Good day, and welcome to the FEMSA's 3Q 2022 results conference call. Please note this conference is being recorded and for the duration of all your lines will be in listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to ask a question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to Juan Fonseca.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to FEMSA's third quarter 2022 results conference call. Today, we are joined by Francisco Camacho, our Chief Corporate Officer, and Eugenio Garza, our CFO. As always, we also have Jorge Collazo on the line who leads Coca-Cola FEMSA's Investor Relations team. Today, Paco will begin with some general considerations on our quarterly results and strategy, and then Eugenio will provide more granular comments on the numbers. After that, we will open the call for Q&A as always. Paco, please go ahead.
Thank you, Juan, and hello to everyone on the call. We appreciate your participation today. As you can tell from our quarterly results, positive momentum we have seen across our businesses for several quarters now is still going strong. Starting with proximity, OXXO Mexico delivered yet another strong set of numbers, with traffic accelerating its pace of growth on top of a robust ticket expansion that still reflects a resilient consumer environment and the positive performance of some of the key categories. This strong top-line performance, combined with a linear expense structure, drove operating leverage, which in turn allowed OXXO to deliver a strong operating income growth. Beyond OXXO Mexico, we continue to see dynamic growth trends, particularly in Colombia and in our Brazilian joint venture. Furthermore, as you probably saw, a few weeks ago, we have finalized the acquisition of Valora.
We are already working in tandem with the team in Europe, and we will keep you posted on the plans and initiatives there in due course. For its part, OXXO GAS had another strong quarter on the back of increased vehicle mobility and finally reaching pre-COVID levels, as well as a strong corporate sales and wholesale activity, which together drove strong volume recovery. On the digital front, we continue to add OXXO Premia and Spin by OXXO customers at an accelerated pace, reaching over 22 million and more than 4 million users respectively. More importantly, earlier this month, Spin by OXXO received its definitive authorization to operate as a fintech in Mexico.
This is a relevant milestone as it will allow us to continue pursuing our ambition to become the preeminent fintech in Mexico as we expand its value proposition to solve more financial needs for its ever-growing user base. Importantly, this will allow Spin to operate level three accounts, significantly raising the peso amount that the user can deposit every month and making the product a better fit for small businesses. Along these lines, and as our digital ecosystem gains critical mass, we are also building the third leg of our digital strategy, the B2B component. That will accelerate the pace at which small businesses in Mexico adopt digital payments. This will, in turn, leverage and grow the use cases for Spin and our evolving loyalty platform, thus creating a digital flywheel.
For its part, our shell division delivered stable results that were offset by currency depreciation, mainly in Chile, where our operations are still performing well against a demanding comparison base while facing a challenging macroeconomic environment. Within logistics and distribution, Envoy Solutions had a standout quarter with a strong top-line organic and inorganic growth in both nominal and real terms and stable margins. These figures reflect the full consolidation of our recent acquisition of Sigma Supply of North America, enhancing our capabilities in the packaging vertical and allowing us to make more progress on efficient cross-selling initiatives. Last but not least, at Coca-Cola FEMSA, volumes grew across its territories and helped drive double-digit increases at the top and bottom lines. Before I turn the call over to Eugenio, let me take a moment to comment on a couple of more strategic points.
First, as you are not aware, a couple of weeks ago, we announced the retirement of John Santa Maria as CEO of Coca-Cola FEMSA and Alfonso Garza Garza as CEO of FEMSA Strategic Businesses effective December thirty-first. John and Alfonso have been key members of FEMSA senior leadership team for decades, and they have been instrumental in making FEMSA the thriving enterprise it is today. We take this opportunity to again thank them and recognize their tremendous contributions to the FEMSA success story. As you know, Ian Craig García will become co-FEMSA CEO, and Constantino Spas will become CEO of the Strategic Businesses unit on January first. We look forward to the exciting future Ian Craig García and Constantino Spas will help us build. Finally, let me talk briefly about our strategic planning review currently underway.
