Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB de CV (FMX) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Hello and welcome to FEMSA's First Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. My name is Melissa and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this conference is being recorded (Operator Instructions)

您好，歡迎您參加 FEMSA 2024 年第一季業績電話會議。我叫梅麗莎，我將擔任今天活動的協調員。請注意本次會議正在錄製（操作員說明）

I'll now turn the call over to Mr. Juan Fonseca, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

我現在將把電話轉給投資者關係主管胡安·豐塞卡先生。請繼續。

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to FEMSA's first quarter 2024 results conference call. Today we are joined by Jose Antonio Fernandez Garza-Laguera, CEO of our Proximity and Health Division; Martin Arias, our incoming CFO; and Jorge Collazo, who Heads Coca-Cola FEMSA's Investor Relations team.

大家早安，歡迎參加 FEMSA 2024 年第一季業績電話會議。今天，我們的近距離與健康部門執行長 Jose Antonio Fernandez Garza-Laguera 也加入了我們的行列。 Martin Arias，我們即將上任的財務長；以及可口可樂 FEMSA 投資者關係團隊負責人 Jorge Collazo。

As you know, one of FEMSA's strategic priorities involves engaging more directly and proactively with our key stakeholders, and that includes providing more opportunities for you, our investors and analysts, to hear from and interact with the heads of our core business verticals. You already have that possibility with Ian Craig, given the public nature of Coke FEMSA, and we will increasingly work to provide broader access to Jose and Juan Carlos Guillermety in their roles as heads of the other 2 core operations, Proximity and Health, and Digital, respectively.

如您所知，FEMSA 的策略重點之一是更直接、更主動地與我們的主要利害關係人接觸，其中包括為您、我們的投資者和分析師提供更多機會，聽取我們核心業務垂直領域負責人的意見並與之互動。考慮到可口可樂FEMSA 的公共性質，您已經有機會與Ian Craig 合作，我們將越來越多地努力為Jose 和Juan Carlos Guillermety 提供更廣泛的接觸機會，讓他們擔任其他2 個核心業務（即鄰近和健康業務以及數位業務）的負責人， 分別。

Therefore, as a first step, the plan is for Jose to open today's conversation with the Division for Proximity and Health and the key elements of the strategy to move towards that vision. Going forward, Jose will [put] 2 quarterly calls a year. At a later date, we also plan for Juan Carlos to present his vision for the Digital business, with the expectation that he will also join our calls once or twice a year. After Jose's remarks, Martin will provide an update on the business and our quarterly results. Finally, we will open the call for your questions.

因此，作為第一步，何塞計劃開啟今天與鄰近與健康司的對話，並討論實現這一願景的策略的關鍵要素。展望未來，何塞將每年[提出]兩次季度電話會議。稍後，我們還計劃讓胡安·卡洛斯（Juan Carlos）介紹他對數位業務的願景，並期望他每年也能參加一到兩次電話會議。在何塞發表講話後，馬丁將提供有關業務和季度業績的最新資訊。最後，我們將開啟電話詢問您的問題。

Jose, please go ahead.

何塞，請繼續。

Thank you, Juan. Good morning, everyone. It is my great pleasure and privilege to be able to be here today to begin what I hope will be regular conversations with all of you. As we move beyond the FEMSA Forward transformation and focus on the future of our company, I relish the chance to help pursue and capture the substantial opportunity for growth and value creation that lay at FEMSA, particularly as we continue to develop and strengthen our leadership in Proximity and Health retail.

謝謝你，胡安。大家，早安。我非常高興和榮幸今天能夠在這裡與大家開始我希望的定期對話。隨著我們超越FEMSA 向前轉型並專注於公司的未來，我很高興有機會幫助追求和抓住FEMSA 的巨大成長和價值創造機會，特別是當我們繼續發展和加強我們在以下領域的領導地位時：鄰近和健康零售。

As many of you know from following us for many years, FEMSA has always had the pursuit of long-term profitable growth hardwired into everything we do. And we have a clear and focused blueprint to keep achieving that objective as we build on FEMSA's successful track record in Proximity retail.

正如你們許多人多年來關注我們所知道的那樣，FEMSA 始終將長期獲利成長的追求融入我們所做的一切之中。我們以 FEMSA 在鄰近零售領域的成功記錄為基礎，制定了清晰且重點明確的藍圖來持續實現這一目標。

The comprehensive long-range plans that we were developed during the past couple of years provide us with a useful roadmap. We aim to accelerate earnings growth at our retail division, relying mainly on organic expansion and on continually adding layers of value for consumers across formats and across markets.

過去幾年我們制定的全面長期計劃為我們提供了有用的路線圖。我們的目標是加速零售部門的獲利成長，主要依靠有機擴張，並持續為跨業態和跨市場的消費者增加價值層次。

As you all know, OXXO Mexico is the mainstay of FEMSA's retail operations. For the past 45 years, we have been evolving and improving its value proposition while expanding its footprint and growing its scale, always focused on understanding more of our customers' needs and finding new ways to serve them consistently better.

眾所周知，OXXO Mexico 是 FEMSA 零售業務的中流砥柱。在過去的45 年裡，我們一直在不斷發展和改進其價值主張，同時擴大其足跡並擴大其規模，始終專注於更多地了解客戶的需求並尋找新的方法來持續更好地為他們服務。

As OXXO's store economics have improved over time, we have been able to increase our footprint in Mexico to the current level of more than 1,000 stores, while maintaining and even increasing store productivity. We have built capabilities to develop consumer insights that in turn are continuously applied in our segmentation efforts, and we are confident that we can keep the current pace of OXXO expansion in Mexico for many years under the current value proposition.

隨著 OXXO 商店經濟效益的不斷提高，我們能夠將我們在墨西哥的足跡擴大到目前超過 1,000 家商店的水平，同時保持甚至提高商店生產力。我們已經建立了開發消費者洞察的能力，而這些洞察又不斷地應用於我們的細分工作中，我們有信心在當前的價值主張下，我們能夠在墨西哥保持 OXXO 目前的擴張速度多年。

In the process, we believe we have become more effective retailers, and this is now allowing us to find promising opportunities beyond the core OXXO Mexico format. As you know, we are thoughtfully accelerating our organic expansion efforts with OXXO in several markets in South America, having already reached the 500-store mark in Brazil and soon in Colombia. We believe OXXO in South America could, on a combined basis, reach a scale [comparable] to Mexico over time.

在這個過程中，我們相信我們已經成為更有效率的零售商，這讓我們能夠在 OXXO 墨西哥核心業態之外找到有前景的機會。如您所知，我們正在深思熟慮地加速與 OXXO 在南美洲多個市場的有機擴張，目前在巴西的門市數已達到 500 家，很快將在哥倫比亞達到 500 家門市的目標。我們相信，隨著時間的推移，南美洲的 OXXO 綜合起來可以達到與墨西哥[相當]的規模。

Moving on to other different formats, we are taking advantage of the Mexican consumer increasing appetite for the Proximity discount format with our Bara store. After many iterations and years of fine-tuning its value proposition, Bara is showing that it has the right unit economics and is ready for an accelerated rollout. We are also ramping up the development and deployment of other promising adjacent Proximity formats, such as coffee drive-throughs with our joint venture.

轉向其他不同的形式，我們正在利用墨西哥消費者對 Bara 商店的鄰近折扣形式日益增長的興趣。經過多次迭代和多年微調其價值主張，Bara 正在證明它具有合適的單位經濟效益，並已準備好加速推出。我們也正在增加其他有前景的鄰近鄰近業態的開發和部署，例如與我們的合資企業合作的咖啡得來速服務。

Beyond Latin America, we also continue to advance with the Valora platform in Europe, where despite high inflation last year and general macro headwinds, we are building on improving momentum and focusing on driving all 3 business platforms, our retail, food service, and our B2B business.

除了拉丁美洲之外，我們也繼續在歐洲推進Valora 平台的發展，儘管去年通貨膨脹率較高且總體宏觀不利，但我們正在努力改善勢頭，並專注於推動所有3 個業務平台，即我們的零售、食品服務及我們的業務平台。

While we will pursue and capture these opportunities mainly through organic expansion, we believe entering the United States could open a new and compelling avenue for growth, value creation for FEMSA, leveraging our capabilities, our closeness to the U.S. market, and a broad recognition of the OXXO brand among key demographics.

雖然我們將主要透過有機擴張來追求和抓住這些機會，但我們相信，進入美國可以為FEMSA 的成長和價值創造開闢一條新的、引人注目的途徑，利用我們的能力、我們與美國市場的緊密程度以及對FEMSA 的廣泛認可。

This initiative may require a moderately sized inorganic component to achieve certain scale up front, focus on border or near-border state, and on assets with certain characteristics that would serve as a launching pad for an OXXO U.S. value proposition, among other possibilities. We still have work to do as we fine-tune our potential entry models, always with a clear objective of long-term value creation for FEMSA. However, we know this topic is top of mind for the market, so we will keep you posted as we continue to develop our strategies.

這項措施可能需要一個中等規模的無機組成部分來預先實現一定的規模，重點關注邊境或近邊境國家，以及具有某些特徵的資產，這些資產將作為OXXO 美國價值主張的發射台以及其他可能性。在微調我們的潛在進入模式時，我們仍然有工作要做，始終以為 FEMSA 創造長期價值為明確目標。然而，我們知道這個主題是市場關注的焦點，因此我們將在繼續制定策略時隨時向您通報最新情況。

Beyond the various opportunities across the Proximity spectrum, we also continue to make progress in our Health operations, where we're increasingly being able to leverage our multi-country platform and scale to optimize purchasing, pricing, supply chain, and several other aspects of the business. However, we continue to operate in distinct, diversified, and sometimes challenging macro-operating and commercial environments, something we're quite familiar with in our neck of the woods.

除了 Proximity 範圍內的各種機會之外，我們還在健康業務方面繼續取得進展，我們越來越能夠利用我們的多國平台和規模來優化採購、定價、供應鏈和其他幾個方面這項業務。然而，我們繼續在獨特、多元化、有時甚至具有挑戰性的宏觀營運和商業環境中運營，這是我們非常熟悉的。

In certain market, our Health Division is currently navigating complex, competitive, and regulatory environments. But in every case, we're taking clear steps to address the challenges by adjusting and evolving our operating approach.

在某些市場，我們的健康部門目前正在應對複雜、競爭和監管環境。但在每種情況下，我們都會採取明確的步驟，透過調整和發展我們的營運方法來應對挑戰。

To put all our retail opportunities into perspective, I can share with you that today, if we consider all formats and all markets, we're opening more than 6 stores per calendar day or a new store every 4 hours on average. By the end of the 5-year period covered by our current long-range plan, to the extent that we have further proven and improved the economics of our various formats in various countries, we could eventually increase that pace by up to 50%. These plans are certainly ambitious, and while ultimately dependent on improving the economics of certain formats in certain countries, we believe they are achievable.

