Ambev SA (ABEV) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, good afternoon, and thank you for waiting. We would like to welcome everyone to Ambev's First Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. Today with us, we have Mr. Jean Jereissati, CEO of Ambev; and Mr. Lucas Lira, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. As a reminder, a live presentation is available for downloading on our website, ri.ambev.com.br, as well as through the webcast link of this call. (Operator Instructions)

早上好，下午好，感謝您的等待。歡迎大家參加 Ambev 2023 年第一季度業績電話會議。今天和我們在一起的是 Ambev 首席執行官 Jean Jereissati 先生；首席財務官兼投資者關係官 Lucas Lira 先生。提醒一下，現場演示可在我們的網站 ri.ambev.com.br 上下載，也可通過本次電話會議的網絡直播鏈接下載。 （操作員說明）

Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the Safe Harbor of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions on that management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions and strict conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Ambev and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.

在繼續之前，讓我提一下，前瞻性陳述是根據 1996 年證券訴訟改革法案的安全港做出的。前瞻性陳述是基於對該管理層的信念和假設以及公司目前可獲得的信息。它們涉及風險、不確定性和假設，因為它們與未來事件相關，因此取決於未來可能發生或不發生的情況。投資者應了解，總體經濟狀況和嚴格條件以及其他經營因素也可能影響 Ambev 的未來業績，並可能導致結果與此類前瞻性陳述中表達的結果存在重大差異。

I would also like to remind everyone that as usual, the percentage changes that will be discussed during today's call are both organic and normalized in nature, and unless otherwise stated, percentage changes refer to comparisons with the first quarter 2022 results. Normalized figures refer to performance measures before exceptional items, which are either income or expenses that do not occur regularly as part of Ambev's normal activity. As normalized figures are non-GAAP measures, the company discloses the consolidated profit, EPS, operating profit and EBITDA on a fully reported basis in the earnings release.

我還想提醒大家，與往常一樣，今天的電話會議將討論的百分比變化是有機的和標準化的，除非另有說明，百分比變化指的是與 2022 年第一季度結果的比較。標準化數字是指不考慮特殊項目的績效指標，這些項目是 Ambev 正常活動中不經常發生的收入或支出。由於標準化數據是非 GAAP 衡量指標，公司在收益發布中以全面報告的方式披露了合併利潤、每股收益、營業利潤和 EBITDA。

Now I will turn the conference over to Mr. Jean Jereissati. Mr. Jereissati, you may begin your conference.

現在我將把會議轉交給 Jean Jereissati 先生。 Jereissati 先生，您可以開始您的會議了。

Hello everyone. Thank you for joining our Q1 earnings call. During our last call, I had two key messages. First, that I was starting 2023 more confident than I started 2022 because of our business momentum, because of overall costs and expenses inflation coming down and because of our financial strength. Second, that in 2023, the plan was and still is to maintain top line momentum and accelerate EBITDA growth, with Brazil leading the way and international operations bouncing back as we continue to improve profitability not only in terms of ROIC, but also gross and EBITDA margins.

大家好。感謝您加入我們的第一季度財報電話會議。在我們上次通話中，我傳達了兩個關鍵信息。首先，由於我們的業務勢頭、整體成本和費用通脹下降以及我們的財務實力，我在 2023 年開始時比 2022 年開始時更有信心。其次，在 2023 年，我們的計劃過去是，現在仍然是保持收入增長勢頭並加速 EBITDA 增長，巴西處於領先地位，國際業務反彈，因為我們不僅在 ROIC 方面，而且在毛利潤和 EBITDA 方面繼續提高盈利能力邊距。

Well, I was happy to see that in this first quarter, we delivered on both fronts. Top line momentum persists, growing above 26%, ahead of costs and expenses. EBITDA growth accelerated nearly 40% year-over-year, which, by the way, was ahead of last year's growth with or without taking Argentina into account, with Brazil continuing to perform well while international operations are recovering. And profitability improved, with gross margin expanding 290 basis points and EBITDA margin expanding 310 bps.

好吧，我很高興看到在第一季度，我們在兩個方面都取得了成果。收入增長勢頭持續，增長超過 26%，高於成本和支出。 EBITDA 同比增長近 40%，順便說一句，無論是否考慮阿根廷，這都超過了去年的增長，巴西在國際業務正在復甦的同時繼續表現良好。盈利能力有所改善，毛利率擴大 290 個基點，EBITDA 利潤率擴大 310 個基點。

In other words, a good start to the year. Let's see how we got there. In Brazil Beer, according to our estimates, industry grew mid-single digits in the quarter, backed by Carnival celebrations returning to the street despite the rainy weather. Such growth, however, was partially offset by tough comps as mask mandates was lifted in March last year. With that, our volumes grew around 1%, with flat market share versus last year, according to our estimates. As our sell-out volumes were higher than sell-in, given a disciplined revenue management during the typically discounted Carnival season.

換句話說，今年開局不錯。讓我們看看我們是如何到達那裡的。根據我們的估計，巴西啤酒行業在本季度實現了中等個位數增長，這得益於狂歡節慶祝活動在陰雨天氣中重返街頭。然而，由於去年 3 月取消了口罩授權，這種增長被艱難的補償部分抵消了。因此，根據我們的估計，我們的銷量增長了 1% 左右，市場份額與去年持平。由於我們在通常打折的狂歡節期間進行了嚴格的收入管理，因此我們的銷售量高於銷售量。

Our premium and super premium brands, such as Original, Spaten and Stella. In Corona, grew almost 35%, and the core segment remained resilient. And thanks to consistent investments behind our brands and capabilities, the health of our super premium- and premium-focused portfolio continued to improve. We estimate our brands added over 700,000 stands versus last year and almost 4 billion since 2019.

我們的優質和超優質品牌，例如 Original、Spaten 和 Stella。在科羅納，增長近 35%，核心部分保持彈性。由於我們的品牌和能力背後的持續投資，我們的超高端和高端產品組合的健康狀況持續改善。我們估計我們的品牌比去年增加了超過 700,000 個展位，自 2019 年以來增加了近 40 億個。

Also, relationship with our customers remain making progress, with NPS reaching over 60 points. Net revenue per hectoliter increased above 13% versus last year and almost 3% sequentially, following our revenue management strategy. And despite the expected pressure on Cash COGS per hectoliter, EBITDA grew 24%, the highest increase since the first quarter of 2009, with margin expansion of 250 bps, supported by a deceleration of distribution expenses growth as well as savings initiatives on administrative expenses.

此外，與客戶的關係不斷取得進展，NPS 達到 60 多分。按照我們的收入管理策略，每百升淨收入與去年相比增長了 13% 以上，環比增長了近 3%。儘管預計每百升現金銷貨成本面臨壓力，但 EBITDA 增長了 24%，是自 2009 年第一季度以來的最高增幅，利潤率增長了 250 個基點，這得益於分銷費用增長放緩以及行政費用節約舉措。

In NAB, commercial momentum also continued. Volumes grew above 7%, thanks to a strong portfolio and a wider distribution boosted by BEES. Pepsi Black grew over 200%, now representing 14% of Pepsi Cola portfolio. And Guarana Antartica grew almost 7%, led by Guarana Zero. Net revenue per hectoliter increased almost 11%, following a consistent revenue management strategy and a positive brand and pack mix. EBITDA grew 47%, supported also by cash COGS per hectoliter growth deceleration, leading to a 530 bps margin expansion.

在 NAB，商業勢頭也在繼續。由於強大的產品組合和 BEES 推動的更廣泛的分銷，銷量增長超過 7%。百事可樂黑色增長超過 200%，目前佔百事可樂產品組合的 14%。 Guarana Antartica 在 Guarana Zero 的帶動下增長了近 7%。在實施一致的收入管理策略以及積極的品牌和包裝組合後，每百升淨收入增長了近 11%。 EBITDA 增長 47%，還受到每百升現金銷售成本增長減速的支持，導致利潤率增長 530 個基點。

Regarding our tech platforms, our marketplace in Brazil continues to go in the right direction. GMV grew by 36% versus last year, and cash gross margin increased 790 bps. We have been working with our partners to expand the offering of their set of products as we still see room to improve SKUs per customer on top of continuing expanding the assortment of marketplace products. After the FIFA World Cup and Carnival activations, Ze Delivery's awareness continued to grow sequentially, and it is present in almost 450 cities in Brazil. As a result, they reached 5 million monthly active users, and GMV grew 5% versus last year.

關於我們的技術平台，我們在巴西的市場繼續朝著正確的方向發展。 GMV 比去年增長 36%，現金毛利率增長 790 個基點。我們一直在與我們的合作夥伴合作，以擴大他們產品系列的供應，因為我們仍然看到在繼續擴大市場產品種類的基礎上改進每個客戶的 SKU 的空間。在 FIFA 世界杯和狂歡節活動之後，Ze Delivery 的知名度持續增長，目前已遍布巴西近 450 個城市。結果，他們的月活躍用戶達到了 500 萬，GMV 比去年增長了 5%。

Turning to our international operations. In LAS, macro environment remains a challenge, bringing volatility to our operations and inflationary pressure on disposable incomes. Volumes decreased almost 8%, driven mostly by Argentina and Chile. Revenue grew 66%, driven by revenue management initiatives, especially in Argentina, which supported EBITDA margin expansion of 600 bps.

轉向我們的國際業務。在阿盟，宏觀環境仍然是一個挑戰，給我們的運營帶來波動，並對可支配收入造成通脹壓力。銷量下降近 8%，主要受阿根廷和智利的推動。在收入管理舉措的推動下，收入增長了 66%，尤其是在阿根廷，這支持了 EBITDA 利潤率增長 600 個基點。

In Argentina, despite industry decline and our market share going slightly down, premium brands gained weight in our portfolio. Our plan to perform operational hedging continues evolving and we are more agile in making decisions to protect our cash flow generation in dollars as macro conditions change. The decision to lower coverage of our financial hedge still stood this quarter and resulted in improvements in cash flow. The decision to lower coverage of our financial hedge still stood this quarter and resulted in improvements in cash flow.

