Good morning, everyone. Thank you for waiting. Welcome to the earnings call for the first quarter of 2025 at Grupo Mateus. If you need translation, we have this tool available on the interpretation button. The globe icon on the bottom part of your screen, and choose your language of preference: Portuguese or English. For those listening to the earnings call in English, please select the Mute Original Audio option by selecting this option. We'd like to let you know that this earnings call is being recorded and will be provided on the website, at the IR website, where you can also find the full material for our earnings release. You can download the presentation as well on the chat icon in English as well. During the call, all participants will have their mics off, and then we'll begin the Q&A session.
To submit questions, please select the Q&A icon on the bottom part of your screen, write your question to enter the queue. As your name is announced, a request to activate your mic will appear on the screen. Please then activate your mic to be able to submit your questions. Please send in your questions all at once. We would also like to let you know that the information in this presentation, possible statements that could be made during the earnings call related to business perspectives and operational and financial targets at Grupo Mateus, represent beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as information that is currently available. Future statements are not a guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as they refer to future events, and they therefore depend on circumstances that could or not occur.
Investors must comprehend that general market conditions and other operational factors could also affect future performance at Grupo Mateus and lead to results that differ materially from those that were listed in such future statements. Today, we have the presence of the company's executives: Mr. Gilson Mateus, founder and president of the board, Mr. Jesuíno Mateus, CEO, Túlio Queiroz, the Financial VP and Investor Relations, and Sandro Oliveira, the VP for Operations and Commercial. Now I'll pass the word on to Mr. Gilson Mateus. First, we want to thank God for the opportunity to be here in one more earnings release. We would like to thank you all for being with us today. Now we're going to have the results of another quarter of Grupo Mateus.
We started off 2025 in the same way as the last few years, advancing in regions that were promising and at the same time creating greater density in regions we're already present, as you can see on our screen. Here you can see Estora, in Ilhéus, a very important city in Bahia, where we reached the city and we were able to have a very important advance, as well as in Bahia. As you can see also in Jaboatão do Guararapes, a very important city in Recife. I also want to mention a bit of the density in Maranhão. Although we already have many stores, as you've been mentioning, it's a density in our route. These are stores that are already retail stores, where we really work our margins very well.
On the next slide, on slide five, I want to present a bit more about the current scenario and how we already have over 276 stores in different channels, 92 cash and carry stores already, where we hope to reach these 100 stores, which is really an important channel for our business. We have 45 stores. We have 35 Camino stores, where we've already reached an important milestone, and we have these stores with a root density, and that improves our margins: 104 margins and 227 Amazon stores and 226 stores. On the next slide, I'm going to present the scenario here where you, in April, we had three cash and carry stores and another store for Eletro . Within the scenario of new stores opened, you can see that we've brought two stores, one in Rosário, one in Ananindeua, and another one in Ananindeua.
These are important stores also in Pará. In Rosário, we also have a small city that is part of this root density. On the next slide, moving on, we already present our expansion plan. You can see we have 16 stores underway in different states as we complement the routes. We have already started the year a little better than last year with a lot more stores, always focusing on our root density vision, where we search for volume and also search for our margin balance. Now I will pass the word on to Mr. Jesuíno Mateus. Good morning, everyone. Túlio and Sandro, now we would like to share some highlights on our results for the first quarter this year, which really makes us happy. As always, I would like to start talking about our net revenue.
We were able to reach a level of BRL 8.3 billion in the first quarter of this year. You can notice that we have a growth of 12.9% of this net revenue and also an increment of BRL 1 billion. Here you have an important point to share because we've been sharing the growth of our net revenue in a more intense manner, especially the reduction of our expansion due to our operation with the new Tacarejo in Recife. We are in this final phase for integration. As you can see, hopefully this will work well. The reduction of the new stores open will make our growth in the net revenue drop a little bit. You can also see that we're going to be having over 30 cash and carry stores due to this strategy.
I think it's worth mentioning that this in some way contributed to a bit of a slider or slower growth, but this is strategic. To give you an idea, in the last 12 months, we opened up at least 10 or 12 stores of cash and carry, less than in the same period last year. That's just to give you a bit more clarity on why we've had growth of 12.9%. I think another important point is that even if we grow 12.9%, this is the growth that's more than the Brazilian Northeast market grew. This makes us very happy as once again we have confidence that our strategy is right and on the right path. We would also like to share this next pillar, which is the same store growth. In the second block, you have the growth of 7.1%.
Here it's worth mentioning also because we know about how our calendar suffered a bit in the first quarter of this year with Easter on a different date, a day less in February. We thought that the most precise manner to perform this interpretation would look at the first four months. That's why we bring the same store growth in the first four months of 7.1%. We're quite happy with this because we come from a strong basis last year. In the same period last year, we grew almost double digits, 9.6. Another point that I think is worth mentioning is that the 7.1, if you look at the four months, we can improve the growth of the same stores if we compare with the fourth quarter of 2024, where you have more quality.
Another important point also to share with the market and with you guys is that the stores in the expansion in year one, strategically, and we're going to share this information with you as well, we choose to bring in margin gains. Initially, the stores start off with major efforts, and then we've been working also in a more acute, accentuated ramp-up in the margin. The stores we opened up in our expansion, we prioritized the margin and not the growth. That is why our same store growth in a strategic manner.
