Hello, and welcome to the Coca-Cola FEMSA First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. My name is Felipe, and will be your moderator for today's event. Please note that this conference is being recorded. For the duration of the call, all participants will be in listen-only mode. You will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. To do so, please use the Raise Hand feature in Zoom, and we will open your line.
If you're experience any technical issues during the call, please use the chat function to request assistance. I would now like to hand the call over to Jorge Collazo, Investor Relations Director at Coca-Cola FEMSA. Jorge, please go ahead.
Thank you, Felipe. Good morning, and welcome to this conference call to review our first quarter 2026 results. Before we begin, let me remind all participants that today's conference call may include forward-looking statements that should be considered as good faith estimates made by the company. These forward-looking statements reflect management's expectations and are based upon currently available data.
The actual results are subject to future events and uncertainties that can materially impact the company's performance. For additional details, please refer to the full disclaimer in the earnings release that was published earlier today. I am joined this morning by Ian Craig, our Chief Executive Officer, and Gerardo Cruz, our Chief Financial Officer.
After prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A. To do so, please signal for questions using the Raise Hand feature in your Zoom toolbar. With that, let me turn the call over to Ian, our CEO, to begin our presentation about our first quarter results. Ian, please go ahead.
Thank you, Jorge. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for today's call. In Mexico, as expected, we faced the excise tax increase compounded by a soft consumer backdrop, which pressured demand. We prepared ahead for this environment together with The Coca-Cola Company with a comprehensive commercial and financial playbook designed to emerge with a strengthened competitive position that will support long-term sustainable growth.
While Mexico volumes were softer in the quarter, they came in within our expectations and our strong 0.6% point value share gain in CSDs and a 0.4% point gain in NARTDs confirms to us that our strategy is working. In this context, we're leveraging the breadth of our portfolio, our scale, consistency in investment and execution, and our differentiated digital enablers to win in the market and set the foundations for long-term growth.
While Mexico presented near-term headwinds, our operations in Central and South America delivered solid performance during the quarter, including record volumes for our first quarter in Guatemala, Colombia, and Brazil. This reaffirms the value of our geographic diversification and our ability to continue building relative scale throughout all of our markets.
We remain confident in our long-term strategy anchored in Coca-Cola FEMSA's differentiated strengths of an unmatched portfolio of brands, the largest distribution footprint, consistent investment, relentless execution, and leading-edge digital enablers. With that context, I will now walk you through our consolidated results. After which, I will provide more details on developments in each of our key markets before handing the call over to Gerry to expand on our divisional and financial results.
During the first quarter, our volume increased 1.2% to reach 998 million unit cases. This growth was driven by a positive performance across most of our territories, which offset a volume contraction in Mexico, explained mainly by the effects of the excise tax increase and softer consumer dynamics. Total revenues for the quarter grew 1.1% to MXN 70.9 billion.
Our volume growth and revenue management initiatives were partially offset by unfavorable mix effects and headwinds related to the currency translation from all our operating currencies into Mexican pesos. By excluding currency headwinds, our total revenues increased 6.0%. Gross profit increased 4.5% to MXN 33.3 billion, leading to a margin expansion of 150 basis points to 46.9%.
This margin performance was driven mainly by better PET and sweetener costs and the appreciation of most of our operating currencies as compared with the US dollar. These effects were partially offset by unfavorable mix effects coupled with higher fixed costs such as depreciation. By excluding currency headwinds, gross profit increased 9.5%. Our OI declined 2.3% to MXN 9 billion, with our operating margin contracting 50 basis points to 12.7%.
On a comparable basis, operating income increased 2.6%. This operating margin contraction is explained mainly by right-sizing severance expenses and increased IT expenses related to the implementation of our new ERP, SAP S/4HANA. In addition, we recorded higher marketing and depreciation that were partially offset by expense controls such as maintenance and freight.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter increased 0.9% to MXN 13.4 billion, and Adjusted EBITDA margin remained even at 18.9%. By excluding currency translation, our comparable Adjusted EBITDA increased 6.1%. Finally, majority net income declined 15.5% to MXN 4.3 billion, mainly reflecting a higher comprehensive financial result, which Gerry will address in his comments. Now, turning to the main highlights across our major markets. In Mexico, our volume declined 2.6% year-on-year.
As anticipated, we navigated a challenging first quarter marked by the effects of the excise tax increase and a softer consumer backdrop. For instance, Nielsen's fast-moving consumer goods basket in our territories declined close to 3% year-over-year in terms of volume, while inflation expectations moved up in recent forecasts, weighing on consumer sentiment.
Our execution in Mexico was strong, delivering both value and volume share gains across all categories, leveraging our past hard initiatives of cold drink equipment expansion, increases in point of share of sale, share of visible inventory, and SKU combined coverage improvements. These share gains indicate that our top-line initiatives are working within the challenging environment that we are facing. Regarding our portfolio, we accelerated initiatives focused on providing attractive price points in both one-way and refillable formats.
For example, in brand Coca-Cola, we increased coverage of our one-way 3 L presentation by more than 7% points year-on-year, resulting in 32% volume growth in March versus the previous year. We also continued expanding Coke Zero with accessible single-serve packs, such as a 200 ml and 355 ml one-way PET bottle. As a result, Coke Zero achieved 10% volume growth during the quarter.
Moreover, in flavors, we continued combining global strategies in core brands such as Fanta, Sprite with local heritage regional brands such as Mundet and Ameyal, where we increased coverage by more than 10% points as compared with the previous year. We also continue focusing on developing profitable non-carbonated beverages. For instance, we gained more than 3% points of share in both the energy segment with Monster and in the teas categories with Fuze Tea.
In parallel, regarding channels, our progress in execution and digital capabilities are reverting the negative trend in the traditional trade by enhancing our value proposition with higher digital penetration, improved service indicators, and expanded cooler coverage. Notably, during the first quarter, we installed more than 47,000 doors, equivalent to 50% of the total coolers we installed during 2025.
