Good morning, and thank you for waiting. We would like to welcome everyone to the Ambev First Quarter 2019 Results Conference Call. Today with us, we have Mr. Bernardo Paiva, Chief Executive Officer for Ambev, and Mr. Fernando Tennenbaum, chief financial officer and Investor Relations Officer. As a reminder, a slide presentation is available for downloading on our website at r-ri.ambev.com.br, as well as through the webcast link of this call. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded and that all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. After Ambev's remarks are completed, there will be a question-and-answer section. At that time, further instructions will be given. Should any participant need assistance during this call, please press star zero to reach the operator.
Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the safe harbor of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Ambev's management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Ambev and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I would also like to remind everyone, as usual, that the percentage changes that will be discussed during today's call are both organic and normalized in nature.
Unless otherwise stated, percentage changes refer to comparisons with first quarter 2018 results. Normalized figures refer to the performance measures before exceptional items, which are either income or expenses that do not occur regularly as part of Ambev's normal activities. As normalized figures are Non-GAAP measures, and the company discloses the consolidated profit, EPS, EBIT and EBITDA on a fully reported basis in the earnings release. Now, I will turn the conference over to Mr. Fernando Tennenbaum, chief financial officer and Investor Relations Officer. Mr. Tennenbaum, you may begin your conference.
Thank you. Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining our 2019 first quarter earnings call. I'll guide you through the financial highlights of our operations, including our below-the-line items and cash flow as well as commercial initiatives of CAC, LAS and Canada. After that, Bernardo will give you more details about our operations in Brazil. Beginning with the main highlights of our consolidated results. On a consolidated basis, in the first quarter, top line grew 13.7%. A combination of volumes increasing 5.7% and net revenue per hectoliter up 7.5%. EBITDA reached BRL 5.1 billion, an organic growth of 16.4%, while EBITDA margin increased 100 basis points to 40.5%. Normalized net profit for the quarter was up 6.2%, delivering BRL 2.8 billion.
It is worth highlighting that following the categorization of Argentina as a country with a two-year cumulative inflation rate greater than 100%, the country is considered highly inflationary in accordance with IFRS. Similar to the last two quarters, we continue to report the results of our operations in Argentina applying hyperinflation accounting. Having said that, I'll now move to our divisional results and start with Brazil. In the quarter, Brazil EBITDA reached BRL 2.9 billion, an increase of 8.1% versus first quarter 2018, while margins contracted 320 basis points to 40.8%.
Beer Brazil had a very solid performance, with volumes delivering double-digit growth at 11.3%, which coupled with a 3.7% net revenue per hectoliter growth, yielded a top line 16.4% higher than first quarter 2018. Net revenue per hectoliter ended up being in line with inflation, paying off last year's price increase and negatively impacted by regional mix, as North and Northeast regions grew ahead of the country average. While our volumes grew 11.3%, industry estimates by Nielsen point towards a low single-digit growth. EBITDA for Beer Brazil was up by 5.4% in the quarter, with margin contraction of 400 basis points to 42%. This contraction was explained by the cost pressures we already had anticipated in the full year 2018 earnings release.
Cash costs per hectoliter grew by 24% impacted by aluminum, barley and FX. Cash SG&A increased 3.1%, which is less than inflation in the period, even accounting for bonus accruals that we didn't have in first quarter 2018. Such performance was mostly related to initiatives on non-working money expenses, excluding bonus accruals, Brazil Beer EBITDA growth would have been around 7%. In Anheuser-Busch InBev Brazil, top line was up by 25.1% in the first quarter. The result of a 7.6% net revenue per hectoliter growth and 16.3% volume increase. Similar to beers, industry also grew low single digits according to Nielsen. EBIT in the quarter grew 31.9% with margin expansion of 170 basis points to 33.6%.
In terms of cost and expenses. Cash cost per hectoliter was at 4.7%, with higher aluminum costs being offset by lower sugar prices and operational leverage. Cash SG&A was up 17.3%, impacted by bonus accruals, distribution expenses related to volume growth, which was partially offset by savings on marketing, as well as savings in expenses in Q1. For the full Brazilian business, we reiterate our guidance of cash cost per hectoliter growth of mid-single% in Brazil for this year. We should be front-loaded in the first three quarters, easing off towards the end of the year. Moving now to Central America and the Caribbean.
Central America and the Caribbean continues to show good momentum with a 12.7% net revenue growth, which is a combination of 9.1% increase in volume and a healthy 3.3% net revenue growth. EBITDA in the quarter reached BRL 578 million, posting a double-digit growth of 14.4% and margin expanding 50 basis points to 39.5%. Cash cost per hectoliter increased 8.5%, mostly affected by Panama, where our strong volume evolution since 2017 has driven additional temporary costs in order to supply the market with no disruption. Further, cash SG&A in the region was at 1.1%.
Below the average inflation in the region, pressured by variable compensation accrual and SG&A savings in Guatemala and boosted by improving distribution expenses, mainly in Dominican Republic, as well as protections related to non-working money. We are pleased with our commercial strategy in CAC, delivering healthy volume performance in virtually all countries in which we operate. In the core segment, we continue to invest in our trade programs and strengthening our connection with our consumers through commercial platforms to further enhance the present brand in the Dominican Republic. We added more than 3,500 coolers in the quarter. In Panama, our second-largest market in the region, we keep investing in the trade execution with our main brand, Atlas Golden Light, and being present in the key selling moments in the country, such as Carnaval and Atlas Golden Fest. Panama Carnaval was executed with our complete portfolio.
Atlas Golden Light led the way with the campaign that invited consumers to disconnect from daily routines and enjoy sunny days. We also had, for the first time, a super premium execution of Carnaval with Corona. This year's Atlas Golden Fest was the biggest music festival in the country, with a public of 18,000 people, 80% more than last year's edition, and with a major social media engagement. We also continue to roll out optimization strategy in the region, developing Corona, Stella Artois, Modelo, and Budweiser to optimize the execution both for the on-premise and off-premise channels. Premium accounts for less than 5% of the beer industry volume in CAC, representing a great opportunity for the future. I'd like to take this occasion to say that we continue to be very excited about our business development and strong volume performance in CAC.
