Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for waiting. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to Natura & Co first quarter 2022 results. This event is being recorded and all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. After the company's remarks are completed, there will be a question and answer session. At that time, further instructions will be given. Should any participant need assistance during this call, please press star then zero to reach the operator. This presentation may contain forward-looking statements. Such statements are not statements of historical fact and reflect the beliefs and expectations of Natura & Co's management. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the company does not undertake any obligation to update them in light of new information or future developments.
This presentation also includes adjusted information prepared by the company for information and reference purposes only, which have not been audited. Now I will turn the conference over to Mrs. Viviane Behar, Investor Relations Officer of Natura & Co. Mrs. Behar, the floor is yours.
Good morning or good afternoon to everyone. I'm Viviane Behar, Natura & Co's Investor Relations Officer. Thank you for joining us today for this call to present Natura & Co's first quarter 2022 earnings. I'm joined today by Roberto Marques, Executive Chairman and CEO of Natura & Co. Guilherme Castellan, CFO of Natura & Co. João Paulo Ferreira, CEO of Natura & Co Latin America, will join us for the Q&A session. The Natura & Co Investor Relations team is also with us. The presentation we will be referring to during this call is available on the Natura & Co Investor Relations website. Roberto will start today with an overview of our performance. Guilherme will detail our financials for Natura & Co. After that, Roberto will make concluding remarks, and we will open the floor to your questions.
For the sake of timing, in order for us to accommodate questions from all of you, we'd like to ask you to please limit yourselves to one question each in the Q&A session. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation on this. Let me now hand over to Roberto. Roberto, please.
Thank you, Viviane, and hello to everyone. Thank you for joining us. Let me now on slide three, quickly take you through the main highlights of the quarter. As indicated in our Q3 and Q4 2021 results, Natura & Co continued to face a challenge environment in Q1 2022. Our performance reflects intentional ongoing changes at Avon business, such as portfolio simplification and the new commercial model implementation, channel rebalancing at The Body Shop, as well as external factors. It is also a quarter that showed progress on fundamentals and positive signs at several of our brands that give us confidence that our strategy is the right one, and we are on track to achieve our medium-term ambitions.
Net revenue was down 12.7% in BRL and -4.6% at constant currency, and adjusted EBITDA declined 300 basis points to 7.2%. It is important to point out that this quarter has a very strong comparable base in Q1 2021, when sales were up by 25.8% in BRL and 8.1% in constant currency against Q1 2020. We also saw rising inflation that has affected discretionary income and consumer spending in our key markets, particularly as we have greater exposure to Latin America and Europe, while global beauty growth today is driven primarily by Asia and North America.
We also continue to face cost pressure in the supply chain and are seeing the first effects of the war in Ukraine, especially at Avon International, as well as some lingering effects of the pandemic still. Added to that are an unfavorable currency effect as the Brazilian real appreciated versus many of the group's currencies in the quarter. As I mentioned, we saw several positive signs in the quarter. At Natura in Brazil, growth resumed even on a tough comp and gained significant market share in this quarter. We continue to make advances in Avon's new commercial model. In Brazil, we saw a sequential improvement in activity and productivity, mainly driven by beauty categories. We also saw similar growth in productivity in the Hispanic markets.
At Avon International, a new commercial model is contributing also to improvement in some key performance indicators with productivity growth and stable activity, excluding Russia and Ukraine. We also saw sequential increase in social selling adoptions. Synergies from Avon's integration continues to be on track with another $66.2 million recorded in the quarter. Aesop continues its remarkable growth story with another quarter of double-digit growth in constant currency. The Body Shop faced a particularly difficult quarter due to a weak consumer demand in Europe and a channel mix effect. We are hopeful for a recovery in the second half. We ended the quarter with a solid cash position of BRL 4.5 billion, and in April, Natura & Co successfully issue a $600 million bond as part of our efforts to improve our capital structure with no impact in our debt ratio.
On slide four, we look at the continued progress we are making on digital as part of our omni-channel transformation. Digital-enabled sales, which include both online sales from e-commerce and social selling, as well as relationship selling using our main digital apps, reached almost 51% of total revenue. This compares to almost 45% last year, and is significantly above the 35% reported in Q1 of 2020. Overall, we are seeing some channel rebalancing as stores reopen, but online sales are still significantly above pre-pandemic levels at all of our brands, by nearly four times at Natura and Avon, and by 1.3 times at both Aesop and The Body Shop. Adoption of the Avon ON app at Avon International has posted consistent and sustained growth over the last nine quarters, reaching 16% or five times pre-pandemic levels.
