Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Pague Menos and Extrafarma's conference call to discuss the results of quarter four, 2023. This conference call is being recorded, and the replay will be available on the company's website, ri.paguemenos.com.br, where the slide presentation will also be available for download. All participants will be in a listen-only mode during the company's presentation, right after which we will open the floor for questions when further instructions will be provided. We would like to inform that this conference call will be conducted in Portuguese by the company's management and that simultaneous translation into English is available by clicking on the button "Interpretation." For those listening to the conference in English, you can mute the original audio by clicking on the button "Mute Original Audio." The presentation will be shown in Portuguese, and the English version is available for download at ri.paguemenos.com.br.
Before proceeding, let me mention that any forward-looking statements made during this conference call are based on the assumptions and beliefs of the company's management, as well as information currently available to the company. These forward-looking statements may involve risks and uncertainties since they refer to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors, analysts and journalists should understand that events relative to the macroeconomic environment, to the industry, and other factors may lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in set forward-looking statements. Today we have with us Mr. Mário Queirós, Jonas Marques, CEO, Luiz Novais, CFO, and Investor Relations Director of the company. Now I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Mário Queirós to start his presentation. Mr. Queirós, you may proceed.
Hello, good morning, everyone, and welcome to our conference call to announce the results of Pague Menos and Extrafarma. Today I have with me Mr. Novais and Mr. Jonas Marques. Jonas Marques is our new CEO. You'll have the chance to hear from him and about his first impressions during today's presentation and during the Q&A. We're here to announce the results of Quarter four, 2023, and the full year 2023, so I am here today because I was responsible for the year 2023 in the company. On slide number four, we have quarter four's highlights. The first highlight was our market share. In quarter four, we were able to grow above the market average in the North, Northeast, and the Midwest. You know that the North and Northeast are core regions for the company, and the Midwest, as you're going to hear later from Mr.
Novais, the behavior differed between the regions; we saw a drop in the Southeast but a strong growth in the Midwest. Another highlight was our digital channels, which reached 12.5% of our total sales, a 2.6 percentage point increase versus quarter four, 2022, and this is as a result of our investment in navigability and constant improvements such as our new search engine, not just improvements in our app and our website but also our customer service, our call center, our delivery channels. So in our different digital channels, we undertook some improvements, and we're seeing the results. Also, our cash cycle, we were able to reduce it by 6 days year-over-year, and with a partial recomposition of our accounts receivable, you're going to hear more from Novais.
We also did a lot of work to control our inventory, and we made a lot of improvements in our commercial conditions with our suppliers. Another highlight was the growth of Extrafarma. In quarter four, we had a same-store sales increase of nearly 7%, and when we look at a two-year base, we had an increase of nearly 20% in two years in our same-store sales, and this results from all the investment that we made, and we already knew about this potential when we bought Extrafarma. Another highlight is the synergies. All the synergies are in line with what was planned, and looking at the data from quarter four, 2023, we have an annualized basis of BRL 130 million, which is nearly 60% of the M&C potential.
And finally, the adjusted net income of quarter four, brl 62.8 million, and this was very much based on the improvement in our indebtedness when we capitalized in September last year by significantly reducing our financial expenses and also the distribution of our interest on capital, which impacted our net income. So we had a total growth of nearly 22% in our sales. Of course, there's an impact of Extrafarma here. When we looked at the longer period, 2019 to 2023, so a four-year CAGR of more than 15%, a very sustainable growth rate. Looking at our digital channels, this has been a very strong growth lever for us in the past few years, BRL 1.4 billion in sales and nearly 50% increase versus 2022, which was already a very strong year.
Our indebtedness, we did our capitalization in September last year, and we were able to reduce our net debt/EBITDA ratio by 0.7x versus the peak of our indebtedness, which was in the second quarter, 2023. On the right of this slide, we see the growth of our EBITDA, an increase of 7% versus 2022, and when we look at a longer term of four years, we see a CAGR of 16.4%. Very expressive, very strong growth, constant increase of our EBITDA. Our customer base reached nearly 21 million active customers in the year, 6.3% increase year-over-year, and this is due to our investments to acquire new customers. So we sponsored Big Brother Brasil. We continue to sponsor the Brazilian national soccer team.
