Good morning, everyone. Thank you for participating in our conference call for the earnings for Q2 2025. I have with us our CFO, Rafael Sachete, emblematic path that he has had, our IR Officer, Bianca Faim. About our agenda today, we're going to start off with key messages, highlights for the quarter, and during an important moment, we're going to talk about our results in details about each of our business units. I'll hand over to Rafael, who will give more information about the financial results. I'll talk about the important announcement made yesterday of a change and succession of the important leadership here at the company, and go into the best part, which is the launch of something that's very relevant for our future growth called Farm, etc. Then we'll open for Q&A.
I'd like to take this important moment here, the opportunity during this important moment, because at the end of the day, I know that what really matters are the figures. Still, I'd like to highlight the relevance of Q2 2025, not only for the Azzas 2154 S.A. group, but also for Brazilian fashion. The work that was done and well orchestrated by Pedro Parente, all the board members, but especially an open dialogue, the empathy, and everything that Roberto and I built. I'd like to thank you, Roberto. He was fundamental in the creation of our group. All of the concerns that really made sense of the risks of such a big merger with cultural elements and so on, that did happen. We had a year of 2024 and 2025 that was exceptional considering that scenario. All of the strategic movement and partnership alignment was resolved.
I know it's hard for everyone who's outside the company to understand the energy and flow that that evolution is bringing into our business because all of this is very recent. The important change that we're going to announce today is already a result of that new level that we've achieved and the new government that's spearheaded by Nicola, our new Chair, and has three strategic alignments: expedite integration, focus everyone's energy in the business, and as I mentioned, the past year, that energy was used up in other matters, and above all, define our vision for the next five years. Internally, we call that Vision 2030, which will qualify us to maintain solid growth and consolidate the verticals of the fashion segment where we still have a low market share, even though we're leaders compared to shoes and bags.
All of that in Azzas and all the announcements that took a year. On August 1, we celebrated one year of the merger. We had a lot of evolution. I'd like to thank everyone, especially the investors that were patient and have supported us during that year. The level of trust, determination, and energy is as if it were a startup on revenues of almost BRL 15 billion. You can rest assured that the final result of that will be the creation of a huge company. We are just at the beginning. About our results, we grew 10% with a dispersion, I would say, of the performance between the business units, which mirrors that those are internal issues. There's no specific one-off dysfunction.
There are issues of some gears that have to improve in some of the business verticals because the market and the fashion capability, especially in premium, is exempt to macro issues and is more resilient in a moment when we have more tensions, be them economic or political, and high interest is still very strong. The companies, you can see that based on what we went through during the pandemic. Our capability of growth is connected to execution, and that's what we're going to address today. Some of the highlights and big numbers here, Sachete will go into details later. Consolidated gross revenues were BRL 3.6 billion with 10.3% growth year-over-year. EBITDA, we can say recurrent, of BRL 535 million in the second quarter, 9% growth, leverage of 70 basis points, and recurring net income, this is worth noting, of BRL 283 million.
Expressive growth year-over-year, even with the exclusion of the change of the accounting practice, we still have leverage in net income that's extremely relevant. Accounting net income, I know that for the investors' math, that probably isn't considered. However, our balance sheet is an asset. We cannot deny that that strengthens our financial muscle. First half of the year, you can see the figures. You can see that we are solid and robust, achieving in the first half of the year less than 45% of the total of the year, BRL 7 billion. You can show how big we are in the fashion sector, and that will bring on future leverage, but still at the beginning.
Specifically about our business units, cannot deny that the results of our original vertical that was the origin of the Azzas Group and established by my father in 1972 did not have the performance considering our true potential. There's no one single reason here or anything that we can say like a silver bullet and blame. The scenario, the good news is that it's well mapped out and we do know what we have to evolve. Brand health is still very strong for all of them, especially our mother brand, Arezzo. The engagement of our franchisees is very high. Same store sales negative shows our proactivity in decreasing inventory levels for franchisees so that they can still have good turnover. A challenge that we have, which is a bit out of our classic management in product creation, is the Vans brand.