為了全面審視我們所有的零售機會，今天我可以與大家分享的是，如果我們考慮所有業態和所有市場，我們每個日曆日將開設超過 6 家商店，或者平均每 4 小時開設一家新商店。到我們目前的長期計畫涵蓋的5年期結束時，只要我們進一步證明並改善了我們各種業態在各國的經濟性，我們最終可以將這一速度提高到50%。這些計劃無疑是雄心勃勃的，雖然最終取決於改善某些國家某些業態的經濟效益，但我們相信它們是可以實現的。

On the topic of growth and investment, I would like to highlight a couple of points. First, although these plans will require considerable CapEx in the coming years, the organic and modular growth inherent in our business model puts us in a good position to capture high returns.

關於成長和投資這個主題，我想強調幾點。首先，儘管這些計劃在未來幾年需要大量資本支出，但我們業務模式固有的有機和模組化成長使我們處於獲得高回報的有利位置。

Second, these investment plans are reviewed rigorously on an annual basis, thus as we advance on each one of these organic growth initiatives, we may find that some opportunities become more compelling over time and some fall short of expectations, and we will adjust our CapEx accordingly. Therefore, I have asked our team to relentlessly focus on unit economics, cash flow generation, and achieving ROIC levels above our cost of capital to drive and guide our growth decisions.

其次，這些投資計劃每年都會進行嚴格審查，因此，當我們推進每項有機增長計劃時，我們可能會發現，隨著時間的推移，有些機會變得更加引人注目，而有些機會則達不到預期，我們將調整我們的資本支出因此。因此，我要求我們的團隊堅持不懈地關注單位經濟效益、現金流生成，並實現高於資本成本的投資回報率水平，以推動和指導我們的成長決策。

Finally, we should talk about the digital opportunities that exist in and around our retail platforms and which complement and expand the opportunities being developed by our Digital Division. As you know, I had the chance to take a short break from our Proximity business to help launch FEMSA's Digital efforts a few years ago. And it is very rewarding to see how the Spin ecosystem continues to thrive and develop by leaps and bounds, always leveraging the physical store network, [multi-capabilities] for our customers, our suppliers, our partners, and ultimately, our company.

最後，我們應該談談我們的零售平台內部和周圍存在的數位機會，這些機會補充和擴大了我們數位部門正在開發的機會。如你所知，幾年前，我有機會暫時離開 Proximity 業務，幫助啟動 FEMSA 的數位化工作。看到Spin 生態系統如何繼續蓬勃發展和跨越式發展，始終利用實體店網絡，為我們的客戶、我們的供應商、我們的合作夥伴以及最終我們的公司提供[多種功能]，這是非常值得的。

To take one example, less than 3 years after launching the Spin Premia loyalty platform, already more than a 1/3 of OXXO Mexico's revenues are associated with the program. Meaning that on average, we have access to more than 4 million tickets every day that allow us to begin building compelling and valuable data sets.

舉個例子，Spin Premia 忠誠度平台推出不到 3 年，OXXO Mexico 超過 1/3 的收入就與該計畫相關。這意味著我們平均每天可以訪問超過 400 萬張門票，這使我們能夠開始建立引人注目且有價值的數據集。

And as we get closer to the point where we can begin moving from a pure customer acquisition mode into more of a monetization phase, we are developing new data-driven initiatives. For example, OXXO has proactively invested in using AI to capitalize on the breadth and depth of this data. The density of our store network and the frequency of customer visits provide us with a unique perspective of Mexican consumer behaviors and trends.

隨著我們越來越接近可以開始從純粹的客戶獲取模式轉向更多的貨幣化階段，我們正在開發新的數據驅動計畫。例如，OXXO 積極投資使用人工智慧來利用這些數據的廣度和深度。我們商店網路的密度和客戶光顧的頻率為我們提供了了解墨西哥消費者行為和趨勢的獨特視角。

Over the last year, OXXO has materially evolved its algorithms, IT systems, and data science capabilities to offer better and more effective assortment, pricing, and promotions, and to efficiently staff each store according to its unique transaction patterns. These AI-driven improvements are being rolled out across our store network in Mexico, resulting in measurable increases in profitability as well as improved customer satisfaction.

去年，OXXO 大幅發展了其演算法、IT 系統和數據科學能力，以提供更好、更有效的分類、定價和促銷，並根據每家商店獨特的交易模式高效地配備人員。這些人工智慧驅動的改進正在我們墨西哥的商店網路中推廣，從而顯著提高了盈利能力並提高了客戶滿意度。

Summing up, we have our work cut out for us. We will drive our top line by increasingly expanding our store base and satisfying with excellence the needs of our customers. We will drive our bottom line by constantly seeking efficiency and effectiveness as we evolve our operating models, and we will carefully pursue acquisitions where appropriate to increase our scale and drive the virtual circle that flows from it.

總而言之，我們的工作已經完成。我們將透過不斷擴大我們的商店基礎並卓越地滿足客戶的需求來推動我們的營收成長。在發展營運模式的過程中，我們將透過不斷追求效率和效益來推動我們的獲利，並且我們將在適當的情況下謹慎進行收購，以擴大我們的規模並推動由此產生的虛擬圈子。

We will keep you appraised of our progress, and we will also build down on some of the opportunities discussed today, not only in future calls like this one, but through a more proactive stance where we generate recurring dialogue with the investment community.

我們將隨時向您評價我們的進展，我們還將利用今天討論的一些機會，不僅在未來的電話會議中，而且透過更積極主動的立場，與投資界進行反覆對話。

We are excited about the opportunities ahead and the clear path we're taking to capture them. I am fortunate to be surrounded by the best team in the business and to be part of an organization bound together by a strong and unique culture of collaboration and permanent cross-learning. I look forward to continuing our discussions with you going forward.

我們對未來的機會以及我們為抓住這些機會而採取的明確路徑感到興奮。我很幸運能夠被業內最優秀的團隊包圍，並成為一個透過強大而獨特的協作和永久交叉學習文化聯繫在一起的組織的一部分。我期待著繼續與您進行討論。

And I will now turn the call over to Martin to talk about FEMSA's first quarter results.

我現在將電話轉給 Martin，討論 FEMSA 第一季的業績。

Thank you, Jose, and good morning, everyone. I'm happy to be with you today to talk about this remarkable company that I have had the pleasure of calling home in one capacity or another for 25 years. As Jose just described, this is an exciting time to be a part of this team as we pursue compelling and unique opportunities at every 1 of our 3 core business verticals.

謝謝你，何塞，大家早安。我很高興今天能和大家一起談論這家非凡的公司，25 年來我很高興以這樣或那樣的身份把這家公司稱為家。正如 Jose 剛才所描述的，加入這個團隊是一個令人興奮的時刻，因為我們在 3 個核心業務領域的每個領域都追求令人信服且獨特的機會。

The first message I want you to take from me is this. The mandate I have received from our CEO and Board of Directors is to continue executing the capital allocation strategy that was announced as part of FEMSA Forward, steering the finances of the company towards the leverage goal of 2x net debt to EBITDA, excluding Coca-Cola FEMSA, which we expect to reach by the end of 2026.

我希望你從我這裡得到的第一個訊息是這樣的。我從執行長和董事會收到的任務是繼續執行作為 FEMSA Forward 的一部分宣布的資本分配策略，引導公司財務實現 EBITDA 淨債務 2 倍的槓桿目標（不包括可口可樂） FEMSA，我們預計到2026 年底實現。

As of the end of the first quarter, that ratio stood at 0.24x, compared to 0.1x at the end of 2023. To meet this mandate, our CEO has asked me to focus on disciplined organic and inorganic capital deployment, as well as to continue to monitor additional opportunities to return capital to shareholders.

截至第一季末，該比率為 0.24 倍，而 2023 年底為 0.1 倍。其他機會。

Prior to reviewing our quarterly results, I would like to provide you with an update on the FEMSA Forward initiatives relating to returning capital to shareholders, some thoughts on capital deployment generally. As you know, we have been active on the share buyback front, and during the first quarter, we launched an accelerated share repurchase, or ASR program, through a financial intermediary. Through that program, we were buying back $400 million worth of FEMSA shares. Before the ASR was launched, we had also bought back approximately 73 million shares in the quarter.

在回顧我們的季度業績之前，我想向您提供有關向股東返還資本的 FEMSA Forward 計劃的最新信息，以及關於資本部署的一些總體想法。如您所知，我們在股票回購方面一直很活躍，在第一季度，我們透過金融中介啟動了加速股票回購（ASR 計畫）。透過該計劃，我們回購了價值 4 億美元的 FEMSA 股票。在 ASR 推出之前，我們還在本季回購了約 7,300 萬股股票。

In addition, earlier in the year, we received shareholder approval to pay an extraordinary dividend of approximately $600 million during this year, the first installment of which was paid last week on April 18. This means we are in the process of returning nearly $1.1 billion to shareholders in 2024, in addition to our ordinary dividend, which was itself increased by 20%, representing a total of approximately $800 million at current exchange rates.

此外，今年早些時候，我們獲得股東批准，將在今年支付約 6 億美元的特別股息，第一期分期付款已於上週 4 月 18 日支付。 2024 年，我們將向股東發放普通股息，普通股息本身增加了20%，以當前匯率計算，總計約8 億美元。

To the deployment of CapEx, which is also a main component of our allocation strategy, we seek to prioritize its allocation towards core organic growth initiatives that offer the highest potential for long-term value creation. In the first quarter, our CapEx reached MXN 7.4 billion, representing 5.3% of total revenue and 45.1% growth over the comparable period of last year.

對於資本支出的部署，這也是我們分配策略的主要組成部分，我們尋求將其分配優先考慮到核心有機成長計劃，這些計劃為長期價值創造提供最大潛力。第一季度，我們的資本支出達到 74 億墨西哥比索，佔總營收的 5.3%，比去年同期成長 45.1%。

Reflecting in part the accelerated expansion at Proximity, as well as increased investments in production and distribution capacity at [indiscernible]. Through these organic investments, we aim to enhance our competitive position and maximize returns for our shareholders while preserving a strong financial foundation. In the event that these organic investments are not producing the expected returns, we reassure you that we will re-evaluate the levels of CapEx.

部分反映了 Proximity 的加速擴張，以及[音訊不清晰]對生產和分銷能力的投資增加。透過這些有機投資，我們的目標是增強我們的競爭地位並最大限度地為股東帶來回報，同時保持強大的財務基礎。如果這些有機投資沒有產生預期回報，我們向您保證，我們將重新評估資本支出水準。

Let's turn now to FEMSA's consolidated quarterly results. Total revenues increased 11.3% and EBITDA rose 14.4% compared to the first quarter of 2023, reflecting strong growth at Proximity and Coca-Cola FEMSA. Net consolidated income decreased 88.3% to MXN 5.9 billion, mainly explained by a challenging comparative base in the first quarter of 2023, which included a gain of MXN 40.6 billion from the reclassification of investment in Heineken to discontinued operations.

