7/28/2026

speaker
Vinicius
Moderator

Hello and welcome to the Coca-Cola Femsa second quarter 2026 conference call. My name is Vinicius and I will be your moderator for today's event. Please note that this conference is being recorded. For the duration of the call, all participants will be in listen-only mode. You will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. To do so, please use the raise hand feature in Zoom and we will open your line. If you experience any technical issues during the call, please use the chat function to request assistance. I would now like to hand the call over to Pamela Ortiz, Investor Relations Director at Coca-Cola Femsa. Pamela, please go ahead.

speaker
Pamela Ortiz
Director of Investor Relations

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Coca-Cola Femsa's second quarter 2026 results conference call. Today, we are joined by Ian Craig, our CEO. Gerardo Cruz, our CFO, and the rest of the investor relations team. Before we begin, let me remind all participants that today's conference call may include forward-looking statements that should be considered as good faith estimates made by the company. These forward-looking statements reflect management expectations and are based upon currently available data. The actual results are subject to future events and uncertainties that can materially impact the company's performance. For additional details, please refer to the full disclaimer in the earnings release that was published earlier today. After the prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions. To ask a question, please use the right hand feature in your Zoom toolbar. With that, let me turn the call over to Ian, our CEO, to begin our presentation about the second quarter results. Ian, please go ahead.