I have to say that this is a good challenge, though, because Vans has achieved its maximum before we expected. We'll have 2025 BRL 1 billion revenues, which was a full potential for 2027. I'd like everyone to consider that in the upcoming quarters that the Vans result should be low single digit given the share that it already has in the number of stores, the volume that it has in e-commerce, and even our own contractual capability for distribution and multi-brands. Our distribution in shoes and bags will be at a better scale than this, not necessarily starting now, but we know the capability that they have. It would be through the legacy brands, though. Another positive highlight, which is still not coming up in the consolidated, but the first signs of repositioning should be in the more premium segment in Brazil.
We wanted to highlight same store sales and very relevant point of sales such as the Guatemi Mall in São Paulo, the JK Mall, and the Leblon Mall in Rio de Janeiro. With an improvement in people, that's one of the reasons for the highlight, but also the strength of this brand, and that's an important thermometer in that growth of 55%. Now about our big highlight, and here this shows the management's attention, the energy and gears, and Roberto's leadership together with a brilliant team that's mainly focused on the business without the matters of handling a more expansive company and especially the brands that weren't growing before. Special highlight to the Animale brand with a very interesting growth. We do have to say that in this company, there's a strength that goes beyond being just an apparel brand, and that has to do with the et cetera launch.
Farm Rio has an amazing growth, 35% in the international segment, 25% in dollars, and that's very much anchored to the share in the U.K., the second country of the brand, in a recent project that started in December 2024 and already has three owned stores, some important concessions, strong sales in e-commerce. In Farm Rio, it's a war game. First, it was the U.S., now the U.K., we're already stepping into France, and other important countries in Europe. In the future, without a doubt, it's still a dream. It's not part of the plan, but Farm Rio will be a global brand. We'll be stepping into other continents, especially Asia, which is very strong in fashion. The path for Farm Rio is very successful, strong, and constant. About Brazil, the Animale brand is the highlight, and Envi as well. This growth is very relevant. It will be sustainable.
We have good assumptions. Sell-in for the multi-brand channel is maintaining a growth pace at 10%. We have good conditions here to maintain something close to high single-digit growth for the second half of 2025. Our basic apparel line, that means the Hering brand, there's very interesting growth recovery at Hering, and the highlight goes into owned stores, a channel where we can manage the supply, not only qualitative, but also quantitative regarding the mix. The store that was launched in the Ibirapuera shopping mall, moving up to others, the Iguatemi Campinas mall and Bourbon mall in São Paulo, do have a performance that it's really hard to believe in their growth. Obviously, there was an area growth, but much less than the total growth of 86%. The growth that's part of the expansion plan, even through the franchises, really drove the Hering brand growth.
E-commerce, 15%, that we believe is the ideal level. Stronger growth presented in the past was mainly driven by some marketplaces that had a high take rate, and we decided not to continue that operation. That's the rate of the growth you should expect. For franchises, channel that we deliberately decided to decrease the supply, and that's part of a management that we want to have a long-lasting relationship. It's a very close relationship. Obviously, we always want to grow, but I wouldn't say that that's a point of concern. Simply, it's just one quarter. What's important is the health of the stores and the sell-out, which is much more important, expressive growth of high single digit of the franchisees. This is a seasonal aspect that's completely explained by the replenishment of the items that are great sellers, not requiring reassortment in this quarter.
Consequently, that made the franchise channel a little lower, but nothing that scares us. In multi-brand, you can see our capability of incrementing that with a deeper view of geoeconomy clusters and shares in more distant areas, especially the Northeast. We have high single-digit growth of 8.4%. Now about the F&L men premium. In this case, the highlight is consistency, lowering expenses, big operational leverage, strong cash generation, reduction in inventory levels, and the capability that we show at the Azzas Group of having talented people and brands, and then having to have a brand that's managed by the founder. That's very important for our group. Compared to female, we have relevant market share where there could be a faster consolidation. This is a less disseminated market. We believe in the brand with special or an expressive growth in the past two months.
