Good morning, welcome to the earnings call for M. Dias Branco, for the earnings of the first quarter of 2026. Today we have Mr. Gustavo Lopes Theodozio, the VP of Investor Investments and Controllership, and Fabio Cefaly, the New Business and Investor Relations Director. This event is being recorded and during the company's presentation, all participants will be watching the earnings call. We'll begin the Q&A session for analysts and investors. The translation will be available by selecting the interpretation button for those listening to the earnings call in English. The original audio is in Portuguese and can be silenced with the original audio on the platform. The transmission is also taking place simultaneously on YouTube on www.youtube.com/ri.mdiasbranco.
We wanna clarify that any possible statements that could be made during the earnings call about the business perspectives for M. Dias Branco, projections and financial targets represent the assumptions and beliefs of the company's management. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. That they involve future events that could involve circumstances that could or not occur. Investors must comprehend that economic, general conditions of the industry and other operational factors could affect future performance of M. Dias Branco and lead to results that differ materially from those listed in such considerations in the future. Now, we are going to pass the word on to Mr. Gustavo as he begins the presentation. Please, Gustavo, you may proceed.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Pleasure to be with you guys in another earnings call. Getting into the numbers here, we start off 2026 with a quarter that reflects consistent evolution of the assessments even in an environment. We have families that are more indebted. We had better results with execution that was really important. The revenue reached BRL 2.2 billion. That's a sixth consecutive quarter for growth in some categories. It's the seventh quarter. We have a sequential improvement that's consistent, especially in the market that we're experiencing. You don't expect any kind of spike coming in or any kind of chicken flight. It's a consistent improvement that we've been delivering, right?
The total volume added up to 400,000 tons and that increased 3.4%. We had market share in cookies, granola and flour. We became a leader in the Brazilian market, and that's an important milestone. You're probably seeing a lot of launches with more protein. We had one that's salty with low carb with 34 g . We've been innovating this with our EBITDA also growing 22%. Almost. Our net income also reached BRL 106 million, growing 56%. The company has been following this. We've been following the strategy. I'm gonna pass this on to Fabio, and then I'll get back to the Q&A. Fabio, please.
Gustavo, good morning. Thank you for the introduction. I'm gonna get into the details here. Our net revenue for the quarter was BRL 2.2 billion with a growth of 0.4%. The volumes grew 3%. EBITDA grew 22%. This also grew 52% with BRL 106 million. The cash generation, despite this retraction versus last year, We had the comparison of the fourth quarter of 2025. This has a direct ratio with seasonality that is unfavorable between the fourth quarter and the first quarter. Getting into the market conditions, as Gustavo mentioned, we're facing a scenario of consumption retraction.
Besides the food inflation, we've noticed that re-retail is more conservative, and that was evident in the first quarter and in the first two months of the year. When you look at the information in the market, it's important to highlight that over here we're talking about numbers in the market. And these are not M . Dias. Numbers specifically, right? On the left side here, you can see the volume sold for cookies in Brazil, which had a setback of 4% between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. For pasta, this was the same case. At the end of the quarter, we had a bit of recovery in pasta, and then we still had a setback.
The average price of cookies in the market went up 7%, but the volumes dropped 4%. We also saw a drop in volume, and that has a direct ratio or connection to income levels because of the different reasons we explained previously. Basically, over here, you have this consumer environment that is demonstrating a bit of retraction. If you look at this, you'll see it's the same information we've already gone through in the beginning, but you can see the evolution throughout the quarters, and that includes the revenue, volume, and average price. Here you can see the consolidated numbers.
When you look at details here of the three categories and groups at M. Dias, you'll see the main products that have the cookies, pastas and margarines, and the wheat mill and refining of vegetable oils. This is basically for the food service channel and the adjacencies, which are like the newest products in our portfolio, like snacks, toast, healthy snacks, sauces and seasoning, et cetera. We saw some growth in the comparison with the previous year. The wheat and refining of vegetable oils at 3%+ . We've seen the businesses growing. In some quarters, we had double-digit growth. The adjacencies, I wanna remind you here that you have a higher average price and margins that are higher. As Gustavo mentioned here in the beginning, it's the seventh quarter consecutively with growth of double- digits.
Over here, you can really contribute to the idea that we're on the right path. We can invest in our main business, which are the cookies and pastas, and in parallel, invest in categories that had a potential for growth. The retraction of 1% in the main products is mainly due to two factors, right? The retraction of cookies, when it comes to volumes, we gain share. We have a market that had a retraction a bit. The drop in the price of the pasta, which is related to this drop in commodities, right from the first quarter of 2025 and 2026. Starting off with the main products. We're doing this ever since the beginning of this year with major campaign in all of national retail.
