Good morning. I'm Salvador Villaseñor, in charge of Investor Relations at Walmex Thank you for joining us today to review the results for the first quarter of 2024. Today with me is Guilherme Loureiro, President and Chief Executive Officer of Walmart de México y Centroamérica; Dolores Fernández Lobbe, our Chief Merchandising Officer of Mexico; and Paulo García, our Chief Financial Officer. The date of this webcast is April 24, 2024. Today's webcast is being recorded and will be available at www.walmex.mx. Before we start, let me remind you that the content of this webcast is property of Walmart de México S.A.B. de C.V., and it is intended for the use of the company's shareholders and investment community. It should not be reproduced in any way.
This webcast may contain certain references concerning Walmart de México S.A.B. de C.V., future performance, that should be considered as good faith estimates made by the company. These references only reflect management expectations and are based upon currently available data. Actual results are always subject to future events, risks, and uncertainties, which could materially impact the company's actual performance. Now, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to our CEO, Guilherme Loureiro.
Thanks, Salvador, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us to hear about our first quarter 2024 results. I'm happy with the progress we've made across the business by implementing our long-term strategy. We continue to deliver low and affordable prices for our customers, while we accelerate our new businesses to provide full solutions, get closer to them, and reinforce their loyalty. This is the result of the effort of all our associates, and once more, I would like to thank them since this progress would not have been possible without their contribution. We started 2024 with a good first quarter delivering double-digit total revenue growth in constant currency, and with operating income growing 80 bps ahead of sales.
We have seen a positive effect from additional money flowing into the economy from government advanced payments coupled with higher minimum wages, which led to customers having additional disposable income, thus increasing consumption. This quarter, we also had a positive calendar effect of 250 bps on revenues, including an additional day from leap year and the Easter week shifted to March compared to last year, which took place in April. I will give more detail about these results in a minute. This quarter, we continued to invest to improve our price gap and price perception. These efforts have been reflected in the loyalty of our customers. I'm very glad to share with you that this quarter we outpaced by 190 basis points the ANTAD self-service same-store sales growth.
We are happy that our actions are resulting in higher growth, but we are aware that there are still various opportunities to improve the business. We are helping customers to save money and live better through our stores as a cornerstone, while going beyond traditional retail and providing our customers access to the benefits of the digital economy. During the first quarter of the year, our e-com GMV grew 25% driven by on-demand and marketplace, helping us to continue leading in omnichannel. Also, we reached 13.3 million active users at , a 34% Walmart Connect revenue growth, and more than 400,000 health memberships sold. As I have told you before, these new verticals continue to grow at an accelerated pace as we are becoming increasingly better at knowing our customers' needs beyond traditional brick-and-mortar retail with every quarter that passes.
So, let's review our performance during the first quarter of 2024. Please consider that when I talk about results in Centroamérica, I'm referring to figures on a constant currency basis. During the quarter, consolidated revenues grew 10.8% in constant currency. Mexico and Centroamérica delivered 11.2% and 8.7% growth respectively, while Mexico reported double-digit operating income growth of 11.6%, well ahead of sales, with Mexico and Centroamérica growing 12% and 9.3% respectively. This was a positive quarter in both top and bottom line. Paulo will expand further on the financials later in this presentation. Now, let's review sales performance in Mexico. Same-store sales grew 9.4%, out of which 4.1% come from increasing ticket and 5.3% from traffic. Bodega and Sam's Club delivered the highest growth as in previous quarters. WalMart Supercenter is seeing improvements from our investments across the portfolio.
This quarter, Bodega, Sam's, and Supercenter outpaced the overall self-service same-store sales. It is good to see all our performance delivering healthy growth rates. In terms of regions, the center, south, and metro regions posted very similar same-store sales growth, while the north region delivered slightly lower, yet also solid growth. In terms of merchandise divisions, general merchandise led growth this quarter delivering double-digit growth, fueled by home and toys categories, the latter helped by post-holiday markdowns. All our formats, regions, and merchandise divisions reported positive same-store sales for the third consecutive quarter. Dolores will expand on the operational highlights later in her presentation. Now, let's talk about our performance compared to the market.