在阿根廷，儘管行業下滑且我們的市場份額略有下降，但高端品牌在我們的產品組合中的權重增加了。我們執行運營對沖的計劃在不斷發展，隨著宏觀環境的變化，我們可以更加靈活地做出決策，以保護我們以美元計價的現金流量。降低我們的金融對沖覆蓋率的決定在本季度仍然有效，並導致現金流有所改善。降低我們的金融對沖覆蓋率的決定在本季度仍然有效，並導致現金流有所改善。

In Chile, volumes suffered mostly due to continued industry slowdown. Even with less volume, EBITDA improved, supported by expanded local production capacity reducing import levels. Bolivia, on the other hand, grew volumes as it continues on the recovery path after COVID-19 restrictions last year. In fact, sequential improvement continued this quarter. Revenue is back to growth, driven by net revenue per hectoliter, and gross profit grew almost 9% after a year of decline. EBITDA declined by 2% as we lapped over a low base in SG&A.

在智利，銷量下降主要是由於行業持續放緩。即使銷量下降，EBITDA 也有所改善，這得益於當地產能擴大、進口水平下降。另一方面，玻利維亞在去年 COVID-19 限制後繼續走上復甦之路，銷量有所增長。事實上，本季度環比改善仍在繼續。在每百升淨收入的推動下，收入恢復增長，毛利潤在經歷了一年的下滑後增長了近 9%。 EBITDA 下降了 2%，因為我們在 SG&A 方面的基數較低。

The Dominican Republic continues ahead in terms of recovery. Volumes grew by low single digits, led by Presidente Brand Family, which suffered from lack of bottles last year. In Canada, volume grew by 5%, driven by both industry lapping historically bad weather and COVID-19 restrictions in early 2022 and estimated market share gains in both beer and beyond beer. Our premium brands led the pack, growing above 10%.

多米尼加共和國在復蘇方面繼續領先。銷量以低個位數增長，其中 Presidente Brand Family 為首，該品牌去年因缺瓶而受苦。在加拿大，銷量增長了 5%，這得益於行業在 2022 年初應對歷史上惡劣的天氣和 COVID-19 的限制，以及啤酒和其他啤酒市場份額的估計增長。我們的高端品牌領先，增長超過 10%。

In terms of brand health, our above core brands are healthier, with highlight to Corona, the highest brand power in the country. Net revenue per hectoliter grew above 9%, following revenue management strategy and favorable mix impacts, and EBITDA grew 3.5%.

在品牌健康方面，我們的上述核心品牌更健康，其中以科羅娜為亮點，品牌力全國最高。在收入管理策略和有利的組合影響下，每百升淨收入增長超過 9%，EBITDA 增長 3.5%。

So the numbers for the quarter were good. But one thing that I would like to highlight today is that in order for Ambev to do well in a sustainable way, our ecosystem also has to do well. On the last call, I mentioned why I believe that the company is more and more solid from a cultural, operational and financial perspective. What I did not mention was that it's not just about us, but it's about the whole ecosystem. Our platform serves a purpose that goes beyond the company itself. For instance, as I mentioned before, it has been great to see number of fans of our brands growing and our NPS with customers continuously improving. Another information is that the NPS with our suppliers also reached the highest level of the past 6 years, as we have been collaborating more.

所以這個季度的數字很好。但我今天想強調的一件事是，為了讓 Ambev 以可持續的方式做好，我們的生態系統也必須做好。在最後一次通話中，我提到了為什麼我認為公司從文化、運營和財務角度來看越來越穩固。我沒有提到的是，這不僅僅是關於我們，而是關於整個生態系統。我們的平台服務於超越公司本身的目的。例如，正如我之前提到的，很高興看到我們品牌的粉絲數量不斷增長，我們的客戶淨推薦值不斷提高。另一個信息是，我們與供應商的NPS也達到了過去6年的最高水平，因為我們一直在加強合作。

We are also proud to see that as a result of our partnerships and relationships with different stakeholders of our ecosystem, we obtained significant results in terms of reputation, with Merco, the leading corporate reputation monitor in Latin America, ranking the company in the second place for the fifth consecutive year in Brazil and in the first position for the sixth consecutive year in Bolivia.

我們也很自豪地看到，由於我們與生態系統中不同利益相關者的伙伴關係和關係，我們在聲譽方面取得了顯著成果，拉丁美洲領先的企業聲譽監測機構 Merco 將公司排在第二位連續五年在巴西排名第一，連續六年在玻利維亞排名第一。

In Argentina, we evolved from fifth to fourth place.

在阿根廷，我們從第五位發展到第四位。

And finally, in terms of value creation, the value that's being created is also being shared with our ecosystem. To illustrate this point, I wanted to share some data from our value-added statement contained in our financials. In the first quarter, we generated roughly BRL 30 billion in gross revenues, of which approximately BRL 14 billion were paid to suppliers, about BRL 8 billion in taxes were collected, remuneration of our people and third-party capital were about BRL 1.8 billion each, and potential remuneration to shareholders corresponds to about BRL 3.8 billion. What this all means is that as Ambev grows, the ecosystem also benefits. And for Ambev to grow sustainably, the ecosystem also needs to thrive. And this is important to us as we think about creating a future with more cheers.

最後，在價值創造方面，正在創造的價值也與我們的生態系統共享。為了說明這一點，我想分享我們財務報表中包含的增值報表中的一些數據。第一季度，我們創造了大約 300 億雷亞爾的總收入，其中約 140 億雷亞爾支付給供應商，徵收約 80 億雷亞爾的稅收，我們的員工和第三方資本的報酬各約 18 億雷亞爾, 潛在的股東報酬約為 38 億巴西雷亞爾。這一切意味著，隨著 Ambev 的發展，生態系統也會受益。為了讓 Ambev 可持續發展，生態系統也需要蓬勃發展。這對我們很重要，因為我們正在考慮創造一個充滿歡呼聲的未來。

Now looking ahead, we continue to expect 2023 to bring both challenges and opportunities. But I remain confident that we are on the right track and the team is committed to deliver once again. Short-term volatility and challenges vary market by market, but we believe that our long-term strategy is sound and we will continue to focus on the things we can control and on executing our plan to deliver our ambitions for the year, which is continuous and consistent growth with profitability.

現在展望未來，我們繼續期待 2023 年將帶來挑戰和機遇。但我仍然相信我們走在正確的軌道上，團隊致力於再次交付。短期波動和挑戰因市場而異，但我們相信我們的長期戰略是合理的，我們將繼續專注於我們可以控制的事情並執行我們的計劃以實現我們今年的雄心壯志，這是持續的並與盈利能力保持一致的增長。

In terms of growth, we are talking about Brazil's momentum, and we are talking about international operations recovery leading to a consistent top and bottom line growth. And in terms of profitability, we are talking about not only improving ROIC once again, but also looking to improve gross and EBITDA margins as top line momentum remains while costs and expenses headwinds continues to ease.

在增長方面，我們談論的是巴西的發展勢頭，我們談論的是國際業務復甦導致收入和利潤持續增長。在盈利能力方面，我們不僅要再次提高 ROIC，還要提高毛利率和 EBITDA 利潤率，因為收入增長勢頭依然存在，而成本和支出的不利因素繼續緩解。

So having said all that, I would like to thank you all, and let me hand this over to Lucas. Thank you.

說了這麼多，我要感謝大家，讓我把這個交給盧卡斯。謝謝。

Thanks, Jean. Hello, everyone. I would like to kick things off by putting our Q1 performance into perspective in terms of what we expected would be the same and what should change during this year as compared to 2022.

謝謝，讓。大家好。我想從我們對今年第一季度業績的預期與 2022 年相比的預期相同以及應該發生的變化來開始。

Starting with what would be the same. First, top line growth remains a key priority, with net revenue performance once again driven more by net revenue per hectoliter than volumes. The result: nearly 27% net revenue per hectoliter growth with consistent performance across our regions.

從相同的開始。首先，收入增長仍然是一個關鍵優先事項，淨收入表現再次受到每百升淨收入而非銷量的推動。結果：每百升淨收入增長近 27%，我們各地區的業績保持一致。

Second, we expected a tougher Q1 given higher input cost pressures, but this time more from commodities than FX. The result: cash COGS per hectoliter increased about 20%, driven mainly by the timing of our barley and aluminum hedges.

其次，鑑於更高的投入成本壓力，我們預計第一季度將更加艱難，但這次更多來自商品而不是外匯。結果：每百升現金銷貨成本增加了約 20%，這主要是受我們大麥和鋁對沖的時機推動。

And third, our focus on value creation drivers such as return on invested capital, economic profit and free cash flow generation all remain. The result: cash flow from operating activities declined almost BRL 1 billion year-over-year, driven mostly by payables.

第三，我們仍然關注投資資本回報率、經濟利潤和自由現金流產生等價值創造驅動因素。結果：經營活動產生的現金流量同比下降近 10 億雷亞爾，主要受應付賬款影響。

Q1 payables are historically negative given the seasonality of our business, which has Q4 as our strongest quarter. Specifically with respect to Q1 2023, the decline is mainly a result of three things: number one, lower non-income tax payables in Brazil given lower sales volumes versus March 2022; number two, lower volumes in [CAC] and number three, a tough comp on non-income tax in Canada as H1 2022 taxes were deferred to H2, given COVID in Canada. However, for the full year, we expect cash generation to improve.