These actions enhance our ability to deliver a tailored cold portfolio to fit diverse consumption occasions. With respect to Juntos+ Advisor, the continued increase in adoption is reinforcing our market presence. Since its launch in Mexico in September 2025, adoption metrics have continued to grow, and usability metrics indicate strong engagement among our commercial teams, with visitation improving 3% points to 93.6% and combined coverages improving 2.8% points to 81.3%.
Finally, our supply chain team implemented a series of initiatives that are delivering improvements in productivity and service levels. Specifically, we strengthened order fulfillment to more than 97% and achieved a 6.5% productivity improvement versus the prior year. Accordingly, we're staying focused on our playbook, strengthening affordability, expanding refillables to defend household penetration, and continuing to deploy state-of-the-art digital tools and revenue growth management initiatives.
Additionally, in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company, we will continue investing for long-term growth, while in the short term, we capitalize on an ambitious plan to capture the FIFA World Cup opportunity. Now, moving on to Guatemala. Our performance reflects a challenging start and a strong recovery toward the end of the quarter.
Performance in January and February was impacted by unfavorable weather and reduced mobility due to a 30-day government-declared curfew measure in mid-January to combat violence and organized crime. Conditions improved in March, allowing us to recapture momentum. As a result, March became a record month for our Guatemala operation, supported by improved mobility, better execution, and stronger consumer activity.
The recovery enabled us to close the quarter with volumes growing 2.7% year-over-year while continuing to strengthen our competitive position. From a category standpoint, brand Coca-Cola remained the primary growth engine, supported by a recovery in multi-serve one-way presentations, which grew 4.6% year-over-year. Additionally, we're capitalizing on the FIFA World Cup, where promotions such as the Trophy Tour resulted in 6.10% growth versus the previous year in participating products.
In addition, we continued advancing our position in flavors where disciplined execution and availability improvements in Sprite drove share gains year-over-year. Stills also delivered a strong performance led by hydration and energy, with brands such as Dasani, Shangri-La, and Monster posting double-digit growth, benefiting from better availability and premium segment expansion.
On the commercial front, we continue reinforcing the virtual cycle of expanding cooler coverage, adding new customers, and leveraging our digital tools to enhance execution. For instance, we expanded our customer base by 10,000 accounts last year and added a further 5,700 during the first quarter. As we look ahead, Guatemala's future is focused on continued development of our core CSD brands and profitable sales categories, all while we capitalize on an ambitious plan for brand Coke and Powerade during and after the FIFA World Cup.
Turning now to Brazil, where our first quarter volumes increased 3.6% year-on-year. Consumer dynamics remained constructive, supported by low unemployment, which sits at 5.8% and real income growth in excess of 5.7%. Despite more moderate temperatures and higher rainfall versus our prior year. Our Brazil operation delivered solid results supported by disciplined marketplace execution and our commercial and digital capabilities.
While volumes faced tough comparables from continuous growth achieved in previous years, our team remained focused on gaining share and strengthening profitability through a balanced approach to RGM, availability, and cost density. Importantly, we continued to gain share across key categories within the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink industry, reinforcing our competitive position in the market. Regarding non-calorics, Coke Zero maintained its double-digit growth, growing 11.4% and reaching 28.6% points in our Colas mix.
Importantly, Sprite accelerated, growing more than 30% versus the previous year, driven by applying Coca-Cola Zero's playbook to Sprite Zero. As a result, Sprite Zero now represents more than 27% of our total Sprite volume. Regarding stills, we are utilizing Powerade to leverage both the FIFA World Cup and CONMEBOL tournaments, coupled with innovation to continue strengthening our value proposition.
The recent launch of Powerade Zero exceeded expectations, with Zero already representing 9% of our Powerade mix. Energy drinks continue seeing double-digit growth from Monster and aligned with our strategic intent to offer zero sugar alternatives. Formulas of Monster Zero and Ultra already represent 45% of our total Monster mix and more than 60% of its growth.
Our digital agenda remains a meaningful differentiator in Brazil. Juntos+, supported by its AI capabilities, continues enabling significant combined coverages increases from 49.6% to 58.6% while generating suggested orders that are personalized for each customer.
In parallel, Juntos+ Advisor continues driver high visitation, improving 1.3% points to reach 94.1% and enabling superior in-market execution with personalized guided missions that support our sales force activities, ultimately resulting in share gains and increased customer engagement. These capabilities are increasingly embedded across our operation and remain central to how we compete and grow in the market. We look ahead to the rest of the year, we remain encouraged by Brazil's opportunities and our position within the market.
Brazil's positive volume momentum is allowing for fixed cost and expense absorption that is resulting in profitability improvements that position us well for sustainable long-term value creation. We previously mentioned, we anticipate that election-related spending, social programs, and the FIFA World Cup will represent important tailwinds for our operation.
To capture these opportunities, our priorities are clear: continue accelerating growth in non-caloric offerings, capitalize on the strength of our core brands, sustain our disciplined execution across channels, and leverage our digital platforms to consistently outperform the industry. With capacity investments that have resulted in an 8% year-on-year increase in manufacturing capacity and 6% year-on-year increase in warehousing capacity, we are well-positioned to continue delivering value in Brazil throughout the year.
Now, moving on to Colombia. Our volumes increased 8.9% versus the previous year. Our positive volume momentum reflects both an improving consumer environment and the continued benefits of disciplined execution across our commercial and operating platforms. While the country navigates a complex backdrop, including higher interest rates, the labor market has remained resilient, with real disposable income growing year-on-year, supported by the minimum wage increase and the upcoming election cycle.
As a result of these factors, at the beginning of the year, Nielsen's FMCG basket and the beverage industry resumed growth year-on-year. Amidst this improving backdrop, we continued strengthening our competitive positions with initiatives to adjust our price architecture in brand Coca-Cola.