With premium awards, we had over 800 awards distributed, 5,000 stores activated for these promos and special sales. Growth of 20% of the participating stores. We're trying to activate our volumes here at this sales point. There's a lot of marketing being allocated for this purpose, and that has been helping us to gain market share, which is what happened throughout the last quarters. In the comparison of the first quarter, we gained 1.9 percentage points of market share in the category of cookies. I wanna highlight the Piraquê brand, where we have the biggest added value in our cookies category. We had a share gain of 1.1 percentage points, and the revenue grew 10% in the same period.
This demonstrates that it makes sense to invest in marketing on these brands like Vitarella, Piraquê, and Adria. There's major potential for growth. We had important launches in this group of products. We launched the homemade pasta product line with new formats. There is a higher average price, and there's another texture. It absorbs more of the sauce and the special flour used. This launch is focused especially in the Adria brand and the Isabela brand. These are products that are already available in retail. With Piraquê, we launched the malted milk caramelized cookies. We have a limited edition in the personal cracker with garlic bread taste or flavor. There's a bunch of initiatives in marketing and innovation to activate these brands. These are just a few examples of what happened in the last quarters.
Now when you look at the Wheat millings and Refining of vegetable oils, I wanna remind you, especially the food service, the flours, the meal, and industrial fat. We added 22 new distributors that are specialized and have been very relevant for the growth of our revenue in this group of products. Some other items, just to give you some examples, doubled their revenue, such as vegetable fat, wheat and flour for fried pastries. When it's that flour for the end consumer, which is especially the packages of 1 kilo, we gained 1.3 percentage points in market share between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. The adjacencies, we also had very positive results.
For some items in the Fit Food brand, such as the rice cookies with chocolate, peanut butter, doubled their revenue in the period. Granola for the Jasmine brand grew two digits with an increase in the market share of 6.7 percentage points in this period. That reinforced the leadership of the brand in the granolas category that operates in the group of healthy product category. It's a market that's been growing with an attractive price and margins. We had important launches, as Gustavo mentioned, with the granolas, with proteins. Here you have some examples of flavors. We relaunched the gluten-free breads with the Jasmine brand and other formulas, new packaging and new flavors of snacks in the Frontera brand. For the tortilla snacks and the potato chip snacks, with the ocean salt flavor.
When you see salt flavor, and when you wrap up those recipes and revenue in the market, when you see the market taking a retraction of consumption in some categories, such as cookies, our execution has been working and has been evolving. Some evidence is the market share gains in the cookies categories, flour and granola categories. On the next chapter with costs and expenses here. The three curves that are very important for variable cost: the dollar, the wheat in dollars, and the palm oil as well, that's dollarized. These are market data. In the comparison with the last year, the BRL was appreciated and wheat dropped in dollars and the palm oil went up 8%.
The short-term view also demonstrates that the real gain was appreciated more. We had the cut-off in March to talk to you guys about the first quarter, and we already had a slight peak of 3% from the fourth quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026, and palm oil, 6%. This demonstrates all of our numbers here that are in reais per kilo. On the first line, we have the variable costs, then you have the fixed costs. What you can see in this cycle here are the average price and the gross margins in the different parts. Another topic that was discussed with you guys during the last quarter was that we received a bunch of questions and the costs are dropping in the market, but not at M. Dias Branco.
At that moment we explained that costs would drop. They didn't drop as quick because of our stock and some hedge positions we have. We already saw a retraction in the variable costs in the first quarter and below what it was last year and below what it was in the fourth quarter of 2025 as well. The average price demonstrated a setback year-over-year. We have some categories that are presenting a price reduction then interacting also with the drop in variable costs in the market, especially for pasta and flour. From the fourth quarter to the first quarter, we only the flour category had a reduction in the average price. Here we're talking about the drop in wheat in reais.
In the other categories, we haven't seen a reduction in prices. Here it was a lot more about like an unfavorable mix effect because our flour and margarine business kind of moved a little more than the Cookies business, considering the retraction of the cookies and pasta that I already mentioned previously. When you look at the expenses here of the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, which are maybe the comparisons or what's most comparable, considering that there is some seasonality among the quarters. There was growth at a nominal level of the SG&A of 6.6%. That is a combination of the growth in the volumes of 3.4%, since some expenses are variable, such as the freight costs when you deliver to retailers.
