Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Alsea's Q1 2024 earnings video conference. My name is Gerardo Lozoya, Head of Investor Relations, and Corporate Affairs, and today our Chief Executive Officer, Armando Torrado, and our Chief Financial Officer, Federico Rodríguez, will be presenting the results. Before we continue, a friendly reminder that some of our comments today will contain forward-looking statements based on our current view of our business, and that future results may differ materially from these statements.
Today's call should be considered in conjunction with disclaimers contained in our earnings release and in our most recent Bolsa Mexicana de Valores report. The company does not have the obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements. It is important to note that earnings numbers referred to are based on pre-IFRS 16 standards, unless specified otherwise. I would now like to hand it over to Armando for his initial remarks. Please go ahead, Armando.
Thank you, Gerardo. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our Q1 2024 earnings video conference. I'm pleased to share with you our financial results, regional highlights, and brand accomplishments for the quarter. Additionally, I will talk about the progress we have made on our digital strategy and ESG initiatives. I will first like to take an opportunity to thank our team members and our other stakeholders for their continued dedication to Alsea. Before getting to the numbers, let me share with you our top priorities for this year. Regarding organic growth, we remain very committed to grow organically, both by generating more traffic, sales per store, and open new stores where we see attractive returns on capital. As we highlighted in our recent Alsea Day, we saw plenty of white space ahead to continue to grow our main brands in our key markets.
At the same time, we are constantly innovating to make our existing stores still more productive, and so you can see from our results today, it had been very successful. Regarding operation efficiency, while sales growth gets most of our attention, our management team spends a lot of time finding new ways to be more efficient and improving our operational margins without affecting the customer experience. This is a product of rigorous attention to detail, deep knowledge of the company and its process, and openness to share the best practice across the organization. Digitalization of our company. Alsea started the digitalization journey a long way back. We were convinced about three things: Our customers will want to order their food digitally. Second, data generated by the company could help improve frequency and sales. And three, the internal process could be simplified and requires less manual work.
I am immensely proud of how we can, and how we achieve this progress. Some 30.3% of our sales right from this quarter are digital, broadly defined, but we will still see huge opportunity ahead to improve this number. Regarding our 2024 highlights, 2024 results, as you will have seen, the year has started off well. In the Q1, we posted a 2.7% year-over-year increase in total sales, reaching MXN 18 billion, or a 12.2% increase when excluding forex exchange effects. Same-store sales grew by a robust 10.1% year-over-year. EBITDA grew by 12.4%, reaching MXN 2.6 billion for the quarter, with a 14.3% margin for the quarter.
These results demonstrates robust demands for our brand, even as the strength of the Mexican peso continues to affect our currency translations. We served over 28.1 digital orders in the quarter, coming to MXN 5.5 billion, which accounts for 30.3% of our total sales. Let me go deeply into a quick overview of our brands. Regarding Starbucks, we reported a strong year-over-year same-store sales growth of 10.6%... Sorry, of 8.6%. Starbucks same-store sales for Mexico were up 10.6%, driven by promotions like Frappy Birthday. For Europe, they declined 5.7%, mainly affected by the boycott to American brands in France and Benelux.
In South America, the increase was 19.5%, driven by inflationary pressures in Argentina, but with a better performance in terms of traffic than the rest of the Staples market. Regarding Domino's Pizza, we posted a robust 12.5 same-store sales growth in Mexico, largely driven by initiatives such as Domismania-... some other carry out initiatives that we've been doing, and another successful promotions in the whole country. The success of the campaigns has strengthened our positions against our other competitors, and also in Spain, same-store sales grew by 1.5%, supported by campaigns like Gracias Silvia. Regarding Burger Kings, the quarterly results were mixed, with same-store sales increasing our biggest markets, Mexico and Argentina, and a modest contraction in other markets. In Mexico, the successful rollout of digital kiosks continued to lead the double-digit growth in the average ticket.