This vertical in men's fashion can enable us to have organic growth and maybe even inorganic. What we have in e-commerce, as I mentioned, with Hering, that's a deliberate decrease cost through lower investments in ad cost and selling at full cost. It seems a bit antagonic saying that it's healthy in terms of being lower, but that's the reality. This is our result for Azzas and our great results and a deepening so that you all understand how we're managing and the reality of our four business pillars. Hands and shoes, premium apparel, and I would like to pass the floor to Rafael Sachete, who will provide more highlights for our financial results. Afterwards, we will discuss any question about brands, channels that you find necessary.
Thank you. Good morning, Alexandre, and everyone. Thank you for being part of our conference call.
I'm going to talk about our financial results. We start with our financial results with 10% growth, just considering the continuing brands with highlights to female fashion and lifestyle that showed a very positive performance in this quarter, a very good trend, and our accounting net income, the revenue, we had a 2.6% percentage point growth deviation about the gross revenue and net revenue. The impact is because of an adjustment in subventions very much aligned to our strategy in inventory management. Subventions of the fashion law that impacts our apparel lines become material in our financial statement in replenishing our inventory. Since we're adjusting our working capital and improving inventory efficiencies, the company had less inventory year-over-year. 60% of the impact of this conversion of gross to net revenue comes from less subventions in the period.
Additionally, we have 40% of other impacts that are related to returns. We have a return strategy for our franchisees in the period. The priority is in shoes and handbags and basics. 70% of the results come from shoes and bags and then basics, always aligned to the company's strategy to be close to the franchisee and support them in any correction of route and sell-in and sell-out, aiming at maintaining financial health and the financial capacity of the franchisee to buy new collections and bring novelties to their stores, which is very important for our sell-out and the health of our brands. Now about our gross net income, it's aligned to our short-term impact and a sell-out performance a little lower and also this shrinking. We're trying to sell the shoes and bags leftover from the autumn collection.
Now about our expenses, something we've been reiterating for some time about the company's strategy. We had efficiency of 100 basis points on SG&A on net revenue. Fixed expenses that only grew 1% are expenses, varied expenses are aligned to the revenue growth and eventual expenses also are lower, sporadic expenses. This discipline about SG&A will permeate our trajectory in 2025, and it's aligned to our strategy for the current year where we have a vision of gaining efficiency in terms of company expenses. Therefore, gaining EBITDA and leveraging at 80 basis points also aligned to the strategy of 2025. Now, slide 11, the reconciliation of the adjustments. It's also important to show these numbers. Item one is the long-term incentive program.
Item two is new adjustment in the structure that we announced in April, a layoff in adjusting the structure and reorganizing, focusing on efficiency that is already bringing results throughout the year. We do have some expenses related to the layoffs. Item three and four are related to strategic projects that we still have M&A expenses, residual expenses. Item five and six are positive adjustments. Item five, in the last quarter, we had a provision on legal actions in franchisees. They were reduced according to our attorneys and supported our results. Item six is an earnout of an acquired brand, and this earnout wasn't completely achieved. After this period, we are reverting in the accounts for positive results. On the right side, we're reconciling our net income. Item one is related to what we saw on the left side of the screen. Item two is a recurring item.
It's the combination of the business with this wonderful brand. Item four, which is very relevant, is related to a positive adjustment with our net income on the provisions that we did in 2024 about Law 1424 in fashion. Due to the new updates of the case law of the Supreme Court that happened in the first half of 2025, the company's understanding with their legal team and the consultants that help us on the social contribution and income tax. We suspended the recurring provisions already having a positive impact on our results and reverting those provisions in 2024. As to our indebtedness and cash, we closed the second quarter with gross cash of BRL 823 million, with a level of leverage stable compared to the first quarter, 1.3 times, aligned to our cash strategy and the company's strategy to be very critical about our working capital.
