Please select the interpretation button through the globe icon at the bottom part of your screen, and choose your language of preference, Portuguese or English. For those listening to the earnings call in English, you have an option to mute original audio in Portuguese. We'd like to let you know that this earnings call is being recorded and will be available on the IR website of the company, where you'll also see all of the full earnings release material. You can download the presentation on the chat icon in English as well. During this call, all participants will have their mics off. At that moment, we'll begin the Q&A session. To submit a question, please select the Q&A button on the bottom part of your screen. Write your name to enter the queue.
As your name is announced, a request to activate your mic will appear on your screen, then you must accept this and submit your question. We'd like to instruct you that please, all questions may be submitted at once. We would also like to highlight that the information in this release and presentation, and possible statements that could be made during the earnings call about business perspectives, projections, and operational targets, and financial goals at Grupo Mateus, represent beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as information that is currently available in the market. Future statements are not a guarantee of performance. They involve risks and uncertainties and assumptions, as they refer to future events, and therefore, rely on circumstances that may or not occur.
Investors must understand that overall economic conditions and market conditions, as well as other operational factors, may affect the future performance of the group and lead to results that differ materially from those listed in such statements. Today, we have the presence of the company's executives. Mr. Ilson Mateus, the Founder and Chairman of the Board, Jesuíno Martins, the CEO, Túlio Queiroz, the VP and Director for Investor Relations, and Sandro Oliveira, the VP for Operations, Logistics, and Commercial Activities. Now I'll pass the floor to Mr. Ilson Mateus.
Well, guys, good morning, everyone. First of all, I would like to thank you so much and thank God for bringing us here today at this moment. I also want to thank each of you for being present in one more earnings call as we present our results.
I wanna start off by, as always, talking about our expansion project, which is a very important project for our business. I also wanna share in the second quarter that we have 5 stores that are very important. 3 different states and a store like Eunápolis, which is a cash and carry at a crossroad with different highways, and this store has a significant importance because it is the closure of a greater density in a cash and carry region in the south of Bahia. This store is part of a group of 6 stores that were already opened and are still going to be opened, and I wanna highlight this as it's a 300-kilometer radius with 6 stores of ours, which is very positive, a density within our strategy in the business, especially in Bahia, such a huge state.
But we bring in Eunápolis, and then we have [Foreign Language] , which I will share more info about up ahead. But these are five stores that really bring density to the south of Bahia and very important revenue, logistics, facilities, and supply chain benefits, and also share gains. Right here, you can also see that in Russas, in Ceará, we also have a store that's been closing our route there and generating more density in the interior of Ceará. This is a store that has been diluting costs a lot, making the supply in this route easier. We have different stores there that are also at a radius of about 300 kilometers. They're very important cities.
On our side, on our right side here, you can see one of our very important projects, which is our retail brand. These are three stores that are super relevant. Although they are stores that are about 800-1,000 square meters of sales area, they bring in an important balance point. These stores in Grande São Luís, Raposa, and two other neighborhoods that are very important, and these are stores that are in the Grande São Luís, the metropolitan area of São Luís, and they have a revenue that is exactly what we expected in our research, and it brings an important tier up ahead for the future. And above all, it's a store that helps balance out the EBITDA and margin.
And so, in the first few months, these stores already bring in an EBITDA of over 5%, so these are very relevant stores. And you'll see that up ahead, we will also be balancing out the cash and carry and retail stores, and also service stores. Stores that are bigger for supermarkets, but also, stores that have a high level of service, as we're always really concerned with our margins and volume and sales. And so, on the next slide, I want to bring some other stores that were already opened here on the left side, two stores that are very important. We've presented them, as under construction in our last quarter. Barreirinhas is in a city that's a really important, tourist hub in the state of Maranhão.
We had a retail store there, but it's a booming city, and our store was extremely. It was way too much volume of customers, and that's where we decided that we needed another store. We thought one store would be enough back then, but then we saw the growth of the city in the last four years was huge, and we really needed to add a cash and carry store to be able to service the food sector and the transformation industry. So, it brought in a completely new source of revenue and a level of service that has a lot more quality for this food transformation segment of the business. Then we also have the Caucaia store in the Fortaleza region. It's also super important to ensure our share gains in Ceará and in the Fortaleza region.
It's a store we opened, and it was super successful. It's really centralized in a high-density area. And alongside this, on the right side, in Fortaleza, you also have a neighborhood called José Walter. We'll be opening it now in September. It's a store that has added on to our network, and it really intends to ensure strong revenue and very relevant in the capital, in Fortaleza. And it's also a store that will help us a lot with the share and dilution of costs in our distribution center that we have in the state of Ceará. And here we have two stores that are really important in the region of Pernambuco.
As you are seeing, Caruaru is a city, a big city, one of the biggest cities actually in the state of Pernambuco, and it's a store that also brings in a different unique model, beyond what we've already seen in Olinda and Grande Recife, the metropolitan region of Recife, but with services inside. And it comes in alongside a project that's very robust, which includes Pernambuco, Alagoas, and Paraíba. And that intends an important projection of gains of revenue that's really relevant, and we're also expecting a strong dilution in our operational costs in this store and these services with the example of Caruaru. We have Casa Caiada in Olinda, where we have two stores that are important, iconic stores, which also is Casa Forte and Boa Viagem that will come to add on.
And then in João Pessoa, we already have some stores there, and Valentina is also another neighborhood that is really high density, and it's gonna help us to consolidate our position in the state of Paraíba. So with this, we really bring in some stores that are super important for our business and for our growth. And now moving on to the next slide, slide seven, we have a bit more of our expansion, and you can see the balance point here that we're searching for, because we want to have stores in Maranhão. And these are stores that are retail stores. You see the three examples I showed you in the São Luís metropolitan region.
These are smaller stores in Rosário and São Mateus, medium-sized cities, but we have an expectation for reasonable revenue, but also a considerable margin that will bring in a balance point. As we look ahead, on the right side, on the top side, we can see there's two stores that are already super stores. They're bigger. There's a service area above 2,000 sq m, and they're stores that are retail stores. We've been also following this service brand, as we have two stores that are really important, and they're part of this service brand and offering we have in São Luís. So these two stores are in the capital of Piauí, but also in Ceará.
