I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Christian Piskulich, Corporate Financial Planning Manager at Alicorp. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Alicorp's first quarter 2026 earnings call. Speaking to you is Christian Piskulich, Corporate Financial Planning Manager. We are pleased to have you with us today. Presenting today will be Mr. Gonzalo Uribe , Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Luis Banchero, Vice President of Finance and Strategy. Other members of our management team will join us during the Q&A session. Today, we will review the company's results for the first quarter of 2026, following the release of our financial statements and earnings report published yesterday. If you haven't had the chance to access these documents, we invite you to visit our corporate website at www.alicorp.com.pe, where you can also find the presentation accompanying today's call. Please note that this conference is intended exclusively for investors and analysts. Therefore, we will not be taking questions from the media.
If any members of the press are on the line and wish to follow up, we kindly ask you to contact our team after the call. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some of the statements made today may be forward-looking. These statements are based on assumptions and factors that may change, and actual results could differ from current expectations. We encourage you to review the disclaimer included in the earnings report before making any investment decisions. Now, I am pleased to turn the call over to Mr. Gonzalo Uribe, CEO of Alicorp, to lead the presentation. Gonzalo, please go ahead.
Thank you, Christian. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this earnings call. We have important updates of our business to be shared during the call. Please, let's move on to slide number five to comment on recent relevant events regarding our M&A activity. First, just for informing, we successfully, as you know, closed the acquisition of 60% stake in Inka Crops and Procesadora Tropical through our subsidiary, Alicorp Inversiones, for an enterprise value of $72.3 million, with operational control effective March 1st. Since that date, the company's financial results have been fully consolidated in our financial statements. The contribution for the first month of consolidation is reflected within our Consumer Goods Peru business and the international business units, which we will comment later in the financial results with Mr. Luis Banchero.
As previously communicated, this acquisition marks our entry into a salty snacks category, a segment with very attractive growth potential, which strengthens our portfolio through well-established brands such as Inka Chips and Inka Corn. Second, as we announced on March the 4th, we entered into an agreement for the potential acquisition of the spreads business of Flora Food Group in Latin America, which we will discuss in much more detail on slide number six. Our subsidiary, Alicorp Holdco Spain or España, has entered into an agreement with Flora Food Group to potentially acquire its Latin America spreads business, excluding operations in Mexico and Brazil. Flora Food Group is a leading company in the spreads category in Latin America, with a strong regional presence through well-known and very trusted brands. The company operates in more than 15 countries and has a production facility in Cali, Colombia.
This potential acquisition will provide us an opportunity to continue to strengthen our position in a category where we are present and already active, while also expanding our geographic diversification and footprint into Central America and the Caribbean through highly recognized brands such as Rama, Mirasol, Bonella, and La Danesa. The transaction is currently subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions and regulatory approvals in certain countries. We will continue to provide timely updates as the process progresses. We are excited with this potential transaction. I will hand the call over to Mr. Luis Banchero, who will walk us through the operational results of the quarter and share our outlook for 2026. Luis?
Thank you, Gonzalo. The figures we will discuss exclude non-recurring impacts for each respective period. For further details on these non-recurring items, please refer to our earnings release and the footnotes throughout this presentation. Now, let's move to slide eight to review our consolidated adjusted gross profit. Thank you. Adjusted gross profit for the quarter increased by 5.4% compared to the prior year, reaching PEN 791 million, while adjusted gross margin improved from 26.5% to 27%, reflecting solid performance across key business units. The increase in adjusted gross profit was mainly supported by two key drivers.
First, Consumer Goods Peru delivered a strong quarter, supported by a 12.5% year-over-year increase in sales volumes, reflecting sustained momentum across categories such as detergents amid a still competitive environment. Second, our international business continued to expand with our Consumer Goods Ecuador operation benefiting from the incremental contribution of La Fabril, which added PEN 19 million during the quarter compared to a prior year base that did not include this effect.