現在讓我們來看看 FEMSA 的綜合季度業績。與 2023 年第一季相比，總營收成長 11.3%，EBITDA 成長 14.4%，反映出 Proximity 和可口可樂 FEMSA 的強勁成長。合併淨收入下降 88.3%，至 59 億墨西哥比索，主要原因是 2023 年第一季的比較基數具有挑戰性，其中包括將喜力投資重新分類為已終止業務而獲得的 406 億墨西哥比索收益。

And also reflects an increase in the net financial expenses line, reflecting a wine tank gain from the repurchase of our debt in the first quarter of 2023. Excluding these effects, net consolidated income would have remained flat year-over-year.

並且也反映了淨財務費用線的增加，反映了我們在 2023 年第一季回購債務所獲得的酒桶收益。

Moving on to discuss the results of our operations, Proximity Americas delivered quite a strong set of numbers in the first quarter. The year-over-year growth was solid, but it looks even better when we consider the tough comparison base, they faced after a banner quarter in 2023. Also, same-store sales increased 9.7% in the first quarter, driven by an increase of 7.3% in the average customer ticket and 2.2% growth in traffic.

接下來討論我們的營運結果，Proximity Americas 在第一季交付了相當強勁的數據。同比成長穩健，但當我們考慮到他們在 2023 年表現出色的季度後所面臨的嚴峻比較基礎時，情況看起來更好。平均客票成長7.3%，客流量成長2.2%。

Certainly, we had the small advantage of an extra day in February, as well as the full impact of Holy Week that tends to help the average ticket, but these are strong numbers nonetheless. This growth reflects multiple initiatives implemented relating to revenue management, as well as the results of our loyalty program that are driving increased visits and purchases by our most loyal customers.

當然，我們有一個小小的優勢，二月份多了一天，以及聖週的全面影響，這往往有助於提高平均門票價格，但這些數字仍然很強勁。這一增長反映了與收入管理相關的多項舉措，以及我們的忠誠度計劃的結果，這些計劃推動了我們最忠誠的客戶的訪問和購買量的增加。

Gross margins expanded 170 basis points to reach 42%, the highest ever for our first quarter, which is normally the weakest of the year, reflecting strong trends in commercial income, a positive contribution from financial services, our growing revenue management initiatives, and strong performance from gathering-related categories such as soft drinks, beer, and snacks.

毛利率擴大170 個基點，達到42%，是我們第一季有史以來的最高水平，而該季度通常是一年中最弱的季度，反映出商業收入的強勁趨勢、金融服務的積極貢獻、我們不斷增長的收入管理計劃以及強勁的收入增長。

Income from operations increased 11.5%, while the operating margin contracted 20 basis points to 7.1%, reflecting higher labor expenses and faster store growth across markets, including those in LATAM that are still diluted to margins as they ramp up their scale, obviously all mitigated by effective expense containers.

營運收入成長11.5%，而營業利潤率收縮20 個基點至7.1%，反映出勞動成本上升和各個市場的門市成長加快，包括拉丁美洲市場，隨著規模的擴大，利潤率仍然被稀釋，顯然所有這些都得到緩解通過有效的費用容器。

On the store expansion front, OXXO also posted strong numbers, adding 495 net new stores during the quarter, which includes 356 in [Mexico] and 139 stores in South America. This figure for South America incorporates 71 openings by Grupo Nos in Brazil, where OXXO has already surpassed the 500 store mark.

在門市擴張方面，OXXO 也公佈了強勁的業績，本季淨增 495 家新店，其中墨西哥 356 家，南美洲 139 家。南美洲的數字包括 Grupo Nos 在巴西開設的 71 家門市，而 OXXO 在巴西的門市數量已突破 500 家。

Historically, the first quarter has been laggard in terms of store expansion, catching up during the second half. This year, the Proximity team did a great job of making sure that we hit the ground running as compared to the expansion of 254 stores in the first quarter of 2023.

從歷史上看，第一季的門市擴張一直落後，下半年才迎頭趕上。與 2023 年第一季擴張的 254 家門市相比，今年 Proximity 團隊做得非常出色，確保我們能夠立即投入營運。

Moving on to Proximity Europe, total revenues grew 12.6% in local currency, translating to an 8.2% increase in pesos. This growth was driven by strong performance of the Swiss convenience business and good momentum in the B2B pretzel business, partially offset by lower demand in transportation hub stores affected by extended labor strikes in Germany. Gross profit grew 11% in pesos, while gross margin expanded by 100 basis points to reach 43.2%.

再來看 Proximity Europe，以當地貨幣計算的總收入成長了 12.6%，換算成比索成長了 8.2%。這一成長是由瑞士便利業務的強勁表現和 B2B 椒鹽捲餅業務的良好勢頭推動的，但部分被德國長期罷工影響的交通樞紐商店需求下降所抵消。以比索計算的毛利成長了 11%，毛利率則成長了 100 個基點，達到 43.2%。

At the operating income line, Valora posted extraordinary growth, but we know that the B2B business had an outsized contribution to gains in the quarter's profitability. At growth rates that would not necessarily be replicable going forward.

在營業收入方面，Valora 實現了非凡的成長，但我們知道 B2B 業務對本季獲利能力的成長做出了巨大貢獻。就成長率而言，未來不一定可以複製。

Shifting focus to the Health Division and following up on Jose's comments a few minutes ago on the challenges we currently face, total revenues contracted slightly by 2.3% and same-store sales remained flat in Mexican pesos. This was driven by an ongoing disruption within the institutional business in Colombia and a challenging competitive environment in Mexico, as well as a tough comparison in Chile. These disappointing trends in the top line translated into weak operating results for the quarter as operating income fell 40% in pesos and operating margins contracted by 210 basis points to reach 3.3%.

將重點轉移到健康部門並跟進幾分鐘前 Jose 對我們當前面臨的挑戰的評論，總收入小幅收縮 2.3%，同店銷售額以墨西哥比索計算仍持平。這是由於哥倫比亞機構業務的持續混亂、墨西哥充滿挑戰的競爭環境以及智利的嚴峻比較所致。這些令人失望的收入趨勢導致本季經營業績疲軟，以比索計算的營業收入下降了 40%，營業利潤率收縮了 210 個基點，達到 3.3%。

As you might imagine, we are focused on the situation at the Health Division. We have a highly skilled team running that operation and they are rapidly adjusting their country specific strategies to mitigate and eventually revert these negative trends. For example, we are accelerating the retail component of our Columbia business, changing our mix to a more profitable, less structurally vulnerable operation.

正如您可能想像的那樣，我們關注的是衛生部門的情況。我們擁有一支技術精湛的團隊來經營這項業務，他們正在迅速調整各自國家/地區的具體策略，以減輕並最終扭轉這些負面趨勢。例如，我們正在加速哥倫比亞業務的零售部分，將我們的組合轉變為利潤更高、結構脆弱的業務。

In Mexico, we are making important adjustments to our consumer value proposition, following templates used in Ecuador and Chile. We will keep you posted on the evolution of these strategies.

在墨西哥，我們正在按照厄瓜多和智利使用的模板對消費者價值主張進行重要調整。我們將隨時向您通報這些策略的演變。

Moving on to OXXO Gas. Same station sales increased 6.9% and total revenues increased by 13.9%, reflecting solid trends in our institutional sales. During the quarter, gross margin reached 11.6%, and operating margin was 3.5%, reflecting lower profitability from our institutional business, partially offset by operational efficiencies and strict expense control.

繼續討論 OXXO 天然氣。同站銷售額成長 6.9%，總營收成長 13.9%，反映出我們機構銷售的穩健趨勢。本季毛利率達到 11.6%，營業利潤率為 3.5%，反映出我們機構業務的獲利能力下降，但部分被營運效率和嚴格的費用控制所抵銷。

Turning to Digital FEMSA. We continued to make progress during the quarter. The number of active users for Spin by OXXO reached 7.4 million, or 77.9% growth year-on-year, demonstrating steady trends in consumer adoption while also experiencing increased transactions per user. For its part, our Spin Premia loyalty program has also experienced good growth of 71.3% year-on-year, reaching 21.7 million active users.

轉向數位 FEMSA。我們在本季繼續取得進展。 Spin by OXXO 的活躍用戶數量達到 740 萬，年成長 77.9%，顯示出消費者採用率的穩定趨勢，同時每位用戶的交易量也有所增加。就其本身而言，我們的 Spin Premia 忠誠度計畫也實現了年比 71.3% 的良好成長，活躍用戶達到 2,170 萬。

Notably, approximately 35% of OXXO Mexico sales are now linked to Spin Premia as are 40% of the sales of OXXO Gas, strengthening the foundation for our data gathering and utilization capabilities.

值得注意的是，OXXO Mexico 約 35% 的銷售額現在與 Spin Premia 相關，OXXO Gas 的 40% 銷售額也與 Spin Premia 相關，從而加強了我們資料收集和利用能力的基礎。

As we continue to prioritize the acquisition of higher potential users, we are also making strides in the evolution of our digital operations into an ecosystem that is focused and geared to deliver maximum value to our users while driving sustainable growth and profitability for FEMSA.

在我們繼續優先考慮獲取更高潛在用戶的同時，我們也在將數位化營運演變成生態系統，該生態系統專注於為用戶提供最大價值，同時推動 FEMSA 的可持續成長和獲利能力。

From a financial perspective, we spent close to $50 million during the development and expansion of our digital ecosystem during the quarter. This is in line with previous quarters and below budget projections. Of note are the multiple insights that Juan Carlos Guillermety has brought to the business, which have allowed us to contain costs and focus our efforts on those initiatives with the greatest potential.

從財務角度來看，本季我們在數位生態系統的開發和擴展過程中花費了近 5,000 萬美元。這與前幾季一致，低於預算預測。值得注意的是胡安·卡洛斯·吉列爾梅蒂（Juan Carlos Guillermety）為業務帶來的多種見解，使我們能夠控製成本並將精力集中在那些潛力最大的舉措上。

Finally, Coca-Cola FEMSA posted another set of remarkable results in the first quarter, with double-digit growth in revenues and EBITDA against significant foreign exchange headwinds, supported by volume growth across most of their markets, as well as revenue growth management initiatives. Congratulations to the Coke FEMSA team and the Coca-Cola Company for such a strong quarter. You can listen to a replay of their quarterly call, which took place last Wednesday.

最後，可口可樂 FEMSA 在第一季度公佈了另一組引人注目的業績，在大部分市場的銷量增長以及收入增長管理舉措的支持下，儘管外匯不利，但收入和 EBITDA 實現了兩位數增長。恭喜可口可樂 FEMSA 團隊和可口可樂公司取得如此強勁的季度業績。您可以收聽上週三舉行的季度電話會議的重播。

Summing up, FEMSA's first quarter results show that our 2 largest business platforms, OXXO and Coca-Cola FEMSA, remain operating at a very high level, generating great results by refining their tools and business models to go after an extended runway of opportunities. While we continue to nurture newer, smaller business units to get them ready for faster growth, and we tend to the few elements of the FEMSA platform that need some immediate adjustment. As Jose mentioned at the outset, we look forward to a permanent open dialogue with you as we continue writing FEMSA's next chapter.

