Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Grupo Herdez's First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. This call is being recorded. Information discussed may include forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the forward-looking statements disclaimer in our press release. I'll now turn the call over to Gerardo Canavati, Chief Financial and Information Officer.
Thank you, Darwin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Grupo Herdez's first quarter results. We are most pleased with the progress we've made this quarter, demonstrating once again the resilience and strategic agility of our business in a very dynamic market. As you all are aware, the new world order is unpredictable. Planning for the future is a hard thing to do, so for now, we hope that regional prevails and we can maintain the favorable outcome for Mexico. After a slow start, we gained traction towards the end of the quarter to deliver good results, which will be highlighted by Andrea. Please go ahead, Andrea.
Thank you, Gerardo. Despite widespread uncertainty, Grupo Herdez delivered outstanding results for the first three months of the year. The company's strong performance was underpinned by innovative promotions and comprehensive commercial strategies that successfully boosted both volume and revenue. Key initiatives included the engaging McCormick Diablos Rojos sponsorship, the successful Alice in Wonderland tea licensing agreement, and the strategic launch of Frank's Barbecue at Costco, all boosting volume, revenue, and brand visibility. Consolidated net sales grew 9.3%, reaching MXN 9.7 billion. This growth was fueled by substantial increases in sales volumes across key categories, including mayo, vegetables, spices, mole, and tomato purée. Preserves demonstrated robust growth, with net sales of 10.3% to MXN 7.8 billion, driven by combined volume growth of the categories mentioned previously by 11%.
Impulse segment net sales grew by 4.7%, supported by strong multi-pack sales of Helados Nestlé and an increase in the average ticket in stores, primarily due to the introduction of a wider variety of consumer products. Export sales rose by 7%, driven by higher export volume in salsas and vegetables. Consolidated gross margin improved to 40.7%, an increase of 1.3 percentage points. This expansion was mostly driven by a favorable sales mix. EBIT demonstrated a strong growth in the first quarter, reaching MXN 1.5 billion, a 17% increase that drove the operating margin to 15%. This represents an additional MXN 213 million in operating profit, with notable margin expansion in preserves and exports. In contrast, the impulse segment experienced a contraction in EBIT, reaching an operating loss of MXN 105 million due to higher prices of cocoa and an unfavorable sales mix.
At Megamex, we experienced strong results in the quarter, with net sales reaching MXN 4.4 billion, a 25.2% year-over-year increase. In dollar terms, growth was 4.2%. This growth was largely driven by robust sales in Don Miguel and Wholly Guacamole. The Don Miguel business itself saw strong performance, with net sales growing by 11.6%. On the other hand, despite a competitive environment impacting salsas brands like La Victoria and Chi-Chi's, the gross margin improved to 31.9%, up 2.4 percentage points, benefiting from favorable exchange rates and higher volumes that offset rising avocado costs. Consequently, EBIT and EBITDA margins both expanded by 3.1 percentage points to 10.9% and 12.9%. Net income increased to MXN 412 million, 1.7 times higher than a year ago. Strong operating results in the preserves and exports segments fueled a 20.1% increase in net income, which reached MXN 1 billion.
Majority net income increased 15.9% in the quarter, representing a 4.4% margin. Regarding CapEx, as you saw in the press release, the net investments of the quarter totaled MXN 206 million. Key projects during the quarter included the ongoing digital transformation and ERP implementation, the installation of the new pasta line that will be ready in February of next year, the acquisition of freezers for the DSD channel for Helados Nestlé, and the continued rollout of store remodeling for Nutrisa. The first quarter saw free cash flow of MXN 557 million, which represented 5.0% of net sales. Although healthy cash generation, the free cash flow was impacted by the higher-than-expected sales volume, which led to a significant increase in accounts receivable.
Having said that, we want to reiterate our guidance for the year with consolidated top-line growth in the high single digits and EBIT and EBITDA margins to remain stable versus 2024. I will now turn the call over to Gerardo to further discuss the sales dynamics seen during the quarter, as well as the key topics addressed yesterday at the annual shareholders' meeting.