[Foreign language]
We grow almost double digits in the same store growth. We are trying to find a balance so that we can always deliver the best results possible. I would like to share with the market that we have a very strong factor, which is our indirect purchasing channel, because we are a multi-channel company and our indirect sales channel is going through a big transformation at this moment. This channel has contributed a lot to the growth due to this strategy for transformation that we are experiencing now. When we merge our multi-channel approach and our strategy to prioritize margins instead of volumes, we deliver this same store growth that is better than the fourth quarter, which makes us very happy. I want to share also about the gross margin.
As you see, we've achieved a level of 23% in the gross margin, and we're really happy about this, which is almost one percentage point higher than the same period last year. As I shared with you, this gross margin you've been monitoring, and you can see it's quite resilient over the last quarters. The 23% we've reported in the fourth quarter pretty much at the same level, and that's due to this maturity of this new regional. Considering the profitability besides this, also the external sales with the transformation. As we grow in sales, profitability, and overall, this strategy makes our gross margin really be very resilient, as we've been sharing with you. In the last few months, we've also implemented an improvement in the pricing. This has contributed significantly.
Dedication throughout this topic, the dedication of our commercial team as well when it comes to the care and preservation of our gross margins. This makes our gross margin reach this level that really makes us very happy. It is important to remember that during this period in the last few months, we also had an increase in ICMS in certain regions in the Northeast. Despite all of this, our gross margin has reached this level. Besides this, I want to share what we have achieved as the EBITDA margin, which also makes us very happy. Here you can see this gross margin gain really reflects our EBITDA margin automatically. We also have the efficiency with expenses that contributes to the EBITDA margin. Túlio will talk about this in just a bit.
I think this is the central part of our discussion as we mention this ZIO, if we want to continue to deliver this. This makes us very happy as we can have the possibility to deliver this EBITDA margin with high quality. We have been growing compared to last year. Finally, I want to share our net revenue, considering the margins and the net income, which makes us very happy because even despite all of the tax impacts that we have overcome, we have been able to deliver a very resilient net income and net margin, which makes us very happy as you see this has been growing when we compare the same period last year. We are very happy with this other quarter, with this next quarter. Túlio, Sandro, Mr.
Gilson, I want to take advantage of this final phase to really thank our team for the dedication towards our results. I know a lot of them are watching us at this moment, so I want to really thank them all. Now I'll pass the word on to Sandro, our Commercial VP and Marketing Director, as he talks about the achievements I mentioned in the evolution of our efficiency processes in our new regional. Thank you, [President]. Good morning, everyone, Mr. Gilson, Túlio, and everyone listening to us and watching us today. We're going to zoom into our performance with the Northeast expansion team. As our President mentioned, this is due to many different issues we've been trying to balance. Part of this is really due to the performance of the team that's been handling the states under expansion.
In the first quarter of 2025, you can see that we've maintained a performance of the evolution, and we've delivered 1.6 percentage points above the EBITDA of these quarters of these stores, which represents currently 39 stores under operation for over 12 months in these states. For everyone to have this information, we have 51 stores under operation in these states that already contribute to 35% of what we are billing in retail in our company. We have a path ahead of us when we look at the opportunities ahead of us. This is something that really makes us happy to share with you, as this is the fruit of everyone's work, really dedicated to continue occupying the space and keeping up this balance. Of course, we've been able to more and more search for this balance between the sales and margin.
Just for informational purposes, we also see our evolution in the market with 1.1 percentage points. We reach the last week that was measured by Nielsen with 26.4% participation. This is also due to the consistency and the path we have been following throughout the last years with our entire team operating in these stores and in these regions. We know that there is still a path ahead of us, but we have already seen results that are becoming more consistent and that already deliver something as we observe this and have more confidence that we are on the right path. Yes, we know retail is about every day at all times, but we have been moving ahead consistently towards this. This is what I wanted to share with you from the expansion area. Now I will pass this on to Túlio. Hey, good morning, Sandro.
Good morning, everyone. We will get into slide number 13 in our presentation. Here we have a panorama of our gross profit in the company. It's a topic we've been discussing for a few quarters with a focus on the consistency in regards to the gross margin. This is sequential in the last quarters, and it demonstrates this path. This is another quarter that, as the team mentioned, I just want to highlight the important contribution and the evolution of the gross margin. Of course, important to highlight for cash and carry, it's really in line with the agenda Sandro mentioned here. I want to remind you that the company, ever since the fourth quarter, has really adopted a strategy focused on profitability at this moment. The gross margin numbers really reflect this strategy and the path we've been following.
The gross profit adds up to BRL 1,917,000,000 and a growth of 16% compared to the first quarter of 2024. Moving on to the next slide, number 14, we have the numbers related to the operational expenses. Operational expenses grew 11%, going from 15.4% to 15.2% in the first quarter. This comes from our agenda that we have been sharing with you so we can really share a bit more about the freight and logistics expenses with the expansion and route density. You also have a specific point on the dilution of the team, which is an important point as well, despite the very important expansion pace and also the administrative, which grows 5%, demonstrating a focus on this expense dilution, looking at an important expansion process from now on. Moving on to slide 15, we have the numbers from the EBITDA here in the group.