We have a positive outlook for the region moving forward. Switching now to Latin America South. Volumes in the region declined 10.6% during the first quarter of 2019, mostly driven by Argentina, where volume decreased by mid-single, impacted by a challenging macro environment. Net revenue per hectoliter increased 27.1%, which led to a 14.5% top-line growth. EBITDA for the quarter was up 36.5%, with margin expansion of 820 basis points to 47.6%. Cash cost per hectoliter in the quarter declined 4.7%, mostly driven by favorable FX hedges, while cash SG&A increased by 19%. Despite the macroeconomic volatility throughout the region, we remain focused on what we can control in our business and have positive development.
In Argentina, we maintain the strategy of differentiating the core brands, Quilmes, our flagship lager, and Brahma, our premium lager. We opened for the first time Quilmes' own bars named Los Clásicos de Quilmes to further improve consumer experience. On the popular segment, Budweiser continues to embrace the youth platform with sponsoring Lollapalooza through several activations, promotions, and even releasing an exclusive 473 ml can. We also launched Andes Origen Triguera, another limited edition variety for the Andes region. Due to its great, Triguera was the first beer to be present at the wine festival. Our high-end strategy has also shown promising results in LAS. We saw our portfolio outpacing the industry across all countries in which we operate. Both Stella Artois and Corona launched a Better World campaign with huge repercussions in Argentina.
For the first time, Stella Artois put the donation feedback and changed its iconic red cartouche to blue. Not only Stella turned blue. We launched Stella Blue Challenge by inviting different stakeholders, such as top celebrities joining by coloring their hair blue, Buenos Aires city by turning city monuments blue, and one of the main newspapers in the country by turning their logo blue. Corona launched its Protected Paradise and Plastic Doesn't Belong to the Ocean as a focus of their summer campaign, generating a lot of buzz through cleaning up and a huge thanks to the splash in the middle of the city's main train station. Going forward, while cautious with Argentina in the short term, we have positive medium, long-term perspectives in the country, and remain confident in our ability to deliver solid top line and EBITDA in the whole region, supported by a strong portfolio.
Turning now to Canada. In the first quarter, top line in Canada declined 3.1%, a combination of a 1.2% net revenue per hectoliter increase and a 4.3% volume decline, which was mostly driven by a slowdown in the beer industry. EBITDA reaches BRL 329 million, which is 6.5% higher than in the first quarter of 2018, with margin expansion of 230 basis points to 25.4%. In the quarter, cash costs per hectoliter declined 1.9% as higher aluminum and other commodity prices and lower dilution of fixed costs were more than offset by a mix comparable in first quarter 2018. Cash SG&A declined 6%, driven by saving of sales and marketing expenses.
Despite the industry challenges, we had positive achievements with our portfolio during the quarter. Focus core and core plus brands also continued to deliver strong results, with Michelob Ultra remaining the fastest growing brand in Canada in the quarter, and Bud Light continuing its momentum and gaining market share. In the premium segment, our high-end portfolio is growing ahead of the industry, led by the double-digit volume growth of premium core brands. Corona launched its first winter 360 campaign called Corona Sunsets Winter Tour. Now back to consolidated segments below EBITDA. In the first quarter, net financial results totaled an expense of BRL 672 million, 12.2% higher than our Q1 2018. The items in the financial expense in the quarter were. First, interest income of BRL 135 million driven by our cash balance.
Second, interest expense of BRL 391 million that also include interest in connection with Brazilian tax regularization program, as well as the non-cash accrual of approximately BRL 60 million related to the put option associated to our investment in the Dominican Republic business. Third, BRL 195 million of losses on derivative instruments, which were up year-over-year explained by an increase of FX hedge carry costs related to our cost of goods sold and cash exposure in Argentina, partially offset by FX swap gains. Fourth, losses on non-derivative instruments in the amount of BRL 111 million mainly related to an adjustment in the fair value of the put option in the Dominican Republic. Fifth, tax on financial transactions in the amount of BRL 54 million.
Sixth, BRL 153 million of other financial expenses, partially explained by intercompany transactions. Finally, seventh, BRL 97 million of financial income related to non-cash incomes resulting from the adoption of hyperinflation accounts in Argentina. Normalized effective tax rate was 18.7% in the quarter, lower than Q1 2018. Cash generated from operations in Q1 2019 was BRL 2.1 billion, which is 121% higher than last year. CapEx reached BRL 546 million in the quarter, increasing 15.5% versus Q1 2018. Thank you very much. Bernardo now will share some of the initiatives and thoughts on the Brazilian market before going to Q&A.
Thank you, Fernando. Hello, everyone. As mentioned by Fernando, we started the year delivering solid volume and EBITDA growth. When we announced the 2018 full year results, we highlighted that the transformational investments we made behind our strategic platforms the past years, even in the moments of external volatility and challenging macroeconomic environment, would place us in a much stronger position to compete in the Brazilian beer market, and that we would be prepared to fully benefit from the economic rebound. Our performance this quarter is a consequence of the consistent investment we did in our strategic platforms. It's important to point out we have not seen yet disposable income resuming growth, which would likely provide a meaningful positive impact. As owners, we focus on the long term and sustainable value creation. Therefore, it's important to understand our strategy.
Having said that, I would like to take some time to further explain our strategic platforms, what's our long-term plan, and how we implement it. The heart of it is the consumer-centric approach, which, with the category development framework, guides the design of our portfolio. The same consumer-centric approach is translated into our strategic platforms, premiumize at scale, differentiate the core, and drive smarter profitability, supported by sustainability, operational excellence, and finally, business transformation enabled by technology. All of this is supported by our major long-term sustainable advantage, our drinks, people, and culture. Now, let's go through the category framework and portfolio strategy. Our approach is based on the market maturity model and on the category expansion framework. The market maturity model is about how beer and markets evolve, while the category expansion framework is a vision of the portfolio mix and initiatives that should be applied to each market stage.
Markets have different stages of maturity, one, two, and three. Therefore, different consumer-centric approach should be adopted in each of these stages. In the lowest maturity level, consumption is mostly on-premise. Men socializing and relaxing, and the competition is informal alcohol or spirits. In the middle maturity level, drinking is mixed gender and social. Occasions are balanced between home and on-premise, although beer remains stronger in the on-premise. Competition remains primarily spirits and soft drinks are consumed in alcohol-appropriate occasions. Finally, in the high maturity level, shopping is mostly off-premise and modern trade. Consumption is in-home and meals and relaxed occasions dominate the landscape. Competition from wine and spirits is bigger. Smaller alcohol categories arise and in the no-alcohol space, variety increase. The category expansion strategy, in its turn, is about how beer optimally evolve to address the changing market opportunity.