These stores are service stores that will also have relevant revenue, but we also plan to bring in margin levels that will help balance out the business, because we're always searching for this balance point, which is sales and margins. On the bottom, as you can see, we also have on the left side Ilhéus in Bahia. It's a city that is super important. And then you can see the opening there in Ilhéus. We closed the southern region of Bahia. We're super well-positioned, and then up ahead, we're gonna be thinking about all the other brands. But on the right side, as you can see, we have two stores that are really, really important in Recife, and that's where, with these stores, we'll be able to consolidate our brand in Recife and also in the state of Pernambuco.
So now I'm going to pass the floor on to our CEO, Jesuíno Martins.
Thank you, Mr. Ilson. Good morning, Túlio. Good morning, Sandro, and everyone that's watching us today. I want to quickly share with you some of our achievements financially in the second quarter of 2024, as always. In the first block, on the left side, you can see that we were able to achieve a really good gross revenue with BRL 8.7 billion in revenue in the second quarter. This is a growth on average of double digits, and it's very significant. Very similar, actually, to what we've been sharing with you in the past quarters, but we have an increment of BRL 1.4 billion of additional revenue in the second quarter.
So we're really happy with these results once again, and we really want to share this with all of you. And on the bottom part of the graph here, you can also see the photograph of our first half of 2024... and then we were able to achieve BRL 17 billion. This is also very robust growth, 23% CAGR. And in the first quarter, we have an increment of over BRL 3 billion in revenue, and once again, we're really happy about the quality of our gross revenue. In line with what we've been sharing with you throughout all of these years. On the second block here, you can see our growth in same-store sales. This is really important because we've been able to, in the past two years, grow above double digits in our same-store results.
In the second quarter of 2022, we had a growth that was very significant, in the second quarter of 2023 as well. What we tried to do in the second quarter of 2024 was just to keep a balance point between these indicators, such as the gross margin, EBITDA margin, and really keep consistent results in line with what we've been committing to with you guys. Basically, we're delivering same-store growth of 4.8%, and in this scenario, with growth of strong two strong years, we continue to grow. In the same way, we have same-store growth in the bottom part here of 7.1. Once again, very good quality based on an important growth basis and comparison basis, and we grew over 10% in our same store.
So, we're really happy, and once again, we tried to keep up with the balance between these indicators so that we could really deliver the best results possible in the EBITDA margin, and I'm gonna share this with you as well. Then on the third block, where you see the gross margins, I'm really happy as well because it demonstrates the resilience we've had with these indicators, and we've been sharing this with you all in the last presentations, with our concern regarding the gross margins. Despite our strong expansion, despite our competition that's really intense, and despite the increases in ICMS we've been going through in the first quarter and also in the second quarter of 2024, we've been preserving our gross margin, and it's really similar to what we've been sharing with you guys throughout the last quarters.
It's a gross margin that's really high quality, 22.4%. And on the bottom part, we have the consistency of our gross margin in the quarter and the semester, so 22.4%. And so we're also really happy with this balance point we achieved, and we've been able to implement in our earnings. Then on the fourth block, where you can see our EBITDA margin, that's where I wanna really highlight this, because there's an important point here. We have a commitment towards the market and people that really believe in our business, that we should always deliver an EBITDA margin that's really high quality. And in our assessment, we were able to once again achieve this. Once again, keeping a balance between same-store growth, gross margins, and of course, the EBITDA margin.
So, we've been delivering 7.4% EBITDA margin with high quality. These are BRL 566 million in EBITDA. We're growing 17%, so that's super important growth, and on the bottom part, you can see the performance of our EBITDA in the semester. 7.2% EBITDA. In the first quarter, we shared the specificities we achieved, but we're delivering BRL 1.1 billion in EBITDA in this semester of 2024. And then finally, I also wanted to share our net income, which is the composition of all of these efforts that we were able to implement to balance out our same stores, our gross margins, our EBITDA margins. So, we're delivering a net income in the second quarter of 2024 of BRL 344 million.
We're growing 18%, double digits, 4.5% in net income, and we wanted to share this all with you guys and how we're so excited and happy, and once again, continue to commit to search for consistency in our earnings, as we've been sharing with the market so far. Well, on slide number 9, we wanted to highlight that over here on this chart, we're demonstrating our CAGR that we've been implementing ever since ground zero, when we first listed in 2020. When we had our IPO, we've had a CAGR ever since, in the past five years, of over 23% gross revenue. And in the same way, the EBITDA with an EBITDA margin of 17%, with...
or 7%, sorry, which demonstrates the resilience of our business and our work, and above all, how we've been able to grow, keeping up with this balance, and above all, generating value. Not only growing to grow, but really with this purpose, and this slide talks about this concern and commitment towards the market. On this slide, I want to thank you all for believing in our work. I want to thank the market. I want to thank our team that's been dedicating, dedicated to this throughout so many years, keeping up with us, and I want to wrap up our presentation, this part of the presentation. Now Sandro will go over a bit more of our results in our Northeast expansion, which was probably one of the things that most contributed towards achieving these earnings in the second quarter of 2024. Thank you, Sandro.
Hey, good morning. Thank you, Jesuíno. Thank you, Ms., Mr. Ilson and Túlio. Thank you, everyone. Good morning... and I'm really honored to come here and share a bit of the results of our earnings with this part of our business. As you can see on this slide, we've had an increase of four stores from the first quarter to the second quarter, and in this network of stores that we're able to fulfill over 12 months operation in the expansion. With all of this, we've had an expansion of 0.6 in the post-IFRS EBITDA, which is where we went from 5.4% to 6%.
This is due to the work of our regional teams, our commercial departments in each state, where we were able to achieve, in this store network, an expansion of 30% in our gross profits, which contributed to, despite expanding the amount of stores, with a characteristic of over 12 months opening, but we were able to expand our EBITDA by 0.6. And just, as a matter of information, in our expansion today in Ceará, from Ceará to Bahia, we have 44 stores operating, and that represents 26% of our current revenue. Which means, as we expand, we're able to really see the maturity of our teams as we deliver results, and the stabilization of our operation in these stores.