For instance, Coke Zero remains a growth engine with ample headroom, contributing 13% of brand Coca-Cola's total growth, while our affordability initiative supported 30% volume growth in multi-serve one-way presentations of brand Coca-Cola. Aligned with our strategy, we aim to continue expanding our competitive position in flavors with increased innovation and availability. As a result of initiatives within Quatro and Sprite, our flavor sparkling portfolio increased 15% versus the prior year.
Regarding stills, we are leveraging the FIFA World Cup to boost Powerade, resulting in 10% growth year-on-year. Additionally, within energy, Monster grew more than 30% year-over-year, reflecting the attractive growth potential within profitable high-growth stills categories. Colombia continues to lead the way in leveraging Juntos+ Premia, a loyalty program, creatively to drive share and volume gains in the traditional channel.
For example, during the quarter, we improved the percentage of customers reaching their volume targets by 12% points. At the same time, we are encouraged by the profitability improvements of Colombia, which are a result of volume growth coupled with positive operating leverage and cost and expense controls. Moving on to Argentina. Our volumes increased 5.4%.
While key economic metrics such as exchange rate and net reserves continue improving, a heterogeneous recovery across different sectors and soft employment continues weighing on consumer confidence. For instance, while the oil and gas, mining, and agricultural sectors are growing double-digits, Nielsen's FMCG basket remained flat year-on-year. In this environment, we continue responding with agility and consistency, sustaining an affordability proposal that has enabled us to continue gaining share.
Our savings zone or Zona de Ahorro initiatives, offering attractive promotions and price points for our consumers in the traditional trade, increased its coverage by 8% points versus the previous year. In flavors, we delivered double-digit growth led by Sprite and Sprite Zero, while Coke Zero increased volumes 10% to reach 20.9% mix of brand Coca-Cola.
We're leveraging our Argentina consumers' passion for the FIFA World Cup with segmented promotions and value proposition initiatives that improved our single-serve mix by more than 3% points to reach 28.4% and more than 4% points of share gains in Powerade. We continue driving digital client adoption with Juntos+, adding more than 7,000 customers as compared with the previous year.
I want to recognize our team in Argentina, who were once again awarded The Coca-Cola Company's prestigious Latin America Excellence Cup, recognizing the region's best bottler for its excellence in execution, talent, and culture. Let me close my remarks by saying that we see the majority of our key markets growing at a healthy clip.
In the case of Mexico, we have plans in place to capitalize on the current low growth and IEPS tax increase environment to emerge with a strengthened relative competitive position, which should allow us to return Mexico to sustainable. For the remaining of the year, we expect to continue executing against our strategic imperatives.
Number one, continue growing our core business by leveraging our big bets, accelerating Coke Zero, improving our competitive position in flavors with Sprite as a flagship, and developing profitable non-carbonated beverages. Second, capitalizing on Juntos+ AI capabilities and continuing to roll out and leveraging Juntos+ Advisor across our four largest markets. Third, continue fostering a customer-centric and psychologically safe culture for Coca-Cola FEMSA. With that, I will hand the call over to Gerry.
Thank you, Ian. Good morning, everyone. I appreciate you joining us today. I will begin by summarizing our division results for the quarter. In Mexico and Central America, our volumes declined 1.6% because of a 2.6% volume decline in Mexico that was offset by growth in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, and Costa Rica. Revenues decreased 1.4% to MXN 39.1 billion, driven mainly by an unfavorable mix and currency translation effects into Mexican pesos, partially offset by revenue growth management initiatives.
On a currency-neutral basis, revenues increased 1.4%. Gross profit increased 0.7% to reach MXN 19 billion, resulting in a gross margin expansion of 100 basis points to 48.6%. This margin expansion reflects unfavorable mix effects post-excise tax increase in Mexico, more than compensated by lower raw material costs such as sugar and PET, coupled with the appreciation of the Mexican peso as applied to our US dollar-denominated raw material costs.
Operating income in the division declined 17.4% to MXN 4.5 billion, and our operating margin contracted 220 basis points to 11.4%. This decline is mainly explained by the Mexican peso appreciation versus the rest of the currencies in the division, right-sizing severance expenses, and increased IT expenses related to the implementation of our new ERP, SAP S/4HANA . In addition, we recorded higher expenses in marketing and depreciation that were partially offset by operating expense efficiencies in maintenance and freight.
Our Adjusted EBITDA in the division decreased 9.9% with a 170 basis point margin decline compared to the previous year to reach 18.2%. Moving on to South America. Volumes increased 4.8% to 453.9 million unit cases. This increase was driven by volume growth across all our territories in the division.
Revenues in South America increased 4.3% to MXN 31.8 billion, driven mainly by volume growth and revenue management initiatives, offsetting unfavorable currency translation effects into MXN from most operating currencies in the division. On a currency-neutral basis, total revenues in South America increased 12.3%.
Gross profit in the division increased 10% and gross margin expanded by 230 basis points to 48.8%, driven mainly by lower raw material costs, a favorable mix, and the appreciation of most of our operating currencies as applied to our US dollar-denominated raw material costs. On a currency neutral basis, gross profit increased 18.3%. Operating income in South America rose 18.8% to MXN 4.6 billion , with operating margin up 180 basis points to 14.4%.
This improvement was driven by operating leverage coupled with expense efficiencies such as labor, partially offset by market. Finally, Adjusted EBITDA in the division increased 16.8% to MXN 6.2 billion for a margin expansion of 210 basis points to 19.6%. Let me expand on our comprehensive financing results, which recorded an expense of MXN 1.8 billion as compared to an expense of MXN 1.1 billion during the same period of the previous year.
This increase was driven mainly by, First, we recorded a higher net interest expense driven by the issuance of new debt during the second quarter of 2025 and later during the first quarter of 2026. In addition, we recognized lower interest income reflecting a reduced cash position in key markets, partially offset by a higher cash balance in Mexico. Second, the recognition of a loss in financial instruments of MXN 167 million compared to a gain of MXN 135 million in the prior year, primarily reflecting higher interest rates in Brazil at the end of the quarter.
