Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this presentation of our first half 2025 results. I am Alberto Valdes, your new Head of Investor Relations. Today's presentation will be led by Martín Tolcachir, our Group CEO, and Guillaume Gras, our Group CFO. After their remarks, we'll open it up for a Q&A session. I'll now hand things over to Martín. Martín, over to you.
Thank you, Alberto, and good morning, everyone. I am proud to present what I believe are truly strong first half results for the year. In this presentation, we'll look at our key achievements, but first, let me start with the headlines on slide 4. Spain remains our engine of growth and profitability, with strong value-driven like-for-like sales outperforming the market. Argentina is at a turning point. It is demonstrating resilience and making preparation for a gradual recovery of food consumption as the economy improves. Our financial performance is robust, demonstrating strong profitability growth and impressive cash flow generation, which has enabled us to reduce debt significantly. Our stock performance reflects renewed investor confidence, with our share price more than doubling and liquidity surging. Finally, we've made significant developments in corporate governance. Our board has reinforced its skills and capabilities, perfectly aligned with our growth strategy and best practice.
Now, let's dive into the details, starting with Spain on slide 5. Our operations in Spain continue to be the engine of growth and profitability. Our performance in the first half of the year demonstrates that we are delivering across all the key areas of our strategic plan. As you can see in slide 6, our like-for-like sales growth in Spain surged to 7.5% in the first half. This strong growth builds on the robust 5.1% like-for-like growth recorded last year. This is a truly remarkable performance, especially considering it includes an estimated 0.7 percentage point negative impact from lingering supply disruption due to the national power outage on April 28 and calendar effects. If we exclude this, our underlying like-for-like sales growth would have reached an impressive 8.2%.
Importantly, our strong growth is predominantly value-driven, with a 6% year-on-year increase, fueled by an expanding customer base and higher frequency rates. This is a clear indicator of the health of our business, rooted in our unique value proposition and the consistent effort of our first-class team to enhance the customer experience. While price inflation contributes 1.5% to like-for-like growth, it strategically remains slightly below the general food and beverage inflation, highlighting our commitment to affordability for our customers. This robust growth outperformed the market, enabling us to increase our market share and consolidating our position as the fourth largest player in the Spanish food distribution market. In May, we held a 5% share, which is a 0.1 percentage point increase year- over- year.
Moving to slide 7, you'll see that our strategic decision to offer a wide range of fresh, locally sourced products of the highest quality is truly paying off. These products have been a key growth driver in the first half, increasing by an impressive 14% year-on-year and now represent 29% of total sales, a significant 1.6 percentage point increase year- over- year. Similarly, our unwavering commitment to providing the highest quality private label products at an affordable price is another one of our competitive advantages. Sales of our Dia super brands grew by 10% year-on-year, driven by customer choice. These products now account for 59% of our fast-moving consumer goods basket, a solid 1.6 percentage point increase vs 2023. This clearly indicates a growing base of loyalty customers. Another distinctive feature of our value proposition is the balanced assortment of products from our own private label and best brands.
This gives our customers freedom of choice and provides the best brand with an effective sales channel. Continuing on slide 8, our loyalty sales account for a substantial 56% of gross sales in the first half, growing by a strong 10% compared to the same period last year. This growth was directly driven by an increase in both the number of loyalty customers and their purchase frequency. The number of loyalty customers grew by 5% in the first half of the year, continuing its positive trend and reaching 5.7 million. The digitalization of our loyalty base continues to progress rapidly. 54% of our loyalty customers, accounting for 30% of our sales, already interact with us via the app. This is a significant year-over-year increase of 11 percentage points. This enhanced digitalization allows for more direct contact and the development of personalized offerings, significantly improving the customer experience.
Our personalized Club Dia program is Spain's leading loyalty club. A testament to the very stable and highly engaged customer base we've built, whose purchase frequency and basket size are twice the size of that of non-loyalty customers. Our strategic investment in developing our new app and web store to offer the fastest and easiest online shopping experience nationwide is yielding significant results. This channel is an undeniable nationwide growth driver for Dia. Our online business continues its exceptional trajectory, growing by 19% in the first half, propelled by strong on-channel sales and a remarkable 37% increase in deliveries. Online sales contribute a significant 0.8% to our like-for-like growth, now reaching 4.9% of total gross sales, a level already achieved ahead of our strategic plan. Our digital platform now serves approximately 84% of the Spanish population, with over 90% of online orders being same-day or express delivery.