This first quarter of the year, we grew ahead of the self-service and clubs markets measured by ANTAD by 190 bps as we achieved the broadest gap versus ANTAD in 11 quarters, partially helped by strong general merchandising performance. This also shows that our value proposition is resonating with our customers. As mentioned in our last quarter's webcast, we still see room for improvement, and we will continue innovating to make sure we meet our customers' needs. Now, I'll pass the word to Dolores for her to go through some operational highlights, and afterwards, I will return to comment on Centroamérica, store openings, and ESG.
Thank you, Gui, and hello everyone. Let me go through some of the key operational highlights that have contributed to the results you saw in the previous slides. We continue to focus on our first strategic priority, winning discount. In this first quarter, Walmart price perception increased by 130 basis points, with Sam's Club and Supercenter having the highest increases. The emphasis on price perception is critical as it immediately influences consumer behavior and builds trust and loyalty, although we know it is a much more volatile metric. Our same-store sales growth was led by Bodega. Morralla, our now permanent initiative with MXN 5-MXN 35 article offers at Bodega, remains an important sales driver. We sell 1.3 Morralla articles per minute, which shows how valuable this is for our customers. During the quarter, we had Easter season, which had a strong impact on some of the food categories.
In our Walmart formats, we had double-digit growth on these categories versus last year's same period, while in Bodega, for example, we sold 35 million tuna cans, enough to give one to each person in our three most populated states. A key driver to winning discount is our brand's product offering. The quality and value they provide is very well received by our customers. This quarter, our brand's penetration increased more than 50 basis points versus the same quarter of 2023. The biggest increase came from our general merchandise division led by the home category. Our brands will continue to be a key element of our strategy, and we will continue expanding our product offering by leveraging our global presence. This is the case of this quarter in the Equate line for female hygiene that was developed in Walmart Chile.
Sam's Club continues to be the other format driving higher same-store sales growth. During this quarter, we hosted our Sociofest event where we showed our members the value of the membership and knowledge benefits, reinforcing loyalty. We had double-digit growth versus last year's event, driven by individual members. Aligned with our EDLC philosophy and to partly offset labor cost increase, we continue implementing productivity initiatives at our stores and distribution centers. This quarter, we implemented the first self-checkouts in Bodega Aurrerá Express. Also, we have simplified some processes at the checkouts, like reducing authorizations for cancellations, which helps reduce 140,000 man-hours and impact directly on waiting times for our customers. As for our distribution centers, productivity has been constantly increasing too. This quarter, it grew at a high single digit compared to the same period of last year.
We will continue deploying additional mechanization and automation initiatives like walkie pallets, new sorters, among others. We continue betting on innovation, improving customer shopping experience, and reducing our cost to serve across all our operations. Now, let's look at e-commerce performance as we continue to lead in omnichannel. During the first quarter, e-commerce GMV grew 25%, representing 6.6% of total GMV in Mexico. On-demand continues to be the main growth driver. In Bodega, Despensa a Tu Casa continues to grow, adding close to 90 new stores with the service in this quarter, now offering it in close to 750 stores. Walmart + continues to be an important element. Active members grew 36% versus last year's first quarter. As we told you a couple of quarters ago, customers with a membership have higher spending and more than double frequency versus non-members. Regarding extended assortment, accelerating marketplace is a key e-commerce priority.
During the quarter, marketplace grew 39% versus Q1 2023, with the number of marketplace SKUs increasing close to 80% and sellers increasing more than 50%. Three key elements to accelerate marketplace growth are Walmart Fulfillment Services, Cross-Border, and improving the seller experience overall. Walmart Fulfillment Services is getting close to represent 40% of total marketplace, offering our sellers our Walmart Standard Logistics Services to get faster to the customers. Cross-Border has a lot of potential, and we are preparing the ground to accelerate it. Related to this and seller experience, we are working on a standard Walmart e-commerce front-end platform together with other Walmart markets. This is going to be deployed later in the year, delivering a unique experience for sellers where they can have a single sales profile globally and access to all of our markets, providing the necessary personalized service for each country according to its needs.
