Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao SA (CBD) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for holding. Welcome to GPA's Third Quarter of 2023 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) We'd like to inform you that this video conference is being recorded and will be made available on the company's Investor Relations website, where we also have our entire earnings publication. (Operator Instructions)

大家早安，謝謝大家的支持。歡迎參加 GPA 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）我們謹通知您，本次視訊會議正在錄製中，並將在公司的投資者關係網站上發布，該網站上還有我們的全部收益出版物。 （操作員說明）

We'd like to highlight that the information given in this presentation and any statements made during the earnings call about the company's business perspective, projections and operational goals are simply beliefs and assumptions of the company's administration based on currently available information. Remarks about the future are not guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they refer to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not come to pass. Investors should understand that the general economic conditions, market conditions and other operational factors may affect GPA's future performance and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements.

我們想強調的是，本簡報中提供的資訊以及財報電話會議期間所做的有關公司業務前景、預測和營運目標的任何聲明都只是公司管理層基於當前可用資訊的信念和假設。有關未來的言論並不保證業績。它們涉及風險、不確定性和假設，因為它們涉及未來事件，因此取決於可能發生或可能不會發生的情況。投資者應了解，總體經濟狀況、市場狀況和其他營運因素可能會影響 GPA 的未來業績，並導致結果與這些前瞻性陳述中表達的結果有重大差異。

We have with us today GPA's CEO, Marcelo Pimentel; and CFO & Investor Relations Director, Rafael Russowsky. I'll pass it over to Marcelo Pimentel, who will begin his presentation.

今天我們有 GPA 執行長 Marcelo Pimentel；財務長兼投資者關係總監 Rafael Russowsky。我將把它交給馬塞洛·皮門特爾，他將開始他的演講。

Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us for GPA's third quarter earnings call. I'm very pleased to present this quarter's results because they demonstrate our high quality and consistency results, which were due to all the improvements we saw in different operational indicators. They confirm the choices we made during the last 18 months since we started the company's turnaround process.

謝謝。早安，女士們，先生們。感謝您參加 GPA 第三季財報電話會議。我很高興介紹本季的業績，因為它們展示了我們的高品質和一致性結果，這是由於我們在不同營運指標中看到的所有改進。他們確認了我們自公司啟動轉型流程以來 18 個月內所做的選擇。

I'm going to start with our main deliveries and talk about the progress we made in the last quarter, starting with a 10% growth in our gross revenue compared to the third quarter of last year. We saw strong acceleration in our food e-commerce, up 15% in GMV compared to 2022 as a result of a solid strategy focused on increasing sales and gaining efficiency. We also posted significant growth in same-store sales, a total of 6.6% with highlights for Pão de Açúcar and Proximity, which I'll discuss in more detail on the next slide.

我將從我們的主要交付開始，談談我們在上個季度取得的進展，首先是我們的總收入與去年第三季相比成長了 10%。由於採取了專注於增加銷售量和提高效率的堅實策略，我們的食品電子商務強勁加速，GMV 比 2022 年成長了 15%。我們也公佈了同店銷售額的顯著增長，總計增長了 6.6%，其中重點關注的是 Pão de Aúcar 和 Proximity，我將在下一張幻燈片中更詳細地討論它們。

The recurrent market share gains are also an important indicator that shows we are managing to deliver what customers want and need, and we're being recognized by them for it. This quarter, we gained 0.6 percentage points according to Nielsen data. To conclude on this slide, I can't forget to mention our EBITDA margin growth, both in comparison to the third quarter of 2022 but also in comparison to the previous quarter. We've reached 7%. I'll leave the rest of the financial indicators for Rafael to discuss afterwards.

經常性的市佔率成長也是一個重要指標，表明我們正在設法滿足客戶的需求，並且我們因此得到了他們的認可。根據尼爾森數據，本季我們成長了 0.6 個百分點。最後，我不能忘記提及我們的 EBITDA 利潤率成長，無論是與 2022 年第三季相比，還是與上一季相比。我們已經達到 7%了。其餘的財務指標我將留給拉斐爾稍後討論。

As I have done in our conference calls, I'm going to comment on our progress regarding the 6 pillars that make up GPA's strategic plan. Starting with the top line. Pão de Açúcar same-store sales went up 7.2%, maintaining growth since the first quarter of 2022. They were driven especially by a strong increase in volume, which has managed to significantly offset the high deflation of some food items such as milk, meat, oil and others.

正如我在電話會議中所做的那樣，我將評論我們在構成 GPA 策略計劃的 6 個支柱方面取得的進展。從頂線開始。 Pão de Aúcar 同店銷售額成長 7.2%，自 2022 年第一季以來一直保持成長。銷量的強勁成長尤其推動了這一成長，這成功地顯著抵消了一些食品的高通貨緊縮，例如如牛奶、肉、油等。

The Proximity business also posted an increase of 7.7% in same stores, even in comparison with a strong third quarter of 2022. We should see an even sharper improvement in the Minuto and Mini stores as a result of the assortment review that is being done, which leads to a better selection of products in each store. This is something that has been done with Pão de Açúcar successfully.

即使與 2022 年第三季的強勁表現相比，Proximity 業務的同店業績也實現了 7.7% 的成長。由於正在進行的品類審查，我們應該會看到 Minuto 和 Mini 店的改善更為明顯，這使得每家商店都有更好的產品選擇。 Pão de Aúcar 已經成功地做到了這一點。

The increase in sales is also a consequence of an increased share of perishables both in premium and mainstream brands, due to the revision made on this category, focusing on quality and competitiveness, generating more traffic and recurrence in the stores. And as these efforts have positive outcomes on each other, the response we have received from our customers on their acceptance of our businesses value proposition allowed us to advance for the fourth quarter in a row in market share gains across all formats, meaning both self-service and for Proximity formats.

銷售額的成長也是由於優質品牌和主流品牌的易腐商品所佔份額增加的結果，這是由於對該類別進行了修訂，重點關注質量和競爭力，從而在商店中產生了更多的客流量和回頭率。由於這些努力彼此產生了積極的成果，我們從客戶那裡收到的對我們業務價值主張的認可的回應使我們能夠在所有業態的市場份額上連續第四季度取得進步，這意味著我們和服務和鄰近格式。

Another important factor for our top line growth is undoubtedly the control of out-of-stock rates. We've reached a historic low of 5.8% in this quarter. 94.2% in inventory. This was the result of a category management effort, which allowed us to reduce inventories and maintain a constant and more precise assortments in store shelves for our clients.

我們營收成長的另一個重要因素無疑是對缺貨率的控制。本季我們的成長率達到了 5.8% 的歷史低點。庫存94.2%。這是品類管理工作的結果，它使我們能夠減少庫存，並為客戶在商店貨架上保持穩定且更精確的品種。

Another point I'd like to give you an update on is that we've concluded all conversions from Compre Bem stores to Extra Mercado, in line with our plan to unify the value proposition of the mainstream formats. This was a low investment project, which will allow us to capture benefits like expanding the assortment of our own brand products, especially Qualitá. Benefits from the Extra card and the Extra Clube app with tailored discounts participating in the Stix loyalty program and monitoring customers' NPS. The good news is that we can already see profitability bouncing back in converted stores this quarter.

我想向您通報的另一點是，我們已經完成了從 Compre Bem 商店到 Extra Mercado 的所有轉換，這符合我們統一主流業態價值主張的計劃。這是一個低投資項目，這將使我們能夠獲得好處，例如擴大我們自有品牌產品的品種，尤其是 Qualitá。受益於 Extra 卡和 Extra Clube 應用程序，參與 Stix 忠誠度計劃並監控客戶的 NPS，享受客製化折扣。好消息是，我們已經可以看到本季改造後的商店的獲利能力反彈。

Continuing with our themes and the customers and NPS pillar. We saw an increase of 10 points compared to the same period last year. The main highlight was our service improvement with store team training, a focused effort to reduce SKUs, installing self-checkout kiosks, which were our main offender and projects to improve price perception. We also posted significant growth in the premium and valuable customer base due to the modernization program for the Pão de Açúcar MICE and a new customer segmentation based on consumption and frequency. We have also made efforts to recover Pão de Açúcar's value proposition.

