Good day everyone, welcome to the Arca Continental conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Please note that this call is being recorded. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session, and instructions will be given at that time. For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the conference over to Melanie Carpenter of iAdvize Corporate Communications. Ma'am, please go ahead.
Thank you, Katie. Good morning, everyone. We hope you're all well under the current circumstances. Thanks for joining the senior management team of Arca Continental this morning to review the results of the first quarter of 2020. Earnings release went out this morning, and it's available on the company website at arcacontinental.com in the Investor Relations section. It's now my pleasure to introduce our speakers. Joining us from Monterrey is the CEO, Mr. Arturo Gutiérrez, the CFO, Mr. Emilio Marcos, and the Chief Commercial and Digital Officer, Mr. José "Pepe" Borda, as well as the Investor Relations team. They're going to be making some forward-looking statements, and we just ask that, per usual, you refer to the disclaimer surrounding those statements. We imagine that several of you are working from home, as are some of our operators.
We just ask for your patience, and hopefully we can get through this call as well as can be. With that, I'm going to turn the call over to the CEO, Mr. Arturo Gutiérrez, to begin the presentation. Please go ahead, Arturo.
Thank you, Melanie, and good morning, everyone. I appreciate you joining us today, and I want to express the hopes of all of us at Arca Continental that you and your loved ones are well. Our company's deepest sympathies go out to all who have been impacted by coronavirus outbreaks throughout the world. Before reviewing our operating results for the first quarter, I'd like to take a few moments to address the COVID-19 global pandemic and its impact on our business. As many of you have experienced, this unprecedented event is having a significant impact on people's lives, communities, and the global economy. These are challenging times for everyone, which is why we are doing our best to support the needs of our associates, customers, consumers, and communities. Of course, safety is our highest priority.
We have implemented extensive precautionary and hygiene measures to support the well-being of our people at all our locations, including strict social distancing, sanitation protocols, and travel restrictions. Also, where possible, people are working from home in accordance with guidance from governments and local health authorities. We are grateful for the extraordinary efforts of all our teams to secure the continuity of our business and to maintain our product supply. We have reinforced all appropriate contingency plans in order to ensure that our production plants, distribution centers, and our supply chain safely remain up and running. As governments implement their strategies to control the spread of the virus, we may still experience some disruption, although the extent and duration is still unknown. We also recognize that we may have an important role to play in our communities.
We are actively looking for ways to support those who continue to have their lives impacted by the virus, and those who are tirelessly and selflessly supporting those affected. We're also stepping up our efforts to support governments and health services, either through financial assistance where appropriate, or product donations and other types of help. We have committed over 1.5 million liters of bottled water, more than 160,000 food products from our dairy and snacks divisions, 100,000 face masks made from PET, and a significant contribution of alcohol from our sugar mills. It's so gratifying to hear from people throughout our operation, sharing stories about how the community supports our efforts, their pride in Arca Continental, and how we are coming together stronger than before despite the distance between us.
We're also working closely with the Coca-Cola system to ensure that we are adopting the best ways to serve our customers and consumers. It is still early to quantify the full impact that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on our 2020 results. Nevertheless, given this challenging situation, we have immediately deployed a thorough plan encompassing several cost-saving measures and reassessed CapEx investments in order to prioritize liquidity, profitability, and protect our business for the long- term. Let's turn to our performance for the first quarter 2020. Overall, results in the first two months of this year were in line with our expectations. During March, day-to-day operation across our markets was heavily dependent on the severity of restrictions on mobility. Total consolidated volume grew 0.2% in the quarter, reaching 512 million unit cases, with total consolidated revenues growing 5.3% to MXN 38.9 billion.
Consolidated EBITDA for the quarter grew 5.8%, reaching MXN 6.6 billion, representing a margin of 17.1%, an expansion of 10 basis points. Our ability to tailor our portfolio offering and price pack architecture to the current consumer and macroeconomic environment, a relative favorable raw material price environment, coupled with tight control of expenses and operating discipline, enable us to sustain margins. Moving on to our regional operations. Our beverage business in Mexico maintained a positive momentum, delivering another solid quarter of volume growth, up 1.9%, driven by personal and jug water segments, up 12.8% and 7.2% respectively. Total net sales in Mexico rose 6% in the quarter to reach MXN 15.1 billion, marking the 19th consecutive quarter of net revenue growth, despite the challenges in the latter part of the quarter. Average price per case in Mexico in the quarter, not including jug water, rose 5.2%, reaching MXN 64.20.
We continue strengthening our ACT model, leveraging digital technology with AC Digital, our new e-commerce mobile application. As you know, developing enhanced omni-channel capabilities is a key priority in our digital transformation. We're looking to expand the number of touchpoints and allow customers to place orders of our full beverage portfolio directly from their smartphones. This is in addition to the pre-seller visits and our contact center. We accelerated the deployment of this tool across all our operations in Mexico and South America, enrolling more than 3,200 customers per month and providing them with remote training and coaching sessions through digital platforms. On the profitability front, EBITDA increased 9.2% to MXN 3.1 billion in the first quarter, representing a margin of 20.8% for an expansion of 50 basis points, driven mainly by raw material tailwinds and cost optimization initiatives.