You also have inflation in the period that impacts most of the expense lines. When it comes to nominal levels, expenses with sales went to BRL 454 million. These are basically three factors, right? You have the growth of the volumes, inflation in the period, and some other marketing initiatives such as this special sale we resumed. You have administrative expenses that went from BRL 93 million-BRL 97 million. Here, basically, we're talking about inflation effect. The EBITDA in between the first quarter last year and this year went up BRL 160 million to BRL 160 million, and the margins also went up. The same dynamic applies to the net income and then net margins and nominal values as well. Moving on to cash generation debt and investments.
We had the release of our working capital, which are the green numbers here. The three main lines for working capital, suppliers had increased 65 days to 82 days. So it's a journey that's like long-term, and it started off in 2020, when we had about 20 days of average term for payment. Investors have been improving this line. The supplies team, also with the support of other areas in the company and negotiating really well with suppliers and initially with expenses as well as some commodities. So we have a very positive perspective in regards to this line. For customers, we had an increase of three days, but of course, everything is within normality and stocks are in line with last year and above the previous quarter.
As a comparison that is more recurring, it would be something closer to the 100 days. We ended this quarter with a net cash position, which represents having more cash than debt by BRL 688 million and the negative leverage at 0.6x. Considering the EBITDA in the last 12 months, keeping a rating that was AAA, with a stable perspective by Fitch for the eighth consecutive year. We've been keeping up with a solid balance, and the company is financially very solid. All of our debt almost is in the long- term, and so a good. Basically, this is the CRA financial issue six years ago. This is an important agenda focusing on efficiency initiatives for energy efficiency, optimization of production.
It is an important agenda to capture productivity gains in the mid to long- term. Our strategy, which is everyone's already aware of, the three different areas we operate in, the current business and other categories, which had growth of the net revenue of two digits for the seventh consecutive quarter. Our International business level that involves the export of the Las Acacias unit in Uruguay. Finally, there are some indicators for ESG. You can see all of these are in green. Some are up, some are down, but that really depends on the dynamics for each of the indicators. I think here it demonstrates that we were able to deliver a quarter that was higher than the previous years from an economic perspective and in a balanced way, also looking at ESG indicators.
From now on, we can get into the Q&A session.
Thank you. We're going to start off with our Q&A session for investors and analysts. If you are interested in sharing any questions, please raise hand. If your question is answered, you can leave the queue by clicking on the button once again. The first question comes from Mrs. Renata Cabral from Citi. Please, Renata, you may proceed.
Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for the opportunity here of sharing these questions. My question is in regards to what you guys are seeing up ahead in regards to this result. As a bit of a backdrop here, we can see M. Dias is gaining space in the gondola. Fabio mentioned the issue with the costs, we have this in mind. We wanted to understand what are the steps you're seeing to gain more room on the shelf and also gradually gain profitability within the company. What do you think would be opportunities when it comes to a possible mix or pricing, but also when it comes to costs?
Hi, Renata and Gustavo. Thank you for your question. When you look up ahead, we see a lot of opportunities in the adjacencies, and it's a category we've been investing in for the past four years. We've been talking about this for a while, and the main categories have been over-penetrated in the Brazilian market, 97%, 93% penetration. That's why it's a part of the strategic plan that Fabio mentioned.
It could have relevant growth and not only grow at the same level as the population's growth, right? We've been reporting this growth of about 10%. If we were to stratify this with the different categories, we would see growth that's even greater. I think entering new categories is relevant. I think you have two initiatives. First, we have this healthiness aspect, which has been in discussion with all of the population. The population searching for healthier food with less sodium, less calories and more protein. We've been working strongly on developing new products and trying to address this topic in Brazil but also globally, right? With the consumer searching for this.
I think we brought in a person that can look at this exclusively and now this business is starting to ramp up, right? The second pillar that's there is the snacks pillar, right? We don't provide too much visibility, but it is an important category for M . Dias. You're going to remember there were some important brands. We already sell a lot with the Piraquê brand. You've probably already seen our products being used at the in the airline companies. We've also invested a lot in the Jasmine brand. We started off with the tortillas. Initially, they were imported from Belgium with quality that was a lot higher than that of our competitors. We bought the machine a while back, and this was installed and started ramping up.
Now we're already making the tortillas in Brazil, keeping the same formula and quality, but of course, with more flexibility now. For the packaging, because the initial packaging we had from Belgium, that would come were too full or too big, and that would make the cost for the consumer too high. At a moment with more income limitations, we noticed that there was With this flexibility, there was a smaller packaging, improving these payouts and launching new flavors as well. We've also gone through the production of corn snacks, but also potato snacks with the Frontera brand, with new flavors like sour cream, et cetera. They start going off to the gondolas, and that will also generate important consumption now with the World Cup, right?