We have been sending this message that the second quarter and third quarter would be recurring compared to the previous years with less cash generation. That's the history of our company. That's our business model. We have a very positive projection for cash generation for the group in the third and fourth quarter, aligned to our strategy of gaining value and efficiency in terms of EBITDA and more efficiency of working capital and CapEx. Those are the financial highlights for the quarter. Now I open to our Q&A.
Before the Q&A, I would like to highlight and give some more flavor to something new. Eight years here, I'm highlighting our financial department. I would like to highlight the extremely excellent management of the company, the way you grew in our company. We'd like to congratulate to deliver this cycle so well.
I would like to thank, it's not here on the slide, but a work of a lifetime. Like I like to say, Luciana Wanzick, which in the past 29 years had an excellent work dedicating herself to her passion and really helped us in building what we have today of the Arezzo, Schutz, and the Capri, Alexandre Birman, and the Sensa, really maintaining a dominance of almost 30% in market share. A cycle that we needed change, we needed leadership. More on the business side, the financial volume and market share that the shoe business achieved needs a person more focused on the strategy. When we are changing and evolving our relationship with the franchisees, there's a lot to be done. Also, simplifying our management.
Sachete is based in Rio Grande do Sul at our headquarters in Campo Bom, where he will have a management that will allow more synergies, more efficiency in expenses, better margins. Rafael, first, has a characteristic that is basic for any successful leader, which is how to create talent and deal with people. From now on, he will take on a new position and his profile in terms of product and marketing will be developed through people. The company in shoes and handbags segment will boost and attract talent of people that are outliers and talents so that we can have autonomy. We're very careful with our governance, and you all know about my origin, my story. I was born almost literally in a shoebox, and now we're working hard with consulting for processes. It's low investment, but it's very important for our blueprint and the governance.
There are two words that will rule our relationship with Sachete, which is alignment and autonomy. This is well negotiated. You can be sure that it's a well-structured movement. I would also like to announce and introduce and welcome Eric. Eric, it's not written, but his middle name is Alexandre. Eric came from a very well-conducted process. It's a very good relationship with Synergy. People who work with Eric, especially his time at Cirella, with several interactions, very good knowledge about our business and a very successful cycle he had with Carrefour making decisions for the company. I'm very happy to announce him joining our team. We're doing a very good onboarding process. We will have a roadshow visiting our investors that will open their doors for us. Eric, welcome. Thank you for being part of our team.
I'm sure that Sachete will have a very seamless transition for shoes and bags, and Luciana will pass the floor to you. I know that here you will be a speaker in the future as the future CEO of a very important business vertical, and the founders are here supporting you.
Thank you, Alexandre. We try to give priority, and it's important to list the very good principles and goals that we have to focus on. With the help of Alexandre and the team, establishing priorities. The first is about the legacy and the care with the brands. The performance and care that this business unit always had and the legacy of the brands and the freshness of the brands is extremely relevant. We have to keep this as a number one priority. The second is related to the business model of reorganizing and optimizing, streamlining the business model.
Alexandre mentioned we're bringing a consulting firm. We're already in the middle of the blueprint and redesigning and aligning each point of the process from creating the product to the sell-out calendar and the participation of each company executive, of each leader, and including the people who are arriving so that we have a very well-oiled process. This transition of leadership isn't as frequent. It lost some important points, and definitely this generates impacts on people and on the business results. Lastly, the third pillar is about sustainability of the business. When we talk about sustainability, it's for the people who are involved, the suppliers, the franchisees, and the economic results.
Wonderful, Sachete. Welcome. This is our new organization strategy, well-defined with an excellent team that I'm sure will do their best for Azzas 2154 with continuous growth of our brands.
I would like to also invite you all to follow the launch of Farm Rio, a brand that likes to make a lot of noise, a campaign that is bringing a lot of boldness to the brand and with the excellent results in e-commerce with BRL 1 million in a few hours and with the brick-and-mortar stores and the opening on August 26th in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro. Now let's go to our Q&A. I pass the floor to Bianca to help me with the questions. Thank you for participating.