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, we are redesigning and optimizing our service models in order to serve the market more efficiently, focusing on the execution of our fundamentals and protecting our core priority portfolio as we secure product stocking, particularly at the traditional and modern trade channels. Notably, our d irect-to-home channel in Mexico is experiencing a tremendous surge and represents a huge opportunity. We have developed stronger capabilities and further expanded consumer purchase points by deploying scalable, easy-to-use solutions while leveraging our remote contact platforms and web-based sales. Let me close our Mexico operation with a positive note. This quarter, we were honored with the 2020 National Quality Award granted by the Mexican Ministry of the Economy.
Our plant, Las Fuentes, which is located in the state of Jalisco and is one of our largest production facilities in Mexico, was awarded for its best practices and commitment to continuous improvement and excellence. In South America, our total volume was down 5.5% in the first quarter as a result of declining volume in Peru and Ecuador, which was partially offset by growth in Argentina. We doubled down on execution and on our price-packed channel strategy as we continue driving affordability by expanding the mix of returnable presentations. The mix of returnables in the region grew 2.2 percentage points. Total revenues were down 1.8% in the quarter, reaching MXN 9.3 billion, while EBITDA declined 8.7% to MXN 1.9 billion, representing a margin of 20.5% for a contraction of 150 basis points. In Peru, volume was down 9.5% in the first quarter, cycling a solid 5.3% growth from last year.
Despite the sharp slowdown in the economy and weakening consumer demand, we were able to maintain value share across NARTD beverages. Our still beverage categories grew 16.2% and posted value share gains driven by the sports drinks, teas, and juice segments. On March 16th, the Peruvian government declared a nationwide coronavirus lockdown with some of the region's most stringent containment measures. These restrictions cut movement of people as much as 90% in that country, and 1/3 of our customers in the traditional channel remain totally or partially closed. It's important to mention that the national curfew begins at 6:00 P.M., so the time window available for the sale and distribution of our products has been reduced considerably. As these restrictions are lifted throughout this quarter, we expect our commercial operations to gradually stabilize.
Nonetheless, a plan to tackle the healthcare and economic emergency was recently unveiled by the government and is expected to deliver resources of $26 billion, equivalent to 12% of GDP. This is by far the largest stimulus package of its type announced by any other Latin American government. Moving over to Ecuador, volume was down 3.1% in the first quarter. The slump in oil prices amid the outbreak of coronavirus is heavily weighing on the oil-dependent economy, especially exports. Unfortunately, as you may have heard in the news, Ecuador has one of the highest per capita number of COVID-19 cases in Latin America. Our Ecuador beverage business is a great example of our ability to quickly adapt to the new consumer dynamics resulting from the shift in consumption patterns. We're expanding our direct-to-home capabilities, increasing our customer base by replicating key learnings from our operation in Mexico.
Tonicorp, our value-added dairy business, is facing the same challenges as our beverage business. Joint initiatives are being implemented in our market and distribution capabilities to cope with the sanitary and financial crisis in Ecuador. We're confident that despite the contraction of the dairy industry, consumers will accelerate the shift towards product categories that generate wellness, health, and nutrition. Tonicorp has strong quality credentials that reinforce consumer confidence in our products and that should enable us to regain growth in the short- term. In Argentina, volume in the first quarter grew 2.7%, cycling a significant decline from the same quarter in 2019. We continued capitalizing on the two major package innovations made last year to further increase product affordability while reducing our overall production cost. The 2-L universal bottle refillable format for sparkling beverages and the 2-L returnable presentation of Aquarius flavored water.
As you remember, our operation in Argentina was the first one to deploy returnable packaging in still beverages in the Americas. Coronavirus officially arrived in Argentina relatively late, with the first confirmed case identified on March 3rd. The government acted very quickly in comparison with other countries, closing its borders and moving on to a national shutdown of all non-essential activity. These measures are being enforced by military and police. The response to the virus outbreak has been strict and swift. The number of cases in our territories is well below the average of Argentina. We've been through challenging times in Argentina before. I firmly believe we've never been better positioned than we are today and will come out even stronger.
Moving over to our beverage operation in the United States, Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages closed out the first three months of 2020 with a strong operating performance and its 12th consecutive quarter of revenue growth. We delivered solid financial results with 6.2% growth in revenues and 3.9% in volume. EBITDA for the quarter grew 16.6% to $78.9 million, representing a margin of 11.9%, a solid expansion of 110 basis points. During the quarter, our Northpoint facility in Houston, Texas, became fully operational. All five lines began producing, and we continued to work to achieve their rated efficiencies. We posted solid volume performance in the quarter across both sparkling and still categories, coupled with a record 121 new SKUs introduced. Sparkling volume grew a solid 2.6%, driven by the launch of Coca-Cola Energy.