總而言之，FEMSA 第一季的業績表明，我們最大的 2 個業務平台 OXXO 和可口可樂 FEMSA 仍保持很高的營運水平，透過完善其工具和業務模式來追求更廣泛的機會，從而產生了巨大的成果。雖然我們繼續培育更新、規模較小的業務部門，讓它們為更快的成長做好準備，但我們傾向於 FEMSA 平台中需要立即調整的少數要素。正如 Jose 在開頭提到的，在我們繼續譜寫 FEMSA 的下一個篇章時，我們期待與您進行永久的公開對話。

And with that, let's open up the call for questions. Operator, please.

接下來，讓我們開始提問。接線員，請說。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Carlos Laboy with HSBC.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自匯豐銀行的 Carlos Laboy。

Taking a broader look, perhaps even beyond OXXO as well and Digital, at the different FEMSA businesses, what parts of the business are you perhaps most excited about? You covered a lot of ground, you talked about a lot of things, but what are you most excited about?

從更廣泛的角度來看，甚至超越 OXXO 和 Digital，看看不同的 FEMSA 業務，您可能對業務的哪些部分最感興趣？您涵蓋了很多內容，談論了很多事情，但是您最興奮的是什麼？

Thank you for that question. So obviously we have a lot of challenges and outstanding opportunities. I would say, I'm quite excited, first and foremost, about all of our opportunities in Mexico. I think also the value proposition enhancements, the developments in food, and just with all the data analytics that we're pursuing, I see those growth ahead for OXXO Mexico. And I see, and I'm beginning to get very excited about our opportunity with discount retailing. I wish that was still much more under the radar, but I still see a lot of opportunity for growth for discount retail in Mexico. I'm very excited about our South America expansion, particularly Brazil. I really think Brazil, if we can get it right, we can be as big as OXXO Mexico, if not bigger. It will take us a few years, but I'm really excited about the opportunity. We have tremendous partners and we have a tremendous team in place that keep me really excited.

謝謝你提出這個問題。顯然，我們面臨著許多挑戰和絕佳的機會。我想說，首先，我對我們在墨西哥的所有機會感到非常興奮。我認為價值主張的增強、食品的發展以及我們正在追求的所有數據分析，我看到了 OXXO Mexico 的未來成長。我明白了，我開始對我們的折扣零售機會感到非常興奮。我希望這仍然不受關注，但我仍然看到墨西哥折扣零售業有很多成長機會。我對我們在南美的擴張感到非常興奮，特別是巴西。我真的認為巴西，如果我們能做對的話，我們可以像 OXXO 墨西哥一樣大，甚至更大。這需要我們幾年的時間，但我對這個機會感到非常興奮。我們有優秀的合作夥伴和優秀的團隊，這讓我非常興奮。

And then I would say, I mean, it's again with food, but the food service component that I see that I'm learning from Europe that we're seeing, we have tremendous assets there. But if we can eventually make them grow organically, it could be a source of growth that will surprise us. Those are my most interesting things. Obviously, I'm carefully looking at the U.S. But being very cautious as to when and where to get into that playing field.

然後我想說，我的意思是，這又是食品方面的問題，但我認為我正在向歐洲學習食品服務部分，我們在那裡擁有巨大的資產。但如果我們最終能讓它們有機成長，它可能會成為令我們驚訝的成長來源。這些是我最有趣的事。顯然，我正在仔細觀察美國，但對於何時何地進入這個競爭環境非常謹慎。

Our next question is from Thiago Bortoluci with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的蒂亞戈·博爾托魯奇。

Congrats on the results. On the numbers, right, could you please help us understanding the dynamics within your corporate expenses line and calling the balancing, right, between consolidated results and the business units. Can -- you had a huge expense in the fourth quarter. I think you were diving for something close to MXN 1 billion per quarter going forward in expense. And it seems in the quarter you had a huge reversion, right? So if you could, we would welcome you walk us through explaining what's happening there? And what is the underlying basis we should expect going forward? This is number one.

祝賀結果。在數字上，您能否幫助我們了解您的公司費用線內的動態，並調用合併結果和業務部門之間的平衡？可以－第四季你有巨額開支。我認為您未來每季的支出將接近 10 億墨西哥比索。看來你在這個季度出現了巨大的逆轉，對吧？如果可以的話，我們歡迎您向我們解釋那裡發生了什麼？我們未來應該期待的根本基礎是什麼？這是第一名。

And if I may, a second one. This is on OXXO, particularly in Mexico, right? You reported very good same-store sales [tough comps], particularly in traffic, you grew 220 base points. In a quarter that the calendar might have a small, but still positive benefit for you, right? So the question is, what is the underlying traffic level that you're seeing? And more importantly, going forward, how do you think about same-store sales having one of your peers just reporting and commenting on making growth for the year?

如果可以的話，再來一張。這是在 OXXO 上，特別是在墨西哥，對吧？您報告了非常好的同店銷售[艱難的比較]，特別是在流量方面，您增長了 220 個基點。在這個季度裡，日曆可能會為你帶來微小但仍然積極的好處，對嗎？所以問題是，您看到的潛在流量水準是多少？更重要的是，展望未來，如果您的一位同行只是報告並評論今年的成長，您如何看待同店銷售？

Yes. This is martin. Thank you for your question. As to corporate expenses, I know it is hard to keep track of what's going on because that line item reflects a variety of things. It not only includes the corporate expenses, it also includes some of the smaller businesses that have historically been included within other. For example, Bara is there, the results of Bara, the results of Digital, Doña Tota is also there. And within our corporate expenses, the number we have always sort of guided to is more or less $100 million. But it's hard to get to that number because there can be movements given the different businesses. Historically will not be -- the historical numbers will not be much of a guide because the other line used to include Solistica at different times, Imbera, [indiscernible]. And so the historical numbers going forward, it should remain stable. All those businesses remain there. And so you should be able to get a little bit more clarity. And we'll try in future calls to maybe be a little bit more specific or get back to you with any details.

是的。這是馬丁.謝謝你的問題。至於公司開支，我知道很難追蹤正在發生的事情，因為該行項目反映了各種各樣的事情。它不僅包括公司費用，還包括一些歷史上包含在其他業務中的小型企業。例如，Bara在那裡，Bara的結果，Digital的結果，Doñña Tota也在那裡。在我們的公司開支中，我們一直指導的數字大約是 1 億美元。但很難達到這個數字，因為不同的業務可能會改變。從歷史上看不會——歷史數字不會有太大的指導作用，因為另一條線過去曾在不同時期包括 Solistica、Imbera，[音頻不清晰]。因此，未來的歷史數字應該保持穩定。所有這些業務都保留在那裡。所以你應該能夠更清楚一些。我們會在以後的電話中嘗試提供更具體的信息，或向您回復任何詳細信息。

Yes, I think on that, Thiago, I mean, obviously, we're -- this is Juan. We're lapping the most, I guess, volatile quarter, right, in terms of FEMSA Forward. A year ago, there were a lot of things that were moved around in terms of reclassified to discontinued operations. To Martin's comment, recently, we had made some changes with Solistica, with Envoy. So I think we're going to -- the next couple quarters are going to, I expect, trend to what becomes a more predictable number below the line and of course, we can you know we can follow-up offline to try to kind of reconcile our model with yours, but this is really the most -- the quarter with the most noise I think, given what happened 1 year ago.

是的，我想，蒂亞戈，我的意思是，顯然，我們——這是胡安。我想，就 FEMSA 遠期而言，我們正在經歷波動最大的季度，對吧。一年前，有很多事情被重新分類為停產業務。對於 Martin 的評論，最近，我們對 Solistica 和 Envoy 進行了一些更改。因此，我認為我們將 - 我預計，接下來的幾個季度將趨向於線下更可預測的數字，當然，我們可以在線下跟進以嘗試確定協調我們的模型和你們的模型，但這確實是最——我認為，考慮到一年前發生的事情，噪音最大的季度。

I mean I would just add I think, traffic is getting better and better, but it's still going to be tough. The next few months we have a strong comparison against next year. It was a very good quarter in terms of revenue. And we have some interesting things, extraordinary things, like in the elections we have a weekend where it's a dry weekend. There's no alcohol sales. We see that could affect us on the first weekend of June. So I think it will be a tough quarter, but I think given all that we are seeing in terms of our analytics and things to drive revenue into the store, we could be okay in traffic.

我的意思是我想補充一點，交通狀況正在變得越來越好，但仍然會很困難。接下來的幾個月我們將與明年進行強而有力的比較。就收入而言，這是一個非常好的季度。我們有一些有趣的事情，非同尋常的事情，例如在選舉中我們有一個週末，這是一個乾燥的週末。沒有酒類銷售。我們認為這可能會在六月的第一個週末影響我們。所以我認為這將是一個艱難的季度，但我認為考慮到我們在分析和推動商店收入方面所看到的一切，我們的客流量可能還不錯。

I would add to that, I mean, the Spin Premia is helping a lot in that. From not being relevant at all, historically, we're now 35% of the purchases in the store are being done by people who are showing their Premia card or getting their points digitally. So that is an important driver of strategies to drive traffic.

我想補充一點，我的意思是，Spin Premia 在這方面有很大幫助。從歷史上看，我們從根本不相關，現在商店中有 35% 的購買是由出示 Premia 卡或以數位方式獲取積分的人完成的。因此，這是推動流量策略的重要驅動因素。

Yes, I would just add, Thiago, we almost delivered 10% same-store sales growth. On top of [18.5%] or something like that that we did 1 year ago, we continue to perform above what I would have expected in terms of both the split of traffic and ticket. Obviously, inflation is down to 4%, 4.5%, and our ticket is 3 points north of that. You're going to hear us talk a little bit more about revenue management, and Jose already mentioned some of the ways that we're using data for that. So I don't have a good handle on what the new kind of algorithm will be for same-store sales, but it's increasingly looking like we're going to be at a higher level than we were pre-COVID, right? 2 points, 2 point something of traffic. several years after COVID ended and lapping, what we were doing 1 year ago, that's above trend, and that's higher than I would have expected. So anyway, we'll keep talking, but things are looking quite robust.