Regarding the full-service restaurant segment, we had a trended positive same-store sales up 8%, and orders, ticket frequency, sorry, frequency growth, traffic grew by 3.6%. The strong results were driven by successful innovations with the launch of 9 new burgers in Foster's Hollywood, sandwich platform in Vips Mexico, and a breakfast, and a new breakfast menu in Spain. Additionally, we opened a new Cheesecake Factory restaurant in the city of Querétaro, Mexico, with a great success. Regarding our expansion strategy, during the Q1, we targeted the most profitable opportunities available to us. We opened 27 corporate units and 9 franchisee, so we did a total of 36 openings in the quarter. Most of these new locations were Starbucks and Domino's outlets, strategically positioned in high traffic areas and regions, particularly in Mexico and Spain.
While we often see a slower start to expansion in the Q1 due to seasonal variation, we expect to increase the pace of openings through the year, alignment with our strategic growth goals and guidance. Another important pillar of our strategy is the remodeling of our units, and once we do the work, the traffic increased by 6% on average, with paybacks aligned to the minimum returns set to the openings of the stores. During the Q1, we have remodeled 13 units globally. Regarding our loyalty programs, we're supported by our digital transformation strategy, and at the end of the quarter, our loyalty sales grew 21.7%, reaching MXN 3.7 billion, and representing 20.3 million orders, and 20.6% of our total sales.
By the end of the Q1, we had more than 7.8 million active users in the different loyalty programs. Programs such as Starbucks Rewards and Club Vips play a crucial role in driving sales and growth. At the end of the Q1, just a few months following its, its launch in Spain, Club Vips already had 1.5 million users. Regarding ESG, in the Q1, Alsea advanced in its ESG initiatives. Some of the highlights include all the new openings of Starbucks in Iberia and Mexico will consider as green stores in 2024. Also, we have certified 24, 44 Starbucks stores as greener stores, reaching 129 in Latin America. In Mexico and in Europe, we use 70% and 50%, respectively, of clean energy to cover our electricity needs.
Fundación Alsea has donated over MXN 25 million to one institutions committed to food, education, and employability in Mexico. These contributions had benefits more than 8,000 people, thereby demonstrating a significant commitment to the well-being and development of our communities. Fundación Alsea, together with World Vision Mexico, launched the third edition of the Alsea Award in March, with the aim of promoting the dissemination and creation of innovative initiatives rich in research projects in the field of food and nutrition. It contributes to the development of public policies. I will now pass you to Federico, so he can give you a more detailed overview on our financial information. Please, Federico.
Thank you, Armando. Good morning, everyone. We are pleased with Alsea's Q1 performance, as quarterly sales increased 2.7%, driven by positive consumption trends in most of the regions, brand preference, and effective commercial strategies. Excluding foreign exchange effects, sales increased 12.2% for the quarter. In Mexico, sales were up 13.1% to MXN 10.1 billion for the quarter. Sales in Europe decreased by 2.4% to MXN 5.4 billion, but in Euro terms, sales increased by 6%. Finally, in South America, we posted an 18.4% decrease in sales for the quarter to MXN 2.5 billion, mainly driven by the devaluation in Argentina and lower consumer trends in the region. In Mexico, adjusted EBITDA increased 23.3% to MXN 2.4 billion for the quarter.
This improvement was driven by positive consumption trends, better portfolio mix, and lower raw material prices. Also, the 10.1% growth in same-store sales boosted operating leverage, and the appreciation of the Mexican peso helped cut dollar-denominated cost. In Europe, adjusted EBITDA increased by 1.8% to MXN 739 million for the quarter, and 10.9% in euros, driven by growth in same-store sales, as well as a reduction in energy prices, food costs, and other inputs. In South America, adjusted EBITDA decreased by 18% to MXN 413 million, driven by the devaluation of the Argentine pesos in more than 400% year-over-year, as well as by pressures on the operational leverage stemming from the decrease in regional consumption.
In the net income for the Q1, we had a decrease of 22% to MXN 440 million year over year. This was mainly driven by the purchase of US dollars in Argentina and the lower appreciation of the Mexican peso in comparison to the same period of the last year. For the Q1s, the earnings per share were MXN 3.08. Post-IFRS earnings per shares rose to MXN 3.36, an increase of 58% year over year. Regarding the CapEx, in terms of the investments, our Q1 CapEx amounted to MXN 940 million. We allocated 23% of this amount to maintenance activities, 62% to store openings and remodelings, and 15% to other strategic projects like digitalization or change of the digital platforms.
