M Dias Branco SA Industria e Comercio de Alimentos
BOVESPA:MDIA3
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M Dias Branco SA Industria e Comercio de Alimentos
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Good morning. Welcome to the video conference of M. Dias Branco, reference to the results of the first quarter. We have Gustavo, Vice President of Investments and Controllership; and Fabio Cefaly, Director of New Business and relations with investors. We inform that this event will be recorded. [Operator Instructions]
The translation is available playing on the interpretation button to hear the conference in English, the original audio can be silenced clicking on mute [indiscernible] original audio and the bottom of your screen. This is also being done simultaneously [indiscernible] www.youtube.com.rimgs. We'd also like to clarify that any declarations that may be made during this teleconference relative to the perspectives of business of M. Dias Branco and in relation to the operations and financial numbers of the company as well as information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties and premises as they refer to future events, which may or may not occur.
You should understand that the conditions of the company and operational factors may affect the future performance of M. Dias Branco and bring to results which are different than those considered future considerations. I would like to pass it over to Fabio, who will begin the presentation. Fabio, please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our teleconference of results for the first quarter of 2023. This is a moment very special for M. Dias and the reason for satisfaction. Recently, we were certified as one of the best companies to work in, in Brazil with the great Place to Work Accel. And today, we complete 70 years, so which demonstrates our trajectory and our history of entrepreneurship of a business that began 70 years ago with one bakery in Fortaleza Ceara. And today, we have a company which is market leader in the sector of cookies and pastas.
Now I'm going to pass over to our results starting with the principal highlights of the quarter, we had a net revenue of 2 point in the first quarter of '23, a record for the first quarter, and which represented a growth of 32% versus the same period of last year.
This net revenue -- in relation to the -- which was -- with expansion of volume. We had a volume of -- expense in the volumes in the first quarter of was '23 BRL 3.7 per kilo above the cost of the last year, which was BRL 3.1 due to the principal devaluation of the Real in that period and also the increase of prices in commodities in dollars, especially in wheat flour and palm oil. SG&A represents the administrative expenses and sales expenses in relation to net revenue was in 30%, the same as last year, which was 21.9%.
The result of increase of average price and increase in volume and controller expenses has led this [indiscernible] to an EBITDA of BRL 174 million in the quarter, representing an increase of 95% in relation to the first quarter of last year. In this quarter, exceptionally, we opened the margin month by month, and we closed the quarter with 13% of EBITDA margin, well above the EBITDA margin negative of January, which was minus 2%.
The first quarter ended much better than it began. And due to all the variables that we demonstrate here, especially the variable of EBITDA and EBITDA margin.
It's always important in this moment of interaction with the market and with the investors and analysts to remember that our strategy, which has three basic pillars of growth: Increase of the current business in the defense areas and attack areas, remembering that the defense area, where we have a participation in the market close to 60% of the market and the attack areas where we have a participation close to 20% and great opportunities for growth.
The inclusion of other categories in our portfolio, such as happened recently with the acquisition of Latinex at the end of 2021 and the acquisition of Jasmine in the second quarter of last year.
And the third pillar, which is internationalization of the company, which began about 6 or 7 years ago with exports and concretized last year with the acquisition of Las Acacias, one of the principal brands of Pasta in Uruguay. This strategy of growth is supported by constant program of productivity and efficiency.
Going into the details of our results. I'm going to talk -- start off with revenue and market share. The revenue for the quarter was BRL 2.5 billion. In this quarter, we opened the results month by month. So this growth of 32% in net revenue year-on-year happened with an improvement of the revenue month-by-month. We had BRL 1 billion of sales -- of net revenue in March compared to [ 61 ] in January, and the total for the quarter was BRL 2.5 billion for the quarter.
Sales volume also increased over the course of the quarter, showing a growth of 7 years year-on-year and average price also.
We closed the quarter with an average price of BRL 7.5 per kilo. The average was a result better than the end of March due to the end of January, which had a higher weight on the sale of wheat flour and [indiscernible] a better price than in cookies and pastas.