At Natura, the number of consultants sharing content is also up nearly five times pre-pandemic levels. In our digital payments platform, Natura &Co Pay, at Natura in Brazil, posted strong growth in both number of accounts, reaching approximately 390,000, and in total payment value, which reached BRL 2.1 billion in the quarter. On slide five, we also feature some examples of our robust innovation pipeline in the quarter. As you can see on the slide, there is a steady wave of new launches across our brands, with Avon continuing to focus on the breakthrough Protinol technology, in addition to launching a fragrance that uses neuroscience technology. Natura launched a refill for its essential fragrance using recycled glass and post-consumption recycled plastic. The Body Shop launched a new line wellness collection, and Aesop launched a new eye serum to elevate its skincare proposition.
With this, I'll now hand over to Gui to discuss our financials and brand performance.
Natura & Co's consolidated revenue on slide seven, which was down 12.7% in reais and 4.6% in constant currency, landing at BRL 8.3 billion. Over 45% of revenues in the quarter were generated outside Latam. Roberto already mentioned the difficult environment in which we operated, as well as some of the intentional moves we made as part of Avon's transformation, which largely explained the decrease in top line for the quarter. On slide eight, you see that EBITDA margin came in at 7.2% in the quarter, a drop of 300 basis points versus the same quarter last year. The building blocks in the chart shows that this is mainly due to two impacts related to the challenging operating environments. First, the inflationary and the FX pressure, which reduced margin by 960 basis points.
Second, other temporary business pressures, which is mainly sales deleverage, which unfavorably impacted margin for another 240 basis points. However, we were able to contain this drop and partially offset the impacts through a positive 560 basis points coming from synergies and revenue management and other efficiencies, cost containment, and one-offs for another 350 basis points, the vast majority of which are recurring savings. On slide 9, you see that we posted a drop in net income and underlying net income in the quarter. Underlying net income, which stood at a negative BRL 392 million, was the result of the combination of a lower EBITDA, as explained before, and an increase in financial expenses of BRL 165 million, mainly caused by FX variations.
Reported net income, which was -BRL 643 million, resulted from an additional BRL 121 million in Avon acquisition effects and PPA effects for BRL 131 million. On slide 10, we look at our balance sheet and liquidity profile. We ended the quarter with a cash position of BRL 4.5 billion. This cash position comes after free cash flow consumption of BRL 2.2 billion in Q1, which is mainly related to negative FX impact from translation of cash balances held in foreign currency due to the BRL appreciation in the quarter and the decrease in adjusted net income. Operational working capital resulted in a cash consumption of approximately BRL 200 million in the quarter, an improvement of more than BRL 500 million compared to Q1 2021.
The first graph shows that our net debt to EBITDA ratio is 2-2.1 times at quarter end, up from 1.5 times in Q4 and 1.2 times in Q1 of last year. The indebtedness ratio reflects greater cash consumption in Q1 and lower EBITDA. Our cash position is higher than the BRL 3.8 billion we faced this year in debt servicing, as you see on the chart on the bottom right. It's important to highlight that Natura &Co Luxembourg completed a $600 million bond issuance on April 13. The funds will be used to refinance Avon's 2023 bond and other maturities of Natura Cosméticos. Management is strongly focused on optimizing cash conversion in the short and medium term.
Our focus remains on improving working capital on top of simplifying our portfolio structure and planning to deliver more savings in the medium term. Other priorities include optimization of CapEx and cash taxes. Let's turn now to our performance by business unit, beginning with Natura &Co Latam in slide 12. In the first quarter, total net sales were down 8.4% in reais and 2.1% in constant currency on the back of a very tough comparable base, as Q1 sales last year were up 24.6% in reais and 15.9% excluding currency effects versus Q1 of 2020. The Natura brand was down 1.9% in reais, but was up 5.3% in constant currency.
The Natura brand resumed growth in Brazil, up 3.1%, up against a very challenging comp and facing continued erosion of disposable income. Growth was mainly driven by consultant productivity, which was up by strong 10.5% in the quarter. Natura gained significant market share this quarter in Brazil, according to Kantar. In Hispanic markets, net revenue was down 8.7% in reais, but up 8% in constant currency, despite a very strong comparable base. Growth was mainly driven by Argentina and Colombia, supported by an increase in the number of consultants and improved productivity. Revenue for the Avon brand in Latam was down 16.3% in reais and 11.1% in constant currency. In Brazil, net revenue has improved sequentially since Q3 2021, but was still down 17% this quarter.