We have made prudent and responsible investments throughout the year, focusing on profitability. For the debt, our pre-IFRS gross debt increased MXN 1.7 billion year-over-year, closing at MXN 28.1 billion at the end of the quarter. This increase resulted from a bank loan to finance the exercise of the option to buy out the minority shareholders in Europe. Finally, the financial ratios.
Looking at the total debt to EBITDA ratio, we closed the quarter at 2.5 times, and the net debt to EBITDA ratio at two times, sorry. The debt structure at the end of the quarter was 88% long-term, with 67% in Mexican pesos and 33% in euros. We expect to continue with the strong balance sheet going forward and meet all our debt covenants, thanks to the healthy, ongoing cash generation. At the end of the quarter, we posted a cash position of MXN 5.4 billion. Before going to the Q&A, Gerardo will remind us of the 2024 guidance. Please go ahead, Gerardo.
Thank you, Fede. I would like to briefly review the guidance we provided in March at the Alsea Day. We anticipate opening between 250 and 300 stores this year, primarily corporate, with the minority being franchises. We expect CapEx at MXN 6 billion, with the majority directed towards store openings, maintenance, remodeling, and digitalization. We project growth in same-store sales to be around 7%-9% and in revenues above 10%. We forecast EBITDA pre-IFRS to increase by more than 11%, with a margin of 14.2% or higher. This will lead to a gross debt to EBITDA ratio of about 2.5 times and return on equity of 28%-29%. This quarter's results have set the foundation for meeting our full year guidance. Operator, we're ready to take questions. Please go ahead.
We will now start the Q&A session. If you have a question, please press the Question button in the browser. Please make sure you are not in full screen mode to see the button. The first question is from Mr. Benjamin Theurer from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. Just two quick ones. So number one, very detailed on the presentation on some of the impacts in the different regions. But wanted to follow up as to some of the strategies you've been working on to mitigate some of the negative impact from the boycott over in Europe against the brands. Have you done anything on the marketing side? Have you been trying to kind of overcome some of these headwinds? And how do you feel this is going to play out over the next one to two quarters, particularly with the Olympics coming up? That would be my first question, and I have a quick follow-up on Mexico.
Mm-hmm. Thank you, Ben. Ben, yes, since we saw this decrease in sales starting the middle of October, more or less, of course, we... This is not only us, it's also happening a little bit more rough in the Middle East, you know? So we sit down with EMEA, with Starbucks Corporation, we've been doing two or three studies to see how, why, and when this can be done, this can be over. Things we've been seeing, a less complicated environment now. Traffic is a lot better than we started, and the first of the year and the end of the year now. After Ramadan finished just two weeks ago, things are just starting to ramp up again. And you are right, I think that-
... distraction of the goodwill of the Olympics will also help. This is only in a particularly part of some regions of France and another on Holland. We don't have any other brands, just Starbucks, that one. But yes, we are creating with Starbucks Rewards, some plans. We are, we are seeing that the younger crowd is the one that is making that switching of a local stores or switching to other, other brands and not the the Occidental US brands, no? So we are working with a plan, yeah, consistently plan with Starbucks Rewards. This also is created only in the mornings, not in the evenings. So at the end, we have it very well clear, where is it, and we are creating some commercial programs for our region, per store, in order to mitigate that.
I think, we have to see in the next two weeks this, align, and we, we expect to be in May, really same-store sales, slightly positive, no? But this, this is not gonna have any effect in the, in the, in the total share of our, of, of, of our, of our, of our numbers. And this continue at the same guidance, and we, we are looking how we're gonna mitigate all this, this impact. And we already do with, with a conversation with Starbucks, another thing, and with another vendors and, and, and with our teams.
Okay. And then just following up on Mexico. Obviously, you had a very strong performance in the quarter with double-digit same-store sales growth, which probably was on the higher end, and I guess a lot of that was driven by somewhat of the shift of the Easter week from April into March.
Yes. Yes.
Now just thinking about this, we're at the end of April. Last year, this, this whole thing was in April. Have you any preliminary data as to the performance on a year-over-year basis for April? So just that we can kind of potentially quantify what the shift impact was from 2Q into 1Q, and what obviously would then be negative in 2Q.