The unparalleled speed and convenience of our service are driving customer loyalty and earn us an outstanding Net Promoter Score of 60 points. Now turning to slide 9, our store expansion plan is firmly on track and gaining momentum. As a part of our leading profitable growth strategic pillar, we have set ourselves the goal of opening 300 new stores by 2029. With 45 new stores open year to date, we are decisively implementing our strategic plan and reinforcing our position as the national leader in proximity food retail. Most of these stores, 77%, have been opened under our scalable and profitable franchise model, a true win-win proposition and one of our unique competitive advantages. Thanks to this scalable model, we can grow with the collaboration of entrepreneurs who share our value and bring our value proposition to every neighborhood.
Additionally, optimized staffing requirements result in high profitability while ensuring operational quality across our network. For franchisees, it streamlines the process of setting up a store by offering financial flexibility and reducing initial investment. It also streamlines store management by offering valuable expertise and a simple pay-per-sale model. Their high level of franchisee satisfaction is reflected in their Net Promoter Score of 68 points. We are the leading franchise operator in Spain by both number of stores and proportion of franchise stores, with now accounting for 66% of our total footprint. The expansion of our store contributes an additional 0.5% to our like-for-like sales growth, bringing total gross sales growth to a robust 8% and reaching EUR 2.65 billion in the first half. Our sales density continues its significant improvement, increasing by 9% year- on- year to over EUR 5,700/ sq m, also reflecting greater footprint efficiency.
This growth is supported by the development of a modern, efficient, and sustainable logistics network, as shown on slide 10. Our new logistics platform in Dos Hermanas, Seville, which began operations in June, is the first major milestone of our five-year logistics optimization plan. This plan involves six new tailored facilities based on the successful Illescas model in Madrid to better supply our current and future stores, as well as our e-commerce network. This state-of-the-art facility will serve 235 stores across western Andalusía, including Seville, Cádiz, and Huelva, and supports our online service covering 80% of the region's population, ensuring timely and complete deliveries. Furthermore, this platform is a testament to our commitment to sustainability. Built to the highest standards, it uses self-generated renewable energy and operates under a zero-waste model.
This strategic investment reinforces our commitment to continuously improve operational efficiency and logistics, a key driver of our EBITDA margin's improvement. We have reduced our logistics costs by 11 basis points year- on- year, bringing them down to 5.3% of net sales. Construction of a third new logistics platform in León has already begun, scheduled to open in the first quarter of next year. It will serve around 200 Dia stores in Castilla y León and Asturias, supporting our growth plans and online services to 70% of the population in the region. Additionally, our energy transition plan is progressing well, with 55% of our logistics network and 17% of our stores decarbonized to date. Our new chillers and cooling chambers not only reduce our carbon footprint but also improve our energy efficiency, directly enhancing our profitability. Now moving to another critical foundation for our success: our people.
On slide 11, I am very pleased to announce the signing of a new collective labor agreement for the next four years with a representative of nearly 14,000 Dia team members in Spain. This agreement establishes a stable and positive framework to further enhance both their satisfaction and our labor productivity. Key agreements include a guaranteed annual salary increase of 2.5%, a 1% reduction in annual working hours, improved flexibility and working-life balance initiatives, and access to a free 24/7 healthcare service for all team members. This new collective labor agreement is not just about terms. It ensures the stability and commitment of the entire Dia team, directly aligning their dedication with achieving the objectives set out in our strategic plan. Beyond our strong financial and operational performance, our commitment to sustainability is unwavering. Let's review now our progress on our ESG strategic plan. Every day counts.
On the next slide, number 12. In the first half, we made significant strides across ESG pillars. First, we demonstrate environmental leadership by accelerating decarbonization, improving waste management, and embracing sustainable logistics practices. Second, we reinforce a sustainable value chain by carrying out proactive due diligence and defining compliance requirements for the new deforestation regulation. Third, we promote inclusivity by increasing hires from vulnerable groups and boosting female representation on our board of directors. Fourth, we foster entrepreneurship and encourage healthy eating through strategic partnership under our program, Eat Better Every Day. Finally, we further improve our sustainability governance by publishing our first CSRD compliance report and preparing our sustainability plan for the next four years. These integrated ESG advancements reflect our deep commitment to positive impact and long-term sustainable value creation for all stakeholders. Let's now move to Argentina's business performance on slide 13.