考慮到我們業務的季節性，第一季度應付賬款歷來為負，第四季度是我們最強勁的季度。具體到 2023 年第一季度，下降主要是由於三個因素造成的：第一，由於銷量低於 2022 年 3 月，巴西的非所得稅應付稅款較低；第二，[CAC] 的交易量較低，第三，由於加拿大的 COVID，由於 2022 年上半年的稅收被推遲到下半年，因此加拿大的非所得稅收入很難計算。然而，對於全年，我們預計現金產生會有所改善。

Now regarding what should change this year. First, we expected our cash COGS per hectoliter for Brazil Beer, excluding [non-Ambev] marketplace products to be significantly lower than the 16.6% growth in full year 2022. The result: cash COGS per hectoliter rose about 15%, and we expect this performance to improve materially during the remainder of the year as our aluminum hedges become a tailwind and the benefits from our FX hedges increase from Q2 onwards.

現在關於今年應該改變什麼。首先，我們預計巴西啤酒每百升的現金銷貨成本（不包括 [非 Ambev] 市場產品）將大大低於 2022 年全年 16.6% 的增長率。結果：每百升現金銷貨成本增長約 15%，我們預計由於我們的鋁對沖成為順風，並且我們的外匯對沖的好處從第二季度開始增加，因此在今年餘下的時間裡，這種表現將得到實質性改善。

Second, SG&A growth should improve given lower inflation overall as well as the implementation of internal restructurings designed to streamline and optimize our B2B, D2C and fintech technology big bets. The result: cash SG&A grew 27%, with administrative expenses growing 17% as we begin to capture projected savings, particularly in Brazil.

其次，鑑於整體通貨膨脹率較低以及旨在簡化和優化我們的 B2B、D2C 和金融科技技術大賭注的內部重組的實施，SG&A 的增長應該會有所改善。結果：現金 SG&A 增長了 27%，行政費用增長了 17%，因為我們開始獲得預計的節省，尤其是在巴西。

And third, CAC and Canada to deliver organic EBITDA growth. The result: CAC EBITDA was still about 2% below Q1 2022, but once again showed sequential improvements with a nearly flat EBITDA performance in the Dominican Republic. And Canada EBITDA was back to growth, delivering 3.5% improvement year-over-year. Our EBITDA reached BRL 6.4 billion in the quarter, an organic growth of almost 40% year-over-year and which is 8% above our compiled consensus that we now disclose on our website. So we start the year definitely on track to deliver better organic EBITDA growth in 2023 than the 17% organic growth we delivered last year.

第三，CAC 和加拿大實現有機 EBITDA 增長。結果：CAC EBITDA 仍比 2022 年第一季度低約 2%，但再次顯示連續改善，多米尼加共和國的 EBITDA 表現幾乎持平。加拿大 EBITDA 恢復增長，同比增長 3.5%。本季度我們的 EBITDA 達到 64 億雷亞爾，同比有機增長近 40%，比我們現在在網站上披露的匯總共識高出 8%。因此，我們今年年初肯定有望在 2023 年實現比去年 17% 的有機增長更好的有機 EBITDA 增長。

Turning to our net income performance. normalized profit totaled around BRL 3.8 billion in Q1 and organic growth of about 8% year-over-year, and which is 22% above our compiled consensus. This performance was driven mostly by the EBITDA growth we delivered, but also due to net finance results growing at a lower pace. Here, although on the one hand, interest expenses increased mainly due to fair value adjustments of payables pursuant to IFRS-13 and losses on nonderivative instruments that were mainly a result of noncash losses on intercompany balance sheet consolidation and third-party payables increased. On the other hand, losses on derivative instruments were actually lower than last year because of lower carry cost expenses in Brazil and Argentina. As you may recall, starting in Q3 2022, we have gradually reduced our financial hedging in Argentina, and this decision led to a positive year-over-year impact this quarter.

轉向我們的淨收入表現。第一季度標準化利潤總計約 38 億巴西雷亞爾，同比有機增長約 8%，比我們編制的共識高出 22%。這一業績主要是由我們實現的 EBITDA 增長推動的，但也歸因於淨財務業績增長放緩。在這裡，雖然一方面，利息支出增加主要是由於根據 IFRS-13 對應付款項的公允價值調整，以及主要由於公司間資產負債表合併的非現金損失和第三方應付款項增加導致的非衍生工具損失。另一方面，由於巴西和阿根廷的持有成本較低，衍生工具的損失實際上低於去年。您可能還記得，從 2022 年第三季度開始，我們逐漸減少了在阿根廷的金融對沖，這一決定在本季度產生了同比積極影響。

Before moving to Q&A, a quick update on tax litigation in Brazil. Since our full year 2022 earnings call, there have been new developments in some of our relevant cases that are worth mentioning. Accordingly, the Brazilian Supreme Court and the Administrative Tax Court recently issued rulings in connection with certain of our tax positions involving approximately BRL 9.5 billion that are classified as a possible, but not probable, chance of loss. And the good news is that the results were mostly favorable to the company, some of which we've already reclassified from possible to remote chance of loss. For further details, please refer to items 26 and 28 in the notes to our financial statements.

在進行問答之前，先快速了解一下巴西稅務訴訟的最新情況。自我們 2022 年全年財報電話會議以來，我們的一些相關案例有了新的發展，值得一提。因此，巴西最高法院和行政稅務法院最近就我們涉及約 95 億雷亞爾的某些稅務頭寸發布了裁決，這些頭寸被歸類為可能但不是很可能的損失機會。好消息是，結果大多對公司有利，我們已經將其中一些從可能的損失機會重新分類為遙遠的損失機會。有關詳細信息，請參閱我們的財務報表附註中的第 26 和 28 項。

We expect the administrative and judicial courts to continue ruling on certain of our tax positions in the coming months, such as tax assessments received in connection with the deductibility of the IOC, the deductibility of goodwill amortization expense and the Manaus free trade zone, as well as the case related to the ICMS substitute on the taxable basis of the PIS and COFINS. We will keep the market updated accordingly. And as we mentioned before, we believe in the merits of our legal position and that we will ultimately prevail.

我們預計行政法院和司法法院將在未來幾個月繼續對我們的某些稅務狀況作出裁決，例如收到的與 IOC 的可扣除性、商譽攤銷費用的可扣除性和馬瑙斯自由貿易區相關的稅收評估，以及在 PIS 和 COFINS 的徵稅基礎上替代與 ICMS 相關的案例。我們將相應地保持市場更新。正如我們之前提到的，我們相信我們法律地位的優點，我們最終會獲勝。

Finally, we will publish our 2022 ESG report on our website in the next few days. Stay tuned. That's it for me. Let's go to Q&A.

最後，我們將在未來幾天內在我們的網站上發布我們的 2022 年 ESG 報告。敬請關注。對我來說就是這樣。讓我們進入問答環節。

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) First question comes with Lucas Ferreira -- from Lucas Ferreira with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

謝謝。 （操作員說明）第一個問題來自盧卡斯費雷拉 - 來自摩根大通的盧卡斯費雷拉。請繼續。

Good morning, everybody. I hope you hear me well. My question is regarding your outlook for volumes and beer volumes in Brazil. From listening to your comments and also looking at some industry data, apparently March was a fairly weak month, I don't know if that's in all parts of Brazil. But just wondering if you have any views of why March was so weak and how -- if you see like, already a rebound in volumes in April, eventually in May. And your overall expectations given the tough comps for second quarter and third quarter, if you think these comps are really tougher than the first quarter, like you said, it's tough. So your outlook for volumes for the remainder over the year.

大家早上好。我希望你能聽到我的聲音。我的問題是關於您對巴西銷量和啤酒銷量的展望。從聽取您的評論並查看一些行業數據來看，顯然 3 月是一個相當疲軟的月份，我不知道巴西的所有地區是否都是如此。但只是想知道您是否對 3 月份如此疲軟的原因有任何看法，以及如何——如果您看到的話，4 月份的交易量已經反彈，最終在 5 月份反彈。考慮到第二季度和第三季度的艱難競爭，你的總體預期，如果你認為這些競爭真的比第一季度更艱難，就像你說的那樣，那就太艱難了。因此，您對今年剩餘時間的銷量前景。

Thank you very much, Lucas. So I mentioned in my call that we are -- so we are 7% in this quarter above the 2019 levels. So this is an important number for us to keep follow because there were a lot of noise during the pandemic and back and forth. But this quarter, we were 7%. Something happened on this quarter so that our sell-out volumes were ahead of our selling volumes. We kept our revenue management strategy disciplined while we saw overall market competitors really intensifying promotional activities. So that was one of the reasons why we couldn't put more products out in the trade, but overall market share with consumers, with sell-out volumes, they were okay. They were in line.

非常感謝你，盧卡斯。所以我在電話中提到我們 - 本季度我們比 2019 年的水平高出 7%。所以這對我們來說是一個重要的數字，因為在大流行期間來回有很多噪音。但本季度，我們是 7%。本季度發生了一些事情，因此我們的銷售量超過了銷售量。我們保持收入管理策略的紀律，同時我們看到整個市場競爭對手確實加強了促銷活動。所以這就是為什麼我們不能在交易中推出更多產品的原因之一，但與消費者的整體市場份額，以及銷售量，他們還可以。他們在排隊。

When we think about the performance compared with the last year, -- in reality, we did good in January -- in February, but somehow, it could be better in our view because of this promotional activity and our discipline on revenue management. We knew that March and April would be a tough comps because masks were lifted in the previous year. And they were good months when we think on a broader this has analyzed volume level of given March and April in a historical level. So in terms of this as analyzed, it was okay.

當我們考慮與去年相比的表現時，實際上，我們在 1 月份做得很好，在 2 月份，但不知何故，由於這種促銷活動和我們對收入管理的紀律，我們認為它可能會更好。我們知道 3 月和 4 月將是一場艱難的比賽，因為口罩在前一年就被取消了。當我們從更廣泛的角度考慮這已經分析了給定 3 月和 4 月的歷史水平的交易量水平時，他們是好月份。因此，就此而言，正如分析的那樣，沒關係。

We're going to have to wait a little bit more to understand how it's going to go, May and June, to really give a proper more color on the year. But we are confident, market share sequentially, it is growing, it's going up. Our brands are strong. The minimum salary is coming. So somehow, we believe that it will be a good year in terms of volumes.