Well, I'm not going to give any kind of figures for the April month, but I can tell you that the calendar effect that we had in March from Easter was around one percentage point in the same-store sales mix. But obviously, as Armando just said, we maintain the guidance because we had that into our projections for this year.
Okay. Yeah, that's, that's all I needed. Thank you very much. Congrats.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Héctor Maya from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Hi, Armando, Federico, Gerardo, thank you for taking my questions. We have been seeing the favorable results that you are getting from portfolio innovation, menu architecture, and mix in Mexico. So just wondering if you believe that there are still learnings from Mexico that could be applied to either Europe or South America? And also, if you could please share an update with more details on input costs in Europe, like if there are specific items in Europe that could revert a bit from the positive trend in costs that we have been seeing so far. Thank you.
I will head the best practice, and Federico will get the thing of the cost. I mean, we are doing best practice all the time, and to be honest with you, in this quarter that we felt in week 2 a little bit weakness on the traffic on the stores. We got all together. We are aligning the whole 13 countries of Starbucks. How can we do some best practice to share and in commercial details? It's not only how can we bring ideas from Mexico, export it to Europe or South America. We did it other way right now, exactly in Burger King, some ideas that we did in Argentina that really worked very fine.
I think right now, with the digital platform that we have, we are very capable, and we are making some strategies only in those 32% of our customers that order by digital. We target with a specific, I mean, very personalized, promotion strategy, like I said, to drive more traffic, to drive more frequency. And when we see the PMMIX of our units, we are selling more items in every order that we sell. So I think that is the key of the game.
We also are doing in all our concepts that the second buy that we call, we go to the consumer that is in our store, saying if he wants another coffee or another item, once they order their first order. So that is a little how we are capturing better the consumers that we and the customers that we already have in our stores. So, yeah.
Okay. I will take the second question, Héctor. Thank you very much. Regarding the input costs, we are starting to see a decrease in all the raw materials where we suffer in 2022 and 2023. And even when this is slightly, well, this is around one percentage point of decrease, we expect this trend to continue during the year. And additionally, talking about Europe, not only about the food cost, we have started to see the same historical prices from energy that we had pre-COVID. So, good news, not only in Europe, but for the whole portfolio of Alsea. Thank you very much.
Perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Rodrigo Alcántara from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, I can now just see me. Yeah. Hi, guys. Hi, Armando, Federico. Two questions here if I may. The first one would be for Armando. I mean, just to make sure on the competitive dynamics in Spain, right? You mentioned that part of the deceleration that we saw there was this switch, right, from QSR to casual dining. Just wanted to make sure that that was actually indeed the case, right? That perhaps not some increasing competition, let's say, from delivery pizza or, I don't know, McDonald's, right, that could have contributed to the deceleration in QSR in Spain. The other one would be very quickly for on...
I mean, very, very technical, but a question that we received from clients yesterday. On the mismatch that we saw between the pre-IFRS 16 and post-IFRS 16 EBITDA margin. On one we saw expansion, on the pre-IFRS 16 we saw expansion came in line with our forecast, but on the post, we see a contraction. Just curious if you can comment about that. I know it's very, very technical, but would help us to understand much better here what happened. Thank you very much.
Gracias, Rodrigo. I think we have a very, very impressive sales momentum in Spain. I mean, when you saw that, when we see the numbers, all our casual dining division, you remember two years ago, we were struggling a little bit with Foster's Hollywood. We did an impressive 10.2% in traffic, no? Vips is performing also great with another 6.5%, Gino's 21%. So I'm always counting just traffic. So all, I mean, all our, well, all our units, exception of our Burger King, because some differences become price and delivery, but all our units are doing great in Iberia. I would say it's just Iberia. But Iberia, including Portugal, the results were great in the whole atmosphere.
I mean, yes, we grew a little bit less in the Starbucks segment, but all of the rest, I feel very confident. The thing is, when we close by and put together the Benelux business, that is a little bit affecting of Europe. But if we exclude just the Benelux business of Starbucks, the rest of Europe really performed very well, no? Very well. I think, and I'm very pleased with that, with that. And like Federico said, the context there in costs, it's another story. That in energy, it's another story than two years ago. So I'm very pleased with the numbers. Unfortunately, the exchange rate does not help us, you know? We had it at 19 point something, the budget.
Mm-hmm.