Regarding our new businesses and our strategic priority to become the ecosystem of toys, let me start with Bait. Bait reached 13.3 million active users, 1.5 million more than last quarter and 7.1 million more than the same quarter last year. We are constantly working on offering more benefits, improving convenience for our users. We continue to increase the top-up locations through different partners, being the BBVA app the last one to join. Moving to financial solutions, this quarter, we disbursed more than 130,000 credits, 50% more than the same quarter last year. On remittances, we are now offering buy and collect in more than 1,300 stores, which gives our customers the option to pay directly with their non-collected remittances in the point of sale and, after scanning all their products, collect only the difference in cash.
This helps to reduce the waiting lines and times, as well as increasing the ticket size. Walmart Connect delivered a strong performance during the quarter as it was the case throughout 2023, posting a 34% growth and implementing 44% more campaigns versus first quarter 2023. We are very excited with the future of Walmart Connect. We see big potential going forward, and we are very close to launching Walmart Luminate, our collaborative tool for our suppliers with shared data and a sharper view of the customer, store, and e-commerce. On our health business, this quarter, we sold over 400,000 health memberships, tripling the number sold in the same quarter last year as we learned better on how to address customer needs. Regarding our pharmacy business, this quarter, we had a growth of 11.4% versus the same quarter last year, helped by the flu season.
Now, I will leave you again with Gui so he can comment about Centroamérica, store openings, and ESG before going through our financial results. It was a pleasure to share our quarterly highlights with you once again, and I will be glad to answer any questions in our live Q&A tomorrow morning.
Thank you, Dolores. Moving to Centroamérica. During first quarter, Centroamérica closed with an 80% same-store sales growth on a constant currency basis. Sales were driven by double-digit growth in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, while Costa Rica presented a low to mid single-digit growth, facing some challenges such as deflation. Our value proposition is helping us deliver good volume growth in all countries. We are focusing on our omnichannel ambition, achieving e-commerce growth of 84% from a small base and increasing more than 40 BPS our omnichannel sales penetration. During first quarter, Walmart Connect doubled its income against the same period last year, while our co-branded cards increased sales share by around 90 bps, with increases in all countries. These actions contribute to an 8.7% total sales growth, excluding FX effects, positively impacted by 230 bps calendar effects. Paulo will go into current financial details later on.
Now, let's talk about new store growth. During the quarter, we opened 12 new stores, nine in Mexico and three in Centroamérica. New store contribution to consolidated sales growth was 1.8% for the quarter, ahead of the guidance given at Walmex Day between 1.4%-1.6%. The majority of these openings were Bodega formats, mainly Bodega Aurrerá Express, as they are the formats where we see more potential to grow, as we shared with you in our Walmex Day over a month ago. To finalize, in our ongoing commitment to environmental, social, and governance ESG issues, we are pleased to share our recent efforts and achievements in this area. In our efforts to provide employment opportunities and contribute to the local economy, we held the National Recruitment Fair Recruiter Fest 2024. This event offered more than 2,000 job opportunities, demonstrating our commitment to social development and economic inclusion.
In our commitment to community support and disaster relief, we donated 27 tons of essential produce to brigades fighting forest fires in Guatemala. This was done in collaboration with the food bank Desarrollo en Movimiento, further demonstrating our commitment to help communities in need. Building on our aim to support local businesses, we formed a strategic alliance with Banco La fise in Central America to support over 500 producers from the Tierra Fértil program. This initiative provides these producers with the necessary financing to enhance their local production, promoting sustainable agriculture and local economic growth. We are proud to announce that we have been recognized as the leading company in the self-service and departmental sector in the 11th edition of the Merco ranking of the 100 most responsible companies in México. Our ESG efforts are rooted in our commitment to contributing positively to society and to the environment.
We continue to prioritize these efforts in our operations and strategic planning. To finalize, I'm sure you all are aware of the change in management that we announced two weeks ago, where we mentioned that I will be assuming a new role as Executive Vice President and Regional CEO for Canada, Chile, Mexico, and Central America. This will be my last quarter sharing Walmart's quarter results with you as CEO. So I would like to thank you all for your interest in our story through the years that I have been leading Walmart's transformation strategy. I'm sure that Ignacio will continue strengthening our omnichannel strategy, and I trust that he and his team will leverage the Walmart ecosystem to provide even more solutions to serve our customers and continue helping them save money and live better.
Thanks again for joining us today, and I leave you with Paulo, who will cover the financial results of the quarter.