我們將不得不再多等一會兒，才能了解 5 月和 6 月的情況，才能真正為這一年增添更多色彩。但我們有信心，市場份額連續增長，它正在上升。我們的品牌很強大。最低工資來了。因此，不知何故，我們相信就銷量而言，這將是豐收的一年。

The next question comes with Camila [DeVito] with UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Camila [DeVito]。

My question is about BEES. So could you give us more color on what drove the deceleration of sales coming from BEES?

我的問題是關於蜜蜂的。那麼，您能否為我們提供更多關於導致 BEES 銷售減速的原因？

Okay. So yes, so you're talking about probably about the marketplace, right? We are, in reality -- talking a little bit, BEES is responsible overall for 88% of our customers and 75% of our volumes are really covered by this. We are very proud that we reached 1.1 million customers accessing BIS and making their orders at some point in time. Customers are spending more than 20 minutes in the app per week, 95% of them are registered in our reward program. So the platform is -- in our NPS, with up to above 60% on the first quarter. And all this is really related with BEES.

好的。所以是的，所以你可能在談論市場，對吧？實際上，我們是——稍微談一下，BEES 總體上負責我們 88% 的客戶，而我們 75% 的業務量確實涵蓋在其中。我們感到非常自豪的是，我們有 110 萬客戶訪問 BIS 並在某個時間點下訂單。客戶每週在應用程序中花費超過 20 分鐘，其中 95% 已註冊我們的獎勵計劃。所以這個平台是——在我們的 NPS 中，第一季度高達 60% 以上。而這一切都與 BEES 息息相關。

Now talking about the marketplace, the GMV of non-Ambev products sold, we reached 400 million this year, it was 36% above last year. Looking at our portfolio, there is some seasonality, right, when we think sequentially when Q4 compared with Q1. So we have a part of our portfolio that we are trying to learn about how they perform in terms of seasonality. So we have hard liquors, we have water, food. So there is a seasonality that we are learning. But compared with last year, it was 36% above. Now we have more than 366 -- 630 SKUs. There is this opportunity to increase. And we are really working on getting -- on get deeper alliances on that. So we are learning with the GMVs and how each product performed month by month. But I would say that I'm happy.

現在談到市場，非 Ambev 產品銷售的 GMV，我們今年達到了 4 億，比去年增長了 36%。看看我們的投資組合，當我們按順序考慮第四季度與第一季度相比時，有一些季節性，對吧。因此，我們有一部分投資組合正試圖了解它們在季節性方面的表現。所以我們有烈酒、水和食物。所以我們正在學習季節性。但與去年相比，增長了36%。現在我們有超過 366 - 630 個 SKU。有這個機會增加。我們真的在努力——在這方面建立更深層次的聯盟。所以我們正在學習 GMV 以及每個產品如何逐月表現。但我會說我很高興。

So if we -- another thing is that the gross margin of the products that we had in this quarter were much better than the gross profit that we had last year. Last year, we were with a lot of commodities. Now we have alliances and brands. So somehow, I'm confident with the potential of the marketplace platform. It will sweat our assets, low investment that's good returns and increasing margins and consistent growth.

因此，如果我們 - 另一件事是我們本季度的產品毛利率比我們去年的毛利率好得多。去年，我們有很多商品。現在我們有了聯盟和品牌。所以不知何故，我對市場平台的潛力充滿信心。它將消耗我們的資產，低投資帶來良好的回報，增加利潤和持續增長。

Next question comes from Thiago Duarte with BTG Pactual.

下一個問題來自 BTG Pactual 的 Thiago Duarte。

I have a question and a follow-up. I will start with a follow-up on the Lucas's remarks regarding working capital, the beginning of the call, Lucas. And this actually circles back to a discussion I think we had in this call last year with regards to working capital consumption. So I appreciate the one-offs that you clarified to us, but the (inaudible) teAM is still looking, trying to think of the level of working capital of the business relative to sales or to cost. It looks like the cash conversion cycle of the business has worsened. So I understand the seasonality, I understand the tax payables adjustments in Canada and so on. But just wondering if there is something else that could be changing more -- in a more structural way, the working capital intensity of the business so we can think of this line going forward, that would be great to hear.

我有一個問題和一個後續行動。我將從跟進盧卡斯關於營運資金的評論開始，盧卡斯。這實際上又回到了我認為我們去年在這次電話會議中就營運資金消耗進行的討論。因此，我感謝您向我們澄清的一次性問題，但（聽不清）團隊仍在尋找，試圖考慮與銷售額或成本相關的業務營運資金水平。看起來企業的現金轉換週期已經惡化。所以我了解季節性，我了解加拿大的應納稅調整等等。但只是想知道是否還有其他可以改變更多的東西——以一種更具結構性的方式，即企業的營運資本強度，這樣我們就可以考慮這條線向前發展，這很高興聽到。

And the question more on big picture level is with regards to top line health and top line performance and the brand health of (inaudible). You mentioned in your remarks that you guys put in the earnings release that the brand health is improving and particularly talking about Brazil Beer. So just wondering what kind of metrics you're looking at to think of brand health, which brands are performing better and which brands are performing not so well? And how that drives, in your view going forward, the capacity of the portfolio to recompose margins via pricing without jeopardizing share or jeopardizing the category, which is something that you guys have been putting a lot of effort into preserving in the last few years. So just if you could summarize a little bit how that impacts the capacity of the company to drive pricing, that would be great as well.

而更重要的問題是關於頂線健康和頂線性能以及（聽不清）的品牌健康。你在評論中提到，你們在收益發布中提到品牌健康狀況正在改善，特別是談論巴西啤酒。所以只是想知道您正在考慮什麼樣的指標來考慮品牌健康，哪些品牌表現更好，哪些品牌表現不佳？在您看來，這將如何推動投資組合通過定價重組利潤率的能力，而不會危及份額或危及該類別，這是你們在過去幾年中一直在努力保持的東西。因此，如果你能總結一下這如何影響公司推動定價的能力，那也很好。

I will -- okay. So I'll get the second one, Thiago, and then Lucas, go back to the first one. So yes, so when we present our strategy, the pillar #1 and #2 is really about having loved brands as the pillar #1. Pillar #2 is really about our ability to innovate. So these are the most important topics of our strategy. And we follow a metric that we call a number of lovers that I mentioned. So the number of consumers that mentioned that they love one of our brands. And we've been growing this metric. This is more of a portfolio metric for us to understand if the overall portfolio has been more loved. So we increased this metric in 4 million consumers when we compare to pre-pandemic levels. In the short term, we increased 700,000 lovers or fans of our brand that mention that one of our brands became one of the brands that they launched.

我會——好的。所以我會得到第二個，蒂亞戈，然後是盧卡斯，回到第一個。所以是的，所以當我們提出我們的戰略時，支柱#1 和#2 實際上是將喜愛的品牌作為支柱#1。支柱 #2 實際上是關於我們的創新能力。因此，這些是我們戰略中最重要的主題。我們遵循一個指標，我們稱之為我提到的戀人數量。所以提到他們喜歡我們的品牌之一的消費者數量。我們一直在增加這個指標。這更像是一個投資組合指標，讓我們了解整體投資組合是否更受歡迎。因此，與大流行前的水平相比，我們在 400 萬消費者中增加了這一指標。在短期內，我們增加了 700,000 名我們品牌的愛好者或粉絲，他們提到我們的一個品牌成為他們推出的品牌之一。

Another one is really about the brand power. The brand power is a merit -- is a metric that we believe that brand power today is market share in the future, and we are doing well in this metric. The brands that are -- so there is up and down in this overall metric when you think about portfolio. But the brands that are really performing well -- Corona is doing very well. Spaten is doing very well. Stella, Grupo. Again, Budweiser is doing well, and Brahma is brands that are doing very well. Original is doing very well, too. The Long-tail, we suffer a little bit more. So we are suffering a little bit more with Bohemia. So that's one example. But the focus brands, the brands that we are -- they are performing very well.

另一個是關於品牌力量。品牌力是一個優點——我們相信今天的品牌力就是未來的市場份額，我們在這個指標上做得很好。品牌 - 所以當你考慮投資組合時，這個整體指標會上下波動。但真正表現出色的品牌——Corona 表現非常好。 Spaten 做得很好。斯特拉，Grupo。同樣，百威啤酒做得很好，而 Brahma 是做得很好的品牌。 Original 也做得很好。長尾，我們多受一點苦。所以我們在波希米亞問題上受的苦更多一點。這就是一個例子。但是焦點品牌，我們的品牌——他們表現非常好。

If you look at our asset -- our net revenue per hectoliter this quarter, it was well ahead of the consumer pricing facing a big churn profit. It was really the high-end performance, the high end in the premium performance, the brand mix. So we are seeing these brands really being able to grow and drive mix and even to sustain more price than we previously expected.

如果你看看我們的資產——我們本季度每百升的淨收入，它遠遠領先於面臨巨大利潤流失的消費者定價。這真的是高端性能，高端性能，品牌組合。因此，我們看到這些品牌確實能夠增長和推動組合，甚至能夠維持比我們之前預期更高的價格。

For example, you know that when we designed the innovation strategy of the company, so we brought Spaten with this view that the core plus segment, the industry premium, the core plus, plus segment would be a white space that we should bring the international brands with quality cues, heritage and performing so well that now we are seeing Spaten like growing. And it went from like 125%, 130% price index to really 140%, 145%. So as it goes, it's really been sustaining more price. So this is one example. So yes, a big part of our strategy on pricing on all brands is really to get a strong brand to be able to gain market share and drive mix and pricing, and this is working. So a big part of this net revenue per hectoliter that you saw, it was (inaudible).