As Daniel mentioned during our last call, this process involves significant analysis to help us define the strategies to achieve our ambitious long-term value creation objectives, but also how best to work towards eliminating the valuation gap that exists between our share price and the true value of our business. In recent months, this topic has been top of mind for investors, prompting questions and speculation in the market about where we may be in the process, potential outcomes, et cetera. Therefore, given the relevance of the subject, we want to use this call to make a clear statement. The process is ongoing. The analysis being done is broad and thorough, and we do not expect to comment further on this review or the resulting speculation on this call or in other interactions with the market until we are ready to provide a relevant update.
Our target date for such an update is concerned with our fourth quarter and full year 2022 results in late February 2023. Rest assured that we have also heard the investors community desire for greater transparency and more simplicity loud and clear. We are taking these topics and others into account in our efforts. With that, let me turn the call over to Eugenio.
Thank you, Paco, and good morning to everyone on the line. Beginning with FEMSA's consolidated quarterly numbers, total revenues during the third quarter increased 20.5%, while income from operations increased 13.8% compared to the third quarter of 2021. On an organic basis, total revenues increased 15.4% and income from operations increased 10.1%. FEMSA's net income decreased 17.3% and reached MXN 13.2 billion, reflecting higher income from operations, a decrease in net interest expense, and a non-cash foreign exchange gain.
This was offset by a decrease in our participation in associates results, which mainly reflect the results of our investment in Heineken, and a MXN 1.9 billion negative swing in other non-operating expenses, which reflect a demanding comparison base that included dividends received during the third quarter of last year from our investment in Jetro Restaurant Depot. Moving on to discuss our operations and beginning with proximity, we added 231 units during the third quarter to reach 902 net new stores for the last twelve months. This includes 120 stores from our OK Market acquisition in Chile that we began consolidating during the second quarter. In Mexico, we are still a little behind pace for our target of 800 net additions, but the net pace keeps ramping up.
The pipeline is looking good for the next 12 months, and the productivity of our new stores continues to materially exceed that of previous new store cohorts. OXXO same-store sales were up 17.5% for the third quarter, driven by an increase of 11.9% in average customer ticket and a notable 4.9% growth in traffic. This reflects a pickup in the recovery phase of mobility and the gathering consumption location that has continued to perform at a very strong level. When compared to the third quarter of 2019, same-store sales increased 15.5%.
Gross margin contracted 110 basis points to reach 40.2%, reflecting a phasing out of commercial income activity as some of our key suppliers defer commercial and marketing activities in anticipation of the FIFA World Cup and the December holiday season. We should also mention the effect that OXXO Premia, our loyalty program, is beginning to have on the income statement. Given meteoric growth, the program is already having a positive impact on the top line, but it's also affecting the gross margin line as we take a very conservative approach to accounting for point redemption. The two effects almost cancel each other out at this stage, but as the program grows and evolves, we are working on several strategies that will allow us to monetize the program further in the medium term.
Income from operations increased 23.5%, while operating margin increased 30 basis points compared to the same period of 2021 to reach 9.4%. Another record for a comparable quarter, driven by a structurally leaner expense structure and the resulting operating leverage. At OXXO GAS, revenues increased 33.6% and same-station sales grew 25.1% relative to the third quarter of 2021 as vehicle mobility continued to improve, finally recovering the pre-pandemic levels. Volumes were further aided by robust pickup in corporate and wholesale activity. During the third quarter, gross margin was 4.8%, while operating margin reached 5%, reflecting tight expense control and improved operating leverage. Moving on to FEMSA's health operations.
During the third quarter, we expanded our drugstore count by 84 net additions to reach a total of 3,971 units across our territories at the end of September, and 431 total net new stores for the last twelve months. This represents an acceleration in our growth rate, driven mainly by Mexico and Colombia, and puts us in a good position to meet our target for 2022 of more than 400 new drugstores. Revenues increased 1.1%, while same-store sales decreased by an average of 3%. However, it is important to note that on a currency-neutral basis, revenues grew 13.5% and same-store sales increased 6.3%.
