Wal Mart de Mexico SAB de CV

BMV:WALMEX

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q2

[Salvador Villasenor, executive]

Good afternoon. This is Salvador Villasenor, Investor Relations Director for Walmex. Thank you for joining us today to review the results for the second quarter 2023. Today with me is Guilherme Loureiro, President and Chief Executive Officer of Wal-Mart de México in Central America; and Paulo Garcia, our Chief Financial Officer.

The date of this webcast is July 27, 2023. Today's webcast is being recorded and will be available at www.walmex.mx. Before we start, let me remind you that the content of this webcast is property of Wal-Mart de México S.A.B. de C.V. and is intended for the use of the company's shareholders and the investment community. This webcast may contain certain references concerning Wal-Mart de México S.A.B. de C.V.'s future performance that should be considered as good faith estimates made by the company. These references only reflect management's expectations and are based upon currently available data. Actual results are always subject to future events, risks and uncertainties, which could materially impact the company's actual performance.

Now it is my pleasure to turn the call over to our CEO, Gui Loureiro.

[Guilherme Loureiro, executive]

Thanks, Salvador. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to hear about our second quarter 2023 results. During the second quarter, we achieved a 9.3% revenue growth, mainly due to a positive month of June, benefiting from the performance of our hot sale event. In June, we celebrated Bodega Aurrera's 65th anniversary, which has become one of the most valuable brands in the country, with more than 2,300 stores and offering our customers an omnichannel shopping experience, which lets them access an ecosystem of services that allows them to access the benefits of the digital economy while complying with our philosophy of helping our clients to save money and live better.

During the quarter, we opened our first innovation center of our brands, where product tests and evaluations are carried out in an agile manner with both customers and trained panelists. We continue [ for ] our focus on price perception. We know it's a more volatile metric. However, once again, we were able to increase it by 90 basis points during second quarter versus the same period of last year.

With our purpose of helping people save money and live better in mind, during the second quarter, our brand sales penetration grew 10 bps versus second quarter '22. Active BAIT users more than doubled versus second quarter '22 and remittances transactions grew 13%. All the above helped us grow ahead of the self-service and clubs market measured by ANTAD on the second quarter '23, gaining share in 35 of the last 38 quarters.

Now let's review our performance during second quarter '23. Please consider that when we talk about results in Central America, we are referring to figures on a constant currency base. During the quarter, consolidated total revenue grew 9.3% as a result of Mexican and Central America delivering a 9.9% and a 10.6% sales growth, respectively. On a 2-year stacked basis, consolidated total revenue growth for the second quarter continued to accelerate, reaching 22.4%.

Now let's review sales performance in Mexico. Same-store sales grew 8.5% in Mexico, representing a positive effect related to seasonal events during the quarter such as Children's Day in April, Mother's Day in May, Father's Day in June and hot sales from late May until early June. Growth in sales was led by Sam's Club, which opened its 168th unit in the country. At this new store, we implemented a new layout, which consists of having double heaters in the central aisle, which enables views and promotes winning fresh.

During May, we launched our Mother's Day campaign, where we sent more than 3 million personalized message to our [ mom ] members, generating sales growth of 36%. Additionally, Plus member sales reached a penetration of 45% in the second quarter of the year, which represents a 50 bps expansion versus second quarter '22. Also, at Sam's, we launched an app called Receiving, which optimized the reception time of merchandise at the Clubs, including reception from suppliers, dry products and perishables from distribution centers and night receptions by more than 35%. Bodega remains focused on winning the appreciation of our customers due to accessible price and a much more assortment, which allowed us to increase price perception during the quarter.

Our summer campaign, Onda de Calor, reported a traffic increase of 22% and an average number of offered items rising 30%. During the quarter, we implemented successful seasonal campaigns such as Cuaresma, Mother's Day and Children's Day. This last one reporting a close to 30% year-on-year growth at Walmart. It was the first year that we implemented our 3x2 wine and liquor campaign in Walmart Supercenter, exceeding our expectations for both format, Express and Supercenter, and driving 115% growth between these 2 formats.

At Walmart Express, we adjusted our value proposition by improving our quality in perishables assortment, infrastructure and servicing model. These [ changes ] are generating an improvement in the growth momentum of the pilot stores. We recently inaugurated Walmart Express Punta Zero in Toluca, with a performance that is exceeding our initial expectations, yet results to be seen in existing stores. Our Walmart Pass active users increased 90% versus last year and now represent more than 35% of on-demand sales of Walmart and Walmart Express formats. Walmart Pass users are relevant customers for us, since they have a higher frequency per month versus on-demand nonmembers, 3.5x versus 2.6x, respectively.

Now let's look at e-commerce performance. During the second quarter, e-commerce GMV and sales grew 25% and 21%, respectively, representing 5.7% of total sales in Mexico and contributing 1.1% to total sales growth. On demand remains as the main driver. Deliveries within 3 hours represented 26% of all on-demand orders, achieving a high Net Promoter Score as a result of improved efforts related to on time and perfect order ratios.