是的，我想補充一點，蒂亞戈，我們幾乎實現了 10% 的同店銷售成長。除了 [18.5%] 或類似我們 1 年前所做的事情之外，我們在流量和門票分配方面的表現繼續高於我的預期。顯然，通貨膨脹率已降至 4%、4.5%，而我們的票價則高出了 3 個百分點。您將聽到我們更多地談論收入管理，何塞已經提到了我們為此使用數據的一些方法。所以我不太清楚同店銷售的新演算法是什麼，但看起來我們將比新冠疫情之前處於更高的水平，對嗎？ 2分，2分交通甚麼的。在新冠疫情結束並結束幾年後，我們一年前所做的事情高於趨勢，也高於我的預期。所以無論如何，我們會繼續討論，但事情看起來相當穩健。

Our next question is from Ricardo Alves with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的里卡多·阿爾維斯。

Wish you all the best in the position. I had a question on OXXO topline as well. I appreciate the commentary on same-store sales, but I wanted to discuss new store openings, and if we can go into more details on the strategy around new openings. I mean, over 400 stores in the first quarter was quite remarkable to us. I think that that was one of the biggest surprises that we had. Your same-store sales have been running above expectations, and to the points that were made in the preliminary remarks, it really sounds like we're getting to a new pace, a new reality of expansion of OXXO across the board. So I wanted to take the advantage of the management here. If we can talk on a per-country basis, what's really driving that? I mean, of course, Mexico has been stronger. I'm sure that that's part of that. But are you stepping up more aggressively in other countries? I heard the comments around Brazil, but I understand that Brazil is not in these numbers of Proximity. So I mean, it seems that it's across the board. So just taking advantage of this call, if we can go into more details on that. And if the impression that we have is kind of valid that we're probably talking about a new pace, new targets in the long run as it pertains to where OXXO could be in Latin America overall. So more of a strategic question, if I may.

祝你在這個崗位上一切順利。我也有一個關於 OXXO topline 的問題。我很欣賞對同店銷售的評論，但我想討論新店開業，以及我們是否可以更詳細地了解新店開業的策略。我的意思是，第一季超過 400 家商店對我們來說是相當了不起的。我認為這是我們最大的驚喜之一。你們的同店銷售一直高於預期，就初步評論中提出的觀點而言，聽起來我們確實正在邁向新的步伐，OXXO 全面擴張的新現實。所以我想利用這裡的管理優勢。如果我們可以以每個國家為基礎來討論，那麼真正推動這一趨勢的因素是什麼？我的意思是，當然，墨西哥更強大。我確信這是其中的一部分。但你們是否在其他國家更積極採取行動？我聽到了巴西周圍的評論，但我知道巴西並不在這些鄰近地區。所以我的意思是，這似乎是全面的。因此，只要利用這次電話會議，我們就可以了解更多細節。如果我們的印像是正確的，那麼從長遠來看，我們可能正在談論新的步伐、新的目標，因為它涉及 OXXO 在拉丁美洲的整體發展。如果可以的話，更多的是一個戰略問題。

Thank you, Ricardo. So a few things. So we had an extraordinary quarter in growth of store units in Mexico. And we expect in the rest of the year that will normalize. We still plan for 1,000, maybe 1,100 stores opening in OXXO Mexico this year. We are really enjoying the traction that they are. The cohort of stores are maturing incredibly well with the value proposition that we have put in place with the assortment and segmentation. We feel more and more confident that our stores are becoming profitable and maturing quite rapidly, but I don't expect to accelerate that phase in Mexico other than just maybe trying to accelerate on opening the most stores as early in the year as possible. That always helps us with momentum and with stores tend to mature more better the earlier in the year we open them. I -- we are accelerating in South America, particularly Colombia and Peru. We're hitting a stride and we see a lot of opportunity. After 15 years in Colombia, I think we now have a value proposition that is a winning value proposition. It's where our food, our convenience business is better developed. We have a profitable business in food in Colombia, and we're very excited about the traction that we're seeing. We plan on growing in Colombia and Peru, and we still have to fix some things in Chile after the acquisition of OK Market. I think there's some things to structurally fix before we accelerate growth. But overall, we plan to have several thousand stores in South America, and that's not counting Brazil. So yes, I plan to accelerate in South America as well.

謝謝你，里卡多。所以有幾件事。因此，我們在墨西哥的商店數量增長了一個非凡的季度。我們預計今年剩餘時間這種情況將會正常化。我們今年仍計劃在 OXXO 墨西哥開設 1,000 家、也許 1,100 家商店。我們真的很享受它們所帶來的吸引力。隨著我們透過分類和細分制定的價值主張，這批商店正在非常成熟。我們越來越有信心，我們的商店正在快速盈利和成熟，但我不希望在墨西哥加速這一階段，除了可能會在今年年初加速開設大多數商店。這總是有助於我們保持動力，並且商店在開業越早的時候往往會成熟得越好。我——我們正在南美洲加速發展，特別是哥倫比亞和秘魯。我們正在邁出一大步，我們看到了很多機會。在哥倫比亞工作了 15 年後，我認為我們現在擁有了一個成功的價值主張。這是我們的食品、便利業務得到更好發展的地方。我們在哥倫比亞擁有盈利的食品業務，我們對所看到的吸引力感到非常興奮。我們計劃在哥倫比亞和秘魯發展，收購 OK Market 後我們在智利還需要解決一些問題。我認為在我們加速成長之前，需要從結構上解決一些問題。但總的來說，我們計劃在南美洲開設數千家商店，這還不包括巴西。所以，是的，我也計劃在南美洲加速發展。

I think on what Jose just said, obviously the hardest thing that you can do or that you -- what takes you the longest time is to get the value proposition right, and to get the 4-wall economics right. But once you have that, then it really becomes a function of scale and obviously finding the right locations and getting your expansion team and the supply chain. I mean, it's very systemic. But I think in a couple of countries, as Jose said, we are at that point where it really moves from fine-tuning, and you never finish fine-tuning the value prop, but moving more to a replication mode of just get more scale, and then the margins and the ROICs begin to look a lot better.

我認為根據何塞剛才所說的，顯然你能做的最困難的事情或你花費最長時間的事情就是正確地提出價值主張，並正確地理解四牆經濟學。但一旦你有了這個，那麼它就真正成為規模的函數，顯然要找到合適的地點並建立你的擴張團隊和供應鏈。我的意思是，它非常系統化。但我認為，正如何塞所說，在一些國家，我們正處於真正從微調轉向的階段，你永遠不會完成對價值支柱的微調，而是更多地轉向複製模式，以獲得更大的規模，然後利潤率和投資回報率開始看起來好很多。

Our next question is from Robert Ford with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的羅伯特福特。

Jose, you mentioned your excitement with discount retailing, but you didn't use the term hard discounting, and I was curious as to why? And then how are you thinking about Bara growth in the context of possible OXXO cannibalization? And then the press release also cites soft drinks as being a driver of Bara in the quarter. What percent of sales at Bara are soft drinks? And how are you tackling the private label and the opening price point opportunity in the beverage category at Bara? And I'll leave it there.

何塞，您提到了您對折扣零售的興奮，但您沒有使用“硬折扣”一詞，我很好奇為什麼？那麼，在 OXXO 可能被蠶食的背景下，您如何看待 Bara 的成長？然後新聞稿還指出軟性飲料是巴拉本季的推動力。 Bara 的軟性飲料銷售額佔百分之多少？您如何應對 Bara 飲料類別中的自有品牌和開價機會？我會把它留在那裡。

Thanks for that question. So yes, that's a very good point. Obviously, Bara is, I wouldn't say -- and it's a very good precisement, is it already a hard discount retailer? No, I think it's in the process of getting there. We still have I mean, our private label as percentage of total sales is growing every quarter, but it's still on the high 20s in percentages. But I think as we move forward, we're assigning a team to grow our private label business, and we see a huge opportunity to keep growing that business.

謝謝你提出這個問題。所以，是的，這是一個非常好的觀點。顯然，我不會說，巴拉是——這是一個非常好的精確性，它是否已經是一家硬折扣零售商？不，我認為它正在實現這一目標。我的意思是，我們的自有品牌佔總銷售額的百分比每季都在成長，但百分比仍然在 20 左右。但我認為，隨著我們的前進，我們正在指派一個團隊來發展我們的自有品牌業務，我們看到了繼續發展該業務的巨大機會。

In terms of cannibalization, as you know, Bara has been part of of this business for over 20 years or more. But in a true sub-discount or discount matter, it's been over the last 5 years, and we see a lot of Baras in Guanajuato, in Querétaro, next to OXXOs, and they thrive, both of them. They do -- I mean, obviously, there is some cannibalization, but it's minor. They serve very different demographics. They serve very different purchase decisions, Bara, I think, is much more geared towards the [not] -- the socioeconomic level that really requires everyday purchases. It is still about 25% of its revenue is convenience. In that sense, we do sell a lot of soft drinks, but it's more and more geared towards [familiaris] or multi-serve option. We do see a lot of growth in beverages, just as we saw also a growth in beverage, just as we saw in OXXO, a growth in beverage. So I think it has to do a lot with the competitive dynamics of that sector and not so much that they are cannibalizing also in that segment.

就蠶食而言，如您所知，Bara 從事這一行業已有 20 多年或更長時間了。但在真正的次級折扣或折扣問題上，已經過去 5 年了，我們在瓜納華托、克雷塔羅和 OXXO 旁邊看到了很多 Baras，而且他們都在蓬勃發展。他們確實——我的意思是，顯然，存在一些蠶食，但規模很小。他們服務於非常不同的人口統計。他們提供非常不同的購買決策，我認為巴拉更適合[不]——真正需要日常購買的社會經濟水平。其收入的約 25% 仍來自於便利性。從這個意義上說，我們確實銷售很多軟性飲料，但它越來越適合[familiaris]或多份服務的選擇。我們確實看到了飲料的大量增長，就像我們也看到了飲料的增長一樣，就像我們在 OXXO 看到的飲料的增長一樣。因此，我認為這與該行業的競爭動態有很大關係，而不是他們也在該領域蠶食。

I would compliment that also. We have a unique opportunity in that format that others don't. A typical hard discount does not have convenience categories. Part of the reason they don't do that is because of the distribution model and a variety of other reasons. We already have that. It's already built. So adding the convenience categories to our Bara offering just strengthens the Bara offering. But we like to refer to it internally more as a soft discount, because we don't necessarily feel the need to follow every single rule of hard discount. And we tend to be a little bit more pragmatic and agnostic about certain things, particularly because we can bring a whole set of capabilities to that business that others can't. One another example is financial services and executing services within the store. Very few people can bring that to hard discount model and create that network effect that today we have at OXXO. And marginally, it doesn't have any cost to what we're doing at OXXO.

我也會稱讚這一點。我們在這種形式上擁有其他人沒有的獨特機會。典型的硬折扣沒有便利類別。他們不這樣做的部分原因是分銷模式和其他各種原因。我們已經有了。已經建成了。因此，在我們的 Bara 產品中加入便利類別只會增強 Bara 產品。但我們更喜歡在內部稱之為軟折扣，因為我們不一定覺得有必要遵循硬折扣的每一條規則。我們傾向於對某些事情更加務實和不可知，特別是因為我們可以為該業務帶來其他人無法提供的一整套功能。另一個例子是商店內的金融服務和執行服務。很少有人能夠將其引入硬折扣模式並創造我們今天在 OXXO 所擁有的網路效應。而且，從某種程度上來說，它對我們在 OXXO 所做的事情沒有任何代價。

I would add that [that] competitive advantage is an important segment. The service is part of Bara. It's an important -- it's not as big as in an OXXO, but it's growing and we've been very smart about making sure it doesn't intervene with the rest of the value proposition of Bara to not affect the discount buyers of the store. So I think we serve both consumer occasions very well in Bara and that's something that only Bara can do.