speaker
Ian Craig
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Pame. Good morning, everyone. Before reviewing our second quarter results, I would like to take a moment to address the earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24th. This unfortunate tragedy resulted in loss of lives, thousands of injuries, and significant displacement across affected communities. It has impacted many people throughout the region, including employees of Coca-Cola Femsa de Venezuela and their families. We extend our deepest condolences to those who have lost loved ones and express our solidarity with everyone affected by this tragedy. Our immediate priority has been to support our employees and their families, as well as the impacted communities. With broader support from Femsa and the Coca-Cola Company, we are contributing to the humanitarian response, including the donation of more than 100,000 liters of water and other essential emergency supplies to communities in need. We remain closely engaged with the team on the ground, and will continue supporting our people and the broader community as recovery and rebuilding efforts progress. Now, let me walk you through our consolidated results. Our second quarter showed sequential improvement at a consolidated level, driven mainly by record second quarter volumes in Brazil, Colombia and Guatemala, where we continue to drive growth in the industry. At the same time, Mexico continued to face headwinds from the excise tax increase and the softer consumer environment. Against this background, we remained focused on implementing our sustainable long-term growth model, continuing to gain share across markets and categories, and capitalizing on the FIFA World Cup opportunity. The FIFA World Cup represented a brand-building platform across our territories this quarter, We executed a comprehensive 360-degree plan combining exclusive customer promotions such as panini stickers, special edition cans, FIFA merchandise, and our red-tide execution around stadiums, particularly in Mexico City, fanfests, and on-premise jams. This integrated approach strengthened consumer engagement, translated into incremental demand, and reinforced the positive momentum of our brands throughout the port. The final tally of the FIFA World Cup resulted in new highs in key Coca-Cola trademark brand engagement metrics such as reputation, positive buzz, purchase consideration, among others. Across our operations, reinforcing the platform's role as a long-term brand building investor. Moving on to our quarterly results. Consolidated volume for the second quarter grew 3.5% to reach 1.1 billion unit cases. This growth was driven mainly by volume increases across most of our operations, partially offset by a volume contraction in Argentina. Total revenues for the quarter grew 4.7% to 76.3 billion pesos. This increase is explained mainly by our volume growth and revenue growth management initiatives, which were partially offset by unfavorable mix and currency translation effects. On a currency neutral basis, total revenues increased 6.6%. Gross profit increased 8.8% to 35.9 billion pesos leading to a margin expansion of 180 basis points to reach 47.1%. This positive performance was driven mainly by favorable sweeteners and PET costs As compared with the previous year, reflecting the benefits of our disciplined hedging strategy, together with the appreciation of most of our operating currencies as applied to our U.S. dollar-denominated raw material costs. These effects were partially offset by carrier aluminum costs. On a currency-neutral basis, gross profit rose 10.7%. Operating income rose 9.1% to 10.7 billion pesos, while operating margin expanded 60 basis points to 14%. This positive performance benefited from the recognition of 265 million pesos in recovered insurance claims in Brazil. Excluding this insurance recovery, operating income which have increased 6.4% with operating margin expanding 20 basis points to 13.6%. Our operating leverage and expense efficiencies, particularly in labor and rent, drove this normalized margin expansion. These benefits were partially offset by higher freight and marketing expenses, as well as a lower operating foreign exchange gain compared with a prior year. Adjusted EBTA for the quarter grew 12.1% to 15 billion pesos, and EBTA margin expanded 130 basis points to reach 19.7%. Excluding the effects of insurance claim, adjusted EBTA grew 10.1%, and EBTA margin expanded 90 basis points to 19.3%. Finally, our majority net income grew 16.9% to 6.2 billion pesos, mainly reflecting higher operating income and a lower effective tax rate. This growth was partially offset by an increase in our comprehensive financial results, which Jerry will discuss in more detail later. Turning now to our key markets, let me highlight the main operational and strategic developments during the course. In Mexico, volumes increased 1% year over year. As I mentioned earlier, our quarterly results continue to reflect headwinds from the FIS tax increase and softer consumer dynamics. However, our sustainable growth strategy, supported by strong commercial execution and the FIFA World Cup, continues to deliver share gains, which will enable us to emerge stronger and return to growing the industry. Being a host country for the FIFA World Cup represented an important grant engagement opportunity for Mexico specifically. Incremental demand was primarily generated in host cities through fan fest activations and other consumer touchpoints, while non-host cities experienced a more limited impact. For its part, Powerade delivered an uplift of 150 basis points of market share while generating strong positive brand buzz. Supported by its prominent role within the P4 World Cup activations and a dedicated 360-degree commercial plan that included the launch of PowerEdge Zero and Libid Edition flavors. Perhaps more importantly, the quarter demonstrated the effectiveness of the strategy we implemented following the excise tax increase. Designed to deliver sustainable growth, strengthen our competitive position, and ultimately to return to growing the industry, This strategy was built on four complementary pillars. First, we adopted a differentiated revenue management approach, improving our relative price positioning in regions with high competitive intensity. As part of this pillar, we continued reinforcing affordability to returnable and multi-serve presentations. Returnable offerings, including our two-liter PET returnable presentation, have successfully expanded household penetration without cannibalizing our one-way portfolio. Second, building on the momentum of the Coca-Cola Zero playbook, we continued expanding this segment, which grew 24% year-on-year, while leveraging the FIFA World Cup, as I previously mentioned. Third, we strengthened our core flavors portfolio and heritage brands, ensuring consumers can access their favorite beverages across multiple price points and consumption locations. Fourth, we innovated and launched offerings in underrepresented segments, such as our recent launch of Ciel Aguas Frescas, which has been positively received by consumers. Supported by our state-of-the-art digital initiatives, these four pillars have translated into a stronger competitive position across channels. For instance, our Juntos Plus platform maintains strong momentum with digital sales now representing 38% of the traditional trade and 19% of total