of the acquisition through June 30th and are compared to the financial results of Better Work only in the corresponding periods of fiscal 2021. Consolidated net revenues increased 25% compared to the second quarter of 2021. Consolidated gross margin expanded 1,230 basis points to 69.1% compared to 56.8% in the second quarter of 2021, explained mainly by Jafra's higher gross margin. Consolidated EBITDA decreased 20% compared to the second quarter of 2021, impacted by lower operating leverage in BetterWear due to the lower revenues. as well as other one-time expenses related to the acquisition and to the structuring of our workforce aimed at improving our EBITDA generation going forward. Our consolidated EBITDA margin was 18.4%, 1,039 basis points lower than the second quarter of 2021, explained mainly by Jafra's lower margin profile which opens an opportunity for us to improve its cost structure and increase the company's profitability. Consolidated net income decreased 45% year-on-year due to lower operating leverage and higher interest expenses related to the debt used for the acquisition of Jafra. As for the consolidated results for the first half of 2022, consolidated net revenues decreased 7% compared to the first half of 2021 due to extremely tough comparisons for Vetterwer. Consolidated gross margin expanded 991 basis points to 67.1 compared to 57.1% in the first half of 2021, explained partially by Jafra's higher gross margin and partially an expansion in Vetterwer's gross margin of 305. 48 basis points year on year. Consolidated EBITDA decreased 32% compared to the first half of 2021, and consolidated EBITDA margin was 22.4, or 802 basis points lower than 2021, explained mainly by the inclusion of Jafra to our results. Consolidated net income decreased 53% year on year, due to lower operating leverage and higher interest expenses related to the debt used for the acquisition of Jafra and consolidated adjusted net income, which excludes non-cash expense of $71.1 million related to the unrealized loss in market-to-market valuation of financial derivative instruments, decreased 37% year-on-year. As of the end of the second quarter of 2022, the company's financial position remains strong, even after the acquisition of Jaffa, which represented a cash outflow of 574 million pesos. Our leverage ratio increased to 2.2 times net debt to EBITDA in the second quarter of 2022, considering BetterWorks' last four months EBITDA and considering Jaffa's annualized adjusted EBITDA for first half of 2022. Better words than just high cash flow generation nature will allow us to gradually be leveraged going forward. Additionally, we're evaluating divestments of unproductive assets worth around 500 to 700 million pesos, which will reduce our leverage ratio to further enhance our financial strength. Regarding our full year expectations, we expect our consolidated net revenue to be in the range of 12.8 to 14.2, billion pesos in our consolidated EBITDA to be in the range of 2.4 to 2.7 billion pesos, which includes Jafra's full year figures excluding extraordinary items prior to the closing of the transaction. For better work, as we reach a stabilization in our associates and distributors days, we are confident that we can gradually return to growth we expect better or worse net revenues to be in the range of 6.8 to 7.2 billion pesos and our EBITDA in the range of 1.7 to 1.9 billion pesos. As for Jafra, for the year, we expect Jafra's net revenues to be in the range of 6 to 7 billion pesos and our EBITDA in the range of 700 and 800 million pesos, which includes Jafra's full-year operations. That said, Considering the tough and uncertain microeconomic environment and our lower than expected revenues year to date, our board of directors has proposed to adjust the dividend payment to 200 million pesos for the quarter, which is subject to approval at the ordinary general shareholders meeting to be held on August 19, 2022. This dividend is estimated to be sustainable in this uncertain environment while prioritizing company's financial strength, considering the $574 million cash outflow related to the acquisition of Jafra, as well as other investments aimed at unleashing Jafra's full potential, coupled with severance payments due to workforce restructuring and the temporary increase in BetterWorks inventories aimed at preserving an adequate service level. As the situation stabilizes, the Board will analyze the long-term sustainable dividend policy. In conclusion, Over the long term, we remain confident in our ability to seize growth opportunities, which will allow us to generate a strong cash flow and continue to maximize shareholders' value. I will now turn the call over to the operator and will take any questions you may have. Thank you.
spk01: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. One moment please while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Christina Fernandez with Telsey. Please proceed with your question.