我想補充一點，競爭優勢是重要的部分。該服務是巴拉的一部分。這很重要——它不像 OXXO 那樣大，但它正在增長，我們非常聰明地確保它不會幹擾 Bara 的其他價值主張，以免影響商店的折扣買家。所以我認為我們在巴拉很好地服務了這兩種消費場合，而這是只有巴拉才能做到的。

Those are very important points of differentiation. And then just with respect to how you're tackling the beverage category in Bara, in terms of the importance of private label, and how you're finding your opening price points, or do you stick to all branded and favor of--

這些都是非常重要的區分點。然後，關於你如何處理巴拉的飲料類別，就自有品牌的重要性而言，以及你如何找到你的開盤價格點，或者你是否堅持所有品牌和青睞——

My belief, and from talking to experts in the industry, private label works fantastic in almost all categories. One of the toughest ones, and you've seen it in Walmart, you've seen it in other discounters, is beverages. I am of the belief that private label in beverage. Other than water and other categories, we like working with the big players. The cost of carrying that and putting that cost in place, I'd much rather stay with the big players in beverages. I do think private label serves a huge purpose in almost all other categories.

我相信，透過與行業專家的交談，自有品牌在幾乎所有類別中都表現出色。最難對付的問題之一就是飲料，你在沃爾瑪和其他折扣店都看過。我相信飲料中的自有品牌。除了水和其他類別之外，我們喜歡與大公司合作。承擔這筆成本並將其落實到位的成本，我寧願留在飲料領域的大公司。我確實認為自有品牌在幾乎所有其他類別中都有著巨大的用途。

And it has nothing to do with our ownership over Coca-Cola FEMSA. It just really, what the consumer is demanding in those products are the national brands, and so we will provide them. The fact is OXXO does have some private label beverages, but they generally are a very small niche of the total beverage portfolio that we offer.

這與我們對可口可樂 FEMSA 的所有權無關。確實，消費者要求的這些產品是國家品牌，所以我們就提供。事實上，OXXO 確實有一些自有品牌飲料，但它們通常只占我們提供的整個飲料組合的一小部分。

Our next question is from Rodrigo Alcantara with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的羅德里戈·阿爾坎塔拉。

My question would be for you, Jose. Just if I perceive correctly on Carlos Laboy's question, I mean, you mentioned focus on OXXO LATAM, right, and U.S. could be over time. I mean, does this mean that in your view or U.S. as a priority maybe gets a step backwards in terms of priorities, perhaps if I perceive correctly or not? And on the other hand, I'm curious that we have not heard Europe, perhaps Valora, which has performed amazingly, right, over the last few quarters, a very nice surprise. So also, just curious here is why it's just coincidence that Valora will not be discussed here. That would be my question, Jose.

我的問題是問你的，何塞。如果我對 Carlos Laboy 的問題的理解正確的話，我的意思是，您提到了對 OXXO LATAM 的關注，對吧，隨著時間的推移，美國可能會出現這種情況。我的意思是，這是否意味著在您看來，美國作為優先事項可能會倒退一步，也許我的看法正確與否？另一方面，我很好奇我們還沒有聽說過歐洲，也許是瓦羅拉，它在過去幾季的表現非常出色，對吧，這是一個非常好的驚喜。同樣，這裡只是好奇為什麼這裡不會討論 Valora 只是巧合。這就是我的問題，何塞。

Thank you, Rodrigo, for your question. I -- it's good for me to clarify. First, I am very excited about the U.S. What I think the U.S., in general terms, when it comes to convenience, is like saying, it's a very generic term. U.S. is huge in the convenience store market. It's 160,000 convenience stores with very different dynamics and demographics and styles of stores as you move geographically and from rural to urban. So I would say, am I excited in the U.S.? It's very general. I am very excited about certain parts in the U.S., particularly. I am very excited about the border towns, towns that I know well, that I've known since ever. And they are very much familiar with the OXXO brand and the OXXO capabilities. And I believe, and what we talk to people in those border towns, they will be very excited to have the opportunity to have the OXXO value proposition on both sides of their, basically their own city already. So I'm very excited about the potential of the border towns or near border towns for OXXO expansion. And we have a team in place, and we're working hard on how to tackle that.

謝謝羅德里戈的提問。我——澄清一下對我來說很有好處。首先，我對美國感到非常興奮。美國便利商店市場巨大。 160,000 家便利商店隨著您的地理位置以及從農村到城市的變化，其動態、人口統計和商店風格都截然不同。所以我想說，我在美國感到興奮嗎？這是很一般的。我對美國的某些地區感到非常興奮，尤其是。我對邊境城鎮感到非常興奮，這些城鎮是我熟悉的、我從那時起就知道的。他們對 OXXO 品牌和 OXXO 能力非常熟悉。我相信，正如我們與這些邊境城鎮的人們交談的那樣，他們會非常高興有機會在他們自己的城市兩側擁有 OXXO 價值主張。因此，我對邊境城鎮或邊境城鎮附近 OXXO 擴張的潛力感到非常興奮。我們已經組建了一個團隊，正在努力解決這個問題。

I am also excited about exploring certain regions of the U.S. where I see interesting dynamics, still very attractive for convenience store expansion. If you look at the southwest without California and the southeast without Florida, there's not a lot of density is where there's less competition. That's where I see the fuel dynamics taking a longer time to change. I think that fuel, fuel as a value for traffic will keep -- I mean, I think for many, many years in the U.S., but in particularly in those regions, it will be really very resilient. So I'm also exploring, not necessarily with the OXXO brand, but are there any value or interesting small or medium potential acquisitions where we could transfer the capabilities that OXXO has and provide value. I'm excited about some of our assortment capabilities, our pricing capabilities, and frankly, our purchasing negotiation capabilities, because we're a huge player of many of the beverage and tobacco and many of the categories that are already here south of the border, and maybe we can play a place. So I'm excited about it. I'm just super excited about how close we are to a very interesting expansion in South America.

我也很高興探索美國的某些地區，在那裡我看到了有趣的動態，對於便利商店的擴張仍然非常有吸引力。如果你看看沒有加州的西南部和沒有佛羅裡達州的東南部，你會發現密度不大，競爭也較少。這就是我認為燃料動態需要更長的時間才能改變的地方。我認為燃料作為交通價值將繼續存在——我的意思是，我認為在美國會持續很多年，但特別是在這些地區，它將非常有彈性。因此，我也在探索，不一定是 OXXO 品牌，而是是否有任何價值或有趣的中小型潛在收購，我們可以在這些收購中轉移 OXXO 擁有的能力並提供價值。我對我們的一些分類能力、定價能力以及坦率地說，我們的採購談判能力感到興奮，因為我們是許多飲料和煙草以及許多已經在邊境以南的類別的重要參與者，也許我們可以找個地方玩。所以我對此感到很興奮。我對我們即將在南美進行非常有趣的擴張感到非常興奮。

And Europe is a very interesting play for us. We bought a company that has superb management, and you just seen it with the result. They've done a tremendous job in really finally capturing the potential that they have. And I still see a lot of potential bottom-line growth. We have some assets in the Valora portfolio, in food service that are quite frankly impressive in terms of 4-wall profitability. And one of the big challenges that the team has is can we grow them? Can we grow them organically? If we begin to grow organically, our [pretzel-conic] business, our Frittenwerk business. I think there could be a very interesting surprise for Valora going forward and many more quarters like this one. So I'm very excited about Valora as well.

歐洲對我們來說是一場非常有趣的比賽。我們買了一家管理一流的公司，結果你也看到了。他們在最終發揮自己的潛力方面做了巨大的工作。我仍然看到很多潛在的利潤成長。我們在 Valora 投資組合中擁有一些食品服務資產，坦白說，就 4 牆盈利能力而言，這些資產令人印象深刻。團隊面臨的最大挑戰之一是我們能否培養他們？我們可以有機種植它們嗎？如果我們開始有機成長，我們的 [pretzel-conic] 業務，我們的 Frittenwerk 業務。我認為 Valora 未來可能會出現一個非常有趣的驚喜，還有更多像這樣的季度。所以我對 Valora 也非常興奮。

And last one, apologies for violating the rules. I mean, we have seen you very active on the Health Division, right? You were recently in Chile visiting Cruz Verde, et cetera. I mean, just curious to hear your thoughts on what to do or the areas for improvement in Mexico in the Health Division? How you see M&A feeding in the Health Division? That would be my last question.

最後一點，對違反規則表示歉意。我的意思是，我們看到您在衛生部門非常活躍，對吧？您最近在智利參觀了 Cruz Verde 等地。我的意思是，只是想聽聽您對墨西哥衛生部門應該做什麼或需要改進的領域的想法？您如何看待健康部門的併購活動？這是我的最後一個問題。

So, as you know, the Health Division, particularly in Mexico, is going through some challenges in terms of competition. I mean, let's not forget, we had very successful years, many years of profitable growth and hitting our strike, but I think we had one type of pharmacy format in Mexico, and we believe now we have the right system in place to begin -- to develop another type of pharmacy format that has worked fantastically for us in Chile. We're really turning around Chile -- Ecuador with our more better developed store version, and we think Mexico is ready for an YZA or Cruz Verde store version that really captures all the value that we can bring in health and beauty, in pharmacy. And so we are planning to roll out organic expansion on that level. We've always looked for potential opportunities in organic opportunities in Mexico, but right now we're very much focused in getting more accelerated expansion in a bigger format of stores in pharmacies in Mexico.

因此，如您所知，衛生部門，特別是墨西哥的衛生部門，正在面臨競爭方面的一些挑戰。我的意思是，我們不要忘記，我們經歷了非常成功的歲月，多年的盈利增長並實現了我們的目標，但我認為我們在墨西哥有一種藥房模式，我們相信現在我們已經有了正確的系統來開始 - - 開發另一種對我們在智利非常有效的藥房模式。我們正在透過更完善的商店版本真正扭轉智利和厄瓜多爾的局面，我們認為墨西哥已經準備好推出 YZA 或 Cruz Verde 商店版本，它真正體現了我們可以在藥房帶來健康和美麗的所有價值。因此，我們計劃在這個層面上進行有機擴張。我們一直在墨西哥尋找有機機會的潛在機會，但現在我們非常專注於在墨西哥藥房的更大規模商店中加速擴張。

Our next question is from Renata Cabral with Citigroup.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗集團的雷納塔·卡布拉爾。

This is about Spin by OXXO. So the platform was launched in 2021 and it reached the impressive number of almost 11 million users. So I'd like to ask you if you can share the opportunities you are seeing going forward in terms of eventual partnership with banks, extension of service, and even evolution of the number of users that already reached 11 million right now?