A significant part of this drop comes from Fashion & Home, down 32.3%, both as a result of the reopening of retail, which gave other alternatives to shoppers, and intentional portfolio reduction. Beauty sales declined by less than 10%. Measures adopted since October resulted in improved KPIs, including productivity growth in the beauty category in Q1, improving month after month and reaching positive double-digit growth in March for the first time since a new commercial model was implemented. Productivity of Beauty and Fashion & Home combined was positive in the month of March as well. In Hispanic markets, net revenue was down 16% in BRL and up 7.9% at constant currency, reflecting a very strong comparable base in Q1 2021 and a decline in Fashion & Home sales.
The new commercial model is showing significant progress in Ecuador, with activity and productivity growth in nearly all campaigns in Q1 versus last year, as well in Central America, with a sequential increase in activity and higher recruitment. We now turn to slide 13 to Natura &Co Latam's adjusted EBITDA, which was 9%, down 320 basis points versus the same quarter last year on a strong comparable base, but is significantly above the 6.9% recorded in Q1 2020. Synergies, revenue management, and strict financial discipline partially offset the impact of sales deleverage at Avon, raw material inflation, and FX headwinds. SG&A rose by 320 basis points to 55.3%, impacted by higher inflation, logistics, personnel and services, as well as sales deleverage at Avon. These effects were partially mitigated by synergies and revenue management.
It is important to highlight the Natura brand EBITDA margin remains very healthy, even amid a tough macro environment. Let's now move to Avon International on slide 15. Net revenue was down 22.1% in reais and 10.1% at constant currency, mainly impacted by the war in Ukraine, lower disposable income in Europe from rising inflation, and fewer representatives than last year, when the channel benefited from lockdowns. Here, too, the drop also reflects intentional portfolio optimization linked to the implementation of the new commercial model. We continue to see important progress on Avon's business fundamentals, including sequentially higher productivity since the rollout of the new commercial model, which is now deployed in 14 markets. In Q1, we recorded an increase of 9.1% in productivity, as well as stable activity if we exclude Russia and Ukraine.
Overall representative satisfaction continues to show positive momentum compared to the previous year on the back of record service level rates and the new commercial model. Q1 adjusted EBITDA margin stood at 4.4%, +30 basis points versus Q1 2021. This is a major achievement that was supported by the transformation of the business, strict financial discipline, and structural savings from the simplification of the operating model. These allow us to offset continued impacts from inflation and higher commodity prices, as well as effects from the war in Ukraine, which had more than 100 basis points negative impact on its margins. On slide 17, we now move to The Body Shop, whose Q1 net revenue declined 22.9% in BRL and 16% at constant currency. Sales were impacted by difficult trading conditions in Europe, where inflation is constraining disposable income.
The drop in sales also reflects an expected channel rebalance. With retail reopening, Q1 2022 store revenue grew 62.4% in constant currency versus Q1 2021, driven by improvement in store trading days and recovering footfall in many markets. Stores represented over half of total sales, which is more aligned with the pre-COVID levels. This is up by 26 percentage points versus Q1 2021, which was impacted by post-Christmas lockdowns in many markets. As store sales and traffic pick up, The Body Shop At Home, its direct selling channel, have seen a steep decline in the number of consultants after having strongly outperformed during lockdowns.
To understand The Body Shop's performance, it's important to look into the U.K., its largest market, where sales were down 26.3% versus Q1 2021 in British pounds, mainly due to a contraction in The Body Shop At Home and also lower footfall in stores compared to pre-pandemic levels. This is the case for U.K. retail in general as verified by external market data. UK sales are up by 8% versus Q1 2019, and sales at stores and e-commerce combined are up about 2% versus Q1 2019, which is also in line with UK market data for the health and beauty sector in this period. Q1 adjusted EBITDA margin was 6.4%, minus 830 basis points versus Q1 2021, mainly due to the absence of one-off pandemic-related government aid that supported last year, lower volumes and channel mix rebalancing, notably franchises.
We expected EBITDA margin to recover in H2 as prospects for retail and head franchisees, the most profitable channel, are up a bit. This reflects higher vaccination rates, resumption of tourism, launch of stores in new markets, and further expansion of new concept stores whose deployment across the existing portfolio has resumed, reaching 156 in the first quarter. On slide 19, Aesop again recorded an excellent performance with another quarter of solid growth, up 9.6% in reais and 21.3% at constant currency. Aesop consistently posted superior sales growth relative to global luxury brands. All markets delivered double-digit growth, led by North America and Asia Pacific. Japan posted 19% growth in constant currency versus Q1 2021. China entry plans are ongoing, including investments in digital platforms. Q1 adjusted EBITDA margin was a robust 21.7%.
