Welcome to the Grupo Chedraui conference call for the results of the fourth quarter of 2021. With us are Mr. Antonio Chedraui Eguía, CEO of Grupo Chedraui, Mr. Carlos Smith Matas, CEO of Bodega Latina, Mr. Humberto Tafolla Núñez, CFO of Grupo Chedraui, and Mr. Arturo Velázquez, Head of Investor Relations at Grupo Chedraui. As a reminder, all forward-looking statements on this call are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations and assumptions discussed today. This may be due to a variety of factors, including the risks outlined in Grupo Chedraui's most recent annual report. At this time, I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Antonio Chedraui Eguía. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be with you today in this conference call regarding Grupo Chedraui's fourth quarter and full year 2021 results. 2021 has been a year of many changes for Grupo Chedraui. We were the fastest growing public retailer in the year, which is a true reflection of consumer confidence in us. At the same time, we managed to expand our market share and meet our profitability objective by expanding our EBITDA margin on an annual basis. The U.S., the acquisition of Smart & Final has tested and confirmed our ability to execute. While achieving strong growth rates in our current formats, we are now serving a new customer base thanks to Smart & Final's proven business model. We are excited for the new year and determined to continue creating value for Chedraui and its shareholders.
Now, if you will allow me, we will review the results for the fourth quarter and full year 2021, starting with the highlights of the quarter, and then we will review the financial results. In this call, I will be mentioning reported and comparable figures. The latter refers to figures that exclude the consolidation impact of the Smart & Final within Grupo Chedraui's results. This quarter, we achieved consolidated sales growth of 57% for the quarter and 29% for the year. In Mexico, we achieved a 10.5% same-store sales growth, outperforming ANTAD 7%, while in the U.S. we achieved same-store sales growth of 11.5%. Consolidated EBITDA growth in the quarter of 65.5% and 15.5% on a comparable basis. Net debt to EBITDA pro forma ratio of 0.48x in Q4 2021.
Now I'll continue with the results, starting with the top line. In the fourth quarter, we registered consolidated sales over MXN 65,000 million, equivalent to growth of 67% year-on-year. Excluding the consolidation of the Smart & Final operation, we achieved comparable sales growth of 9.2%. For the full year of 2021, we achieved 28.8% growth in reported figures and 3.7% in comparable figures. For Retail Mexico, we achieved 10.5% increase in same-store sales growth, which outperforms the 7% result recorded by ANTAD for the same period. Sales for the division reached MXN 25,971 million, with double-digit growth in the South and Southeast regions, highlighting strong performance in the tourist areas and a moderate increase in the center and the metropolitan region of Mexico City.
I would like to highlight the great results obtained in the omnichannel operation, which obtained a 4% share of Mexico's total sales in the year. This is due to strong performance in both internal and third-party channels. In the quarter, in Mexico, total sales grew 11.3%. In this quarter, we added five stores, raising net openings to 17 in the last 12 months, equivalent to 0.7% increase in the sales floor for this division. For the whole year, sales grew 9.4% in the country. Regarding the real estate division, revenue grew 10.1% to MXN 259 million for the quarter of 2021. In relation to the leasable area, it increased 9.4% year-over-year. For the full year of 2021, revenue for this division increased 9.1%.
Turning over gross profit and operating expenses. On a consolidated level, gross profit grew 69.3%, reaching MXN 14,295 million in the quarter and represented 22% of sales. Gross profit also expanded 30 basis points due to improved sales mix and efficient inventory management. For the full year, gross profit increased 29.6% with a margin over sales of 22.3%. In relation to operating expenses, we continue to maintain strict control across all business lines. In the quarter, we recorded expenses for MXN 9,678 million, which represented 13.9% of consolidated sales, while the whole year, this represented 14.8%.
EBITDA, r egarding EBITDA, in the fourth quarter of 2021, we achieved 65.5% growth on our consolidated results, reaching MXN 4,680 million, which represents a margin of 7.1% of sales. This growth was primarily driven by the consolidation of Smart & Final. On a comparable basis, the EBITDA result reached MXN 3,232 million with a margin of 7.6%, resulting in a 40 basis points expansion. For the whole year, the company's EBITDA grew 29.6%, accounting for MXN 13,981 million with a 7.4% margin. In Mexico, EBITDA grew 16.2% to MXN 1,967 million and margin expanding 29 basis points to 7.6% of sales.