A solid performance across our operations, even as the comparison base becomes a more demanding one, particularly in Chile. Gross margin decreased 50 basis points in the quarter, mostly reflecting a negative mix effect that reflects the strong growth of our operations in Colombia, partially offset by improved efficiency and a more effective collaboration and execution with key supplier partners in Mexico. As a result, operating margin contracted 20 basis points as tight expense control across our territories was not enough to fully offset the impact of the lower gross margin. Regarding our logistics and distribution business, revenues increased 7.3% relative to the third quarter of 2021, reflecting the steady pace of acquisitions made in 12 months by Envoy Solutions.
On an organic basis, total revenues increased 14.6%, reflecting strong performance across Envoy Solutions's segments, especially in the retail and facility supply segments, coupled with good demand dynamics in our operations in Latin America. Operating margin contracted 10 basis points, reflecting higher costs of labor and transportation in certain markets. Finally, moving on to Coca-Cola FEMSA, volumes grew 8.4%, with all markets contributing to the growth. Revenues increased 18.2% and gross profit grew 16% despite supply chain disruptions and cost pressures on certain raw materials. Operating income increased 13.3%, reflecting solid top line and favorable raw material hedging strategies, coupled with operating expense efficiencies. All of Coke FEMSA delivered a strong set of results amid a very challenging cost environment. You can listen to the webcast of the quarterly call that took place last week.
Before wrapping up, I would also like to anticipate to you that in the spirit of greater transparency and disclosure that Paco alluded to in his remarks, and given the steep growth trajectory of Envoy Solutions, we will begin reporting its results on a standalone basis separate from the Latin America logistics business starting in the first quarter of 2023. Furthermore, as mentioned during the process of acquiring Valora, we will be presenting its results separately in our releases beginning with this fourth quarter. Finally, we are also working on additional enhancements to our disclosure that should reduce the complexity of measuring the performance of our business units and investments. We are hopeful that despite making our financials a little bit longer to go through, they will provide a better picture of the true value being created by our teams.
With that, let us open up the line for questions. Operator, please.
Thank you. Once again, it is star one for questions. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question. If you have additional follow-ups, please re-queue. We'll take our first question from Ricardo Alves with Morgan Stanley.
Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for the call. Another set of good numbers operationally speaking with that generation. Considering the commentary that Paco made, recent discussions with investors, how are you now thinking about shareholder return? I mean, any updates on dividends and buybacks, eventually the extraordinary dividends and so forth? That's my first very quick question. The second one, when you're thinking about your geographic diversification, I know that you cannot talk about the strategic review itself, as you said in the remarks, but when you're thinking about one of your pillars of geographic diversification, what's your aspiration as of now?
For example, considering that you just achieved part of that with the Valora transaction in Europe, and it seems that the growth going forward as Valora seems to be more focused locally in Germany as opposed to, you know, aggressive expansion abroad or more M&A. Just wondering if that's the right way to think about it or what can you share on your geographic expansion pillar, considering FEMSA's strategic long-term view. Appreciate the time. Thank you.
Sure. If you want, I'll start with the first one. Again, the strategic review encompasses all of the different levers that we believe are available to us to unlock the value of the operation. Yes, all of the tools that you mentioned are being taken into account. Having said that, at this point, we're not ready, as Paco mentioned, to comment on which ones we'll use, but we are certain that there is a lot of value that we can unlock from our operations by using those and other tools. Then, Paco, you wanna go through the geographic diversification question?
Yes. Thank you, Ricardo, for your question. Again, when it comes to geographic diversification, it has to do with our intent to better manage the risk of our geographic portfolio. I guess that the best way to answer your question is to say that we feel very comfortable with the geographies we are competing in right now. We don't expect to be expanding that number of geographies we're in for the time being.