Still beverages grew 2.7% for the quarter as we introduced important brands such as Powerade Ultra, Powerade Power Water, and AHA. This is our new mainstream flavored sparkling water and is the first major new brand launch in a decade. Volume performance was supported by a solid and disciplined execution of our ACT model. Additionally, in February, the new FSOP service models were implemented in our Oklahoma territory, and by this, we finished the deployment to our entire operation in the U.S. Net price for the quarter grew 2.2% with a true rate increase of 2.5% and a negative impact of mix of 0.3% due to increasing sales of Dasani water during the final weeks of March. We also grew sparkling beverage value share, breaking the record high for the second quarter in a row. Let me now talk about the impact of COVID-19 on our U.S. beverage business.
As consumer behavior changes, our volume is shifting channels and our product mix is shifting as well. During the last weeks of March, our U.S. operations saw the benefit of pantry loading from our consumers. We expect an impact of the post-pantry loading effect during the second quarter, coupled with a significant impact in consumer traffic due to increased social distancing and shelter-in-place restrictions throughout our franchise territories. In the convenience channel, consumers are making less trips into the stores and we're seeing slower growth in immediate consumption packages. Many of our customers, especially universities and colleges, the travel and hospitality industry, and our food service on-premise customers, are either closed or have moved to a pickup delivery mode of operations. Volume performance in the FSOP and vending channels was down significantly in the last two weeks of March.
In the large store channel, shorter hours of operation have been imposed, and the number of consumers who can be in the store at one time is now limited. We're bracing for fundamental shifts in our business in the coming months. The progress we've made from a strategic standpoint in our U.S. operation in terms of revenue growth management, refined execution, and a strong business culture give me confidence that we are uniquely positioned to capture the growth opportunity after the pandemic subsides. I will now finish our operation review with our food and snacks businesses. Net sales in the quarter rose 4.5% and EBITDA grew 6.4%, mainly driven by Bokados in Mexico and Wise in the U.S. Our salty snack portfolio was impacted in March when coronavirus outbreak closed TJ Maxx stores and many customers in the food service channel. Our small bag segment was impacted the most.
Conversely, grocery and club store sales have stabilized for now and should remain steady with small increases at key times. We're experiencing a significant increase in e-commerce activity, and we are fully prepared for that. There are many consumers who have never ordered online, especially the groceries, and are now doing so. Our Inalecsa operation in Ecuador has also been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. From early on, Guayaquil and its surroundings have become the most affected city in the country. Let me now turn the call over to Emilio to go over our financial results. Please, Emilio.
Thank you, Arturo, and thanks everyone for being on the call today to review our financial performance. In the first quarter, we delivered positive numbers with a strong beginning and mixed results toward the end. In the first part, we continue with the last year positive momentum, both in pricing and volume performance. In the last few days of the quarter, we found ourselves amid the COVID-19 outbreak with a negative impact on volumes and a sharp change in product and channel mix. Consolidated revenues grew 5.3%, mainly due to a favorable price mix trend of 5.1% in Mexico and 2.2% in the U.S., with an overall flat volume performance. This top-line growth, combined with lower PET and aluminum prices, helped us expand the contribution margin by 80 basis points. We still expect to have tailwinds in some raw material prices throughout the year.
We already have lower PET prices in all operations versus the previous year, as well as lower aluminum prices from the combination of a lower spot price and our hedges. Thanks to the strict execution in our hedging strategy, we have covered 80% of our US dollar-denominated needs in Mexico at an exchange rate similar to 2019. Non-recurring expenses increased 55.4% this quarter, driven by MXN 79 million for expenses related to COVID-19 measures in all the operations and MXN 174 million related to the new Houston facility. EBITDA for the quarter grew 5.8%, reaching MXN 6.6 billion. This represents a 10 basis points expansion in EBITDA margin versus the same period of 2019, despite the strong water mix effect in March. This result is explained by the expansion from the contribution margin, which is mainly due to strong pricing and the raw material benefits previously explained.
This was partially offset by an increase in our operating expenses resulting from the combination of Mexico and U.S. expense increases impacted by higher depreciation along with exchange rate variations. Our net income increased to MXN 2.7 billion from MXN 1.7 billion in 2019, representing 57.4% growth year-over-year at a 6.9% margin. This was driven by an improvement in our comprehensive cost of financing from an exchange rate gain of MXN 1.4 billion generated by our high dollar cash position. On April 2nd, a dividend of MXN 2.42 per share, totaling MXN 4.3 billion, was approved at our annual shareholders meeting with a payout ratio of 46%, in line with our historic average. The dividend was paid out on April 16th. At Arca Continental, our financial performance has positioned us well to face the current economic environment.
