Grupo Bimbo Sa Spns/Adr

Good evening and welcome to the first quarter 2024 Groupo Bimbo results and conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key, followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Daniel Ceviche, CEO and Chairman of the Board. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thank you very much, Ashley and everyone. Thank you for joining us. Connected on the line today is our CFO, Diego Gargiola, Rafael Pamias, our current COO and future CEO, and Mark Bendix, Executive Vice President and several members of our finance team. After more than 100 calls, wow, that's incredible, today is my last earnings call. Having just turned 65 years old and after 43 years of working full-time in Grupo Bimbo, I want to take a step forward and have made a decision to pass the CEO baton and become the executive chair of Grupov. On top of being the chairman of the board, I will continue to be highly involved on all aspects of the strategy and execution of the company. I will focus on our growth strategy, competitiveness, and long-term view, while promoting the culture and focusing on talent development of generations to come. We will continue to double down on quality, innovation, and R&D. Having said that, we have appointed and the Board has approved Rafael Pamias as the new CEO of the company. He's an excellent operator and strategist with a global vision. I thank Rafa for having accepted this great challenge, and I am sure that he will do a magnificent job in this responsibility, and he has all my support and guidance to accompany him on this new, exciting path. Now, Rafa, if you want to share a few words, please go ahead.

Hello, thank you, Daniel. I hope everybody is listening correctly. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I am very excited and deeply honored to have been assigned this great responsibility. Grupo Bimbo is an amazing company with a brilliant future. And I will make sure that we continue this path of success with a long-term view while preserving our culture and philosophy. We are and will continue to be a humane company with an optimistic vision of humanity, consumer-centric, sustainable, and highly productive. You will be listening to me now every quarter. I hope to meet each one of you soon. Thank you, Daniel, for this great opportunity. And with that, I leave you to it.