This result is in line with the full year objective of improving profitability and was made possible by the operating leverage resulting from solid growth and rigorous control of expenses. For the full year, the EBITDA in Mexico grew 12.4% organically, reaching MXN 6,823 million, with a margin over sales of 7.6%. In the real estate division, EBITDA showed growth of 44.9%, reaching MXN 183 million in the quarter, with a margin of 7.7% for the full year. The result for this division grew 22.3%. Now if you allow me, Carlos is going to comment the results of our retail division in the U.S. Please, Carlos, go ahead. Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks, Antonio, and good morning, everyone. During this quarter, total sales for the U.S. business grew 150.5% to MXN 38,849 million after consolidation of the Smart & Final operation. Same store sales in the region grew 11.5% on a comparable basis. However, from a financial reporting perspective, sales grew 3.1%, given this quarter had 12 weeks of sales versus 3Q 2020, which had 13 weeks. For the full year, sales grew 54.7%, reaching MXN 97,299 million. EBITDA this quarter grew 154% to almost MXN 2.5 billion after consolidation of the Smart & Final operation. EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 6.4% of sales.
El Super continues to demonstrate its resilience by slightly expanding its margin to 7.4% of sales in the period. On the Fiesta side, the EBITDA margin increased 75 basis points year-over-year to 5%, 5% of sales and in line with our long-term profitability expansion plan. For Smart & Final, this quarter had a few one-time effects that caused a decrease in EBITDA margin versus the prior quarter. Most significant was a $7 million increase to cost of goods sold due to the revaluation of inventory arising from the purchase price allocation process. This effect is non-recurring and non-cash.
These one-time items drove Smart & Final to record MXN 1,396 million in EBITDA in the quarter, representing 6.2% of sales. The full year, this increased 65.2% to MXN 6,529 million, representing 6.7% of sales. All three banners in the U.S. performed well in the latest quarter, in the fiscal year, and continue to operate with solid fundamentals. We're enthusiastic about the opportunities that lie ahead and for having Smart & Final for a complete fiscal year operating under the value of U.S. banner in 2022. Over to you for the U.S. operation. Thank you, Antonio.
Thank you. Thank you, Carlos. Well, moving on to financial expenses. During the fourth quarter of 2021, financial expenses reached an amount of MXN 1,275 million, resulting in an increase of 63.3% compared to the same period of the previous year. This is explained by the increasing debt after the incorporation of Smart & Final and the cost of its operating leases accounted under IFRS 16 after the consolidation. Net income, consolidated net income for the quarter grew 19.4% compared to that achieved in the same period of 2020, reaching an amount of MXN 969 million with a margin over sales of 1.5%.
For the full year 2021, net income increased 21%, reaching MXN 3,436 million, equivalent to 1.8% of sales. This result also means annual growth in the last three years of 158% for the quarter, and 124% comparing the full year 2021 with 2019, demonstrating the company's ability to improve its profitability. I think it's important to highlight that. Financing and capital expenditures. Regarding leverage, the company recorded net debt of MXN 3,466 million. Pro forma net debt to EBITDA ratio, which includes estimated 12 months of Smart & Final results, closed at 0.48x . While the reported figures, the ratio rose to 0.61x .
I think it is important to highlight the company's capability of cash generation. That cash were improving in the quarter. Finally, the cumulated invested CapEx, including invested in the purchase of Smart & Final, amounted to MXN 15,828 million. Now, if you allow me, we will move to the question- and- answer session. Thank you.
We will now start the Q&A session. If you have a question, please enter star eight on your telephone keypad. In case your question has been answered, you may cancel it by pressing star eight again. The first question is from Mr. Benjamin Theurer from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Perfect. Thank you very much, and congrats on the strong results. Two quick questions, one on the U.S., one on Mexico. In the U.S., when you talk about the same-store sales growth, I mean, adjusted for it about 3%, given the inflationary environment we're in, could you elaborate a little more in detail on what you're seeing on pricing versus traffic and what your expectations are for 2022 just to understand a little bit the drivers? Where do you see an opportunity to potentially gain share from a traffic perspective? That would be on the U.S., my first question.