Our cash position reached MXN 29 billion with more than 60% in U.S. dollars. We have a strong balance sheet with a leverage ratio of 1x , as you know, our credit rating was recently reaffirmed by the three agencies. 96% of our debt is aligned to the local operation currency, limiting our exposure to only $100 million from AC Lindley bonds, which already has $49 million in cash to reduce the net exposure. As Arturo mentioned, we deployed a crisis response team and implemented a series of initiatives within our finance area to focus on implementing a cash culture. Our priority is to preserve cash and deploy it prudently. As part of these initiatives, we're monitoring discretionary spending in three main areas: operating expenses, marketing, and labor. Some of the items that we will be reviewing are overtime, temporary associates, trade promotions, route optimizations, among others.
CapEx will undergo the same level of analysis. As we continue to change our strategy to respond to our current market needs, we'll reevaluate the type of investments are required to maintain the quality of our services and the safety of our associates. In brief, we're going to take strong actions in four pillars, operating expenses, marketing, labor, and CapEx. In times like this, liquidity becomes essential to keep the business running as we will have top-line timing impacts, which we know are not going to be permanent or long-term. Nevertheless, we have adequate liquidity to support our working capital and the required investment needs. Our disciplined cash management, the strong balance sheet, and proper hedging policies, combined with our capabilities to implement efficiency plans to adjust CapEx and OpEx, enable us to be in a good position to overcome the challenging months ahead.
With that, I'll turn it back to Arturo.
Thank you, Emilio. We started 2020 with a clear objective of driving shareholder value through long-term profitable growth. We hit the ground running with a fast start in implementing our plans and maintaining an efficient and optimal capital structure. What a difference a month makes. Although uncertainty remains, we're confident that the post-pandemic future of the business will be strong. Our company is built for times like these. We have solid leadership, and constant renewal is in our DNA. In the 93+ years of our company history, our business has withstood many global crises. Nevertheless, given the significant uncertainty in relation to the duration and economic impact of COVID-19 on our markets, we believe that it is appropriate to withdraw our guidance for the current year. We remain committed as part of the Coca-Cola system to support our customers and consumers during the coronavirus outbreak.
Our leading market share, our strong financial position, and our unique portfolio of brands and talented people will allow us to weather this unprecedented crisis. We strongly believe that the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in our business is temporary. We remain confident on the resilience of our industry. We're optimistic regarding the outlook for Arca Continental as we start to see gradual improvement in the second half of the year. Operator, we're ready to open the call for questions. Thanks.
Thank you, sir. We will now open the floor for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press the star key followed by the one key, that is star one, on your touch-tone phone. If at any time you would like to remove yourself from the queue, please press star two. Again, please press star one if you would like to ask a question. Our first question will come from Antonio Hernández with Barclays. Antonio, your line is open.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. First of all, congrats on the results and hope everyone is well. My question is regarding the MXN 79 million that were spent due to the health emergency in the various operations. Is this something that you might expect a little bit of that in the second quarter? That's my first question. Then I have a follow-up.
Antonio, I guess we're not hearing you very well. Can you repeat the question slower, please?
Sure. Can you hear me now?
Yeah, I think that's better.
Hello? Yeah, okay. You mentioned that during the quarter you faced a MXN 79 million health emergency expenses throughout the various operations. Is this something that you might expect also for the second quarter? Do you have any idea on how much might be spent from that line for the second quarter? I have a follow-up.
Extraordinary expenses? Any extraordinary expenses arising out of COVID-19 that were incurred in the first quarter, actually in the month of March mostly, and how much would continue for the second quarter? Is that the question?
Yeah, that's correct.
Yeah. Well, it's not that, I guess, the most significant impact that we will have going forward. Surely there are things that we will continue to do, and mostly it is about taking care of the community, I would say. From the beginning of the contingency in every country where we operate, we've been doing additional things to what we normally do in our operations, and that's why they were non-recurring. That is the basic stuff, supporting the health system and helping vulnerable groups in our community, I guess a significant part of that in the first quarter. We do not anticipate material expenses in terms of layoffs. We're not considering those actions at this point, so I would not believe that would be as material as obviously the impact of the business that we anticipate from the crisis itself.
Perfect. Thanks a lot. Then my follow-up would be regarding the sales mix. You gave some light on how sales mix has shifted in the U.S. for these past couple of weeks due to COVID-19. How can that be relatable to South America and Mexico?
Yeah. Well, in every country we've had obviously an impact during March. January and February were good months in general for all of our markets. As you know, there are very clear and identifiable stages of the pandemic.
They start with just the initial concerns and fear. Then you move into the lockdown and restrictions and mobility phase, which is what we are facing at this point in all of our markets now. It's been more severe in South America. That's why our markets in South America are more impacted, particularly Peru and Ecuador. In the U.S. and Mexico, we are in a better situation now, but we are seeing that shift in volumes that you mentioned, that the pantry load phase we experienced in March led to a growth in modern trade. If you look at March figures in Mexico with supermarkets, convenience stores, they were up 7%. In Southwest, the large store segment and small store convenience retail were also growing. Proximity channels have had a slowdown now, and that is also natural.