這是關於 OXXO 的 Spin。因此該平台於 2021 年推出，用戶數量達到了近 1,100 萬，令人印象深刻。所以我想問您是否可以分享您所看到的未來​​機會，包括與銀行的最終合作夥伴關係、服務的擴展，甚至目前已經達到 1100 萬的用戶數量的發展？

Yes, I'll take that question. Look, the entire Spin ecosystem is not only a great financial opportunity for FEMSA or business opportunity for FEMSA, it's a strategic necessity. And I would look at it as an entire ecosystem. I think it all works together. So I wouldn't focus just on Spin by OXXO. The idea is that eventually that ecosystem will grow outside of the store. The store is indispensable for it. It contributes to the store in very positive ways. For example, as I mentioned earlier, the loyalty program. But our vision of combining Spin by OXXO, Spin Premia and our NetPay business is to be able to go outside the store to offer a complete solution to other particularly small businesses where they can also have their own loyalty program, where they can also have their point-of-sale terminal through which they can transact and provide services themselves, a payment of services. And our idea is as a strategic necessity, we need this business to protect and enhance the value proposition in OXXO. And as a business opportunity, it's taking it outside the store with all these different components that I've mentioned.

是的，我會回答這個問題。看，整個 Spin 生態系統不僅對 FEMSA 來說是一個巨大的財務機會或商業機會，而且是策略上的必需品。我會將其視為一個完整的生態系統。我認為這一切都是協同作用的。所以我不會只專注在 Spin by OXXO。我們的想法是，最終這個生態系統將在商店之外發展。商店是必不可少的。它以非常積極的方式為商店做出貢獻。例如，正如我之前提到的，忠誠度計劃。但我們將Spin by OXXO、Spin Premia 和我們的NetPay 業務結合起來的願景是能夠走出商店，為其他特別小型企業提供完整的解決方案，讓他們也可以擁有自己的忠誠度計劃，他們也可以擁有自己的忠誠度計劃。我們的想法是，作為一種策略需要，我們需要這項業務來保護和增強 OXXO 的價值主張。作為一個商業機會，它將帶有我提到的所有這些不同組件帶到商店之外。

our new CEO in that business, Juan Carlos Guillermety, will be speaking on this call at some point during this year. And he will share with you his vision. He's brought a new focus on very specific areas of opportunity for that business, which he will share with you the next time when he participates on this call. And in addition, I have been very pleasantly surprised at how he has taught the organization about key areas where we can be saving significant amount of money, which is obviously the money that we can redeploy in more productive efforts. I hope that answers your question.

我們該業務的新任執行長胡安·卡洛斯·吉列爾梅蒂 (Juan Carlos Guillermety) 將在今年的某個時候在這次電話會議上發表講話。他將與您分享他的願景。他對該業務的非常具體的機會領域進行了新的關注，他將在下次參加本次電話會議時與您分享。此外，我對他如何向組織傳授我們可以節省大量資金的關鍵領域感到非常驚喜，這些資金顯然是我們可以重新部署到更有成效的工作中的。我希望這能回答你的問題。

I think I would just add to what Martin just said, Renata. We mentioned a little bit in the opening remarks how we are -- after a few years, which you alluded to, where a lot of the focus was put on acquiring customers, right? And we had our theories of how -- what kind of role the store network would play as a tool to help us acquire customers. Obviously, those questions have been very favorably answered. But eventually, as you move more towards monetization, and these are questions that we get all the time. How do you monetize this? Do you eventually -- there's the digital media that is, how to begin to use that data. We're already beginning to do that and monetize it with CPG companies and other initiatives. And eventually, to Martin's point, lending, right? And how we eventually move in that direction. Do we do it ourselves? Do we do it with a partner? We will cross those bridges when we get there, but right now, I think it's very satisfactory that on the question of whether we could acquire a lot of subs and be one of the fintechs or one of the players that would be left standing, I think the answer has been a resounding yes. And there's just a lot of things that we can do. We mentioned at the outset the number of data points, right? The millions of tickets every day that are enriching our databases that we're putting to work in various ways. So lots of upside there and lots of things to do.

我想我只想補充一下馬丁剛才所說的內容，雷娜塔。我們在開場白中提到了我們的情況——幾年後，您提到了這一點，我們的重點放在了獲取客戶上，對嗎？我們有關於商店網路作為幫助我們獲取客戶的工具如何發揮什麼樣的作用的理論。顯然，這些問題已經得到了很好的回答。但最終，當你更走向貨幣化時，這些都是我們一直遇到的問題。你如何透過這個貨幣化？你最終會嗎——數位媒體就是如何開始使用這些數據。我們已經開始這樣做，並透過消費品公司和其他措施將其貨幣化。最終，按照馬丁的觀點，貸款，對嗎？以及我們最終如何朝這個方向前進。我們自己做嗎？我們與合作夥伴一起做嗎？當我們到達那裡時，我們將跨越這些橋樑，但現在，我認為非常令人滿意的是，在我們是否可以獲得大量潛艇並成為金融科技公司之一或留下來的參與者之一的問題上，我我想答案是肯定的。我們可以做很多事。我們一開始就提到了數據點的數量，對吧？每天有數百萬張門票豐富了我們的資料庫，我們正在以各種方式使用這些資料庫。那裡有很多好處，也有很多事情要做。

I would just add, I think Juan Carlos and I are working together in pushing this number, but we are very proud of our tender with Spin Premia with 35% and growing every month and people are getting more adapted. And that's obviously a general average, but there are parts of Mexico that Spin Premia has -- the tender is over 50%, almost we're reaching 60%. So that's an impressive amount of people in certain cities in Mexico who are already used to the Spin Premia loyalty program, and they take it with them everywhere. But still, if you add our tender in financial services within the store, it's still very low. I think it's in the 5%. As we put focus on that, and Juan Carlos and I are working together in devising something to accelerate that, our value and that info that we'll have that will be very valuable for not only retail media, but especially for more financial services and lending, that's going to explode in potential. So that's when I think conversations with other players and potential partners will become much more interesting and they'll be more eager to do things with us. So we look forward to keeping you updated on how that number increases.

我想補充一點，我認為胡安·卡洛斯和我正在共同努力推動這一數字，但我們對我們與Spin Premia 的招標感到非常自豪，其比例為35%，並且每個月都在增長，人們也越來越適應。這顯然是一個總體平均水平，但 Spin Premia 在墨西哥的部分地區 - 招標超過 50%，我們幾乎達到 60%。因此，在墨西哥的某些城市，有相當多的人已經習慣了 Spin Premia 忠誠度計劃，並且他們隨身攜帶該計劃。但是，如果你加上我們店內金融服務的招標，它仍然很低。我認為是在5%之內。當我們把重點放在這一點上時，胡安·卡洛斯和我正在共同努力設計一些東西來加速這一點，我們的價值和我們將擁有的資訊不僅對零售媒體非常有價值，而且特別對更多的金融服務和貸款，潛力將會爆炸。因此，我認為那時與其他玩家和潛在合作夥伴的對話會變得更加有趣，他們會更渴望與我們一起做事。因此，我們期待向您通報這一數字的成長。

Our next question is from Ben Theurer of Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Ben Theurer。

A lot's been answered, but one question I still have pending is just around the capital allocation in general as it relates to your leverage targets. And it seems like you've toned down a little bit in terms of what you would like to do on the M&A side. Clearly, we have you seen active on the buyback side. You've done a little bit more on the dividend side. But if we look at where leverage is, and I think you're still due to get some incremental cash, it really feels like it's still a long runway until the end of 2026 to kind of get to your target leverage. So maybe help us understand how you think about getting to potentially the [2 billion] on the buyback side, at least as one lever. And if you're considering maybe another extraordinary dividend. What are like the things you're focusing on to add to that?

很多問題已經得到解答，但我仍然懸而未決的一個問題是整體資本配置，因為它與您的槓桿目標有關。看來您在併購方面的意願有所緩和。顯然，我們看到回購方面很活躍。你在股息方面做了更多的事情。但如果我們看看槓桿在哪裡，我認為你仍然會獲得一些增量現金，感覺到 2026 年底要達到目標槓桿還有很長的路要走。因此，也許可以幫助我們了解您如何考慮在回購方面實現潛在的 [20 億] 美元，至少作為一個槓桿。如果您正在考慮另一筆非凡股息。您要重點添加哪些內容？

Yes, the issue of the tone of M&A, I wouldn't call it an issue of tone, but the reality is we have declared strategically that our focus will be on the 3 core verticals. And in each one of those verticals, it's pretty clear what would be available in terms of mergers and acquisitions. I think, Coca-Cola, it's always going to be within the Coke system. And anything that's really outside of the Coke system, more likely than not, will almost surely, instead of more likely than that, will be together with a Coca-Cola Company in the typical way we've done transactions of that nature.

是的，併購基調的問題，我不會稱之為基調問題，但現實是我們已經策略性地宣布我們的重點將放在三個核心垂直領域。在每一個垂直領域，很清楚可以進行哪些併購。我認為，可口可樂，它永遠會在可口可樂系統內。任何真正在可口可樂系統之外的東西，更有可能的是，幾乎肯定，而不是更有可能，將以我們進行此類交易的典型方式與可口可樂公司結合在一起。

In the case of Digital, I don't today see any sort of immediate need for M&A as in going out and acquiring assets. There may be joint ventures and there may be partnerships, but I don't really see. And then on the retail side, the one issue that I know concerns people that people are monitoring is the issue of the U.S. I think Jose spoke about what his objectives are and gave you some sense of sizing of what we're thinking about. And there are opportunities in retail with regards to Health. In Mexico, for example, somebody asked a previous question about that, and there are opportunities, and we will always look at them, obviously always with a value creation lens. There isn't much to be done in Latin America in the convenience store space. All of them tend to be generally small, and we are having enough success with our organic growth that it would have to be an interesting and compelling opportunity in order to forego what is always, on a risk-adjusted basis. Organic always provides an overall greater return in the shorter term.

就數位化而言，我今天並不認為有任何像走出去和收購資產那樣的即時併購需求。可能有合資企業，也可能有合作關係，但我真的不懂。然後在零售方面，據我所知，人們正在關注的一個問題是美國問題。健康零售業也存在機會。例如，在墨西哥，有人問了先前的問題，機會是存在的，我們將始終以價值創造的視角來看待它們。拉丁美洲的便利商店領域沒什麼好做的。所有這些公司通常規模都較小，而且我們在有機成長方面取得了足夠的成功，因此這必須是一個有趣且引人注目的機會，以便在風險調整的基礎上放棄一貫的做法。有機食品總是能在短期內提供更大的整體回報。

In terms of capital allocation and returning capital to shareholders, as we announced in FEMSA Forward, there are 2 ways we can do that. Extraordinary dividends, and buybacks. And we're agnostic, really. It really is -- we will always be evaluating what is the most efficient way and what provides the best return. So given our stock price, we're always -- we use opportunities when the stock price goes down. And you can hear from our presentation that we're bullish on the business, so we will always use the tips in the stock probably to take opportunities. We'll do it through opportunistic purchases in the market during the windows and through these more formal ASR programs that meet all the legal requirements, which are quite detailed to work out between the U.S. and the Mexican market and the U.S. and the Mexican authorities. And we have been very, very clear that we want to reach it 2x by 2026, and I have my work cut out for me in this new role.