Third, we recognized a foreign exchange loss of MXN 117 million during the quarter compared to a loss of MXN 59 million in the same period of the previous year. This was driven mainly by the appreciation of our operating currencies as applied to our US dollar cash holdings in Brazil and Costa Rica. Finally, these effects were partially offset by a higher gain in monetary positions in inflationary subsidiaries related to Argentina. As we look ahead, we anticipate commodity prices and input costs to remain volatile.
That said, these conditions are not new to us. Over time, our well-established protocols and governance structures have enabled us to plan, respond, and adapt effectively to these environments while protecting long-term profitability. Throughout the year, we leveraged three key initiatives. First, a disciplined hedging strategy designed to reduce short-term volatility and provide visibility as we move through the year.
We operate under hedging frameworks that allow us to mitigate volatility and provide certainty to our operations in terms of supply and raw material prices. We currently have hedged 60% of our PET requirements, 93% of our sugar requirements, 98% of our HFCS requirements, and 72% of aluminum. Second, we benefit from a diversified and resilient supplier base across our key inputs, leveraging a strong network of local suppliers. This reduces concentration risk and improves continuity of supply.
Finally, we operate within the Coca-Cola system, which is an advantage that allows us to lean on a global footprint that operates on a local scale. This enhances our market intelligence and strengthens our ability to protect our cost structure across key commodities and inputs. Finally, before opening the call for questions, I'd like to briefly comment on sustainability. During the quarter, we continued strengthening both our performance and transparency across our sustainability agenda.
We maintained prime status in ISS ESG rating, positioning Coca-Cola FEMSA among the leading companies in the beverage sector, and we achieved an improvement in our Morningstar Sustainalytics risk score, reflecting stronger management of ESG-related risks. We also published our 2025 Integrated Report, which for the first time aligned our report with IFRS S1 and S2 sustainability-related financial disclosures.
These disclosures were published alongside our financial statements and with independent assurance one year ahead of local regulatory requirements without relying on transitional reliefs beyond comparability as a first-year report, strengthening decision usefulness for investors. This report also includes our first TNFD-aligned disclosure.
In this context, Coca-Cola FEMSA became the first non-alcoholic beverage company in the Americas and the fourth globally to formally register as a TNFD adopter, expanding our assessment of nature-related dependencies, risks, and opportunities across the value chain.
The report highlights continued progress across key areas including water efficiency, waste diversion, renewable energy use, safety performance, and gender diversity and leadership. For further details, I invite you to visit our 2025 Integrated Report available on our website. With that, operator, we're ready to open the floor for questions.
Okay. At this time, we are going to open up for questions and answers. If you have a question, please click on Raise Hand for audio questions or write it down in the Q&A section for written questions. Please remember that your company's name should be visible for a question to be taken. We do ask that when you pose your question that you pick up your headset to provide optimal sound quality. Please hold while we pull for questions. Our first question comes from Ben Theurer with Barclays. Your microphone is open.
Hello, Ben.
Good morning, Ian, Gerry. Thank you very much for taking my question and the detailed openings. Wanted to dig deeper a little bit and dig into some of the things that you've highlighted in terms of costs and expenses in Mexico, driving that margin contraction. Maybe help us understand a little of what you've been doing, particularly on the marketing side, but also those restructuring and IT expenses that you've highlighted. How should we think about this for the rest of the year?
Just to put it into perspective a little bit as what you're expecting as it relates to profitability in Mexico, Central America in particular, because of these investments seem to be focused for that region. Thank you very much.
I'll start it off and then Jorge and Ian can complement. First, on the marketing side, and this is by design, given that we have the World Cup going on this year. A lot of our marketing spending is being brought forward to the first part of the year to highlight and support this big event that obviously is a very valuable asset for the brand. For the remainder of the year, we expect that number for in full-year figures will taper down and remain in line with our usual marketing spend.
A little bit of the same goes in the relation to IT expenses that I mentioned as well as Ian in our prepared remarks. This is a timing issue. We have a very strict a level of 2.5% to sales of investment in IT. That for the full year, we expect that it will remain or it will remain in under that level.
Threshold
... which is the explanation regarding the IT. We had severance related expenses during this quarter. We needed to rightsize facing the excise tax impact that we were facing for the start of the year. We had to rightsize the business, and that resulted in extraordinary expenses in the first quarter for MXN 200 million. That's a little bit of in a nutshell, the main components behind our numbers in our Mex- Central America division.
Perhaps, Ben, to complement Gerry, what I would mention is to give you a sense on magnitude. You know, you can think about MXN 600 million, around MXN 600 million headwind on the operating income level in Mexico and Central America. There are three elements there, each pretty much similar size, around 1/3 , around MXN 200 million, excuse me. MXN 200 million of severance that Gerry mentioned. Around MXN 200 million related to the IT expense.
The other MXN 200 million are related to unfavorable currency translation, you know, that we have from the other markets in Mexico and Central America when we compare to Mexican pesos. Of course, some of those, as Gerry mentioned, severance is more of an extraordinary element. The IT expense, when we think about the full year, should be pretty much in line. There is a timing issue there. Does that answer your question, Ben?
It perfectly does. Thank you very much. I'll pass it on. Thank you.
Thank you, Ben.
Our next question comes from Thiago Bortoluci with Goldman Sachs. Your microphone is open.
Hey, guys. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I would just like to explore a little bit more your performance, volume performance in Mexico by each one of the sub-segments, right? My first question is by category, we were surprised to see stills underperforming sparkling in the quarter, particularly in face of all the innovation and efforts you've been putting on the marketplace. If you could give us some color on what happened there.
Then, somehow tied to this question also in Mexico volumes, if you could comment a little bit more on how your volumes strengthened by channel and how your affordability efforts gain traction and participation on your mix. That is the question. Thank you very much.
Good. Hi, Thiago. It's Ian. There are a couple of elements there. I'll try to go in order of your question. In terms of the difference between stills and sparkling, it has more to do with a specific issue with a very large chain in Mexico, which adjusted their parameters for Powerade. That is being addressed and should start to see an adjustment in those parameters in May, June. That's a very specific issue.