As it relates to improving our customer experience, we keep on efficiently investing through the opening of 2 new delivery stations, first of their kind in Queretaro and Puebla. These delivery stations will allow us to control internally the last mile operation, replacing third-party logistics, 3PL, which will help us improve the service and overall control of the operation. As an example, our new delivery station within the Las Animas Puebla Walmart store will be able to serve 379 zip codes, reducing cost per shipment by 40% versus 3PL with a 76.3% NPS and a 96% on-time ratio.

We keep on improving our service level, benefiting from the R&D and tech innovation that Walmart develops globally. Glass platform, which is the one used by Walmart U.S., accelerates and simplifies the search, navigation and purchase of products, providing a more intuitive shopping experience. The new interface of our sites offer users personalization according to their purchasing trends, as well as improvements in search algorithms, to quickly find what they need and real-time display of inventory and current promotions, reducing friction in their purchase.

Additionally, by implementing this platform migration, we will enable access to a broader base of cross-border sellers and SKUs. We now have 3.4x more cross-border SKUs versus second quarter '22, since connectivity to Walmart's 3PL global base is now available in our country. We have already finalized the transition to the new platform in our Walmart formats, and we are currently working on the migration process for Bodega Aurrera and Sam's Club.

We enhanced our on-demand proposition, including more seasonal items, offering more than 80,000 SKUs from more than 380 stores in Walmart and Walmart Express, out of which 317 stores offer deliveries within 60 minutes. In Bodega, the [ expansion ] to Casa also had a strong performance, posting a higher than 80% growth versus second quarter '22, driven by 38% growth in the number of stores enabled with on-demand. We are now offering more than 60,000 SKUs from 586 stores in 299 cities.

Regarding extended assortment, we continue further developing our marketplace, more than doubling our number of SKUs versus December '22 and reporting a higher than 40% year-on-year growth in marketplace GMV. This year's hot sale event posted a 17.5% omnichannel GMV growth, reaching more than 9% and 7% growth in traffic and ticket, respectively, while the marketplace GMV grew 56% versus the same event of 2022. Once again, this was our omnichannel event where our customers were able to access great deals, both online and at our stores.

Regarding the performance of extended assortment during the event, we registered an increase in sales of 30% in comparison with last year's event, with more than 70% of orders being delivered by our own logistics network. 60% of total orders delivered within 48 hours, achieving a 96% on-time ratio. Our connectivity vertical BAIT also gaining from hot sales, adding more than 174,000 new users within the 9-day event.

Now let's talk about another [ form ] of verticals, starting with financial services. Since the announcement back in April of the acquisition of the Mexican fintech called Trafalgar, we have been working on the integration with Cashi, which will allow our users to access an open loop system, and we will provide our customers with a safe, friendly, convenient and seamless solution to handle their finances. During the second quarter, we enabled an additional lender on Cashi's digital credit marketplace, offering loans starting at MXN 2,000 up to MXN 18,500 in subsequent loans.

Additionally, during the quarter, we launched the Scan & Go feature in Cashi, which will help improve the checkout experience of our Sam's Club members, further enhancing payments and rewards ecosystem. BAIT reached 6.4 million active users, doubling the number of active users versus second quarter '22. Walmart Connect delivered strong performance during the quarter, posting an 18% growth and implementing 30% more campaigns versus second quarter '22, reaching a 34% growth in the first half of the year versus the same period last year. In May, we held a celebration [ main ] omnichannel campaign with Nestle, where we connected remittances Cashi and Walmart Connect. For example, participating items in Bodega during this campaign grew 30% and e-commerce sales increased more than 130%.

Now concerning our performance compared to the market. During the quarter, we were able to grow ahead of the self-service and clubs market measured by ANTAD by 40 bps, also gaining share in terms of volume versus the market measured by Nielsen. We are listening to our customers to further understand what they want, and we keep working to enhance our customer value proposition and commercial offering, which has allowed us to reestablish our growth gap versus the market. As I mentioned in the previous quarter's call, we will continue working towards expanding our growth gap versus the market, both in sales and volume.

Moving towards our Central American operation. Same-store sales grew 9.5% during the quarter compared to the second quarter of 2022. Nicaragua and Guatemala had the highest growth, followed by Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras. We continue rolling out our bi-format strategy, which is allowing us to gain market share by focusing on basic key items at successful opening price points and focus on our price gap against competitors in both formats, bodega and discount.

Our brands remain a key element of our strategy. We had approximately 150 new products launched for [ dexember ], organization and cleaning and health and beauty campaigns. Our brand penetration in Central America reached high teens in the second quarter '23, improving by approximately 7 bps versus second quarter '22. E-commerce in Central America, which is now available in 78 stores, reported an approximate 30% growth in the second quarter of the year, with on-demand orders increasing 50%. Given the relevance and success of e-commerce in Mexico, we are confident that the potential of this new business line in Central America will be significant.

Now let's talk about new stores growth. During the quarter, we opened 22 new stores, all of them in Mexico. These openings include the Sam's Club in Puebla and 2 Walmart Express stores, 1 in Toluca and 1 in Aguascalientes. New stores contribution to consolidated sales growth was 1.5% for the quarter. To finalize, let me tell you about our main efforts on environmental, social and governance matters. We commemorate the world Environmental Day with the inauguration of our first pollinator garden installed in our Tehuacan distribution center. This space seeks to promote the preservation of the species in a safe habitat.