It's expected they will recover given that they are channels that serve replacement purchasing during the phase. The ones that are more affected, obviously, are the food service, on-premise, the at-work channels, where those have declined significantly in all of our markets.
Perfect. That's very helpful. Thanks a lot, and I'll stay in line.
Thanks, Antonio.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Sean King with UBS.
Okay. Hi, thanks for the question. I guess, similar to what The Coca-Cola Company provided earlier this week, can you provide sort of an aggregate number for what you're seeing in the month of April for volume trends across your markets?
Thank you, Sean. What we're seeing, as I was explaining, is the continuation of what we are seeing in impact in March. We are at the point in which we've identified mostly the factors that are influencing our performance. Mandatory lockdowns are the most relevant factor affecting demand. That is impacting not only our consumers, but also the mobility of our frontline sales force. Many times they require public transportation to get to our distribution centers and our plants. That is the current situation, and the most severe impact is in Ecuador and Peru. Ecuador and Peru were down 22%, 24% volume in March. The trend is worsening in April in those countries. Again, we have identified that factor and a second very relevant factor, which has been the closing of points of sale, particularly in those markets.
During the lockdown period, we've seen up to 35% of small retailers closed in Peru and up to 45% also that have closed in Ecuador. Argentina is better than that. Mexico is much better than that, and the U.S., obviously. If you consider those factors, you see how the performance in volume moves accordingly, and that's why in Mexico, it's a much better situation in that regard, both in March and the April trend in the U.S. We see, again, a deteriorating trend in South America, Peru and Ecuador, basically. We see, at the same time, reopening of stores. For example, in Peru, we had 35,000 stores in operation. The last few days, we've seen 38,000. That, I think that is a good sign. Again, in Mexico and the U.S., we haven't seen that impact.
In Mexico, we have more than 90% of stores still open. Traditional trade is a key factor in Latin American markets. That's why the trend, it's worsening in all of the markets, but it's still better in our main markets, which are Mexico and the U.S. as compared to South America.
Great. Very helpful color. I'll pass it on. Thank you.
Thanks, Sean.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Fernando Olvera with Bank of America.
Hi. Hello. Can you hear me?
Yes, sir. Please go ahead.
Yes. Great. Perfect. Thanks so much for taking my questions. I basically have two. The first one is regarding taxes, in Mexico. Given that the government cash constraints, do you see any risk that the government could increase the excess tax on beverages in the short- term? That's the first one. Regarding pricing, again, given this new environment and considering the positive outlook and cost, can you comment what will be your pricing strategy going forward? Thank you.
Thank you, Fernando. It's always good to talk to you. Let me address the first part of your question regarding taxes in Mexico, and then I'll hand it over to Pepe so that he can talk about pricing. Yes, as you say, there's always a risk in Mexico of these type of initiatives. We actually have seen just one this week about increasing in special taxes to certain products, including our categories. As you know, we've seen these initiatives before. We know that they are not part of the current government strategy of what the president has expressed. We even heard just now, just today, one of the leaders in Congress for the party that is in power saying that it's not part of what they want to do, but we continue to see those initiatives.
I think that these proposals obviously don't make any sense, and even less now. The problem is they impact mainly the poorest segment of the population. If you think about how we're facing this challenge, which is an unprecedented crisis, and the economic aftermath of what we're seeing, it would be not only highly unpopular, but it would be a very hard hit to small retailers that are working their way out of the crisis. Again, this is a terrible tax because it affects the poorest consumers and the mom-and-pop channel. It does not seem to be a very prudent measure at this point. We continue our conversations with government to show them that, in addition to what I said, these type of taxes have proven ineffective as a solution to the problems of public health that they're trying to solve.
The resources obtained do not have a direct allocation to health programs, and as a company, on the other hand, we try to be a part of the solution. We've fulfilled our commitment to be part of that solution by reducing our footprint in recent years, offering a balanced portfolio. There is a weaker argument behind those proposals at this point. I guess what is making them less prudent or less timely now is exactly the situation that vulnerable groups in our population are facing nowadays and will be facing for the rest of the year. With that, I'll turn it over to Pepe to talk about pricing strategy.
Thanks, Arturo, and thank you Fernando, for your question. Our strategy remains to increase through rates in line with inflation. In the second quarter specifically, we're going to have some impact, mainly due to the mixes. As on-premise channels and entertainment, and specifically those channels in which immediate consumption is higher, are affected, that is going to negatively affect our price mix. Also, as water category grows over some other categories, that also has a negative impact in our pricing. We expect that to have an impact on second quarter, but that is going to gradually be corrected during the third and fourth quarters.
Great. Thanks so much, Pepe and Arturo.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Alvaro Garcia with BTG Pactual.