revenues. We strengthen execution at the point of sale by increasing purchase frequency, improving average ticket, and expanding cooler products. Looking ahead, we expect the consumer environment in Mexico to remain subdued. We will continue strengthening our competitive position through affordability, accessible price points, innovation, and digital execution, positioning us well to deliver profitable long-term profits. In Guatemala, volumes grew 3.4% year-over-year. Supported by a stronger consumer environment and disciplined execution across our portfolio. Economic activity continued to improve during that quarter, supported by stronger household consumption and resilient remittances, which grew 7.5% year-over-year. Looking ahead, GDP growth should remain supported by consumption, remittances, and favorable demographics. With a population increasing approximately 1.3% annually, which is above the broader Latin American average. In this context, our strategy remains focused on unlocking volume opportunities through market development and consistent execution. We continue to drive per capita consumption by expanding affordable price points and strengthening our one-way and multi-serve portfolios. This approach supported strong momentum in sparkling beverages, where our share increased by 90 basis points year-over-year. We also expanded our favors portfolio with a more competitive and differentiated portfolio, enabling us to reach more consumers and consumption occasions beyond the strength of Brandt Gold College. We continued accelerating customer expansion by capturing white space opportunities and investing in coolers. Our customer base grew 5.2% to approximately 156,000 customers, while cooler coverage increased 40 basis points to 78.8%. Overall, Guatemala offers a compelling combination of healthy consumer fundamentals We remain confident in our ability to convert these opportunities into sustainable volume growth and profitability over time. Turning to Brazil, where our volumes increased a solid 5.2%. Despite high interest rates, low unemployment and real income growth continued providing support for consumption. In this environment, our Brazil operation continues to outperform the industry through discipline, commercial execution, and digital capabilities, as well as by capitalizing on the FIFA World Cup opportunity. As a result, we continue gaining share across key categories within the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink industry. Our core portfolio delivers growth across our three main beds. First, within our Zero Sugar portfolio, Coca-Cola Zero Group 15% and Sprite Zero Group triple digits. Second, flavors reached double-digit growth supported by Sprite and Fanta. And third, still delivered 23% growth driven mainly by Monster, teas, and sport drinks with Powerade. In sparkling beverages, our single-serve mix was another highlight of the quarter, improving 2.6 percentage points compared to March 2026. reaching 28%. We drove this result by capitalizing on the FIFA World Cup and Panini exclusive stickers in our 600ml brand Coca-Cola presentations. These not only increased transactions, but also provided a positive tailwind to our profitability. We also continue to strengthen our commercial capabilities through digital transformation. We're leveraging Junctus Plus Advisor, Our next generation platform to provide supervisors and frontline teams with better insights, suggested ordering capabilities, and enhanced commercial execution. These investments are helping to improve assortment quality, increase average ticket, and further strengthen customer relationships. Looking ahead, we expect election-related spending and strong execution to support the second half of the year. While we continue to closely monitor regulatory developments that could result in a more challenging backdrop in 2027. However, we remain confident in the long-term growth opportunity of the Brazilian market and in our ability to continue delivering long-term growth. Turning to Colombia, volumes increased 17.7% year over year. Supported by minimum wage increase and improving consumer environment and strong execution across our portfolio. Macroeconomic indicators continue to improve during the quarter. Unemployment declined to 8% in May, its lowest level for that month is 2001, while consumer confidence reached the strongest sustained recovery since 2015. Although job creation remains supported in part by the public sector and labor informality remains structurally tight, the overall macroeconomic backdrop points to a gradual improvement in the consumer environment. Our affordability strategy in Colas continues to deliver results, supporting further market share gains in the one-way portfolio. At the same time, we continue strengthening our position in flavors, Delivering 27.2% quarterly volume growth, supported mostly by Cuatro, our grapefruit flavor, and Sprite. We also continued advancing our strategy in still beverages by prioritizing profitable growth in margin-accretive categories. Powerade and Monster were among the strongest performing brands during the quarter, allowing us to capture attractive growth opportunities while improving the quality of our portfolio. Our digital capabilities remained another important driver of execution. Through our Juntos Plus platform, we continued increasing customer engagement, helping us to improve ordering frequency, strengthen assortment, and deepen our relationships with our customers. Overall, Colombia delivered a strong combination of volume growth, share gains, and operating leverage, underscoring Colombia as one of our key growth marks. In Argentina, volumes decreased 2.8% year-over-year, mainly reflecting a truck driver strike that affected the beverage industry within our region, together with continued softness in consumer demand. Although macroeconomic conditions have continued to stabilize, the recovery in consumption has been slower than anticipated. Thank you for joining us. While strengthening our competitive position, contributing to a 100 basis point increase in our CSD market share. We also continue reinforcing our leadership in flavors, mostly capitalizing on the strong momentum of Sprite. Beyond sparkling beverages, we remain focused on growing profitable NCB categories, which posted year-over-year volume growth. While the competitive environment remains intense, Particularly with increased pressure from value-oriented and gig-brand offerings, we remain confident that our affordability strategy, disciplined commercial execution, and balanced portfolio position us well to continue strengthening our competitive position as consumer demand gradually recovers. This quarter once again demonstrated the value of our long-term sustainable growth model While Mexico navigated a more challenging consumer environment, we are laying the foundations to emerge stronger and grow our industry. In our South American operations, particularly Brazil and Colombia, we continue to deliver industry growth, strong volumes, and profitability. This geographic diversification, together with our ability to capitalize on markets, with stronger momentum while maintaining disciplined execution across the region continue to support our consolidated results. With that, I will hand over the call to Jerry to expand on our division's results.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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