We start with a classic lager that addresses the typical features of the lowest maturity levels, and then the portfolio evolves, expanding to other kinds of beer and categories. Our largest beer market, Brazil, is on average at middle maturity. However, as a large and diverse country, there are regions in all different levels. In this stage we are in Brazil, one of the most important trends is the takeoff of premiumization. Let's talk about the premium strategy. As we have been saying, premiumization is a trend and a portfolio gain. As consumers evolve, there are much more occasions, needs, taste bases, and no brand standalone can fulfill all these requirements. With that in mind, in mature markets, there is no single brand that holds more than around 60% of the premium segment.
It's important to reinforce that our strength in this segment is a superior portfolio brand, combining global and domestic premium brands. As the market matures, the average number of brands per country increase. To win in the premium segment, you have to build a strong portfolio and invest ahead, as we have been doing in the past years. From an organization structure standpoint, we created a high-end dedicated team years ago, a group that focused exclusively on the premium segment, boosting its execution and supporting its growth. Such strategy is already providing tangible results. This quarter, our global brands, comprising of Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Corona, grew more than 50%. Once again, we gained market share in the premium, as we have been doing in the last consecutive quarters.
Brand construction goes through an investment experience that allows consumers to live the values of each brand in a deeper way. This can be done through sponsoring an asset that's relevant to consumers, such as Lollapalooza, NBA, or the NFL, or through key tier events such as Bud Basement, Beer Stella, and Corona Sunsets, where the immersion into the brand value is very relevant. All of this is amplified by social media. We are also stepping up on packaging with initiatives such as the new visual brand identity and the new bottle shape for Budweiser, which enhances the brand's attributes and also compact assortment, having now in our portfolio both cans and sharing size bottles. Budweiser, our largest global brand, plays a key role as a bridge for consumers who are trading up towards the premium segment.
It was the premium brand with the biggest number of mentions in digital platforms in the quarter, a growth of 100% compared to the first quarter 2018. This quarter was marked by campaigns such as International Women's Day, Super Bowl, and Lollapalooza. Stella Artois is a reference of premium beer quality in Brazil. A classic Belgian lager with a distinctive taste that experienced accelerated growth from second semester on last year. In this quarter, we maintained the focus on gastronomy cultural events with another successful edition of our proprietary event, Beer Stella Artois, in Rio de Janeiro, one of the main markets for Stella in Brazil. Stella Artois volume was also supported by the continued expansion of new pack formats, such as the sharing size bottles and the new cans that offered to Stella consumers new options to taste a Stella in different occasions.
Stella volume continued to deliver very strong double digits. Corona volume more than doubled this quarter, a historical achievement. The brand was present in the trendiest New Year's Eve party in the country with the Corona Sunsets Circuit. In the Better World front, Corona officially launches the partnership with Parley for the Oceans to clean 20 Brazilian beaches in 2019, together with our World Surf League champion, Gabriel Medina. With that, the brand reaches its all-time high number of mentions in the social media in the quarter. Now, I would like to spend a few words about the domestic portfolio, Original and Serra Malte in particular. These brands were first developed in the on-trade channel, delivering amazing experience to consumers. Original and Serra Malte had their combined volume increase in double digits during the first quarter. In summary, our premium portfolio continues to lead another organic growth.
We believe that we are far from reaching the full potential of the premiumization trend, which will fuel our results for the future. Now moving to the core segment. We made transformational investments in our core segment in the past years with new visual brand identities, great packaging improvements, launch of new liquids, building a portfolio to offer consumers a variety of choice for different tastes and occasions. This started with Brahma in 2016. We launched three varieties of Brahma Extra, creating a true family of beer. Since its launch, Brahma family has been growing strongly quarter after quarter. Brahma family is all about beer expertise. Brahma Extra reinforced that and has also had a positive impact on the brand equity of Brahma, its mother brand.
Based on the learnings from Brahma, we created the Skol family, a family of beers designed to bring innovation and variety to the beer market. In addition to Skol Pilsen, the original liquid, the Skol family is composed of Skol Hops, a beer with special hops, and Skol Puro Malte, a beer that addresses consumers' interest in pure malt and also prefer a very drinkable liquid. All of them maintain the main attribute of Skol, which is drinkability. The development of these families expand the occasions and consumer reach of our core portfolio and also enhance the quality perception and brewing credentials of the respective mother brands. Both families maintain the category expansion framework positioning of the brands. Skol as our easy-drinking lager and Brahma as our classic lager. Brahma continues to grow well above the industry quarter after quarter.
To increase its meaning and relevance, Brahma launched in this quarter a new campaign reinforcing that the brand has been part of the Brazilian consumer's life for a long time. The objective is to remind Brazilians of emotional moments while reinforcing that Brahma was always present in these moments. While in 2018 we focused on strengthening Brahma's quality through our 130 years anniversary celebration, sharing with consumers the beer knowledge that we acquired over the years, we now want to reinforce our quality, heritage, and tradition through a more emotional approach. This new campaign will be reflected in all Brahma touch points, including soccer with Copa América and country music. Skol closed the summer with a very strong carnival. The brand promoted the most important street parties in Brazil, providing breakthrough experience to more than 37 million consumers in more than 31 cities.
The brand Skol also increased in a positive way the numbers of mentions in social media. Total mentions increased by 22%, being more than half driven by Skol Puro Malte. Skol Puro Malte is not yet being sold in all Brazilian states. We are still rolling out nationally, but so far the product is an amazing success. Having the three varieties of liquids supports the family concept, and the Skol family grew in the quarter. I will now spend a few minutes talking about value. As we mentioned before, the value segment is characterized by the importance of brand equity. Moreover, even though it's quite relevant in terms of volume, its share in the industry profit pool is very, very low. However, considering its size, it has been tackling affordability with relevant brands and without disruption in profitability.