Thank you very much, Rafa. And now going to the results. Following a record 2023, we're kicking off 2024 as a year of investing and transforming our business. With the first quarter where we saw the benefits of geographic category and channel diversification, which allow us to invest in a business unit for future growth, which is the case of North America. We completed four bolt-on strategic acquisitions globally, including one in Tunisia, a new market for us, expanding now our global presence to 35 countries while boosting growth and profitability in regions like Mexico and EAA, where we experienced strong growth despite a tough comparison, and 90 and 30 basis points expansion in our adjusted EBITDA margins, respectively. Now, looking into the results by region for the quarter, in Mexico, despite a very tough comparison of the first quarter of 2023, where we posted almost a 20% growth rate and the calendar effect of the Easter week, Sales improved by over 3%, but excluding this effect, sales improved by over 7%, mainly due to sustained growth across almost every category and every channel. A positive price mix effect, increasing the value to our consumers with two quarters in a row with positive volume evolution after a year of high inflation. Adjusted EBITDA margin strongly expanded 90 basis points, reflecting the favorable price mix effect, lower commodity costs, and productivity savings throughout the supply chain. In North America, top line declined 4.5%. This is in line with what we were expecting and shared with you in the last earnings call. After several years of heightened demand, higher inflation impacting the consumer, and the elimination of SNAP benefits in the U.S., consumption has been constrained along with the shift to value. We also have a tough base of comparison. As the first quarter of 2023, our sales increased by over 15%, and we have been optimizing the portfolio through complexity reduction and some non-branded exits as an enabler to improve efficiency and the effectiveness of our supply chain, which has impacted our volume performance. We continue to evaluate promotions to ensure we have competitive pricing in the marketplace and enable the right price volume equation. Our promotional activities continue to drive consumer engagement and market penetration, and we anticipate modest sequential improvement in volume throughout the remainder of this year. On the other hand, we saw improving trends for categories like sweet baked goods, cookies, and salty snacks in the region. Despite lower commodity costs and the realization of productivity benefits. Adjusted EBITDA margin contracted 160 basis points due to the top-line performance, the strong Mexican peso-impacting product costs imported from Mexico, general inflation, and transformational investments across our value chain. I would like to take a moment to discuss the U.S. multi-year transformation work that is underway. To provide some context, since the acquisitions of George Weston and Sarah Lee in the U.S., we have invested over these years in strongly transforming our manufacturing footprint. In fact, we have integrated 74 bakeries, opened five new bakeries, and closed 29 in the last 15 years, while increasing revenues and outperforming market growth. We will keep looking for opportunities to optimize the efficiency of our supply chain. Currently, we have identified great opportunities to invest in transforming our distribution network by installing next-generation distribution centers to structurally cut ongoing operating costs, and at the same time, increase our penetration in channels where we see the opportunity to do so with the right product portfolio. We continue to prioritize a consumer-centric mindset to ensure we have the right products where they shop to capture the consumer needs and microlocations through purposeful innovation and price-backed architecture. We will improve profitability, proficiency, and waste elimination, which will enable us to reinvest in our brands, people, and technology transformation. We are committed to our long-term performance, which is reflected in our investments for growth, in capacity, as well as investments to drive productivity and enhance business capabilities. Moving on to Latin America, excluding FX effect, net sales increased 4.5%, mainly as a result of the strong results of Brazil and Argentina, as a reflection of a strong focus on execution, right price strategy, and volume strength. Adjusted EBITDA margin was affected by a challenging competitive environment in countries like Chile, Colombia, and Panama. under the valuation in Argentina. We are working on maximizing consumers' value and meeting their needs by continuing to strengthen our brands through innovation and differentiation, as well as focusing on operational execution and cost discipline. We've come a long way in Latin America and have now a solid business model for our geographies. In fact, we have expanded nearly seven percentage points in the past five years and still have opportunity to grow and strengthen our profitability in the future. We also acquired La Salcereña, the leader in sweet baked goods and a participant in cookies and snacks in Costa Rica. This acquisition will consolidate our position as a relevant participant in the sweet baked goods market, complement our grants, and increase our penetration in the country. In EAA, excluding FXFX, sales increased 5.3%. This was mainly due to strong sales performance across most organizations, especially Bimbo QSR, which posted double-digit growth rates, and Bimbo India, coupled with the inorganic contribution from the acquisitions of Amarita Foods in Spain and Trebutari in Romania. Remember that this is the first quarter where we don't see the inorganic contribution from Belpitar also in Romania. It is now comparable. The adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of 30 basis points resulted from the strong sales performance and lower cost of sales, which was partially upset by expenses coming from the closure of a bakery in El Vergel, Spain. Excluding this effect, the margin expanded more than 300 basis points. I would like to share with you that we opened a new bakery in Hubei, China, which will be producing buns to our main QSR customers in the region. And we successfully completed three acquisitions with leadership positions in high per capita consumption countries of baking products within the region. Trebutari and their franchisees in Romania, a producer of bread and cookies, and the second largest player in Bucharest and the south region in the modern channel. This acquisition will strengthen our position in the packaged bread category with a well-known national brand, Boyerasca, and other regional brands in Romania. Earlier this month, we also acquired Mulando, the market leader in branded sweet baked goods in Tunisia. This marks our entrance to the second highest bread consumption per capita country in Africa. And with this, we expand our global leadership, as we mentioned, to 35 countries. We also acquired 30% participation of Uno, the leader in packaged bread in Turkey with a strong brand recognition. This allows us to enter the highest bread consumption per capita country in the world. Remember that we are already present in Turkey, but only through our Bimbo QSR division. We bought 30% of this company And this is the first of several steps as we have the option to acquire the remainder in the coming years. With this, I would like now to turn over the call to Diego, who will walk you through our financials. Please, Diego, go ahead. Thank you, Daniel. Good afternoon to all, and thank you for joining us today. The first quarter results were good but mostly resilient, considering the super peso impact and the top comparison that we have for the first quarter of 2023, where we reported record results in several metrics, including an 18.4% growth in net sales, excluding the FX impact, and a 40 basis point EBITDA margin expansion. We saw the benefit of lower raw materials in our gross margin with an expansion of 90 basis points which was upset by the soft volume performance in North America and higher labor and indirect costs, which led us to a slight EBITDA margin contraction of 30 basis points. Clearly, being a diversified global company has its pluses and minuses. North America had a soft start of the year, as we expected, while Mexico and EAA came in strong even considering the tough comparison that we have and the Easter week effect, which enables Grupo Bimbo to continue to be in line with our expectations in local currencies. Moving on to the balance sheet, we closed the quarter with a net debt to adjusted TBDA ratio of 2.3 times, and our total debt closed at 128 billion pesos. The increase in our debt position when compared to 2023 was because of the issuance that we completed in January, which wasn't still reflected in our fourth quarter results, and we still have the proceeds to pay for the outstanding 2024 senior notes, which are also reflected in our cash positions. and also because of other strategic investments, including the Bolton acquisitions that Daniel just mentioned. Although only two of them were closed during the quarter, as Uno and Tres Butari, while the other two, Bulandor and La Salsareña, were subsequent events. So you will see the effect until the second quarter financial. As for our guidance of the year, Given the continuous appreciation of the Mexican peso, we are adjusting by 40 cents our expectation of the FX for 2024. As nearly two-thirds of our business is outside of Mexico, these adjustments of 40 cents represent an impact of approximately 1.5 percentage points in our top-line growth for the year. So, according to this effect, we now expect a flat to low single-digit top-line growth as compared to an initial guidance of low to mid-single-digit. As for the EBITDA, there is a similar effect from the FX, as close to 50% of our EBITDA is outside of Mexico. So the impact is close to one percentage point of growth. So we are now expecting a low single-digit growth in EBITDA. Even though North America had a soft start, EAA and Mexico have been outperforming in local currencies. And that is why we adjust only for the FX effect in our guidance. But we remain confident for the expectations for the year in local currencies. Remember that for the first half, we are still expecting a margin contraction, as we mentioned in our last conference call, while we do expect a margin expansion in the second half of the year, which will translate into a flat to a slight margin expansion for the full year of 2024. We can now proceed with the Q&A session.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Thank you. Your first question comes from Fernando Oliveira with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. First of all, congratulations, Daniel and Rafael, for your new roles. I wish you the best. Thank you very much. And now, if I may, I have two questions. The first one is related to the acquisitions you mentioned in the press release. Can you comment how much did you invest in these acquisitions? And also, given that you just changed the guidance, can you comment if these acquisitions are included or not in your guidance? And if not, how much they will contribute to growth? That's the first question. I have a second one.