The other segment of stills is really bulk water. In there we have adjusted our price. It's not a big profitability driver at all, but it is a big volume driver. That's the other stills segment where we had an issue and where we were dispositioned in price. It has to do with a large chain for Powerade and with our relative price in bulk water versus our market, and that's not really a big profitability driver, to put it that way. In terms of the performance of volumes per se, it's really a.
A different picture of what you can say we saw during the first trimester, where we were not cycling the effects of the consumer backlash. We had a difficult comp base together with a tax increase on the economy for January, February. Then you see a big relative improvement in that trend for March, April. It has more to do with the base effect than with actual average daily sales improving, okay?
We're still. That's why we're still monitoring the evolution of the situation. It's just a much easier comparison base because we had the consumer backlash last year. You can take it on channel.
Regarding volume for channel, Thiago, we are seeing better performance in traditional channel. We obviously prioritized, given the excise tax impact, we prioritized the traditional channel, taking differentiated pricing action in each of the channels. Traditional channel is performing slightly better than what we had planned for.
The modern channel, and a lot due to the explanation that Ian mentioned regarding stills specifically Powerade in the modern channel, is underperforming slightly. We expect the modern channel to improve as we move through the year and we are continuing to see the traditional trade slightly outperform.
No, thanks. This is helpful comment. If I may just follow up on affordability, returnables, any comments on how volumes performed and participation in the mix, printed out in the quarter?
Yes. I would say mix effect was probably the only thing that surprised us in the quarter versus what we had planned. Meaning, the consumers given the pinch of the price increase with the IEPS tax move more towards multi-serve in a larger magnitude than what we had expected. You are seeing better performance out of multi-serve than our single serves. It is, let's say in line with what we would have imagined with a large price increase, but it was more than we had planned for.
Interesting.
Similar situation, Thiago, with regards to one way and refillables, you know. There is more one way than refillables at this point.
Super interesting. Thank you very much, guys.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Henrique Brustolin with Bradesco. Your microphone is on.
Hello, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to hear a little more about Brazil, right? You, you delivered another strong quarter of volume growth, and this has been a very consistent trend. We start to see some softness in some consumer categories in the country.
Would be very interesting to hear, you know, how you are seeing volumes evolving for specifically soft drinks and your categories in general. How has market share contributed to the volume performance you have been achieving and your expectations for the remainder of the year in the country? Thank you very much.
Hello, Henrique. We haven't been seeing that softness. Within our territories, we continue to perform. I mean, Brazil is. Well, like I mentioned in my remarks, really all territories are growing at a healthy clip with basically Mexico, where we're having to digest the tax. Brazil is included in that comment. That being said, you're right. A relevant proportion of the gains come from share gains. We are gaining share across categories, and that's a big or that's a relevant portion of the volume piece that we need to account for.
Here to complement Ian, Henrique. I would also highlight and Ian mentioned this briefly in his prepared remarks. In Brazil, where we had since the fall of 2025, the benefit of having our Juntos+ Advisor platform deployed. We have continued to see very good performance out of combined coverages both in CSDs as well as in stills, that we think this is helping on the side of share gains, helping performance overall in Brazil.
We continue to be excited and we see good numbers coming out of what we're seeing in execution in the market related to Juntos+ Advisor. In that sense, the rest of Coca-Cola FEMSA, including Mexico, will be benefiting from this as we move forward.
The only category where you could say that we are seeing softness is beer. We are seeing softness in beer, but it has more to do, I think, with our segment of economy, where we are very big in economy. Because if we exclude economy, we have a limited premium offering, but we're growing their volumes. But economy is such a large portion of our portfolio that does drive our beer volumes down, even though we're growing within premium.
That's all very helpful. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Ulises Argote with Santander. Your microphone is open.
Hey.
Hello, Ulises.
Gerry, Jorge. Hey, how are you? Thanks, thanks for the space for questions. Wanted to ask on details into the regional performance in Mexico, particularly what you're seeing in the center, versus versus more on the south region. If you're actually seeing any difference in trends there. Also you're seeing competition and market share evolving on the back of the special taxes. How are other companies reacting? How are you seeing that step up there? Thank you.
Hi, Ulises. Well, there are two parts to the question. Are we seeing big difference in regional performance within our regions? Yes. I would say the most sluggish region for us is the Southeast. The Southeast digested last year the cons of, you know, the large infrastructure projects being wound down by the government, and we still have some tail effects there.
The Southeast, I would say, would be the region that has the lowest or the biggest impact and because it's more structural and we're still seeing the tailwinds of the wind down of those large infrastructure projects that the government had. It's really related to that. I mean, weather-wise, we don't have really an impact versus last year. It's more or less a wash. What was the other point?
Sure.
In terms of competition, I think, this is a great question. You know, what happened. If you allow me to take a step back and share what happened in the prior excise tax. In the prior excise tax, in 2013, we passed. Of course, we didn't have the digital enablers, the level that we have them today to run, you know, the algorithms to determine the best competitive pricing response per region, channel, and geography.
Even within that context, with the amount of price that we put through there in 2014, 2015, we lost about 120 basis points of share in two years. It's a very large share gain that we lost, and it put us in a trend of losing 500 basis points of share from 2013- 2023 until we finally arrested that share. If you remember, in 2023, we revamped our price pack architecture and addressed that. It was the first year where we arrested what had been 500 basis points of continuous share loss.
The big impact was precisely when the IEPS tax was passed and the pricing pass-through that we did, it turned into 120 basis points of loss in just two years. I would say it's a very big difference in how we're entering this IEPS price adjustment. Leveraging on our digital enablers with a more, you know, segmented RGM strategy, we're starting off the year, you know, growing 0.6% points in share of value in CSDs, growing 0.4% points in share of value in NARTDs.
Growing both volume and value shares, it's a very different picture to what happened in the IEPS tax. We're basically following the same playbook that we did in Argentina and also in Panama now that we're addressing a competitive situation. Our strategy is not to have an impact in our household penetration. We want our consumers that are feeling the brunt of this tax to still be able to access Coca-Cola.