As a result, we have developed initiatives related to packaging, such as the 300 ml returnable glass bottle and the 18-can pack, and more recently, new brands such as Nossa and Magnífica. Regarding this quarter, the value segment declined 200 basis points against its peak last year. We remain confident that once we start to see disposable income improving, we are likely to see the value segment back to its historical levels. Nossa and Magnífica continue their successful rollouts in the states of Pernambuco and Maranhão, respectively. Moving to sustainability. Sustainability is an important platform to pursue the dream of building a better world and also enhance Ambev's reputation. Last year, we announced an aggressive set of environment targets to achieve by 2025.
These are goals related to challenges proposed by the United Nations through the Sustainable Development Goals and aimed at reducing CO2 emissions, renewable energy, water management, intelligent agriculture, and circular packaging. As well as these goals, we also have a strong commitment for responsible consumption. A few days ago, for example, we launched a huge campaign on TV, social networks, and print vehicles warning to the danger of drinking and driving. We show some of our beer logos with letters mixed up to say, "This is what happens when people drink and think it's okay to drive." We also have other important initiatives. AMA, our mineral water launched in 2018, is one of them. All the profit obtained with this product is totally reverted to projects of access to potable water in the Brazilian semi-arid areas. So far, we delivered more than BRL 3 million benefiting 26,000 people.
We have our BOA program, an internal consulting company with voluntary participation for our people, created to help NGOs optimize their process, budgets, and also manage people and careers. We are proud to help by doing what we do best. The project has impacted socially over 2 million people with 185 NGOs and 200 company volunteers. The result of such meaningful initiatives is that Ambev is ranked second in Merco 2018 reputation poll. Moving on to operational excellence. Operational excellence has always been one of our biggest strengths and key differentials. Given that point of sales connects our brands to consumers, client service is a strong focus. We've been improving our process by reducing pain points and free up sales representative's time in order to focus on activities that add more value to the point of sales.
Our mantra is, wherever we call it Brazil, there has to be Ambev. We divided the country in a large quantity of market territories, and we have been stepping up our go-to-market focus on the idea that consumers should always be able to have products close, cold, and at the right price. In order to measure client satisfaction, last year, we started tracking the net promoter score of our clients. This allow us to better understand their pain points and how can we provide more value-added service with greater granularity in the country. We are also investing in predictive algorithms with the use of machine learning to address possible client issues before it happens. We have also excellence programs to ensure consistent quality and sharing of best practice on brewers, logistics, sales, and shared service centers.
In summary, there is an ongoing pursuit of operational excellence that delivers both efficiency and quality. Talking about technology. It has been a key enabler for us. For example, the ideal order for each point of sale is provided by a constantly evolving algorithm through our portal, tele-sales, as well as salesmen handheld. This process has enabled the portfolio strategy execution, delivering savings, improved volume as well as free time from our sales force to focus on point of sales execution and client service rather than order taking. In March, we concluded the acquisition of our main IT solution supplier, responsible for more than 60 ERP processes. Technology is core and very strategic for our business. The rationale behind this acquisition was to internalize technology knowledge and expand technology support to other areas of Ambev with more agility and scale.
With the acquisition, over 400 developers with deep knowledge in several areas and in the newest technologies joined Ambev team. We understand that increasing use of data and personalized content will play a major role in the life of consumers. With that in mind, we created our own digital content bureau called DraftLine. DraftLine has the objective of establishing a closer relationship with our consumers in a more personalized way and on a larger scale. It will use data and create content to constantly increase brands' engagement. It will also work as a laboratory for new marketing formats in a more agile way of working than traditional ecosystems. Now moving to the NAB division. We are quite pleased with our performance this quarter. Volume growth came from all different segments in our portfolio.
An important highlight is the premium brands such as Gatorade, H2OH!, Lipton, and Tônica Antarctica, which not only grew double digits but brings a healthy contribution to portfolio mix. We are only able to achieve such results in the first quarter given the amazing people who have always been the foundation of our company. With our team, our culture, and our consumer-centric business model, we are confident that we are in a strong position to deliver long-term sustainable growth. We can now move to the Q&A. Thank you.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. Our first question today comes from Antonio Gonzalez with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Morning, Bernardo and Fernando. Thank you for taking my question. I just have two quick ones, if I may. The first one on SG&A in Beer Brazil. I think that if we take out the bonus accruals, right, even with a double-digit volume growth, if my numbers are right, SG&A and underlying SG&A in Beer Brazil was basically flattish, right, year-over-year. I wanted to ask your view on the sustainability of this trend and whether the operational excellence and the tech initiatives that you just described, Bernardo, are already meaningfully impacting SG&A positively or at this stage it's in early days. That's number one. Number two, if I may, very quickly. You made reference to value brands declining 200 basis points, right, in the beer industry.
That seems quite substantial. Now, if I'm not mistaken, you've made reference before to 500 or 600 basis points of value increasing throughout the crisis, right? Now in just 1 quarter, we see a meaningful reversion. I just wanted to confirm whether this is on your new Nielsen numbers. Are the numbers fully comparable? Can you give any, I guess, bigger picture thoughts on how quickly can this reversion fully materialize? Thank you.
Hi, Antonio. Fernando here. Thanks for your question. On the SG&A piece, I think it's very clear that with our hedging policy, we always know one year ahead what's gonna happen to our cost of goods sold. Knowing that we're gonna have some cost pressures this year, of course, we prepared ourselves and we look for even more savings in what we call non-working money. You're right, given all the new technology initiatives, we leverage a lot on that also to find even more efficiencies on the SG&A side. When we look ahead, I do believe we can continue to deliver a good performance on the SG&A front. I don't think that should be an issue this year.
Of course, on the cost side, on the cost of goods sold, as anticipated and is the guidance that we provide, we'll be under pressure this year. As we always do, we try to offset some of that on the SG&A line.
Hi, Antonio. Linked to your question of the value brands and the numbers that we've shown to you is 200 basis points, I mean, below the peak of last year's Nielsen numbers, the Nielsen 2.0 numbers. Basically calculate that all the brands that are the marketing in the price index below 90. Those are official numbers that we have and made by Nielsen.
You always said that when at least the consumer confidence will pick up a little bit more, consumers will trade up and will need a new, I mean, encounter our much stronger portfolio of core brands like we've shown to you, I showed to you in the slides of Brahma family, Skol family, Bohemia, and then the core segment would revamp. We would grow again. Basically, based on the Nielsen numbers, that's exactly what happened in the first quarter.
Those numbers. Thank you, Bernardo. Just to clarify, those 200 basis points are from the peak in the second semester of last year or from a year ago?