Carlos, maybe you can share?
Sure. Thanks. First thing on, you know, just to remind everybody, 53 weeks. I'm sorry, 15 weeks last year, 12 weeks this year. When we talk about the normalized comp increase of 11.5%, we're really looking at calendar weeks, okay? Very strong at Fiesta, and that really doesn't teach us, I mean, the El Super side. Yes, we have some inflationary tailwinds. They, you know, on the El Super side, they're a little bit more substantial than they are in the Fiesta side, given El Super's has high mix in perishable sales. What we are seeing is improving traffic in the quarter, and into 2022. Our customers are very, very focused right now on high prices. It's all over the news.
They're very aware of it, and they're always looking. Even though there's an inflationary environment that they understand, they also tend to look for the best possible deal under tough circumstances. That's where our strength as t he lowest priced retailer in these communities that we serve versus our competition becomes offensive to us. Folks are trading down, and looking for whoever is the best priced retailer, and that's been helping us as well. This is a shared gain for us.
That's exactly what I was trying to understand and get those comments. Thank you very much for that. My second question is in Mexico. I mean, it seemed to be a very strong quarter with very strong same store sales. It's a similar question, what you've been seeing in terms of the dynamics here. I mean, the outperformance was very nice here in the quarter against some of the peers, most likely, at least what we've seen in ANTAD. Just to understand, was it traffic as well as gaining market share thing? Is it a component? What's been driving that? If you think about your competitive position in Mexico, where do you think the strengths are for 2022?
Thank you, Ben. Well, I think we're benefiting in Mexico with our presence in the south region and in the tourist areas. I think that is helping us a lot in the quarter. It is also true that we have been able to even in those regions as well as in other regions, to grow more than our competition. We have been able to grow not only in our ticket size due to inflation and due to price increases, but also we have been able to grow on the traffic side in Mexico in every region where we participate. I think that we have been able to produce better and better the appropriate assortment at store level.
You can see that shows as well on the inventory finance, because we have been able to turn inventory faster in Mexico, and reduce markdowns. That shows toward the customer as well with more fresh inventory. A sustained pricing strategy that has been sustained throughout the year in February, but that with that combination has produced good results. For this year, we expect the projected same store sales growth in Mexico of 4.5%. We think it's going to be over that percentage. January was very strong, even stronger than what we anticipated in the quarter, in the last quarter of 2021. February shows very strong.
We are happy to announce that we will probably be able to grow stronger in Mexico than what we projected in the beginning. Our growth is both due to comp traffic.
Perfect. Just, thank you very much and congrats again.
Thank you, Ben.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Luis Willard from GBM. Please go ahead.
Morning, everyone, and congrats, you know, on particularly a outstanding year and results. I just have a question, Antonio, for you. I mean, after the Smart & Final acquisition, given due to the strong free cash flow generation, especially in Mexico, as you mentioned in your remarks, I mean, you now enjoy a pretty solid financial position, perhaps as solid as it was right after the IPO. Have your thoughts on capital allocation for, say, the next three years changed as a result of this? And if so, how have those capital allocation priorities changed as of now? Thank you.
Thank you, Luis. We plan to use the cash we're generating basically to grow faster. We think that we have proven to be able to execute pretty well our acquisitions in the past. At the moment, we are open for those opportunities in Mexico as well as in the U.S. We think that we're gonna be able to grow faster than what we projected. Our guidance shows just our organic growth expected for the year. We are open to acquisitions and we are looking at possibilities in Mexico, and we are open to looking at possibilities in the U.S. That's where we think we're gonna use the cash.
The other possibility to use the cash that we're using it at the moment is to prepay vendors, because that gives us a financial benefit that also it's very profitable for us and that's the second option that we would pursue on a short-term basis to use the cash we generate in Mexico. We don't want to prepay our debt in the U.S. due to the good rate that we've negotiated with our previous position with Smart & Final. I don't know if that answers the question, Luis.
Thank you. On the other hand, if I may follow up on that last remark, I think it's interesting. I mean, as you continue to grow and as you continue to generate cash, especially in Mexico, as you mentioned, that puts you in a different position to renegotiate with suppliers, no? Do you see that as you know, changing structurally for Chedraui? That should be repeated, you know, in the next two or three years in very terms, you know, above your profit backlog or something like that. Is that how you see it?