There's a big connection between snacks and the World Cup. We also had some changes in some packages. We were leaders during a long time with gluten-free and bread, and then we lost leadership, and we changed our package. Our package you wouldn't be able to reuse after you open, but now you can keep the product if you're not going to consume it all at once, and it preserves the product for longer. We've already started to ramp up with this. There's a lot going on in this world of adjacencies and for the healthy products and snacks. When you look up ahead, there's a lot in this direction that brings us to two points, right?
Growth at a double-digit level, with margins that are better than the average margins for M. Dias, for pastas, cookies and flour. That's an important point. Having said that, there's also big work and effort for the execution and how to commercialize our products, right? There's a relevant shift in the team. The new team has already been with us for a year, and we've already started to notice significant changes through market share. Even with the cookies market as Fabio presented, right? Retracting a bit because of income, M. Dias has been gaining market share. There's an execution topic that's going on and ramping up, and the commercialization model changed significantly with other the joint business plan and other retailers. We left that sell-in model with big negotiations, et cetera.
If I have work done with a retailer with space in the gondola, correct pricing and assortment and execution at the store, with M. Dias and with our promoters, to make the products lead, naturally the sell-in will come in. This is an important change as you avoid those negotiations with big discounts and volumes. The model of negotiation is a lot more efficient and effective. It's a lot more directed to consumers, right? That changes the logic of the company. I'd say that the execution, even in more mature categories, pastas, et cetera, we're going to show you some kits. We just launched the homemade pasta that was very different, with the capacity for absorption of sauces that has special flour and more delicate texture.
You can understand, Even in the existing category, when you see cookies, for example, we saw the Goiabinha cookies, the malted milk cookies, caramelized, with the flavors and some other innovation. We're gonna launch a big campaign as well, first getting back to some basic items because when the category drops, since M. Dias is 1/3 of this market, it suffers a bit more, right? We believe we can encourage consumption also of items that are maybe a little more basic in the cookies category, right? It's been a while since any Brazilian company has been working on advertising campaigns, right, for this.
We think these campaigns are going to help bring in some important support from marketing as well to help with the execution at the POS. Sorry I gave you kind of a long answer here, but we have a lot going on, and you see the market is what it is, and it's, but when you look in-house. You can see the consecutive deliveries. This has been growing in a consistent manner, really gives us the confidence that we're on the right path. If we talk too much more, I'm going to take up all the time from other analysts as well. I think, Fabio, do you want to add on with anything else?
Hey, Renata, good morning. Just to add on briefly to what Gustavo mentioned.
This change in the logic, from the sell-in to the sellout, besides the market share gains, brings other benefits to the margin. Because as we have an execution that is more focused on the sellout, we can have more predictability in the demand and that also becomes more regular in the operation, from a manufacturing perspective and logistics, and we avoid peaks and valleys. We can see the benefits in the revenue and also in the margin. Another point we also discussed is the pricing. We are going through this process that maybe delivers a pricing that is more connected to what's happening in the market and what is more balanced between volume and margins, right? We're always gonna be looking at the market, the context and variables involved, right?
It's a process that's really well-balanced. If you look at the marketing as well, besides what Gustavo mentioned with a big campaign that intends to reactivate some subcategories and with big brands at M. Dias . There's also a lot of marketing going on at the sales, at the POSs, right? There's a lot going on. To improve the margins from a percentage perspective and even the returns in the company, we quickly went over this in the presentation, but there's a lot of investments, CapEx investments, right, that are taking place with a productivity perspective, right?
Since putting automation and updates in the products and of course, if this won't bring in returns in the super short term, but in the mid to long- term, we could see this return in the margins and M. Dias returns overall.
Thank you, Gustavo and Fabio, for the full answer. If you'd allow me to have a quick follow-up about the market share you gained, that was really impressive in the cookies category. To give us a little more color on where you saw this opportunity. I think Fabio already mentioned the sell-in and sellout issue. The idea is to understand the maintenance, the opportunity to see this with some color also about the regionals, and if this was more in the northeast or if there was an improvement in the execution in the southeast.
Any kind of info you can give us will definitely help us a lot.
Renata, I think here the good news is there's been an increase in market share in the main regions where M. Dias operates and in the region where we started and also in the region that's the biggest opportunity for growth, which is the southeast. There was not a major concentration of this market share. It was more like all around Brazil. All of these topics, whether it's execution that Gustavo mentioned and I added on to, apply to all of the country, right? Of course, there are some different adaptations in the north, northeast and south. We saw market share gains in cookies in all regions.