繼續我們的主題以及客戶和 NPS 支柱。與去年同期相比，我們看到了 10 個百分點的成長。主要亮點是我們透過商店團隊培訓改進服務、專注於減少 SKU、安裝自助結帳亭（這是我們的主要違規者）以及改善價格認知的項目。由於 Pão de Aúcar MICE 的現代化計劃以及基於消費和頻率的新客戶細分，我們的優質和有價值的客戶群也顯著增長。我們也努力恢復 Pão de Aúcar 的價值主張。

On the digital front, we recorded a 15% increase in GMV, the highest growth rate in the last 5 quarters with double-digit growth in both 1P and 3P partnerships where we maintained our leading position in supermarket sales on the main platforms.

在數位方面，我們的GMV成長了15%，這是過去5個季度以來的最高成長率，1P和3P合作夥伴關係都實現了兩位數成長，我們在主要平台上的超市銷售中保持了領先地位。

Over the last quarters, e-commerce has gone through an important process to increase efficiency, which has allowed for a significant reduction in expenses with no impact on sales growth as you were able to see. Among the actions we've taken, we migrated 100% of the online sales operations from distribution centers to the stores, which has allowed us to fully integrate on and off-line, improving profitability with a significant reduction in cost structuring, which added to the stores margins.

在過去的幾個季度中，電子商務經歷了一個提高效率的重要過程，這使得費用大幅減少，但正如您所看到的，對銷售成長沒有影響。在我們採取的行動中，我們將線上銷售業務100%從配送中心遷移到門店，這使我們能夠充分整合線上線下，在大幅降低成本結構的同時提高盈利能力，從而增加了盈利能力。商店的利潤。

At the end of September, we also announced an investment in Adobe's CDP, or customer data platform, a tool that will allow us to hyper-personalize consumer experience at scale, boosting our premium customer base and boosting sales on digital and brick-and-mortar channels.

9 月底，我們也宣布投資 Adob​​e 的 CDP（客戶資料平台），該工具將使我們能夠大規模提供超個人化的消費者體驗，擴大我們的優質客戶群，並促進數位和實體銷售。砂漿通道。

Moving forward, we have an update on the expansion plan. This quarter, we opened 20 stores, of which 18 were Proximity stores and 2 were new Pão de Açúcar in the cities of Atibaia, where we opened our first store and Sorocaba in the state of Sao Paulo.

展望未來，我們有擴張計畫的最新消息。本季度，我們開設了20 家商店，其中18 家是Proximity 商店，2 家是在阿蒂巴亞市（我們在阿蒂巴亞市開設了第一家商店）新開的Pão de Aúcar 商店，以及在聖保羅州的索羅卡巴市開設的商店。

As a reminder, our expansion strategy is to focus on Proximity stores, especially Minuto Pão de Açúcar, which is a more mature format with high capillarity potential focused on AB targets that can quickly achieve maturity and good performance. And to conclude on this slide, under the profitability pillar, I would like to highlight the gross margin indicators and our efforts to improve expenses and EBITDA, which have reached 7% this quarter. Rafael will give you some more color on this shortly.

提醒一下，我們的擴張策略是專注於 Proximity 商店，尤其是 Minuto Pão de Açúcar，這是一種更成熟的趨勢，具有高毛細管潛力，專注於可以快速實現成熟和良好業績的 AB 目標。最後，在這張投影片的獲利能力支柱下，我想強調毛利率指標以及我們為改善費用和 EBITDA 所做的努力，本季已達到 7%。拉斐爾很快就會給你更多關於這方面的資訊。

And wrapping up this overview of our strategic pillars in ESG and culture, we continue to deliver on our goals and action fronts. I'm very excited to announce that we've reached 41% of women in leadership positions, which came as a result of new hires and also promotions for women who participate in the company's development programs. Gender equality is a genuine commitment for all GPA leaders. Seeing these advances makes me personally very happy.

在總結我們在 ESG 和文化方面的策略支柱的概述後，我們將繼續實現我們的目標和行動前沿。我非常高興地宣布，由於新員工的加入以及參與公司發展計畫的女性的晉升，我們的領導職位中女性比例已達到 41%。性別平等是所有 GPA 領導人的真正承諾。看到這些進步讓我個人感到非常高興。

With regard to combating climate change, we have cut Scope 1 and 2 gas emissions by 11%. This is the result of projects and actions carried out in our stores. Across our value chain, we continue to make progress on our commitment to animal welfare, especially cage-free eggs. We have already achieved 65% of sales of cage-free eggs, in the Pão de Açúcar stores in pursuit of our goal of achieving 100% of sales across all brands by 2028.

在應對氣候變遷方面，我們已將範圍一和範圍二氣體排放量減少了11%。這是我們商店所進行的項目和行動的結果。在我們的整個價值鏈中，我們在對動物福利，特別是放養雞蛋的承諾方面不斷取得進展。我們已經在 Pão de Aúcar 商店實現了 65% 的散養雞蛋銷量，以實現到 2028 年實現所有品牌 100% 銷量的目標。

And finally, on the topic of social impact and creating opportunities, we launched the [Impulsiona MICE] program to support the development of the GPA Institute's partner social organizations. We also supported the [Shipa] project, which works on creating awareness on healthy eating habits and reducing waste by donating food to communities in need.

最後，圍繞著社會影響和創造機會的主題，我們啟動了[Impulsiona MICE]計劃，以支持GPA研究所合作夥伴社會組織的發展。我們也支持 [Shipa] 項目，該項目致力於透過向有需要的社區捐贈食物來提高人們對健康飲食習慣的認識並減少浪費。

Those were my main messages for you. Now I'll hand over to Rafael, who will discuss the company's financial performance.

這些是我給你們的主要訊息。現在我將把任務交給拉斐爾，他將討論公司的財務表現。

Thank you, Marcelo. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. First of all, I would like to point out that with the completion of Éxito's spinoff process in August and the distribution of 83% of the shares we held in the company, our financial results now account for the remaining 13% stake at market value. Therefore, the result of discontinued operations presented in our financial statements includes 1 month of Éxito's results in addition to the impact of the discontinuation of hypermarket stores. The figures presented next represent continuing operations unless otherwise indicated.

謝謝你，馬塞洛。大家早安，感謝您加入我們。首先，我想指出的是，隨著 ቉xito 的分拆流程在 8 月完成，我們持有的公司 83% 的股份也被分配，我們的財務業績現在佔市場剩餘 13% 的股份價值。因此，我們的財務報表中列示的終止經營結果除了包括終止大賣場商店的影響外，還包括 xito 1 個月的業績。除非另有說明，接下來提供的數位代表持續營運。

Starting on Slide 9, we present the total turnover of Novo GPA Brasil, which reached BRL 5.1 billion in Q3 2023, up 10% compared to Q3 2022. Excluding gas stations, the increase was 9.5%, driven by a significant same-store sales, increase of 5.7% and the expansion plan with the opening of 49 new stores since the beginning of 2023, including 20 in the third quarter alone.

從幻燈片9 開始，我們展示了Novo GPA Brasil 的總營業額，2023 年第三季度達到51 億雷亞爾，比2022 年第三季度增長10%。不包括加油站，在同店銷售額大幅增長的推動下，增幅為9.5%增長5.7%，併計劃自2023年初以來開設49家新店，其中僅第三季度就開設了20家。

The same-store sales indicator, considering the entire perimeter of Novo GPA Brasil, grew by 6.6% with the Pão de Açúcar brand standing out with an increase of 7.2%. As Marcelo commented, this growth was driven by a strong increase in volume, which significantly offset the impact of food deflation this quarter. This evolution reflects the consistency in customer delivery, which has strengthened the brand and brought more and more premium and valuable customers to our stores. Including the new stores, the sales increase in the brand remained strong at 11.6%.