Thank you, Andrea. Complimenting the results Andrea just presented, I want to highlight our continued focus on strengthening our value propositions through new business initiatives and a commitment to innovation across our portfolio. These efforts are crucial in driving sustainable growth and reinforcing our position as a leading player in the Mexican market. A prime example of this is the successful launch of Manguitos Chamoy in Sam's Club. In just eight weeks, this new product has achieved an impressive sell-through rate of 76% across 137 clubs. Within our McCormick business, innovation in packaging and accessibility is proving to be a significant growth driver. The new resealable sachet presentation for our spices and herbs line has significantly contributed to the brand's growth. Together with promotional point-of-sale strategies, it resulted in volume growth of almost 4% for the category. Helados Nestlé has proven to be a beacon for innovation.
Together with Nestlé Nescafé Sticks, our Duo Nut and brownie ice cream has become a key product in the specialty segments and a significant contributor to both the category and segment's strong growth. Similarly, our multi-pack has been highly effective in expanding our presence, particularly in clubs, where this initiative accounted for a substantial portion of the significant volume growth we experienced in the ice cream category during the first quarter. Now, I would like to turn to the key issues addressed yesterday in our annual shareholders' meeting. On one hand, shareholders approved an ordinary dividend of MXN 1.5 per share to be paid in two installments made in October, as well as the payment of an extraordinary dividend of MXN 1 per share. Shares in the treasury, which amount to 8 million, will be canceled, and the share buyback program will be maintained at MXN 2.5 billion.
On the other hand, shareholders also authorized the board of directors to distribute all shares of Grupo Nutrisa, which operates the Nutrisa, Moyo, Cielito Querido Café, and Chilim Balam brand, to Grupo Herdez shareholders as a dividend in kind. This transaction, subject to regulatory approval, will result in Grupo Nutrisa becoming an independently listed company on the Mexican Stock Exchange. We firmly believe that this separation will generate significant value for both companies and their shareholders. By allowing Grupo Herdez and Grupo Nutrisa to operate as independent entities, each will be able to focus its strategy, resources, and management on a specific sector. Grupo Herdez will continue to strengthen its leadership in preserves, while Grupo Nutrisa will pursue growth in the retail and impulse segment, leveraging its strong presence in shopping centers and its innovative product offerings.
This process will provide greater focus on specific needs, operational autonomy, and financial flexibility for both companies. It will enable each management team to tailor its approach to the unique opportunities and challenges of the respective market, ultimately enhancing competitiveness and unlocking new growth avenues for shareholders. We are excited about the future of both Grupo Herdez and Grupo Nutrisa, and we are committed to executing this transition as efficiently and transparently as possible. We will continue to keep you informed as we move forward with this process. Having said that, we can now turn the call over to your questions. Darwin?
Certainly, thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Felipe Ucros Nunez with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator, and good morning. Gerardo, Andrea and team, thanks for the space and congrats on the announcement. I guess my first question comes around the spinoff, right? I'm wondering, what's the main rationale to go through the spinoff? Because obviously, there's positives and there's negatives that you probably weighed internally when thinking about this. There's an obvious one, which is unlocking value, and then there's another one, which is different businesses require different levels of attention, CapEx, specialization of teams. I'm wondering if it was more of an operational decision or a finance decision to unlock value, and then how you weigh that against the liquidity considerations for the shares, which will obviously be divided or something close to that. Maybe I'll ask a couple of follow-ups on the operational side, but hoping we can start with the spinoff.
Good morning, Felipe. I think that you answered your first question perfectly. Talking about the second one, about the liquidity, I think that's a concern in the overall market, and I think that we will, I guess that as an independent company, we'll pursue to have some liquidity, and I guess that there will be some options going forward to increase that. I think that you answered the rationale question perfectly.
I guess I probably didn't ask it correctly, but was it more operational or was it more financial? Meaning, was it more about the internal needs of the company, or was it more about trying to pursue the higher multiple of one of the businesses? Perhaps it was equal.
I think it's both. I think that we can control the focus in the operational one, and we believe that the value would be determined by other forces rather than us.
Very clear. Thanks for that. I guess two other questions. The first one's on preserves, on the operational side. For preserves, you posted a pretty amazing result. Volumes were up in the mid-single digits for the company as a whole. When you look at what food and beverage companies have been reporting throughout the quarter, almost without an exception, volumes have been in negative territory. It seems that there's something special going on in Herdez. I do not know if it has to do with having easier comps or if it has to do with the promotional changes that you guys were mentioning in the call. Just wondering how you managed to decouple so far from the rest of the market. It's very rare to see one of the public companies outperforming the rest by so much.