The 500 BPS decrease compared to Q1 2021 is mainly due to planned higher investments in digital categories and geographic expansion to drive future sustainable growth. Let me now hand back to Roberto.
Thank you, Gui. I will now conclude on slide 21 with our key takeaways. First, Q1 was a tough quarter, as we also had previously flagged, and we expect the environment to remain tough in Q2. It's important to highlight that our fundamentals remain solid, and we are focused on flawless execution of our strategy as we navigate these headwinds. Second, we continue to pay particular attention to discretionary OpEx and CapEx, as well as focusing on cash flow. Third, the comparable base will become more favorable for us in H2. Also, we're gonna see more the results of some of those fundamentals, coming across in H2, and we expect to see further gains from Avon's transformation.
Fourth, the company is reaffirming its EBITDA margin target in 2024, despite outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the recent deterioration in the macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, which are impacting consumer spending and demand. However, in light of this effect, the company now expects to achieve its consolidated net revenue and leverage target also in 2024 from previously 2023. Thank you very much for your attention. Now Gui, J.P. and I are happy to take your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press the star key followed by the number one on your touchtone phone now. If you wish to be removed from the queue, please press star then two. We'd like to ask you to limit yourselves to one question each in the Q&A session. Our first question comes from Helena Villares of Itaú. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. It's only one question, right? Let me be just very summarize here. We wanted to further understand the Avon KPI. We thought that the KPI for especially in LatAm was very good, an improvement compared to Q1 2021. What we try to understand here is, when do you think it's going to show this improvement in the operational figures, also in the income statement of these business units? Why do you have this delay? If you could further explain why do you have this delay in terms of the operational improvement and the financial statement improvement would be great. Thank you.
Mr. Roberto, you may proceed.
Hello, guys. Apologies, we lost the connection here. Can you guys hear me? Helena, can you hear me?
I can, Roberto. Did you hear my question? Do you want me to repeat?
No. I heard your question loud and clear.
Okay.
Apologies. By the way, guys, we'll stay another five minutes or so late to make it up for the time that we lost. Again, apologies for that. Going to your question, Helena. We believe that those leading indicators are really encouraging, and those are very important and give us the confidence that the new commercial model is really starting to show the results that we projected, right? When you see productivity growth both in LatAm and in Avon International, retention and activity, that's very positive. To your question, why and when we're gonna see the results on the sales, on the P&L, we think towards second half of this year. Why is that? Because we're still seeing a lower number of reps, which is part of this redesign of the commercial model.
When you compare to prior year, it's impacted by the total number of reps. As we're gonna progress in terms of retention, activity and productivity, we are projecting to start seeing positive territory in the second half of the year. Does that help you? By the way, J.P., could you also comment more specific in LatAm from your perspective?
Sure. Can you hear me, Roberto?
Yes, I can. I can, J.P..
Good. That was a good spot, Helena. All the underlying indicators are trending positively, as Roberto said. Now say Avon Brazil is now five months of continuous improvement. When you project forward, you're gonna end up with Roberto's conclusion, second half we would see positive top line indicators. As productivity improves, also the profitability should improve, which is part of your question. We're expecting that. We are also facing some pressures in other lines, such as logistics, for instance, or personnel, which we are tackling through accelerating some of our integration initiatives. All in all, combined Avon across the entire Latin America is heading to positive results in the second half.
Okay, thank you. That's great.
The next question comes from João Soares of Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hi, good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking the question. I have a quick one here. Just to unpack the margin pressure that we saw in The Body Shop and understand exactly what is related to the inflationary pressure, what is related to the channel rebalancing. Going forward, what sort of measures are you taking in terms of revenue management to recompose that margin? Would be very helpful. Thank you.
João, it's Gui here. How are you? Thanks for the question. Yes, at the end, The Body Shop posted a significant decline in margins in the first quarter of this year compared to last quarter, or compared to the first quarter of 2021. When we start looking at those numbers, the main impact till the end of the day was channel mix and sales leverage, right? Both of them represent like a mid-single digit impact in the margin of The Body Shop, right? Compared again to the Q1 of last year. On the channel mix, it's very important to highlight that the main impact there is the head franchisees, which is basically our exports to different countries of The Body Shop.