Continuing our commitment to be inclusive, we enabled the first store in Mexico in which people with visual disabilities can move easily and independently within the store while making their purchase through simple and intuitive voice commands, using our app on their mobile device. This is one more step in moving towards a more diverse and inclusive customer centricity. Also during the quarter, we were recognized by [ group expansion and ] top companies with first place in the Super Companies for Women 2023 ranking for having the best practice to promote and retain female talent. I'm proud of our associates that made this recognition possible, especially all our female associates who make our company a place where women can develop professionally.

Finally, like always, I would like to thank our customers for choosing our [ formats ] as well as our associates for their hard work, without whom it would not be possible to have achieved these results. Thanks again for joining us today, and I'll leave you with Paulo, who'll go through the financial results of the quarter.

[Paulo Garcia, executive]

Thanks, Gui, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to review the results for the second quarter 2023. I'll start by covering Mexico results, and then I will cover Central America. Please consider that when I talk about results in Central America, I'm referring to figures on a constant currency basis. Let's look at Mexico's results first. As Gui previously mentioned, total revenue grew 9.9 (sic) [ 9.3 ]%, driven by same-store sales growth of 8.5%, and eCommerce, which contributed 1.1% to total sales growth. Gross margin contracted by 30 basis points, mainly as a result of pricing strategies related to our Hot Sale event, which was partially offset by new sources of revenue. SG&A grew 7.8% to 110 basis points below revenue growth, representing 15% of revenues. I'll go through the SG&A breakdown in a moment. Considering the above mentioned, operating income grew 9.8%, while EBITDA grew 9.4% to a 10.5% margin in the quarter.

Now let's review SG&A. We continue implementing productivity initiatives like Super [ Foncionales ], which is now implemented in more than 900 stores. This is an example of how we are fostering our everyday low-cost mindset in how we can become more efficient with our expenses. During the quarter, we were able to offset labor cost increase and to leverage our run expenses by 70 basis points. We continued to invest behind our strategy to further accelerate growth. During the quarter, investments impacted expenses by 40 basis points. All in, we leverage expenses by 30 basis points, which now represent 15% of revenues.

Now let's review Central America results. Please consider that when I talk about Central America, I will refer to figures on a constant currency basis. Total revenues increased 10.6%, driven by a 9.5% same-store sales growth. As Gui mentioned, same-store sales growth was broad-based across all countries. This quarter supply efficiencies (sic) [ chain efficiencies ] more than compensated price investments, generating gross margin expansion of 60 basis points. SG&A remained at 17.7% of revenues.

With the above-mentioned results, operating income grew 10.7% and EBITDA margin contracted by 20 basis points to 8.7%, the latter impacted by a booking in other income, as you can see in the Central America P&L. At a consolidated level, total revenue increased 9.3% with new stores contributing 1.5% to total growth. Gross profit increased 8.9% compared to the second quarter 2022, representing 23.3% of sales, while SG&A grew 7.4%. Operating income remained at 7.9% of revenues and EBITDA was 10.2%.

Last quarter, we disclosed an extraordinary nonrecurring charge regarding tax issues in one country in Central America. At the time, we made our quarterly disclosure, we believed this would be a nonrecurring based on all the information we had available to us. However, based on [ un ] successful challenges in other judicial decisions in the same country during the quarter, we have booked an additional provision of $46 million, impacting the other income and tax lines. This provision covers all remaining current outstanding tax assessments in that country. Consolidated net income grew 5.1%, affected by the other income and tax effects that I just recently mentioned. Excluding this impact, net income would have grown 12.3%, 300 basis points ahead of revenues.

And now moving to the balance sheet. Cash decreased 7.2% versus the second quarter 2022, mainly due to the first installment of dividend paid back in April. Excluding this impact, the cash would have grown 19.4%. Inventories grew 5.1%, 420 basis points below revenues, driven by good performance of general merchandise categories like electronics, seasonal and home. This has led to noticeable improvement in days on hand.

And finally, accounts payable grew 4.4%. In the last 12 months, we generated MXN 80.3 billion in cash and MXN 2.6 billion through working capital. We returned MXN 42.5 billion to our shareholders as dividends, 15.8% more in the last 12 months versus the same period of last year. We also invested MXN 23.3 billion in high-return projects. We paid MXN 17.7 billion in taxes and our Plan Fund required MXN 2.9 billion. All in, our cash position finished the second quarter at MXN 45 billion.

To sum up, I would like to leave you with 3 key messages of the quarter. Top line is gaining momentum, which allowed us to resume our growth gap versus the market in Mexico. Secondly, EDLC mindset is driving SG&A leverage. And lastly, we continue executing our 3 strategic priorities to further accelerate growth.

Thanks again for your interest in our company, and rest assured that we'll continue working to meet our long-term objectives and to maintain the trust that our investors have placed in us. As always, we'll make ourselves available to answer the questions you may have.