Dia Argentina has shown great resilience in the face of a more challenging macroeconomic period brought about by austerity and disinflation policies. These policies significantly impact disposable income and demand for consumer goods. However, we are now at a turning point, as you can see on slide 14. Food consumption in Argentina is expected to gradually recover from the extremely low levels reached after austerity and disinflation policies were implemented last year. The Argentinian economy is already showing positive signs, with more moderate inflation, the stabilization of the exchange rate, and the GDP growth projected for 2025 and 2026. Crucially, it is anticipated that nominal wages will consistently exceed inflation. This will result in a gradual increase in disposable income and a subsequent progressive recovery in demand for consumer goods. Note that changes in food consumption tend to lag improvement in disposable income.
This is because it takes time for families to recover financially and regain confidence before they change their food consumption habits. As you can see on the next slide, number 15, our leading market position in Buenos Aires provides a strong foundation to rebuild growth and profitability. We are the number one proximity food retailer in the Buenos Aires region, with over 1,000 stores across the country. Dia Argentina is the top-of-mind brand in Buenos Aires, thanks to our competitive pricing, high product quality, and the leadership of our loyalty program. Our balanced assortment features high-quality private label, generating approximately 31% of gross sales, leading the market. We offer a high-quality fresh assortment combined with guaranteed product availability, meeting essential customer needs in proximity. Our best-in-class customer satisfaction is reflected in an impressive Net Promoter Score of 75 points.
These strengths clearly demonstrate our deep connection with Argentinian consumers and our robust platform for further success. We are now implementing a proactive action plan that leverages our competitive advantage to capitalize on the gradual recovery. This plan includes relaunching our commercial dynamics to drive store traffic while keeping our focus on operational efficiency and CapEx discipline to preserve the business's self-financing capacity. We are now looking to adapt Dia Argentina's fixed cost and store footprint in order to improve profitability in the face of lower sales volume. Now, let's review the operating performance of Dia Argentina in the first half of the year, starting with the next slide, number 16. While our sales volume is still down by 15% compared to the first half of last year, we expect to see a gradual recovery from the second half onwards.
Our like-for-like sales volume was below the market rate in the period, as our approach prioritized prudent cost management and cash preservation. The lower sales volume was concentrated among non-loyalty customers, as competitors aggressively intensified their promotional activity amid subdued food consumption levels. In contrast, our loyalty sales demonstrate remarkable resilience, growing by 9% year- on- year, which increases frequency and volumes per ticket, as you can see on the next slide, number 17. We boast one of the best-known loyalty programs in the country, with over 3 million active customers. Our loyalty sales account for a significant 63% of total sales during this period, marking a strong year-on-year increase of 7.8 percentage points. The digitalization of our loyalty base continues to progress. 46% of our loyalty customers, accounting for almost 30% of our sales, already interact with us via the app.
This is a significant year-on-year increase of 11 percentage points. This increase in digitalization allows us to have a more direct customer contact and personalized offering to enhance their experience. Another factor contributing to our growing customer loyalty base is our high-quality fresh assortment and consistent product availability. Sales of our fresh products also outperform, growing by 7% year- over- year and increasing its presence in customer shopping baskets to almost 9%. The sale of our private label products was affected by the increased promotional activity of national brands. It accounts for 31% of our fast-moving consumer goods basket in the first half. Increasing loyalty sales demonstrates the resilience and value of our market position. I will now hand over to Guillaume to elaborate further on our financial results.
Thank you, Martín. Let's start with Spain's strong financial results on slide 19, which demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy and operations. As previously mentioned, gross sales under the Dia banner, encompassing both company-operated and franchise-operated stores, increased by a robust 8% year-on-year, reaching EUR 2.65 billion in the first half, despite the negative impact of the national power outage and calendar effect. This strong growth was fueled by our enhanced range of fresh products and our high-quality private label products, which proved particularly popular among a growing base of loyalty customers and showed increasing use of our e-commerce platform. Net sales, excluding the franchise margin and value-added tax, grew by a solid 7% year-on-year to reach EUR 2.2 billion. The slightly lower growth rate of net sales compared to gross sales mainly reflects a 1 percentage point increase in the proportion of franchise-operated stores.