Jesuíno mentioned the main highlights. The company reached in total with over 27% in regards to the BRL 510 million. An important expansion of the EBITDA margin, an important topic we've been discussing throughout the last quarters. We've been able to improve the level of profitability. This is another quarter. Despite the calendar effect, we've been able to have an important expansion in the EBITDA margin in a scenario where you still have very important expansion. With the calendar effect, we expand the EBITDA margin and grow 27%. We become very happy, as Jesuíno mentioned. When we move on to slide 16, we have the gross profit, which added up to BRL 319 million, a growth of 32.5% compared to the BRL 240 million reported in the first quarter of 2024, really in line.
The main focus here is the EBITDA with the net income, considering all of the administration of the actual income tax rate. We were able to have a level that was very similar to what it was in the first quarter of 2024. We worked with the same pillars. All of the pillars we've been working on were exactly these. With this, as we've seen in the first quarter of 2024, moving on to slide 17. We have a cash cycle. There is an improvement in regard to the 74 days reported. Year over year, it is a stable scenario. You have some different characteristics, an important evolution in the suppliers' account year over year, and a growth year over year also in the stock account.
For suppliers, we've been working on some initiatives ever since the end of last year with some internal campaigns for incentives and this negotiation with suppliers as well when it comes to terms. We also have this important component that's perennial, but there's also a mathematical effect in the growth of the stock, where, of course, you also have to increase the suppliers' account. Part of this is a mathematical component. Part of this is a consistent component from now on after this round of negotiations that took place ever since the end of last year. When you look at stock, this is something we've been working on. We understand that there are opportunities for improvement. Just to share some points, we had a calendar effect in Easter, of course, with some components in this sense.
You have a component of the amount of store openings. In April, we had three Cash and Carry stores in April 2025 against a retail in April 2024. There is also an important starting point difference here when it comes to volume of the stock. All of this does not change our perception of our diagnosis that there are opportunities, and these opportunities are going to be worked on during 2025, sorry. We have a big focus from administration and looking at all of the variable compensation indicators as well for the commercial teams, especially when it comes to stock items for 2025. Another important point is that for the first time, the commercial team had the payment now of the bonus that was paid in April related to the exercise of 2024.
For the first time, the commercial team was really engaged with the topic entirely. For variable compensation, those that performed below targets for 2024 were then impacted in the variable compensation. This is a topic that works and brings in major intensity and results to the period of 2025. Moving on to the next slide, number 18, we have a graph that shows us our cash generation and consumption. The first block on the left side, the company has a cash generation of about BRL 315 million, BRL 316 million almost. This is an important point because you had the payment of taxes. It was a significant amount, and almost half of this is the PIS/COFINS related to the interest on equity, but the payment takes place in the first quarter.
That is why it is important to highlight this topic because before we would not pay this and distribute interest on equity. On the right side of the slide, you have the composition of what is the CapEx consumption essentially, and also the purchase and sale of properties. There is a component here of a down payment for a purchase of property. From an inflow perspective, we have an installment of OPTS that also came in in this quarter where you have the column of the sale of property. It was consistent this quarter when it comes to the guidance, as Mr. Gilson always mentioned, to help the company grow with its own cash generation group. Moving on to slide 19, we have the consequence of this movement, which is a level of leverage that is smaller than what was reported at the end of the year.
Strong discipline here with a level of leverage at 0.27% of the EBITDA in line with the first quarter last year. You can see the comparison with the end of 2024. We have major discipline daily with a strong expansion pace. We have a lot of stores, as you all know, that are in the initial maturity process, but the company is still working on strong expansion with its own cash generation, keeping a level of leverage that is quite conservative. For us, this is very relevant. On the next slide, number 20, we have an overview of the CapEx composition. I think you already know about this. The main CapEx consumption comes from the new stores, of course, but the BRL 72 million, as I mentioned, is the composition.
Here you have this scenario of consistency in regards to the expansion pace in the last few years. As Jesuíno mentioned, last year was a bit atypical due to the transaction with Novo . Now we are getting back to a pace that is very similar to the last few years in the company. These are our initial comments. Our whole team will be available to answer questions. Now we are going to start with our Q&A session. You should write the Q&A icon to enter your question as your name is requested. Your mic will be requested to activate. You should open it to submit questions. We hope that you all submit your questions at once. To begin, we will start off with our first question, which comes from Rodrigo Vasone at Itaú BBA. Please, Rodrigo, we will enable your audio so you may proceed.
[Foreign language]
Good morning, everyone. Túlio, Mr. Gilson, Jesuíno, and Sandro. Two questions here on our side. The first one is about the sales dynamic. I think this was a topic that was very much discussed in the earnings call. The beginning of the year was a little tighter. I wanted to understand how this, we wanted to report a perception to check in based on the first four months. You mentioned that if we isolate April, we'll see a same-store sales that's closer to 5%. We also want to validate this rationale. That is the first question. How are you feeling this? Then about the working capital. You mentioned this in your explanation, but when you consider the amount of questions we received last night, we wanted to get a little more details on what really happened with the suppliers and the stock levels.