考慮到 Novo GPA Brasil 的整個範圍，同店銷售指標增長了 6.6%，其中 Pão de Aúcar 品牌表現突出，增長了 7.2%。正如馬塞洛評論的那樣，這一增長是由數量的強勁增長推動的，這大大抵消了本季度食品通貨緊縮的影響。這種演變反映了客戶交付的一致性，這增強了品牌並為我們的商店帶來了越來越多的優質和有價值的客戶。包括新店在內，品牌的銷售額增幅依然強勁，達11.6%。

The Proximity format showed an increase of 7.7% in same-store sales and strong growth of 21.7%, including expansion. The good performance of the Proximity format can also be seen in the 2.2 percentage point increase in market share compared to small markets in the greater Sao Paulo area.

Proximity 業態的同店銷售額成長了 7.7%，其中包括擴張在內，強勁成長了 21.7%。與大聖保羅地區的小型市場相比，Proximity 格式的良好表現也體現在其市場份額增加了 2.2 個百分點。

In the Extra Mercado brand, same-store sales growth reached 2.5%, similar to the increase in total sales. Food deflation plays a more significant role in this format, but we managed to accelerate volume growth especially in perishables, mitigating the deflationary effect.

Extra Mercado品牌的同店銷售額成長達到2.5%，與總銷售額的增幅類似。食品通貨緊縮在這種形式中發揮更重要的作用，但我們設法加速了數量增長，尤其是易腐爛食品，從而減輕了通貨緊縮影響。

Moving on to the performance of gas stations, we saw strong growth of 18.2% in sales as volumes increased.

再來看看加油站的業績，隨著銷量的增加，我們的銷售額強勁成長了 18.2%。

And finally, we had a significant increase of 15% in e-commerce sales, totaling BRL 47 million with both sales channel, 1P and 3P showing double-digit growth. I would also like to point out that we have implemented significant initiatives in recent quarters to increase the efficiency of the e-commerce operations. In particular, the closure of the dedicated VC and consequently with sales starting 100% from the stores this quarter. This move allowed for a complete integration between e-commerce and store operations with incremental sales for the fixed structure as well as a significant reduction in expenses related to the VC.

最後，我們的電子商務銷售額大幅成長 15%，總計 4,700 萬雷亞爾，1P 和 3P 銷售管道均呈現兩位數成長。我還想指出，最近幾季我們實施了重大舉措，以提高電子商務營運的效率。特別是，專門的 VC 關閉，因此本季銷售額開始 100% 來自商店。這項措施實現了電子商務和商店營運之間的完全整合，增加了固定結構的銷售額，並大幅減少了與創投相關的費用。

On Slide 10, we present the financial performance of Novo GPA Brasil, which excludes the effects of the international perimeter. Gross profit reached BRL 1.2 billion with margin of 25.1%. As you can see in the chart at the top, we have seen a gradual improvement in margin over the last 4 quarters, which amounted to 1.3 percentage points. This result reflects the successful execution of the turnaround plan with emphasis on continued sales growth that is outperforming the market, gains in commercial margin and reduction in losses. Adjusted EBITDA totaled BRL 333 million with a margin of 7%, resulting in an increase of 0.7 percentage point compared to the previous quarter and 1.2 percentage points compared to the third quarter of '22. It's worth highlighting the work done on expenses through the implementation of zero-based budgeting, which enabled us to capture significant efficiencies.

在幻燈片 10 中，我們展示了 Novo GPA Brasil 的財務業績，其中排除了國際邊界的影響。毛利達12億雷亞爾，利潤率為25.1%。正如您在頂部圖表中看到的那樣，我們看到過去 4 個季度的利潤率逐漸改善，達到 1.3 個百分點。這一結果反映了扭虧為盈計畫的成功執行，重點在於跑贏市場的持續銷售成長、商業利潤的成長和損失的減少。調整後的 EBITDA 總計為 3.33 億雷亞爾，利潤率為 7%，比上一季成長 0.7 個百分點，比 22 年第三季成長 1.2 個百分點。值得強調的是，透過實施零基預算在支出方面所做的工作，使我們能夠獲得顯著的效率。

Moving on to Slide 11, we come to the consolidated financial performance. The chart on the left shows our continued net income has reached BRL 809 million compared to a loss in the same period last year. As the chart shows, we had a positive impact of BRL 804 million this quarter related to Cnova. This impact refers to the reversal of the noncash provision for accumulated losses relating to the 34% stake we hold in Cnova. This reversal is due to Casino's intention to acquire our stake as well as the absence of any current or future financial obligation of GPA towards Cnova and our intention to sell the asset.

轉到投影片 11，我們來看綜合財務表現。左圖顯示，與去年同期的虧損相比，我們的持續淨利已達 8.09 億雷亞爾。如圖所示，本季我們與 Cnova 相關的正面影響達 8.04 億雷亞爾。這一影響是指與我們持有的 Cnova 34% 股權相關的累計損失的非現金準備金的轉回。這一逆轉是由於 Casino 有意收購我們的股份，以及 GPA 目前或未來對 Cnova 不承擔任何財務義務以及我們打算出售該資產。

On the right is the net profit from discontinued operations with a loss of BRL 2.1 billion. Almost all of the losses related to the conclusion of Éxito's Group spin-off process, which generated a write-off of BRL 2.1 billion, most of which refers to the recognition of the exchange rate devaluation of the Colombian peso against the Brazilian real during the investment period. Excluding these effects, the net loss would have been BRL 22 million.

右邊是已終止經營業務的淨利潤，虧損 21 億雷亞爾。幾乎所有損失都與阿西托集團分拆流程的完成有關，該流程產生了 21 億雷亞爾的沖銷，其中大部分涉及哥倫比亞比索兌巴西雷亞爾匯率貶值投資期間。排除這些影響，淨損失將為 2,200 萬雷亞爾。

Now on Slide 12, on the left, we present the managerial operating cash flow. This quarter, we had a small operating consumption of BRL 9 million compared to a consumption of BRL 305 million in Q3 '23. This evolution was due to the improvement in the operating result, as we mentioned earlier, as well as an important 8-day advance in merchandise working capital.

現在，在幻燈片 12 的左側，我們展示了管理營運現金流。本季度，我們的營運消耗為 900 萬雷亞爾，而 23 年第三季的消耗為 3.05 億雷亞爾。正如我們前面提到的，這種變化是由於經營績效的改善，以及商品營運資金的 8 天重要進步。

The chart on the right shows net debt, which reached BRL 3 billion at the end of the period with a reduction of BRL 507 million over the last 12 months. Leverage, measured by adjusted EBITDA, stood at 2.5x compared to 3x in Q3 '22. It's worth highlighting that this advance in GPA's financial performance is the result of the rigorous operational management we are implementing. We're also rigorously implementing our financial deleveraging plan in order to achieve a capital structure that is in line with our operations.

右圖顯示淨債務，期末達到 30 億雷亞爾，過去 12 個月減少了 5.07 億雷亞爾。以調整後 EBITDA 衡量的槓桿率為 2.5 倍，而 22 年第三季為 3 倍。值得強調的是，GPA 財務表現的進步是我們實施嚴格營運管理的結果。我們也嚴格執行金融去槓桿計劃，以實現與我們營運相適應的資本結構。

In this context, we had significant developments this quarter. We concluded the sale of the Barra da Tijuca site in Rio de Janeiro, totaling BRL 247 million. We received BRL 52 million from the sale of other non-core assets, and we announced an agreement of the sale of our remaining stake in Éxito for around BRL 790 million. These recent developments further increase our confidence that we are on the right path to delivering increasingly consistent and sustainable results.

在這種背景下，我們本季取得了重大進展。我們完成了裡約熱內盧 Barra da Tijuca 土地的出售，總價值為 2.47 億雷亞爾。我們透過出售其他非核心資產獲得了 5,200 萬雷亞爾，並宣布達成協議，以約 7.9 億雷亞爾的價格出售我們在 xito 的剩餘股權。最近的這些進展進一步增強了我們的信心，我們相信我們正走在正確的道路上，以實現日益一致和可持續的結果。

This completes my presentation, and we can now move to the Q&A session.