Hi, guys. Thanks for the call, and hope you and your families are well. Good morning. I have two questions. First, I was wondering if you could remind us your exposure to the on-premise channel in your two largest markets in Mexico and the U.S. My second question is on Texas, and this is more of a longer-term question. Obviously, oil is a very important economic driver in Texas, and there's the potential, we don't know yet, obviously, but of some form of recessionary environment in Texas. I was wondering if you could provide your preliminary views on the general defensiveness of softer consumption in Texas, given what might be softer economic activity there, and how to think about affordability and how you might shift your portfolio in the face of that recession. Thank you.
Thank you, Alvaro, for your question and your message. Talk about the first part and the on-premise channel. The on-premise channel, in the case of Mexico, it has a mix of maybe less than 10%. Maybe Pepe can give you more detail about that. In the U.S., what we call on-premise is a little larger in terms of mix. It's about 15% overall. That is the channel that has basically collapsed in the last few weeks, and that is natural. It's only a takeout service in most of those outlets. We're seeing declines are not down to zero, but they are very significant. Obviously, that is going to be temporary and as the certain degree of normality is reestablished, those are going to be recovering. We're already working on the comeback plan for that channel and what we're going to do about it.
They are the biggest impact in terms of channel that we're facing. As you see, the mix is not as high as you will find in maybe other markets around the world, because the traditional channel also sometimes serves as a away-from-home consumption in our markets, especially in Latin America. That is the channel that we're more focused in at this point, because it's the key variable for volume performance. Our efforts in the region, in Latin America, are focused in maintaining small mom-and-pop retailers' strength, and that is not only about timely delivery of our products and service, but also communication of sanitary and prudent measures recommended by local governments to keep them in operation, because they work in part as a away-from-home consumption for people that still, for some reason, need to be out on the street.
In the case of Texas, what I would say, and maybe, Pepe, if you want to add to the mix of channels, you can do that in a minute. Just addressing your question about Texas. We've seen the impact of decline in oil prices in Texas before, especially in our West Texas region. To put this in context, West Texas for us in Southwest is about 10% of the total volume. It's very clear that when prices of oil have gone down before, it impacts that market. Significant oil price reductions have resulted, I would say, in the low single-digit decline of volume for us. That's what we've observed throughout the years. The Texas region, by the way, is the most critical. We've seen up to, in some cases, 10% decline just in that particular area.
In general, it would be maybe a low single-digit impact what we've seen. I don't think that when oil prices go all the way down to zero, it continues to be a straight line. It's hard to actually model that. We have seen also declining volumes in West Texas even before the COVID-19 crisis. It's very important for us to take action in terms of affordability with certain packages in our on-premise plan to capture opportunities with the reopening of businesses. Some prospection of new outlets also to capture some of the volume in our red truck. Our go-to-market strategy will adjust visit frequencies because we need to adjust also our OpEx to that new reality in that region. That's a summary of what we're doing.
Thank you, Arturo. Alvaro, just adding some data to what Arturo said. In the U.S., the on-premise channels represent around 16% of our volume. That's where we have our main impact. In Mexico, it's around 10%, as Arturo said. We have learned from the experience of Peru and Ecuador. There, when this confinement started, many of our customers closed, and they closed because of fear or really not knowing if they could open and not knowing how to do it. In those countries, we are now working with the government and with the customers to help them and to show them that they can open, and they can serve our customers. You know that our products for these customers weigh around 30% of their business, so they are our best partners, and we are also their best partners. We're helping them to reopen.
We're using that experience in Mexico. In Mexico, that has not happened. In Mexico, traditional trade represents around 60% of our mix, and we are on the positive side month- to- date April. I hope that was useful.
Pepe, that was very useful. Just one quick follow-up. I was wondering if you could just comment on the resiliency of the traditional trade. It's pretty remarkable how strong it's been. Is that the case through April, and why do you think people are still on the streets in Mexico?
Well, the traditional trade has a huge advantage of being the channel of proximity of people that need to stay at home. It's natural that they are more resilient. The problem we've had with traditional trade, as I mentioned in South America, is that some of the stores have been closing, and it's not happened in Mexico. We're anticipating in Mexico this type of situation and support those customers to remain open in a safe way. There is a very close correlation with the percentage of stores that closed and our performance and volume in those markets. As I said, the trend is improving in Peru and Ecuador, that is a positive as you see those stores coming back in operation.
They really have the strength, and this is something that's going to continue, I guess, for some time because habits of consumers are going to change, maybe definitely or at least for a longer period of time than this emergency would last. Being close to home, to having that immediate access to basic products, I think it's going to be very valuable. We're working now not only on the crisis itself, but what are we going to do when we are reestablishing certain normality, and we're giving special focus to the traditional trade, supporting its recovery and helping them face the new situation. One of the things that we're doing with them is our digital B2B platform. That's an example of important things that we were doing before, but we have now accelerated because it helps them face this situation.