Was from the second semester of last year, Nielsen numbers. Exactly the quarter, maybe I can follow up with you for the numbers from last year.
That's fine.
In the last quarter, the value in the final months of the year started to, I mean, ease and decline. I can follow up with you, but I think the third quarter of last year, but I will follow up with you. For sure last year.
That's very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Robert Ottenstein with Evercore. Please go ahead with your question.
Great. Thank you very much. I apologize if you answered this, but the line wasn't that clear. It looks like you've, you know, invested, you know, a significant amount over the last four or five years on innovation, which is great given the kind of challenges that you had, and you're starting to see some of the benefits from that. Can you perhaps, you know, contrast, you know, what percentage of your sales or volume came from innovation this quarter compared to where it was a couple of years ago? So that's question number one, and I realize that may be tough to get.
Second, can you help us think through kind of the sort of the general volume run rate that you're at now? Obviously, you had a huge benefit from the carnival this quarter. What would be a kind of a more normalized run rate given the current economic environment? Thank you.
Thanks for the question, Robert. Thinking of the first question, it has been preparing, investing in the portfolio, as we've shown I mean minutes ago in the last years. For sure, the innovation pipeline is full. I mean, have been implementing those new launch, new liquids, variants of core brands, premium brands, and all of this supported by our innovation center in Rio de Janeiro, the state-of-the-art, that really assures I mean that you have the best liquids in the market. Innovation was key in the first quarter. Skol Puro Malte was a huge success. To be very candid, we have kind of to delay the national rollout because the first quarter was much stronger than we expected.
Not only in the core innovation packs, in premium as well, as I've been saying. We cannot, I mean, disclose the number, Robert, but to us it's strong. The other important benefit was the trade-up. You know, I mean, with the consumer confidence starting to come back, even knowing that the disposable income is not yet there, I mean, it didn't change the trade-up will benefit us, like benefit in the first quarter because we had a big headwind of the value segment in the last four years. That's not the case. It was not the case in the first quarter. Consumers trading up for premium, so continue to grow the premium segment.
Then when they come back to the core, they are seeing all the innovation in terms of our core brands that I just mentioned in my speech. This is the first question. The second question linked to the volumes was basically that, no? What if you are easy comps or not. Again, as we announced it in the 2018 year call, the last call of the year, we highlighted, as I mentioned to you, the transformational investment we've made behind our strategic platforms in the past years. So even in a moment of external volatility, you know, and challenging macro and so on.
Our statement that this would place us in a much stronger position to compete in the Brazilian beer market, and we would be prepared to fully benefit from the economic rebound. Our performance in the quarter is specific to our execution, was a consequence of those consistent investments we did in our strategic platforms. It's important to point out we have not seen yet disposable income resuming growth, which would likely provide a meaningful positive impact if it happens in the future. Of course, we have an easier comps given the first quarter of 2018, but even compared to 2017, it's a 2.2% volume growth. When you...
As I said to you, we expected and happened, an increased trade up that the shrink of the value segment, the mainstream brands of the portfolio of the variants of Family Skol, Family Brahma performing well. Important to say that Brahma has been performing above last year and then very well many consecutive quarters. The Family Skol performed above last year as well. And the premium portfolio of brands, superior portfolio that we have growing ahead of the industry, gaining share for many consecutive quarters, as well. In the value segment, although is shrinking, is not exactly a segment that's a profitable one, but we found ways to be present and to gain share in the value segment as we did as well, in a profitable way with those local brands like Magnífica and Nossa.
Basically, that's it. We are cautiously optimistic about 2019 as we begin to see consumer trends stabilizing as we continue to invest behind the portfolio, new packs in premium, innovation, more to come, line extensions in the mainstream, new liquids, to name a few. For sure, we are very confident that we are exiting this crisis that Brazil entered in a stronger and superior place than we came in. Long answer. I hope that answered your question, Robert.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Leandro Fontanesi with Bradesco. Please go ahead with your question.
Hi, Bernardo, Fernando. Thank you for the opportunity. I have two questions as well. You mentioned Nielsen 2.0. Just to confirm the data that you mentioned in the press release, that the market grew low single digit. If that's really this Nielsen 2.0 full comparison base, and if that's the best indication that we should use to indicate what will the sell out during the quarter. The second question is, one big can maker mentioned last week that the biggest, the largest beer player in Brazil was shifting from returnable bottles to cans. If you could comment what's driving this strategy? What's behind that? Thank you.
I think that's the first question, Leandro. Thanks for the question. Those are Nielsen data, comparable basis, expanded base, the 2.0%, and then the low single-digit numbers are sellout numbers, using sellout number. Something that's important, I mean, to just highlight some of the things that you always talk about sell-in and sellout. This year, actually, the sell-in and sellout dynamics, there was no major effect. We started the year with a strong January, and the base remaining consistent till the end of the quarter.
For sure, the sellout of new things doesn't catch 100% from January to March because there's a delay kind of, you know, 20 days-15 days, one month in terms of the sellout data that they measure in the market. In our numbers, in our volume, there's no major big effect. January was strong, and then that's the same pace that we had till the end of this quarter. Sell-in and sellout had more of an impact in the first quarter of 2018, given the bad weather at the end of December 2017 and January. This was one of the reasons why the first quarter of 2018 was the easiest comp among the quarters in the 2018 year.
All in all, start the year with intentional loadings does not make any sense as we have three quarters ahead of us, the full year, and basically wouldn't be right. Basically, that's what I can tell you about the numbers of sellout. The other thing about the cans and RGB, we continue to invest behind affordability, smart affordability, and then that's why RGB is very, very important. We see opportunities to grow in the off-trade as well, and to revamp even more the one liter. We're doing that. In the end, as a consumer-centric company, we'll be aware of consumer trends, and if they want more cans, we'll supply them. By the way, we have a very good relationship with the suppliers, and we're building a can plant.
We are really focused on the approach of occasions, need states, and what a consumer wants. RGB is part of that, but if they want cans, they will have cans in a nice, superior portfolio, like I just shown slides ago. Hope that answers your question.
Thank you very much for the call, everyone.
Okay. Thanks, Sam.