我的演講到此結束，現在我們可以進入問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) We'll start with the first question from Dani, an analyst from XP.

（操作員說明）我們將從 XP 分析師 Dani 提出的第一個問題開始。

I have two on my side. The first one is about your margin expansion lever for the future. If you could give us some color, I know that magnitude is what we always want. But if you could break it down into the main buckets when it comes to relevance, where would your gross margins come from? From what you said, there were still investments to come ahead of us, but I'm not sure how many, how much expenses are going to be reduced and how much of it will depend on operational leveraging or revenue growth. If you could give us some guidance on how we should think about these 3 levers for your future expansions, it would be great.

我這邊有兩個。第一個是關於未來的利潤擴張槓桿。如果你能給我們一些顏色，我知道幅度是我們一直想要的。但是，如果您可以將其分解為相關性方面的主要部分，那麼您的毛利率來自哪裡？從你的說法來看，我們仍然有投資要做，但我不確定有多少投資、會減少多少費用，以及其中多少取決於營運槓桿或收入成長。如果您能為我們提供一些指導，告訴我們如何考慮這 3 個槓桿來實現您未來的擴張，那就太好了。

My second question is what are you thinking about equalizing the cost of debt in your P&L? When it comes to timing, I know that you mentioned some disinvestments, right, in cash. I know that this is for the near future. But even including that in the calculation, your cost of debt is still very significant. You're still making some investments. So if you could help us to understand the company's strategy with regard to that, how much profit on the bottom line, how much cash do you think you will be able to generate in this operation?

我的第二個問題是，您如何考慮平衡損益表中的債務成本？說到時機，我知道你提到了一些現金撤資，對吧。我知道這是在不久的將來。但即使將其納入計算中，您的債務成本仍然非常可觀。您仍在進行一些投資。那麼，如果您能幫助我們了解公司在這方面的策略，利潤是多少，您認為在這項業務中能夠產生多少現金？

Thank you, Dani. I'll answer your first question, and I'll let Rafael answer the second one about debt equalization. So concerning expanding the business' gross margins, as we said before, we are on a growth path. And our expectation is that we still have some space to improve. It's important to highlight that we've been working to solve some structural issues. Last year, we started by structuring our head office, which reduced our expenses by BRL 130 million. This year, our focus on expenses has been on the base zero budget project, which gives us BRL 230 million in addition to this amount, and 60% of it has been captured. The remaining value will be captured now during the fourth quarter.

謝謝你，丹尼。我將回答你的第一個問題，然後我將讓拉斐爾回答關於債務均衡的第二個問題。因此，正如我們之前所說，關於擴大業務毛利率，我們正走在成長道路上。我們的期望是我們仍然有一些改進的空間。需要強調的是，我們一直在努力解決一些結構性問題。去年，我們開始組建總部，這使我們的開支減少了 1.3 億雷亞爾。今年，我們的支出重點是基礎零預算項目，除此之外，我們還獲得了 2.3 億雷亞爾，其中 60% 已被捕獲。剩餘價值現在將在第四季度獲得。

We've also started this project for 2024. So we believe that when it comes to expenses, we can continue to dilute them. As sales continue to recover, our expansion will help us to dilute these expenses, and we will continue to optimize things.

我們也已經在 2024 年啟動了這個計畫。所以我們相信，當涉及到費用時，我們可以繼續稀釋它們。隨著銷售的持續復甦，我們的擴張將幫助我們稀釋這些費用，我們將繼續優化事情。

There are 2 more points here that I think are important to mention. The first of them is related to commercial negotiations. Our commercial team has been tirelessly working to get closer to the industry, ensuring that we can provide better and better gross margin structures. So we've seen some improvements this quarter of 25% or more, and we believe that there are still opportunities to continue improving, especially as we reduce our inventory.

我認為這裡還有兩點值得一提。第一個與商業談判有關。我們的商業團隊一直在不懈地努力，以更加貼近產業，確保我們能夠提供越來越好的毛利率結構。因此，本季我們看到了 25% 或更多的改進，我們相信仍有機會繼續改進，特別是在我們減少庫存的情況下。

There's a very relevant point here, which is achieving a reduction in 7 days inventories, reaching a record level of product availability on the shelf. So the utilization of these products means that we're going to get the right product at the right store at the right time, which removes that need to reduce our expenses with out-of-stock products. With every quarter, we've reduced this percentage. We believe that at least a 5% or 7% reductions can still be made for 2024.

這裡有一個非常相關的點，那就是實現了 7 天庫存的減少，達到了貨架上產品可用性的創紀錄水平。因此，這些產品的利用意味著我們將在正確的時間在正確的商店購買正確的產品，從而無需透過缺貨產品來減少開支。每個季度我們都會降低這個百分比。我們認為，2024 年仍可削減至少 5% 或 7%。

We continue to make a strong effort on reducing inventories, which provides the company with more capital and makes our turnover more positive for the business. So therefore, we're working with an expectation on focusing on expenses, having negotiations, commercial margin. And also, we're working on some significant pillars that will continue to allow us to optimize our results for the next quarter and for 2024. Over to Rafael.

我們繼續大力減少庫存，這為公司提供了更多資金，並使我們的營業額對業務更加有利。因此，我們的工作重點是費用、談判和商業利潤。此外，我們正在研究一些重要的支柱，這些支柱將使我們能夠繼續優化下一季和 2024 年的業績。現在交給 Rafael 了。

Thank you for your questions. So about the timing to rebalance our debt, I think that was what your question drove at. From this quarter, we started implementing some measures concerning that. For example, we have a lot of liquidity still. And there are some structural debts that, obviously, because of our high CD, carry a large burden. So it doesn't make sense to keep that much debt in our balance if we have that liquidity. So what we've done this quarter is to replace some structural long-term debts to some shorter-term debts related to working capital. So this is just a recent example of how we're approaching this issue.

謝謝您的提問。因此，關於重新平衡我們債務的時機，我認為這就是你的問題所要解決的問題。從本季開始，我們開始實施一些相關措施。例如，我們仍然有大量的流動性。顯然，由於我們的高償債能力，一些結構性債務帶來了沉重的負擔。因此，如果我們有這樣的流動性，那麼在我們的餘額中保留那麼多債務是沒有意義的。因此，我們本季所做的是將一些結構性長期債務替換為一些與營運資本相關的短期債務。這只是我們解決此問題的最新範例。

So as we continue to deleverage the company, which is basically based on selling assets, we expect that for the next quarters, and this assumes that this spinout from Éxito will conclude by the end of the year, as we said, and also taking into account some of the other assets that we can demonetize in the next weeks or months.

因此，隨著我們繼續對公司進行去槓桿化（這基本上是基於出售資產），我們預計在接下來的幾個季度中，這假設從�xito 的分拆將在今年年底結束，正如我們所說，並考慮到我們可以在未來幾週或幾個月內取消貨幣化的其他一些資​​產。

We will probably be able to pay off some of the structural debt that we have. We don't want to sit on a truckload of liquidity. Our intention is really to start reducing the company's structural debt level to something that is more comfortable in capital infrastructure. And also, we want to reduce the structural debt with the costs underlying it. So that's the idea behind it. In other words, we're selling assets, and that will little by little pay off the structural debt that we have, especially the most expensive ones.

我們或許能夠償還部分結構性債務。我們不想坐在一卡車的流動性上。我們的真正目的是開始將公司的結構性債務水準降低到資本基礎設施更舒適的水平。此外，我們希望減少結構性債務及其背後的成本。這就是它背後的想法。換句話說，我們正在出售資產，這將逐漸償還我們所擁有的結構性債務，尤其是最昂貴的債務。

The next question will be asked by Vitor from Santander.

下一個問題將由桑坦德銀行的維托提出。

Vitor here from Santander. So I'd like to explore this issue of leveraging that was asked during the last question. But I'd still like to know what kind of leverage you expect to have in 2023 and 2024. I understand that you are renegotiating your debt, and there will be some operational expansions in the next quarters. So what is your expectation for leverage? I'd also like to ask about sales and how they will behave in the fourth quarter.