So we can also see on this chart that we have expansion in our market share in the states where we operate, which includes, ever since the Northeast all the way to Pará, and we have a share of 21.4 initially in the first six months of 2023. Then we land 2024 with, with 24.1 by the end of the first semester of 2024, with an expansion of 2.7% in our share. And we wanna reaffirm our commitment to continue to expand with quality, searching for results that are consistent, and that can add value to the company. And we understand that part of the results we've achieved, we can already state are due to the work performed by this team in the states where we're expanding.
So I just wanna highlight our gratitude to our team, reinforcing what our CEO has mentioned, and I wanna say that our commitment is to continue to add value to the company, which is something that will persist. Thanks, guys. That's what I had to share. Now I pass the floor on to Túlio. Thank you, Sandro. Good morning, Ilson. Good morning, Jesuíno. Good morning, everyone here. Well, moving on to our slide 13, we have our numbers related to the gross profit and gross margin of the company. Here it's important to highlight that the consistency curve, as Jesuíno has already mentioned, you probably remember that this was a big challenge for us, especially in the beginning of 2023, when we were working on our first advances and our work for working capital from a more structural perspective.
And then we created this challenge and this commitment to bringing this consistency to our gross margin, and I think, in the last, quarters, we've been really high demonstrating this, improving this. But the most recent challenge was really the payment of the PIS/COFINS tax on subventions, due to the new, accounting rules that were applicable and valid from 2024 onwards, which represents 0.3 percentage points upon our net revenue. So that was something that we were able to also, work towards achieving, and overcoming this additional challenge that appeared in 2024. So from an operational perspective, it really brings, a bit of this evolution, as we were able to we had to provide some amortization for this additional challenge.
In the accumulated results, you can see this evolution in the top line in the group with BRL 3.3 billion of gross profit and a growth of 22.8%. It's really a combination: quality traction in the top line, consistency in our gross margin, really making us have value generation in the group that's really high quality. On the next slides, we'll be showing you the subsequent topics. On slide 14, we get into the numbers related to the operational expenses in the group, which added up to BRL 1.162 billion in the second quarter. This is a growth of 19%, and this represents 15.1% of our net revenue. I think this is an important point about this quarter.
We were able to fit in operational expense level at 15.1%, which was pretty much the historical series for the year as a whole. As well as this evolution in regards to the first quarter, where there was a bit more pressure, and we observed there was like it was, like, 15.4. So here we split this into some highlights, and we shared this also in the first quarter, and we designed a budget for expenses following, like, a matrix for 2024, where we're able to bring all of the main managers and budgets to validate and improve this at the management level with the CEO's participation.
Then throughout the 2nd quarter, in our presentation, we with the results for the first quarter, we noticed that throughout the last months, we had the first control and capture meetings, monitoring our budgets in the main areas in the company. In the administrative front, this was really important as well because we've been working in a consistent manner in the company, and we wanna give you an example here, which is today we have a headcount number. We're in the middle of 2024, and we have a headcount number that's exactly the same as what we had when we ended 2023, despite the expansion in the group. And our idea is that we can evolve more and more with these designs.
Another highlight also was the work we've been doing with expenses for traveling, automating processes, improving our travel policies, and all of the instruments and resources related to this line, which is so important for the group as a whole. As we mentioned, we're in the beginning of this initiative. As you all know, it's gonna be a long path, and it has to be an ongoing effort. We must be very careful about this as well. We're really being careful, and we're working on a lot of analysis in a gradual manner, and starting off, especially with the administrative front. Overall, in the semester, we had a growth of about 24% year-over-year.
But as I did mention, in the semester, it's like 15.3, but that's a lot more due to the weight of the first quarter, since the second quarter already reached a level of 15.1. Now, moving on to slide 15, we have our numbers for the EBITDA in the group. I believe Jesuíno has already shared the main topics and elements here, backing up this number. And I just wanted to highlight once again, the consistency of this profitability level. I think the company in the first quarter had a same-store sales that really had a growth approach of medium digits, average digits. And we knew how to fit in profitability from one quarter to another when the pace of growth changes.
It's not easy to fit in this level of profitability, and I think the company was agile. We were able to work on the levers, especially with the margins, consistency, and performance in the new regionals, and working on consistency for our agendas with our suppliers when it comes to all of the budgets and all of the expenses overall. So, as we mentioned, week after week, we prepare to face our challenges. Each quarter has a different challenge. We have challenges where some quarters you have margin challenges or expense challenges, but the point is the company is always able to kind of bring these elements to a balance point and have profitability consistency. And additionally, I want to remind you all that once again, the PIS/COFINS fees on subvention is 0.3 of the net revenue.
So, it's a topic that if it weren't for this effect, the EBITDA margin would have had a positive impact. But once again, this is just one more challenge the company had to absorb in its results. So, moving on to slide number 7-16, sorry. We have the numbers related to our net income. The first block here is just to talk about the actual rate and income tax, which in this quarter was 1%. As you've all seen in the first quarter of 2024, we had delivered 11.9, practically 12% of the actual rate. And here, guys, it's kind of what we've been talking about all this time with you guys, because we've been redesigning our tax plan for the group.
By the end of 2024, all of the subvention and legislation related to investments was altered, and we've been working on these different initiatives. So, in the first quarter, we had already been working with the interest on equity, and we brought this out once again. Then we had also worked on the topic of offsetting or compensating the accumulated losses, and we've also brought that once again for discussion. And this time we brought in another column, which is income tax on or the deferral of income tax on provisions. So here you can see a really important topic to share with you guys. Of course, when you bring in this topic, once again, the company has predictability for income tax payments, and the effect is a little stronger, so the BRL 50 million that appeared in the second quarter.
But anyways, we've foreseen a quarter after quarter impact, about BRL 7 million-BRL 10 million from now on. So it's another column we're gonna bring into our tax planning process, and of course, looking up ahead, we're gonna continue to work strongly. We've been sharing with all of you guys that we've been looking and studied all of this very carefully with all of the Sudene plans, the Lei do Bem law as well. And all of the income tax credits on subvention in the legislation, which allows for depreciation leases, and this is a topic we haven't done anything about yet. So, we're just monitoring it and understanding how all of this is gonna be interpreted by the by the lawmakers, and so that we can then bring this in a more precise manner.