Our adjusted EBITDA increased significantly by 20% year-on-year, reaching EUR 137 million. Meanwhile, our adjusted EBITDA margin on net sales expanded by 70 basis points, reaching 6.2%. This was driven by rigorous cost management and the dilution of fixed costs on our sales. Finally, I would like to highlight our strong bottom-line performance. The EUR 23 million increase in adjusted EBITDA was fully reflected in higher net income, which almost doubled compared to the same period last year, reaching EUR 48 million. Operational efficiency is driving one of the highest profitabilities in our sector. For comparative purposes, our EBITDA margin under IFRS 16, excluding lease expenses, reached a strong 9.9% in the first half, which is well above the industry average. Our high profitability also led to strong free cash flow generation, which totaled EUR 106 million, up by 33% vs last year.
This allowed for a significant net debt reduction, as you can see on the next slide, number 20. Cash flow from operations reached EUR 164 million. This figure includes the recovery of EUR 33 million in tax refunds following the Constitutional Court ruling in 2024 that overturned the regulatory cap on the use of certain tax deductions. Net CapEx amounted to EUR 57 million during the period, primarily due to the opening of new stores and logistics platforms. Finally, following the refinancing of our debt in December 2024, net financial payments totaled EUR 28 million. This provided the stable framework needed to execute our five-year strategic plan. As a result, we registered a net debt reduction of EUR 78 million in the first half of the year. This represents a 24% decrease compared to the end of 2024, bringing the total down to EUR 253 million, as you can see on the next slide, number 21.
This net debt figure equates to just 0.9x our adjusted EBITDA over the past 12 months, evidence of our low leverage profile. We also ended the period with strong liquidity, amounting to EUR 423 million in total. This comprised EUR 282 million in cash and equivalents, as well as EUR 141 million of available credit facilities, providing ample financial flexibility. These figures clearly show that we are in an excellent financial position to sustain accelerated expansion while maintaining a low leverage profile. Now, let's turn to the financial results of Dia Argentina on slide 22. Gross sales under the Dia banner demonstrate strong resilience, declining by 4% year-on-year to EUR 825 million amidst the slow recovery in food consumptions. The difficult year-on-year comparison of sales volumes was partially offset by an effective price increase of 11.4% in Euros, equivalent to a significant 23.4% rise in local currency terms.
We managed our pricing strategy prudently, keeping it below the country's general food inflation rate during the same period. This demonstrates our ability to adapt to changing circumstances and provide vital support to households when they need it most, strengthening customer loyalty. Net sales mirrored gross sales performance, declining by 4% to EUR 655 million. Our adjusted EBITDA decreased by EUR 18 million to - EUR 3 million. This was primarily due to our investment in commercial margin and lower fixed cost dilution, which was partially offset by cost-saving initiatives. As a result, the adjusted EBITDA margin on net sales shifted from 2.1% last year to - 0.5%. Please note that our adjusted EBITDA does not include IFRS 16 accounting adjustments for lease expenses or international accounting standards adjustments for hyperinflationary economies. These are included below the adjusted EBITDA line.
After depreciation and tax, these operating figures resulted in a net loss of EUR 22 million for the period. Finally, free cash flow for the first half of the year resulted in a manageable outflow of EUR 9 million. This comprised + EUR 4 million cash flow from operations and - EUR 12 million of essential maintenance CapEx. We believe the worst is behind us and expect to see a gradual recovery from the second half of the year onwards. As Martín explained, our ongoing action plan is designed to leverage our competitive advantages in order to capitalize on the expected recovery. This will help us restore profitability and maintain a positive net cash position. As you can see on the following slide, number 23, Dia Argentina's net cash position stood at EUR 54 million at the end of the first half, providing the company with the flexibility to navigate the expected gradual market recovery.
This was reduced by EUR 35 million after net financial payment of EUR 8 million and the currency devaluation effects and other adjustments of EUR 18 million. We expect that the operating recovery, coupled with strict CapEx control, will allow us to preserve Argentina's net cash position and ensure that the business remains self-funded. Now, let's conclude the review of the financial results with a brief summary of the Dia Group's consolidated results in continued activities on slide 24. Consolidated gross sales under the Dia banner increased by 5% year-on-year to reach EUR 3.5 billion. The Group's adjusted EBITDA increased by 4% to EUR 133 million, maintaining the margin on net sales at 4.7%. Consolidated net income increased by 64% to EUR 26 million. However, please note that this figure does not take into account the impact of discontinued operations.