例如，你知道，當我們設計公司的創新戰略時，我們把 Spaten 帶到了這樣的觀點，核心加細分市場，行業溢價，核心加加細分市場將是一個空白，我們應該把國際具有質量線索、傳統和表現如此出色的品牌，現在我們看到 Spaten 正在成長。它從 125%、130% 的價格指數變成了真正的 140%、145%。因此，它確實一直在維持更高的價格。所以這是一個例子。所以，是的，我們對所有品牌定價的戰略的很大一部分實際上是讓一個強大的品牌能夠獲得市場份額並推動組合和定價，這是有效的。所以你看到的每百升淨收入的很大一部分是（聽不清）。

Hi Thiago, Lucas here, thank you for the question. In terms of the cash conversion cycle kind of being structurally worse, I think the short answer is no, okay. And the reason for that is I think as you know, we have a negative working capital. And given the seasonality of our business, right, Q1 is typically a quarter of less cash generation. And Q4 is actually the quarter where like the bulk of our cash flow generation and our performance in terms of working capital really moves the needle, okay? So I think it's important not to necessarily draw any longer-term conclusions just based on Q1 performance. It's important to look at the full year.

嗨蒂亞戈，這裡是盧卡斯，謝謝你的提問。就現金轉換週期在結構上更糟而言，我認為簡短的回答是否定的，好吧。原因是我認為如您所知，我們的營運資金為負。考慮到我們業務的季節性，第一季度通常會減少四分之一的現金產生。第四季度實際上是我們產生的大部分現金流和我們在營運資金方面的表現真正發生變化的季度，好嗎？因此，我認為重要的是不要僅根據第一季度的表現得出任何長期結論。重要的是要看全年。

But speaking specifically about Q1, I ended up in my prepared remarks focusing more on payables, but I think it's important to break down and give some -- shed some light also on receivables and inventories. Okay. So if you start looking at receivables in Q1 2022, we actually had a monetization of tax credits of about BRL 600 million. And so that positively impacted our receivables performance last year, whereas this year, we didn't have any relevant monetization of tax credits, okay? So that's an additional element that needs to be factored in when looking at the year-over-year performance of our working capital. And so far as receivables are concerned.

但具體談到第一季度，我最終在準備好的評論中更多地關注了應付賬款，但我認為重要的是要分解並給出一些 - 也闡明應收賬款和庫存。好的。因此，如果您開始查看 2022 年第一季度的應收賬款，我們實際上有大約 6 億雷亞爾的稅收抵免貨幣化。因此，這對我們去年的應收賬款業績產生了積極影響，而今年，我們沒有任何相關的稅收抵免貨幣化，好嗎？因此，在查看我們營運資金的同比表現時，這是一個需要考慮的額外因素。就應收賬款而言。

And in terms of the inventories, the performance was actually positive, okay, Thiago, because we continue to actively manage inventory planning, not only of raw materials, but also finished goods. And so we continue to focus on the levers we control and having a lot of discipline to make sure that our cash conversion cycle, which historically has been one of our strongholds -- obviously, it's a high threshold for us, but we're continuing to look at ways to sustain and/or improve our cash conversion cycle, okay?

在庫存方面，表現實際上是積極的，好吧，Thiago，因為我們繼續積極管理庫存計劃，不僅是原材料，還有成品。因此，我們繼續專注於我們控制的槓桿，並有很多紀律來確保我們的現金轉換週期，這在歷史上一直是我們的據點之一——顯然，這對我們來說是一個高門檻，但我們仍在繼續看看維持和/或改善我們的現金轉換週期的方法，好嗎？

And then just to add a little bit more on the payables side, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, the biggest impact came from Brazil. Okay? And this was mostly on nonincome taxes as payables because given the way tax collection mechanics for safe [AT], for excise taxes work in Brazil, taxes that are old given March volumes are actually paid in April. So the higher the volumes are in March, the higher the payables. And the opposite is also true. And this is exactly what happened this time around. March 2022 volumes were very high, as Jean mentioned, so more payables. In March 2023, we had a tough comp, volumes declined, so less payables, okay? But this is a temporary effect and this should not be a relevant factor from a full year perspective, okay? So that's now issue #1 that we faced this time around.

然後只是在應付賬款方面增加一點，正如我在準備好的發言中提到的那樣，最大的影響來自巴西。好的？這主要是作為應付款的非所得稅，因為考慮到安全 [AT] 的稅收機制，對於巴西的消費稅工作，舊的 3 月份稅款實際上是在 4 月份支付的。因此，3 月份的交易量越大，應付賬款就越高。反之亦然。這正是這次發生的事情。正如 Jean 提到的那樣，2022 年 3 月的交易量非常高，因此應付賬款更多。 2023 年 3 月，我們遇到了困難，銷量下降，應付賬款減少，好嗎？但這是暫時的影響，從全年的角度來看，這不應該是一個相關因素，好嗎？這就是我們這次面臨的第一個問題。

Issue #2 was really cash volume declining, leading to lower payables, right? Generally speaking, lower production volumes lead to lower payables. Our payables for the region ended up being impacted by volume declines. But as volumes continue to recover, this should translate into improvement here as well as we look ahead.

問題 2 實際上是現金量下降，導致應付賬款減少，對吧？一般來說，較低的產量會導致較低的應付賬款。我們在該地區的應付賬款最終受到銷量下降的影響。但隨著銷量繼續恢復，這應該會轉化為改善，我們展望未來。

And then last but not least, we also had an issue in Canada for the specific impact, also nonincome tax-related. And here, this was a H1 2022 effect, because payables then were impacted positively by tax deferrals in Ontario to cope with COVID-19 recovery. And this was not the case this quarter. But again, looking at the full year picture, these things should even themselves out. And so again, I would invite everybody to focus more on the film, the full year picture, reminding everybody that Q4 is the needle driver, the needle mover for our cash generation and our working capital performance. Clear?

最後但並非最不重要的是，我們在加拿大也遇到了具體影響的問題，也與非所得稅相關。在這裡，這是 2022 年上半年的影響，因為安大略省為應對 COVID-19 復甦而推遲納稅，這對應付賬款產生了積極影響。本季度情況並非如此。但再一次，看看全年的情況，這些事情應該會自己解決。因此，我再次邀請大家更多地關注電影、全年圖片，提醒大家第四季度是針驅動器，是我們現金生成和營運資本績效的推動器。清除？

The next question comes from Carlos Laboy with HSBC.

下一個問題來自匯豐銀行的 Carlos Laboy。

I was hoping we could go back to a conversation a couple of weeks ago -- a couple of years ago. To drive a new culture, you modify the behavioral model. And you emphasized three new core behaviors, right? Your active listing, collaboration, long-term thinking. But if you reflect on recent events, right, in the ABI systems, are these behaviors -- how do you modify these behaviors to think about risk and risk vigilance? So those behaviors may be very geared toward revenue enhancement.

我希望我們能回到幾週前——幾年前的對話。要推動新文化，您需要修改行為模型。您強調了三個新的核心行為，對嗎？您的積極上市、協作、長期思考。但是如果你反思最近發生的事件，對吧，在 ABI 系統中，這些行為——你如何修改這些行為來考慮風險和風險警惕性？因此，這些行為可能非常適合增加收入。

And I'm asking because, look, reputational risk can come from so many unexpected places. Sometimes they just happen to you like the (inaudible), right, Americano thing. But sometimes, they come from within the organization too, unexpectedly. And so how do you think about mitigating reputational risk? And how do you bring that into the culture of the organization based on the reality of what you're looking at in your organization in Brazil?

我問是因為，看，聲譽風險可能來自許多意想不到的地方。有時他們只是碰巧喜歡（聽不清），對，美式咖啡。但有時，他們也出乎意料地來自組織內部。那麼，您如何看待降低聲譽風險？你如何根據你在巴西組織中看到的現實將其帶入組織文化？

Thank you very much for the question, Laboy. Yes. So you know that we've been in a journey, everything evolves. Biology evolves, culture have to evolve. And we had this clear view that the growth metrics that we need for the future has to -- so we had to evolve on our culture to bring -- to maintain, first of all, these great trades that I have in the company that people that really think as owners that think as the company is -- I think as owners access integrity, accountability. So this is a very important trade that we always had. So this ability to dream in our company, it has to continue, but we had to really bring more listening, more collaboration and more long-term vision. And I think we are super happy with this journey.

非常感謝你提出這個問題，Laboy。是的。所以你知道我們一直在旅途中，一切都在發展。生物在進化，文化也必須進化。我們有一個明確的觀點，即我們未來需要的增長指標必須——所以我們必鬚髮展我們的文化來帶來——首先，要維持我在公司擁有的這些偉大的交易，人們真正以所有者的身份思考，以公司的方式思考——我認為以所有者的身份獲得誠信和問責制。所以這是我們一直以來非常重要的交易。所以我們公司的這種夢想能力必須繼續下去，但我們必須真正帶來更多的傾聽、更多的協作和更長遠的願景。我認為我們對這段旅程非常滿意。

Of course, it takes time for you to see the whole organization. Performing culture is really about habits, is really about example. It's really about living every day and talking about the listening and the collaboration and the ability to think horizon 2, horizon 3, while taking the decision. So we've been like living at this -- in our company.

當然，你要看清整個組織是需要時間的。表演文化真正關乎習慣，關乎榜樣。這真的是關於每天的生活，談論傾聽和協作，以及在做出決定時思考地平線 2、地平線 3 的能力。所以我們一直喜歡生活在這個 - 在我們的公司裡。

And when it comes to reputation, company's reputation, it is my responsibility and that the responsibility of each person that works down here. We know that, we live with that. This is personal to us. We take it very seriously. And one thing that we are doing so more and more is really to be able -- first of all, to talk about everything that is happening inside the company, but to talk about our company to the outside world. We are so proud about the things that we are building, the things we that we are doing down here. We are very confident about this transformation that we are leaving, this top line growth that we are having. We trust our management model. So somehow, this is about taking responsibility, and this is about to being completely transparent inside the company and outside the company.