We see that with this combination of growth plus the use of capital, we see that we would be able to increase the return on invested capital very aggressively in the coming months. That's what we see. We think that growth opportunities in Mexico are here, and we will pursue those.
Fair enough, Antonio. Thank you and come back again.
Thank you. Thank you, Luis.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Robert Ford from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi, Antonio. Hi, Carlos. Thanks for taking my questions. It was a great quarter, so congratulations. Can you talk a little bit about your efforts to improve value propositions at Fiesta? As you've consolidated Smart & Final and really begin assessing mix and terms and benchmark other areas, can you comment a little bit on where you're finding the biggest opportunities for the U.S. or for Chedraui as a whole? Lastly, you know, how are you thinking about Smart & Final in Mexico?
Maybe, Carlos, if you can help me with this, and then I'll try to answer the takeover of Smart & Final in Mexico.
Sure. Hi, Bob. You're seeing continued improvement in margin expansion at Fiesta. As you know, we have a very detailed and specific five-year plan for that business post our acquisition to make on. We're executing on it. Really, there's two components there. First is the perishable sales of that banner was low. We thought it was a tremendous opportunity for us to create value for our consumers by investing in these departments which is so important to the Hispanic and inner-city consumer that we serve there. We're doing that. We're seeing an improvement in the sales mix on our perishable offering. That's driving additional margin.
Not only that, but you're seeing us negotiate much better with our vendors, and our price index as it, as compared to, the markets in general comes down, you know, every quarter. Our team is executing on that, grabbing those negotiation with vendors and applying it to price. When you combine that low price position and customers are seeing all the investments that we're making in the stores, they're refreshed, they're rebranded, we've got new departments, the consumer's coming back. We knew it was gonna take us a little bit of time, but the efficiencies that we thought we could obtain are certainly materialized. The integration with Smart & Final is going better than we anticipated. We've got our two, let's call it Hispanic banners operating independently.
We've got the kind of Smart & Final banner operating on its own. It's getting a rebound from the business customer, which is huge. It's coming back, that's driving sales. Now we begin the process of integrating and consolidating our IT systems, our HR functions, our administrative and finance functions, where we see significant opportunities, not only as we integrate the Fiesta and El S uper side with Smart & Final, but with Chedraui itself. That's gonna be, you know, a little bit along the road, but we certainly have very strong opportunities that we think we can materialize.
In addition to that, at the U.S. really well, you know, now our teams, both purchasing teams, are working very closely to identify synergies in product procurement, distribution, as well as all the service vendors that take care of our stores. Trash, cleanup, I think you know where I'm heading with this.
It can improve. It certainly helps. Carlos, then my understanding is that Smart & Final was on an SAP platform. Is that correct? Then maybe the transition now makes it a little bit easier.
Right. SAP, the latest version. We've got a steering committee that is very active in making sure that all, you know, all in Chedraui USA and in Chedraui Mexico are fully integrated.
This year.
Out of the possibilities of Smart & Final Mexico, Smart & Final is already in Mexico. We have a joint venture with Calimax to operate stores in Baja California and Sonora. We're very successful. We already have 17 stores, with one opening that just happened. We believe there's a huge opportunity for this format in Mexico. Yes, we think we will focus to expand this format in other regions of Mexico because it complements really well the format that we operate at the moment. On the other hand, there's a huge opportunity for Smart & Final private label in Mexico that is already very successful in the northwest region of Mexico.
It is very important to Smart & Final. It represents already 30% of Smart & Final sales. We have tested some of it in our operation in Mexico, in our stores in Mexico, and it proves to be very successful. We think there's a huge opportunity to bring this private label for our Chedraui formats in Mexico. We think that yes, there's a great future for Smart & Final in Mexico and its brands as well.
Just to expand on that, Antonio, when you think about, you know, the complement of Smart & Final, can you comment a little bit about how the Smart & Final has operated with Calimax in maybe the Northwest and if there's any cannibalization? As you think about this, does it make more sense to do a bigger coalescence of the two organizations just to address the conflicts of interest that might exist?