These positive contributions were partially offset by the performance of Vitapro, which reflected margin normalization following an exceptionally strong first quarter last year. It is worth noting that our quarterly consolidated results benefited from the contribution of Inka Crops starting in March, which contributed PEN 6 million in adjusted gross profit and 686 tons in incremental sales volumes, further supporting overall performance. Including the impact from recent acquisitions, this is how Inka Crops, adjusted gross profit will have increased by 1.9% year-over-year, highlighting the solid underlying performance across our core operations. Please, let's now move to slide nine. Thank you. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter totaled PEN 459 million, representing a 5.5% increase compared to the same period in 2025.
While adjusted EBITDA margin stood at 15.7%, slightly improving compared to the 15.4% in the first quarter of last year. The increase in adjusted EBITDA was mainly driven by higher adjusted gross profit, reflecting solid operational performance across our core businesses. Part of the improvements in adjusted gross profit was reinvested in targeted campaigns and brand-building initiatives across prioritized categories in line with our 2026 growth and brand strengthening plan, while still supporting year-over-year growth in adjusted EBITDA. Excluding the impact of inorganic growth, adjusted EBITDA increased 2.5%. Now, please turn to slide 11 to review the operational performance of our business units, starting with Consumer Goods Peru and B2B. Thank you.
Adjusted EBITDA for our Consumer Goods Peru business reached PEN 241 million in the quarter, representing 21.5% increase compared to the same period of 2025. As we have stated in previous calls, our strategy focused on deep understanding of consumer needs and building strong brands, supported solid volume growth of 12.5% year-over-year. Investments in brand-driven initiatives and disciplined execution across key segments spearheaded strong results in most of our important product categories. In laundry, for example, we reinforced our leadership in core categories such as detergents, while strengthening complementary categories, including fabric softeners and laundry soaps within a dynamic competitive environment.
As a result, in the first two months of 2026, we delivered strong market share growth of 8.5 percentage points in detergents compared to the same period of 2025, reaching the highest level achieved in the last 18, two-month periods. At the same time, we continue investing strategically behind prioritized categories such as sauces, cookies, and cereals, which also contributed positively to volume growth. For example, within sauces, our AlaCena brand, relaunched in the first quarter of 2025, continued to strengthen its leadership in mayonnaise, delivering market share gains of 1.1 percentage points, further supporting the overall performance of the category. As a result of this strong commercial execution, adjusted EBITDA margin reached 23.1% in the quarter, expanding 2.2 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2025.
Margin expansion was mainly driven by the improvement in adjusted gross margin, which increased 37.8% to 39.9%, supported by the more favorable portfolio mix driven by higher participation of our emblematic brands. Moving to our Alicorp Soluciones B2B unit, adjusted EBITDA for the quarter increased 4.1% year-over-year, reaching PEN 103 million, while adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 0.9 percentage points to 13.6%. This performance reflects continued execution across key platforms, as well as optimization initiatives implemented following the acquisition of Industrias del Espino, capturing synergies associated with our manufacturing footprint in the eastern region of Peru, which in turn supported margin improvement during the quarter.
Growth during the quarter was mainly supported by our food service and bakery platforms, backed by targeted initiatives aimed at strengthening our value-added proposition to consumers, including programs designed to support the professionalization and development of pastry businesses. As a result, total volumes increased 3.6% year-over-year, with notable growth in categories such as margarines, shortenings, and pastry flours, which grew by 15.4%, 16.1%, and 21.1% respectively, reflecting solid underlying demand and continued execution of our strategic initiatives. Partially offsetting these positive trends, adjusted gross profit was impacted by reduced availability of palm fresh fruit bunches during the quarter, compared to a period with particularly strong production in the prior year. This resulted in a lower extraction levels, leading to reduced crude palm oil production and lower export volumes.