It's coming in at 18.4 euro per peso, so that is an effect. But I think in local currency, Europe is doing a good job.
To complement Armando's answers, Rodrigo, even with the competitors who are gaining market share, not only in the casual dining segment, where we are the leaders with the different brands that we compete. Both in the pizza segment, we are gaining market share in the last year, in comparison with the two players that we had in there. And additionally, regarding the second questions, a technical question like you said, both relevant. The difference between the EBITDA margin, pre-IFRS and post-IFRS, is driven mainly by the devaluation of the Argentine pesos affecting the leases. That is around 60%-70% of the deviation of the margin, and additionally, is the appreciation of the Mexican pesos in comparison with the rest of the currencies. It's 100% lease effect. The mix of the variable and fixed leases is pretty much the same. It's only affects impact.
Also, thank you very much, Fede. Just, I think very important to highlight there. So you said you gained market share in QSR, in Spain. Is that correct? It's just pizza or just-
In pizza and in casual dining.
Awesome. Okay, thank you very much, Fede, Armando.
Okay.
Gracias. Gracias, Rodrigo.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Ms. Renata Cabral from Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, Armando, Federico, and Gerardo. Thanks so much for taking my question. I have two here. The first one is about Starbucks. If you can comment a little bit about the profitability, especially if you can give a comparison between Mexico and in Europe, as right now, at least in the Q1, the brand is facing some boycotts there.
How has this impacted and how we can think about that? And the second question is about the loyalty program. You made some commentaries and also the release, and I understand that this is at least right now must focus on the Starbucks. Just to understand if this has been rolling out also for Domino's. Also, if you could comment something about the Domismania, that we know that had a good performance in the Q1 of the year. What is the strategy for the rest of the year? It is a punctual program, or it should be rolled out throughout 2024? Thank you. Do you want me to go first?
Sí. Okay. Thank you, Renata. Regarding the difference between the profitability in Mexico and Europe, well, on a usual way of business, the profitability is pretty much the same. The paybacks that we require to the brands and the EBITDA margins that we require, on a normal way, are pretty much the same. Obviously, when you are facing a decrease so relevant like the one we are suffering in France, obviously, I cannot give you figures, but, we are losing significant percentage points in the EBITDA forward. Having said that, we are not slowing the pace to open new stores because the profitability of the stores and the white space in France is huge.
So, we are, we're having a slump in the way, hopefully for the Q2, by the end of the Q2, we are gonna have better figures or better trends in terms of traffic for France. Additionally, we are not only taking actions in the top line for France and for Netherlands, we are doing the job in the productivity in the stores to preserve all the expenses to have a easier way. Do you want to say something? That would-
Hey. Hola, Renata, gracias. Thank you. Let me tell you a bit about what we're doing in the whole digital platform regarding. As you know, and we mentioned here in March when we saw you guys, we are in the implementation of SDS still, and this is gonna be all the way longer to the whole year and to the year end, you know? We are starting with Latam, no, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay already have that. Of course, in France and Benelux, and Iberia and Benelux, we already have the SDS, the POS installed, and we are advanced regarding Starbucks Rewards. It stacks for everyone, and we are right now utilizing CRM for really personalizing the consumer, no?
Regarding Latin America, we don't have the Starbucks program, for example, in Colombia, that we have 70-plus stores. That's a little, but that's achievement that is gonna be starting in March, in Q3. So I think that's gonna give us another robust. I think by the end of the Q3, starting the Q4, we will have to have the rollout completely for the SDS platform ready, so we can—I mean, even since that, we are working right now with Starbucks Rewards in Mexico. It's working, we are personal customers, but the platform is not as robust as it can be, no? We are working right now with MOP, Mobile Order and Pay, in two countries. But we still a long, long way to go with that channel that can give us a lot of sales.
But also the delivery, you know, when 9.9-something% of our sales in Starbucks are delivery, so that's a great channel that we didn't have three years ago. It's increasing for us. The category is not increasing. I will tell you, the category is not increasing in all the regions, but we are, when we see the numbers with our aggregators, we are pacing a good increase, no? So that's for Starbucks. And regarding Domino's, our friends from Domino's were here two weeks ago. I'm also pleased to say that we were named franchisee of the year in Starbucks International, Domino's Mexico and Domino's Spain. So that's a good, that's a good, a good news.