This has had a positive contribution of EUR 12 million in the first half of the year, arising from the reversal of unapplied contingencies relating to the sale of the Portuguese business in 2024. Finally, the Group's free cash flow reached a strong EUR 98 million. This resulted in a net debt reduction of EUR 43 million, following net financial payment of EUR 37 million and an additional EUR 18 million arising from the effects of currency devaluation. Now, I want to turn your attention to our recent stock performance on slide 26. This is a powerful endorsement of our strategy and the significant progress we've made under our fourth strategic pillar, showcasing Dia's value. Dia's share price has staged an extraordinary recovery. It has more than doubled over the last 12 months, demonstrating a clear upward trajectory. This includes an increase of more than 90% so far in 2025 alone.
This is coupled with a tenfold surge in liquidity, which has been consistently trading nearly EUR 2 million/ day during the second quarter. This robust stock market performance is a direct reflection of renewed and growing confidence from institutional investors, whose shareholding continues to expand. It clearly demonstrates that our strong operating performance, combined with decisive strategic decisions, are successfully consolidating Dia's ability to generate sustainable returns. Since our successful Capital Market Day in March, we have significantly intensified our engagement with the institutional investment community, as shown on slide 27. We've executed targeted roadshows in London and Madrid. Our participation in free, prominent investor conferences and numerous individual meetings enable us to effectively present our new, compelling business model and clear growth strategy to over 90 high-quality investors. Looking ahead, we plan to further accelerate our investor outreach post-summer.
This proactive schedule includes participation in three leading conferences and organizing multiple roadshows across major European financial hubs. Our aim is to continually build deeper relationships and broaden our investor base, ensuring the market fully appreciates Dia Group's transformational journey and its compelling investment case. Now, I'll hand you back to Martín, who will update you on our latest corporate governance enhancements and deliver his closing remarks.
Thank you, Guillaume. I am glad to highlight the significant developments in our corporate governance that were approved at our recent annual general shareholder meeting. The Board's skills and capabilities have been renovated and aligned with this new phase of accelerated growth and profitability, as outlined in our strategic plan. Our Board changes include increasing the number of directors from 8-10 , enhancing diverse perspectives, and the appointment of three new independent directors: Ruth Aranda, Sara Díaz, and Paloma Pérez. These are three outstanding professionals, each bringing extensive knowledge of the retail sector and expertise in critical areas such as digitalization, customer understanding, branding, sustainability, and supply chain management, all essential to delivering Dia's value proposition. Benjamin Babcock, who expertly oversaw Dia's transformation as Chairman, has successfully transferred the role to Alberto Gavazzi. Mr. Gavazzi played a key role in designing our strategic plan, and his valuable operational experience and growth mindset perfectly align with Dia's current strategy. Mr. Babcock will remain on the Board as a proprietary director and as a lead representative of our reference shareholder, Letter One. Finally, Marcelo Maia resigned from his position after the general shareholders' meeting. We thank him for his valuable leadership and the expertise he brought to our former business in Brazil. Following this renewal, our Board demonstrates significantly enhanced governance standards. 70% of Dia's Board now comprises independent directors, exceeding good governance recommendations for listed companies in Spain. Furthermore, female representation on the Board will reach 50%, also surpassing Spanish corporate governance recommendations. Finally, I would like to highlight our new directors' remuneration policy, which reinforces alignment with the shareholders' interests and long-term value creation.
This was achieved by increasing the weight of deferred share-based remuneration up to one-third of the total and extending the lock-up period by one year. This marks another crucial step towards greater alignment between financial performance, long-term results, and Board compensation. Let me now conclude this presentation with some closing remarks on slide 31 before moving on to the Q&A session. Our five-year strategic plan is on track. Dia Spain is maintaining robust, profitable, volume-driven growth, outperforming the market. The company boasts a high operating margin and free cash flow generation. Dia Argentina is demonstrating resilience and making preparations for a gradual recovery of food consumption as the economy improves. It is also maintaining prudent cost management and CapEx discipline to preserve its net cash position. We hold a solid financial position, driven by a strong free cash flow generation, low leverage, and ample liquidity.