Excluding the impact of lower extraction levels, adjusted EBITDA would have been increased by approximately 7.5% year-over-year. Please turn to slide 12 to review the performance of our international business and Vitapro. Thank you. Adjusted EBITDA for our international business reached $4.1 million, $3.1 million higher compared to the first quarter of 2025. This result mainly reflects the incremental contribution of Jabonería Wilson, which is mainly reflected in our consumer goods Ecuador operation. Where categories such as detergents and dishwashers delivered strong incremental volume growth following the acquisition, highlighting the successful integration of the business and expansion of our presence in the home care platform in those geographies.
Regarding Bolivia, in line with a challenging macroeconomic environment characterized by ongoing market distortions and increasingly informal trade environment, particularly in edible oils, sales volumes declined by 14.7% year-over-year. Despite this, we maintain market leadership in other core categories such as detergents, shortenings, and margarines, demonstrating the resilience of our business. Revenue increased by 28.1% year-over-year, supported by disciplined commercial execution within a context of broad-based price adjustments across the market, driven mainly by inflationary pressures and currency volatility. As a result, adjusted EBITDA in Bolivia reached $2 million, declining 12.8% year-over-year, reflecting ongoing macroeconomic pressures, FX-related costs of acquiring U.S. dollars, and higher strategic investments during the quarter, particularly within the home care platform to support long-term brand strength.
Turning to aquaculture, sales volumes increased 8.2% year-over-year in the 1st quarter, sustaining the growth momentum observed in recent quarters. This performance reflects solid underlying demand across our core markets, supported by stronger sales to key customers and continued execution of our commercial strategy. Adjusted EBITDA reached $32 million, down 12.8% year-over-year. The decline was primarily driven by margin normalization following an exceptionally strong quarter in the firstst quarter of 2025. Despite this margin pressure, demand fundamentals across the aquaculture sector remained resilient. In shrimp, industry conditions have been relatively stable within healthy production levels in key markets, although global pricing continues to face some pressure.
Overall, the business continues to demonstrate solid volume growth, strong consumer positioning, and a resilient demand environment, despite ongoing uncertainty related to higher input costs driven by global weather conditions and increasing trade disruptions. Let's turn now to slide 14, where we'll review our leverage, debt, and liquidity indicators. Thank you. As a result of our consistent operating performance, we were able to offset M&A and share buyback activities throughout this quarter, resulting in an increase of only 0.2x of our leverage ratio from 1.9x in December 2025 to 2.1 x in March 2026. Excluding these effects, our leverage would have been remained at 1.9 x.
In terms of liquidity, as of March 2026, our available cash position reached PEN 868 million, PEN 1.6 billion lower than the same period last year. This decrease is consistent with our decisions to optimize our cash balance levels and in accordance with our liability management strategy, where we extend the maturity profile of our debt, which in turn allow us to operate at lower cash balance levels. Regardless of this reduction, our cash position still covers 1.2 x our debt maturities over the next 12 months, increasing to 1.8 x if we include our committed credit lines. Looking ahead, we'll be focused on keeping smooth maturity profile and managing our working capital to keep cash generation and therefore maintaining a healthy and flexible leverage profile.
Before moving to our closing remarks, let's briefly revisit our outlook for 2026. Thank you. Overall, the results delivered during the first quarter were in line with our expectations, supported by consistent commercial execution across our businesses, as well as the initial contribution from recent acquisitions and the disciplined approach to profitability and cash flow management. Based on the performance observed so far, we are reaffirming our expectation to low-mid single digits in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA for the year, supported by continued volume growth across the key businesses and targeted investments in prioritized categories and brands. Although we're reaffirming our current guidance for revenue and adjusted EBITDA, we remain vigilant regarding potential changes in external conditions that may impact input costs and foreign exchange dynamics. Current global macroeconomic and geopolitical dynamics present challenging pressures on our cost structure.