What's most important from these 10 days, what's the comfort you currently have of the recurring component of this improvement in the suppliers line, and how do we imagine this improvement over the last quarters? These are the two questions, guys. Thank you. Good morning, Vasone and everyone watching us. Thank you for the question. We'll start off with the sales dynamic. I want to say that we've noticed, especially in the first quarter of this year and in Northeast Brazil, an inflation rate in the Northeast that is slightly above the food inflation overall in Brazil. There's an interesting point that contributes to this dynamic, which is also due to many other factors. The Northeast had an increase in the ICMS rates, which affects the competitive dynamic up ahead.
To give you some examples, you look at some categories that are important, like groceries, and what Nielsen audits in this quarter reaches about 15% more inflation. This weighs in, right? The Northeast really feels this a lot more than the rest of Brazil with all of these different movements. Even in this scenario that is so volatile, we continue to grow. If you look at our total growth, we grow more than the Northeast market. April also, we can see that it has a lot more quality. April receives a seasonality that should be considered. That is why I think we should have a complete quarter view to help with this rationale, right? April has had better quality than what we have been reporting now.
This dynamic, we've been trying to find a balance with everything, considering the inflation and this competitive scenario on the market, so we can continue to deliver the same margin and the same results that we've been able to deliver with the EBITDA margin and net income. Moving on to the second point, which is the working capital, one important point to share is, for suppliers, we have some different initiatives we're working on, but especially for suppliers. Now, what have you been seeing?
[Foreign language]
is due to planning that helped us change this level when it comes to suppliers.
[Foreign language]
Since we consider our stock has been influenced significantly.
[Foreign language]
We've been working with this and we've seen the fruit of this. We want to continue to work with this. We still have a path we must follow, but certainly we're taking on an important step. From a stock, we want to reinforce this. Of course, we're aware and we should need to do things better than this, right?
[Foreign language]
We've been working more acutely on this. Of course, we're not happy with this level, but we understand that there are different initiatives and we're going to work with the stock. I would like to share new and better levels with you.
[Foreign language]
[Foreign language]
We are going to have our team focus on this more and more. I'm sure this is going to help us to start sharing the results with you as well. In March, we had a lot of seasonality impacts. We know about the significance of Easter for the Brazilian market. We know that generally, what I think is really important to highlight is that we are really aware that we have to work with this.
[Foreign language]
With working capital, we have gains, but we also have this challenge to continue to pursue this stock performance. Yeah, I think that answer is complete.
Just an observation here is that as there were many openings in the first quarter in April, and generally we have a stock that's a lot greater for the stores that are going to be opening because in the opening we have strong measures. That's why sometimes you have a mismatch. You can see that these openings in the future, after a year, they will also end up impacting the growth in the same stores because the store after a year reaches normality and then it reaches a level of normality. Whenever we open up stores, especially in regions like Gales and others, we understand that we're going to have to impact the population. We have very aggressive approaches at these moments. Very clear. Thank you for the answers . Okay, moving on, the next question comes from Ruben Couto. Rubem will send you.
You can proceed, please. I want to get a few more details here on what you mentioned about the distribution and a transformation process. What should we expect in the short and long term? Is really the maintenance of this growth? I wanted to hear a bit more about this and if there's something that happened between 2023 and 2024 that made you guys make this decision, right, to go through this transformation process in this distribution part. Thank you for this question, Ruben. I wanted to share with you this. I'm not sure if you guys keep up with our company, but you probably know that our origin was as a distributor. That's how we started off. We had an indirect channel that was a lot stronger than the direct channel. It took about 15 years.
95% of our company was in direct channel. An important topic was to share essence. That's when after the company started investing in physical stores.
[Foreign language]
Have a strategic plan. Today we had a big change because physical retail represents 85% of our operations. Indirect, even though it's smaller, they continue to grow. Here it's important to mention that due to our essence and having come from this origin, we have been working in the last few years with many transformations. I'll give you an example. You see some legacy states, Ruben, where you have small retailers today and they receive visits of an army of commercial representatives, right? This generated major efforts. Now what's happening is a whole another transformation. What I want to say, without getting into too many details, is that you can expect this growth.
It should be recurring. And we want to intensify this channel.
[Foreign language]
With the amount of commercial reps. From a growth perspective, you can consider it to be recurring, as Túlio mentioned. Since indirects are growing, it could have ended up making a profitability drop.
[Foreign language]
You can see that the margins are also growing here due to a strong distribution strategy in the Northeast. We are very happy and once again trying to find a balance because we are a multi-channel company. We have different channels that are interconnected and they set up this ecosystem together. Sometimes we have been trying to share this with the market so that the market can understand us as a multi-channel company.
As we can't isolate a business on its own, as this could maybe just give us an incomplete photograph of our overall results. That is why I mentioned our same-store growth, which is built as a multi-channel company with everyone contributing to each other, contributing to different strategies that connect. I hope to answer your question. After, I can get into more details if you want to get into more discussions about the distribution strategy for the Northeast. Jesuíno, just to add on to what you mentioned, our wholesale distribution is very important for the business and it is a strong division.
[Foreign language]
We have been able to create teams that are more specialized so that eventually we can also help find this balance because we have a wholesale that is pretty dense.