We're being very prudent and very tactical in what we're doing in price because this is a scale industry, as we've talked in the past, and we have all of the intentions of coming out with a strengthened competitive position. So far it's going on as planned, except for the mixed effect that I highlighted in Henrique's question. Everything is firing there according to plan. Does that help, Ulises?
Yeah, no, that.
I gave you a little broader context, but anyway.
No, that's precisely I think what we were looking for and what really helps us. Thanks for the color there. Extremely, extremely helpful. Gracias.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Alejandro Fuchs with Itaú. Your microphone is open.
Thank you, operator. [Non-English content], Ian, Gerardo, Jorge. Thank you for the space for questions. I have two very brief ones. First maybe for Ian, in Mexico. I wanna see if we could categorize this quarter, Ian, for volumes as maybe the toughest quarter in the year, right? Going forward, you were mentioning we could see a little bit of a better momentum in volumes.
Does that mean that maybe the prior guidance of, let's say, 4%-5% decrease in volumes in Mexico for the year, could that be a little bit better? Do you feel more comfortable with volumes for the full year in Mexico? That would be the first one. Maybe the second one for Gerardo.
In terms of hedges, I appreciated the, a lot of the detail that you gave on the call. When you guys are thinking about 2027, are you taking any positions right now, or do you wanna wait a little bit to have less volatility in some of the Raw Materials, PET, aluminum and so on, sugar, before taking those hedges? Thinking about 2027. Thank you.
Hi. Hello, Alex. Like I mentioned, the first quarter was not only gonna be our toughest quarter in terms of the volume comparison, but also in terms of the profitability comparison. We're over that hump, which was going to be the toughest comparison. Like also, like I mentioned, it's a different thing when we're comparing our base without the backlash than now that we're comparing with the backlash.
It's a completely different trend, but it has more to do with the base effect. I would say it'd still be too premature to adjust our guidance. We're over the tough comps, both in terms of volume and profitability. That's out of the way, but it's too early for us to adjust our full year guidance.
Regarding Alejandro, hedges, as we've previously disclosed, we have a pretty sound hedging process, and we try to stick to it all the time. This doesn't mean that we don't have a flexibility. We do have a range of space where we move, but we tend to be Try to be taking the less speculative positions regarding how behavior in markets is going to be.
Having said that, certainly we think that the volatility that we're facing right now related to conflict in the Middle East allows us to be to wait a little bit more to see how that evolves and look for better timing to increase our position for hedging for 2027.
We do have a base in our process that we will always have hedged, and this is the case for 2027 in that 12-month rolling period that we always look at. We always try to follow it a little bit and see how market evolves before we take on larger positions for next year.
Super clear. [Non-English content] .
Thank you, Alex.
Our next question comes from Henrique Morello with Morgan Stanley. Your microphone is open.
Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for the space for questions. I have just a follow-up on the hedging side as well. If you could just comment and dive a little bit deeper at what levels on a year-on-year basis you are hedged or you have inventories on the energy and packaging inputs, mainly for this year. If you can also comment how are you seeing like diesel input costs, logistic expenses in the past months and also going forward.
Basically trying to grasp your perspective on the timing and the magnitude of the cost pressure we might face from higher oil flowing through your costs in the coming quarters. That's my question. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Henrique. I'll start by saying, We have our main packaging exposure is the PET for our bottles that is related to energy, the energy market. In this regard, we have around 60% of our requirements for 2026 hedged at better levels that we had for the last year. This is a bit of a tailwind for us for this year as it has been for the first quarter.
We, on other packaging materials, secondary packaging materials, even though it's a much smaller portion of our cost of goods sold as a proportion of our total cost of goods sold, it mainly, shrink wrap for our pallets and the material that we use to pack our unit cases, our physical cases, that we have, more exposed. That is, I think the main concern for us for the remainder of the year, although it's a much smaller portion of our total expense. Regarding sweeteners and aluminum, we-
To give a-
Yeah.
-around 4%.
Yeah.
It's very, it's a small proportion of our variable costs where we don't have that hedge.
Yeah. That's small. We obviously look for alternatives, but it's not a significant impact for our P&L. Regarding sweeteners, both sugar and HFCS, we have a high percentage of hedges above 90% for each of them. Aluminum that we had already expected pressure unrelated to the volatility that we've seen recently. Certainly it has increased, we also have a high portion, above 70% of our requirements hedged for the year.
In a nutshell, we don't see significant impacts in our most likely scenario that we're expecting for the year. We don't see significant impacts coming from these sources, given the positions that we already have and certainly the initiatives that we're taking on to mitigate any pressure that comes on.
That's helpful. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Carlos Laboy with HSBC. Your microphone is open.
Hello, Carlos.
Carlos, I don't know if your microphone is muted.
There we go. Sorry about that.
There you go.
Ian, you mentioned that Juntos+ is gaining share and clients with its platforms, perhaps better than other markets. Can you expand on this, please? To what might you attribute this standout performance for Juntos+ in Colombia? Can you comment on whether the competition for digital capabilities in Colombia is perhaps less intense for you? Or where do you have the greatest intensity of competition, and maybe where might you have more opportunities to make bigger headway?
Hi, Carlos. I don't know if your question is broader for Coca-Cola FEMSA or only for Colombia. I'll start with Colombia. Colombia does not have Juntos+ Advisor yet, which is a Salesforce tool. What we're leveraging in Colombia is the app and the analytics for the pricing. Really, the Colombian team has been outstanding in their leverage of the loyalty program. That has probably been their edge. They have been very creative in driving clients to tender points to reach volume goals.
They have been also very successful in increasing the amount of clients that are using, not only increasing the total client base, but increasing the use of our digital platform. It's those two things. As you know, the digital platform has the suggested order driven by AI. The algorithm only gets better. The initiatives are driven down by clients. It's that increased use, increased client count, increased use of the app, and the creative use of the loyalty program, for which I would say Colombia is a best practice, is driving our outperformance there.