Hi, Fernando. This is Diego. Well, you know, we still haven't disclosed the specifics for the acquisitions. And surely we will do once we finish the year as a whole how much we invest every year on the total inorganic growth strategy. These acquisitions, I would say, are more than moving the needle on the P&L of the company. We'll contribute more in the long term from a strategic approach with a position that we're winning either in Costa Rica, in the sweet, very good category, growing substantially in Romania, which is probably not going to be a big reflection at the Grupo Bimbo level, but it is very relevant for Romania and the economics and the economy. synergies that we can create and the value that we can bring to the group of people through these acquisitions and also entering a new important market in Africa. I would say that more than being focused on the contribution on the organic growth, which again, it is not moving the needle. We're not changing the guidance because of this. It has an important strategic approach.

Okay. Perfect. And my second question is related to LATAM, only if you can mention what would have been the performance of the EBITDA, excluding the closure of the bakery in Brazil. Thank you.

I was going to take that one, Diego, or do you want me to start and then you continue? As you wish, Rafa. Yes, yes. Okay, when it comes to LATAM, we have experienced temporary negative effects of the performance of a couple of our geographies, namely Colombia, Chile, and Panama. In Chile, we have experienced a very tough competitive environment, especially in pricing. And Colombia, the consumption in overall is very weak across categories. And on top of that, We're beginning to see across the category and the players the impact on the new food tax, which is affecting many process categories. And last but not least, in Panama, we have some temporary situation related to operational changes. We're in the middle of the process to change our go-to-market, where we already see green leaves as an effort as a result of that. When you take a look at these effects of these three countries affecting, so you will get the explanation of why we have had soft results despite the fact that we had a good variable contribution. So it is net-net, the temporary volume softness in these three geographies with the fact that we have new capacity in place and ready to go. So this is... In a summary, what has happened. And again, reminding you what Daniel was saying some minutes ago, that we have come a long way in Latam with seven margin points in five years, all years on positive trends, and with successful turnarounds in Argentina and Brazil. So we're happy with what we have done over the last years. And we're happy for the future of Latam too.

Okay. That's great, Rafael. And in the case of the closure of the bakery in Brazil, how relevant was the impact on Evita?

I can take it if you want, Rafael. The impact is not very much. I would say it's a little bit less than 1% of the revenues of the Latin region in the quarter. I mean, in other expenses or non-recurring expenses, we did have the closure of Santamaro. We also had some other expenses related to some legal processes that we're facing in Brazil, mainly from the labor side. So that's it. I mean, it's a little bit of what's affecting as a non-recurring charge in the region in the quarter.

Okay, great. Thank you, Diego.

Your next question comes from Ben Theroux with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Hi, good evening, and thanks for taking my question. Also, Daniel, all the best in the new role. Rafael, welcome. Just two quick ones on my side. So first of all, as we look into the performance in between North America and Mexico, can you potentially share a little more color as to the different subcategories of volume performance, and then particularly in North America, how you've been performing against private label. That would be my first question. Thank you.