So, we'll be working on different columns, and whichever ones are ready, we'll be able to share with you, but we also know that we're going to be working on other segments from now on. In the bottom part of the slide, we just show you what the composition is of the net income, net profit, and want to bring in transparency to two topics that are now recurring, which add up to BRL 20 million in the quarter. Essentially, this was a decision for the month of June, where the PIS/COFINS credits will not be applicable anymore. So, we had the reversal of this, and this led to this effect. Then from a benefit of the results, we had some work done that we've been discussing with y'all on the PIS/COFINS credit for exempt for essential expenses.
So, we were able to offset part of this effect, which is also related to the previous period. So just to give you some more transparency, and in this way, the net income ends with BRL 347 million against BRL 294 million related to the second quarter of 2023. And in the full year, we're talking about BRL 587 million against BRL 525 million related to the first six months of 2023. So, on the next slide, number 17, we have the numbers for the cash conversion cycle. This is a topic that we've been discussing a lot with you guys about, and it's one more quarter where we're able to have important consistency, despite knowing we always have some seasonality quarter over quarter.
We were able to achieve an important evolution of 8 days when compared to the same period last year. We went from 82 days to 74 days, and the same level of the first quarter of 2024. As you all know, we've been working on these initiatives for the stock suppliers, and especially, this is a topic that we were able to end the year with. We ended 2023 with some additional challenges we had in 2024, and we were committed to achieve this. We were able to really demonstrate we're on the right path. We know we've been working on this very carefully and analyzing the opportunities for stock internally and also working very carefully with our suppliers' accounts.
We know this involves price negotiations and different mechanics, as well as other negotiations of the deadlines, okay? But we're super excited with this and. But we are aware of this, and we have the conditions to continue to improve. So, we have the numbers related to generation and cash consumption in our main segments, and this is once again, on the left side, you have cash generation of BRL 191 million. And here, this is really related to our profitability agenda that we've just discussed on the EBITDA performance as well, which reflects on the operations, and then, of course, the working capital consumption, which comes with a more balanced sequence because of the improvements we've been working on in the cash conversion cycle.
So the company is generating cash from a business perspective, and then it invests this money with the BRL 314 million in CapEx in the first period. And then from this amount, we consume 202, which generates a cash consumption of BRL 110 million in the quarter. And I want to remind you all that it's a very, it's a much smaller level than the consumption we had registered in the same period last year, and that demonstrates the consistency once again, and from the three segments, right? Profitability, working capital improvements, and also the discipline led by the CapEx consumption with the volumes of these investments. And so, moving on to slide number 19, I want to show you the level of leverage is very consistent.
We've been designing this 0.3 times the EBITDA in the sequence, basically one quarter or another, where it goes to, like, 0.4. But I think this is a very solid axis, and this is, of course, related to the profitability combination, working capital and CapEx. But we were able to keep up with the level of net debt, and this is really in line with the growth levels of the group and also the capital generation from now on. And we want to keep this discipline. As Ilson mentioned, we have many different initiatives for expansion. Now, we have the new regional generating profitability and a better level. And part of this opening is in regions where the level of maturity is high, is quicker, the Maranhão and Pará, as Ilson also mentioned in the presentation.
Moving on to slide 20, we also have a CapEx panorama, and here you can see there's not much of a secret to this, but just recently, basically, all of this CapEx is related to the store openings agenda, and as you can see in the slides presented by Jesuíno, and also the acquisition of land. And so, this is really related to the expansion policy for the group, but now we have to be careful, and we have to care for the return rates for these stores, and really looking at the return rates with discipline, so we can allocate this adequately with the capital generated by the group. So, guys, these are the points we have, and from now on, we can all be available to answer any of your questions. Thank you. Now, we'll start off with our Q&A session.
I want to remind you all that if you have any questions, you must select the Q&A icon. At the bottom part of your screen, write your question and enter the queue. As your name is announced, a request to activate your mic will appear on the screen. Then, you must activate your mic to submit your question. We'll move on to our first question by João Soares from Citi. João, we'll open up your mic so that you can submit your question. Please, João, you may proceed.
Hi, guys. Good morning, and, well, I just wanted to cover two points here. First of all, I wanted to hear about the short-term performance at the cash-and-carry level. And, we had seen some market cash-and-carry details, and we saw April and June were a little more challenging. May was pretty good.
I wanted to understand if this is consistent with the company's performance and understand how we should be looking at this in the short term. Also wanted to hear from more of a macro vision. We still hear about income really used up by debts and even the bets platforms in Brazil. So how are you seeing this really impact the company, and also the food inflation dynamics in your region, and also about the competitive environment? That really called our attention, and this has been generating a lot of debates with the cash-and-carry trend, where you can pay for your purchase in three installments around Brazil. How do you see this? How are you positioning yourself, and does it make sense to have any shift in this dynamic?
I can start off with this one. Well, I think your question is really interesting, João, because from a performance perspective in the cash-and-carry segment, once again, we've been at least in the past two years having very strong growth in our same stores, and what we have been searching for is to keep up a balance in everything we do. So basically, we continue to grow, even with this growth rate that's very robust for two consecutive years. And I can anticipate that in the third quarter, we also keep up our growth. So, when it comes to this, I have nothing to share with you that differs from what we've already been seeing. We are gonna continue to search for this balance. We're really optimistic with the second semester. We'll get into our anniversary campaign, and it's really strong. We're super optimistic about it.
Anyways, the point we want to share with you all is that we need to keep our eyes open still, and we're always going to be searching for ways to deliver same-store growth, Cash and Carry with the maximum quality, and keep up with balance. Then from a debt perspective, we have been hearing from the market a lot about this, but I still can't attribute this result, or whichever it may be, to forcing this too much. We know that the first half was not easy, really intense competition, but I don't think the debts and the bets are really impacting that much. There could be some kind of effect, but we're really working towards minimizing the impacts of this, and I still wouldn't attribute any indicators to such a strong external influence like this.