In terms of our app versus what's in the market, for other competitors, we have no gaps. Our app is, it's either the best out there by feature or comparable to the other ones that are out there. As you know, Carlos, we have a much, much larger footprint than any other company out there in all of our territories, right? I don't know if you also needed a view of the total regarding the app, but that's what pertains to Colombia.
No, no, I, my focus is mostly on Colombia. By the way, thank you for the answer you gave Ulises. That was excellent. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Renata Cabral with Citi. Your microphone is open.
Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for this space for questions. My question is a follow-up on the performance in Brazil. As you are gaining market share and having great execution here, how do you see the current price gap versus competitors? How are you thinking about balancing the share going forward?
If you could give some color also on the highlights of the portfolio, if that continues to be higher penetration on Coke Zero, on flavor, especially Sprite. If you can give some color on what happened this quarter would be really helpful as well. Thank you so much.
Hello, Renata. Yes, by category it continues the same. We're seeing, you know, Coke Zero growing double digits, Sprite growing high double digits on the back of Sprite Zero. That's really a new phenomenon that we're seeing there since the end of the last year and that we're starting to exploit, not only in Brazil, but outside Brazil as well. Pretty much in every market, save Mexico, we're doing a big push in Sprite. We're also seeing brands, other brands respond, such as Fanta, which hadn't been in the past.
Energy, teas are doing very well. You know, I wouldn't say we have been timid with prices in Brazil, just to be clear. We are gaining share, we have increased our prices in Brazil. It's not on the back of, you know, aggressive, or below inflation pricing. That's not been the case. We've been able to digest, you know, our price increases in Brazil and continue gaining share. It's a multi-year phenomenon. If you look at, you know, shares in Brazil, for CSDs since 2,000, you know, those are 300+ basis points in share of value.
If you look in sports drinks, it's 15% points of share. Teas, it's 10% points. Water, 200 basis points. Juices, 500 basis points. Energy, 10% points. It's in Brazil. Same as in Colombia, now we have gotten into this positive flywheel where we, you know, reset our price pack architecture, and then every year we're gaining relative scale, which allows us to be, you know, very smart in, and tactical in the pricing. The industry tends to follow, it's just a virtual circle, which is exactly what we intend to capitalize in this juncture for Mexico as well.
Renata.
Mm-hmm.
Just to clarify one thing Ian mentioned on these share gains. He mentioned since 2000, just to clarify, this is from 2020.
2020, sorry.
It's a five-year period.
Sorry, sorry.
Just to clarify.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
To complement Ian, Renata, I would say for us, and this is not only pertaining to Brazil, but our overall strategic approach to pricing, is that we're always looking to gain relative scale, maintain our position with our customers, being able to serve all of our customers' consumption occasions. This is what we take into account to determine our pricing. We obviously have to compensate for pressure and costs, we look at that angle in different timeframes.
We're looking at our relative scale in a longer-term basis, and we obviously try to address short-term pressures the best we can without sacrificing that overall intention of maintaining and growing in relative scale with our customers.
That's a very great call. Thank you so much, Ian, Gerardo, and Jorge.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Antonio Hernandez with Actinver. Your microphone is on.
Hi. Perfect. Thanks for the specific questions. Just a quick one regarding pricing. I mean, even the overall performance in Mexico in terms of volumes may be a little bit better than expected. Do you think, or are you considering your pricing plans for Mexico to be maybe different to what you already mentioned in the last conference call? Thanks.
Hello, Antonio. I think we're given that overall volumes came in soft during the quarter, even considering that the improvement in the last trimester, I think for us it's still prudent to maintain, you know, this pricing strategy. That being said, if a scenario materializes where, you know, the conflict in the Middle East extends for a long period or there are certain disruptions there that reflect in raw material price increases in the second half or whatever, there we could probably revise this upward.
Additionally, if volume starts to respond in a different way, that's another instance where we could rethink the strategy. Where we are today, I think it's prudent to maintain both our volume and pricing guidelines.
Okay. Perfect. Thanks.
Thank you, Antonio.
Our next question comes from Rodrigo Alcántara with UBS. Your microphone is-
Hey. Hello, guys. Ian, Gerry, Jorge, thanks for my question. Just reassuring additional comments on, in Mexico, Fintechs, MXN 600 million, kind of like, I guess, a more reasonable contraction, right, in EBITDA margin. Now taking the discussion to South America, where it was just the opposite picture, right? Just also curious if you can share with us to what extent you upfront marketing expenses in the region, right? Also, if you can comment on the EBITDA margin performance by country, right?
I'm asking this as, you know, it seems that you, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's kind of like the South America, not necessarily Mexico, it's kind of like the region where you can expand margins the most, right? I mean, Colombia, you redesigned your distribution, your supply chain network, right, which presumably generated some efficiencies, right? Brazil, there are some opportunities there to expand margins, Argentina as well, so on. Also that's why I'm interested in knowing how the margins are performed by country in South America.
Last but not least, I mean, hit us with, I mean, I'm asking, you know, we heard, you know, news from in Colombia about water licenses and a regulator, well, you know, at first, issuing some comments regarding your license there in Colombia and the usage of water there. I mean, any comments about that, if that to some extent implies some disruption there or we can just ignore that, any comments on that would be very helpful. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Rodrigo. Good morning. I'll kick it off regarding South America margins. I think you're spot on in terms of the potential for margin improvement in South America is significantly higher, just on the base of having a lot of head space in margin performance, both in Brazil and Colombia. We have a long-term plan that we're chipping through every year, improving margins, improving profitability.
Mainly on the back of gaining scale, improving execution, leveraging on our digital capabilities that Ian highlighted, especially for Colombia, and I mentioned regarding Brazil. We have this conjunction in the case of Argentina, where we had a significant margin adjustment contraction in 2024 when we reset the market to address a consumer situation there that year. We've been recovering that margin improvement as well.