Thank you, Alexandre. Thank you, Sachete. Congratulations. And thank you for all your time. Good morning, everyone. Just a reminder, your questions should be submitted through the Q&A icon here on Zoom. First question is from Luis Guarnaiz from BTIG, and he's asking about the return levels. About that rate, could you talk about which period that refers to, or is that specific to the sales of 2Q?
Perfect, Luis. Thank you for your question. Before answering the levels of returns directly and future for 2Q, we should talk about the huge connection between the franchiser and franchisee that is extremely relevant, and the sustainability of the chain is a key success factor in the long term for our business.
When that is not the standard model to understand and receive some of the returns, but when you have a mismatch between sell-in and sell-out or the collection doesn't have good performance, it's important for us to clean up the inventory level of the franchisees so that they can have a financial health to buy the next collections. That's what happened. We had some leftovers from fall and winter, and we recovered those products. When we think of the bigger impacts, were shoes and bags and basic, those are the business units that have a higher share in the franchisee channel. When we look at the future, we don't have a significant out forecast for returns or an increase in that number. We believe that it should decrease. Obviously, that connection with the franchisee will always be there.
Whenever that happens in the future, we could eventually have some return levels. There are figures that don't really affect the operation as a whole, but we do have that prerogative and need eventually. There's nothing in the short term that we can envision for the third and fourth quarter.
Next question is from Danny from XP about the Hering franchisee channel. She's asking, how do you think to recover that channel moving forward, and what are the main levers for that?
First of all, Danny, thank you for your question. It's worth noting that the health of that channel is measured by same store sales and sell-out, and the sale at the end is very positive still at the levels that we expected. Balancing out the inventory could have had a better rate in the quarter before last.
We had the diligence of decreasing for e-commerce replenishment, and for the second half, not necessarily the third quarter, that should balance out. We have same store sell-out and same store sell-in. We always have to look at LTM and not the quarter per se for this. The financial health of the franchisees is doing well. The level of payment is 100%. It's not an issue about the health of the franchisees. It's about the replenishment as a franchiser, which is based on maintaining a balance, and for the third quarter should be corrected, and we should resume growth. It's nothing. Obviously, we do want to grow, and that does impact the consolidated in terms of growth for Azzas 2154 S.A., but it's not something that's highly concerning. Thank you.
Next question is also from Danny from XP. It's about expenses.
She's asking, expenses was a positive surprise for the quarter. How should we consider that line moving forward? What kind of opportunities do you envision?
Excellent, Danny. Thank you for your question. That has been a topic that we've been debating a lot since the end of 2024, a period where we increased the company's expenses level. It was necessary at that time, investment to unify the company, the first balance sheet, unifying the first corporate areas and FP&A. That's the idea. We can have single controls and one single company, investments in marketing, new projects, the shoe business for Hering, for Farm Rio launches, all of that pressured our SG&A in 2024. We've aligned that in the first quarter where the company significantly focused on adjusting expenses and efficiency gains related to the merger. We also had a layoff in April.
Optimizing the expenses turns into these hands-on numbers already. There was an absolute effect of adjusting the organizational structure. We already have, we didn't expect them for the second quarter, but it already impacted us, and we expect that to continue in the second half. We'll be optimizing our expenses, starting off with the organizational structure has been adjusted and will lead to efficiency. We do have some gains in shipping and technology, even in investments in CapEx and technology is already much lower year-over-year, and other consulting expenses, operating expenses that were optimized given the merger. We envision that in 2026, we'll have even more optimizations. There are many internal projects to unify these structures, efficiency, and partnership changes that would, or movements that would change that without giving any guidance or figures.
When you look at the line item for the fixed expenses, they were practically zero, 1% in a very high inflation scenario that we're experiencing right now. That is a result of redundancy in departments. There's still a lot to be done. That's 100% mapped out, such as premium apparel verticals, both in Rio. We have leveraging synergies and our shared services area that will help and partnership reorganization. That's in the long term, but there's a whole team and roadmap dedicated to that. That's called the Sintonia project. Still in the beginning of the year, some areas will be, or end of the year, will be mobilized. Danny, about the expenses, especially operating, fixed operating expenses, there are many levers there. The variable expenses, certain some difficulty because that's connected to sales and the efficiency in e-commerce that goes into that line item.