I think that different factors, Felipe. One would be, well, we have a seasonality effect that makes comps not apples to apples due to Lent. That's one. Second, we did see negative environments starting the quarter, but we ended in a very strong note, particularly in March. The third one, you can recall that in the fourth quarter, we limited some availability in mayo because of the egg shortages, and that just got regularized or online on the first quarter. That also has a big component of the performance and volume.
Okay, very clear. If I can follow up on MegaMex, pretty amazing results.
Before you go to MegaMex, there was also some comps between channels. I think that last year we saw wholesalers in a very low note. Channel-wise, wholesalers outperformed modern stores, supermarkets in this quarter.
Very interesting. I hadn't noted that in the reports from other companies or in ANTAD or anything else. Pretty interesting. On MegaMex, where I was going with this one, we talked about it last quarter, and you discussed the changes that had been done at Wholly at Don Miguel and how we should see a recovery throughout the year, probably one or two quarters out. Seems that you're probably moving ahead of that expectation. Pretty great results. Just wondering if you can give us more color about what worked in the quarter versus your expectation of maybe just taking two quarters more or something like that before we could see the results of the changes.
I think we're seeing the results of the changes because we've been talking of Don Miguel for a while for the last 12 months, and we made a lot of changes, including management and the teams and the focus, and we've seen that moving forward. I think that despite the high avocado prices, that it seems that this is going to be a new environment for us. Volumes have moved in the right direction, even though the consumption is very soft, but the dynamics in our category are moving good. There's also other things about launching new products like the Herdez Chunky Salsa, that is particularly focused on the East Coast. We have increased the distribution on that, and that is an initiative to gain market share in the East.
Obviously, on top of this, there is a big change that has been we have a new CEO that comes from inside, and that is also an element that brings some different dynamics to the business. We are very excited about what is going on in MegaMex for the future.
Thank you. Congrats on those changes, and I'll yield back to questions from the rest. Thank you.
Thank you. Again, if you have a question, you may please press star, then one. Our next question comes from Alvaro Garcia with BTG. Please go ahead.
Hi, Gerardo, Andrea. I have a couple of questions on Nutrisa. Can you hear me? Hello?
Yes.
Great. A couple of questions on Nutrisa. One, you've historically kept leverage at the Grupo Herdez level, and I'm not sure if this might be within the document you sent on the transaction itself, but I was just curious of the degree of debt and cash that will be transferred to Nutrisa as part of this transaction. That's my first question.
In the information we sent, there's a pro forma financial statement, and there's no transfer of cash or debt. It's a debt-free transaction.
All of the debt at the Grupo Herdez level today that we see as Herdez level will stay at the Grupo Herdez level, and none will be transferred over to Nutrisa.
Correct. Correct.
Okay. And then just on the my understanding is that the potential liability from the Mexican tax authority investigation on VAT at Nutrisa has always been at the Nutrisa company level.
Yes.
It's never been at Grupo Herdez. I just wanted to confirm that.
Yes, that's confirmed. It's under the Nutrisa, and we mentioned in the folleto that we have presented all of it in all our instances has been in favor, but we're still waiting on some, I don't know how to call it, some resolutions in court. That is all public available information, and in some cases, there are some sentences that are open to the public in the courts. I think all the information is public right now.
It is fair to assume that, let's say, potential liability, if Grupo Herdez will no longer see a risk from that, if it is fully transferred, let's say, or fully taken on by Nutrisa.
In any case, yes.
Okay. Just as far as timing, I don't know what you can share as far as timing for when the actual dividend takes place.
We are working to do it this year. It's going to depend on the authorities and the regulatory, but the plan is going to be this year.
Great. Just one last question for all the questions. On a pro forma basis, sort of ex Nutrisa, obviously Nutrisa was a relatively capital-intensive business. What's sort of the optimal capital structure for Grupo Herdez ex Nutrisa? From a leverage standpoint, what's sort of your target leverage post-Nutrisa? Thank you.
I think that today our capital allocation is we are under leverage, practically, and I think that Nutrisa or no Nutrisa is not a difference in that capital allocation. I think that we have leveraged in the past to repurchase some shares, and I think that our structure right now is very flexible to pursue new businesses.
Great. Great. Okay. I'll stop there. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Gerardo Canavati for any closing remarks.
Thank you very much for participating in this call. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us. Have a nice day. Thank you. Enjoy the rest.
Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.