Those three operations, I think, will continue to provide a tailwind for profitability performance in specifically in South America. In the case of Colombia, the news that you saw is regarding the renewal of the concession for water for premium water brand Manantial in Colombia. I would start off by saying that this is a small portion of our business, it's less than 2% of the volumes in the country.
I think that the development is a very positive development in the sense that the conclusion of the process that we were in was that our business does not present any risks to the water supply in the region, and that we can continue using our concession. It was renewed. The process will be reviewed closely as we move forward, but we, I think we're very optimistic in the sense of the openness that we saw in the process. It was a very open, transparent process where a lot of people participated in the discussion.
Government authorities, as well as the community that's close to our Manantial plant. I think everybody expressed their opinion and I think the development ended up being a very positive one in the sense that the conclusion was that we were able to renew the concession and continue operating that business in the following years.
If I may, Rodrigo, perhaps the only thing that I would add, going back to the first part of your questions on margins on South America. You know, if we were to look at proof points of whether this sustainable growth model is working, as you know, we have been discussing about this on this flywheel of getting, you know, more relative scale. When you see the markets in South America, you see Brazil gaining share, Colombia gaining share.
Yep.
Argentina as well. Profitability improvements that come from relative scale gains, you know, and the pricing is not really the lever that brings these profitability improvements. No, it's fixed cost dilution, and we can take this to sustainable value creation. That's the only point that I would add to that. As Gerry mentioned, we see profitability improvements across the board in South America.
Yeah. Yeah. Ex Mexico, which was great. Thank you, Jorge. Thank you, Gerry, for the detailed answer.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Lucas Ferreira with J.P. Morgan.
Hi, guys. Thanks for the space for questions. Appreciate. The first question is actually two questions on Mexico. The first one is, if this initiative to sort of a right size the company for this, you know, tough year, also envisions sort of a, eventually an acceleration of growth we may have in the coming quarters and eventually years.
How flexible you are if things are coming better than expected to sort of, you know, make sure you have the right size to keep, you know, coping with the growth of the market and market share. Then number two is a bit more of a conceptual question on Mexico growth. For instance, if I look at Brazil's volume growth, let's say, volume CAGR over the last, I don't know, five years, has surprised a lot to the upside, right? Very good and high mid to high single digits, volume growth.
I attribute part of this to the Coke Zero growth. My question on Mexico is the following: I mean, would you see sort of a similar playbook here where, you know, your average growth rate in Mexico on a consolidated basis could be surprising the market to the upside and accelerating, let's say from the average growth rates you had in the previous years?
You think eventually Mexico, there's something cultural that would prevent the growth of zero to be, you know, accelerating similar pace we saw in Brazil and some other countries as well in LatAm and in the world? That's my question. If you see like a Coke Zero being sort of in the spotlight globally like we saw in the case of Brazil. Thank you.
Hi, Lucas. I would say it's a two-part question. In terms of the right sizing, we've done what we needed to do. We don't need to do any further. We have enough flexibility in our manufacturing, distribution and headcount structure to weather, let's say a 5% volume surprise upside. We are where we need to be in terms of productivity, and we have enough of the assets and both manufacturing distribution assets that we could address, you know, a 5% volume upside surprise.
We are where we need to be in terms of a structure now and going forward. We have time to respond if a trend will improve with necessary investments and especially with increases in our headcount, which was probably what we would need faster. More headcount and especially in the distribution. I think we're well-positioned for that. It wouldn't be an issue. In terms of whether we can see Coke Zero respond as it did in Brazil, we're very glad that, say, two years ago, we cracked a code on Coke Zero in Brazil.
Zeros are doing very well in Mexico from a much smaller base. You know, that's where we were in Brazil in a few years ago. It's a phenomenon that takes time. It's not immediate. We don't see anything different in Mexico with regards to Brazil. We took a little longer to crack it, but now it's responding, it's growing positively. We're also going to be doing a push on other light flavors. That platform should perform in line or let's say, outperforming the market.
We have a much better position in Zeros than most of our competitors, so we're confident of that. The one caveat that I would have that's different to a market such as Brazil, for example, is that per capitas in Mexico are much higher. There's an underlying effect in Brazil of the overall category gaining in per capitas. That's the only thing that I would say would be different. That being said, in Mexico, in 2023 and 2024, we did gain per capitas. It's not that it's impossible. It is possible, but it's at a much higher pace per se already, the category.
Thank you very much. Yeah.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Álvaro García with BTG. Your microphone is open.
Hey, good morning. Thanks for this. Great questions. Two questions. One on Venezuela. I was wondering, you know, how should we think about this business? What can you share about maybe recent volume dynamics and sort of cash flow from that business? Do you see grounds maybe to consolidate it at some point in the future again?
My second question for Gerry, if you could maybe provide an update on capital allocation. At the end of last year, you kind of, you know, mentioned you were in a position to give us an update. When might we expect an update on that front? Thank you.
Just operationally, Venezuela, you know, continues doing very well, accelerating, but the items that we need to reconsolidate that operation are still not there yet. We don't have visibility on that yet. I wouldn't think we could be reconsolidating Venezuela, for this year or next year at least. But it is doing very well. Obviously, it was already doing well. Now it's doing even better. There's a big change going on down there, but it's too early to think of putting that back on the books. Gerry?
Regarding capital allocation, Alvaro, the excise tax that came up, was something that certainly we didn't have in our plans. It was something that came up late last year. It got passed very quickly.
We're given the uncertainty that this scenario presents for us in terms of cash flow generation and how the Mexico business will continue to evolve in the next few months, we're taking a step back to review and have more information before we decide what we're gonna do to address the issue of capital allocation and our capital structure that we recognize that we have opportunities there.
Great. Thank you very much.
This concludes the questions and answers section. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Mr. Jorge for any closing re-.
Just to thank everyone for your interest in Coca-Cola FEMSA and for joining us on today's call. As always, we are available to answer any remaining questions, and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. This does conclude today's presentation. You may disconnect now. Have a nice day.