I'm going to take North America, Mark, and I will follow along.

Happy to. Good afternoon, Ben, and welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining the call. First, the volume softness from North America, a big portion of that was some strategic exits of some private label business that we felt had no longer utility for our business. So you're right to look at that and understand that private label is a piece of that. And private label, if you look at overall edibles and consumption across all the CPGs in North America, The one area that's growing is the private label category. And consumers are becoming more value conscious as the SNAP benefits are now retired. So we've seen that. We see our portfolio as resilient. And sequentially, as we look out for the rest of the year, we see that mitigating and our branded business beginning to grow again moderately as we exit 24.

Perfect. And then my second question is on Mexico, just following it up there. You've highlighted, obviously, the higher operating cost. So I just wanted to understand if you could potentially help us break this down from what you've lost between cross-profit into then operating income slash EBITDA on the margin. How much of that really related just to minimum wage increases and how much of that was related maybe to some of the investments you've been doing in the country. So just so we know how much is like the structure and how much might be just transformational. Thank you.

Hi, Ben. This is Diego. I mean, as you saw, we had a very strong quarter in Mexico, even with the calendar effect of the Easter week. which, of course, will be on the other way for the second quarter. And it's going to help us on this quarter. Now, what happened for the expenses was the combination of higher labor costs and also that we have been a little bit more aggressive on the FUSH strategy and with some additional distribution expenses that have helped us to drive volume increases across many different categories in the country.

And that's expected to last, I guess, right? That higher distribution expense just to have that volume?

Yes, yes, but again, not necessarily with the same magnitude as we saw during the first quarter. Just with not having the Easter week effect, it's going to impact us substantially less because when you see it in a quarter, it's like 3%, 4% of the revenues that we lost because of the Easter week. I mean, that's what we recovered in the second quarter with an easy comparison versus last year.

Okay, got it. Very helpful. Thank you.

I would complete that we are preparing for any scenario, and there are projects on efficiency, on different degrees of automation, and some changes in part of our operating model that by design are less labor-intensive. So we are, in any case, ready and anticipating.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Alejandro Fuchs with ITAL. Please go ahead.

Hello, Daniel, Rafael, Mark, and Diego. Thank you for the call and the space for questions, and best of luck to Daniel and Rafael on the new responsibilities. I have a quick one on my side, and it's related to the optimization of the portfolio in the U.S. that you just mentioned. You said that you were leaving some non-granted part of the portfolio in the U.S., and I wanted to understand if we should expect this optimization maybe to go not only into the U.S., but maybe other regions where you have capital. relevant white brand products such as Spain or LATAM or the QSR space. I wanted to understand maybe if this should be a strategy that goes beyond the U.S. and what led you exactly to this decision in the U.S.? Is it to protect margins or if there is something more that we should know of? Thank you.

Great. Let me begin with this. Rafa, and then I'll let you continue. Thanks for the question, Alejandro. First off, elimination of our non-branded business is not a strategy that we are executing. There are pieces of business that fit our portfolio in a certain way, and if they can coexist in a profitable way, then we'll accommodate that. But if they don't, then we'll make certain decisions to exit certain private label businesses, which we did in the U.S. So I want to be absolutely clear that it was not an overarching strategy of exit of private label. There is some value to private label if we work cooperatively. Secondarily, what I would say is you heard in Danielle's comments in his opening, he talked about the dynamic nature of all of the acquisitions that have been made in the US that built this business, and it's a privilege now to manage it, but it's also a huge responsibility to take that dynamic portfolio and make sure that we are transforming the systems and the people and the processes to enable that dynamic portfolio. So we have a diversified and strong execution business in North America, and our journey and our track record are strong and demonstrated by our continued growth in both sales and profit. And we continue to see that as a possibility with D.C., automation, with saturation expansion, with digitization, logistics and manufacturing. So we are reinvesting to enable that stronger portfolio across North America. I'll let Rafa handle the question in terms of Latin America and the European markets.

Yeah, I would just underline what you said. Actually, we do not have a globalist strategy for private label. I mean, we're open to reach and follow the shopper wherever they go, where it makes a strategic sense. I would summarize it that we're open for business, right? So wherever it makes sense, we're going to go branded and branded in order to satisfy fully our shoppers, right? Country by country. When it comes to Latam and Europe, Our first effort when we start a serious revenue growth management exercise is to bring simplification, reduce internal cannibalization, and make sure that we're focusing to give a space to keto products and brands. So the first exercise always is to try to understand what are the winners and the losers. Having said that, we are very eager to be fully present in all the categories we have participation because this is bringing more options to consumers and this is also giving more resilience to our objectives to go after every point of sale. So after making the necessary efforts to pinpoint the winners, we are eager to do price-back architecture and we come with presence in different categories, which give us access to the smallest point of sale, and we give different formats the opportunity to better tailor shopping missions per channel. But we are doing yearly exercise to make sure that our SKUs are the ones that the consumers and the shoppers are looking for.