Our next question comes from Isabella Simonato with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, Bernardo, Fernando. Just two quick questions. First of all, in LAS, in Argentina specifically, what are the real risks you guys are seeing, given the political and macro challenges? Do you see chances of a price control on your segment? I hear Bitto mentioned, two SKUs have suffered from price controls recently. What are the real risks you guys are seeing in Argentina? Second of all, thinking about Beer Brazil, in the second quarter last year, we had the effect of the World Cup and the truck driver strike, which apparently one offset the other. Can we think about Q2 as a comparable basis for this year? Thank you.
Hi, Isabella. Fernando here. Argentina, I think you get the right point. There are some kind of macro challenges, if I could say so. The economy, GDP is suffering, inflation is very high, consumer confidence is at a low. We had a very tough comparables because if you remember first quarter last year, we saw a very strong volume growth. When you add all that, for sure you had volume pressures on the first quarter in Argentina. We are used to operating a market like that. It's no news to us. I believe that in this year, there are likely to be still some macro challenges given how the economy is going.
If you look over through it, if you take a medium and long-term view, then I think you should be always in a good place because there is a lot of growth still to come in Argentina. Per capita opportunities, premiumization opportunities, and that hasn't changed. I think it's fair to assume that this year is gonna be more volatile than average in Argentina. I think just to add, Isabella, we don't see there any formal price control. We adopted, I mean, it puts two SKUs in this space because we want to help the country as well to, I mean, to go through this tough moment in terms of macro there. Supporting the country there. It's not kind of a formal enforced price control at all.
Just to add, I mean, we are confident that Argentina is always like that, ups and down. We have been there for many, many years, a successful business, and we'll continue to be. This price control problem has no meaningful impact in our profitability. Link it to the quarter, as you said. Last year, yes, you're right. I mean, we had truck drivers in May, but a very strong World Cup, so kind of a wash or even a little bit, the World Cup was a little bit even. I mean, a better effect than what we lost in terms of the truck drivers strike. For sure the second quarter is not an easy comp at all.
Compared to the first quarter, that was an easy one given the weather and given the other things that we mentioned last year.
That's fair to you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Benjamin Theurer with Barclays. Please go ahead with your question.
Perfect. Well, thank you very much and, good morning. I actually have a question a little bit on your outlook in terms of costs and what you've been seeing lately. There's been a lot of pressure during the quarter in terms of some of the input cost pressure, commodity prices, aluminum and so on. Is there something you have done in terms of strategy to offset that, i.e., pricing strategy, or have you engaged in some sort of a hedging strategy to kind of at least smoothen a little bit the impact or try to offset some of the impact? That would be a first question, then I have a minor follow-up. Thanks.
Hi, Ben. Fernando here. Our hedging policy, we always hedge one year ahead. The good thing about this hedging policy is that, in the first quarter of last year, I knew that I would have some pressures on the first quarter of this year because I knew what would be the effects, I knew what would be aluminum, I knew what would be barley. With that in mind, we already prepared ourselves, and we tried to find additional savings, some of them on the cost of goods sold line, and a lot of them also on the SG&A line.
Okay.
That's why you are seeing that our SG&A didn't grow as much as other lines, as the cost of goods sold lines. It's somehow a way for us to offset this growth. We know that going forward and through the remainder of the year, we are gonna have pressures on the cost of goods sold. We disclosed that in our guidance. As always, we try to find ways to offset that on our other lines, SG&A and other lines. We don't plan to do any offsetting on the revenues per hectoliter line. That follows the commercial strategy.
Okay. Perfect. Just quickly on the just following up a little bit on your strategy and what you have in terms of the different approaches, Elevate and so on. Have you seen some sort of? I mean, you've kind of indicated towards to, but like market share changes or how competitors have started to react on what you've been doing in the different categories, be it on the affordability side or on the core side or the premium side, like those three sectors, that's where we're most focused on.
Yeah. Thanks, Ben, for the question. I think linked to the market share, we don't disclose the numbers. What you can say that the industry grew low single digit based on Nielsen 2.0, around 3%. Our volumes grow ahead of that, as you know, as you saw our numbers. In terms of the reaction of the market and so on, I mean, we have our plan. The strategy is there. It's focused big time on the innovation and the expansion of the portfolio of the core and premium. Premium is growing a lot, regaining share. It's not. I mean, when you do that, you're not talking about, you know, price disruption in the market, nothing like that.
It's basically growing from, I mean, the top layers of the price structure, so premium and core. I think that's good for the industry. We are building brands. Brazil was always a competitive market, like it was in the last many years. I think that we have a superior portfolio route to market, dream people culture, to win and continue to win in this market. Very confident of that.
Okay. Perfect. Well, thank you very much.
Thanks, Ben.
Our next question comes from Antonio Barreto with Itaú BBA. Please go ahead.
I guess thanks for the question. My first question is on LAS. We saw that the volume loss accelerated a little bit in the quarter compared to what it had been in the fourth and third quarters as well. I'd just like to see your opinion on what do you think changed to accelerate the volume loss in LAS? Do you think it's just a natural consolidation of a weaker environment in Argentina, or is there something different? Did you lose market share in there? Were you a bit more aggressive on the pricing ahead of the cost increase that is likely to come in the upcoming quarters? If you could shed a little bit of color on that, I would appreciate. That's my first question.
Yeah, Tony, what happened in Argentina, basically, in Paraguay as well, to be fair, it was tougher comps. I mean, first half of last year was really strong in those countries. In a way, what you could say, the macro is not helping at all at this time. I think that those countries will for sure, you know, always ups and downs, as you always say, in terms of the macro environment there. The fact that, in the first half, in the first quarter, I mean, it really was a tough macro and tougher comps when compared to the previous year. Portfolios there are strong. We're gaining share in the premium. We have Brahma and Quilmes doing well.
I think that all the plans in terms of concept-wise, all the platforms are very similar that I just explained to the Brazilian market. Adapted for the local environment for sure, but as a concept is the same direction.
All right, thank you. If I can go back to the Brazilian beer segment. When we look at the revenues per hectoliter, it's the second quarter in a row that we see the revenues growing a little bit below inflation, not by much, but a little bit below inflation. We expected a bit more with the growth of the premium segment and now with the loss of share of the value segment as well. Could you tell us if the prices per brand are increasing in line with inflation, why aren't we seeing this effect more strongly on the revenues per hectoliter in beer Brazil segment, where this revenues growth is being diluted away in your opinion?