So the difference between March and January, it was basically due to changes in the mix. Looking here in details by category-by-category, average price, volume and net revenue, the average price year-on-year, we had an expansion in all categories of M. Dias Branco in cookies, pasta, wheat flour and bran, margarine and shortening and others, which already had toast, snacks and cakes which portfolio was complemented with our acquisitions, Latinex, Jasmine and all of the different categories of pastas of Las Acacias.
The volumes grew in all categories, except in margin and shortening, which had a small falloff of 7%. But perhaps the biggest would be the category of cookies, where we have half of our revenue and the best margins and had an increase in volume of 11.7%.
Net revenue grew in all categories with a highlight in the category of others, which doubled in size, had a growth of 116% year-on-year with the result of revenue -- well balanced revenue between increase in average price and increase in volume. We also have to look at category-by-category.
To give it a zoom in the average price, as I mentioned here, year-on-year in the first quarter of '22 to the first quarter of '23, there was an increase in average price, which went from BRL 5 per kilo to BRL 6.2 per kilo going from the fourth quarter of '22 to the first quarter of '23.
There was a short -- a small decrease. This small decrease in average price was due to one thing. The average price in wheat and wheat flour and brand, which had a price closer to its commodity price wheat, which has a public price.
It has presented a price -- a fall in price, which has been accompanied in the average price of the commodity while the other categories in pastas, margin and shortening, cookies and in the groups, all the other categories, we had an increase in the average price quarter-on-quarter. And average is -- an example, this is cookies, where we closed the quarter with BRL 10.5 per kilo.
Vision of our revenue per commercial area, we had a growth in revenue of double digits -- high double digits, both in the defense areas as well as in our attack areas and opening this growth in revenue by average price and volume.
In both commercial areas, we had excellent performance in these two variables. Average price in the defense area grew by 28%. And the volumes by 7%. In the attack area, 24% in price increase and 10% by volume. And so there was a good balance between growth in average price and volume, in both commercial areas in which M. Dias Branco operates.
Our market share, measured in value and in market share volume. In the market share value, we have an increase of growth in our three principal categories: Cookies and crackers, pasta and wheat flour compared year-on-year, from 1Q '22 to 1Q '23. Wheat flour, for instance, we had a year-on-year, we went from a position of 9.8% and to 12.7%.
So here, we see a good performance both in the defense areas where we have this category for many -- for a long time as well as the attack areas where we entered recently through the Bento Goncalves mill in market share volume that which is measured in tonnes, with the exception of the category of cookies and crackers where we had a small retraction and the other two categories, we had an increase in market share, both in the comparison year-on-year as well as quarter-on-quarter. Again, we have the example of domestic wheat flour went from 8.7% to 11.2%, sustaining our participation above 10%.
Going to the area of revenue to costs and expenses. We start here with the gross margin. In the first quarter of '22, we had a gross margin of 27%. And in the fourth -- in the first -- in the fourth quarter, 24.8%. And in the first quarter of '23, 27%. In other words, our margin in the first quarter was better than in the previous quarter and in the first quarter of last year.
In the comparison with the first quarter of '22, the principal factor, which responsible for expansion of margin was average price. Average price went from BRL 5 per kilo to 6.2% -- BRL 6.2 per kilo.
The cost in the first quarter of '23 was still a little bit above that of the first quarter of '22 due to the price of wheat and commodity price of wheat in dollars and palm oil in dollars. When we compare this margin -- this gross margin in the first quarter of '23 with the fourth quarter of '22, we start to see a benefit due to the falloff in prices -- in costs.
So we have the benefit of the reduction in cost, which is already contracted for the next quarters. What was captured up until this moment was principally the expansion of average price. And what we see here in the next slide is with the graphs of wheat and palm oil, both with their prices in dollars per tonne, the curves in red show the average -- the spot price and the blue line, the price -- average price of the stock of M. Dias.
What we see is that in wheat, it continues with the tendency of a downward tendency. BRL 342 for our stock in March -- BRL 350 in March and BRL 349 in January.