From an inflation perspective, things keep up, the same trends. The scenario in this third quarter is very similar to the second quarter. We have nothing, that differs that much from July to August to share. When you look at the same-store growth, we're pretty much following the same levels and trends we've been sharing with you guys over the time. So about, installments by Atacadão, payment installments, this is a point we've been discussing a lot in our meetings, and not only Atacadão, but also other competitors that have been working on this topic with, payments in installments. But Mr. Ilson can share also our vision on this. This point is super important, Jesuíno, because here we, once again, cannot lose track of our flexibility.
Our team is super mature and ready for this, but we're never gonna make such, like, a sudden change. But we are aware of the importance of our cash, and I'm someone that is really concerned with cash flows. So, a change like this within payments in installments is something I'm really concerned about. So we need to understand what the market's doing, but we have to always be a little more cautious. We don't want to have additional risks, especially with such a change like this. That's great, Mr. Jesuíno, thank you so much. Thank you, John, for your question. Our next question comes from Gabriel Disselli from BTG. Gabriel, we'll open up your mic so that you can submit your question. Please, Gabriel, you may proceed. Hello. Hello. Hi, guys. Good morning. Good morning, Gabriel. We can hear you.
Could you maybe discuss. You guys talked about the payments and installments, but when it comes to competitive dynamics for pricing or the more direct competition you've seen, especially in the new regional, could you guys talk a little more about how the market has been reacting to this with the dynamic, the different dynamics with Grupo Mateus being a little more concerned with profitability in the operation? That's an important point, and if there's any news on the MOU and business with Novo Atacarejo that you could maybe share. Thank you. Well, in regard to the competitive advantage and pricing and all of this, we always position ourselves in a way where we can value our differentials as much as possible.
So, there's a point where it's not only about price, and we've been trying to keep up this balance at all times between services with smaller stores and our distribution, our applications, and we must keep up with this growth organically, but always be very responsible about our results. So, we've been really focusing on this. And then about the MOU, I'll ask Jesuíno to cover this and Túlio as well, so we can talk about this issue with our partnership with Novo Atacadão. They're more connected to this topic. Well, I'm gonna start off with you, and I'm gonna say, well, Gabriel, we're really happy with this operation with Novo.
I think that we had discussed this in our meeting, and I think we're gonna have an important step in this regional in Pernambuco, Paraíba, and Alagoas, and we consolidate ourselves there, providing continuity to everything we've been sharing with you guys throughout this journey. So, we're really happy with the business, and obviously, we still rely on some bureaucracy to make this all a consolidated reality. But as soon as this is concrete, we'll be able to share this with you with greater depth from a strategic perspective and how the governance will work, what we're imagining for all of this. And I think there's an initiative that's super relevant because when we look at the Northeast growing, as Sandro mentioned, the Northeast regional has contributed a lot to these results.
I think that this operation with Novo Atacadão will be consolidating and contributing to everything we've been sharing with you guys in this overall evolution in our growth, in every sense, in this indicator. I don't know if, Túlio, you wanna cover anything else? No, I think you mentioned the main highlights. I think we're good, but I'd maybe just add that in regard to the process itself, we're in a clear analysis phase of the definitive documents and some contracts as well, approvals from the shareholders. Also, we're in line with our timeframe, and as soon as this is complete with the due diligence process and all of the work and shareholders agreement, we'll communicate this directly. So, I just wanted to reinforce a bit more about this.
This business was really well structured and studied. We're not, not a company that buys companies. Our focus has always been organic growth, but it's a really well-structured business in our expansion project. We've been discussing this internally, and we hear a lot about this, but we're really... Because, and we had a lot of, days and nights of internal discussions. And so, it's a really well, taken decision, and we really believe in this. Well, very good, guys. Thanks. Very clear. Well, guys, thank you, Gabriel, for your question. Our next question is from Clara Lustosa from Itaú BBA. Clara, we'll open up your mic so that you can perform your question. Please, you may proceed. Thanks, guys, for taking our question. We have two actually on our side.
The first one is more like a follow-up of the question on same-store sales at Atacadão. We wanted to understand how this dynamic took place throughout the quarter. So, if you could just give us a little more information on the breakthrough on this performance and B2B, B2C, and if there's any customer profile that pulled things upwards or downwards. And it's really interesting to get a little more info on how your evolution was throughout the quarter. So, the second question is about the working capital. I think this has been a big focus for you guys. You guys have been delivering important improvements. Túlio has already mentioned that there are some initiatives that must be worked on, but it's something that's always done very carefully with negotiations and the suppliers.
But we wanted to understand how we can imagine the evolution in the cash cycle. And so, we believe we have a level that's pretty much stable throughout the next quarters. But is there may be an improvement we could already see this year? So that's pretty much it. Thanks, guys. Well, Clara, in regard to same stores, for the Cash and Carry operation, I can say that 95% of this growth we've been sharing with you comes from volume. So, we continue to be very careful about this topic, and we're really pushing it to its limit so that we can deliver the best EBITDA margin possible. So, I just wanna mention that all of this comes from volume, and from an inflation perspective, it's stable, and most of this comes from volume.
From a B2B perspective, you've probably seen in the release that we have a cash-and-carry wholesale operation that's really booming. Before we had physical stores, we had direct wholesale distribution operations, so this is an important factor, and maybe this is why we were so fortunate with our cash-and-carry business because we had this DNA of distribution wholesale operations that's really in our blood. An important factor as well is that when we look at this development with the wholesale, we can see that most of the companies we distribute for and in most of the regions we operate in, which contributes a lot to our growth. So, and then the last point I think we should cover is that I think in this quarter, considering everything that's been going on, I think the regional has been going through many changes.
ICMS increases, as we've been seeing, and I wouldn't highlight any extraordinary competitive factors, although many chains are, in the last few months, but kind of, having special anniversary campaigns. But I wouldn't connect any of this to this because the market's going through many changes, and this is just, one more point, right? One more change, and especially when it comes to the strong growth basis, which is what made us, deliver the same store growth. And finally, I wanna say that in July and August, we continued to grow. So, we're really comfortable with this point. I think here, there's nothing that concerns us that much. What we're doing here is really trying to keep this balance again and deliver the EBITDA margin with the best quality possible. And so, Túlio, if you wanna help to, contribute to this answer.