Yeah, if I could add.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
Hi, Ricardo. This is Juan. Just to Paco's comment, and this is because of, you know, questions we've been receiving from investors in the last many weeks and months, regarding, you know, given that Valora happened, you know, a couple of years after Envoy and Envoy, its strategy itself always involved a lot of M&A, right? We stated from the beginning when we started building Envoy, that it required creating this national platform and that it would, you know, necessarily imply a fair amount of acquisitions. The strategy for Valora is very different, and that's really the point I wanna make right now. Valora, you know, the, we are in the markets that we are in.
We've talked a little bit about Germany and of course their growth opportunities that we see there. The strategy for Valora is very different from the strategy for Envoy. I again say this because there are investors that have been thinking, "Well, you know, maybe PepsiCo is gonna be as acquisitive in Europe as they have been with Envoy," and that's not correct. The two strategies from the get-go are very different. Thank you.
Moving on, we'll go to Luis Willard with GBM.
Hi, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I want to talk about Spin. Now that it's received its authorization and we see the numbers accelerate strongly in the third quarter. You talked about this, Paco, in your remarks, but can you tell us a bit more about your priorities in terms of product development and the commercial offering for Spin? Another question would be in the same line. Are we set to see a more active financial digital division in terms of use of capital in the future after this authorization? Thank you.
Sure. I'll start. I mean, as you know, the number of users has been growing significantly just based on the power of the acquiring platform that the OXXO stores are able to give SPIN. The uses right now, although obviously high value added, they're still quite limited. With the new authorization, there's two things that we're seeing. One is now we're able to have dollar accounts for physical persons in Mexico, so we can get into the remittances market, I think, a lot more closely. Then also we were able to open up N3 accounts, so level three accounts in Mexico, which allow for higher deposits and higher average balances, and we can tailor that product for the B2B customer.
So you'll start to see us get more aggressive into the B2B space, and in that way close the loop between the consumer and the merchant so that we can try to develop an overall payment strategy that together with the loyalty program and other of the perks that we can offer through OXXO will be a powerful combination, and we think that this powerful combination will be able to better serve both types of customers. On the product side, again, once we get a more stable user base and with this authorization, we will start to get as well into other products such as personal loans, working capital loans for small businesses.
Definitely we'll see some more use of capital being put to use, I think, not necessarily aggressively, but with a lot of we think bang for the buck in terms of the returns that we're able to get from monetizing the current customer base. Paco?
I guess that, Luis, what I will add is that as we do all that Eugenio described, it is true that, as you can imagine, we as we accelerate the acquisition of users in both Spin and our loyalty program, we get to know them better. You should expect that also the value proposition will continue to be sharpened constantly so that we meet consumer needs better in what we have today. That's something that you should also expect coming from our digital platforms.
That's very clear. Just, please, if I may, a quick follow-up. I mean, the remittances and the N3 accounts are like plug and play, right? You don't need to do much development in terms of the app architecture. Perhaps the B2B needs a bit more time for it to be up and running. Is that correct?
Yeah. Not necessarily plug and play, but clearly those two offerings are, I think, much sooner in the pipeline than the full development of a B2B platform, yes.
All right. Thank you, Paco. Thank you.
Thanks, Luis. Gracias.
Next, we'll go to Hector Maya with Scotiabank.
Hi. Thank you for taking the questions. We saw that in a recent interview, FEMSA revealed that there is a 10 million user target for Spin by 2023. We believe that considering your current user base of around 4 million, you would have to achieve about 30% more monthly new users than what you are registering now. In that, we would like to know what specific initiatives or investments you are planning to make to accelerate your monthly new users, possibly above the 400,000 mark. If there is a timeline for migrating OXXO Premia to Spin to accelerate even more the number of users or how aggressively would you be pushing Spin in mom-and-pops to cover. If you have a target on that or some numbers that you could share. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Hector, for your question. Let me provide some perspective on how the whole acquisition, user acquisition is going. Because in fact, we feel very comfortable with the user acquisition trend for Spin. Actually to your point on the number of users we are aiming to have active in the midterm, really the trick is to, on one hand, as you said, continue with the strong acquisition rate, but at the same time, we also need to encourage our user or registered users to be more active in the platform. There is a component of that that will increase the percentage of users that register, and then they keep active in the platform. That has to do with a number of things.