來自桑坦德的維托。因此，我想探討上一個問題中提出的槓桿問題。但我仍然想知道你們預計在 2023 年和 2024 年擁有什麼樣的槓桿。我知道你們正在重新談判債務，並且在接下來的幾個季度將會有一些業務擴張。那麼您對槓桿的期望是多少？我還想詢問銷售情況以及第四季的表現。

Good morning, Vitor. So here, obviously, we can't give you a guidance on leverage. What we can say is -- and this refers to what Rafael has just mentioned, is that we're committed to deleveraging the company. Our focus -- and I gave some interviews yesterday underscoring this, our focus for use of proceeds for our asset sales and other capital raising as itself has been redirected to the company's leverage. We're seeing operational improvements every quarter, and we're convinced that we also need to work on reducing leverage so that the company becomes more and more self-sufficient and prepared for its operational recovery.

早安，維托爾。因此，顯然，我們無法為您提供槓桿方面的指導。我們可以說的是──這指的是拉斐爾剛才提到的，我們致力於去槓桿化公司。我們的重點 - 我昨天接受了一些採訪，強調了這一點，我們將重點放在資產銷售和其他融資，因為其本身已轉向公司的槓桿作用。我們每季都看到營運改善，我們相信我們還需要努力降低槓桿率，以便公司變得越來越自給自足，並為營運復甦做好準備。

So I don't mean to give you a guidance, but I'm just reinforcing our commitment to deleveraging the company as a part of our strategy. We don't have any doubts about this. We're not going to make any outlier investments. All of our projections for 2024, even considering the expansion that we will continue to make, will not put in risk or compromise the use of proceeds for the new resources that will come in. They will be used directly for the company's deleveraging process. I want to make this very clear so that you have no doubt in your mind.

因此，我並不是想給你們指導，而是想強化我們對公司去槓桿化的承諾，將其作為我們策略的一部分。我們對此沒有任何疑問。我們不會進行任何異常投資。我們對 2024 年的所有預測，即使考慮到我們將繼續進行的擴張，也不會帶來風險或損害新資源的收益使用。它們將直接用於公司的去槓桿化過程。我想把這一點說得很清楚，讓你們心中沒有任何疑問。

Considering operational improvements, I think we will continue to see them despite the challenges that we're facing. I'm referring here especially to deflation and commodities. I believe that Pão de Açúcar will be more resilient than average, especially our premium brands, Pão de Açúcar and Minuto. They both benefit of have -- from having a wealthier audience, which has higher or above average disposable income with a more variable basket. So these commodities are not so relevant for Pão de Açúcar and Minuto in comparison to mainstream retail.

考慮到營運方面的改進，我認為儘管我們面臨著挑戰​​，但我們仍將繼續看到它們。我在這裡特別指的是通貨緊縮和大宗商品。我相信 Pão de Aúcar 將比平均水平更具彈性，尤其是我們的高端品牌 Pão de Aúcar 和 Minuto。他們都受益於擁有較富裕的受眾，這些受眾的可支配收入更高或高於平均水平，且購物籃的可變性更大。因此，與主流零售相比，這些商品對於 Pão de Aúcar 和 Minuto 來說並不那麼重要。

This will allow us to maintain robust growth, and it will also protect the quality of our results as we saw during this quarter with some gross margin improvements that we posted. We will continue to see these in the next quarters. It's still early for the fourth quarter. But looking at October, it seems to be going well. Things, of course, will happen in November and December because that's when we see the biggest seasonal trends.

這將使我們能夠保持強勁的成長，並且還將保護我們的業績質量，正如我們在本季度看到的那樣，我們公佈了一些毛利率的提高。我們將在接下來的幾個季度繼續看到這些。現在距離第四季還早。但從10月的情況來看，似乎進展順利。當然，事情會在 11 月和 12 月發生，因為那時我們會看到最大的季節性趨勢。

In November, we have 3 extended holidays, which is very important for retail and also Black Friday, which is a very relevant date. We're very prepared for these 2 seasonal dates. And in December, of course, we have the holidays. So we're prepared. We believe that the company will continue to grow consistently based on our efforts, and we expect that these results will continue over the next quarters.

11月，我們有3個延長假期，這對零售業非常重要，還有黑色星期五，這是一個非常相關的日期。我們為這兩個季節性日期做好了充分準備。十二月，當然，我們有假期。所以我們已經準備好了。我們相信，在我們的努力下，公司將繼續持續成長，我們預計這些成果將在接下來的幾個季度繼續下去。

The next question will be asked by Nicolas. Nicolas is an analyst from JPMorgan.

下一個問題將由尼古拉斯提出。尼古拉斯是摩根大通的分析師。

We have two here. First, about your assortment revision process that you mentioned that you've done for both. When do you expect to conclude it in the Proximity brands? I know that you have a guidance for new stores in the next 2 or 3 years, but I know that the market has also changed in the last quarters. So what opportunities do you see for 2024?

我們這裡有兩個。首先，關於您提到的您對兩者所做的分類修訂過程。您預計什麼時候能在 Proximity 品牌中結束它？我知道你們對未來兩三年的新店有指導，但我知道市場在最近幾季也發生了變化。那麼您認為 2024 年有哪些機會呢？

My last question is about to Éxito. If you could tell us about the main milestones that you hope to achieve on the short term for this negotiation to take place.

我的最後一個問題是關於“xito”的。您能否告訴我們您希望在此次談判中短期內實現的主要里程碑？

Thank you, Nicolas. I'm going to answer the first two, and then I'll pass it over to Rafael who will give you an update on Éxito. Considering the assortment review, we concluded the first stage on Pão de Açúcar, and this allowed us to deliver several things very successfully. We also saw -- we saw some inventory improvements, improvements in sales, margins. And we also had good alignment with our suppliers, which is very important for us right now because it shows the duration of our business, and our impact will go far beyond what clients see on the shelf. They impact our supply chain and logistics strategies because we give our business more predictability, and it also reduces stock-out, as I mentioned before.

謝謝你，尼古拉斯。我將回答前兩個問題，然後將其轉交給拉斐爾，他將為您提供有關 àxito 的最新資訊。考慮到品種審查，我們完成了 Pão de Aúcar 的第一階段，這使我們能夠非常成功地交付一些東西。我們也看到庫存有所改善，銷售額和利潤率有所改善。我們也與供應商保持了良好的協調，這對我們現在來說非常重要，因為它顯示了我們業務的持續時間，我們的影響將遠遠超出客戶在貨架上看到的範圍。它們影響我們的供應鏈和物流策略，因為我們使我們的業務更具可預測性，而且正如我之前提到的，它還減少了缺貨。

Concluding Pão de Açúcar, we've started the project for the Proximity brands and also Mercado Extra. We have practically concluded 50% of the sales equivalent. That has been reviewed. We're complementing it, and we're working intentionally on that first. We like to tackle the most relevant categories first, and we'll conclude the second part with this for less representative categories. We hope to conclude this by 2024, so that we can enjoy these results for the last part of 2024.

最後，我們啟動了 Proximity 品牌和 Mercado Extra 的專案。我們實際上已經完成了銷售額的 50%。這已被審查。我們正在補充它，並且我們首先有意識地致力於這一點。我們喜歡先處理最相關的類別，然後我們將以此來結束第二部分的代表性類別。我們希望在 2024 年之前完成這項工作，以便我們可以在 2024 年最後一段時間享受這些成果。

Considering opening stores, we are still committed towards expanding. We believe that, especially for the Minuto Pão de Açúcar model. Here in the city of Sao Paulo, what we've seen when it comes to performance is that despite the challenges we have in the current scenario, these are the stores that are performing very well. Their maturity has reached before we expected. And again, it's earlier than what we expect. So we continue to be committed to that. As you saw in our results, this is a segment of Brazilian retail that is growing fast.

