AmRest Holdings SE

Hello everybody and welcome to the AMREST Q1 2025 results. My name is Elliot and I'll be your coordinator for today. If you'd like to register a question during today's event, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Alternatively, you can submit your recent questions via the Q&A box found on your screen. I'd now like to hand over to Lucas Wachalko with Wooden Company. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. My name is Lucas Wachalko. I am representing Wooden Company. And I have again the pleasure of moderating the call with AMRES, the components represented by Mr. Eduardo Samaripa, CFO, and Santiago Camarillo Aguilera, head of IR. Gentlemen, the mic is yours.

Thank you, Lucas. Good morning and thank you for joining us in today's first quarter 2025 AMRES result presentation. It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to share with you AMBRIS results and also our views on our fantastic sector. During the first quarter of the year, economic activity in Europe expanded at a more moderate pace than in previous quarters. And once again, with evident divergence across countries. Similar to 2024, the good performance recorded in AMBRIS' main market, Poland and Spain, contrasted with the declines in activity in Germany and France. One of the causes of the slowdown in economic activity was the moderation in private consumption observed in most markets, as a result of increased uncertainty and despite the solid performance of the labor markets. Despite this volatile macroeconomic environment, and the cumulative effect of inflationary pressures over the last two years, our revenues grew at a healthy level during the quarter and with an accelerating trend. But let's see all this in the presentation that we have prepared for you. Starting with today's presentation, if we go to slide two, please. As you know, Amrest is Europe-leading restaurant operator with a portfolio of almost 2,100 restaurants in 22 countries across Europe, Middle East, and China. We keep a balanced portfolio of franchise and proprietary brands that covers a wide spectrum of occasions of use. As a result, more than 30 million customers visit our restaurants every month, where they find a distinctive service provided by over 45,000 passionate Ambrose cheese. If we move now to slide three, I'm going to summarize in six points the most relevant events for this first quarter of the year. First, AMBRIS generated revenues of more than 620 million euros. During this period, a growth of 4.7% compared to the same period in 2024. Second, the ordinary results of the group represented by the adjusted EBITDA that excludes extraordinary results amounted to 87.8 million euros, up 6.5% versus the same period of 2024, which puts the margin at 14.2%. Third, the Operative Profit EBIT stood at 13 million euros, That represents a margin of 2.1%. This figure has been affected by extraordinary results booked during the quarter. Fourth, the group's leverage ratio defined as net financial debt versus EBITDA ex IFRS 16 stood at two times. Therefore, continuous stables at the low end of the largest leverage range defined for the group. Next, the number of new restaurants opening amounted 15 new units. In addition, we closed 18 restaurants during the period. And finally, I would like to call your attention on determination of the collaboration agreement between AMBREST and SEM, together with the disposal of 51% stake in the AMBREST held in SEM. The result of the deconsolidation of this business reported as other operating costs stood at 5 million euros due to effects that rose with the deconsolidation. But what is more important, this transaction is enabling Ambrose to conduct all supply chain management and product quality assurance services internally going forward. providing an opportunity to identify potential additional synergies to leverage future business growth. In the following slides, we will go into more depth in detail on these points. But let's start first with what we are doing in our different brands on slide number one. The commercial position of our brands plays a crucial role in the value generation of Ambrose. Let me start with the quick service and coffee brands in this slide four. At KFC, we are enhancing the appeal of our beloved products and continue with the exploration of new flavor territories. As a result, a set unique products are offered in our restaurants. This included the reintroduction of the famous warming cheeses with a fresh communication strategy. new flavors inspired by Caesar salad, and innovative products tests like hot dogs, tacos, and the pancake burger. This strategy aims to provide excellent quality at great prices to both regular and new consumers. At Burger King, we are excited to introduce our new premium chicken line, Chicken Crunch. This range features exceptionally crunchy and delicious products made from full-mussel chicken, sure to win the hearts of chicken lovers from the first bite. At Starbucks, our business strategy emphasizes personalization and innovation. This quarter, we introduced new beverage flavors like pistachio and lavender, enhancing our offering with various forms of flavored cream called foams. Despite economic challenges, Starbucks maintains providing affordable luxuries that demonstrate value for money. Now, moving to the fast, casual, and dining brands in slide five, please. At Pizza Hut this quarter, we launched a new edition of our iconic Pizza Festival, offering three new pizza flavors inspired by social media trends. Additionally, Pizza Hut continues to maintain a strong and diverse menu that appeals to a wide range of customers in which we have introduced in this period new products as the Mac and Cheetos pasta. In Blue Frog, we just launched a spring menu inspired by the Chinese tradition of eating spring freshness. And spring-summer set lunch menu designed to meet diverse lunch needs with flavor and flair. At La Tagliatella, since initiating our rebranding process during the second half of 2024, we have successfully renovated over 10 restaurants with a new image. The new image is improving brand satisfactions and increasing the frequency of consumer visits. This transformation is... Juvenating our target audience, making our brand more appealing and relevant to both existing and new consumers. And finally, in SushiShop, we are launching new premium offers as the Umami Box, created for the first time by our own sushi chefs. But we are also devoting our efforts to enhance our delivery capacity and consumer experience in our restaurants. If now we move to slide six, please. As I mentioned, despite the volatile macroeconomic environment and the cumulative effects of inflationary pressures over the last two years, revenues grew at a healthy level. Sales increased by 4.7% to 620.2 million euros. At the same time, you can find on the right-hand chart the evolution of the 12-month trailing average revenue per store that is growing steadily for the last three years, providing a good indication of both the health of our business and the level of exploitation of economies of scale through the sales leverage. Moving to slide seven, we have discussed on several occasions the prominent role that the technological innovation is having in the transformation of the restaurant industry. In this slide, we provide the evolution of two key indicators that explain this statement. First, on the left-hand graph, you can find an increasingly wide channel between the growing total sales and the part of the sales coming from the dining channel. This is the space occupied by the alternatives. takeaway and the drive-through distribution channels. Secondly, in the graph on the right, you can see how sales through the digital channels have continued to grow, reaching 62% of total orders received. This figure excludes our casual dining brand. Nonetheless, the importance of these orders come from the higher value that we are able to extract from them. If we go to slide eight, here we can find our restaurant portfolio evolution and adjustments executed during the latest years. As I discussed previously, we opened 15 new restaurants and during the quarter, we closed 18 units. With this, AMBRIS had a portfolio of 2,096 restaurants, units, and the end of the period. You can see the big effort made during the latest year in terms of getting rid of non-performing businesses combined with a steady growth in the number of units in our core business. In other words, this portfolio has undergone structural changes during the last years in order to provide a better and more efficient capital allocations, which resulted in the transfer and closure of underperforming businesses, which together with a relevant organic growth of restaurants has shaped our current portfolio. With this, Santi, if you can cover the main financial highlights, please.