Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining me in this conference call regarding the financial results of the first quarter of this year. Starting with the top line of our income statement, the company total revenues had a nominal increase of 6.3% versus the same period from the last year, closing in MXN 41.8 billion, basically derived from an increase of 5.7% in same-store sales and the net effect of 6 new stores and 3 closures in the last 12 months. Additionally, a negative impact in other income in comparison with last year's income regarding the sales of land that we did not have this year. The increase in total sales, because all of this was 6.6%.
Talking about the performance at a store format level, our store directed to a low-price strategy, in this case, Soriana Mercado and Soriana Express, have been showing the best performance in the last quarters as a result to the adequation that the management team has been working to improve processes, catalog, competitiveness, quality, and navigability inside the store in order to improve the value proposition and, as a consequence, the shopping experience for its clients. Meanwhile, we continue making important investments in advertising campaigns for Soriana Híper and Soriana Súper stores, boosting and promoting the grand variety of regional products as well as our own private and exclusive brands, where, as of today, more than 1,500 SKUs are available in our division, both in-store and online.
Where at the end of 2023, we have renovated more than 600 SKUs, showing an increase in sales between 15%-20% in these private brands. Regarding the performance of our stores by region, outstanding states of Coahuila, Durango, Tamaulipas, and the South Pacific region, where we see positive double-digit results. Also, and moving to our digital business, we achieve an increase in sales of 25% in the quarter in our platforms, basically derived from the implementation made in continuing improving the navigation experience, particularly in our app, that provoke, as a consequence, an increase in order of double digits. Also, and regarding an important business, the real estate business, we closed this quarter with an occupancy of 88.4%, which represents a growth of 4.9 percentage points versus last year, reaching more than MXN 700 million and an increase of 6% in the net income derived from this business.
These positive results come from making better commercial synergies with different brands, where we could achieve a double-digit increase in occupancy in different states of the country, like Aguascalientes, Campeche, Colima, Guerrero, and Oaxaca. Likewise, gross profit reached MXN 9.7 billion in this quarter, which represents a gross margin of 23.3%, an increase of almost 4% against last year's result. Since 2023, we had an extraordinary income in sales of land that now affects the comparative of the quarter. Regarding the operative expenses line, there was an increase of 6.9% versus last year, reaching MXN 6.9 billion, which represents a 16.6% over the income. This increase in the operational expense is basically attributable mostly to cost of personnel, a higher expenditure in the advertising campaigns, and the cost of insurance derived from the Hurricane Otis that affects Acapulco.
As a consequence of the valuation just mentioned, the company's EBITDA this quarter reached MXN 2.9 billion, which represents a 7.1% margin over the sales and an increase of 1.7% compared to the first quarter of last year. On the other hand, and regarding the financial items, net financial cost closed in MXN 742 million, showing an increase of more than 60% due to a reduction in the financial product, basically derived from minor average balance in cash and investment, and also affecting a comparative basis due to an extraordinary income that we obtained in 2023, as well as an increase in the financial expense derived from an increase of 20% in the total debt of the company that basically we are using as a working capital debt to finance the growth and the buying of land that the company is performing very aggressively this year.
Finally, the net income for the quarter reached MXN 789 million, which is equivalent to 1.9% over the sales. Moving on, talk about the progress made with our partner Falabella. This quarter, Sodimac, the home improvement and do-it-yourself business, continued with 13 stores in operation, and one more is under construction here in Monterrey, and we expect to open that store basically in the following weeks. Results continue showing a positive trend, where the digital business stands out, showing an increase of almost double-digit since the service expands to more states where the physical stores are present. On the other hand, our financial business with Falabella, the Falabella Credit Card, keeps growing.
At the close of this quarter, more than 700,000 cards were issued, operated in more than 100 stores, and we have 100 physical models in the stores, and we operate also in more than 400 stores with digital journey. The credit portfolio adds up to MXN 4.1 billion. Finally, as an update of the expansion plan, I would like to share with you that in February, we opened the second Soriana Súper store in Mexicali, with an investment of close to MXN 300 million, with great acceptance from our client and very positive feedback. Likewise, in this sense, we have opened 6 new stores in the last 12 months, basically in the states of Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Jalisco, and Baja California.
Also, we continue with an aggressive remodeling plan where we prioritize comfort and an update of the image and the improvements in the layout that we are trying to offer a much better shopping experience to our clients. In this third quarter, basically due to all of this, we have invested more than MXN 1.8 billion in CapEx, mainly for store maintenance, equipment repositions, store remodeling, and the stores that are under construction. Furthermore, we hope that this information has been of your interest, and we can now continue to the Q&A session. Thank you very much.
We will now start the Q&A session. If you have a question, please enter star eight on your telephone keypad. In case your question has been answered, you may cancel it by pressing star eight again. The first question is from Alejandro Fuchs from Itaú BBA. Please go ahead.
Hello, Rodrigo. Thank you for the call and the space for questions. I have two very quick ones. The first one was on this extraordinary income of sales last year during the quarter. Could you help us maybe with the total amount and the impact on the gross margin? And then the second one is, I think you provided some guidance on the last earnings call of around a 25 basis points EBITDA margin expansion for this year. Given the results of this quarter, I wanted to see how you feel about the guidance going forward for the remainder of the year. Should we expect that expansion to continue? I wanted to pick your brain a little bit about that. Thank you.