First, how friendly the platform is. Second, the type of services you provide. Third, of course, the type of education that you put out there for consumers to truly understand the capabilities of the platform. I think that when you look at the rate of active versus registered that we have today, we should expect that ratio will increase in the future, and that's our aim. I don't know, Eugenio, you want to add to that?
Sure. The only thing I would add is that, as you know, there are network effects associated with these kinds of products, and we're starting just the tip of the iceberg with regards to the geographic span. I think certain of the use cases, like peer-to-peer or whatever, have more value the more users that are on the platform. We would expect some sort of, I mean, riding of the exponential curve in the shorter time, and that's how I think we're comfortable that we will get to that 10 million user target that Sergio was talking about.
I think that the second part of your question was related to the relationship between Spin and our loyalty program. I mean, clearly, there is a relationship because at the end of the day that we will look at this as a digital ecosystem in which things are connected. Indeed, I mean, it is. We should expect that moving forward, part of the B2B component of our ecosystem will have to do with how we can actually allow the small traditional stores to use Spin and be part of our loyalty program on a business-to-business component. Then, also on the other side, when you look at our loyalty program and Spin, when...
Now, when you open a Spin account, you are also part of the loyalty program. I mean, there is this synergy component, synergistic component that as we move forward will be stronger and consumers will be actually better off because they will have more services at their disposal as part of the platform.
Just finally, the partnership with Kike, obviously on an arm's length basis, but that I think will allow hopefully to have I mean current Kike customers use the Spin platform in a preferential way that will allow the synergies that Paco is talking about in terms of customer acquisition costs on the B2B space to be a very powerful combination for both parties.
Excellent.
Moving on, we'll go to Alan Alanis with Santander.
Hi, good morning. Thank you so much for taking my question. I have two questions. One of them is I guess the answer is gonna sound like very obvious to you, but I think it's good for investors to listen to it. If we could do a recap of what triggered the strategic review. I know it makes total sense not to speak about what are potential outcomes, but it might be good to remind investors how do you define the situation or how do you define the problem. That would be the first request, if I may. The second one has to do with this move towards B2B in Spin.
I guess there's gonna be a lot of questions around this in terms of not only the architecture, but like it was asked before, but also in terms of the scope and the timing, and then why not having just applied for a full banking license. I guess the specific question for this call would be, when are you gonna start attracting businesses, small and mid businesses, mid-sized businesses, to open Spin accounts? Can they do it right now? What's gonna be the approach and what's gonna be the scope and timing of moving from a platform that was understood, I think, but for many of us, it was a platform for consumers, basically, a fintech for consumers.
Now, in terms of moving to a fintech for small and mid-sized companies in Mexico. Thank you.
Sure. If I want to, I'll take the first question, and then, Paco, maybe you can address the second one. I mean, as you know, I mean, Daniel Rodríguez's term started in January, and this was his priority number one, to both strategic review, both bottom up as well as top down of all of the portfolio of FEMSA and make a longer term view with regards to capital allocation going forward. So that's really what triggered it.
In the meantime, as the market turned a little bit south, and then our portfolio started to get more complex, we started to see the disconnect between the stock price and what we believe is to be the underlying value of the businesses, and that's why, I think, the urgency to come to a conclusion from the market, at least, and we're hearing that loud and clear. To be clear, the trigger of the strategic review was Daniel's desire to have a full-blown plan to present to the board, and obviously to you as shareholders as to what his priorities from a capital allocation would be going forward. The timing still, I mean, he said he was going to do it during this year.