And also, we are, regarding the loyalty program they have in the US, that is a loyalty program that is not based in points, no? It's not a fidel, it's just a rewards program. For every 10 orders that you buy, they give you products free, but you don't have an accountability of the points, and you don't redeem, and you don't acumular, ¿cómo se llama? You don't accumulate, and you don't redeem, you know?
Mm.
We don't have accountability here. I think by the end of the Q3, let's say September, we can plan to launch that in Mexico. I think Domino's Pizza is gonna report in the next weeks or something, but I think that game of a loyalty program in Domino's is working very well. And we are very bullish to jump in that program. That is gonna give us headwinds regarding fidelity for our customers, that nobody else have in this category, that kind of rewards program, no?
I would say, Renata, just to complement what Armando was saying, in Domino's Pizza, we have implemented Domino's Cloud in Mexico and Colombia. And we're planning to do the rollout in Mexico for UPS. So we are, again, kind of moving in the right direction, and we will have a much more robust app in Domino's, in our markets.
That's great. So very complete answer. Thank you so much.
Gracias, Renata.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Felipe Casimiro from Bradesco. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Armando, Fede, Gerardo. Thanks for taking my questions. I have just a couple of questions. So first, I wanted to follow up on the negative impact of the FX losses.
Okay.
Federico mentioned there was a purchase of USD in Argentina. I imagine-
Mm
... there's something related to that. I'm just wondering, going forward, the next quarters, are there any more major movements in this sense of the purchase of US dollars? And the second one, if I may, Gerardo reinforced the guidance in the presentation, Armando as well, but I just wanted to double check with you because the situation in Argentina is ongoing, and it's impacting numbers. So I just wanted to assess what could be the risks in the Argentina operations that would make you change your guidance into the fourth? Thanks.
I can take both of the questions. The FX loss, to be pretty clear, I'm gonna explain it. The FX losses we suffer from Argentina came from the conversion in the cash position to, from the official rate, which was around 850 ARS per dollar, to the Contado con Liquidación rate, which is more than 50%, 56% of difference in the rate.
And this suppose MXN 170 million in the consolidated figures you received yesterday. So having said this, this is one of impact. Obviously, we will have a cash position during the next quarters, but it is not gonna be relevant. You have to think that this cash position came from the last two years, so it is not gonna be relevant. Additionally, the risk from Argentina, I would say, we have it considered in the budget and obviously in the guidance that we delivered to you in the Alsea Day. So we maintain the guidance, and we do not expect to have any more risk from Argentina. Do you want to complement?
No, I think, Felipe, I think in Argentina, and you are closer than me from that country, things are looking. When I did the budget in November, we did a very traumatic budget that is included in the forecast. But as soon as we are seeing the numbers right now, things are looking a lot better, no? Look better in the exchange rate, a lot, a lot, a lot better in traffic. The inflation, you know, there is a positive run, 3.2% report yesterday, so I'm a little, a much more positive about Argentina future than I was three months ago.
Great. That's amazing. Thank you very much for your answers.
Gracias, Felipe.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Fernando Herrera from Compass Group. Please go ahead. Our next question is from Thiago Bortoluci from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good morning, everyone. Armando, Federico, thanks for the question, and congrats on the results. I would just like to explore a little bit more the SG&A dynamics, particularly in Mexico, right? When I try to infer here the SG&A ratio that you printed in the region, I see a slight improvement year over year, like 10 basis points improvement, and this is in a context when we're seeing a significant increase in the minimum wage, right? So my question is, with all the efficiencies operating leverage that you expect going forward, couldn't we see even room for slightly better profitability and lower expenses going forward once you digest this new payroll structure? Thank you very much.
As we said, Thiago, well, hello, Thiago. As we said in the Alsea Day, obviously, it's not a good news to, to have increases in the minimum wage, but, we think we have some kind of levers, to increase the productivity into the store. I want only to remark, because some of the, of the notes that, we saw after Alsea Day, that is not a good news. We have around 60% of our employees, linked to the, to the minimum wage, and obviously we are trying—we are complying with the law. That's the, the first part, and the second part, we are trying to improve the productivity into our stores.