Just wanted to add on here, Fabio talked about investments in CapEx that are connected to modernization and optimization. In this quarter, we had an important increase of CapEx due to an expansion in the product lines of categories that are specific. I don't wanna mention this specifically here because of our competition, but in our production part in Queimados in Rio de Janeiro, there was a lack of capacity there in the specific category. Here in São Paulo, where in the southeast, et cetera, there started to be a ramp up in a more aggressive way than what we expected, and that has been requiring investments for the expansion of the capacity and product line expansion due to the improvement in execution. We start seeing things really ramping up.
It's a pity that the market as a whole, as Fabio mentioned, is more restrictive, especially with the cookies market because of income, right? If you look inwards, and you see these changes in the negotiation and execution, we've seen this actually make us invest in capacity expansion for some categories, even in São Paulo because of the growth of these categories.
Perfect. Thank you very much, Gustavo. Thank you.
Okay, thank you, Renata.
Our next question comes from Gustavo Troyano, Itaú BBA. Please, Gustavo, your mic is authorized.
Thank you, Gustavo and Fabio. We have two points here. First, focusing on the cost. You probably already mentioned we were waiting for deflation, and finally it came. Now the narrative should be like, up until when should we expect this to go through your P&L? Also considering the commodity dynamics for prices and freight and packaging that we've seen, that maybe will push this price dynamic upwards, right? My question is: Do you guys have any expectation for a reversal in this inflation, cost and pass along? If you've also seen any movement with the pricing or announcement for an increase in price charts at competition. Just to understand how you guys see industry reacting to this, right?
Considering the cost of competitors is probably gonna react a lot quicker to the spot covering you are. Now if you look at this stock carryover that's a bit higher versus competition, I wanna hear from you guys and understand how you've been assessing this strategy for many years in the company and how you see the benefits, right? And how you've been taking advantage of this to kind of surf the wave in commodities once again with competition operating in a stock that is a lot lower, right? How you've been assessing this strategy and how it's been adding value over time, right?
I'm gonna start off here, but then Fabio can add on as well. Well, for cost, we've seen that there's an increase in commodities overall.
We've seen an increase that's significant in fuels as well. I was at our DC in Bento Gonçalves there talking to the logistics guys there. The last month we had an relevant increment also in the cost of diesel. I'd say we can expect there's an increase in cost for the second quarter that hasn't come in yet. What's helping on the other side is the loss of value of the dollar, and that helps a lot at M. Dias, so it kind of helps compensate this. The increase of commodities has been pretty flat. The real appreciated a bit, so that helps. We can expect a slight increase for the second quarter. When we look at our forecast, we kind of see this cost increase.
Due to this, we've already communicated this through some new charts. Our pricing model is something we look at weekly, considering our market tools. We also consider how our competitors are reacting for cookies. I would say everyone kind of moves along. We're talking about the category and not only M. Dias here. For pasta, maybe a little less. We see that with this confusion in the U.S., Israel and Iran, we have some important impacts, right? With the whole story of the fertilizers, et cetera. If you look at wheat production here in Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul, the consumption is kind of fertilizer is irrelevant, right? In Argentina, there's more production, but the soil there requires less fertilizer, right?
That does generate an impact in a significant way. On the other hand, you have climate issues, so there's a lot of production. You have in Russia, favorable plantation conditions. There should be some kind of compensation. Overall, looking at the data we have today, we've already seen pressure in cost in the second half, and therefore we've been announcing some price charts. That we can also monitor this and also see what our competitors are up to. Right. About the second question. The only strategy we mentioned was the pricing strategy, practicing this a little more and having a lot more data and speed as well, to get back and forth with the prices, doing this at a weekly level.
I'd say the pricing policy is a lot more agile than what it was previously. In regards to the stock and the hedge, looking up ahead, we understand that we're on the right path, and we don't intend to modify this. We're on the right path.
Okay, perfect. Gustavo, thank you so much.
Next question here is from Mr. Thiago Duarte from BTG Pactual. Hey, Thiago, your mic's open.
Okay, thank you for this opportunity. Good morning, Gustavo, Fabio, and everyone. Well, before I get into the questions, I wanted to clarify one point. In the presentation, when we talk about average prices and volumes of the product category, Fabio suggested that it would be like a sequential drop of 20.6%.
It did not have a relevant price component. It was just volume. Is that it? I wanted to confirm this point before I share my question. Yeah. Well, you're talking about the fourth quarter to the first?
Yes. Once this is confirmed, yes, that's a mix issue.
Okay. Which would be mainly the volume, right?