In other words, our cost is getting close to the price of the commodity price in the market. Remembering that there's always a certain delay in -- due to the fact that we have 4 months of stock of wheat and improvement in our margin year-on-year this year happened principally due to the increase in our average prices and the benefit has and we will still receive the benefits of lower costs. Palm oil basically is the same as wheat.
We've already started to see an improvement in the average price of our stock with the potential to get closer to the spot price practiced in the market, which is also with a downward trend. As we saw at the end of last year, [ $ 1,312 ] tonne. And in April, $1,100 for the tonne of palm oil.
Our administrative dispenses and sales expenses, selling expenses continue at a level within our expectations. We closed this quarter with 20.7% better than the fourth quarter of '22 and better than the first quarter of '22. So remembering that 4 or 5 years ago, we operated with at a level between 27% and 28%. This fall from 27%, 28% to 20% happened in part due to the increase of the average price of our products, but also due to all of the work of productivity and efficiency, which has been accomplished in the years of 2020 and '21 such as the [indiscernible] program and the organizational redesign.
The results of this increase in margin and control of expenses brought us to an EBITDA margin of 7% in the quarter, with a growth compared to the fourth quarter and the first quarter of '22, both in margin as well as in absolute value. BRL 173 versus BRL 130 in the first quarter of last year, 88.9 in the first quarter last year.
As I mentioned previously in relation to the quarter ended with much better than it began. And we finished the month of March with an EBITDA margin of 13% and a nominal EBITDA of BRL 130 million. This dynamic of the EBITDA also was reflected in our profit, the profit of the first quarter of '23 was better than the last quarter and the first quarter of '22 and the expansion of net margin.
As far as [indiscernible], we also had lower financial expenses since we're working with hedges a little bit shorter hedges than we had in the fourth quarter of '22 and the first quarter of '22.
Looking now at the section on cash generation and investments. We closed this quarter with a leverage measured by the net revenue measured by the EBITDA the last 12 months of 1.6 less than the 1.8% of the fourth quarter of '22 and a little bit above the first quarter of '22. Why is it above first quarter '22? Because in this period, we made an extraordinary distribution of interest on capital and made the acquisition of Alimentos Las Acacias.
Our expectation going forward is to reduce this leverage as the company goes into a moment of cost reduction, maintenance of average prices and potential EBITDA expansion and generation of cash.
In terms of working capital, there was an investment of BRL 46 million in the first quarter of '23 lower than the investments of the first quarter of '22, which was BRL 103 million. Here, there was a small retraction in the term of suppliers.
The purchase volume is stable and a small increase in the in the balance of stock of inventories in the first quarter of '23. We had -- we registered BRL 45 million of CapEx in the first quarter of '23 slightly below last year's, 10% below last year with highlighting the investments being made, principally in digital transformation.
Looking at the ESG section. These are the principal indicators that we control and monitor and to which we give visibility every quarter, consumption of water, residues, water reuse, production process losses, finished product waste, which was stable, women in leadership, frequency and occupational accidents and severity of accidents, all of which had a significant reduction compared to last year.
The strengthening of our alliances through the purchases from local purchases -- local suppliers was also registered an important increase in the quarter. Here's a few important facts, which happened during this last few months.
The Great Place to Work seal, and several other initiatives, which were focused on sustainability, also in innovation such as the release of the fifth version of the German arm program, which is set up in the world of innovation. So now we can thank you. I pass the word over to Gustavo. And afterwards, we'll enter into the question and answers.
Thank you, Fabio. Good morning, everyone. Just to conclude, I would like to initiate -- congratulating M. Dias for their 70 years and for all of our employees who have done an incredible job working entirely and transforming the company into the company as we like to say, even bigger and even better.
As also to our clients and suppliers for their cooperation and this trajectory to our controllers who support us in the day-to-day with us in this journey of growth with profitability -- as Fabio mentioned in the slide, which speaks about our strategic plan.
As far as results, the company continues with an improvement -- a structural improvement in its operations, as we mentioned in our numbers, even in an environment, which is still quite challenging of inflation, high interest rates, financial costs, record revenue in the period.