As a result of the COVID, and as a result of Omicron in the end of last year, there is basically a lower demand for the products right now as the stock is higher, the inventories are higher. That's why, again, we're more confident that the results of The Body Shop from a channel mix perspective, they will start to pick up in the second half when we start seeing the channel mix normalizing and also increasing footfall in the company's retail, right? The other impact of which you correctly mentioned is since we leverage right cost by of course not only the decrease in the head franchise fees, but also the overall decrease in the sales, which is mainly impacted by the lower The Body Shop at Home channel, right?
The social selling channel for The Body Shop At Home, which achieved its peak in Q1 of 2021. Also it's the most difficult comparable for The Body Shop in terms of quarters for this year, right? We are again confident that when we start looking at those things, we're expecting a much better H2 for The Body Shop. Again, still a challenging Q2, but a much better H2 compared to what we have today. On the inflation side, we saw some inflation, especially coming from freight, but those are more than offset by pricing and discount management.
It's very helpful, Gui. I know it's a tough one, but do you think that it's possible we can see this margin coming back to double-digit levels still this year?
Yeah, we don't. You know, João, that we don't give guidance by quarter, right? Again, as I mentioned, right, we still see some pressures in Q2. Again, we're confident that again, that the business will pick up and that the mix will improve in H2 on the back of a much easier comp as well, because remember, Q1 and Q2 are the most difficult comps for The Body Shop. That certainly will give us better results in H2 if we continue with the trends of the business that we're seeing today.
Very helpful. Thank you.
The next question comes from Andrew Ruben of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks very much for the question. I was hoping you could dig a bit more into the Brazil results. It looked like a pretty good quarter for the Natura brand. Really just wanna understand some of the drivers, including the consultant productivity. Conversely, if we look at Avon Brazil, perhaps excluding the Fashion & Home drag, what are you seeing in terms of the core beauty categories and again, how that compares to the Natura business? Thanks very much.
Andrew, thank you for the question. I'll pass straight to J.P. to answer on Brazil. It's an important question because on one hand, you saw very clearly, you know, we're very pleased with Natura results. Again, as we said, you know, sequential progress are now showing growth, but also I would highlight very strong market share results that we got on Q1. On Avon Brazil, again, the separation of fashion, home, and beauty is important because fashion one is intentional to some extent, and also, you know, because of the reopen after other channels impacting. The fundamentals of Avon Brazil is actually very encouraging, and we are seeing progress quarter by quarter. J.P., please go ahead.
Thank you, Roberto. Thank you, Andrew, for the question. Indeed, we're so happy with the Brazilian business, Natura's Brazilian business. We've shared with you as of Q3 last year that there was a major shift happening in the marketplace, which changed completely consumption patterns, categories, channels and so on, and how we were adjusting to those by, you know, changing our offerings and accelerating some of the other shopping experiences, multi-channel alternatives. As a result of that, you know, we have been outgrowing the market since Q4, and in Q1, it showed very strongly in market share. We are well set for the year, and I do expect some improvement in consumption in general, not as much from volume, but in general from price.
By the way, I mean, when I think about that trajectory, I cannot miss the opportunity to say how happy we were with Mother's Day. I mean, really confirming all of our expectations for Natura. As regards Avon, as Roberto said, you know, you look at productivity of CFT in our reps, and it's already good. We should ride that tide. I mean, some of the categories are coming back, for instance, makeup.
As mobility comes back, people are wearing more makeup. That was one of the categories that was most hit during the pandemic, and Avon is the market leader in makeup. It should ride that tide, that wave. We're well set for that while all the adjustments in the commercial model are now working. To finalize, we were hit a little bit in the non-cosmetics Fashion & Home categories. Even there, we made some adjustments towards the end of the quarter. As a consequence, I think that the mix for Avon is also well prepared for the opportunities towards the rest of this year. Thank you, Andrew.
Great. Thank you both.
The next question comes from Ruben Couto of Santander. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thank you for the question. I wanna go back to The Body Shop. Can you give a little bit more color on this weaker performance of the franchise channel compared to the owned stores channel? Was this entirely related to this weaker sell-out and, consequentially, a lower selling to franchises, so this is why we saw this weaker performance, which means that in owned stores sales performed well and as expected. Is it true, or is anything different happening with the brand across the different geographies? Just wanted to understand if this was specifically a first half of 2022 isolated impact in the franchise channel, or it is more of a full-fledged brand related impact.
Thank you.