Sure, Alejandro. Well, first of all, a little more detail about the extraordinary income in last year. Basically, it was the sale of land in Veracruz, our reserve land that we have, and basically gave us around a little more than MXN 130 million of net income. Basically, we just registered the net income, not the sale of the land, just the net income already paying taxes and the costs and everything. So it was an important amount that goes directly to the EBITDA, and it's a little more than MXN 130 million. And regarding the second question about the EBITDA expansion, as probably you have heard from me in past quarters, we don't used to change the guidance for the year. No matter, as you say, Alejandro, it's very obvious that it starts to make more challenge to achieve that expansion at the EBITDA level.
Right now, still, we believe that we have an important opportunity to continue improving the gross margin. Mainly, still, we see an opportunity of around 20 basis points that we have to improve the shrink of the company, and that we are working on that. No matter that we have probably 12 months in which we have made important programs to reduce the shrink, still, I see an opportunity of around a little more than 20 basis points on that, and probably we can have some help to achieve the goal at the EBITDA level coming from this item. And second, I think that also in the expenses, we can have an opportunity, as probably you see, still, we have an important difference between the growth in gross profit and against the growth in expenses.
Still, we have some pressure from the publicity campaign that we have been very aggressive in the last months in order to recuperate market share. So we don't see it as an expense. It's more an investment for the long term and to recuperate the perception of low prices in the marketing. But we know that we are over investment on that, and probably we can modulate a little that investment and obtain some points from that. And the third important thing is that also in the expense line, it's an important amount of money that is coming from the remodeling process. Remember that Soriana, because we are really, really, really conservative in our accounting policies, there is a lot of the investment that we make in the remodeling plan that doesn't go to CapEx and go directly to the expense line in the P&L.
So remember, it's something that I always said. Soriana has a lot of things that probably other companies just call CapEx. Soriana has an important amount in, yes, in CapEx, but also in the expense line. So that is not something that will go forever. Every quarter, we have already a couple of years been very aggressive in remodeling plans. Still, we have stores that we have to continue with that remodeling plan, but it's not something that it will be forever. In some part of the time, we will end with that, and we will have a completely renewed chain of stores in the company. So I still believe that the company has the opportunity to continue improving the EBITDA margin.
But also, as a matter of fact, Alejandro, I share your opinion that it will be much more challenge to achieve the initial goal with the results that we are achieving in this first quarter. I expect that gives you some clarity about the two questions, Alejandro.
No, very clear, Rodrigo. Thank you very much. Maybe if I can just make a follow-up very quickly regarding the news of your partnership with Nubank. I was wondering if you can provide some color on if this is having a positive impact on traffic in the stores? Is this something that you guys are excited about for the future? If you could provide any color on that partnership, I think we would also very be interested. Thank you.
Sure. Well, actually, we always say that Soriana, obviously, we are a retail, but we are an important platform business. At the end of the day, we receive more than 700 million visits every year. So that interaction of people going to our stores creates a very profitable platform for making businesses with other partners. And in this case, particularly Nubank, that has been very aggressive for growth in Mexico, we are converting in an important partner to give to the final client services to make more efficient their visit to our stores. So right now, in the Soriana stores, you can make a lot of the banking transactions that Nubank requires in our cashier lines. It's not something that is new for Soriana.
We have several years working on that, and we will continue to try to be very innovative in offering more services to our clients and make more productive every time that they go to the store.
Thank you very much, Rodrigo.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Miguel Ulloa from BBVA. Please go ahead.
Hi, Rodrigo. Thanks for taking my question. The first one would be regarding the consumer environment you're facing and how it has changed from the last months, which categories are moving fastest and which are laggards? Thank you very much.
Well, fortunately. Hi, Miguel. Thank you for your question. Sorry. Fortunately, I think not only Soriana, for the whole market, still, we see a client with an important consumption trend. Fortunately, we are not seeing any sign that they have some kind of pressure in their pockets. Actually, the other way, some categories, like an example, in private brands, Miguel, with all the strategy to be more strong in our private brand strategy, remember that right now, we don't only have entry private brands. We also have premium private brands. And these premium private brands that obviously have a tremendous quality, much higher than the commercial brands, but also the entry-level price is important, is having an important success. So I think that the client is willing even to expend a little more to obtain more quality.
We are not seeing any downtrade going from, like an example, typically from a crisis, going from beef to chicken or to egg because they want to prioritize cheaper proteins. We are not seeing nothing like that. Still, we see a client with an important healthy purchasing power. In some regions, the increase is very high, particularly, like an example, City Club that has an average ticket a little more than the double of a supermarket or a traditional Soriana store is growing really, really important. Also, e-commerce that has probably five times the ticket of the stores is growing very important. So in general, I don't see any sign of weakness in the purchasing power of the client, Miguel.
Obviously, also, I think that something important to consider is that we are in a particular year in Mexico, and we know that in election years, there is much more money outside and more expenditure, and there is more willing to spend. So I think that all of that kind of things is helping to maintain a very healthy environment in consumption. And actually, more important things, I don't know if you have seen lately the employment rate in Mexico, but right now, the problem is to find personnel. So there is a lot of things that are really positive that obviously help the consumption.
Yeah, yeah. It's impressive. Thank you very much, Rodrigo.
Thank you very much for your question. As a reminder, if you have a question, please enter star eight on your telephone keypad. That was the last question. This concludes the Q&A session for today.
Okay. Thank you very much, all of you guys, that joined us in this conference call. Remember that obviously, if you have other questions, just give us an email, and it will be a pleasure being in contact with you as soon as possible. Have a good day. Bye-bye.