The Flour business had better performance than cookies. That kind of generates a unfavorable mix effect that interferes in the average price.
Well, my question is about the sequential drop in the net revenue. Does that mean the main products? Yeah. In that case, it's more volume oriented. With this perception, we would be talking about a sequential drop, although there may be historical seasonality.
It's very high for volumes compared to what we historically saw in the sequential drop. That becomes even more interesting when you consider market share gains in the cookies category. Is this because there was a significant difference between your sell-in and sellout, which is what's going to measure your market share? Is this because of the slowdown, which I think was also very significant in the volumes of the category for cookies and dough and pasta?
Well, if this is more evident when you compare December with the numbers in the market. The market numbers we also presented drop, but drop a little bit less, isn't it? An element of the drop in our sell-in. Another one is the seasonality. Another is a bit of a mismatch in the sell-in and the sellout.
There was a higher supply of retail in the end of 2025 and lower, especially in January, where there was a gradual increase from February to March. This issue with the sell-in and the sellout and the supply of retail in December and comparing to what happened, that kind of generates part of this difference as we consider the internal dynamic and the market dynamics. This issue. Structurally, there's been an increase in price in the category. Considering income, this market has been dropping. If you compare this with seasonality, it's a significant drop. Then you have seasonality, et cetera. The market dropped. It's not that M. Dias is growing. It drops less, and that helps us gain market share.
If you think about this structurally, the cookies market has been suffering a bit, even more than the pasta market, right? Where, where you get the volume and that's pretty stable. Cookies have been suffering more.
Okay, that's very clear. If I can just bring in a second point, which is about the market share gains. Could you guys please give us an idea of how much this market share gain is? What's the level of market share that this brings to you, right? Because it also kind of gives us the impression that it's a market share that's already getting very close to the 30%-35% that you've always discussed as a market share you would consider to be like a balance point. Something you guys would consider to be reasonable, right?
I am asking you this because I wanna know if this would already make it possible to have a price policy that is a little bit less aggressive. In the category.
Our price policy and the market share gains. If you look at our pricing, does it change too much? I think it's in a lot more connected to all of the changes in the negotiation approaches, execution and investments in the POS, et cetera, instead of just an aggressive price policy. Since it's not this, because price really makes a difference and moves the needle, since we are not doing this and our market share gains are getting into that line of gradual growth, it hasn't gone from 30%- 35%, right?
It has been kind of geared to the right direction, but not that market share gain of 30%-35% like it was before. It's like a more gradual sequential growth pattern.
Okay, perfect.
Our next question comes from Mr. Henrique Brustolin from Bradesco BBI.
Hi, Fabio and team. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two here. I wanted to hear more from you on the SG&A dynamic, especially for the marketing line. The marketing line grows about 10%, and that was one of the main factors for the EBITDA margin to not keep up with the expansion of the cost margin. I wanted to understand how we should consider this up ahead. I remember the discussion in the beginning of last year. There was a marketing expense setback.
The question was, should we see this level of growth at a nominal level slowing down throughout the year and then maybe bringing in a greater dilution? Or if the expense level would maybe be greater with all the campaigns being done.
We wanted to discuss this performance between cookies and dough-- And pasta, sorry. Discussion how it should be advancing and how we should consider this share gain year-over-year. Such as cookies growing and pastas also being pretty stable. What are we missing for this share to accelerate, right? The comparison with the marketing between the first quarter of 2025 and 2026. I think part of the answer you've already given us.
Last year, we really held the expenses of marketing with the launches in the first quarter because we were receiving most of our team new, right? So like VPs, management, and let's hold this a bit, let the guys arrive, and then gradually we started reactivating some of these initiatives. In 2025 we had a greater concentration of marketing in the second semester. It's not gonna be completely leveled out there. We have some different concentration in the month or one month or another, but it should be a little bit more regular than what we saw in 2025. Now structurally, and we've even talked to you about this at some moments.
It should be maybe closer to about 2% of the net revenue. The expectation that this won't change, I'd say about between 2% and 2.5%. Another point you also mentioned, Henrique, about the market share issue. We had a volume of cookies and pasta kind of had a setback, but we didn't have a setback in pasta share. Actually, it was pretty stable. We gained market share for cookies, and then we kept this market share of about 0.1 with the maintenance of pastas. Just to not give you the impression that with pastas, M. Dias is gonna lose, right? 0.1 and if you see, no one is gaining the 0.1 and who's gaining this is more like in the southeast than the south.
It's really subtle, and there's not a relevant market share loss.
Okay, great, Gustavo. Thank you.