At the same time, it helps accelerate something that made sense even before the crisis.
That was very helpful color . Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Again, as a reminder, please press star one if you would like to join the queue. Our next question will come from Luca Cipriano with Goldman Sachs.
Hi, good morning. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the question. I hope you're well. Just a clarification on the previous discussion. I think I understood you mentioning that South America has been tracking in the mid-20s% negative in April or in 20%, - 24% in March. I'm not sure I got if you made any comment on the overall volume performance in April, or if you could put some range for Mexico and the U.S. Again, apologies if I've missed this already, but I think I got the South America comment, but not with regard to Mexico or the U.S.
No, you got that right. Thank you, Luca. The volume declines in March in South America are around 24%, 22%, I said for Peru and Ecuador. That's the worst performance that we had in the quarter. The situation in April is worse than that.
Right
We're facing the worst stage of the crisis. We have the initial stage, the first cases, and the initial fear, we are at the lockdown and restriction mobility stage. That's when the impact is most severe. We're facing that in April. April is going to be our worst month for the overall year. We're going to have a gradual recovery. We anticipate that to be in some markets in mid-May, maybe June would be really our initial recovery as we return to the new normal. We're at the stage which restrictions are at the highest. Severe limitations of mobility. It's hard to predict because it depends on how the governments are defining those restrictions. They are adjusting almost on a day-to-day basis. What we can say is that Peru and Ecuador are the hardest hit. Mexico and Southwest seem better so far.
That naturally, these measures, the restricted mobility are of limited duration. That recovery should be near. We're already seeing, again, customers coming back into operation even in South America.
Right
It's hard to sense the curves of all this performance in volume. Will not be really gradual, not that gradual in the second quarter. Some of the post-pandemic effects are still going to be expected. What we can say is that April and May, again, are our most adverse environment. Some recovery in the June, July, August period and a much better trend in the fourth quarter. It really depends on when the markets start to reopen. That's why we have withdrawn our guidance. As I mentioned, given the greater uncertainty of the current environment, we feel that is the prudent thing to do. We expect to come back with you soon with greater clarity. Because many of these variables are not under our control, and again, are hard to anticipate.
When we are more confident about those estimates, we'll be ready to provide some guidance to you.
If I may, and I appreciate you might not want to disclose it fully, or in a range. When you say Mexico, U.S., relatively better, should we assume still declines in the 20s%? I guess my question comes from the fact that Coca-Cola did say that in April, I think global volumes were down 25%. I'm just trying to get a handle of whether it's relatively better. Does it mean 10%-15%, 15%-20%? I appreciate that the situation is very fluid, just not to be too far from what may be realistic.
It should not be too far from where Coca-Cola's estimated, but just take into account that theirs is an average of many different situations of the stages of the pandemic around the world. I hear that the China market is recovering. Europe is at a different stage. It's hard to compare, but let's say that as a general number, it's going to be pretty much like that and gradually improving as the year goes on.
Okay. Understood. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying. Thank you.
Thank you, Luca.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ulises Argote with JP Morgan.
Hi, guys. Thanks so much for the space for questions and for the additional color that you have given us. Most of my questions have already been answered. I was just wondering if you could give us any additional color there on the Houston plant. You said on your prepared remarks that it has already been open, fully operational, but I was wondering what are you seeing there in terms of logistics, like the route changes are working appropriately? If there are any incremental costs there that we can expect going forward that could maybe kind of disturb the good margin trends there for the U.S. operations. Thank you.
Thank you, Ulises. Yes, our Houston plant is now fully operational. This, as we've mentioned before, is a significant part of our synergy projects in the U.S. We have five lines that began producing late last year and then throughout the first quarter. We continue to work on to achieve the stabilized and rated efficiencies of the lines. We are working according to plan. Additionally, there was another part of that project, which is the Vertique System, the semi-automatic picking for the plant. That also started testing during the first quarter. It's very important, that portion of the project, because it brings significant synergies to the overall operation. It's building the pallets according to the customer orders and all of that. It guarantees a very high rate of picking accuracy. That's working really well.
We're very excited about what the future holds for Northpoint as we fine-tune the operations. It's a pity that we could not have our grand opening, which was scheduled for mid-March, but we look forward to have some kind of celebration and having the opportunity of hosting visits by you to the plant. The expected CapEx is in line with what we anticipated and also the synergies that it will bring, in addition to what we had as carryovers for 2019 are also in line with the plan. This come from lower manufacturing cost, freight reductions, again, warehousing and picking efficiencies, what we've said before.
Perfect. Thank you very much, Arturo, for the color and stay safe, guys.
Thank you, Ulises. Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Emiliano Hernández with GBM.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. My question is regarding Bokados. If you could give us a little bit more color on the double-digit growth in EBITDA in the quarter. What should we expect in that business for the next couple of months?