在資本配置和向股東返還資本方面，正如我們在《FEMSA Forward》中所宣布的那樣，我們可以透過兩種方式做到這一點。特別股利和回購。我們真的是不可知論者。確實如此——我們將始終評估什麼是最有效的方式以及什麼可以提供最好的回報。因此，考慮到我們的股價，我們總是在股價下跌時利用機會。您可以從我們的演示中聽到，我們看好這項業務，因此我們將始終利用股票中的提示來抓住機會。我們將透過在窗口期間在市場上進行機會主義購買以及透過這些滿足所有法律要求的更正式的ASR 計劃來實現這一目標，這些計劃非常詳細，需要在美國和墨西哥市場以及美國和墨西哥當局之間制定。我們非常非常明確地表示，我們希望在 2026 年將這一目標提高兩倍，而我在這個新職位上的工作量也很大。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question is from Alejandro Fuchs with Itau.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Itau 的 Alejandro Fuchs。

I have 2 very brief ones on OXXO. The first one is that we saw a very strong top-line growth during the quarter and congratulations on that, but a slight drop on EBITDA margin, right? So I wanted to pick your brains a little bit on how you guys are seeing the different strategies now with continuous pressure in terms of payroll and expenses in Mexico. How do you see this going forward? What is the company thinking about maybe efficiencies? And then I know that you mentioned some of the AI initiatives maybe at the store. Any more that you can share with us would be very helpful.

我有 2 個關於 OXXO 的非常簡短的內容。第一個是我們在本季看到了非常強勁的營收成長，對此表示祝賀，但 EBITDA 利潤率略有下降，對嗎？因此，我想請教一下你們如何看待現在在墨西哥工資和開支方面持續面臨壓力的不同策略。您如何看待未來的發展？公司在考慮什麼可能是效率？然後我知道你提到了商店裡可能採取的一些人工智慧措施。您能與我們分享的任何更多內容都會非常有幫助。

And the second one may be for Martin very quickly on gross margin. Also, a very impressive expansion year-over-year at OXXO. I wanted to understand how much of this is already Premia with a 35% tender? And how much is maybe the commercial agreements and if you see this as a sustainable level going forward?

對馬丁來說，第二個可能很快就是毛利率。此外，OXXO 的逐年擴張令人印象深刻。我想了解其中有多少已經是 Premia 的 35% 投標？如果您認為這是一個可持續發展的水平，那麼商業協議可能是多少？

Thank you, Alejandro. I would say on the EBITDA, obviously, as you know, there's been labor pressure for the last few years, and I think we were very good in controlling a little bit of that labor pressure with some of the labor modifications that we did at the end of that last year that are helping us to withstand our cushion a little bit, that I am very confident that I will emphasize our AI initiatives are being very helpful in understanding transaction patterns, and we're being much more smarter about how to staff the stores with some of these AI initiatives. But we started with a pilot, a big pilot over several thousand stores with very good success over the first quarter and now we're going to roll out that throughout the year and that should help us a little bit compensate on the EBITDA. But basically, we went from only monitoring traffic in general and sales, and from that doing an algorithm of how many people should be staffed per store. And now we can put in inputs like traffic per hour, type of traffic versus services versus coffee versus other types of consumer demand and how that changes the stuff. And what we saw is we have several thousand stores that were understaffed and several thousand stores that were overstaffed. So I think that AI will help us, in a sense, help us increase top line and will also help us in the bottom line. So I don't see huge efficiency in terms of layoffs, but more of just being much more efficient in how to make sure the stores are staffed to the level where they can maximize sales at the minimum cost. So we're very excited for that, and we see that will help us much more as we progress what started as a pilot into a national rollout.

謝謝你，亞歷杭德羅。我想說的是，關於 EBITDA，顯然，正如你所知，過去幾年一直存在勞動力壓力，我認為我們透過我們在工廠所做的一些勞動力調整，很好地控制了一點勞動力壓力。這正在幫助我們承受一點緩衝，我非常有信心我會強調我們的人工智慧舉措對於理解交易模式非常有幫助，而且我們在如何配置員工方面變得更加聰明擁有一些人工智慧舉措的商店。但我們從一個試點開始，一個在數千家商店進行的大型試點，在第一季度取得了非常好的成功，現在我們將在全年推出這一項目，這應該有助於我們在EBITDA 上獲得一點補償。但基本上，我們從只監控整體客流量和銷售情況，並據此制定了每家商店應配備多少員工的演算法。現在我們可以輸入諸如每小時的流量、流量類型與服務、咖啡與其他類型的消費者需求以及它們如何改變這些內容等輸入。我們看到的是，我們有幾千家商店人手不足，還有幾千家商店人手過剩。所以我認為人工智慧在某種意義上會幫助我們增加收入，也會幫助我們增加利潤。因此，我並沒有看到裁員方面的巨大效率，而是更有效地確保商店的人員配備達到能夠以最低成本最大化銷售額的水平。因此，我們對此感到非常興奮，我們認為，隨著我們將試點工作逐步推向全國，這將為我們帶來更多幫助。

In terms of gross margin, we have an ambitious plan of expanding gross margin in several fronts. Some of it is being held by Spin Premia. Some of it is being held by what I mentioned on AI with better assortment and better pricing. But I would say there are other things that are helping us. We've had a dramatic increase in services, not only financial services. But services, also pay grew dramatically, double digit growth, a lot driven by e-commerce with some of these new entrants in e-commerce using OXXO Pay as a preferred payment platform. We see a lot of growth there. A lot of people are still non-confident of using their debit card or their credit card to pay and OXXO is a fantastic option for them. And we see still a lot of growth for that and that really drives us in gross margins. We've also had some categories that are heavy on gross margins that will help us, like some drinks and some snacks. So in general, I think we had a few other things that have helped us in the gross margin category.

在毛利率方面，我們有一個雄心勃勃的計劃，在多個方面擴大毛利率。其中一部分由 Spin Premia 持有。其中一些是我在人工智慧中提到的，具有更好的品種和更好的定價。但我想說還有其他事情正在幫助我們。我們的服務業大幅成長，而不僅僅是金融服務。但服務和支付都大幅增長，呈兩位數增長，這在很大程度上是由電子商務推動的，其中一些電子商務新進入者使用 OXXO Pay 作為首選支付平台。我們在那裡看到了很大的成長。許多人仍然對使用借記卡或信用卡付款沒有信心，OXXO 對他們來說是一個絕佳的選擇。我們看到這方面仍有很大的成長，這確實推動了我們的毛利率。我們還有一些毛利率較高的品類對我們有幫助，例如一些飲料和一些點心。所以總的來說，我認為我們還有其他一些事情對我們的毛利率類別有所幫助。

Yes, and we were also very pleasantly surprised. It is the best first quarter gross margin that I was able to document going back to many, many, many years back. One of the things that has struck me since I came back, although I was always involved, I never left the company in terms of helping out in strategic projects, but now obviously I get an opportunity to get more involved with the operations. The amount of tools available to OXXO to revenue segment, to store segment relative to what it did 5 years, 6 years ago when I left, is really impressive. We have retail media -- digital retail media initiatives, and that includes, so you're now going to be able to sell, generate promotional revenue from POP inside the store, from the screens inside the store, from the use of the app. So 2 of those 3 didn't exist really 5 years or 6 years ago. And that, the scale always helps. Every thousand stores we add, you're selling the ability to transact with that ecosystem.

是的，我們也感到非常驚喜。這是我能夠記錄到許多很多年前的最好的第一季毛利率。回來後令我印象深刻的一件事是，雖然我一直參與其中，但在幫助策略專案方面從未離開過公司，但現在顯然我有機會更多地參與營運。相對於 5、6 年前我離開時的情況，OXXO 在收入領域、商店領域可用的工具數量確實令人印象深刻。我們有零售媒體——數位零售媒體計劃，其中包括，因此您現在將能夠透過商店內的 POP、商店內的螢幕以及應用程式的使用來銷售、產生促銷收入。所以這 3 個中的 2 個在 5 或 6 年前實際上並不存在。而且，規模總是有幫助的。我們每增加一千家商店，您就可以出售與該生態系統進行交易的能力。

So on the -- and on the labor front, I would just have to say, again, using data analytics, my understanding is supervisors used to supervise 12 stores. And there are places in Mexico, with the help of technology, where there are over 20 now. That's not always the case, and you always have problem stores, and you have to dedicate more time. But being able to increase your supervisors through the use first definition of roles and responsibilities between the store leader and the supervisor, and then helping that supervisor with technology. As to the labor expense, I also worked in the Coca-Cola Company, sorry, in the Coca-Cola FEMSA for many years. And there is a blessing in the increase of the minimum wage in Mexico, which is very helpful to us, which is it goes towards the bottom of the pyramid that most uses our products and most uses our stores. And so as people's income increases, the reality is they're also going to be purchasing more products from OXXO and they're going to be buying more Coca-Cola products. And we have to find the right balance, but part of our top line, part of our ticket is people have more money in their pocket. To be very honest, we're all happy about it. I think it's fantastic that people have more money in their pocket and their standard of living is improving. And that's a win-win for us, at least a positive development.

因此，在勞工方面，我不得不再次說，使用數據分析，我的理解是主管用來監督 12 家商店。在墨西哥的一些地方，在科技的幫助下，現在有 20 多個地方。但情況並非總是如此，你總是會遇到有問題的商店，你必須投入更多的時間。但是，能夠透過首先定義商店領導和主管之間的角色和職責來增加您的主管，然後透過技術來幫助該主管。至於人工費用，我也在可口可樂公司工作過，抱歉，在可口可樂FEMSA工作了很多年。還有一個好處是墨西哥最低工資的提高，這對我們非常有幫助，這對我們來說是非常有幫助的，因為它走向了金字塔的最底層，使用我們的產品和商店的人最多。因此，隨著人們收入的增加，現實是他們也會從 OXXO 購買更多產品，並且會購買更多可口可樂產品。我們必須找到適當的平衡，但我們的收入和門票的一部分是人們口袋裡有更多的錢。說實話，我們都很高興。我認為人們的口袋裡有更多的錢並且他們的生活水平正在提高，這真是太棒了。這對我們來說是雙贏的，至少是正面的發展。

As we have no further questions, I'd like to turn the call back over to Mr. Fonseca for any closing remarks.

由於我們沒有其他問題，我想將電話轉回給豐塞卡先生，讓其結束語。

Thanks, everyone. I think it was a great call. Obviously, we're available for follow-ups as always. And otherwise, have a great weekend.

感謝大家。我認為這是一個很棒的決定。顯然，我們一如既往地可以進行後續跟進。除此之外，祝週末愉快。

Thank you very much. That concludes today's conference. You may now disconnect.

非常感謝。今天的會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線。