As now, as of now, we have been able to manage this and maintain our full-year guidance. We will continue to closely monitor these developments and take appropriate actions as needed to protect margins and cash flow generations going forward. With respect to leverage, we now expect net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of approximately 2.0 x, reflecting the net debt impact associated within the closing of Inka Crops acquisition done recently. As previously communicated, in the event that the potential M&A transactions currently underway, including the recent announced Flora Food Group transaction, are completed during the year, leverage could temporarily move to approximately 2.4 x net debt to adjusted EBITDA.
Finally, regarding investments, we now expect CapEx to reach approximately $110 million in 2026. This update reflects the identification of additional organic growth opportunities, particularly across international operations, where we continue to expand our long-term capabilities to support future growth and strengthen our competitive positioning. Now we will open the floor for any questions you may have.
Thank you. We'll now move to the question and answer section. If you would like to ask a question, please press star two on your phone and wait to be prompted. If you are dialed in by the web, you can type your question in the box provided or request to ask a voice question. We'll just wait a moment or two for the questions to come in. Okay, our first question comes from Alonso Aramburú from BTG. Please go ahead, your line is now open.
Yes. Hi, good morning, and thank you for the call. I have two questions. First on the B2B segment, if you can provide some color as to when you think the availability of palm fruit will be normalized. Where is it 2Q or later in the year? Well, second, regarding your M&A activity and your target markets. In the past, you've mentioned that you were focused mainly on the Andean region. It seems that you're expanding that geography. Can you comment on strategically, where do you think Alicorp can grow internationally? Thank you.
Hi, Alonso. Thank you for the question. This is Gonzalo Arbelaez speaking. I will start with the second one, and then I will pass it to Mr. Luis Estrada to respond on the B2B business. Definitely our strategy continues to be focused on a certain perimeter of markets, having the Andean region as the core expansion markets. You will see the activity coming through, specifically in Colombia and Ecuador, strongly, right? With the Unilever acquisitions that we shared in the previous earnings call.
Definitely Central America and Caribbean, we see also as a perimeter that can be easily expanded, and that's why the acquisition of Flora Food Group brands across that territory will open not only a new plane, the categories that we already operate, but also a new avenue of potential growth in that area of the continent, meaning Central America and Caribbean. It's, it's a natural expansion moving from the Andean region into Central America and Caribbean, and this is our first step. With that, I will pass it to Luis Estrada or Luis Estrada to mention around our B2B business and specifically around the crops.
Thank you. Thank you, Gonzalo. Thank you, Alonso, for the question. It's, it's quite difficult to predict the, you know, the availability of fresh fruit bunches because it really depends on weather. What we're expecting is that normally it's a little bit of seasonality, yeah? On the second half of the year is usually the season where we start seeing more production. The early mechanisms that we have to start measuring how we are seeing that the production of fresh fruit bunches are coming, are picking up within the recent weeks. We're expecting this to normalize a little bit, but unfortunately, it really depends on mother nature.
Now, what we're doing to compensate that reduction is focusing on our strategic priorities. As Luis Banchero mentioned, most of the categories associated with these strategic priorities are growing, between 15% and 20%. If you compare that to how much B2B is growing, overall, it is more than double the organic growth of B2B.
Great. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll move now to the next question, which comes from Héctor Castro, ONP. Is there any particular reason why you won't buy the operations of Flora in Mexico and Brazil?
Thank you, Hector, for the question. Gonzalo Arbelaez taking this one. Yes, definitely. We have done, and reinforcing my previous comment, is we have a very clear playground where to expand in terms of the existing categories and also new categories in our strategic plan. Mexico and Brazil is not in our agenda for now. Definitely we are focusing on the perimeter that we wanna play and we wanna deliver. We did a very comprehensive due diligence and definitely determined that neither Mexico or Brazil, in this case, in the case of Flora Food Group, will fit in our strategic direction for now.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Gerald Ford from AFP Integra. There are three questions. First one is, could you elaborate on how you see margins in Ecuador evolving from here? Second question, are current margin levels in Bolivia close to be through, or should we expect continued pressure through 2026? Third, in B2B, could you give us more color on how palm availability is trending as we move into the rest of the year? Should we expect normalization in supply during 2026?