When you consider one or two or three categories of products, you have a trend of having a growth that can dilute the cost of distribution. This is an important point that we have to be discussing with our shareholders so that they can understand the shift in the scenario, which is a bit here, a bit there. We are going to act accordingly to our results needs. Okay, thank you, guys.
[Foreign language]
Next question comes from Gustavo Fortini at Bank of America. Gustavo, we can proceed, please.
[Foreign language]
Thank you, guys, for taking our questions. I wanted to get a bit more detail on the growth that was very strong when we saw in distribution. Could you guys talk about how you're seeing this up ahead?
In regards to new routes, how much share you're able to achieve in the new customers and the old customers, and if you've been increasing the old customers or also if you could. I think it was very impressive to see the gain in the gross margin. Maybe this is counterintuitive because normally distribution business has smaller margins, but I want to understand how much of the gross margin came through an improvement in the margins in the distribution business. You guys mentioned this in the release, but it would be great to get a more quantitative vision of this. Thank you. Gustavo, maybe to help you understand a bit more. In the legacy states. One of our customers receives a visit normally of at least 25 commercial reps. From our team.
Maybe this will help you give a little more clarity in the expansion states. Our customers are serviced by one commercial rep exclusively today. The process in the northeast states goes through the same process we had in the legacy in Maranhão and Piauí. What we are doing is to increase this density, and maybe this will give us a little more clarity. When you imagine the northeast is in phase one, maybe you can get a feel of how much more is left to be done in this channel in the states in the Northeast.
[Foreign language]
Which is why I mentioned to Ruben that we would like to have this result keep resilient and recurrent. The margin, of course, should be affected. You are right, but this is a mature process.
We have customers that have been in the base ever since the company was started. It is a mature process, a mature team. This business is going to evolve in margins just as the physical stores, and Sandro mentioned, also evolve. It is due to a maturity process we have been sharing with you guys throughout this path that we really want to have more density and maturity in these routes, and indirects are going through this phase as well. I hope that was clear, Gustavo, but feel free to hop in if you need a follow-up. Just one point, Gustavo, thank you for the question. Just to contribute here with Jesuíno's answer, when we look at the wholesale operation, there was the biggest growth in the gross margin.
If you look at the different formats in the company, of course, this is not what most contributed because it represents 15% of the business, but I think that both of the two big highlights were the wholesale, of course, but who most contributed due to the bigger share in the business is the cash and carry division because of the profitability that Sandro and Jesuíno explained. That is what most grew in the gross margin in the company that reinforces the strategy that has been shared with you guys. We have a retail channel where we also open a lot of stores, and we need to consider this and also the maturity of the cash and carry stores, right? You have a trend to improve the margin as well.
When you have density with stores that are maturing and you operate in all channels, there's a trend that you'll be able to keep up this balance of the margin. That's what we've always been discussing. We want to always find the best for us in that at that moment within the scenario we're experiencing. We'll always try to find a balance in this. Okay, perfect, very clear. Thanks, guys.
[Foreign language]
The next question comes from Luiz Felipe Guanaes. Luiz, we're going to ask you to enable your audio. Please proceed. Good morning to Túlio, Mr. Jesuíno, Sandro. Two questions here on my side. If you guys could talk about the drivers and improvement of productivity and what we should expect up ahead for retail operation, but also in cash and carry.
The second question, taking advantage of Sandro's presence, is if you could talk about the CapEx evolution per store, especially considering the new regional. Thank you. If you want to start. I'm going to start off here with the first question, Guanaes. First of all, thank you for your questions. When we talk about productivity in the stores, we have a few different segments to consider. First, we've been working on an improvement in the gross profit, focus on the growth of the gross profit, which is really related to the profitability agenda that Jesuíno highlighted in the beginning of this presentation. As you know, we have an agenda that is very aggressive whenever we have a new store to really make a message come across. So consumers experiment the brand.
After the next year, we start off a strong agenda to adapt the profitability to make sure that the stores are arriving at the return rate we need them to. This is something we've been doing in a very disciplined manner. Now, of course, when we have a structural agenda to improve our gross margin, which is also the case with Jesuíno mentioned and other elements also that started off when all of the tax rules changed back then, we had an event. We really promoted this among the commercial areas so that everyone in the company could bring in solutions to help solve this more difficult moment we were going through. We had a lot of interesting initiatives. I think this point is really something we've been seeing in the improvement of the gross profit and in the margins.
Another approach is about the expenses. Here you have an important point where the company has been looking at this more rigorously when it comes to the levels of returns in the new stores. No doubt, expenses are an important point. The stores start off with adherence. That is a lot more disciplined and a prior discussion for the sales potential instructors that also have more adherence.
[Foreign language]
That makes the adjustments to be born with more adjustments, but with more flexibility. That is an important point in relation to the administration and the management. I do not know if you accompanied the important work that we did last year. We did a lot of reductions. This year, as you observed, the increases is just the everything has been stable.
Even with the company being in full expansion, the salaries have remained the same. The working force has remained the same. We asked ourselves if we did an extra work of reduction of capital. No, we haven't. We've preserved our store structures in function of the capacity of sales of each center at this moment. It is not just because we had one bad or better quarter that we would change our structure. No, we have been following all of our costs. Everything is being monitored. We've been taking advantage and managing along with the Vice President or even the President on the main purchases. We have monthly rights of monitoring. The mechanics are the same, but we haven't made any movements of reduction of our working force.