On the share, the question was like why pasta wasn't having the same level of growth that you're having in cookies. I think cookies has a share growth curve. For pastas not really, right? In the cookies case, this increase in price did not occur. If you consider the current condition of the population, there is a lot of volatility in regards to price. Pasta didn't follow along with the price, and then there was this greater impact. It's not even like a market dynamic as a whole, right? That's why we haven't seen a growth in pasta.
Just to add on here, when we consider this, it's the national share. For the pasta category, if you look at this per region, we've seen a share gain in some regions. The thing is the northeast region, due to an income effect and other aspects, with inflation and debt, et cetera, we've had a bit more of a difficulty. Our business actually with pasta is such as more concentrated in the northeast. Our core region is a little more challenging, and then it's just a matter of mathematics, right? Impacting a bit of the national share as well. That's maybe not the good, the side that's not as good, right?
In regions where you have less sensitivity to income, if you think about consumption, we've seen a market share gain, right? I think that's a positive sign that the execution is really working.
Okay, that's clear. Thank you very much, guys.
Our next question is from Ricardo Boiati at Safra. Please, Ricardo, your mic's on.
Well, good morning, Gustavo and Fabio and other participants. Thank you for the chance here to speak with you. I wanted to invest a little more on the average price topic. I think a lot was already mentioned, but we're trying to kinda merge things together in this mosaic with the information you have and focusing especially in cookies, right? Since the industry had an average price that was going up at about 7%.
M. Dias gained share upon a market that dropped maybe about 4%, right? M. Dias was dropping volume. When you consider this, pasta's kind of moving sideways and flours also grew a little bit more than the volume with a drop in prices. Adjacencies also with a growth in the volume of prices. That has been something that's very out of normal, let's say. We reached the conclusion that the average price of M. Dias for cookies should be a lot more timid than the rest of industry, right? Maybe about 1% or 2% in this quarter. You mentioned the company hasn't been very aggressive in pricing. Does that mean that the company is not lowering prices?
Does it exclude the possibility of an increase in the average price as well? Maybe a little bit below what it is at the industry. That's the first. Also, when it comes to the cost of labor, we had this impression that the print there of the fourth quarter had something that could be like a non-recurring effect or like a retroactive effect. In this quarter, there was also a level that was a bit higher if you look at the cost per kilo. I wanted to understand if there's a more pressure dynamic with the labor costs or if you guys expect any kind of dilution up ahead. Thanks, guys.
Ricardo, thank you for your question here.
When we talked about market share and price, I mentioned like if there was an increase it was maybe smaller than the market and maybe weren't that aggressive. The increase quarter-over-quarter was actually greater than both of what you mentioned, right? Specifically with M. Dias. That was an increase. I think we captured an important increase year-over-year and even in the fourth quarter compared to the first quarter, right? We've already seen an increase in prices from December all the way here. I'd say that it was not only about like what I mentioned with Thiago. This growth is not being that relevant and remains insignificant relevant because our policy is we're not gonna drop the pricing and buying market share, right?
We understand the best way to build this future is by heading to execution, greater closeness to customers, not only lowering prices, right? We have more than both of these, we really improved the execution.
Hi Ricardo, good morning. This is Fabio. On the labor issue, in the 1st quarter of last year, we had just interrupted the production there of the Lençóis Paulista factory. It was a labor cost that was almost zero. That kind of appeared in the cost line, all of the termination expenses and cancellation expenses went to other expenses. This factory was kind of partially reopened in the month of August. We have one additional factory there. When you compare the first quarter of 2025, right?
There was like a one or other headcount increase to meet the volumes. There was also the inflation and that appears here at these lines. There's an inflation of the health plan that's greater than IPCA. It's kind of like this collection of factors here. There's no like non-recurring factor or theme different than the base of the first quarter of 20 25, where we didn't have like a factory. I think that's it.
Okay, very clear, guys. Thanks.
Our next question, comes from Ms. Laura Hirata at Santander. Please, Miss Laura, your mic's, open.
Hi, guys. Thanks for the space. I wanted to explore two points. The first one is about the mix. You guys have been increasing your stake in the market. I wanted to understand how this growth could influence your profitability, considering the dilution of the unit costs, and it's a product that ends up having lower added value. My other question is about the competitive scenario, right? We saw how do your competitors react in a scenario like this, right? Where we can already see a price pass along and in which categories this is maybe being more significant. Thank you.
Thank you for the question. I'll start off here and then Fabio can add on. It's great to sell flour, right?