We think we have room to do it, but this would have, in case we have this, at a perpetuity rate, this would impact the final customer. It is not happening right now. We are preserving the same kind of service, and we have excellent reviews from the customers, but we are not seeing an impact on the PNL, as we said, on the Alsea Day.
I would say, Thiago, to complement on that one, we mentioned in the previous quarter that we were making some, let's say, rollouts in Burger King in Mexico, a flexible hour week for employees. That worked well, that is now amplified to other regions. So let's say, the experiment that we're doing is a little bit bigger today. And we're also looking for doing this at Domino's Pizza as well, and the same for Starbucks. So we're adding a little bit more of analysis behind it, so we're prepared for that. And as you know, we already have some labor-intensive markets that we operate today, such as Spain or Chile, so we're used to it. We should adapt relatively easy in Mexico, hopefully.
No, that's, that's clear. Thank you very much. And if I may, a quick follow-up also in Mexico. The elections are just kicking in, and obviously we are seeing more incentives being deployed in the economy, right? To this point, are you seeing sequentially better demand and even same-store sales moving? I know the comps, but it... Should we expect sequentially better momentum for traffic demand and consumption into the Q2?
... Oh, yeah, they were yesterday in Banco Mundial, two weeks, I mean, a week ago, they put a little bit, upscale, about 1.4-2.6, about the growth in Mexico, no? We didn't see anything, any movements yet, you know. Right now, we are comparing with Semana Santa a year before, so of course, this is not a very well comparison. But now we are gonna go there. There's now, next, next 15 days for us, the week of 30 de Abril is very strong. We'll get El Niño here, and then comes Mother's Day, Father's Day. So a lot of things are coming, and I think the economy, yeah, we see some resources and better resources. There's 50 days for the elections, and any six years here, you know, there's more resources and money in our—in the pockets of the consumers. But we need in... We—to be honest with you, that we are seeing some other changes or minimal and other changes, we are not.
Yeah, it's favorable for the, for the country, and we think it's favorable for Alsea.
Mm-hmm.
Perfect. Thank you very much, guys.
Sure. Thank you, Teo.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Luis Willard from GBM. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question and congratulations on another strong quarter. I wanted to go back to Renata's question about loyalty and you know, pick your brains about... I mean, you're already doing around a third of sales on e-commerce or digital sales, let's call it digital sales. And also a significant portion of it, especially in Starbucks, is related or is attached to your loyalty program. So the question in particular is, as you roll out loyalty in Domino's, and you continue to evolve loyalty in Starbucks, where do you see it, you know, moving forward in terms of not only in penetration, but in terms of monetization, in terms of all the added value that you can extract from having successful loyalty programs, no? Basically, the question is: where do you see it now, and where do you see it going five years forward? Thank you.
Gracias. Oh, yeah, I mean, you are very right. This is the key of the game, how we monetize that consumer in all the ecosystem of Alsea, no? In Club By, with that. Club By has a Club By with Fosterianos, Club Pizza Gino's, has a big, big platform in Europe, better than the one that we have in Mexico. What are we doing in the Domino's, and what are we do? I mean, Domino's has more than 30% of digital sales. I mean, remember that we do their aggregators. Also, we do our app, that is very strong. So, I mean, Starbucks, as Domino's, are strong as digital sales, and our Burger King, with a digital kiosk, are also gonna be part.
So yes, you are right. 1/3 of our sales are there, and I think by the end of the year, probably 50% of our sales can go by digital. And like I said, that is also the cost of labor, like we said, that gave us a lot free expenditure for that, no? Right now, what we need to do is, and we are, I will like to show you next, the next quarter is how we are processing the heavy, light, and medium user, no? And how can we get the lights, like, the light users to change to medium, how the medium user can go to high user?
What is the frequency in each level? What is the expenditure in each level? And how we can pass one level to the second level, to the third level, in order to have more frequency with those consumers, no? All the stunts that we've been doing in the glasses or in the new initiative of merch with Starbucks, we've been very successful, no? Every time we do a stunt, we do a new promotion with all those Stanley cups or other cups, it's just an amazing success that we have. So we are partnered also with Starbucks and other third parties to understand better how we can monetize those consumers in order to purchase with more frequency, better ticket. And also they have to have more incentives, you know?