Adherence movements and working for more profitability to preserve the profitability of the growth is important, but the net profitability is something that we have been looking at more deeply. If I could make an observation, Túlio, it's the maturity of the processes we are going through because we opened a lot of regional markets in a lot of regional markets and we had to train a lot of people and those processes are still entering into maturity. I'm sorry, Túlio. Yes. If I could add in the expansion, when we look at our different kinds of stores, we continue looking at the profile of each store. Average investment in cash and carry, we try to preserve it. We try to preserve what we carry out, but the amount that is invested will vary according to the profile of the store, the profile of the city.
If the city has a higher or lower population density, that is something that we still look at in a very detailed manner because that will impact what Túlio commented on, the store's maturity at the delivery of the rates of return, of that return rates of that store. It has helped us have a lot of assertiveness. Since the work with our internal work is right now more stable in relation to costs, but with a lot of care and a lot of resilience, we can have the right amount of money at the right time and with the right speed. For the last thing, I can complement, the issue of pre-operational CapEx is also very important. We have a very well-defined process, the way we implement CapEx, the pre-operational CapEx, and that is how we manage and balance out each level.
If some stores will be more costly or less costly depending on the region, but it has been very well managed by us so we can guide the team so we can have the quality that we need and without losing control of what we have in terms of plans for the new stores that are opening in the new city. That is the context that we have been living through in these new stores. Thank you so much for the answers, everyone. Next question is from Danniela Eiger, XP. Dani, you can turn on your mic. Please go ahead. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for answering my question. I have a comment on what Túlio was talking about now in relation to the store's returns.
Maybe you could share with us since we see the top line is very pressured because of the conjuncture, be it because of the recovery of gross margin recovery or the macro position. I think it dilutes the position of how the stores are performing. Maybe you can give us a high-level ROIC, maybe the legacy numbers, and then maybe the first and second years of fur maturity. Just for us to have an idea of the path of profitability of the ROIC of the stores. That could help us in understanding your strategy. My second question is in relation to CapEx. We saw that there was a stronger opening in purchasing lands and real estate. Maybe the expansion is for [Lao Lisbeck and Seal Suzuk].
Maybe you are just to see what your ideas are with this mix of real estate purchases in the future. Dani, thank you so much for the questions. In relation to the ROIC and the returns from the store, I think that's an important question. Last year, we were inaugurating stores with a minimum rate of return of 28%. Then we dropped it to the minimum of 25%. What we have seen more and more is that we have more trust in the curve of maturity of 25%. In the beginning, the stores were very young, and we had to work with a high level of uncertainty. When we look at the data of the gross margin of the stores that are existing for more than 13 months, we have more certainty on the sensibility of the ROIC.
In the beginning of the quarters, it evolves with a higher ROIC, and then the adherence in terms of those levels are at the level of 25%. The more stores are open and the more they complete three years, we will have more certainty. From the first year, we have more uncertainty, but after the second year, we can have a better idea of profitability. When the second to the third year becomes very adherent, then we have a more certain knowledge on the profitability. Now that we have more stores that reach the maturity of two to three years, we are more certain about the level of maturity. However, the stores that are in Maranhão and Pará are higher than 30% in general. That has to do with the strategy that Gilson mentioned and the expansion of retail, which is a lighter model.
It's a model that brings us a strong level of ROIC, especially in Maranhão, Pará, and Piauí. When we look at the cash and carries that we have now, they bring us a higher level of confidence. I think you know this a lot, but just to reinforce, Jesuíno told us about the improvements that we made with suppliers, and right now we're very focused on the stocks issue. If we are successful in this strategy in terms of cash by the end of the year, we will know how strong that will be for all of the stores of the company when they are consolidated as a whole. I think that agenda is transversal to all of this. When we talk about 25%, we do not consider the improvement in the working capital. I think that's a factor that's very important.
Just like you are demanding this for us, we demand this from ourselves because we know how important that is in generating value, especially in those lines. Do you want to comment? Yes, I would like to comment, Túlio. That's an excellent question from Danniela. We know that when we entered in the new states, we wanted to go to the larger cities, the capitals, where we wanted more visibility, where we wanted to show our brand and showcase our brand. Once that was done, now we are not only dealing with the legacy, but in the new states, we are more surgical. We are being more detailed. Now we are capturing better neighborhoods, not only with cash and carries, but also with the retail stores, as everyone knows. Everybody, and that gives us better margins.
We are able to capture much more revenue, and we can choose more calmly the stores that, independent of the size, the numbers will be much better. We look at legacy states where we already have a logistical structure. We are not really worried about supplying for a store of 500 sq m or 1,500 sq m because we already have all of the back office for them. This is the real strategy of the business. Answering the other question that Danniela had in relation to BTS, we, in fact, Danniela, we tightened things up a lot. Now going back to our strategy on legacy, we have a lot of opportunity to buy smaller properties and many properties.