To know that our area is advancing a lot. The volume of the categories, especially cookies that represent 50% of our business, did not grow at the same proportion. Now if you look up ahead, we understand that the other categories, when you consider healthy products and snacks that have higher margins. If you look at the long- term, we'll see the company that has been a lot more profitable. This is a category that already has a relevant penetration in Brazilian households. The change in behavior is a lot more related to the way we're operating now than the market itself, right? It's a very well-penetrated category, and I don't see a substantial drop in profitability.
Actually, I see M. Dias looking up ahead with a margin growth, better categories execution, pricing adjusted, a lot of innovation, adding more value. I think that would be in regards to the flour. Yeah. Fabio here, just to add on.
We're not gonna improve the mix by slowing down the flour business, right? We wanna accelerate the cookies business. As you mentioned before, the market for cookies became a little more challenging at this moment. Each category has a dynamic, but we want all of the categories to grow in a healthy and consistent manner with profitability. About the competitive scenario, I think we covered this topic a bit, and we haven't seen any irrational movements. The costs went up due to commodity issues, diesel issues.
At this moment, everything is connected also to the war topic. We see some slight movement in the market about the price increases. Of course, everything taking place in a rational and a balanced manner.
Okay. Thank you, Gustavo and Fabio. Very clear.
Our next question comes from Mr. Pedro Fonseca at XP. Please, Pedro, your mic is open.
Hi, please. How's it going, Gustavo, Fabio? Good afternoon. Thanks for the question. The first point I wanted to explore here is you mentioned the cookies market. I wanted to insist a bit more on the pasta market as well. We've seen a weak sellout even in a pretty positive sale for pricing. We understand the affordability of consumers and how this is really challenging. I wanted to explore if you guys see any other catalyst that is specifically related to the pasta market that has been suffering a little more. In our view, I think the cookies issue is really clear. Price is up and that hinders volume.
I wanted to see if you guys see anything that's out of your radar for pasta. Eventually, if we maybe consider some other consumer affordability scenario, and if you'd imagine that this market would recover at the same intensity. That's the first question. The second question is, we see performance in food service has been very positive and created growth in margins and industrial fats, et cetera. Having said that, does it make sense to wait for the company to now have more exposure to other oils, especially soy oil? Does that make sense? If this does make sense, would you be able to explain if the hedge strategy would in some way be a little bit different than palm oil? These are my questions. Thanks to you.
Well, the pasta category is a category that is extremely elastic and there's extremely a serious sensitivity when you look at the more basic pastas, right? When you look at the Northeast, this elasticity is even greater, right? If you see 2025 versus 2026, we see a bunch of Bolsa Família, which is a government program in Real that's a bit lower. You have the election year, and you have a distribution of resources that is greater. That should encourage consumption. I think for pasta, it's very sensitive to pricing and the economy overall, and it kind of moves in line with what happens in the country overall with income and all that.
I think there's a bit of that, but I don't see any other type of lever that would hinder the performance for pastas, right? Like, we saw all the 10s, the LP 110s made a substantial drop of 10%. In our case, it's like 0. Of course, the future is different. Right now, what we see in all of our studies kind of demonstrate that there's a debt situation coming from a lot of different factors. The economy, high interest, debts, and so many other factors which are a lot more impactful than anything else, right? Economic improvements and improvement in income and the category recovers quickly.
Well, just to add on to Gustavo's point here and bringing this into the execution plan.
Last year, we restructured the company, especially in the commercial areas and building the different business units. Execution got better and started delivering results. The results did not come in at the same speed for all of the categories, right? We saw food services move quickly, adjacencies as well. We start seeing something that's a little more consistent in cookies and pasta came along a bit later. There was actually a pricing issue back in 2024 and beginning of 2025 where we had the adjustments, and now we have this other more balanced pricing in pasta, right? Our expectation is positive if you think about M. Dias, right? If you think about the improvement of our execution, the launches and the marketing at the POSs and everything.
There's a whole set of initiatives that should improve our position in the pasta market, right? What we can't control is the size of the market, right? You have interferences and all these other variables Gustavo mentioned. Your second question is, if because of food service, we could have more or less exposure to a certain type of oil. I don't think we should have substantial changes, you know, because our unit for refining oil in Ceará has a lot of flexibility also to work with different types of oil.
Okay. Perfect, guys. Thank you so much.
The Q&A session is officially ended. I'll pass the word back to Mr. Gustavo for his final remarks.
I wanna thank you all for your participation and say that in our team, me, Fabio, and our IR team are all available. You can count on us for any other questions you may have. Have a great day and a great weekend.
The earnings call for M. Dias Branco is officially ended, and we wanna thank you all for participating. Have a great day.