That's a very good question, Tony. I think that, I mean, basically when you see a trade up, the value segment that's going down, we're not, I mean, present specifically and we're gaining share there, but still, the very low market share, way below our fair share in the value segment. When the trade up happened, I mean, happened in both segments from the core to the core plus continues to happen, continues to grow the premium.
The core segment, what we expect when we have a shrink in the value segment, the core segment is a segment that, I mean, in the shorter term, when you have a big swing of that, hurts, I mean, it is the segment that suffers more when you have an issue of the value segment growing, but it is the segment that most benefits when you have the opposite, I mean, the value shrinking. On top of that, we have regional mix. We have different prices per brand, per region. According to the regional mix, this could affect the net revenue per hectoliter even if premium growing, even if increasing prices per brand back in line with inflation.
This regional mix, it's an important thing to be aware. The growth of the core segment is important to be aware as well. If people want to buy our beers, innovation and so on, it's a good thing. That's why the volume was strong as well.
Just to make sure I understand it correctly, Bernardo, I can say, I can affirm that regions with lower average price grew faster than the others, and you think that's the most important reason why we are not seeing this effect?
Yes. Just to give one example. If you grew more in the Northeast and North, that's by the way a region that it's our, I mean, lowest market share in beer when you compare that. If you have a trade up there and if you have an innovation there, that's helping, that's like Skol is doing well. This affects the regional mix. It's not a bad thing. We are growing volume in a region that we have been underperforming maybe in the last period. That's the regional mix that I'm talking to. Even if you don't change, I mean, if you have the same price policy everywhere, increase price in line with inflation.
If you have one region, in this example, Northeast, that's the Northeast and North growing volume way ahead of Brazil, like happened in the first quarter, this affects the net revenue per hectoliter. It's a good thing. It's a region that it's a very important sign that our portfolio strategy is working there, that the value segment is shrinking there, that Nossa and is working, and Skol Puro Malte is working, and family brand is working. It's good news. Hope that was clear now.
Very clear. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Luca Cipiccia with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, Bernardo, Fernando. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to follow up on the premium portfolio performance. I think if I was looking, I was checking back at the first quarter last year, and I think it's part of the fact that the overall volumes for Beer Brazil were weak and down, and comps were fairly easy this time around. In premium, I think last year you mentioned that in the first quarter you did grow by double digits as well. You know, 50% growth or a double-digit growth on year-over-year seems to signal very strong and very consistent performance.
My first question would be, you know, can you give us a measure of how much what you define as the premium portfolio represents of the overall? Secondly, if directionally you could remind us, give us a sense of the weight of the different brands, or at least the global brands relative to the national brands. If you can just maybe remind us the significance of the family of brands. That would be my first question. Secondly, just on portfolio innovation, there have been a number of initiatives. You enter sort of the value segment in a way with Nossa, with Magnífica. You introduce Pure Malt across the Skol family.
I was just curious, you know, looking forward, what other areas of innovation, if not, you know, with, without being specific, you're most excited about. Is it flavors, packaging? Is it, you know, what type of areas are you looking at to continue to innovate in the portfolio? Thank you.
Look, thanks. Thanks for the question. I think a premium, just the weight of premium is around 11% of our beer volume, and growing, so that's good. It's a good trend. The segment, we think that it continued to grow. What you said that the global brand this quarter grew 50%, but and the domestic ones, double digits. It was a very strong growth. We have the numbers, the new expanded numbers for the premium segment and the premium industry for the last quarters. Yes, we are growing big time share in the premium segment. It's a strong growth. It's a portfolio gain and it's quarter after quarter, and we are winning. This is a fact.
We have the numbers, we have the news expanded, and some including a much easier reading because premium is more off trade, it's mostly scan. I mean, it's really there. It's real. If you see other markets, I've been saying, if you go to the U.S., the thing that you see, the leading brands in the premium segment has around 60%, 70%. It is a portfolio gain. It's I mean, basically what you saw in every market. Now we have here Budweiser, our biggest brand. It's a strong brand, almost the same size of the competitor's brand that they have. But you have Stella that's growing double digits big time. We have Corona, 100%.
Colorado, Original, that's back to growth, we made a pilot in the South to test, Patagonia, that did very, very well. You build kind of a structure, a high-end structure here internally to deal with this complexity. It's working. I think that the innovation that would come within the premium segment, for sure you have more things. One example that I can say to you, we'll launch Beck's in the most important urban centers. It's an amazing brand, German brand. All the edgy attitude of this brand from Germany. It's a few months to its launch, it's bitter, it's trendy. It's an amazing brand, and we'll launch kind of one month.
In the core, I think that this concept of family that we applied for Brahma is working very well for Skol as well. That opened doors for us to give more variety in terms of liquids to the core consumer in Brazil. That's amazing for the industry, you know, because you can expand the industry giving access to people to great liquids that could come in the umbrella of the portfolio in the future. Very excited about the portfolio approach that we have been putting in premium, in core, and I think that more things to come.
Bernardo, if I could follow up. Just, you know, the emphasis on premium, which has been there for a while and seems to be working to be successful, it seems to me though, you're sort of even more assertive now on the idea that, you know, the scaling benefit or the scaling opportunity is larger. Is that correct? Like, are we seeing, I wouldn't call it premium 2.0, but in a sense, like a sort of more of a maturity of the strategy from a premiumization standpoint?
Look, it was always there, no. I mean, we always knew that premium would be bigger. To build a premium brand, I mean, it's not like, you know, we have to seed the brand at stage by stage. We're reaping the benefits in terms of Corona, of Stella, of the seeding that we've done years ago. We cannot launch a beer in premium, like you launch Beck's and out of the gate sell tons of volumes and so on. I mean, the brand loses the uniqueness. We always thought that premium would be the segment that will grow more in Brazil. The maturity model shows that. I mean, the weight of the segment, even in the price and in the growth of the segment shows that.
To build a portfolio of brands, a superior one, you have to be patient then. I think that was a big change in terms of our way of building brands. You know, we are patient. We have been investing in Stella for years, having Corona for years, a pipeline of premium brands. In the right moment, in the right stage, we scale up, and then you see the volumes come. The good thing, there's lots of things to come from even Bud, Stella, Corona and other new liquids and initiatives that are foreseen to be launched in the future.
Very clear. Thank you. Thanks very much.
Okay.