We made a plan, but the idea is that that will go all into BTS because we have an expansion plan that is very consistent from now into the future, and we need these BTS partners. Excellent. That was very clear. Thank you so much. The next question is from Vinicius from BRF. Please, Vinicius, go ahead. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for answering my question. I would like to ask about the performance of the mature stores, if you could comment on what you have seen in terms of gross margin and same-store sales, especially in Pará and Maranhão, for us to observe the maturity of the stores that have effects on the final result. The second question is a follow-up on the issue of the cash and carry margins and the wholesale margins. You have had important evolutions.
Maybe I would just like to see what you see if you think that is a level that is satisfactory or if you think that there is more space to grow in terms of store maturity. Thank you. Vinicius, thank you for your questions. I am going to start from going backwards for us. First of all, talking about the margin of cash and carry and wholesale in general, Vinicius, what we have tried to do is always to deliver and embed the margin with the max quality possible. Another important point, what we are doing in this quarter is exactly that. We are trying to find a balance in a way that the margin comes with the most quality possible.
Now, with the margins of wholesale and cash and carry, maybe I would not tell you to, I would tell you to wait a little bit because we will continue working in the same lines, in both lines. In wholesale, we already started a little, and we are gaining a lot of efficiency in this area, and the new regions are gaining a lot of efficiency in this sense as well. I would say that we are going to try to find balance, always monitoring the perspectives that we are based on, but there is a limit for that. There is an important point here. We are very happy with the balance that we have found. Let us say an optimum point. It is a bit of that. In relation to the legacy stores, your question is important because, Vinicius, what are you asking?
In expansion, the stores from year one, even the stores are retracting a bit because we have a lot of sales, as we commented on, and now we are opting for a line of profitability. Once again, that's strategic action. When we look at the legacy options, that changes a lot. We have legacy stores, as I commented previously, that are growing at 9%. Those are realities that are very different when you look at states that are legacy states, and the same store sales change a lot, and also because of strategic actions that we have. I hope I answered your question as well, Vinicius. Jesuíno just wanted to add, because this subject is always questioned by us internally, and since we are a multi-channel company, it's a very interesting question.
As we advance, Vinicius, all of our channels, at some point or the other, retail helps, wholesale, and at other moments, wholesale helps retail because we are in a very strong dynamic. We've done excellent work with some suppliers to distribute using our structure of stores that we have that are very strong, especially with the legacy stores. That distribution improves our pricing for the existing stores. When we show the suppliers that we are a solution, all the time we are trying to show these suppliers that we are distributors and wholesalers. Jesuíno used a very important point. The suppliers can't penalize us because we have stores, so they can't give us a different price chart. It's important to raise awareness with these suppliers that we are no longer just a channel, that we are also distributors.
There is a gap that we will walk slowly with to improve this situation. Thank you so much, Mr. Wilson. Jesuíno, thank you, Vinicius, for the question. The next question comes from Joseph Giordano JP Morgan. Jonas, please open your mic. You can go ahead, please. Hello, good morning, everyone. Túlio, and Sandro, thank you for those questions. Thank you. I would like to talk about same-store sales because you talk a lot about pricing. You talk about optimization of profitability. At some moment of your speech, you mentioned that some legacy operations you have same-store sales going into the different levels. I would like to ask you about this change in profitability in the new areas. The new states that have expanded a lot, I would like to understand a little bit first. What is the internal inflation that you see in the company?
Secondly, how have you seen the traffic in the different regions to understand better the greater focus on profitability? I'm also going to start with your last question. In relation to traffic, we are very, we feel very certain about it, and we gain a lot of faith in the way it has been going in terms of expansion. We are not ever going to leave that behind, and we're always trying to balance everything. We are very certain in terms of traffic. It's within what we propose to do and deliver. I think that's one point. It's not a point of concern. In relation to internal inflation, it's smaller. It's lower. Even if we compare it to the general inflation in food, especially in the Northeast, it's less. The food inflation is lower than the rest of Brazil. I think I hope I answered your question.
I'm not sure if I was too direct. That was perfect. Thank you. The next question comes from João Pedro Soares. João, please open your mic and please ask your question. Good morning, everyone. I'll try to be as quick as possible. Just a few points to clarify. I, first of all, would like to thank you for the explanation of the ROIC. It was very interesting. Just to make it very clear and to understand the CapEx, what is the number of CapEx and investment per unit in terms of BTS? Maybe you could quantify about the number of capital invested. The second question is about the working capital. What is the objective? Looking at the operation, obviously, with the new discussions, what is the expectation that you have this year? Maybe if you could share more about that, it would be very interesting.
There are other points I would like to share. First of all, in relation to depreciation, has there been any loss of the dynamic of profitability because we saw that some of it has dropped? Would you like to answer first in relation to shelf life? First of all, in terms of investment per unit, as you already know, we are following a line of advancing with all of the store models that we have. We are going to open retail stores and cash and carry stores at the same time. When I talk about retail stores, those stores can vary from 1,500 sq m- 3,000 sq m of sales. I'm not sure if I understood your question very well, but it tends to be a smaller value in the average of the different units.