談到聲譽，公司的聲譽，這是我的責任，也是在這里工作的每個人的責任。我們知道，我們接受這一點。這對我們來說是個人的。我們非常重視它。我們越來越多地做的一件事是真的能夠——首先，談論公司內部發生的一切，但要向外界談論我們的公司。我們為我們正在建造的東西、我們在這裡所做的事情感到非常自豪。我們對我們即將離開的轉型、我們正在實現的收入增長充滿信心。我們相信我們的管理模式。所以不知何故，這是關於承擔責任，這將在公司內外完全透明。

If I may, just add one thing, Carlos, to your question about managing reputational risks, especially, right, in the short term given all that's happened, right, since the beginning of the year here in Brazil. I think Jean alluded to this on the last call, but I think it's important to stress it. Because one of the things that happened in 2020 when COVID hit was really a decision on our part, right, to be there for our ecosystem. That applies to consumers, that applies to customers, that applies to wholesalers, to suppliers, right, to local communities. And this was right, genuine, was intentional, was delivered because we thought it was the right thing to do. We needed to be there given what was happening in the country at the time.

卡洛斯，如果可以的話，請在你關於管理聲譽風險的問題中添加一件事，尤其是在短期內，考慮到今年年初在巴西這裡發生的一切。我認為 Jean 在上次通話中提到了這一點，但我認為強調這一點很重要。因為 2020 年 COVID 來襲時發生的事情之一實際上是我們的決定，對，我們的生態系統就在那裡。這適用於消費者，適用於客戶，適用於批發商、供應商，對，適用於當地社區。這是正確的、真實的、有意的、交付的，因為我們認為這是正確的做法。鑑於當時該國正在發生的事情，我們需要在那裡。

And fast forward, like 2, 3 years, one of the things that really caught our attention in Q1 was when this whole noise hit, the support that we got, right, from the ecosystem was really impactful for us to see consumers standing by us, to see customers standing by us, to see suppliers, wholesalers, really stepping up, former employees of the company, right, being vocal about the company, what we've been doing, why we've been doing it and how we've been doing it, really struck a cord with us, and I think it's a good illustration of how our consistent focus around, right? Building and improving on the cultural evolution and the reputation of the company is important as a matter of principle, okay? And I think Q1 was a good example.

快進，就像 2、3 年一樣，在第一季度真正引起我們注意的一件事是當整個噪音襲來時，我們從生態系統中獲得的支持對我們看到消費者站在我們身邊真的很有影響，看到站在我們身邊的客戶，看到供應商、批發商，真的挺身而出，公司的前僱員，對，對公司直言不諱，我們一直在做什麼，為什麼我們一直在做，以及我們是如何做的一直在做，真的與我們產生了共鳴，我認為這很好地說明了我們如何始終如一地關注周圍，對吧？原則上，建立和改善公司的文化演變和聲譽很重要，好嗎？我認為 Q1 就是一個很好的例子。

The next question comes with Isabella Simonato with Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Isabella Simonato。

I have two questions, mostly on the International division. Starting with LAS, I think was -- this quarter showed a great focus, right, on pricing even though volumes suffered, right? And combined with the hedging strategy for -- mainly for Argentina, right? Is this something that we should continue to think for the upcoming quarters? I mean, even though macro conditions should be tough and volume elasticity should be higher, will pricing be the key focus here in a way to maximize this equation for the company? And on -- just to come back and try to relate this with cash flow in any sense. I mean Lucas, is there an impact on -- in any way of working -- on working capital from this procurement strategy in Argentina? Or nothing that we should -- that nothing that should be impactful?

我有兩個問題，主要是關於國際部的。從 LAS 開始，我認為 - 本季度表現出對定價的極大關注，即使銷量受到影響，對吧？並結合 - 主要針對阿根廷的對沖策略，對嗎？這是我們應該在接下來的幾個季度繼續考慮的事情嗎？我的意思是，儘管宏觀環境應該很艱難，而且數量彈性應該更高，但定價是否會成為這裡的重點，以最大化公司的方程式？然後 - 只是回來並嘗試在任何意義上將其與現金流聯繫起來。我的意思是盧卡斯，阿根廷的這種採購戰略是否會以任何方式對營運資金產生影響？或者我們應該沒有什麼——沒有什麼應該有影響的？

And the second question is on Central America and Caribbean. I mean, obviously, it has been a tough recovery on the margin side and on the top line side. I wonder if you could give us more color on what are you looking in terms of recovery going forward. What would be the drivers and eventually the timing of a more normalized level of results?

第二個問題是關於中美洲和加勒比地區的。我的意思是，很明顯，利潤率和收入方面的複蘇很艱難。我想知道你是否可以給我們更多關於你對未來復甦的看法的顏色。更規範化的結果水平的驅動因素和最終時機是什麼？

Isabella, thanks for the question. Let me -- let Jean start off on the top line aspect of Argentina, then I can complement.

伊莎貝拉，謝謝你的提問。讓我——讓讓從阿根廷的頂級方面開始，然後我可以補充。

Yes. So thank you for the question, Isabella. So yes, so LAS -- talking about LAS, we have some cultures over there. Of course, Argentina is representative, but we have Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia. And we are working for a while -- LAS to -- really LAS shine. And the truth is that we -- LAS entered 2023 more productive overall. So we knew that the macro scenario is volatile. So we really get more efficient over there, more productive.

是的。謝謝你提出這個問題，伊莎貝拉。所以是的，所以 LAS — 說到 LAS，我們那裡有一些文化。當然，阿根廷是有代表性的，但是我們有阿根廷、智利、巴拉圭、玻利維亞。我們正在工作一段時間——LAS 到——真正的 LAS 大放異彩。事實是，我們 - LAS 進入 2023 年的總體生產力更高。所以我們知道宏觀情景是不穩定的。所以我們在那裡真的變得更有效率，更有生產力。

If you look at Chile, the capacity expansion made us much more agile to have supply -- more supply capacity in Chile. If you look even at Argentina, so we are really working with cost discipline over there. So overall, LAS is -- it's more productive, more efficient, it's lighter because somehow we were kind of overpaying for protection to be -- to feel protected over there. So LAS is lighter. The discipline on pricing execution, it is a priority for us over there. And so that's why you saw the P&L that went very well, it's not just Argentina, Chile, we performed very well compared with the previous year. In Bolivia, we saw volumes going on the positive side. Paraguay, overall has momentum in all the lines doing well.

如果你看看智利，產能擴張使我們更加靈活地獲得供應——智利更多的供應能力。如果你甚至看一下阿根廷，那麼我們真的在那裡進行成本控制。所以總的來說，LAS 是——它更有生產力，更有效率，它更輕，因為不知何故我們為保護付出了過多的代價——在那裡感覺受到保護。所以 LAS 更輕。定價執行的紀律，這是我們那邊的優先事項。這就是為什麼你看到 P&L 非常順利的原因，不僅僅是阿根廷、智利，與前一年相比，我們的表現非常好。在玻利維亞，我們看到交易量呈積極趨勢。巴拉圭總體上在所有方面都有良好的勢頭。

And -- but so this thing about the volumes that were -- we had a steep decline over there. I think it's the volatility. It's more the volatility of the country, countries have big inflations that we're rearranging. So I would not say that this type of volume performance would stick around. So there is the adjustments on salaries, everything, even Chile that had a tough industry in Q1, too, we see it getting better month by month. So somehow, LAS, we are very prepared for the volatility. We are more efficient, lighter. Discipline on pricing is really what matters for us now. And the volumes, I think that would be better than what we saw in Q1. So -- then Lucas on the financial hedges.

而且 - 但是關於數量的事情 - 我們在那裡急劇下降。我認為這是波動性。更多的是國家的動盪，我們正在重新安排國家的嚴重通貨膨脹。所以我不會說這種類型的體積性能會一直存在。因此，薪資和所有方面都進行了調整，甚至智利在第一季度的行業也很艱難，我們看到它逐月好轉。所以不知何故，拉斯，我們已經為波動做好了充分的準備。我們更高效、更輕便。現在對我們來說真正重要的是定價紀律。而數量，我認為這會比我們在第一季度看到的更好。所以 - 然後盧卡斯進行金融對沖。

Okay. So hi, Isabella. On the hedging side, to put things into perspective, it's also -- I think it's important to remind everyone that since our decision in Q3 of last year to start reducing gradually our financial hedge, this came alongside a decision on our part to also elevate the focus of the organization around free cash flow in U.S. dollars as a key KPI to define success in Argentina going forward, just given the environment that we're facing in the country.

好的。嗨，伊莎貝拉。在對沖方面，從正確的角度來看，我認為重要的是要提醒大家，自從我們在去年第三季度決定開始逐步減少我們的金融對沖，同時我們也決定提高考慮到我們在該國面臨的環境，該組織將以美元為單位的自由現金流作為定義阿根廷未來成功的關鍵 KPI 的重點。

And as a result of this decision to elevate free cash flow in dollars as an important KPI, what this has translated into on the hedging side is to continue to have some protection in Argentina but not to the same extent, right, we had historically, the average 12 months of the hedging policy, as you well know. And we continue to be, right, below 10 months, as I mentioned last time, that continues to be a reality. But just given the current conditions of temperature and pressure in the market, we actually are looking at this call on how much to hedge on a monthly basis. So this is a monthly exercise that we do together with the local team to see what's the right, what's the optimal level of financial hedge that we should carry going forward, looking at currency performance, carry costs and try to optimize that balance. So that's, I think, an important message on the financial hedge side.