We know that there's some opportunities and eventual expenses. That's our deliberation where we have marketing and branding mainly that are not effectively marketing that's connected to sales, but are important for us to build our legacy. In the consolidated figures, you can rest assured that the coefficient of expenses over net revenues is a big driver and should improve quarter-over-quarter. The EBITDA margin after IFRS 18.5% is the highest in history, is in a trend where we envision the dream to achieve a margin close to 20%.
Excellent, Alexandre. Next question is from Eric from Santander, also about expenses, but mainly regarding one-off. There's another point about expenses. With the integration going into a faster phase, what should we expect from one-off expenses in upcoming quarters, giving the sequential increase in the second quarter?
Great question. Recurring message. We've been giving this message since the beginning of the year that the one-off expenses related to the deal that were relevant in 2024 that would become closer to zero, much lower, and that's already happening. First quarter, they're already been substantially lower, and second quarter, we have BRL 2 million related to the deal. Eventually, we may have specific projects, changes in areas. Yeah, could have an impact there, but nothing as big as it was in the past. Just one-off small expenses compared to the total company EBITDA. That's the recurring vision that we have.
Perfect. Thank you. Next question, once again from Eric from Santander. That's regarding the pillars of our Vision 2030 project. Could you comment even briefly about the fundamental pillars for the 2030 vision of the group and how that should guide the company's direction in upcoming quarters and years?
Perfect, Eric. Excellent question.
I'll give you the end gain in fashion. That's what guides us. We have 28% market share in shoes. Fifteen years ago, it was highly disseminated as fashion, and today, market share is approximately 12%. Right, Bianca? Consolidated women and men in fashion, correct? We have a lot of room to gain market share through the efficiency of new channels, expanding the brick-and-mortar stores through franchisees, by monitoring the multi-brand channel in a more accurate manner, by increasing the frequency of number of collections, having continuous replenishment items being driven in season, and also building the ecosystem, building the platform that is currently very well designed. It's a gradual process. It's like building a building. The pillars are there, the foundation is there, and now we have to bring up the walls, one on top of the other, a floor that we have to build.
The pillars were well defined, and now the gears that the Azzas 2154 Group is creating will be a category killer in fashion. Let me give you an analogy. Who is second place in premium fashion? Go to the shopping mall and see the satellite stores that are not part of the Azzas 2154 Group, how they offer, what is their competitive edge compared to the Azzas 2154 Group that has the support to grow this business. Our specialization in the excellence of managing the channels, be it own stores, franchisees, multi-brand, and our efficiency in terms of supply chain and systems, that's going to be a plug and play that we're mapping out so we can bring in new brands that will be a part of our portfolio.
It was a year of making the foundation and these pillars stronger, and now we're mapping out the end gain in the operational efficiency, preparing our financial capability and our currency, which is through the market cap to restart organic growth, thinking of fashion, which is the big base, and then expanding to a couple's closet and also for children, looking at all the categories that are part of a closet. We're highly focused in shoes, bags, and fashion, and there are other categories that we're not in yet. It's going to be a long-term process. Our group is focusing on 2154, but those are the pillars that will guide the definition of the future for our 2030 vision.
Perfect. Thank you, Alexandre. Just an additional comment about the market share. When we add women and men's fashion, we're close to 19%. Great. Next question.
Oh, it's just double that to get to 38%. That's fine. We'll get there.
[Foreign language]
Thank you, Sachete. More about shoes and bags. He's asking if this level of returns and a weaker performance in the quarter were already enough to clear the channel, if we could talk more about the initiatives that we're taking to normalize operations.