Just to clarify, in relation to the cash and carry, mixed materials, today, a mixed materials has land and construction and equipment. It would probably be BRL 70 million besides stock. João, just to make it clear, the ROIC strategy, of course, it's a case-by-case strategy. That value in terms of the land and the construction can also involve rental costs. If we have smaller stores, sometimes we adjust it with the CapEx as a whole, and that doesn't include rentals. It's a case-by-case strategy. There are some specific cases where we rent out land, but now we are buying more land. Just to make it more clear to João, all of that is within line when we put it into the model. If you could repeat your question about working capital, please, João. Could you quantify your expectation of improvement for this year?
João, what we have is, I mean, of course, as we said, we focused a lot on the suppliers now. Now we just shared with you that we are going to be very focused on the stock issue. We have internal goal for varied compensation, not only for us as the leaders, but also for the commercial teams and the executive seniors as a whole. We have every year one level up in the cycle of cash as a whole, and we share those responsibilities case by case. You could be sure that there's an important level for this year in the cash cycle as a whole. In this first quarter on this indicator, everyone is losing. That's a homework that we have to do until the end of the year to reach our goal.
Because if we just to reinforce that term based on the discussion that we had with Jesuíno, Jesuíno wants to change some of those pillars and bring in a bigger piece of that bonus to the working capital and to the stock. We think that that will obviously help us a lot because we are very concerned about disruption. That will bring us more balance. That was an idea and a suggestion that Jesuíno had that was very innovative in our last meetings. Another thing to say, João, the first thing is that we are very conscious of the focus that we need to give more to this subject. Now we come from higher levels, much higher levels than our cash cycle is today. We were able to get this evolution.
As you can see in this first quarter, we take a second important step, João, in the gains of suppliers. That is an important and structural point. We would like these suppliers to be recurrent and to continue working with us in these markets. We already have two very important evolutions in this sense. Obviously, when we talk about stock, it is what Túlio said. We are very conscious that we have to work with that market and take the next step. Maybe it will be hard to give you that exact number, give you a certain number, but on one side, we are very conscious that we need to intensify the line of retail.
João, going on to your third question about the issue of the depreciation of the shelf life, of course, there is an accelerated depreciation because of what happened different than last year, which the depreciation was lower in relation to cash. The cash depreciation was a construction over the quarter. The quarter was the first quarter where cash was more pressured because of the expenses that we had of acquisition of lands, as Wilson commented. We started rebuilding the cash position over the next quarter. That is probably why. Excellent. Thank you. Sorry for asking so many questions. No problem. That is what we are here for. The next question is from Thales Granello, Safra. Thales, please open your audio and you can go ahead. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Wilson, Túlio, Jesuíno, and some.
I would like to ask one more question about working capital for the next quarter with the acceleration of sales that we have seen. Should we see a worsening in the quarter in the average term for suppliers? The other question that I have is in relation to the competitive dynamic in Bahia. It is the state that you are entering now more recently with more stores. There is a player there that is very well established for a longer time, a regional player. I would like to know what the competitive dynamic is in that state specifically. Thank you for the question, Thales. In terms of suppliers, we have the report of 10 days plus, and we are taking an important step. Maybe 10 days are not exact, just like you said, because the increase in stock contributes to this. It will probably begin in the third quarter.
Maybe it will not be the fully correct numbers, but we will continue with significant gains in the suppliers. That is recurrent. It may have a few variations lower to higher, but nothing expressive in that sense. In relation to Bahia, maybe Sandro can talk about that. We have a competitive dynamic in all of the states of the Northeast that are pretty similar to each other because when we come in, there is always a regional player that is very well established already. Talking about Bahia specifically, that regional competitor is more concentrated in the metropolitan area and not so much in the countryside. We decided to come into Bahia a lot in the countryside. We started having some competition with him in some cities, but the team has been competing with them for two years ever since we were in the same city as that specific competitor.
It is very similar to what we have seen in other states. We have continued to gain relevance as we open stores, improving performance for us to become more and more stabilized in our results. It is similar to what we have been seeing in the other states as well, which is the need to mature even with that competitor there that is a bit older. I think that in this subject, Sandro, it is also very important to mention, which logically we have that concern with Bahia. I think that whenever we consolidate in the three states, Pará, Pernambuco, and Alagoas, we will have some relevance there. I think we create more muscle to be able to fight in the states that have more competition. That is why I think we do not need to run away and precipitate any pressure that may come because we are very certain.
We have a lot of certainty, and we're very calm about all of this expansion. Thank you, Thales. The session of Q&A has closed. Now I'd like to pass the floor to the final considerations of the company. My final considerations is that I would always like to thank god who has allowed us to be here this morning delivering these results. I would like to, in the name of Jesuíno Mateus, thank Sandro and Túlio and all of the other 60,000 employees that we have today that are working in the stores, in the fields, in the cities, giving the best they have in the DCs, giving the best they have so we can be talking about these results. It's also important to remember that our suppliers that are great friends and partners that we depend upon. We have a lot of respect for them.
I would also like to thank our investors once again, as I always say, and ask all of you to continue trusting our work because we are really here dedicated and focused, as Jesuíno always said. That is all we know how to do. We breathe in and out retail. I would like to thank our consumers who also trust our brand to consume our products. I would like to thank everyone who is listening to us, a hug to everyone, and have a blessed day. Our video conference for earning results of the first quarter of 2025 is closed. The Department of Investor Relations is available to answer any further questions and issues. Thank you so much to the participants and have an excellent day.