spk05: Hi, good morning. I have a couple of questions, but wanted to start with the recent growth in the past few weeks you've seen in associates and distributors. What do you attribute that to and how much of an impact of the changes you made recently to incentives for the Salesforce do you think has played a role in that sequential improvement?
spk04: Hi, Cristina. This is Andres. Thank you. Yeah, so the impact that the internal actions that we took were significant. As we mentioned during the call, first of all, we changed our rewards program to refocus the program on bringing in new associates and distributors, and especially to bring in all the people that we had lost during the past 12 months. Second of all, we have been doing also changes in the catalog. You know that we changed from nine catalogs per year to 12 catalogs per year starting in September 2021. And this has really started yielding a lot better results because we can react faster month after month to change prices, to change promotions. and to make sure that our prices and promotions are more impactful to the customers. We also recently launched the new Better Work Plus app, which is being adopted by more associates and more distributors. And this is also helping to have a more significant associate attachment to the company and those yielding less churn of associates. We think that these internal actions that we took together with an external environment in which back to normal has already happened during the last 12 months yielded this recent growth in the associate base and is a good premonition of what will happen in the future where we really believe that we have hit the bottom during the second quarter of 2022. And now we can start thinking of a path to growth again.
spk06: Thank you for that.
spk05: And then I have a more broader high-level question. Can you talk about how you assess, you know, or how you view the state of the consumer, of your consumer today versus three months ago, and how is that impacting demand for, or I guess, how is demand for beauty and Jafra different from BetterWear?
spk06: Thank you.
spk04: So, can you elaborate a little bit on the question, Christina, to understand exactly what's the
spk02: Yeah, do you refer to Jafra or Betterwear?
spk05: Well, both. I wanted to see, well, first, how do you feel about the state of the Mexican consumer today versus the last earnings call? And then in light of that, how are the demand trends? We know for Betterwear they've been normalizing, but how is demand for beauty and Jafra compared to Betterwear?
spk02: Sure. Well, this is Luis. Number one, in the case of Betterware, you know we sell discretionary products. However, as Andres was saying, we got ready for that and then we adjusted our strategy in terms of product offer and pricing in order to sell in a challenging environment because definitely there are inflationary pressures on consumers, a little bit of a lack of confidence of the consumers. But our all product offer, including pricing, was realigned. And we began looking at this new product offer or adjusted product offer in the month of May and June, and will be more intensive, and it's being more intensive in July, August, and further months. Then we got ready for that, and we began looking the results mainly in July, and we will see that in the months to come. In the case of Jafra, even last year was a tough year because people were at home and then women were at home and they did not buy as much cosmetics especially color and fragrances as they used to now what we are seeing is that people are is already getting out women maybe are getting out of home and they are uh they are uh buying or coming back to normal uh uh porsches uh buying that they used to do before the pandemic then uh Little by little, we will see month after month that this is coming back to normality, which will help us in terms of sales. And this is what we are seeing now. Then even our sales force, they are out of home already and having this personal contact. And then we will see this in the months to come. And this will be favorable for our sales in Jafra.
spk06: Very helpful.
spk05: And then one last question. I wanted to see if you could expand on your revised pricing strategy. So earlier this year, you raised prices by 12% across the board. It seems like now you are looking to lower them. Can you expand on how much prices are being reduced? And is it broad-based or just in some specific items?
spk04: Yeah, sure. So, you know, last year we had a contract with the container costs which enabled us last year to maintain prices low. At the end of the year, in December, this contract ended, and the prices of containers for us increased more towards market levels, so we had to increase prices by 12% in January to maintain profitability. Now, we have seen, starting in April of this year, Container costs came back down to almost half of the price that they were before that, which is taking pressure off in the cost side for us. So for the second half of the year, and we started doing this in May and June and July, we are being more aggressive in pricing because we have more leverage on the cost side as well. And we believe that this is helping a lot to drive demand and will continue to help to drive demand towards the second half of the year.
spk06: Thank you. That's it for me.
spk01: As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. One moment, please, while we re-poll for any additional questions.
spk06: Thank you.
spk01: We have reached the end of the question and answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.
spk02: Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you when we report our next quarter results and meeting with many of you at upcoming investor conferences. Thank you. Have a good day.
spk01: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day.
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