We have robust corporate governance, a skilled and aligned Board of Directors, and a capable management that is fully committed to delivering our strategic plan. We are not just transforming Dia; we are building a sustainable, profitable, and highly reputable proximity food retailer for the long term. Thank you for your attention. We are now open for your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session is now about to begin. To ask a question, please press the asterisk, then the number five on your telephone keypad. As a shareholder, you can also submit a question to our management team via the red question button on the webcast screen. Once we have verified your ownership, we will answer your question. If we are unable to do so during the session, we will respond directly to your email address. Questions received by phone from the analysts covering our stock will be addressed first. To facilitate a focused dialogue with our speakers, please ask one question at a time, rather than listing several questions at the beginning. Thank you. The first question comes from Pablo Fernández from Renta 4. Pablo, please go ahead.
Good morning, team. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yeah, thanks for taking my question. Congrats for these solid numbers and execution. Three on my side, if I may. The first one is regarding the openings we must expect for the second half of the year. Should we expect to keep the first half rhythm for the rest of the year, or maybe stay around the 60/ year you guided in the strategic plan?
Thank you for your question, Pablo. Effectively, during the first year of our strategic plan, we are accelerating our store expansion by leveraging our unique franchise model to take advantage of the select locations. As you have seen, we have opened 45 new stores in the first semester, and we aim to keep this rhythm during the second one. However, you should not assume that the number of stores opened each year will remain the same over the next five years. Our target remains to open 300 new stores until 2029.
Do you have more questions, Pablo?
Yes, yes, thank you very much. The second one is regarding profitability. How much do you think you can expand the margin in Spain in the next couple of quarters, taking into account that you said you should be already in the higher ranges of the sector? Also, what would be the target in Argentina in 2026?
Thank you again, Pablo, for your question. Yes, Spain, just a bit in the first half, was mainly driven by our higher sales and logistics optimization, and for sure, our rigors on cost management. In terms of our ambitions looking forward, we keep our guidance that we communicated during the Capital Market Day. We expect to be in 7.5%- 8% by 2029.
Do you have further questions, Pablo?
Yes, the last one, maybe the most tricky, would be around the possibility of inorganic growth in Argentina. Do you consider it in the short to mid-term to accelerate your growth in a hypothetical economic normalization in the country?
No, we are not considering any inorganic option in Argentina at this moment.
Okay, thank you very much, team. Have a nice day. Bye-bye.
Thank you, Pablo, for your questions. Are there any more questions for our speakers? If you have more questions, please dial asterisk followed by number five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Álvaro Bernal from Alantra. Álvaro, please go ahead.
Hello, thank you for taking my questions. I have two, if I may. The first one is a bit related again to store openings. Just to be clear, given the performance you've been doing already in H1, you do not see room to anticipate the 300 target by 2029 that you have in place or accelerate it?
Analysis in terms of opportunities and a good rhythm in terms of expansion gets us to these 300 store opportunities in the coming five years, and we keep this vision so far. It's true that we are accelerating our path, this is mainly because we are really getting excellent locations, and we have this opportunity to accelerate this expansion, but we keep this target for 2029.
Okay, understood. Can you hear me?
Yes, Álvaro, we hear you.
Okay. The second question would be regarding the profitability ramp-up of new store openings, if you can comment on this, please.
Regarding the maturity, we can say that for the new stores, the timing to reach maturity is less than one year. We talk about between six and eight months to reach the maturity level. In terms of ROIC, all our stores are above 25%.
Thank you very much. Very clear.
Thank you, Álvaro. If there are further questions, please dial asterisk, then followed by five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Luis Colaço from JB Capital. Luis, go ahead.
Thank you very much. Congrats for the great set of results. Three questions from our side, if I may. The first one would be on the effective tax rate. Could you elaborate a bit on what happened over there so that you had a kind of positive effective tax rate this semester, please?
Yes, effectively, the low-income tax in the first half is due to the one-off reversal of a fiscal provision for a net amount of EUR 8.6 million, as the risk that had been provisioned for it did not materialize. Now, taking out this effect, we reach an effective tax rate at 20%, which is in line with what we expect, with the possibility to deduct from our result 25% of our previous tax losses.
Okay, thank you very much. My second question is regarding Spain. Given that you have been delivering such robust like for likes, do you think there is room to revise your guidance in terms of like for likes going forward?