由於這一將美元自由現金流提升為重要 KPI 的決定，這在對沖方面轉化為在阿根廷繼續獲得一些保護，但程度不同，對，我們歷史上曾有過，眾所周知，對沖政策的平均期限為 12 個月。正如我上次提到的那樣，我們仍然不到 10 個月，這仍然是現實。但鑑於目前市場的溫度和壓力狀況，我們實際上正在考慮每月對沖多少。因此，這是我們與當地團隊一起進行的月度練習，看看什麼是正確的，我們應該繼續推進的最佳金融對沖水平是什麼，著眼於貨幣表現，承擔成本並嘗試優化這種平衡。因此，我認為這是金融對沖方面的一個重要信息。

On the operational hedge side, which we decided to increase -- and this speaks to the working capital aspect of your question. On the operational side, we've made good progress in Q1. So we challenged ourselves to review the full suite of our agreements with suppliers to see what could, should change and how to implement that in a dialogue with our suppliers, okay? And that made good progress during Q1, slightly ahead of what we originally had planned for. So good progress there. But again, we'll be very careful and disciplined to do things gradually, okay? So that we're -- just the environment requires a lot of discipline and caution not to kind of jolt the business and the relationship with suppliers, okay?

在我們決定增加的運營對沖方面——這說明了你問題的營運資金方面。在運營方面，我們在第一季度取得了良好進展。因此，我們挑戰自己，審查我們與供應商的全套協議，看看可以、應該改變什麼，以及如何在與供應商的對話中實施這些，好嗎？這在第一季度取得了良好進展，略高於我們最初的計劃。那裡進展順利。但同樣，我們會非常小心和有紀律地逐步做事，好嗎？所以我們 - 只是環境需要很多紀律和謹慎，不要破壞業務和與供應商的關係，好嗎？

And then on the working capital, which is also impacted, the challenge that we've been facing -- and this is still work in progress -- is to really find the optimal balance for the current environment. So right, the cash conversion cycle for Argentina in today's world in the short term is going to be different, right, than the cash conversion cycle that we had last year or the year before. And it's a constant effort on our part to see to what extent we need to revisit our payment terms with suppliers, payment terms with customers, level of the inventory, be it raw materials, be it finished goods, okay? And this is work in progress.

然後在同樣受到影響的營運資金上，我們一直面臨的挑戰——這仍在進行中——是真正找到當前環境的最佳平衡點。所以，短期內，當今世界阿根廷的現金轉換週期將與我們去年或前年的現金轉換週期不同，對吧。我們不斷努力，看看我們需要在多大程度上重新審視我們與供應商的付款條件、與客戶的付款條件、庫存水平，無論是原材料還是成品，好嗎？這是正在進行的工作。

Again, Q1 so far, so good. But since the short-term environment is so volatile, I think it's going to be a constant point of attention that we're going to be actively managing going forward. Just the short-term reality requires us to be very nimble, flexible and on our toes to manage all these aspects of the -- that impact free cash flow generation. But again, so far, so good.

同樣，到目前為止，Q1 非常好。但由於短期環境如此動盪，我認為這將成為一個持續關注的焦點，我們將在未來積極管理。只是短期現實要求我們非常敏捷、靈活，並時刻注意管理影響自由現金流產生的所有這些方面。但是，到目前為止，一切都很好。

And then on CAC, I think overall, we made okay progress in the quarter, okay, overall. The highlight in terms of sequential improvement continues to be the Dominican Republic, which is good and important because it's our biggest market. So despite inflationary pressures locally, that continue to impact, to some extent, the volume recovery, the pace of volume recovery, but also cost pressures that still persisted in Q1 to some extent, sequentially, we continue to make steady progress.

然後在 CAC 上，我認為總體而言，我們在本季度取得了不錯的進展，總體而言。連續改進方面的亮點仍然是多米尼加共和國，這很好而且很重要，因為它是我們最大的市場。因此，儘管局部通脹壓力在一定程度上繼續影響銷量恢復、銷量恢復的速度，但也影響了第一季度仍然存在的成本壓力，在某種程度上，我們繼續穩步取得進展。

And then when you kind of look under the hood of the Dominican Republic kind of improvement drivers, what we continue to see in Q1 was the improvement of three very important KPIs that relates to the main SKU in the country, which was the 22-ounce Presidente bottle which was the supply chain issue that kind of sparked the whole -- the big challenge that we had last year. And so the level of coverage of the 22-ounce Presidente bottle continues to improve in Q1. The price -- the suggested price adherence with customers, with clients continue to improve for our third quarter in a row, and the inventory levels for this SKU also continued to improve sequentially, and that translates into better service level that translates into better Net Promoter Score. On top of that, we're investing in the market. We're investing behind our brands, the focus around the digital ecosystem, right? These and the marketplace continues to be front and center in our strategy in the DR.

然後當你深入了解多米尼加共和國的改進驅動因素時，我們在第一季度繼續看到的是與該國主要 SKU 相關的三個非常重要的 KPI 的改進，即 22 盎司Presidente 瓶是供應鏈問題，它引發了整體——我們去年面臨的巨大挑戰。因此，22 盎司 Presidente 瓶的覆蓋率在第一季度繼續提高。價格——客戶對建議價格的遵守，我們的客戶連續第三個季度繼續改善，這個 SKU 的庫存水平也連續提高，這轉化為更好的服務水平，轉化為更好的淨推薦值分數。最重要的是，我們正在投資市場。我們正在投資我們的品牌，關注數字生態系統，對吧？這些和市場仍然是我們 DR 戰略的前沿和中心。

So again, there's no -- a lot of -- no silver bullet for recovery, but we know what we have to do. We have to execute extremely well going forward. But the team is confident in their ability to sequentially continue to recover. How much time it will take? I think ultimately, time will tell, but I think we're talking more about a matter of quarter of months, and quarters is not a matter of years, okay, just to give you a way to think about it. And we really need to get the Dominican Republic back to where it was pre-2000 and 2022 because since we did the combination with Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana, right? The Dominican Republic had a great ride up until 2022. We need to go back to that type of performance, and it's going to be a lot about execution, top line, cost management, expense management. We're going to have -- everything is going to have to work from an execution standpoint, okay? Hope this helps.

所以，再一次，沒有——很多——沒有恢復的靈丹妙藥，但我們知道我們必須做什麼。我們必須在未來執行得非常好。但球隊有信心他們有能力繼續恢復。需要多少時間？我認為最終，時間會證明一切，但我認為我們更多地談論的是四分之一月的問題，而四分之一不是幾年的問題，好吧，只是給你一個思考的方式。我們真的需要讓多米尼加共和國回到 2000 年和 2022 年之前的狀態，因為自從我們與 Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana 合併後，對吧？多米尼加共和國在 2022 年之前一直表現出色。我們需要回到那種表現，這將在執行、頂線、成本管理、費用管理方面有很多。我們將擁有 - 從執行的角度來看，一切都必須有效，好嗎？希望這可以幫助。

The next question comes with Ben Theurer with Barclays.

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Ben Theurer。

Just -- JJ, maybe following up a little bit on the development of BEES and the delivery just on the electronic platforms. You've obviously had a very -- much of a success story here in all markets, growing the penetration. And depending on the region, somewhere between 70%, 80%, if not even more percent of like, usage. Where do you see the potential to get this even higher? And what do you need to do in order to get maybe those last customers converted as well, just as it feels like you have a better loyalty with those than maybe what you used to have in the past?

JJ，也許跟進一下 BEES 的開發和電子平台上的交付。你顯然在所有市場上都有一個非常成功的故事，提高了滲透率。並且根據地區的不同，大約在 70%、80% 之間，甚至更多的點贊使用率。您在哪裡看到將其提高到更高水平的潛力？你需要做些什麼才能讓那些最後的客戶也轉變過來，就像你對這些客戶的忠誠度比過去更高一樣？

Thank you very much, Ben, for the question. So BEES, our focus is to deliver the best solution to our clients and consumers with there, talking about BEES specifically. So the majority of our customers, they are all there. But we have to learn that in terms of -- that we always have been to evolving in terms of user experience, okay? So UI -- and then we are learning customer by customer, how can we deliver a better experience. Sometimes the customer has a big assortment that they prefer to do in the computer, not in the cell phone. So there is a lot of learning consumer by consumer for us to evolve and to set different services, overall products and categories in general. We still have the wholesale -- we still have the sales rep, the business representatives helping the customers overall. And we have seen that this -- there's two things combined, the platform and the business representive, they will help to bring more information to evolve the UI, to evolve services and to get a better usage.

本，非常感謝你提出這個問題。所以 BEES，我們的重點是為我們的客戶和消費者提供最好的解決方案，特別是談論 BEES。所以我們的大多數客戶都在那裡。但我們必須了解——我們一直在不斷發展用戶體驗，好嗎？所以用戶界面 - 然後我們正在逐個客戶學習，我們如何才能提供更好的體驗。有時客戶有很多分類，他們更喜歡在電腦上做，而不是在手機上。因此，有很多消費者通過消費者學習，以便我們不斷發展並設置不同的服務、整體產品和一般類別。我們仍然有批發——我們仍然有銷售代表，業務代表在整體上幫助客戶。我們已經看到這一點——平台和業務代表結合了兩件事，它們將有助於帶來更多信息來改進用戶界面、改進服務並獲得更好的使用。

But I would say that majority -- so BEES is already the platform of our customers and they are majority using it. Thinking about the future and thinking about the growth of it, just to add a little bit more. From the point we are, we continue to see a huge addressable market that BEES can address. We are going -- so there is this opportunity of increasing the number of SKU per client, per customers, increasing overall distribution and frequency. And we are learning a lot with the 3P partnerships that we are doing. So how can really BEES go beyond the one P where the logistics and I do all this transaction, but it really becomes something that goes beyond and really have alliances on the 3P, and then other industries have access of the 1.1 million customers that have the platform on their computers, on their cell phone.