Well, thanks, Clara, for the questions. So moving on to your question about working capital, I believe that, as you mentioned, this has been a journey, and the first phase when we began to reach about 115 to 120 to a level that was closer to 90-80 days, we had a very intense initiative there when it comes to stock and some of the first discussions that we had with suppliers as well. And I think now we're gonna get into the second phase of this work throughout 2024 and throughout the end of 2023 as well, to present some of the first signs and results in 2024. And this is a second phase where we bring in a bit more of discipline and evolution to the analysis when it comes to our stock levels in the group.
And, Jesuíno has already instructed us about the creation of a committee to provide an example for a work front. And the commercial area already has a really good level of maturity as we've been treating this topic in a more advanced manner, and all of the executives in the business areas have the working capital indicators in their target card, impacting variable compensation. So, this topic will mature overall, and I think this work group is dedicated, no doubt, to discussions and analysis of these topics to a whole another level, as we expect. And from the perspective of the suppliers' deadlines, we been able to build a whole another initiative that's structured for rediscussing this topic, as you mentioned, once again.
Of course, with a lot of transparency and bringing in the partnerships with the suppliers, because we all know that this is a segment, it's a connection between price, deadlines, and all of the different, income sources we've been developing. But we still see there's opportunities for discussion and to work on this topic as well. So, from our internal targets, we've been working on this challenge that's better than what we had seen in the first quarter. So of course, everyone's really focused month after month, week after week, to search for these targets and internally, and as a consequence, really bring this till the end of the year with another step towards an improvement in working capital. Another important point to highlight is that the company today every week has been debating the main indicators.
We also started debating really interesting topics, such as the numbers related to the ROIC and the discussions related to capital allocation. Ilson also mentioned their importance. These are all topics that the company naturally will begin to work on with intensity, stronger and stronger every quarter. Super clear. Thank you very much, guys.
. Thank you. Thank you, Clara, for your question. Our next question is from Danniela Eiger from XP. We are going to open your audio for questions, please. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for allowing me to ask. Well, we have some follow-ups. The first one in relation to the efficiency part. You've mentioned expenses optimization, and we have a room, and it called my attention, the management part. It's being worked in the group. It is to understand how much more you see room, or if from now on, it's more control of dilution, understanding if the level we've seen of DNA will be the new level, or if we have any other opportunity. And I believe you are not going to give me the number, but how much more do we have in the working capital improvement?
Maybe not the goal, but maybe the interval. It will help us to understand the potential. A follow-up in relation to the competition and installments. I don't know if it is with Jesuíno or Mr. Mateus. Wilson, what would make you change your mind in relation to installments? We've seen, and Wilson mention other players following this segment, and we are always asking questions, how much the consumer can be attracted to that, even if maybe the price or a service is important, maybe in another store. What could make you change this strategy of not increasing installments following the market? It would be important to understand that.
And abusing a little bit for Sandro, and you've mentioned in the release that half of the store, half of the regional, is above, with a margin above what you've established as 6%, and to understand if that is a profile fact, geographic or, competitive scenarios, more advanced, less advanced, or maybe maturity. Those are the questions I have. Thank you. I'm going to start. Okay, Jesuíno. Well, your question, Danniela, is pretty interesting, and, well, we are pretty attentive to what will be less harmful to our business, what will impact the least. We are very attentive to that. "Oh, I'm going to lose sales," or "I'm going to tight our capital." So, we are dozing, you know, step by step.
We don't want to give all at once, so there won't be any difficulty to remove this, medicine, you know, just like a medicine. That's, at least in relation to the subject, it was a subject pretty discussed by us, and we are pretty aware of that. Yeah, in relation to installments and productivity, both things are related. So, these two movements are pretty under our radar, so we can steer things in the correct way. Danny, in relation to your question, I believe, in general, I always talk with Wilson and Jesuíno, Sandro, about this subject. I believe this is, well, a continuous track. So, we have some important instruments to work with, to work with this track.
As I've mentioned in my presentation, the first question is the creation of a matrix, the raw material for a quality, follow-up of expenses, operational expenses. More and more, we are bringing the matter of responsibility of the manager in relation to the budget. In every month, proceedings and processes, they have to bring the major points, what worked, what didn't, to have a governance to say about - to talk about the importance of budget. Budget is pretty discussed, and of course, what is in, within the metrics and not within the metrics, in order to work and comply with. We are following that, the following the manager and the manager as a whole. We have many directors of being part of that, including the CEO.
When we talk about store expenses, sales expenses, it's a pretty good discussion about the productivity mechanics. We evolved a lot in the indicators of productivity. The main functions, we are separating cluster by cluster, 100%, like-to-like comparables, so we can perform a quality work. The best of the cluster will share knowledge with all other stores that are like to like. And then you are going to spread productivity, you are setting a standard and discussing the process. So what does that person do, and what the person with the best productivity in that cluster do? does, so we assess the process. If we see that it's good, it becomes standard operational procedure, and all others start to perform following that, and performing better, as that was repeated.
But we are in the beginning of this work. It's a long journey. It's something that we are going to evolve and capture step by step, gradually, and of course, people will learn throughout the process. When we think about administrative expenses, that was the beginning of your question, this is a little different. The way of working, of course, we have productivity in some areas. It's possible to measure productivity among functions. Some of these areas are doing that already, but the management, well, has a different methodology. We are choosing some key areas in order to map the deliveries, how much each delivery costs, so the manager classifies as priorities relevance for the area. And then you start a reflection. Always a group of which deliveries are essential and important for the day. Can we eliminate some? Yes or no.
Can we simplify or automate via trips? We automate it all the trips process of the company. So, another point, are there senior people performing complementary functions to these? So, we have some analysis related to this methodology. Among other points of the administrative expenses, we have price and consumption of variables. The matrix helps. Are we following the major administrative points? The consumption degree is proper, and a fourth, it's the span of control. Is the organizational structure adequate? The amount of managers for coordinators, and so on. Well, all these we are working with that, and we need to create a priority order. So, we are choosing some areas, we are analyzing deeper, we have our monthly procedures with the managers, so we can follow with this.