考慮開店，我們仍然致力於擴張。我們相信這一點，特別是對於 Minuto Pão de Aúcar 車型。在聖保羅市，我們在業績方面看到的是，儘管我們在當前情況下面臨挑戰，但這些商店的業績都非常好。他們的成熟程度超出了我們的預期。再說一次，它比我們預期的還要早。因此，我們將繼續致力於此。正如您在我們的結果中看到的，這是巴西零售業快速成長的領域。

The convenience for clients to walk to these stores throughout the week for their shopping and then shopping in the largest stores during the weekend makes these strategies complementary -- these brands complementary. The work that we've done with Pão de Açúcar also benefits Minuto Pão de Açúcar. So obviously, we have a very rigorous process. We have an expansion committee assessing each location. We're not going to open -- we're not going to be opening stores without a reason. We want to ensure that it will have quality. We're not just being driven by the numbers. We're not trying to reach these numbers quickly, neglecting quality.

顧客可以在一周內步行到這些商店購物，然後在周末在最大的商店購物，這使得這些策略相輔相成——這些品牌是互補的。我們與 Pão de Aúcar 所做的工作也使 Minuto Pão de Aúcar 受益。顯然，我們有一個非常嚴格的流程。我們有一個擴展委員會來評估每個地點。我們不會無緣無故開店。我們希望確保它的品質。我們不只是被數字所驅動。我們並不是試圖快速達到這些數字，而忽略了品質。

Our focus here is to continue to seek the best locations for Minuto Pão de Açúcar while looking occasionally at some opportunities for Pão de Açúcar. This year, as I've mentioned, we've opened 2 Pão de Açúcar stores. And in the fourth quarter, we expect to open 1 more. So despite these advances in Proximity, we will have opened 3 Pão de Açúcar stores. So this is our commitment. We hope to continue finding the best opportunities and locations for our business and for our expansion. I'll pass it over to Rafael, who will talk about the [AZ2] process.

我們的重點是繼續尋找 Minuto Pão de Aúcar 的最佳地點，同時偶爾尋找一些適合 Pão de Aúcar 的機會。今年，正如我所提到的，我們開設了 2 家 Pão de Aúcar 商店。在第四季度，我們預計將再開設 1 家。因此，儘管在鄰近性方面取得了這些進步，我們仍將開設 3 家 Pão de Aúcar 商店。所以這是我們的承諾。我們希望繼續為我們的業務和擴張尋找最佳機會和地點。我會將其交給 Rafael，他將討論 [AZ2] 流程。

So this topic is a bit tricky because I cannot tell you much more than we have already told you in the Material Fact conference. So what we said is that an offer should be made to ADRs and to shares, an offer in Colombia and one in the U.S. And we expect to be able to have this offer by the end of the year. That's the information we shared in our Material Fact conference.

所以這個話題有點棘手，因為我不能告訴你比我們在實質事實會議上已經告訴你的更多的東西。因此，我們所說的是，應該對美國存託憑證和股票提出要約，在哥倫比亞提出要約，在美國提出要約。我們預計能夠在今年年底之前提出這項要約。這是我們在重要事實會議上分享的資訊。

So the concrete information I can give you is about the main steps of an offer process within the context of our Colombia process. So we expect the buyer to request authorization from the regulators. And once the regulators analyze and approve the offer, the offer is presented and deposited and then the tender period starts. And just like in Brazil, in other markets, when the tender period starts or better saying, it can only start when the buyer has the funds and the cash and warranties necessary to complete the offer.

因此，我可以向您提供的具體資訊是關於我們哥倫比亞流程中報價流程的主要步驟。因此，我們希望買方向監管機構請求授權。一旦監管機構分析並批准要約，要約就會被提交並存放，然後招標期就開始了。就像在巴西和其他市場一樣，當招標期開始時，或者更好地說，只有當買方擁有完成報價所需的資金、現金和保證時，投標期才能開始。

So once the tender period is open, it will last 30 days. Then after those 30 days, then the offer is settled a few days later. So this is the whole process, and we expect it to be completed as we said in our Material Fact call by the end of the year.

因此，招標期一旦開放，將持續30天。 30 天后，報價將在幾天后結算。這就是整個過程，我們預計它會像我們在重要事實電話會議中所說的那樣在年底前完成。

Our next question is by Irma sell-side analyst at Goldman.

我們的下一個問題是高盛賣方分析師 Irma 提出的。

I would like to hear your take on consumer behavior in the different store formats because you have the advantage of reaching different audiences. So you have already commented that deflation help to recover volumes in perishables mainly. But now looking ahead to the end of the year, what do you see in terms of consumer behavior in the different brands?

我想聽聽您對不同商店形式中消費者行為的看法，因為您具有接觸不同受眾的優勢。因此，您已經評論過通貨緊縮主要有助於恢復易腐商品的數量。但現在展望今年底，您對不同品牌的消費者行為有何看法？

And I know it's hard to project, but what is your vision on inflation or deflation of food items? And what are the moments that you are taking into account during the crop season or planning?

我知道這很難預測，但您對食品通膨或通貨緊縮有何看法？在作物季節或計畫期間您會考慮哪些時刻？

And just another clarifying question. If you had more flexibility in the balance sheet, would you be interested in opening more stores in the Pão de Açúcar full format? Or you want to be more selective, even if you had more flexibility there from the investment side and in terms of leverage as well?

還有一個需要澄清的問題。如果您的資產負債表具有更大的靈活性，您是否有興趣開設更多 Pão de Aúcar 全格式商店？或者您想要更有選擇性，即使您在投資方面和槓桿方面也有更大的靈活性？

Thank you, Irma, for your question. About consumer behavior, so starting with the first part of your question. We benefit from having the greatest loyalty program in Brazil. And this gives us a close contact with consumer, and we can have an eye on their behavior.

艾爾瑪，謝謝你的提問。關於消費者行為，所以從你問題的第一部分開始。我們受惠於巴西最出色的忠誠度計畫。這使我們能夠與消費者保持密切聯繫，我們可以關注他們的行為。

When it comes to premium consumers, we have seen an enhancement in the share of perishables. And at Pão de Açúcar, this has already exceeded 50% of the total sales in this format. So more than 50% coming from perishables, which is really important for us because perishable means loyalty, and we have gained market share in all perishable segments. We have the best baker in the market, the best butchery department. And this has achieved strong double-digit growth, and we expect it to remain like that. We have been investing a lot in the relationship with our suppliers, and we have also invested a lot in training of our staff to make sure that the experience will be -- will continue. Amazing.

對於高端消費者來說，我們看到易腐食品的比例增加。而在 Pão de Açãocar，這已經超過了該格式總銷售額的 50%。因此，超過 50% 來自易腐食品，這對我們來說非常重要，因為易腐食品意味著忠誠度，而且我們在所有易腐食品領域都獲得了市場份額。我們擁有市場上最好的麵包師、最好的屠宰部門。這已經實現了強勁的兩位數成長，我們預計它會保持這種狀態。我們在與供應商的關係上投入了大量資金，我們也在員工培訓方面投入了大量資金，以確保這種體驗將持續下去。驚人的。

Now about deflation, we know that commodities impact deflation rates. And the advantage of the premium brands is that they are less impacted by this category. But there is an important point here. Since we started the turnaround process, one of the points that we identified back then was that Pão de Açúcar customers were coming to our stores, our Pão de Açúcar stores, just to buy indulgency categories. They would not buy the whole basket in those stores. They went somewhere else for commodities and perishables. But in our commercial team, the marketing team and the operation teams have been working really hard to give us the opportunity to work on ideal assortment and pricing, making sure these customers will buy other categories as well.