When you talk about sell-in, we have to split franchise and multi-brands and also Vans. I'm going to start with Vans, which I mentioned in my opening statement. Vans achieved its ceiling of growth. Now, Vans' ceiling growth will be flat. It's what we wanted, achieving BRL 1 billion with the brand. In that, we're going to get ready for new licenses since Vans is already well segmented. For our shoes and brands, the multi-brands, those are growing strong, and we have a penetration in terms of number of doors to open for specific brands, especially with Arezzo and growth in the bags segment.
We call shoes and bags in multi-brand with an interesting growth opportunity. Schutz is well distributed with its brand price point. There's not a lot of growth for Schutz. About the other selling channel, which is franchisees, just like we explained with our work with Hering, the financial health of the franchisee is its growth. We have to improve, unlike Hering, in which the sell-out is positive at a level that is satisfactory but not excellent. For the shoes brand, it's close to flat, which is bad in our opinion. The first thing we have to do is increase the same store sell-out so that we can have the same store selling to be equal. For the past 12 months, the same store sell-out is zero, and same store sell-in is - 2%. It's not that bad, which shows that we're being diligent, as we mentioned.
This one-off in returns for the summer collection that we had to accept is part of our process of having a very high satisfaction rate for our franchisee. This won't happen with a winter collection, which the turnover at full price were better. We don't have to accelerate same store selling in the short term. This is a gradual process, but we know how to operate this, right, Sachete? Really pushing as much as we can in the sell-out so that sell-in grows back to levels that the business has historically delivered, even if it's a high single digit, around 8% growth, which we want to achieve in the next quarters.
Thank you, Alexandre. Next question is from Juan Suárez from Citi about working capital. He's asking, how do you see working capital from now on? There's an important front to address in inventory. How do we see this route?
Thank you for your question. This is being well addressed. When we look at our numbers in comparison, we had a significant reduction in inventory days year-over-year, 14 days reduction. We also had efficiency in accounts payable, which was offset by the accounts payable. Our purchase and basics in the quarter compared to the first and second quarter. The volume of accounts payable is better in the second quarter. When we look isolately at the inventory lines, we already have this gain in efficiency. This is a continuous project for efficiency that we believe that there's a lot to gain still in terms of inventory. It's a very detailed work that has to be done together with the brands, with planning. We don't have any ruptures and no reduction in sales, but we see the year of 2025.
In our planning, the planning is to gain efficiency in terms of inventory, and the long-term vision is that we can be even more efficient in inventory, reducing models. Yes, that's the most important topic, if I could add. I know that the list of Q&A is long, and we like to be very detailed in our answers. The main driver that we have in our strategy for inventory efficiency in apparel is change model. This is already bringing fruit in apparel, migrating to Blumenau, where we change our hub too. It will be more linear in terms of supply. Our goal is to reduce large waves of inventory, and we want to break that into smaller waves and more constant so we don't have to employ as much capital in inventory.
In women's apparel, our ambition, despite being more challenging due to the diversity, but Farm, which is more standardized with industrial intelligence to help us with the prints, will help us with a smaller lead time and help us with inventory. Our work inventory over net revenue is about 28%. Historically, in shoes, it was 22%. We have a strategic planning that is part to reduce to going to levels of 22%- 24%. This will happen by reducing inventory because our sales deadlines are that short, and the payment times, considering the health of our suppliers, are also healthy.
Thank you. Our next question is still from João from Citi about the tax. Could you talk about the tax strategy for the second quarter of 2025? How should we think about the tax brackets for the future?
João, as I mentioned at the beginning of the call, we had an update about the case law with the Superior Court, not connected to the presumed credit. Our legal advisors and our external audit say that our benefits have the characteristics of presumed credit. Our interpretation and our way to allocate and recognize results is not taxing BRL 14,789 of social contribution. Additionally, as JIT CP to reduce social contribution and income tax, the mid and long-term vision of the company is that this bracket is low. We will have some payments, especially for the legal entities that might have operating profit, but very much reduced and peripheral, considering the whole of the company. This vision is what we have from now on and what we are considering in our future projections.