Great news. Thank you very much.

The next question comes from Renata Cabral with Eleven. Please go ahead.

Hi. This is Renata Cabral from Citi. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats to Daniel and Rafael for the new responsibilities within the company. So my question is R2, actually, and R2 follow-ups. So the first one, a follow-up regarding the closure of the bakery in Brazil. It's more related to companies' strategy. So should we expect some new closures in maybe Brazil or other parts of the world? As we know that Bimbo is always seeking for efficiency, so it's a movement that we can also expect in the short term and other operations as well. And the second question is also a follow-up regarding the private label trends, increasing penetration in the U.S. Just to understand the view of the company, you that are inside the operations has a better sense than ourselves here, to understand if you see this trend being more temporary, maybe stronger in the first half of the year and becoming softer. supplement in the second half and maybe next year, or it is something that the consumer is testing and maybe is going to stay for a long period of time just to understand how you are perceiving these trends. Thank you.

I might start with a general question on more closures. This is definitely not a driving strategy. Obviously, we take every advantage to bring efficiency to the system, but let me tell you that we are bakers. And as big as you may perceive us, which we are, we are holding less than 5% of market share. So there's a world to feed. So this is just strategies on a one by one basis when we cannot track value on a given situation. But we are not, we are on a strategy of long-term growth.

And Renato, just to follow up on your private label question for, particularly for the US, as we all know, there was acute food inflation for a period of time now that I think caused some of our consumers to migrate towards other value brands. But holistically, this is not a strategy for us. We continue to evaluate and optimize all of our assets, ensuring that we have the capacity needed to meet the consumer and customer demands and the right products and the right brands. So we remain optimistic that the consumer will come back to our branded products because it was superior and superior delivery of quality. So we remain optimistic for the second half of the year that we'll see modest growth return in the back half.

Thank you. Thanks so much.

This is Diego. Let me complement also a little bit more what Rafa mentioned. As he said, we do not have a strategy to continue to close plants. That stage already happened in the past when we, particularly in the U.S., had to close several plants, and for many years we had some non-recurring expenses every year on our results that, of course, contributed to have the profitability that we have today with the efficiency that we have in the U.S. Now, from time to time, hopefully, we will find an opportunity to restructure a little bit the manufacturing footprint and reallocate part of the production to a different plant. And by that means we will be willing to take the heat on the quarter because we feel confident and we have all the support that these type of decisions will bring value. And although they have to go to the P&L and say that our focus is more like if it's an investment, although on an accounting perspective it's an expense, it is something that clearly will bring future value to the company.

Thank you so much.

The next question comes from Carlos Laboy with HSBC. Please go ahead.

Yes, good evening, everyone. Congratulations, Daniel and Rafa. Daniel, given how profoundly you've transformed BIMBO over the past three decades, I was hoping you might speak to us a little bit tonight about your vision of what you're looking to transform the U.S. business into and from what. And I suspect this has multinational implications, but I'm keen to hear on what your vision implies and means for how BIMBO might emerge as a different or a better type of market developer and a different type of brand developer. And then for Diego, any insights that you can give us on the scope of these investments that this implies would be helpful.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Carlos, and I always appreciate your strategic eye on the industries. I mean, as I related to in the comments earlier on, I mean, this has been a very long journey for me and for Grupo Bimbo with me for these past 27 years. And specifically in the U.S., we have embarked over the years in a lot of acquisitions, closures of many bakeries, opening new ones and transforming the ones that we kept. And this is, I would say, a process that's still unfolding. We didn't have the cash to do it in such a period, and it will remain as part of the initiatives that we will continue to do so. As we mentioned before, we're seeing now this opportunity to revamp our distribution system and specifically to try to modernize our logistics and our distribution centers, and this is sort of the next stage for us in this region. And alongside with that, we also have been beating up our capabilities to be a more consumer-centric company, as we have outlined, and and that comes with investments in all fronts of what that requires to be so. So in a nutshell, I would say that our U.S. business is critical for Grupo Bimbo. It's one piece that we see as central to our future development and one that we want to strengthen to be able to capture the potential that it has and that we still have not yet materialized as we envision.