If you are a gold member in Starbucks, you can have those Stanley cups before other ones, no? And that makes you be part of my team of our loyalty program. So we are doing a big, big segmentation in order to gain more momentum for them, no? And a better and build more loyalty to our, to our brands, no.
Yeah, that's, that's very interesting, Armando. Thank you, and looking forward for next quarter-
Thank you.
to see, to see that. Bye-bye.
Thanks.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Fernando Herrera from Compass Group. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Sorry, last time I couldn't unlock my micro. Here, just a couple of questions. First one is a quick follow-up on energy prices in Europe. As you mentioned, you're seeing levels pre-pandemic levels in terms of energy prices. Just wondering if you have some plans to hedge at these prices. That will be the first one.
Okay. Usually we have not hedged any kind of commodities, only the effects for the U.S. dollars raw materials. We are waiting for the best moment because we do not want to close a financial hedge. We want to have a fixed contract with some of the generators, but they are not willing to close a 2-year contract. They want something like 10 years, and I think it's too risky for the company. And honestly, with all the injection of renewable sources in Europe that it has been implementing since 3 years ago, we think the prices are gonna improve in the next 6-12 months. Okay, thanks. And the second one, it's related to the huge cash outflow we're seeing related to the minority to the non-controlling stake. I suppose that this is related to the Europe acquisition of the rest of the part of the business.
Mm-hmm.
So, I mean, I had in my mind that this operation will take place by the end of this year, and a small part in the first part of 2025, right? So-
Oh.
Uh, yeah.
Okay. Gracias, Fernando. The acquisition, as we mentioned in the previous video Conference Call, we bought the three minorities, being ProA Capital and the Arango family, well, and Alia Capital, partially with a bank loan and cash. We have closed the deal, in fact, I'll say at least as of today, have the 100% of the European entity. The acquisition was, as we said, EUR 238 million, and we have paid around EUR 150 million, and we will pay the remaining part, the EUR 90 million, in the last quarter and in the Q1 of 2025.
Okay, super, super clear. And here, I'm just wondering, I mean, you have the optionality to pay with a stake of Alsea, right? So, I mean, you have plans to do that or will be more driven with cash and more debt?
No, as I said, we're paying with cash and debt. We do not see pay with, shares as an option. I think, we think it, it is not a good options for the shareholders, and we will do with the, with the mix I just commented.
Perfect. Thanks.
Gracias, Fernando.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Jorge Izquierdo from BTG Pactual. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, everyone. Thank you for the space for questions. My first question is on mozzarella in Mexico. Could you please share an update on where you are in terms of mozzarella needs for the future? And my second question is related to your guidance. Could you please remind us your implied FX assumption for the Mexican peso? Thank you very much, and congrats on the results.
Thank you.
I think in Cheesecake, no, Federico, we have good news.
Yeah.
Because the cheese, no, I mean, right now with exchange rate of 17 pesos, so there, there's a great news, and then cheese's prices are in the lowest ever. So we have a stock all the way to October, November. And actually last month ago, where vendor was here, we're gonna see a another opportunity to get there. So I think that is one of the most things that move the needle regarding our supply chain. So that is going in headwinds for us. That's... We are not hedging, but we are controlling the future of the purchasing for the end of the year in order to have consistency in our platforms of value for Domino's, no? And then-
Yeah. The second question, the guidance, well, when we prepare the budget and the guidance, to you guys, we did it with different, effects. Obviously, the appreciation of the peso at the end of the day is good for the company, but, this is not having a crucial effect for the guidance, we gave to you one month ago. So we will maintain the guidance. And honestly, the only way to change it is if the peso goes to 13 pesos per dollar, but, we do not see that happening.
I would say, Jorge, just to give you a little bit more details on the exchange rates. The ones that we were looking at, the guidance, were, let's say, roughly 17.8 MXN to $1 USD.
Mm-hmm.
In euros, roughly 19-19.5 EUR per dollar. Per peso, sorry.
Yeah.
Great. Thank you very much.
Gracias, Jorge.
Thank you very much for your question. That was the last question. I will now hand over to Mr. Armando Torrado for final comments.
Once again, I would like to thank you. Thank you very much for joining our quarterly video conference. As always, you have any further questions, please contact us, our investor relations team. I wish you have a great day, and thanks for connecting today. Thank you.
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