Growth in average prices, qualification of our portfolio with more items of added value, fruit of innovation. Fruit also of our acquisitions with gains in market share, SG&A, as we mentioned in the last call, controlled under that level, which we have told you about of 20% of net revenue, leveraging -- diminishing and our operational metrics -- with the supply people doing a great job, execution being improved by people from the commercial area, trade marketing and marketing at the point of sale.
And finally, we start to see in a substantial way in this quarter the cooling of our costs in commodities, especially wheat and palm oil, wheat coming back to its levels pre-war, which gives us a certain comfort quarter-by-quarter, but also structurally the most important is, in spite of the global scenario, the company is very well structured and both from its portfolio as well as its point of sale. I'm going to open up for questions and answers now. And then Fabio and I will be back for the closing.
[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Gustavo Troyano from Itau BBA.
I wanted to ask a question about your margin in March, which you showed of 13%, especially looking forward, we've seen that the costs have fallen, which leaves [indiscernible] bring that the margin should expand even more if prices don't go down. I wanted to explore with you how you've seen competition reacting to this falloff in prices. And looking at your slide, where you put the vectors a margin, you put exchange rates,to wheat and palm oil.
It's hard to see all of these variables helping you historically, and we see this going forward, but it's difficult to compare this with historic because historically, it's hard to see all of these variables playing in favor of the company.
I want to so -- if there's room for the competition to become a little more aggressive, even though they have not been as aggressive in the past, since all of the variables have helped them to lower costs. And so I wanted to hear from you how you see your relationship with the competition and especially in the second quarter going forward in relation to prices.
This is Fabio speaking. I'm going to start the answer. It's a fact, yes, that as we demonstrated in the slide in the graph of wheat and palm oil that both commodities are falling. The price of both commodities is falling. And [indiscernible] other element, which is the exchange rate, which up until the moment has presented the Real has appreciated, which is another positive factor for our structure of costs -- of our cost structure. In relation to the average price, you're correct.
It is a very -- the average price is a variable, an important variable because without a doubt, the maintenance of average prices of finished products with the reduction of commodity prices creates conditions for recovery of margins in March. We already saw this in March. And as I mentioned here in the presentation, in the vision year-on-year.
A large part of the improvement in margins in the first quarter came from the increase -- improvement in average prices, and there's still a benefit the volume costs still to be captured. M. Dias over the last years has been preparing greatly and worked hard in its processes and his teams, and his tools so that the improvement in average prices is less and less dependent on price adjustments or in other words, price on our list.
So all the work that has been done in mix between mix of categories, mix within the categories [ re-adecuacion ] of the size of our packaging, lingering products with higher volumes and higher margins such as [indiscernible] jasmine, which adds to our portfolio items such as with the higher prices approximately BRL 20, which is comparable to BRL 6 for M. Dias.
So there's a whole group of initiatives and concrete actions, which already are underway, which improves our average price. So I think the first message here is we're less and less dependent on price adjustments to increase our average price. Going to your -- the central point of your question, up until the current moment, we have observed a very rational movement in the market. Obviously, someone could always become a little more aggressive or a one-off in a certain region. But in general, we've seen a scenario, a very rational scenario among our competition.
Fabio, one last question I wanted to add. Even though the scenario is favorable in terms of commodities, the macro scenario is still not comfortable. We still -- financial costs quite high. We know that there's still several companies, competitors of M. Dias with high levels of leverage, then we have, the margins are in the trajectory of recovering, but they have not yet recovered -- not totally recovered.
So if you look at the historic margins or EBITDA margin, we had [ size ] 17%. We're still heading back to 17%. The macro scenario is no different than it is for our competitors. I don't see any opening or any action for prices to go down. It's not what's happening in the market, and we saw it in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, we never saw any movement of any competitor in this sense. So these companies are starting to breathe a little bit and to re-establish the margins that they've always had. So we're in the phase of recovery still. Looking back, this hasn't happened yet, that doesn't mean that it won't happen. But as Fabio said, we're very rational in the market in which we operate both in the sector of pastas as well as in the cookies category, which represents 50% of our sales, M. Dias Branco sales.
Next question comes from Leonardo [indiscernible] from XP.