Hi, Ruben. Thank you for the question, and it's a very important one to level set everybody. It's absolutely a one-off situation or phasing, if you wish, related to what happened with the head franchisee. What happened was exactly as you know, Christmas and year-end is very important for The Body Shop. Of course, the head franchisees were very excited about Christmas. They had a lot of, you know, selling. Then, as you see, most of the markets at that point faced either lockdown or faced some retraction because Omicron, so they end up with higher inventory, right? That's what now is impacting Q1 because of a lower purchase from the head franchisees. Because they are important channel for the TBS, they had an impact also on the margins.
We are absolutely confident that this will normalize, especially as we enter second half of the year, because all the fundamentals of The Body Shop, and we are hearing directly from the franchise, they are very excited about the new store design that will continue to roll out the Workshop. They're very excited about the revolution of the refill stations that we're doing. Some of the new lines, like the wellness lines that we just launched. All of those things are give us confidence that again, you know, taking into account some of those one-offs, some of those comparison, again, you know, very tough comparison, especially on The Body Shop and Home last year. When you normalize those things, especially again, entering in H2 2022, there we're gonna see some very positive trends as well.
That's clear. Thank you.
The next question comes from Joseph Giordano of JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. My question to you relates to the Brazilian business particularly, right? We have, like, several initiatives related to channel diversification. I'd like to understand how you guys are tackling the small franchises and if you have, like, any color on the growth of this channel. Like, you have the sales rep running a small shop. How has this been contributing to Natura sales? What's the plan here to eventually roll out this same initiative to Avon? My second question goes into, like, Avon International, right? Probably have a ton of volatility or had like a very low visibility.
My question to you is, like, for how long do you think, like, you can still run in Russia, with your full product assortment, considering the inventories you have on the ground? Lastly, I don't know if you, like, have, like, all the details, but, like, thinking about, like, the full reopening in Latin America taking place mid-March, late February, mid-March, how are you seeing the competition evolving since then? Thank you.
Hi, Joe. I will try to be quick here to try to address all your questions. I'll start with the international, and then I'll pass to J.P. to talk about Brazil and Latin America. On the international, again, we're very pleased to see, one, the margins holding up despite the war in Ukraine. That's again, as Gui mentioned, linked to some of the fundamentals on the operating model, simplification on the way Avon is operating outside of Latin as well, which is really starting to pay out. Second, the productivity improvements through the new commercial model that give us really conviction that the changes that we're, you know, that we implemented is gonna starting to really pay out as well. Now, in regards to Russia, we made the decision to pretty much self-contain Russia. We are not working with the full portfolio.
It's a very limited portfolio to only supply the representatives in Russia for their livelihood. But it is really now a much smaller operation supplied by the local manufacturing in Russia. With that, J.P., do you wanna comment about the Brazil and LatAm? Please go ahead.
Sure. All of the other formats other than the traditional reselling, and I'm here including e-commerce, consultants online store, social selling, our own stores, consultants franchise stores, all of that on average across the region weighs slightly more than 10% of the revenues for Natura and in many countries is yet higher than that. Those formats grow faster than the traditional reselling. All of them are growing, but you know, these other formats grow faster. Because of that, we will continue to invest and expand even in the consultants franchise stores. There is one of those formats which allow multi-brand execution, and for those we will introduce more intensely the Avon brand.
That's not significant for what we have to do with Avon in the short term. I don't want you to be misled on this.
The next question comes from Robert Ford of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, Roberto, J.P. and Gui, and thanks for taking my question. It's a simple one. Why did the consultant network contract in Natura Brazil in the quarter?
Bob, could you repeat the question? Sorry.
Of course. I was curious as to why the consultant network contracted Natura Brazil.
Okay. J.P., do you wanna answer that, please?
Sure. Bob, it actually contracted as of end Q3 last year. In the current numbers, absolute numbers are similar to Q4, but it compares to a higher base in Q1 last year, where we still benefited from that huge surge of new consultants during the pandemic. Right now it is very stable as of Q4, and I prefer that. You know that, you know, my preference is to grow productivity much faster than the absolute number of consultants because that increases their gains, their dedication, their ability to explain our products and serve better their clients. I think the numbers in absolute terms we're gonna see going forward are gonna be very similar to what we are seeing right now.
Fair enough. Thank you.
The next question comes from Danniela Eiger of XP Investimentos. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. My question is regarding how we should think about EBITDA margin evolution going forward. I remember that you guys mentioned that we should already expect some recovery in the second semester of the year. Now, given this new like headwinds that are kind of out of reach from you guys, like the conflict, how should we think about this recovery? Should we think that margins should actually normalize on 2023 onwards? Thank you.