Thank you, Gerald, for the question. I think the second one or the third one regarding B2B and palm has already been responded by Mr. Luis Estrada. In case you wanna follow up, let us know here during the call. I will refer to Luis Banchero to talk a little bit about our margins in Ecuador, and also how we are seeing our business in Bolivia going forward.
Thank you, Gonzalo. Regarding Ecuador, we think that in the short term, margins are gonna be sustained. The acquisition of Jabonería Wilson was integrated successfully and this operation was already a continuous operation. We expect these margins to remain stable for the short-term, medium-term. As we include the operations of Unilever acquired in Ecuador, we ramp up our current portfolio, the portfolio that Alicorp brings to the table to Ecuador, we would see some margins increase in the future, not during this year. Regarding our Bolivia, the Bolivia question, regarding the pressures, the macroeconomic pressures, we still see macroeconomic pressures going forward.
The country is going through a transition, and we are expecting that in the next short, medium term. Having said that, this last quarter has been particularly very challenged regarding FX costs and such. We don't expect margins we've seen this quarter to deteriorate going forward. We do see a lot of volatility, macroeconomic volatility in the country for the rest of the year.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Before I move to the next question, just a quick reminder to the audience, if you are connected via the phone and you would like to ask a voice question, please press star two on your phone keypad and wait for your name to be prompted. If you are connected via the web, you can also request to ask a voice question or send your question as a text. Our next text question from Domingo Allende from Rabobank. How does the company foresee impacts regarding global context? If so, what mitigants would apply?
Hi, Domingo. Thank you for that question. Evidently, it's very clear for everyone that the global environment and the context is moving every day. Definitely as a group and as a team, we are following all the aspects of what is going on geopolitically-wise and from the global context. We see some volatility, as Luis mentioned during the call, going forward, basically from different places, commodities, and obviously from oil prices. I would say the strength of our portfolio, the diversification of it across the different sectors in which we play, provides us and give us a very strong maneuvering possibilities, right? In terms of accommodating our portfolio towards the demand. That's one mechanism that we always leverage.
The second one is definitely we have the revenue growth management tools and levers in order to pull when needed, depending on the category, on the product, and on the geography. We are leveraging on those capabilities that we have built during the past, which are very important at this moment. At the end, we are doubling down on productivity in our supply chain facilities and in our logistics operation in order to minimize any impact of cost going forward. Definitely we are monitoring what is going on and taking actions as we speak in order to cope with any type of volatility. For now, as Luis mentioned during our guidance, we have the ability to maneuver against what we are seeing, and we continue to maintain our guidance as Luis mentioned during the call.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Maybe just a final reminder to the audience, if you'd like to ask a voice question, please press star two on your phone keypad and wait for your name to be prompted. If you're connected via the web, you can also request to ask a voice question or send your question as a text. I'll just give a moment or so for any additional questions to come in. Looks like we have no further questions, so I would like to pass the line back to Alicorp's team for their closing remarks.
Thank you. Yeah, I would definitely like to close this session by highlighting that the first quarter of the year represented a solid start, as you saw in our financials, supported by consistent commercial execution across our core businesses and the continuous strength of our brands and customer relationships. The investments that we are doing behind our brands and our strategy is paying off. While we still face important challenges ahead in a dynamic and complex environment, we truly believe we have built strong foundations to navigate this context effectively, supported by disciplined execution, strategic investments that we have been making, and a strong focus on profitability and cash flow generation, as you saw in our numbers.
I would also like to acknowledge the commitment and dedication of our entire team across the different businesses and geographies, and thank our shareholders and stakeholders for their continued trust. Thank you once again for your time and attention during this call. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Have a great day.
Thank you. This concludes the call for today. We are now closing all the lines. Thank you and goodbye.