Congratulations on your results. I want to do a little follow-up on Gustavo's question. I understand that you are having success in passing along prices, improving the margins in your principal categories and there's also a dynamic of seasonality depending on the category. But if you could go in a little bit detail the question of regionalization, you said there was growth, both in the total share in the Southeast taking a little bit of volume from the Northeast, but also looking at the channels, there was an increase in participation in channels, which -- such as Cash & Carry, which have margins -- lowest margins and key accounts as well as small retailers.
If you could detail for us a little bit over the next quarters, thinking about this dynamic of recomposition of margins and the strategic thinking of you about these channels in your attack regions and how this could impact your margins or if this brings even more upside to your margins? How could this be positive to sustain the margins in the level of 13%.
And also, please, one more follow-up a comment about M&A. Always a sensitive subject, but looking at your financials, do you have anything on the radar?
This is Fabio speaking. I'm going to start with the answer to your -- to answer your question this result of growth, which we had in the first quarter, initially, it was very, very balanced and very much aligned with our strategy and our expectations.
We have, without a doubt, as we've been mentioning with you for quite a while, the expectation and strategy of growing more in our attack regions because that's where we have the best opportunity for gaining market share without lowering our guard in the area of defense.
And that's exactly what happened in this quarter from the point of view of average price, volume and revenue. Of course, the margin that we have in the Attack areas is not the same as in the defense areas. In the defense areas, we have a structure, which is already more concentrated utilization of our manufacturing capacity than in the attack areas, a market share position, which is better. So it's a different scale. For the growth outside of the attack area in the states of the Southeast, Center West and South.
So you asked if this could be -- I'm going to try to translate your question here, the growth in the attack area could hurt our margins. I would say no. It's something that is very much manageable. We already know exactly what are the levers, which need to be touched to avoid any type of margin reduction
in terms of regional mix and in the comparison with the margins from last year for 2022 all the upside in the capture of the reduction of costs and results.
The second part of your question in relation to M&A. No, obviously, we maintain our Radar connected, and we're always due to our size and our participation in the market and our scale and our balance sheet, we're always very attentive to what's happening in the market. But in this year, specifically, we have a focus -- a very big focus on the integration of the acquisitions, which we made over the last 18 months.
Latinex at the end of '21, Jasmine in August of '22, and Las Acacias in Uruguay in October of '22. Fabio, just to add Talking about the question of the upside over the next quarters. Where does it come from the subside? I would say that obviously, the first is coming from the reduction that you're seeing in the price of -- and the commodity prices, this -- we're going to start surfing on this wave in the next quarter. something that Fabio mentioned about due to our stocking and our hedges.
We've seen a lot of this happening in this -- in March, but a lot still to come. And in our top line growth, we don't see any price increases foreseen. So we came up with a price list at the beginning of the year 4%.
So we're going very slowly in certain markets. The price team is analyzing to see what's -- what channel and what regions or what categories, but we have nothing that's -- but yes, we have seen an expansion more gradual expansion in the mix due to the efforts which have been made in the point of sale and also due to the expansion that Fabio mentioned in the acquired companies, which have an average price of higher and a higher margin than the average of M. Dias Branco. We're talking about Jasmine, Latinex and these other acquisitions. Just to close my perception here on this line of pricing, flat pricing, but with a dynamic favorable dynamic on the side of costs, which will open your margins, if your capacity you might have expansion in the next few months, the next quarters, increasing your capacity, which also help with capacity -- with costs as well. We've seen that this quarter was the best quarter than the first quarter of last year. Conditions have improved.
However scenario -- internal scenario and the internal situation is not comfortable. We have high inflation, high financial costs in Brazil. We have no problem in relation to demand or volume is not where we expect this -- in these coming quarters.
However, it's still too early to say to talk about increasing -- relevant increases in volumes and utilization of capacity. We have to accompany the market. There's no yellow lights out there, but there's also no green light out there that volumes have come back with full force. It's a market that's still flat, but still more qualified with better prices, better mix, as we mentioned in March and more profitability. But the volumes, we still don't see, they are better than last year, but they are still not really strong.
The next question comes from [indiscernible] from BTG.