We're sticking to that timeframe as originally stated. It's just the market dislocation in terms of price that's putting a little bit more of a sense of urgency. Again, we're taking our time. We're comfortable that each one of the businesses has spectacular optionalities and spectacular plans to be able to create a tremendous amount of value. Then from a top-down perspective, that we have the leverage available to unlock the value that's already there and also crystallize the value that we can create in the future.
That's very good.
Alan Alanis, thank you for your question because actually it's an important point regarding the second part of your question, which is the B2B component of the-
Yes.
Digital platform. I would like just to go back a bit when we started working on our digital business, because at the time we said, "All right, we are going to focus on three main verticals." We said, "There is fintech with the Spin wallet." There is the loyalty program, and then we said there is the B2B component, which is primarily also enabling the traditional trade. That was the focus we have and that continues the case. Of course, we started because we had already a platform for both OXXO Premia and Spin by OXXO working on the first two verticals of this strategy, and you know the results of that, they are going extremely well.
Certainly as we have reached this level of performance in these first two verticals, we start thinking that in order to close the loop and to have a complete flywheel, we of course need to deliver on the B2B component. Because at the end of the day, part of the mission that we have is to enable both consumers and small trade on the financial side, giving them access to services and to, I would say, financial elements on their daily life that today they cannot do. As we have been doing that with Spin, we have identified, obviously we suspected that, but there are a number of cohorts that interact with our products in a different manner.
There is of course the regular consumer, the one that goes and they need to shop, and they need to put money in their card, and they need to use the wallet the way, you know, the very basic way it was designed to function. There are other cohorts of, for example, people that have small businesses that use the wallet in a different way to, you know, pay their suppliers or receive payments from their customers. Obviously when we started the Spin wallet, we knew that was gonna happen. But now we have significantly more data in terms of how those cohorts are behaving and what type of services they need moving forward.
Receiving the full fintech license will allow us to increase the type of services that we can give them, including things as simple as the amount of money they can actually put in the card. That's on the wallet side. Now, if you move that part of the services that these cohorts need towards the B2B, and we talk about the small traditional trade, I mean, these type of businesses also need these type of services. If you will, they will need it in a little bit more sophisticated way because obviously they have inventories to manage. They have larger suppliers to deal with. They have more customers to serve. Evidently there are some parts of the first two verticals the
As I said, the wallet, but also the loyalty program that will serve them well for these additional needs that they have. But clearly we will need to develop others that are more specific, specifically targeted for these type of businesses. Again, this is an evolution. We are moving fast, but at the same time it's very important that we understand fully what each of the cohorts need, and that we construct something that is going to be, I would say, comprehensive and that leverages from each of the strengths of the verticals that we are developing. That's what I would say regarding the second part of your question.
No, that's very helpful, Paco.
Mm-hmm.
Go ahead.
Yeah.
To be clear, Alan Alanis, we are at this point not considering a banking license. We are dipping our toe in the water with the
Mm-hmm
The fintech license. We think we can learn a lot about the use cases and whether or not it's gonna be worthwhile for us. If this scales, clearly that's gonna be one alternative we will need to look at. For now, we are just testing this out. Let me just emphasize what Paco just told you.
I think this is a unique case in the development of financial, digital financial systems across the world where you have, I mean, the power of a distribution network to B2B customers like Coca-Cola FEMSA, and on the other hand, the ubiquitousness of OXXO and its relationship to the consumer, that can allow for a very strong combination to really create this full-fledged payments ecosystem, coupled with a loyalty program and coupled with the multi-category opportunities to increase wallet share in the B2B space, through NetPay and otherwise with the partnership with OXXO, that I think will allow this to become a, I mean a tremendous ecosystem that's that we really have not seen in other places in the world.