Great question, Bob. We've seen that there's very limited cannibalization between Calimax and Smart & Final. That's what we hear from the partners. They have opened stores close to each other. Typically, the Smart & Final format services a high percentage of business customers, which is very different, and services the household with different product presentations than the typical household that goes to a supermarket. We think there's huge opportunity, for example, in every big city where we operate and where we are concentrated. The potential in tourist areas it's huge.
The potential in high-density cities where we already participate because it 's huge, because it has a format that has been able to service both the business and the household in a different way, successfully.
Yeah, just one last question, and that is, how does the footprint in Mexico, Smart & Final compare with a Sam's, a Costco or a City Club?
Well, it's a smaller format, a lot smaller. We have higher assortment than a typical Costco, for example, in food. We don't carry general merchandise. We don't carry apparel as Costco does. We are very focused in presentation to service better, we think the business customer than a typical Costco or even a Sam's. That's what we have seen at least in the regions that we already operate in Mexico with the 17 stores.
Very helpful. Thank you very much and congratulations on the quarter.
Thank you, Bob. Thank you for your questions.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Bernardo Malpica from Compass Group. Please go ahead.
Hi, Carlos, Antonio. Thank you for taking my question and congrats on great results. My question here is in terms of the U.S. but maybe also to Chedraui as a whole. After seeing great results and growth in the U.S., and with ongoing problems in the stock liquidity, is the U.S. listing a possibility? If so, could you give some detail about when this could happen or if you have discussed it? Thank you.
Bernardo, for sure we have discussed this and evaluate this. It is a possibility. Could be in two ways. Could be listing our U.S. operation in the U.S. and could be if we don't think that the value of our stock in Mexico is well represented, could be a possibility of delisting in Mexico and listing the whole company in the U.S. We have thought about it. It's not going to happen in the very near future. We're more focused in growth and operating our consolidation opportunities in the U.S. and acquiring those synergies to be projected. Yes, there's a possibility of doing that if we find value for stockholders, which at the moment we see there will be value. I don't know if this answers your question, Bernardo.
Yes, of course. Thank you. Just, if you could just repeat your expected growth in Mexico versus the U.S. in 2022. I just missed that moment. If you could just repeat it.
Well, we expect when we delivered the guidance of 4.5% same store sales growth, but we believe we are going to be quite a lot higher than this number. We experienced already growth in January very, very high, higher than what ANTAD reported and even a little higher than what we ended up in the fourth quarter. Yes, we don't want to review our guidance yet because this is just the beginning of the year, but we believe it's going to be stronger. Last quarter, we were able to grow 10.5% same store sales compared to 10%.
Awesome. Thank you. That was it on my part. Thank you so much and again, congrats on the quarter.
Thank you, Bernardo.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Rodrigo Alcántara from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Antonio, thanks for taking my questions. The first one would be, I'd like to understand your view in terms of private consumption for Mexico for 2022. How this would link in terms of your inventory strategy. I might have some questions, because we have heard some CPG companies talk about retailers doing some stocking as they turn in more cash on consumption. Just want to understand if that's the case for Chedraui as your view as well. That would be my first question. The second one very quickly is it possible for me in price gap metric that you versus compared or versus your peers.
Any metric in terms of price that you can share with us just to understand how competitive you can price in Mexico, right? I mean, we know that you're one of the cheaper, right? Just to understand the dynamics in Mexico. That would be really, really helpful. Thank you, Antonio.
Thank you, Rodrigo. Private consumption or consumption in the regions where we participate have been very strong. We believe that is going to continue. We think that the differences and credit, as well as wage increases have been able to produce a consumption growth that is not exactly the same in other regions, but we believe it's going to continue. At least that's what we've seen in the regions where we participate. On price side, we are very aggressive. We have three different, I would say, aggressiveness. One which is the aggressiveness where we compete against the lowest prices in Mexico, which would be ourselves and [indiscernible].
We are very aggressive in those particular stores and we would be a little lower than the Bodega Aurrerá. We would have the AB stores where we compete against the super centers, against La Comer, against Soriana, where we would be less aggressive than our lowest price format, but very aggressive as well. We could try different [inaudible], lower than this format around 2%. Our Selecto stores, which would compete on a different level, where we offer prices that are competitive, but considering the quality and the assortment of these stores will be in a different level. We are very conscious about price.