I wanted to make my first question. You've already commented on this a bit, but I wanted to ask you about your margins in March, looking at the costs. How much does this reflect the normalization, especially we talk about wheat, which changes quickly in the market, specifically in wheat -- low-cost wheat, which is -- this is more similar to what we should see in the coming quarters, or if there's still space to improve? And also looking at costs, when we look at palm oil, which you still have a stock -- an inventory, which is above what we see in the market price, what's your expectation for the company for these prices to converge? These two questions.
Fabio, wheat has space, yes, as I showed in the curve of the market of M. Dias. Since we have a 4-month stock, it takes a little while for M. Dias to capture this fall. But at the end of March, for the second quarter, there is space.
The question of palm oil, the benefits of palm oil in the market will start to pass through to our results in the middle of the second quarter. That's because we had a hedge position, which is a little bit longer for palm oil, reminding you that wheat will start to show up in our results in this next quarter. What we saw in March is just the beginning of that from 3 months ago. It should come more strongly. This reduction should show up more clearly in the next quarter.
The next question comes from Guilherme Palhares from Bank of America.
To do a follow-up on the previous questions, we see lots of companies still looking at a difficult scenario of consumption looking at the behavior of your consumers, do you see anything in terms of packaging size or promotional packaging?
Is there any tendency in this [indiscernible] direction? Or do you think that you have products that are so resilient that people might even have -- might trade up to the new brands, which are being added to your portfolio.
My second question just because I want to remember about your working capital. You mentioned a little bit about the question of your suppliers and the level -- a smaller level of acquisitions. At some point in time, do you think that this has impacted more in your working capital?
Okay. Talking about the consumption, nothing is different than the dynamic -- historic dynamic in terms of consumption of cookies, pastas and wheat flour. Last year, the markets for cookies and wheat flour were basically stable in volume, which is very close to the historical dynamic. They had growth in value above 20%.
The beginning of this year has also presented a volume dynamic very close to the historic levels. So we don't see any retraction in consumption neither in cookies or pasta or wheat flour. As -- when I look at the question on pricing, a rational environment -- there's a rational relationship among our competitors.
So trade up or trade down the consumer whether it's going to go to more expensive or cheaper brands, there's no relevant change. It collaborates our vision that these are categories which are quite resilient from the standpoint of consumption.
The question of working capital, yes, there was an increase in working capital comparing the first quarter of '23 with the fourth quarter of '22. The line of suppliers, which you mentioned, is within the level -- the historic levels for the first quarter. This has usually a moment when the company finances itself less with its suppliers because we have a smaller volume of purchases. So year-on-year, this level is close to BRL 700 million.
So no change -- no structural change in policy and no change in relationship with our suppliers, there has been, yes, a change in values in relation to the fourth quarter of '22. Because in the month of December, several payments that came due at the end of the month wound up spilling over into January due to a calendar effect of the holidays of Christmas and New Year's, but it was a situation which was much more a one-off than structural in nature. Our stocks have shown a tendency of falling at the end of the year to the first quarter of this year.
We believe that this tendency will continue since the price of commodities is falling for wheat and palm oil. And we had a mathematical effect. We had a release of working capital due to the prices of commodities. This observation from the standpoint of analysis, it's correct. There was consumption, yes, but this is mainly due to the calendar effect from December to January. There was no other factor -- no other relevant factor. From the standpoint of the clients also, there was no significant change in demand of any clients or the increase of nonpayment paid today. We're navigating in normal seas, no surprises in that area.
I just wanted to say that we will see -- so probably we'll see a normalization during this year. Is that correct?
Yes.
We are now closing the question-and-answer session. I would like to pass the word over to Gustavo for his final comments.
Once again, thank you for your participation. The IR team continues at your service for any questions in the sequence. Looking at the results of the quarter. And the final message is that we continue to be very optimistic in relation to the future of the company and the structural changes -- relevant changes for a better trajectory of growth and profitability. Once again, thank you and we'll see you in the next quarter. Thank you very much.
The M. Dias Branco video conference is now closed. We thank you for the participation. everyone, and have a good day.