但我會說大多數 - 所以 BEES 已經是我們客戶的平台，他們大部分都在使用它。想著未來，想著它的成長，只為再添一點。從現在的角度來看，我們繼續看到 BEES 可以解決的巨大潛在市場。我們要去 - 所以有機會增加每個客戶，每個客戶的 SKU 數量，增加整體分佈和頻率。我們從我們正在進行的 3P 合作夥伴關係中學到了很多東西。那麼 BEES 怎麼能真正超越物流和我做所有這些交易的 one P，但它真的超越了 3P 並真正擁有聯盟，然後其他行業可以訪問 110 萬客戶，這些客戶擁有在他們的電腦上，在他們的手機上。

This is really something that -- and then when we go in this direction, it's really about understanding the pain points of the industry, understanding the pain points of customers, upgrading UI, user experience, upgrading services. And this is -- we are just beginning. It's something that we are very, very confident. And when we compare with the other platforms that we have in the market, so we are -- we are confident that we are pretty much ahead.

這真的是——然後當我們朝著這個方向前進時，它真的是了解行業的痛點，了解客戶的痛點，升級 UI，用戶體驗，升級服務。這是——我們才剛剛開始。這是我們非常非常有信心的事情。當我們與市場上的其他平台進行比較時，我們相信我們已經遙遙領先。

The next question comes from Gustavo Troyano with Itau BBA.

下一個問題來自 Itau BBA 的 Gustavo Troyano。

So as Jean mentioned that the goal for this year was to improve both gross margins and EBITDA margins, I'd like to explore your SG&A expenses for 2023, especially in Brazil. From a COGS perspective, it seems that the upcoming quarter should be better than the first one as commodity prices decelerate. But from the SG&A standpoint, should we expect EBITDA margins to increase ahead of gross margin?

因此，正如 Jean 提到的，今年的目標是提高毛利率和 EBITDA 利潤率，我想探討一下你們 2023 年的 SG&A 支出，尤其是在巴西。從 COGS 的角度來看，隨著大宗商品價格減速，下一季度似乎應該好於第一季度。但從 SG&A 的角度來看，我們是否應該期望 EBITDA 利潤率先於毛利率增長？

And specifically on commercial expenses, I'd like to hear from you about the strategy of the deployment curve of sales and marketing throughout the year. How do you see sales and marketing expenses in this first quarter in a relative basis to the upcoming quarters, if you consider that this quarter was closer to a heavy quarter in terms of investments in sales and marketing? And also, I was wondering if you could share an overall view for your SG&A perspective as we move into the second half of 2023, and if there are some efficiencies to be captured in these lines.

特別是在商業費用方面，我想听聽您關於全年銷售和營銷部署曲線的策略。如果您認為本季度在銷售和營銷投資方面更接近一個沉重的季度，您如何看待第一季度相對於未來幾個季度的銷售和營銷費用？而且，我想知道當我們進入 2023 年下半年時，您是否可以分享您對 SG&A 觀點的總體看法，以及這些方面是否可以提高效率。

Okay. So let me get half of the question, and then Lucas, jump into the other half. Overall, we think what we're going to see overall in unbaised P&L it is that there is an opportunity of SG&A transforming into margins -- into EBITDA margins. So we should improve that with time. So we grew a lot in the company in the previous 2 or 3 years, and we have been since last year doing a great assessment on a new way to operate our company, a new way of work. So we really had a company that at some point in time was very siloed, that we have like divisions and the NABs were one vertical, and the delivery and the BEES and everybody has their structures. So we really moved into a company that understand it selves more like a platform. So there is a lot of change on our -- the way we operate in our structures and how we think the business, how we can integrate more. So there is a stream of value and efficiency that comes from the vision that you're going to see in the next quarters that we have been working for 6 months, a year right now.

好的。所以讓我回答一半的問題，然後盧卡斯跳到另一半。總的來說，我們認為我們將在無基礎損益表中看到的是，SG&A 有機會轉化為利潤率——轉化為 EBITDA 利潤率。所以我們應該隨著時間的推移改進它。因此，在過去的 2 或 3 年裡，我們在公司成長了很多，自去年以來，我們一直在對一種新的公司運營方式、一種新的工作方式進行重大評估。所以我們真的有一家公司，在某個時間點是非常孤立的，我們有類似的部門，NAB 是一個垂直的，交付和 BEES 和每個人都有他們的結構。所以我們真的進入了一家更了解自己的公司，就像一個平台。因此，我們的結構發生了很多變化——我們在結構中的運作方式以及我們對業務的看法，以及我們如何整合更多。因此，您將在接下來的幾個季度看到我們已經工作了 6 個月，現在一年的願景，從而產生了一系列價值和效率。

On the distribution part -- so we got a lot of scale. And when we think about all these orders and these volumes and the distribution that we could do. So there is an opportunity to be more efficient and to synergize on the distribution too. And we're going to see moving forward, diesel prices going down. And in sales and market, we have been ramping up. So this is something that we want to continue to invest to support the portfolio, to support our brands. But it would be to the extent of the top line -- the top line grow -- top line will be ahead.

在分發部分——所以我們有很大的規模。當我們考慮所有這些訂單和這些數量以及我們可以做的分配時。因此，有機會提高效率並在分銷上進行協同。我們將看到向前發展，柴油價格下降。在銷售和市場方面，我們一直在加速發展。因此，這是我們希望繼續投資以支持產品組合、支持我們的品牌的東西。但就收入而言——收入增長——收入將領先。

So overall, this is Ambev as a whole, we're going to see a part of the growth in EBITDA margin really coming from SG&A. Okay? So this is a little bit the picture of Ambev. So going to Brazil Beer, should be more or less, this vision that should be replicated in Brazil overall, not Brazil Beer, but Brazil overall, that we are looking at NABs and in Beer, what you get.

所以總的來說，這是整個 Ambev，我們將看到 EBITDA 利潤率的部分增長真正來自 SG&A。好的？所以這有點像 Ambev。所以去巴西啤酒，應該或多或少，這個願景應該在整個巴西複製，不是巴西啤酒，而是整個巴西，我們正在研究 NABs 和啤酒，你會得到什麼。

And just to add, I think looking ahead, Gustavo, just to give you a way to think about it directionally. For the reasons Jean mentioned around the opportunities that we see to streamline, to optimize our structure in so far the technology platforms are concerned, right, within the three of them, but also with what we call the machine, the legacy business. If we continue to deliver as we did in Q1, this would translate into, right, to lower year-over-year growth for admin expenses, number one, followed by distribution, lower growth in distribution for the reasons that Jean mentioned.

我想補充一點，古斯塔沃，展望未來，只是為了給你一種方向性思考的方法。出於 Jean 提到的原因，我們看到到目前為止，我們看到的精簡、優化我們結構的機會涉及技術平台，正確的，在這三個平台中，還有我們所說的機器，即遺留業務。如果我們繼續像第一季度那樣交付，這將轉化為，正確的，降低管理費用的同比增長，第一，其次是分銷，由於 Jean 提到的原因，分銷增長放緩。

And then sales and marketing is ultimately going to depend on how we execute our plan for the year. We want to continue to invest behind our brands. The portfolio has momentum. The health syndicators, right, don't let me lie. So we're not going to compromise on the level of our sales and marketing investments because that helps the short term, and that builds the long term. So that's the line within SG&A that we protect the most, whenever we look to optimize SG&A. But the good news is we're off to a good start on the admin side. We're off to a good start on the distribution side. So to the extent we continue to deliver, this should grow at a lower pace than sales and marketing. But net-net, SG&A, hopefully, will help us deliver a better margin performance at the EBITDA level this year.

然後銷售和營銷最終將取決於我們如何執行今年的計劃。我們希望繼續投資於我們的品牌。投資組合勢頭強勁。健康聯合組織，對，別讓我撒謊。所以我們不會在我們的銷售和營銷投資水平上妥協，因為這有助於短期，並建立長期。因此，每當我們希望優化 SG&A 時，這就是 SG&A 中我們保護最多的路線。但好消息是我們在管理方面有了一個良好的開端。我們在分銷方面有了一個良好的開端。因此，就我們繼續交付的程度而言，這應該以低於銷售和營銷的速度增長。但淨淨、SG&A 有望幫助我們今年在 EBITDA 水平上實現更好的利潤率表現。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Jean Jereissati for final remarks. You may proceed, sir.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回 Jean Jereissati 先生作最後發言。你可以繼續了，先生。

So thank you, everybody. All analysts, everyone who joined the call, for your time and attention. First quarter of the year was solid strategically, operationally and culturally, we are feeling very strong and solid. Brazil consistently have been improving and getting better, and international operations are rebounding. Top line recovery, gross margin expansion and EBITDA margin expansion happened already in Q1. Our ambitions for the year are the -- top line growth remains a key priority, with net revenue performance driven more by net revenue per hectoliter than volumes. Profitability, both in terms of ROIC as well as margins and free cash flow generation improvement is what we want. And EBITDA margin expansion with and without Argentina is a must for us. So thank you very much. See you in August, and have a great day.

所以謝謝大家。所有分析師，所有加入電話會議的人，都需要您的時間和關注。今年第一季度在戰略、運營和文化方面都很穩固，我們感覺非常強大和穩固。巴西一直在進步，越來越好，國際業務正在反彈。營收復蘇、毛利率擴張和 EBITDA 利潤率擴張已經在第一季度發生。我們今年的目標是 - 收入增長仍然是一個關鍵優先事項，淨收入表現更多地受到每百升淨收入的推動，而不是銷量。我們想要的是盈利能力，無論是 ROIC 還是利潤率和自由現金流產生的改善。無論有沒有阿根廷，EBITDA 利潤率的擴張對我們來說都是必須的。非常感謝。八月見，祝你有美好的一天。

This conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.

本次會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連接。祝你有美好的一天。