Becle, S.A.B. de C.V.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining Beckler's second quarter on audited financial results call. During the call, you may hear certain forward-looking statements. These statements may relate to our future prospects, developments, and business strategies. It may be identified by a use of terms and phrases such as anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, intent, may, plan, predict, project, will, goals, targets, strategies, and similar terms and phrases, and may include references to assumptions. Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy, and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, by their nature, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks, and challenges and circumstances that are difficult to predict. Our actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. All of our foregoing reasons, you are cautioned against relying on such forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that the figures discussed on the call today are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, and published in the Mexican Stock Exchange. The information for second quarter of 2023 is preliminary and is provided with the understanding that once financial statements are available, Updated information will be shared in the appropriate electronic format. At this time, I would like to remind you that your participant lines are in listen-only mode until the Q&A session. So without further ado, I would now like to pass the line to Beclet's CEO, Mr. Juan Domingo Beckman. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we discuss Beclet's second quarter 2023 results. The second quarter had both challenges and opportunities across our regions. we started to see a recent decline in the third-party agave market price as a result of the wave of plants now available for crop. However, the appreciation of the Mexican peso against the U.S. dollar has more than offset any benefit seen from recent lower agave prices. We continue to monitor this situation closely and remain committed to our pricing and product mix strategies moving forward. In the U.S. and Canada, volume net sales were down versus the second quarter of 2022, primarily driven by off-cycle price increases and challenges in our ready-to-drink category, which faced an increasingly competitive environment. However, our premium tequila segment remains strong, outpacing overall tequila growth in the region, as per recent news and readings. On the other hand, Mexico experienced a strong year-over-year increase in net sales during the quarter, primarily driven by growth in the tequila category, along with the overall success of our premiumization strategy. In the EMEA region, there was a notable year-over-year volume of net sales increase, despite consumer concerns arising from inflationary pressures. Similarly, the APEC region saw substantial growth mainly driven by the post-COVID recovery and subsequent business reopenings. These positive outcomes were primarily attributed to the rising demand for our products, as evidenced by growth in our tequila and whiskey sales in both regions, as compared to the second quarter of 2022. Overall, we remain confident in our brands, enduring value, and our continued ability to deliver sustainable growth for our shareholders. The consistent demand for key brands alongside the lasting popularity of tequila has played a vital role in upholding the strength and resilience of our core business. I will now turn the call over to Luis Felix to further discuss our U.S. and Canada results.

Thank you, Juan, and good morning, everyone. The United States and Canada Quarter 2 business began to normalize after April. The April declines were led by the change in the price increase cycle year over year. As the business entered May, the Tequila portfolio showed strong depletion growth, which continued through the month of June. Kindly note that the results in the following remarks were prepared on a constant currency basis. Net sales value declined by 1.4% compared to the second quarter of 2022. mainly driven by a change in the timing of price increases year over year. In the second quarter of 2022, our tequila sales benefited from price increases in the quarter, whereas in 2023, these price increases occurred in January during the first quarter. Shipments for the second quarter were down 5.6% compared to the previous year, primarily due to the challenges faced by the strong April 22 shipments right before the implementation of the price increase. Depletions for the quarter started to normalize following the first quarter of the year. In April, the U.S. and Canada depletions declined. However, as the quarter progressed, the tequila portfolio proved resilient with depletions growing by 29% in May and 13% in June compared to the same months of last year. In the whiskey portfolio, depletions decreased by 4% in the quarter. Our distributor partners depleted more than they shipped, resulting in a slight reduction of inventories across the U.S. This trend is encouraging as we enter the second half of the year. We expect distributors to restock their inventory to agreed upon levels during the third quarter of 2023 in preparation for the holiday season. This has already been evident in July, pointing to a growth in shipments and favorable brand mix for the upcoming quarter. Our performance in the U.S. during the quarter stood out positively compared to our peers based on the 13-week Nielsen value indicators. Our tequila portfolio grew by 9%, outpacing the category 7% growth rate. Similarly, our whiskey portfolio showed strong performance, increasing by 10%, while the total whiskey category grew by 1%. Proxima's NAPCA numbers are also showing positive performance. In the second quarter of 2023, our NAPCA consumer value grew 6.6%, outperforming the industry average of 3.7%. Overall, during the second quarter, we concluded our price increase execution and observed a steady rebound in our portfolio performance as the quarter progressed. Looking ahead, we remain confident in our communication strategy and portfolio mix, which we expect will lead to stronger results in the second half of 2023. This is supported by the increased consumer spending in our key categories and the ongoing improvement of the RTD category. I will now turn the call over to Olga Limon to discuss the Mexico and Latin America results.