Some results naturally start to show, but it's a development thing for a couple of years, and the company is gaining knowledge, is gaining momentum. So, just to share what is in our mind, but because of all that, our idea is from this level to better. Of course, retail is pretty dynamic. Sometimes we need to do things, but we need quality, and above all, always take into account the performance of the group, not placing that at risk. Well, in relation to your second question about working capital, so as I've mentioned, we are not sharing our internal goal, but just like we did since the beginning of the process with you all, it's to show that we still have opportunities in the stock lines. We know where the opportunities are.
We have good discussions about this subject, and we also know in some parts, there are room to discuss in a constructive manner, suppliers and everything. So, the commercial department is still working, and along this recent quarters, we are able to show some waves, as I've mentioned. Last year, from last year to the first quarter of this year, it was pretty important, and this quarter, despite anything, we kept the same level. Pretty important, and let's work hard, so up to the end of the year, take another extra step. Now, I will hand the floor to Sandro to talk about the fourth item of your question, the performance of the new regional. Thank you, Túlio. Good morning. Thank you for your question, a question that is pretty interesting, fact.
Those 44 stores that we owned, 22 of them, 50% have more than 12 months of operations, as we've seen. Out of those 22 stores, we have stores that are diverse. We have stores in major countryside regions, also stores in capital regions, and we also have those stores that will bring clients, like in Sousa, Paraíba . It has less inhabitants, but it has a major representativeness to that region. It has contributed a lot to the results. So, each of them, with their own profile, they have played an important role to achieve results. Of course, in major centers you have a more competitiveness, but on the other hand, you have a more population.
We have in the state of Paraíba, Campina Grande, for instance, a major highlight in relation to results in the stores we have. In Bahia, I state that we talk a lot, one store, like Vitória da Conquista, that it's also a highlight in relation to results. So we have a learning opportunity in this journey of two years of store opening, almost three, considering our indirect and cash and carry. Because we, we have this base to read and project the following years of this expansion. But your question make us think a lot, and I repeat, as I've mentioned, that the commitment is to keep on expanding with consistency and adding value to the company. And those stores, they have shown that, one, with their own characteristics and the region that it is inside. Thank you.
Thank you, and congratulations for the results. Thank you. Thank you, Danny, for the questions. Our next question is from Victor Fuziharo from Santander. Victor, we are going to open your audio so you can ask your question. Please, you may continue. Good morning, everyone. The first relation of the regional with the results for this month, is there something you can share in relation to sales evolution, anything in particular? And if you have any goal to close the EBITDA margin for the rest of the operation. The second is in relation to the income tax. It's pretty clear the discussion we have, but I would like to know a little bit about the plans in relation to JCP and the accumulated fiscal loss in the second half of the year. Thank you.
Well, in relation to the expansion regional states, as I've mentioned in our presentation, we have had a representative gain, the expansion of gross margin. Only in these 22 stores, we have a gain of 30% of gross margin, and that represents 2 percentage points of evolution in our operational margin. And naturally, we are searching for EBITDA consistency as soon as possible. The stores are opening in a new region. The investment level in marketing and other issues, it needs to be relevant so we can become consolidated as a player in these regions. But we have searched for, well, to speed up the process of maturing, and we've seen that with the EBITDA level that we presented for stores that are operating above 12 months.
Victor, well, for your second question about subjects related to income tax, about JCP, as I've mentioned, as we are redesigning the major elements of the tax planning, every quarter we look to the scenarios, what to move forward in relation to the understandings, and we are living in a moment in which the analysis have to be made quarter by quarter, because the understandings and the perceptions will evolve throughout time also. But of course, seeing the design we brought, the overview we brought for the first and second quarter, JCP and the accumulated loss, it's something that we brought since the first quarter. And JCP is something that, considering this scenario, and as much as the law allows us, it's something that makes really sense.
And remember that we go quarter by quarter with the distribution just at the end of the year. Well, anyways, we did have to discuss the post. And in relation to loss, accumulated loss, we have a little bit more of 900 million of accumulated loss, and this, throughout time, will allow us to consider that it lasts around three years by our forecast, and we are working with that strategy. We bring the pillars that are ready. They bring efficiency. We implement that, and with that, we develop new pillars. And, you know, sometimes it's not fast to develop the cycles of most of them. The classic is Sudene, that it is something slow, it has an entire process, and so on. So... I've mentioned also other elements that we are studying deeply.
Even the credit, the issues that are present in the law, and we have to look about the understanding of the subjects related to that, to credits, of interest rate in relation to depreciation, purchase of land. We need to understand all that because sometimes the text is not simple. It's not simple to interpret, and when we bring, we bring that with quality. Well, it's something quarter by quarter. It's important not only today, but since the end of last year, the tax committee gets together every week to follow all the subjects, and then Paula came to the group, and things are working well. We have the capacity to manage things, the technical capacity to work with more precision, more intensity, and we have had agenda in relation to PIS and COFINS. It's not interest rate.
We have also PIS and COFINS taxes, and we have worked with essential expenses, always considering subjects, with a lot of clarity in relation to the decisions, so there will be no unnecessary risk. So, a second moment, because up to 2023, it was just the investment subvention. So now, how we can work with the law change and everything? Well, we can have better quality points and bring the risk level in a very, very controlled manner. So, we have this as our pathway. Being pretty objective, the loss of JCP is there, and the loss will be with this expectation that will last three years, considering the amount, amount involved. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Victor, for your question. Now, our next question will be from Lucas Biasi from UBS.
Luca, we are going to open your audio so you can ask your question. Please, you may continue. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for answering questions. Two quick questions. First, about the wholesale. The performance was pretty strong, 29%. So how can we think about that moving forward? And more specifically, how can we think about the growth through new pathways? And the second about CapEx, if you can comment, what is the CapEx you have per store and the perspectives for the CapEx? Luca, it's interesting what you've asked, because the wholesale has our... Well, our model offers some specialties in relation to what the market does, because it is something that, in average, a commercial representative serves 10,000 SKUs.
But time went by, and our model made us divide these folders, so the representative would be more focused, more dedicated to what he or she was doing. So instead of having someone working with 10,000 SKUs, we have teams who we are distributors. So we have beauty stationery teams, and so on. So today, the market knows, and one of our customers is served by more than 15 people. And in relation to your question, the operation is in phase one, and now we start to divide the routes, and each route division is like a increase. So we gain market, we grow more. So what happens in the wholesale is a little bit like that. We have...