Thanks, Gui, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to review the results for the first quarter 2024. I'll start by covering Mexico results, and then I will cover Central America. Let's look at Mexico results. As we heard from Gui, total revenue grew 11.2%, driven by 9.4% same-store sales growth and positive calendar impact of 250 basis points. In line with the P&L reshape we explained at Walmex Day, gross margin expanded by 40 basis points, offsetting SG&A increase of 40 basis points as a percentage of sales. We will review the gross margin and SG&A breakdown in just a moment. We are able to improve our gross margin while improving our price perception and our competitiveness in the market. Operating income grew 12%, and EBITDA margin expanded by 10 bps to 11.1%, yet again, best-in-class levels. Now, expanding first on gross margin.
During the quarter, we had a benefit of 40 basis points driven mainly by improved omni-commercial margin, supply chain benefits, and contribution from new verticals. Improvements in commercial margins from our omnichannel business and benefits from supply chain provided 30 basis points expansion on gross margin. Our new businesses, such as Walmart Connect, Bait, and Financial Services, which are contributing more and more to our P&L, provided 10 basis points improvement on gross margin. All these contributed to our gross margin expansion reaching 23.9%. Now, let's review SG&A. By managing expenses with discipline and fostering an Everyday Low Cost mindset, and helped by sales leverage, partly driven by calendar effect, we are able to reduce our run costs by 10 basis points, offsetting the increase in labor cost. In parallel, we invested behind strategic growth priorities, notably new stores, new business, and e-com, and we enhanced our associate developer position.
All the above-mentioned growth investments impacted expenses by 50 basis points. Now, let's review Central America results. Please consider that on this slide, I will refer to figures on a constant currency basis. Total revenues increased 8.7%, driven by an 8% same-store sales growth and positive calendar effect of 230 basis points, with volume growth in all countries, three of them reaching double-digit sales growth. This quarter, gross margin remained flat at 24.4%, with commercial margin improvement in new businesses, Walmart Connect contribution offsetting price investments in Costa Rica. SG&A represented 17.3% of revenues, increasing 10 basis points. Operational leverage and efficiencies were not enough to offset growth investments. With the above-mentioned results, operating income grew 9.3%, 60 basis points ahead of revenues, while EBITDA margin of 9.9%, best-in-class, contracted 20 basis points versus last year.
At consolidated level, total revenue increased by 9.8%, with new stores contributing 1.8% to total growth. Gross margin expanded by 30 basis points to 23.9%, and SG&A grew 12.4%. Operating income grew 10.6% year-over-year, with an 8.5% operating income margin. Finally, EBITDA margin expanded 10 basis points to 10.9%, while consolidated net income grew 14.4%, resulting in a 5.8% net margin. Now, moving to the balance sheet. Cash decreased 6.1% versus first quarter 2023 due to dividend payments and CapEx investment in high-return projects. Inventories grew 4.9%, below sales growth, driven by positive sales trend and strategic markdowns mainly in general merchandise. Our days on hand reduced three days versus last year. Finally, accounts payable grew above sales, reporting a 17.6% year-over-year growth. In the last 12 months, we generated MXN 85.9 billion in cash and MXN 8.1 billion through working capital.
We returned MXN 46.3 billion to our shareholders as dividends, including the special one-off dividend paid in April 2023. We invested MXN 29.5 billion in high-return projects, reflecting our commitment to accelerate our growth story. We paid MXN 18.3 billion in taxes, and our associate share plan required MXN 1.5 billion. Finally, operating our share buyback program, we repurchased shares worth close to MXN 1 billion. All in all, our cash position finished the first quarter at MXN 43.8 billion. In summary, I would like to emphasize the three key messages of the quarter. One, our top-line growth momentum continues. This quarter, we had the broadest gap versus ANTAD in 11 quarters. Two, our operating income and EBITDA outpacing sales growth helped by sales leverage. T hree, our ecosystem continues to develop, and our new businesses are increasing their contribution to the overall business.
Our focus remains in accelerating growth ahead of the market with improved ROI returns. We remain committed to create value to all our stakeholders, customers, associates, and shareholders. Thanks again for your interest in our company. We'll make ourselves available to answer the questions you may have tomorrow at 7:15 A.M. on our live Q&A. You can reach our IR team if you have any doubts concerning how to connect to the call.