We believe that's a strong flag that we have been able to show to our customers throughout the years that we have been operating in the supermarket business since our first store opened in 1972. Let me know if this answers to your question, Rodrigo.
Thank you very much. Just a quick one. On the private label, and you've made some comments on Smart & Final. We know the numbers from the perspective, but if you can remind us, for Mexico now, considering basis, what is the percentage of private label? I assume that it performed particularly well in these periods of high inflation. Any comments about the performance of your private label would you have? That would be it. Thank you very much.
Private label at the moment is close to 8% of our sales in Mexico. We believe there's a huge opportunity for this segment of the business. If we put together a good assortment of Smart & Final private label that has been doing well in the Northwest region of Mexico, if we offer that in our stores in other regions in Mexico, along with the private label that we already carry, we believe there's a huge opportunity to increase this percentage and benefit in price aggressiveness as well as in gross margin.
Thank you very much. Congratulations on the results.
Thank you, Rodrigo.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. [inaudible] from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hi, everyone. My thanks for taking my question. Actually, just a quick follow-up. Antonio mentioned that the channel penetration in Mexico was at 4% in the first quarter. Can you give us a bit more details of maybe how much is contributing to the growth of the Mexican operations? Also how much of this of the e-commerce, how many channel operations is related to third parties? Maybe if you can give a bit more disclosure on that, it's gonna be helpful. Thanks.
The omni-channel operation is very strong in certain regions of Mexico. More on the high end of the metropolitan cities, basically Mexico City. That's where we have a big participation of our omni-channel sales. Half of it comes from our third-party partners, and half of it comes from our own platform. We are very happy with what we are doing, and we are planning to expand omni-channel in other regions, but it doesn't grow as fast as it does in the metropolitan area of Mexico City, for example.
For example, I think the same store sales was 11%, right, in Mexico? That 10.5%. Can you give us an idea more or less how much of this extra sales is being impacted by e-commerce?
I would need to review that and share that number with you. At the moment, I don't have that information.
Oh, yeah. No worries. Thank you. Thank you very much. That was my only follow-up. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Jerónimo Cobián from Actinver. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. First of all, congrats on the results. I was wondering if you can elaborate more about the main expenses of Smart & Final that were recorded during the fourth quarter. Also if you can tell us what level of sales margin can we expect for Smart & Final the next quarters, given the seasonality that we saw in the last part of 2021. Thank you.
I will start, and you can extend it if you need to. Thank you.
Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Smart & Final in general has very strong sales during the holiday season. It's characterized with very, very strong promotions. Q3, you know, Thanksgiving, you've got Christmas, New Year, Smart & Final does a good job as a retailer with items that are specific to gatherings and so forth. There's a natural dip in margin during that quarter. Most importantly, in this particular quarter, it's important to point out the one-time expenses that we had this year related to a $7 million inventory revaluation related to purchase price allocation. That certainly hit EBITDA.
In addition to that, I do wanna call out that we had about a $20 million depreciation in cash due to that purchase price allocation as well that affected net income in the quarter. What you'll see normally is just a little bit of a dip. We anticipate it's something that we're learning as we experience the first fourth quarter with Smart & Final. Unfortunately, there's quite a bit of noise in these numbers given that we've you know due to the inflationary environment we were dealing with incredible number of cost increases that were coming into different vendors. All three banners were very aggressive in pushing back as much as possible until the market reflected some of these cost increases. There's a little bit of noise in that regard.
I think the general trend is that during these important holidays and events like Super Bowl and Valentine's Day, Smart & Final is just a destination outlet for it. I would anticipate you're gonna be seeing very similar margins to what you saw in Q3. As time goes on, we just start seeing some expanded margins due to all the efficiencies that we're trying to achieve.
Okay, perfect. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Miss Vanessa Quiroga from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for taking my question. A couple on Mexico. In which locations do you expect to be expanding Supercito? Also, if you could detail on the e-commerce efforts for 2022, do you expect to be launching a broader marketplace as an additional offer for clients? For the U.S., my question is on, maybe it's not necessarily on the quarter, but in general, is it, do you expect to keep a gap versus inflation on a permanent basis? Is this something structural of supermarkets in the U.S.? Thank you.