Thank you. Diego, might you have any insight on the scope of the CapEx or the investment that step up that you might be seeing in the U.S.? ?

Yes, I mean, the CAPEX is already included in the guidance that we provided for the year, Carlos. As you know, we do not provide the specifics either by region or by concept. What I can tell you is that it is included both on the CAPEX line with the guidance, but also on the EBITDA line as some of the investments will have to be recognized directly to the P&L as a non-recurring expense. Thank you.

Your next question comes from Jorge Lascaro with BTG Pactual. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thank you for the space for questions, and congratulations, Daniel and Rafa. My first question is on CAPEX. How should we think about normalized CAPEX levels for 2025 and 2026? I know it might be too early to tell, but any color you can share would be helpful. And the second one is regarding the traditional channel in Mexico. Could you please share some comments on volume performance relative to your expectation, please? Thank you very much.

Hi, Jorge. Diego again. Regarding the question for the CAPEX, we think that the CAPEX peak last year, as you know, it was very intensive with more than $2 billion. We're expecting a slight decrease for this year and might probably be a little bit of the same, a slight decrease for 2025 and probably see a normalization in 26 going forward.

Thank you. When it comes to channel performance in general and then traditional channel, I would say that modern trade, convenience stores, supermarkets, even our auto-vent have performed very good in the high single digits. What we see in modern trade is some softer development, however positive, and I have to remind you that we have the negative comparison with Easter week. So if we make that effect, our DSD channel is performing quite well and the weather the hot weather and season where the hot weather didn't help on certain categories we think we pay goods but we are in overall including DSD happy with the performance and we are committing to to every channel and we are also committed to mom and pops because of the importance of the economic and and social fabric of Mexico in Mexico So, they're committed, as I said before, to follow the shopper wherever they go.

Great. Thank you.

Once again, if you have a question, please press star then 1. Your next question comes from Felipe Cross with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Hi, operator. Good evening, gentlemen. Daniel Rafa. I'll echo my peers. Congrats on the new roles. Maybe I want to do a follow-up on private label. This call in the last few quarters, we've talked about it, about private label in the U.S., and then a little bit about Mexico, which was asked last quarter. But I'm just wondering if you can comment about how private label has been evolving in Latin America. As a still-developing market, private label has been historically pretty low versus North America and Europe historically. in LATAM. I'm just wondering how that has developed in the last, I don't know, half decade, decade, and what you're seeing in your categories in particular. Is this a growing segment that has any threats and opportunities or has it been muted for the most part?

So you go first in North America? Or it was a question on LATAM only. I'm ready, huh? Yeah, LATAM only. Okay, sorry, excuse me, I didn't quite catch the beginning. So private level has been historically of lesser importance in Latin America. However, in the last years, we have seen some forms of trade here and there, notably private counters, that have been steadily leaning on that unbranded proposition. So what we have experienced is a growing appetite for shoppers to not only visit those types of outlets, but also buying those unbranded offers. So we have recognized that, and it is somehow surprising the velocity that they are taking. And as a consequence, we are taking very seriously the opportunity to grow and participate in that segment. So net-net growing, depending on the country, with very different performance. And we are ready, and again, I'm sorry to repeat it again, we are ready to follow the shocker wherever we go. So they're going to find us with every kind of offer available.

No, that's very clear. Maybe if I can do a follow-up specifically on the U.S., which you've also discussed quite a bit. But just wondering, clearly you've mentioned that there's a lot of consumer weakness with SNAP benefits and educational loans hitting the consumer. Are you also seeing anything on the competitive environment that is unusual or not as rational as it's been before, or is it mostly a consumer-focused issue on the volumes?

What we're seeing, honestly, is really a consumer focus. There really hasn't been a competitive threat that has disabled any of us. If you look at total consumables, Most CPGs have the same lack of growth in their base business. The real growth area has been in private labels. So that's the main driver more than any other dynamic. Again, we see that mitigating as we get later into the year. We have fully lapped the SNAP benefits now. Consumers, it's a healthy economy in the U.S., And so we see sequentially slight improvement as we go quarter to quarter from here.

Okay, very clear. That's what we're seeing too. Thanks a lot.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Daniel Ceviche for any closing remarks.

Thank you very much. This was my last call, and I want to thank you All of you for your interest in our company, and I know that we will be in better hands with Rafa, so thank you for your time today, and please do not hesitate to contact us with any further comments or questions you may have. Many thanks.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.