現在關於通貨緊縮，我們知道大宗商品會影響通貨緊縮率。優質品牌的優勢在於它們受該類別的影響較小。但這裡有一個重要的點。自從我們開始週轉過程以來，我們當時發現的一點是，Pão de Aúcar 的顧客來到我們的商店，我們的 Pão de Aúcar 商店，只是為了購買放縱的類別。他們不會在那些商店購買整個籃子。他們到其他地方購買商品和易腐爛的物品。但在我們的商業團隊中，行銷團隊和營運團隊一直在努力工作，讓我們有機會研究理想的分類和定價，確保這些客戶也會購買其他類別。

So we're not feeling the pressure as much as the rest of the market because the volume of commodity products is offsetting the deflation rates that we are experiencing now. Having said that, we have seen a slowdown in the deflation process. We believe it will continue at least in the first half of 2024, but there are already some categories that have been experiencing some price stagnation, especially in the butcher department, so a reduction of the drops we have been seen in recent months and quarters.

因此，我們沒有像市場其他部分那樣感受到壓力，因為大宗商品的數量正在抵消我們現在正在經歷的通貨緊縮率。話雖如此，我們已經看到通貨緊縮過程放緩。我們相信這種情況至少會持續到 2024 年上半年，但已經有一些類別出現了價格停滯，特別是在屠宰部門，因此我們在最近幾個月和幾個季度看到了價格下跌的減少。

However, when you go to the Extra market brand stores, it's a different strategy, a different type of customer and a different value proposition and assortment plan. Here, we're working on having the right product with the right price. So we want to offer a great cost-benefit ratio to customers here. We continue focusing on the presence of perishables as a whole in the sector. And in specific categories and products, we're working on our value perception when it comes to pricing.

然而，當您去 Extra market 品牌商店時，您會發現不同的策略、不同類型的客戶以及不同的價值主張和分類計劃。在這裡，我們致力於以合適的價格提供合適的產品。因此，我們希望為這裡的客戶提供很高的成本效益比。我們繼續關注整個行業中易腐爛食品的存在。在特定類別和產品中，我們正在努力提高定價方面的價值認知。

It's worth highlighting that in spite of this huge challenge, our operations team has been working hard on store productivity for Extra market stores, which enabled us to grow and to improve the profitability of the brand in spite of the deflation challenges that we have been facing.

值得強調的是，儘管面臨這一巨大挑戰，我們的營運團隊一直在努力提高額外市場商店的商店生產力，這使我們能夠在面臨通貨緊縮挑戰的情況下實現增長並提高品牌的盈利能力。

When it comes to the Pão de Açúcar format in expansion, we should be cautious, Irma. And it's not a matter of having enough money or not, but we want to focus on our business model. One of the things we learned was that it's no use just opening a store in a location that seems to be good. We have improved our Pão de Açúcar expansion process last year and this year with stores being opened with sales that are at least 50% above the average of recent years, of recent waves because we're not just opening stores anywhere.

當談到擴展中的 Pão de Aúcar 格式時，我們應該謹慎，Irma。這不是錢夠不夠的問題，而是我們要專注於我們的商業模式。我們學到的一件事是，僅僅在一個看起來不錯的地方開店是沒有用的。去年和今年，我們改進了 Pão de Aúcar 的擴張流程，新開的商店的銷售額比近年來的平均水平高出至少 50%，因為我們不只是在任何地方開設商店。

Pão de Açúcar already has the best real estate, especially in the city of Sao Paulo. And we have to be very careful when choosing the location and defining the ideal assortment, the neighborhoods. We want to be based in the responses we want to give to the needs of that neighborhood or that city. An example of the success of this strategy was the opening of the store in Atibaia. We opened the store, and we achieved the targets for the whole year right away. So this shows the hard work of our expansion team and all of the other teams that have been providing support to this project.

波德阿庫卡爾已經擁有最好的房地產，尤其是在聖保羅市。在選擇位置和定義理想的分類（社區）時，我們必須非常小心。我們希望立足於對那個社區或那個城市的需求做出的回應。這一策略成功的一個例子是在阿蒂巴亞開設商店。店開了，全年的目標很快就達成了。這顯示了我們的擴展團隊和所有其他為該專案提供支援的團隊的辛勤工作。

So yes, we want to open new stores. But for the Pão de Açúcar brand, we believe that we need to focus on refining the opportunities, so with a lower volume of stores. On the other hand, we see a great opportunity to continue growing and expanding in the Pão de Açúcar brand in the city of Sao Paulo.

所以是的，我們想開設新店。但對於 Pão de Aúcar 品牌，我們認為我們需要專注於完善機會，因此需要減少門市數量。另一方面，我們看到了聖保羅市 Pão de Aúcar 品牌繼續發展和擴張的絕佳機會。

Let me just add something to this, Irma. I believe Marcelo covered the main points regarding our strategy to define whether we will open new stores or not. But an important point is that, in the new Pão de Açúcar stores, we have chosen a build-to-suit strategy. So the CapEx that is used for opening a new store is invested by the landowner. This is actually a joint action. This has been our choice for now, so we don't have that balance sheet pressure that you mentioned to continue advancing in our expansion of the Pão de Açúcar full format. We have the space. We're opening new stores because of the rigorous analysis that we have been carrying out to choose the new sites, locations, assortment and then open the new stores.

讓我補充一些內容，艾爾瑪。我相信馬塞洛涵蓋了有關我們策略的要點，以確定我們是否會開設新店。但重要的一點是，在新的 Pão de Aúcar 商店中，我們選擇了量身定制的策略。因此，用於開設新店的資本支出是由土地所有者投資的。這實際上是一次聯合行動。這是我們目前的選擇，因此我們沒有您提到的資產負債表壓力，無法繼續推進 Pão de Aúcar 全格式的擴張。我們有空間。我們之所以開設新店，是因為我們一直在進行嚴格的分析，以選擇新地點、地點、品種，然後開設新店。

Our next question is by [Tally] sell-side analyst from [Zafra].

我們的下一個問題是來自 [Zafra] 的 [Tally] 賣方分析師提出的。

My question is about that level of 5.8% that you mentioned in your report. So when do you expect to reach the end of those projects? And what about working capital? You said 45 days of stock and 54 for suppliers. Can you give us more color about the projects to reduce out-of-stock problems in the different brands?

我的問題是關於你在報告中提到的 5.8% 的水平。那麼您預計這些項目什麼時候能結束？那麼營運資金呢？您說的是 45 天的庫存，供應商的 54 天。您能給我們更多關於減少不同品牌缺貨問題的項目的資訊嗎？

Sure. Thank you, [Tally], for your question. About the out-of-stock issues, that is an obsession we have. We want to be able to meet customer needs. I remember when I joined in April 2022, one of the main complaints that we had from customers regarded the lack of assortment, consistency in our stores. The customer came, bought a product. And when they came back another day, the product was no longer there available for them.

當然。謝謝你，[Tally]的提問。關於缺貨問題，這是我們一直困擾的問題。我們希望能夠滿足客戶的需求。我記得當我於 2022 年 4 月加入時，客戶對我們的主要抱怨之一是我們商店缺乏品種和一致性。顧客來了，購買了產品。當他們第二天回來時，他們已經找不到該產品了。

So this was quite orectic. So I would say that 95% of product availability on the shelves consistently because it's important to highlight here that this number that we are sharing is not a snapshot of the last week of the quarter. This is a consistent weekly number that we track in our stores.

所以這是相當有食慾的。所以我想說，95% 的產品在貨架上的供應始終如一，因為這裡需要強調的是，我們分享的這個數字並不是本季最後一週的快照。這是我們在商店中追蹤的每週一致數字。

And when we look at the delta difference here when we see expansion of reduction of out-of-stock items and increase in sales, I think the two things are closely related. And I would even say that in 2025, we would reach a best-in-class rate here in England. When I worked at Walmart, our metric was 97%. So I believe we can still improve this number. This is a solution that comes from an internal work that we do and also work that we do with our suppliers and the main challenge to exceed this figure of excellence as to be able to improve these rates in more distant capital cities, especially in the Northeast region of Brazil.