We go through this positive moment, mainly due to this particularity of having different teams, and this will last a while. It's just in the beginning, so I hope I have answered what you asked. In relation to CapEx, I don't know if anyone wants to... Oh, no, I will talk about that. Luca, here's what is interesting about your question. We have a diversity of our options in the moment we are in. Because this possibility of a merger, we start to see smaller stores, and above all, stores in which we have a smaller inventory. You have a smaller CapEx, but it has a high revenue per square meter, and this will bring EBITDA faster. And above all, those are mature regions in which the stock is in our distribution center.
So you have a supply that is faster, you know, and the store will have a lower inventory, so things are cheaper there. But we have another way that we have some stock of land for future. So we invest in land, and then we have a certain value in land, and we build, and we have all the bureaucracy with the authorizations and permits, so we buy the land, and we run the processes with all the permits, and at the correct time, we have the BTS of that specific store. We believe that we are going to have a CapEx inside our budget, so we can start searching for balance, so we won't have this growth funded by our result. So it's pretty important when we are talking about this balance.
We, whenever possible, we won't use our cash flow, and we have discussed that internally. Super clear. Pretty clear. Well, pretty clear. Thank you very much. Thank you, Luca, for your question. Our next question comes from Gustavo, from Bank of America. Gustavo, we are going to open your audio, so you can ask your question. Please, you may continue. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the question. I would like to go back about the new expansion. So now, with this profitability that is moving forward, improving, how do you think for the future about this expansion plan? Is it the moment to open more stores, because it seems that it's working? Do you intend to focus on major cities, or you have a better performance in smaller cities? How's your mind in relation to consolidation? Thank you.
Gustavo, in relation to this new expansion, it's as I mentioned, this openness of new stores, we are discussing internally. We will have to move forward with Cash and Carry, and consolidate new routes in some important states, but our mind is also dedicated to profitability. We are pretty concerned, and we are doing a lot of CapEx math, and above all, about the facility to supply these stores. So we can, first of all, dilute the cost of distribution center, as I've mentioned. I can open more stores that are closer to our distribution center or more stores adding some routes. Cash and Carry, I'm going to state that I need to increase a lot this revenue, the volume, and we are all the time, Gustavo, trying to find this balance.
We are pretty comfortable, you know, with the new expansion and our CapEx, the value of the year investment. I believe our discussion is always about this balance, and we are pretty comfortable with that, Gustavo. I don't know if I've answered your question. No, no, it was pretty clear. Thank you very much. Thank you, Gustavo, for your question. Our next question will come from Tales, from Safra. We'll open your audio for your questions. Please, you may continue. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. I have a follow-up, a quick question about installments in three installments. In the last call, Túlio mentioned that he saw there was room to reduce the receivables' date, as some places practices more generous commercial practices. And then, Atacadão came with this movement in the entire country.
And, having said that, do you see room to reduce, the date or the level? The current level is what we should have. Tales, thank you for your question. This movement we've done from December to January, that was when we changed the year, and we adjusted some deadlines of the new regional. And we have the consistency, the format of installments, and it's related to the, ramp, Jesuíno talked about the new regional revenue. The agenda now is to bring, a generation of value in all, sides, and we are tractioning a lot the gross margin, and as a consequence, it's there, and, when you keep the working capital accordingly, it comes to a very interesting level.
So now that we see the history, we look inside, mainly the maturation curve, those that are with three years, quality level with the results, and return that are pretty, amazing. That really excite us, and also it brings this excitement of keeping that in this dynamics, as Jesuíno mentioned. So it's time to focus in discipline, consistency, and, value creation, and also be sensitive about that. We follow week by week. That's what we do. Okay, perfect. Thank you, Tales. We would like to inform that Q&A is finished, and now I would like to hand the floor for final comments of the company. Well, we are here closing... And once again, I would like to thank God for this moment of being together, reporting our results.
I would like to thank our team for all the effort, and all, the results are the result of a lot of work. On behalf of Jesuíno Martins, Sandro, Túlio, everyone, thank more than 60,000 workers who are dedicated day after day, so we can achieve these results. I would like to thank, once again, our investors for trusting on us, and say that we are there. We are working strong, knowing about our responsibility, what we have to deliver, and knowing that we want to deliver the results, and we are pretty sure that we are in the correct pathway. Because, well, why do we believe on that? Because we are focused. We are inside that.
Jesuíno is going to one region, Sandro is going to another one, I'm going to a different one, and we have searched for maintaining our knowledge in each region, working and giving the correct medicine, the correct dose for each region. It's based on this knowledge of operation to be on that side of the counter, is the reason why we can give the medicine. Sandro goes to Bahia, Pernambuco, and things are different, you know? We have this belief, and we know that we have to maintain balance, and we cannot lose flexibility of changing gears or changing directions. Because it's not always that we are going to bring this strategy, that we are going to have a working plan, and this is going to happen as we planned.
Wholesale is not something that we design, and that's it, mainly in a moment in which the world is going through. So wholesale varies a lot. So why do we talk about that? Because we are there, and I want to mention a case of one regional in the state of Maranhão, in which, because of a cost reduction, we tied up the butcher house, and we lost a little bit of our sales because of the butcher department. And then we hired people for the butcher department, but we need to work to worry about the cost, but also about the sales. And we want to balance sales results, because those who fund our expansion, our CapEx, is the result.
However, we know that we need to balance sales and results, and we are always doing that. We are paying attention, and we want to assure that, everything that is necessary, we are going to have the changes, change directions, but always where in small doses, very careful not to do things wrong. Because every quarter, we have to be here presenting results, and we need to present positive results. So we are going to be here, always paying attention and changing whenever necessary. Thank you. Thank you very much for being here today, and I would like to say that we are responsible, and we are presenting the results here today with a lot of pride. Thank you very much. The video conference in relation to the second quarter of 2024 of the Grupo Mateus is closed.
The Investor Relations Department is available to answer any further questions, and thank you very much for all participants. I wish you all a great day.