Thank you, Vanessa. I will answer the first two. Supercito, we are concentrated at the moment in two cities. That's Mexico City, the metropolitan area of Mexico City. Now we started in Veracruz, which would be the second city. We think there are other cities with these characteristics that might have the potential. At the moment we will concentrate on these two. About the e-commerce, yes, well, we have projects to increase our own platform and end up with a marketplace possibility. As well as growing with our third-party partners that service the omni-channel, adding capabilities with Cornershop, with Rappi, and new capabilities with Mercado Libre. We believe there's a huge opportunity for us.
We think that we could increase omni-channel sales participation close to 5% by the end of the year. That's our goal, which is a big growth because we have been able to expand our sales very aggressively. We think we can expand even more aggressively on this channel. Maybe Carlos can talk about consumption in the U.S.-
Yeah.
And inflation impact.
Yes, of course. Hello, Vanessa. Just to your point, really, you know, absent inflation or deflation, like we experienced in 2018 and in some of the perishable categories. We do have a very defined target as to where we want to be price-match versus our competition in all the markets that we serve, right? So that's our driver. At the end of the day, we will always strive to be the lowest priced retailer in the markets that we serve. Really, it's a matter of how quickly we see the market reflecting those new cost increases in their retail pricing. But we will not move until we see the market has moved, and then we apply our pricing rules to maintain our pricing advantage.
That is why even in this inflationary environment, people are. You know, price is top of mind right now, and you see it in the reviews that we get from our customers saying, "Hey, the market's going up, but here's a Super/ et cetera. They are the best price in a bad environment." That drives traffic to us. It's really not a matter of what kind of gap we wanna keep versus inflation. It's really how the market tends to move. Now, in a heavy inflationary environment like we're dealing with today, the market moves very fast. In normal times, it's always a struggle with the vendor community and to keep it coming in and especially with these chains. Our team is experienced with this, and they're doing a great job with it.
That's great. Thank you very much, Antonio and Carlos.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Alvaro Garcia from BTG Pactual. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Two questions. The first one is also on Supercito. I was wondering, you know, now that you have 60 stores or almost 60 stores, if you can give sort of a strategic update. You know, how have you managed to, you know, one, on sort of profitability and sort of managing that proximity format and what you're thinking, how Supercito can grow both in Mexico City and in other regions. My second question is more of a sort of macro question on the Southeast. You know, we've seen very strong results, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts, Antonio, on how sort of structural you think the growth we're seeing in these regions are. You know, we've seen a lot of tourism activity.
Do you think that sticks or not? I see a lot of investment from sort of this administration from Morena. Do you think that sticks or not? You know, how structural do you think this growth in the southeast of Mexico is? Thank you.
Hi, Alvaro. Thank you for your question. Well, as you just mentioned, yes, we have our 59 Supercitos, and we are very happy with the format because we have been able to service these Supercitos really well with three different channels. One, which is DFV, direct from vendors. The other one is throughout our distribution center, and the other one with mother stores that are close to the Supercitos. Combined, we have been able to produce a very efficient, sustainable assortment with cost efficiencies that would be very difficult to obtain if we have not had the possibilities of serving this format throughout these channel possibilities.
This has allowed us to obtain returns on invested capital close to 30%, which we're very happy with this. We believe that we can sustain these returns with the new Supercitos that we are going to open in the cities where we have plans at the moment concentrated in Mexico City and Veracruz, as I mentioned. About the southeast, we think that tourism is going to stay. It's going to be sustained. We think that we have a lot of experience servicing this customer in the past. We have been very efficient with doing that and not necessarily due to any particular conjunctural investment that we have seen in this time.
Maybe it's not going to be as strong in the future years in terms of growth, but we have a lot of experience servicing this customer and being very profitable doing this and acquiring more market share. We are very confident with the South and Southeast regions of our country.
That's super clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Alvaro.
Thank you very much for your question. That was the last question. I will now hand over to Mr. Antonio Chedraui Eguía for final comments.
Well, I just wanna thank everyone for joining and hope to be talking to you at the end of this first quarter. Thank you very much, and thank you for your questions again, and thank you for your time. Stay safe. Thank you.
Grupo Chedraui would like to thank you for your participation in today's conference call. You may now disconnect.