Thank you, Emiliano. Well, Bokados has a slightly better situation than the rest of the business units. It did have still a month of March where we grew in revenues, which is a very good sign. I would say, in general, that the categories of snacks are a bit more resilient sometimes. They're still performing with declines, but not as severe as we've seen in some of our beverages markets. We had a positive low single-digit sales growth and double-digit EBITDA growth. Our comparisons in profitability are fairly easy. We have also a better raw material environment in the first part of the quarter, that has been changing mostly because of the peso devaluation, and that's impacting cost a little bit. We are seeing, again, the strength of the traditional trade in Mexico is helping Bokados.
The issue, obviously, is that when volumes start to decline, and we're already seeing that in April, and that's natural, although it's not as severe, the lower margins in Bokados result in a bigger impact on our profitability. That's why we started working on our savings plan even before the sales started being impacted. They are an important part of our optimization plan going forward to make sure that we maintain a good profitability of the business. The margin for Bokados in the month of March was still at the 9% level or so, 9%- 10%, which is still good, but it's not the margins, obviously, that we have in beverages. We need to make sure that we protect that. We have many opportunities in Bokados, as you know, for expanding to other regions.
We have been successful in expanding Bokados to the center and south of Mexico. That has, at the moment, obviously been suspended, but I think growth will recover in the second half of the year for Bokados as well.
Thank you. That was very clear.
Thank you, Emiliano.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Leandro Fontanesi with Bradesco BBI.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity. I have two questions. You mentioned that you have been seeing a decline in volumes in the 20s%, right? We understand this is a sizable decrease in volumes, and at the same time, we understand that consumers, they still need to drink, right? Just wondering if they're not drinking your products, what are the consumers drinking? The second question, you mentioned some of the effects in your mix due to the Coronavirus, such as, for example, higher sales of water. Just wondering what changes you think will be permanent due to the Coronavirus. Thinking beyond the temporary effects that we are seeing right now, such as, for example, permanent changes in product mix or also in your distribution channels. Thank you.
Thank you, Leandro, for your question. Well, yes, we're seeing certainly changing in habits of consumers. Some are temporary due to the emergency, maybe some will stay for a longer time. Let me address the first part of your question, which is what are the consumers drinking or having? Obviously, we are, as in normal times, competing with tap water. This is the natural thing to which consumers resort to when they are not able to drink our products. We've been mostly stable in our share of value throughout our markets. We're winning slightly in some markets. We're maybe losing marginally in some others. In general, we're stable. The situation is that when people don't go out as much, it's natural that consumption patterns change.
Again, we believe that we are in a very resilient industry, considering the current emergency, and there are many reasons to believe that we're going to be back in the path of growth in the near future. There's going to be an effect in the mix of channels. I would say the biggest effect I can identify, and maybe Pepe can add to that, is how the e-commerce is going to start to grow. People that were not ordering online are going to start ordering online. We've seen that in the U.S., and that might change some of the habits going forward. It's very important for us that we have been working on digital initiatives and transformation for a long time so that we can adapt to the new circumstances.
In terms of mix of products in itself, probably it's not going to be that relevant going forward, but we're going to be looking into also consumer information to identify any possible trends. There are two ways in which habits can change. One is the channels, the purchasing habit, and then the consumption categories in itself. Again, we have the reasons to believe that we are in a very strong position going forward. Our categories are, in general, resilient if you consider the industry. We have strong market presence and leadership in all markets where we participate. We have been improving our customer relationship through this crisis for the many things that we're doing. We're going to come out of this strengthened in our relationship and the goodwill that we have built in the market.
As I said, we have the digital capabilities that we've developed for some time now that are so important to have that agility to adapt to new circumstances. I think agility is going to be key as we move into that new stage of normality. Very importantly, something that I mentioned before, is the capacity to optimize our OpEx, because some of the go-to market models are going to change. We have to be more efficient, and I think we're also proving that we're able to adapt in that way as well. With that, I'll turn it over to Pepe if he wants to add something to the changing mix that we envision for the future.
Yes. Thanks, Arturo, and thanks, Leandro, for your question. As you know, we have overcome other crises. I know this one is probably one of the biggest the whole world has gone through. I think it's too early to talk about important permanent changes. We're studying the consumer as we always do, but we offer a whole line of beverages to tackle each of the different hydration needs. As Arturo said, I think that the changing in channels and the changing mixes can affect the types of beverages people consume. The type of beverages they consume at home can be different than the ones that they consume on premise. Maybe people will start working more from home, and we're going to see more online, more home delivery. At the end, it's going to be a mix between how that channel impacts the different beverages that consumers choose.
As I can tell it, we are very resilient, as Arturo said, and we have a whole line of beverages to offer, and we will adapt to any changing situations.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. This concludes today's question and answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Arturo Gutierrez for closing remarks.
Thank you. Thank you for participating in our earnings call today and for your continued interest in Arca Continental. As always, our Investor Relations team is available for any additional questions that you may have.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's teleconference. You may now disconnect.