Our next question comes from Thiago Duarte with BTG. Please go ahead.
Hello, everybody. Thanks for the question. I have three questions, if I may. The first one is related to the industry. You mentioned that you believe that the industry has grown low single digits in this quarter. If we circle back to the last several releases from Ambev, you know, I think it's the first time that you actually state that the industry has apparently grown. Actually, Bernardo, my question to you would be, you know, whether you think this path of recovery for the industry in general is a good proxy for what you expect to see for the whole industry throughout the year, so for the whole of 2019.
If in your view, we should expect the industry to keep growing in the next few quarters, or you expect the comps to also affect how you see the industry growing in the rest of the year. That would be the first question. The second question would be related to market share. You know, in the past, we've discussed with you guys several times about the fair share of Ambev in the market, right? The 67%-69% market share, if I'm not mistaken. Of course, a lot has changed over the last few years. You now mention the new Nielsen 2.0 as a better assessment of the size of the industry and so on.
You've introduced a lot of innovation. There's, you know, much more granular approach to the market. In this quarter, in particular, it looks like you have outperformed a lot the industry, right? My question to you guys is, where you believe you are in terms of the fair share, in terms of where your ideal market share should be considering the portfolio that you have in place with the premium brands or the value propositions and the mainstream. I think would be interesting if you could elaborate on that. The third question is actually about the Skol Puro Malte, which you mention as being a very successful launch. It is still rolling out in the rest of the country, as you said.
It was a very huge success as you described, especially during the Carnival. My question to you is how you see the introduction of Puro Malte relative to the Skol Pilsen, and what kind of cannibalization you have been seeing, if any. How the Skol brand has performed from a market share perspective considering the entire family. I think it would be interesting to see the benefits of the brand extension that you're introducing there. Thank you very much.
Thanks for the question, Thiago. I mean, the first one, the industry, I mean, it's not our data. It's Nielsen data. It's low single digits, around 3%. You cannot comment about the full year numbers. But again, those are numbers based on the research for big coverage of Nielsen in the quarter. Linked to the market share, we're not disclosing market share, but I could say that it's not an issue. We are within our range, and we are confident now that we're on the right path to continue to evolve in terms of our position in the market.
Linked to the Puro Malte, the Skol Puro Malte effect, I think it was an amazing launch because it brings the concept of the Puro Malte of a little bit bolder liquid in the Skol way, a very drinkable liquid. That was a kind of a long research and test that our brew masters done in the last years in our innovation center in Rio de Janeiro to ensure there's a specific process, boiling process that assure that even with low bitterness, you can maintain this flavor aspect of a Puro Malte, but in a very drinkable liquid. Because of that, and because the liquid is drinkable but is different from Skol Pilsen, the cannibalization is way below the average of the launch that we've done.
Even without the full rollout in the full country, the Skol family grew in the quarter. That's very important. It was helped by Skol Puro Malte, for sure, but not only that. When you launch a family of quality beers, like we have now Skol and we had in Brahma in the past, all those innovations bring brand equity and equity for the mother brand. I think that the innovation pipeline is full, and I think this family approach is working very well. Just to remind us in the core segment, Bohemia it's a big success as well. It's a very strong brand. It's selling a lot. It's growing, I mean, double, sometimes triple digits.
We have Bohemia Puro Malte that have been helping us in the core segment as well. That's what I could say. Thanks, Thiago.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Lucas Ferreira with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the question. Guys, my first question is a follow-up on this regional mix you commented before. I was just wondering if this is a trend that we should expect to continue in the following quarters? Or in other words, if you see sort of more room to grow your market share in these regions, or if that would also bring it to help over time your EBITDA per hectoliter metric. So wondering if the regional mix has an effect of that. In other words, serving these regions could also be less profitable to you guys. The second question is on the non-alcoholic portfolio and the results. Actually, pretty strong results.
If you can comment on, you know, which were the categories inside non-alcoholic that, you know, drove volumes up in your results. If we see already in these results the impact of, actually, IPI tax benefits, right? This year where we should have started to see some impact in the first quarter. Wondering if there were some, and if you can comment on the profitability there, how sustainable that is going forward. Thank you.
Hi, Lucas. Fernando here. On your first question about pricing premium and margins. I think the biggest impact that we have in our net revenue per hectoliter was actually the regional mix in the first quarter. It's North and Northeast growing at a faster pace than the other regions. Not that other regions didn't grow as well, but the North and Northeast grew at a faster pace. Of course, premium helps. Premium improves net revenue per hectoliter, but in this quarter, it was somehow offset by the regional mix. On the EBITDA per hectoliter, the major driver is actually costs. We have a meaningful impact in costs, which was anticipated, and that's why we have some pressure on our EBITDA per hectoliter.
Then again, we always say that effects, commodities, they are kind of cyclical. Sometimes they help, sometimes they go against us. If you take in the long run, definitely premium and the premium portfolio that is gaining more relevance aggregates EBITDA margin and aggregates EBITDA per hectoliter. Net-net, it's very accretive. On the NAB question, the growth was pretty much across the board. I wouldn't single out any particular part of the portfolio. I think it was across the board, very robust, both our premium portfolio, Gatorade, H2OH!, energy drinks, as well as our more core like Guaraná, Pepsi. Everything performed quite well in the quarter. I wouldn't highlight one single area that performed better than the other.
I think, look, just, I mean, the same thing that I've been talking about our beer business, we have been doing for non-product business as well. Premium portfolio is very important, invest on that. Like brands like Tônica, that's really a huge success and growing a lot. Helping us the premium segment, and for sure, Guaraná Antarctica is a very, very strong brand and we continue to invest.
All right.
On your question on IPI, there was not too much of a change. The law was changed last year, so there is no new news here. The impact was not that relevant in our numbers.
Thank you.
This will conclude our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Bernardo Paiva for any closing remarks.
Basically, what I could say that we are very confident in with the transformation investment and focus that we've done in our strategic platforms in all of those years. As we've always said, we have been preparing ourselves for a moment that have a better macro environment. Consumer confidence helped a little bit in the first quarter and was a very big quarter. Innovation helping us in Brazil big time. The pipeline is full for the future. We'll continue to focus on the long run and sustainable value creation in our algorithm of growth that's consumer-centric. For sure, we will continue, in my opinion, reaping the benefits of this approach in the years to come. Thank you. Have a great day.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.