Hi, Daniela. Roberto here. Thanks for the question. One, again, I hope you guys saw that in our material fact, which, you know, we are very confident about our margin progression. Again, we don't do a guidance on a yearly basis, but we confirm the progression on our margins. That is in line again with all the fundamentals in what we are projecting in the second half this year and then entering 2023 and 2024. From a margin perspective, I think all the actions that we are taking, and we'll continue to take actions from, you know, consolidating the synergies, even, you know, exploring others. We feel pretty good about that progression.
We hope that we're gonna start really seeing that progression, especially in the second half of the year. Gui, do you wanna add something, please?
Yeah. Thank you, Daniela. Well, first, let me start saying that, of course it is a difficult macro scenario, right? We're definitely not happy with the margin in Q1, right? I think, we're confident, that we have, a plan and, again, when we look at the KPIs of, the commercial model in LatAm and of course other KPIs in Avon International, and the trends of the business, I think it gives us, very good reasons to believe about, an improvement. If we start looking brand by brand, I want to start highlighting that Natura as a brand, right? Natura margin, it remains extremely healthy, okay? Natura Brazil, Natura, Hispanic, LatAm, Natura as a whole, as a brand remains extremely healthy.
Now, if you move to Avon LatAm, as João mentioned, right?
With the trend of the KPIs, right, operational leverage should start kicking in, right? Plus of course, the new rationalization of the product offering, and we should start seeing much better margins come in the second half of this year. The same thing for Avon International, by the way, with the progression of the main commercial KPIs. The Body Shop, we already talked a little bit about that, right? About the channel mix and how we see this mix unfolding for the second half, plus the rollout of the new Workshop stores that of course has a much higher productivity of the stores that we currently have.
Aesop, again, I think we shouldn't expect to see margin expansions from Aesop given the investments in geography and categories, right? When you put all of those things combined, I think it gives us reasons to believe that the margin situation is gonna improve significantly in H2 of this year. As Roberto mentioned, that gives us confidence to achieve our medium-term guidance in terms of EBITDA margin.
That's clear. Thank you.
The next question comes from Stephanie Wissink of Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good day, everyone. We wanted to just hear a little bit more about the pace of the business throughout the quarter, and if you're willing to talk a little bit about quarter to date, just trying to understand how much of the pressure was isolated into kind of March and April, or if it's something that you saw earlier in the quarter. Thank you.
Hi, Stephanie, Roberto here. Of course, we're not gonna disclose anything on Q2 other than, again, the fundamentals continue to sequentially improved. I think you heard J.P. talking about we're very pleased with Mother's Day. And we continue to see, you know, improvement in the fundamentals on the commercial model, on all the pruning of the portfolio of Avon. Natura continues to be strong. The headwinds in terms of consumer demand contraction, especially in Europe, continues, and we think that this is primarily driven by the spillover of the war, inflation across many countries in the region. So that, I think, will continue to be a headwind in Q2. So the conclusion for us remain very consistent to what we've been saying.
You know, Q1 and Q2 this year still remain tough, but we are much more positive about second half. Again, really staying pretty much confirming of our guidance in margin, which I think it is. It's a very positive thing. Again, we run the scenarios ourselves, and we believe that it's on the right track. Hope that helps, Steph.
It does. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Irma Sgarz of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to sort of step back for a moment and talk about the guidance, conceptually speaking. I was a little bit surprised that you'd push out the revenue guidance by one year but maintain the EBITDA margin guidance. I know you'd already made prior revisions to guidance, and I know that the macro is uncertain, but I would've thought that given that some of your brands, I may say, are still in the process of turnaround. I would've imagined that you wanna lead the turnaround of the entire operation with the top line, with revenue acceleration, and maybe even forego a little bit of near-term margin as a consequence because that ultimately should follow once your revenue gets going and your operational leverage sort of kicks in.
Just help me understand where, how you're thinking conceptually about the progression here and where sort of my thinking must be off. Thank you.
Yeah. Irma, thank you. Roberto here. Thank you for the question. Again, just to be absolutely clear, right? When we reviewed the guidance on margin back in Q3 of 2021, that was primarily driven by some unforeseen, at that moment, pressure that was coming from supply chain and cost of some of the important raw materials and commodities. That one, we felt that it was prudent for us to adjust the EBITDA margin progression because as you know, a lot of the synergies, when we actually talk about the synergies, we're expecting some of those synergies to drop to the bottom line more quickly and being able for us to reinvest.