Luis, thank you very much for your question. Effectively, we have an excellent performance in terms of like for likes this first semester. However, we keep our vision looking forward, and we keep what we communicate in our Capital Market Day. We have to also take into account that already the second semester last year was already at a higher level of growth compared with the first semester of 2024. We assume that we are going to keep a really good rhythm and superior to the market, and we keep our guidance for the rest of the plan.
Okay, thank you very much. My last question would be on Argentina. You said that you expect numbers to improve going forward. Maybe ask you when you expect profitability to come back to last year's numbers. The second thing, given that Carrefour has already announced its exit from Argentina, is that something that you would consider if things don't improve in Argentina as expected? Thank you very much.
Yes, Luis. Dia, as we already shared during the presentation, has shown great resilience in the face of a really more challenging macroeconomic period. However, we see already the Argentina economy already showing positive growth, and we expect the second semester to show stability in terms of volumes, and that will be the base for a gradual recovery next year. From our side, we are now implementing actions to also support our performance down there, and as always, focusing on our operational efficiency and CAPEX discipline to preserve the self-funded operations. We expect, as I mentioned already, a return to positive growth next year. However, the recovery of the volumes to the past years is difficult to assess in this moment.
Okay, thank you very much.
Considering the opportunities of exiting Argentina, to directly to your question, Luis, we are not considering today the sale of Dia Argentina. We really think the food consumption is going to gradually recover, and we strongly believe that Dia Argentina has significant opportunities of growth and profitability in the medium term.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you very much, Luis. If there are further questions, please dial asterisk followed by number five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions from our analysts. Let's now review the written questions received from our shareholders who are following us through the webcast. We've got one question from Antonio López. When do you expect the logistic platforms in Madrid, Catalonia, Levante, and Andalusía to be built and become operational? What cost reduction do you expect from these new platforms?
Thank you, Antonio, for your question. As you know, we have already opened this year at Dos Hermanas Distribution Center, serving Sevilla and Andalusía. We are already progressing in the construction of León that will open the first quarter of next year. For the rest of the plan, our target is to keep this annual opening each year of the plan, as we are already anticipating in the Capital Market Day. For sure, that will not only benefit the logistics service to the stores, but also that will bring us also economies coming from this optimized operation.
Thank you, Martín. We have another question from another shareholder, Oriol, who is asking if there are any plans to reduce our fixed cost at Dia Argentina, considering that it is difficult to predict when the economy recovery will take place?
Thank you, Oriol. For sure, we have already progressed in target reduction costs in Argentina. This is reductions that are going across all the operating and structural costs: head office, IT, logistics. We are already implementing savings in logistics, fleet reductions, closure of one of our warehouses, and personnel optimizations. At the same time, we are provisioning also savings in general expenses, maintenance fees, and also a reduction in the head office personnel cost that was implemented in the last month.
We have two final questions from another shareholder, Luis, who is asking if you could tell us more about your recent agreement with BP and how it could contribute to your growth and profitability.
Sure, Luis. Effectively, we have seen an agreement with BP to open Dia stores in some of their service stations across Spain. This agreement will enable us to leverage BP's prime locations to expand our store network beyond the 300 new stores outlined in our strategic plan. This store will replicate our proximity model, offering a balanced selection of our high-quality private label and top brands, and will have an average size of around 100 sq m. Customers of both Dia and BP loyalty programs will benefit from cross-promotions and discounts combining the two company services and customer bases. We will pilot the project by opening 10 stores in Madrid and Andalusía in Q4 of this year, and the success of this pilot will could open up to 200 stores in BP service stations across Spain starting next year.
Although the profitability margin of these stores is in line with the average of Dia Spain, the annual sales expected from these small convenience stores would only represent a fraction of our average annual sales per store. We are really, really happy to partner with such a great company and brand as BP is.
Thank you, Martín. We have a final question from Luis again. Given your cash flow generation and net debt reduction during the first half, have you considered refinancing your debt on improved terms?
Yes, the strong operating cash flow projected for Dia Spain should enable us to finance our strategic plan investment while maintaining low financial leverage. This should open the door for a potential refinancing in the medium term.
Thank you very much, Guillaume, and there are no further questions from the webcast. If you require further clarification, please contact the Investor Relations Department. You will find our contact details on the last page of the presentation or in the Investors section of our website. I would like to thank you very much for your attention, and we really look forward to connecting with you again at our annual results presentation. Have a happy summer. Thank you.