Yeah. No, it makes a lot of sense. The potential is huge. Last question, would you use the brand, I mean, OXXO Spin also for the B2B, or there'll be a different brand for this B2B platform?
Yeah. Well, that's a good question that the teams are working on as we speak.
Okay
All I can tell you is that will come some news in that respect. The teams will have news in that respect very soon.
Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Congratulations on the results. Thank you.
Gracias.
Thank you. Thank you.
Moving on, we'll go to Alvaro Garcia with BTG Pactual.
Hi. Good morning, Eugenio, Paco.
Buenas
My question is on Premia, which is obviously growing very fast, and I was just wondering if you could sort of walk through. You mentioned in the release some impact to gross margin on the back of it, but just that trade-off between top line and profitability and from a strategic standpoint, how you're thinking about that going forward. Maybe two-part question. First, sort of what's going on this specific quarter, how is that really impacting gross margin? Two, how are you thinking about sort of increasing the size of your network long term versus profitability. Thank you very much.
Sure. If you want, I'll take a crack at it, Alvaro. I mean, clearly right now, we are reserving 100% of the loyalty points that are being earned. We are putting in straight cost of goods sold, so that is affecting the gross margin in the short term. At the end, there will be some breakage. Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm getting a little bit of an echo. Feedback. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Perfect. There will be some breakage on those points, and we will fine tune kind of what we're charging in the income statement going forward. Having said that, the elasticity of the program, and again, this with 10 million users and about a 19%-20% tender at this point, as this grows, I think the elasticity of the traffic coming to the stores from loyalty customers and the average ticket that we're getting from them. Right now, it works out to be a wash between the hit on the income statement from the rewards for loyalty and the excess traffic and excess tickets that we're getting. As this scales, we do expect loyalty to become I mean a contributor of value to the company.
Whether we decide to use that value to reinvest in further store visits or whether to reinvest in other of the products, be it digital or not digital, is something that we will test out in different user groups and different geographies as we go forward. But the loyalty program in and of itself is intended to be a value generation mechanism for us, not just a program to get more traffic in the stores.
The one thing that I will add to what Eugenio said is that, moving forward, as part of the loyalty program that is really a coalition program that we are building, it's that as we add more partners into that program, as we add more possibilities for consumers to participate in the program, you can imagine then the amount of that and the amount of knowledge that we will generate will open a lot of possibilities in terms of additional monetization of that program. Obviously that is work in progress. That is part of the evolution of the loyalty ecosystem.
The momentum that is having, as you said, gives us the confidence that, moving forward, we will open a number of possibilities for both the services that we will provide for the consumers and also the possibilities of monetization that we will have.
Great. Many thanks.
Thanks, Alvaro.
Next, we'll go to Antonio Hernández with Barclays.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. My question is regarding Valora. Now that you have exposure to Europe and given the current environment, adverse macro environment in the region, what are your expectations there for the short to medium term? You know what, we've been talking on the different strategies in OXXO to improve profitability, to improve traffic, the different program and so on, everything that you mentioned, do you think that there's maybe a possibility of having some of these capabilities in Europe as well, maybe in the medium to long term? Thanks.
Yes. Let me give a crack at it, and then obviously, I mean, both Kike and Eugenio can complement. I mean, clearly, as you can see, the management team of Valora has been on top of the developments in Europe and the circumstances in terms of inflation, in terms of energy costs, et cetera. That is, I guess, what is behind your question. The management is taking the necessary measures to protect the business against these headwinds. At the same time, I think that it's important to remember that a big component of the Valora business is the food business. That particular business, that particular segment is very resilient when it comes to, you know, economic downturns.
We are confident that the very senior management that we have in Valora in place, and that, as you remember, they stayed from the pre-FEMSA acquisition, has the right plans and the right organization to defend our business against this situation. Having said that, as we get more involved in the business, we are obviously, you know, providing as much support as we can, given the knowledge we have in the emerging markets regarding inflation, regarding volatile environments. This is a good transition to the second part of your question.