As you can probably appreciate, a lot of those synergies, and we presented that, are being used to mitigate some of the pressures that we are seeing in inflation and cost increase. On the other hand, on the top line, now that we have more clarity about the consequences of this whole pressure on inflation and impact on consumer demand globally, and we are seeing that pretty much across all companies, right? The projections of the GDP globally is coming down. Interest rates are going up in many countries. You guys know that better than I do. The consequences are retraction on consumer discretionary spending.
Hence why we believe that now, you know, the adjustment on the top line with our margins. It's the right thing to do, and it's aligned to our modeling as we project, you know, the next three to four years.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Richard Cathcart of Bradesco. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Just one here on the Fashion & Home category at Avon. Just hoping that you could give us a little bit more color on what we can expect there over the next few quarters, kind of how much that's still gonna be a headwind both in Brazil and in Latin America to the growth of Avon. When we should begin to see that kind of in the base and not, let's say, acting as a headwind anymore.
Hey, Richard, could you repeat? I mean, we couldn't hear you well. Sorry. If you can just repeat the question so we make sure that we can address properly.
Sure. The question is about the home and fashion category at Avon. Just wanted to understand kind of how much of a headwind this is still going to be, you know, in the second quarter, third quarter, and whether kind of as we get towards the end of the year, you know, with the rationalization of that category in the base, kind of when we should begin to see that no longer being a headwind to growth at Avon.
Yeah. I got it, Richard. Thank you. I'll comment and then maybe J.P., if you wanna add something, if I missed something. Actually, again, I think we've been saying, Richard, it's a combination of two things. I know that sometimes it's hard to reconcile. One is, again, a category reaccommodation, if you wish, because, again, Fashion & Home, especially in Latin America. Latin America has a much higher percentage of their business in Fashion & Home than actually Avon International, so it's a different portfolio mix. They saw a higher benefit of that because of COVID, where, you know, most of the other channels were closed and people buying things for their home, you know, leveraging the direct selling channel.
Of course, as we are seeing now, the other channels opening and people buying continue to buy through direct selling, but now, you know, also having opportunities to buy from other channels, we are seeing that accommodation. We're seeing the decline because of the channel rearrangement. The second point, which, you know, builds on that, is an intentional pruning of Fashion & Home, which was always part of our strategy of the turnaround of Avon, and that is actually happening across Avon Latin America and Avon International, which is also a much tighter portfolio of Fashion & Home. When do you think that this will become more favorable from a comparison perspective?
Again, second half of 2022, which we believe then we are comparing more apples to apples, and also the pruning that we started back then doesn't, you know, end up having such a bigger impact as we are seeing in Q1, and we'll continue to see in Q2. J.P., did you wanna add anything? If I missed something, please.
As you said, I mean, not necessarily, Fashion & Home is gonna become headwinds, actually, but it will stabilize in the second half. In Avon Brazil, the average ticket of Fashion & Home is already back. I mean, as we close the quarter, towards the end of the quarter, it was already back to pre-pandemic levels, which is where it should be. Similarly, across other countries in Latin America. The one that's gonna, you know, require further supervision is gonna be Mexico, where that accounts for a larger part of the revenues and we are still halfway through that process that Roberto described. By and large, stable as of the second half.
Great, J.P., Roberto, thanks very much.
This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to invite Mr. Roberto Marques to proceed with his closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Thanks everybody. Again, apologies for the technical difficulties, but we tried to extend a bit the call to make sure that we got all the questions from all of you. Thank you again for your patience and apologies for that. I wanna finish saying again, you know, clearly, as J.P. said, we're not happy with the Q1 results, right? I think it is important to highlight that. It is also important to highlight that because of that, we continue to review, you know, how we can simplify things. How can we give more focus in each one of the business units to make sure that they deliver against the fundamentals and the strategic pillars.
We are confident, though, that those strategic pillars and fundamentals are moving in the right direction, and we continue to be very vigilant to make sure that we can protect, you know, the cash flow, you know, the financials. Again, we think we're in a very good position, but those things are moving rapidly in a very challenging tough environment, and we continue to be very vigilant. Just again, wanna thank everybody, thank our team for all the hard work, and thank you all for being on the call today. Have a good day and have a good weekend, everybody. Thank you.
That concludes the Natura & Co audio conference for today. Thank you very much for your participation, and have a good day.