Thank you. Our next question is from Gastino BBA about revenue and future growth. How are you thinking about the growth by BU? Do you expect an acceleration of the continuous brand's growth compared to the second quarter?
Gastino, good morning. Thank you for your question. In women's apparel, we had very positive growth, and it will continue positive in the high teens. Looking at all the brands, of course, a highlight for Farm Rio, but it already achieved historical growth of 25%. We're very confident in our collections. The sell-in is very positive, so you can expect high-teen growth in the segment. For men's apparel, as I said, deliberately, we slowed down selling in e-commerce so we could grow in a more healthy manner, and a percentage of 35% over the total of the segment. Same-store sales in brick-and-mortar stores is very positive, and the growth of multi-brand is also strong. The franchise stores in brick-and-mortar stores also had positive growth.
In the past, we had a revenue share with the franchise and the digital channel that wasn't profitable for our business, so we slowed that down as well. This impacts the franchisee in terms of selling. We should maintain in the mid-teens for the men's apparel. For the basic apparel, we will maintain the rates with an improvement in the franchisees at the end of the year, but it should be the same. Now, with the shoes and bags, with the new management, it's continuous evolve being processed. It should stay at these levels for the second half, with gains in December and Christmas and for the year of 2026.
Thank you. Our next question is still from Gastino about the impacts of the tariffs from the U.S. How are you considering both for bags and shoes produced in Brazil, as in Farm Global produced in Asia?
Let's talk about more broadly. It's something we can't get away from. For shoes and bags, the United States market since 2023, due to our strategic deliberation, we started to slow down. This distribution accounts for less than 8% of the sales in shoes and bags, which is diluted. We're talking about less than 2% of the Azzas Group. The impact here won't be material for our results. In the very short term, there's not much to do. We have to deliver the products. We have department stores counting on our delivery for the fall collection in September, and the resort collection was sold. Our spring collection for January 2026, we readjusted 30% on the prices, which was received in an okay manner. There's inflation in all segments in the U.S. We don't see a slowing down in purchases in U.S. dollars.
For 2026, if there's anything out of the norm of what is already happening now, we will maintain and see if the customers at the other end will pay. Schutz shoes go from $129 to $159 because the entire market will be inflated, will suffer inflation. It's not just us. Farm Rio that are produced in Asia already had an impact. It's already part of our financial statement. The second half, we are producing, buying, and distributing at a new tax rate, and we had an offset, a reduction of prices from our suppliers. We also readjusted prices at the other end, and for some product category, we reallocated sourcing to countries that had suffered a lower tariff increase than the Asian countries.
The changes made were very quick, and it's not going to affect the Azzas Group and the consolidated results because we were very agile to offset something that we can't control.
Thank you, Alexandre. The next question is from Alexandre from Morgan Stanley. He's asking about Schutz. Can you share more color about the Schutz turnaround?
Okay, great, Alexandre. As I mentioned, Schutz, the more premium segment here in São Paulo, had very positive results. The brand is bringing customers that we had lost in the past, the more premium customer that wants something more fashionable. 14% growth at the Iguatemi Mall makes me very hopeful because we're going to start renovations now to a project that makes us very confident. We can work. We will be able to continue open in the same hall at Iguatemi. I would invite all of you to go see it.
At Oscar Freire store, we will also have a temporary renovation. The franchisees are very happy. We have iconic successes in the winter collection models that were completely sold out, and for the handbags, we're still growing. Schutz is at a level that makes us very happy, resuming our position and growth. Of course, it's a BRL 1 billion brand that can't grow too much in the premium segment, but it will go back to the high single digit. It's what we expect from the brand with sustainability for future growth.
Thank you, Alexandre. Unfortunately, we're at the end of our call. All the other questions we will answer later. Thank you very much for your trust in our company. Thank you, team, Roberto, and all the other partners, our Board of Directors that have been guiding us so well. Rafael Sachete, this was your last call as CFO.
Thank you for your journey. I hope you all success as CEO of shoes and handbags. Thank you, Lou, and welcome Eric that will be with us in the next quarter. Thank you.