當我們看到這裡的增量差異時，當我們看到缺貨商品減少的擴張和銷售額的增加時，我認為這兩件事是密切相關的。我甚至會說，到 2025 年，我們將達到英格蘭同類最佳的水平。當我在沃爾瑪工作時，我們的指標是 97%。所以我相信我們仍然可以提高這個數字。這是一個來自我們內部工作以及我們與供應商合作的解決方案，主要挑戰是超越這個卓越數字，以便能夠提高更遙遠的首府城市的這些費率，特別是在東北部巴西地區。

We are working hard to improve our out-of-stock numbers in the Northeast because when we compare the numbers of the Northeast to the numbers of Sao Paulo and Rio, they're not at the levels we want. Although it's already considered an excellent rate, considering the Brazilian standards. But we expect this number to improve in 2024.

我們正在努力改善東北部的缺貨數量，因為當我們將東北部的數量與聖保羅和里約的數量進行比較時，它們沒有達到我們想要的水平。儘管考慮到巴西的標準，它已經被認為是一個很好的價格。但我們預計這一數字將在 2024 年有所改善。

Now about working capital. You saw that last year, we reduced 5 days as compared to 2021. And in 2023, when we look at the quarterly numbers, we have reduced this by 7 days. This is fruit of hard work. And the management of categories at o Pão de Açúcar, we reduced our assortment at o Pão de Açúcar by 10%. And as you know, we are now working on this for Mercado Extra and the Proximity format brands. Even so, we'll still have the opportunity to reduce not as much as we were able to reduce in the first 2 years because the levels were higher, but now we're going to focus on the detail and make sure that the assortment in the Mercado Extra stores will bring improvement in sales and margins and working capital.

現在關於營運資金。你看到，去年我們比 2021 年減少了 5 天。而到了 2023 年，當我們查看季度數據時，我們減少了 7 天。這是辛勤工作的成果。透過對 o Pão de Aúcar 的品類管理，我們將 o Pão de Aúcar 的品種減少了 10%。如您所知，我們現在正在為 Mercado Extra 和 Proximity 格式品牌進行此工作。即便如此，我們仍然有機會減少的數量不會像前兩年那樣減少，因為水平較高，但現在我們將重點關注細節並確保Mercado Extra 商店將帶來銷售額、利潤率和營運資金的改善。

Would you like to add anything here, Marcelo (sic) [Rafael]?

馬塞洛（Marcelo，原文如此）[拉斐爾]，您想在這裡添加什麼嗎？

I think you said it all. The opportunities are in the work that will be done in the stores that are left for the category management work, and this can give us another 2 to 3 days of additional gains. These are our estimates. But as Marcelo said, the hard work has been done. And so we might have some a few days to improve our working capital only.

我想你都說了。機會就在商店中留給品類管理工作的工作中，這可以給我們另外2到3天的額外收益。這些是我們的估計。但正如馬塞洛所說，艱苦的工作已經完成。因此，我們可能只有幾天的時間來改善我們的營運資金。

The next question will be asked by [Alexandre] from OMS.

下一個問題將由 OMS 的 [Alexandre] 提出。

So referring to leverage. I understand that you're not providing you guidance on what level of leverage you will be at. But can you share anything about how much cash you think you'll be able to get from additional sales of non-core assets excluding, of course, Éxito, which you've disclosed about. How much do you expect from Cnova's sales and the other assets that you intend to sell?

所以提到槓桿。我知道您沒有為您提供有關槓桿水平的指導。但是您能否分享一下您認為可以從非核心資產的額外銷售中獲得多少現金，當然不包括您所揭露的 xito。您對 Cnova 的銷售以及您打算出售的其他資產的期望是多少？

Another question. Looking at the different brands and how they're performing, in your release, you mentioned conversions from Compre Bem to Mercado Extra. So what kind of performance have you been seeing after these conversions?

另一個問題。看看不同的品牌及其表現，在您的新聞稿中，您提到了從 Compre Bem 到 Mercado Extra 的轉換。那麼這些轉換之後您看到了什麼樣的表現呢？

Thank you, Alexandre. I'll go straight to your point. Of course, we can't give any guidance, but what we can say is that the main element that we expect to sell and monetize on has been announced, our participation of 3.3% in Éxito. Besides that, we also have about additional BRL 500 million. This includes assets that we have that will be sold in the next quarters. So I'd say that pretty much how we should consider it. So about BRL 500 million besides what we have in Éxito, the other assets that we can still monetize.

謝謝你，亞歷山大。我會直接進入你的觀點。當然，我們無法給出任何指導，但我們可以說的是，我們期望出售和貨幣化的主要元素已經宣布，即我們在 xito 中的 3.3% 的參與。除此之外，我們還有大約5億雷亞爾的額外資金。這包括我們將在未來幾季出售的資產。所以我想說的是我們應該如何考慮它。因此，除了我們在 xito 擁有的資產之外，還有大約 5 億雷亞爾，我們仍然可以貨幣化。

Concerning Compre Bem, it's still early to say because, as a reminder, when it comes to assortment, when we transform this banner into Mercado Extra, this allowed us to had a lot of assortment to Mercado Extra. And it also allowed us to include our own brand, which is now becoming more relevant. So we're starting to see some performance improvements. But more than sales, we are definitely seeing contributions to our margins. Some categories and different departments have been unified, things that were done separately before and that now have been able to piggyback on Mercado Extra's performance. So that includes meat products, grocery products and so on.

關於 Compre Bem，現在說還為時過早，因為提醒一下，當我們把這個橫幅改造成 Mercado Extra 時，我們可以擁有很多 Mercado Extra 的品種。它還使我們能夠納入自己的品牌，現在也變得越來越重要。所以我們開始看到一些效能改進。但除了銷售額之外，我們肯定還看到了對利潤的貢獻。一些類別和不同的部門已經統一，以前單獨完成的事情現在可以藉助 Mercado Extra 的表現。這包括肉類產品、雜貨產品等。

So clients will understand a new value proposition. They'll recognize the improvement in assortment proposed for these formats. And they'll also see an improvement in pricing, especially in perishables. And just as we've done in other formats, we'd like to reinforce these. On the other hand, the main point here is not only sales growth, but also optimizing our results. And this has been seen significantly.

因此客戶將了解新的價值主張。他們會認識到針對這些格式提出的品種改進。他們也將看到定價的改善，尤其是易腐食品的定價。正如我們在其他形式中所做的那樣，我們希望加強這些。另一方面，這裡的重點不僅是銷售成長，而且是優化我們的業績。這一點已經得到了顯著的體現。

Great. Thank you, everyone. This concludes our question-and-answer session. We'll now pass it over to Marcelo Pimentel for the company's closing remarks.

偉大的。謝謝大家。我們的問答環節到此結束。現在我們將把它交給馬塞洛·皮門特爾 (Marcelo Pimentel)，讓他發表公司的結束語。

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for being here for our call. I'm very pleased, I'm very happy and confident with the results we've presented, which validate the consistent work and business strategy that we've had.

我要再次感謝大家來參加我們的電話會議。我很高興，我對我們所呈現的結果感到非常高興和充滿信心，這驗證了我們一貫的工作和業務策略。

In April 2022, we started a turnaround process that was set to last 3 years. We're in the second stage of this project, and we're starting to be rewarded for our work which focused on operational and structural improvements so that their results would be long-lasting and sustainable. I'm confident that we're fully capable of continuing to deliver on these fronts.

2022 年 4 月，我們開始了為期 3 年的周轉流程。我們正處於專案的第二階段，我們開始因專注於營運和結構改進的工作而獲得獎勵，以便其結果是持久和可持續的。我相信我們完全有能力繼續在這些方面取得成果。

I'll close by thanking the team for their dedication and commitment. They really have believed in our projects. So thank you to the stores team, the distribution center team, e-commerce, everyone who's making a difference to make our business turn around. Thank you, and have a great day.

最後，我要感謝團隊的奉獻和承諾。他們真的相信我們的專案。感謝商店團隊、配送中心團隊、電子商務團隊以及所有為我們的業務扭轉局面做出貢獻的人。謝謝您，祝您有美好的一天。

This concludes our conference call. The Investor Relations department is available to answer any outstanding questions. Thank you, and have a great day.

我們的電話會議到此結束。投資者關係部門可以回答任何懸而未決的問題。謝謝您，祝您有美好的一天。