I mean, clearly there is a lot of knowledge that we have developed on how to handle businesses in not so comfortable situations, and obviously that component is going to be there as we work together with the European team. Second, OXXO, as you said, has developed a strong set of capabilities and know-how in terms of operating stores in a very efficient manner. You should expect that part of that knowledge and part of that know-how is going to be quickly transferred to Valora so that they can capitalize on these learnings that we have developed over the years.
Okay. Regarding your organic growth expectations in Europe, have they changed maybe because of the situation? Or what are you expecting in terms of organic growth, maybe for the next couple of quarters, maybe next year?
Yeah. As I highlighted at the beginning of the call, the final part of the acquisition of Valora just happened a few weeks ago. Now that we are in control of the company, we're working with the team to develop the right budget for the year and for the quarters to come. It's work in progress as in the rest of our businesses.
Okay, perfect. Thanks a lot, and have a great day.
Thank you. Gracias, Antonio.
Moving on, we'll go to Rodrigo Alcantara with UBS.
Hi, good morning, Jaime, Paco, and Juan. My question regarding on Valora, we got really the you know this different strategy that to the changes and more organic growth than M&A. My question to you is on, I mean, how should we think about the funding of that organic growth? I mean, do you think that you can fund that with you know the operating cash flow of Valora itself, or can we expect some minor disposals of the Heineken stake, if you can comment about that? The second one, very quickly regarding the Envoy Solutions.
Should we expect, let's say, mid-2023 or in 2023 as if it's stage where you start the integration of all the assets that you have acquired in the U.S., meaning perhaps some synergies at the SG&A level. Those would be my two questions. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you Rodrigo for the questions. If you want, I'll start with the funding of Valora. I mean, Valora in and of itself is generating, I mean, good cash flow. It could fund, I mean, to a certain, its own expansion. It will be organic. In certain cases, it will be, I mean, new stores. In certain cases it will be, I mean, affiliating, existing independent stores in Germany and otherwise, which is quite highly fragmented. We expect those to be, I mean, highly ROIC accretive from the beginning.
If there is a need for funding, we will clearly find a way to fund it from other of the FEMSA operations, but we do not expect this to be a major strain on the FEMSA funding structure altogether. With regards to your question on Envoy Solutions, we are already working on that. We've hired, I mean, two senior people to the Envoy management team, basically working 100% in terms of integrating the companies. I mean, they're integrating them, coming from a flurry of 26 acquisitions over the past couple of years. They're working on the earlier ones and slowly integrating them into a common operating style, a common operating procedure, a single supplier platform, et cetera.
Most of the synergies that we are finding, and we are already finding more than from an SG&A perspective, are coming just from a purchasing perspective. Equalizing the product catalog, getting discounts from suppliers for scale purchases, being able to serve national accounts from a single point of contact, etc. Those are where the synergies are coming from. It is turning, I think, most of the acquisitions that, I mean, we've been making at maybe low double digit EBITDA multiples with the synergies, they're turning out to be high single digit EBITDA acquisition multiples with high, very high cash flow conversion.
We're finding those to be, I mean, quite accretive in the short term, and hopefully, you'll be able to see that for yourself once we start disclosing those numbers on a standalone basis, first quarter of next year.
Okay. That was very clear on Envoy. Thank you very much. Just on the Valora, you said funds from operations then, right? For the organic growth.
Yeah. Either from Valora itself or slightly, with some use of funding from FEMSA, but nothing that will strain our balance sheet by any means.
Sure. Thanks.
Thank you.
That does conclude our question and answer session. I'd like to turn it back to Mr. Fonseca for any additional or closing comments.
Yeah. Juan Fonseca, thanks for your time today, for your attention. We are always available for follow-ups, my team and myself. Have a great week.
Thank you. That does conclude today's call. We'd like to thank everyone for their participation. You may now disconnect.