We made a lot of online investments, and also we keep investing in our customer service capabilities, and our conversion rate has been one of our greatest focuses. Finally, the integration of Extrafarma. We completed it very successfully, particularly in quarter one, 2023, when we finalized the integration of the four distribution centers of Extrafarma and all the systems. Today, it is running all the Pague Menos systems. Now I turn the floor to Novais to share our numbers with you, and then I'll be back with you for the Q&A.
Thank you, Mário. Good morning, everyone. Let's continue with today's presentation. On slide number seven, we have more information about the Pague Menos sales of the 1,250 stores. We had an increase of 8.6% in quarter four. It was a decrease versus the previous quarters.
In the previous quarter, we had an 11.5% increase, but in quarter four, we saw a deceleration of the entire market. We actually increased above the market. We gained market share, as you're going to see in my next few slides. So despite the drop in the market as a whole, we were able to keep a relevant position in quarter four. So over the year, the total growth of the company was 10.3%. We opened 20 new stores in 2023, and the same-store sales was 5.5% equivalent to the year's inflation rate. On the right side, we see that in our own stores, we saw very distinct behavior in the evolution of our same-store sales. In the Midwest, we closed the year close to 13%-14% same-store sales.
In the North and Northeast, it fluctuated at about 5% or slightly less than that in the first quarter, but we had a relevant drop in our stores in the South and Southeast because in quarter four last year, the same-store sales in this region was close to 14%, and in 2023, it was close to 4%. We saw that in quarter four, 2022, there was an extension of the winter season, so the sales volume was higher in 2022, so this decrease is also justified by the strong comparison basis in 2022. Now, the next page shows the performance of the 218 stores opened between 2021 and 2023. We have been seeing good performance in these stores. The maturation curve is evolving within planned.
On the right side, we see that the four-wall margin, which is equivalent to the direct expenses of the stores, we have in all the sales levels, we have four-wall margins superior to the margins of the previous cohort. So these new stores, not just these ones, but the ones that we're going to open looking forward, will be an important lever for us to improve the EBITDA margin of the company as a whole because they are delivering four-wall margins better than the previous portfolio, the previous cohorts. And on the bottom, we see 76% of the stores are in the North and Northeast, 86% focusing on B2, C, and D classes, and 67% in the inner cities of the country. On slide number nine, we have more information about the sales of Extra Pharma. We see an important acceleration in quarter four, 2023.
We had same-store sales of 6.8%, doubled the number of previous quarters. In quarter three, 2023, we completed one year of the work of integrating Extra Pharma. We bought the company in August 2022, and in the first year, the volume of capturing synergies was much more concentrated in gross margin and SG&A. So we improved the commercial conditions, the gross margin of Extra Pharma. We completed the logistic integration, systems integration, administrative integration, so that's why the captures were more concentrated on margin and SG&A. Then starting quarter four, we started to work more intensively in improving the sales of Extra Pharma. So a lot of CRM actions. We also had some banner migrations. We're going to talk more about that later. A lot of work on assortment, stockouts, focusing on digital channels with a lot of improvements. We reached 10% share of our digital channels.
Private labels also growing a lot. Today, Extrafarma has a higher share of private labels than Pague Menos. These levers started to more relevantly contribute to the sales in quarter four last year, and we have good prospects for the coming quarters. On slide number 10, we have information about the market share. We have good news here. Despite the fewer inaugurations over the year and no inaugurations in quarter four, we maintained our national share, and we gained share in our core regions, the North and Northeast, and also the Midwest, both in quarter four and also for the full year. We see that we have a favorable market. We see a high volume of close-down of independent stores and also some regional chains with some close-downs. On the right, we see the components of this growth.
So the whole market, according to IQVIA, grew 8.2% over the year between new stores and same stores, and Pague Menos grew at 9.5% and Pague Menos at 0.8% with a lot of pressure by the volume of stores that were closed down. We closed down 32 Extrafarma stores. But looking at the dark blue bars, both at Pague Menos and Extrafarma, we had a better same-store performance than that of the market. On slide number 11, we see our gross profit and gross margin. This was the greatest offender of 2023. The consolidated, we had a margin of 29.6%, a 50 BP reduction versus 2022. In quarter four, 29.2, very similar to quarter three. And here, the main offenders of our margin are basically concentrated on Pague Menos, as we can see on the right side.
We had a 1 percentage point drop between quarter four, 2022, and quarter four, 2023, concentrated on the lower inflationary gain and the lower sales of COVID-related items in 2023 compared to 2022. These two effects, when combined, represent a drop of 0.7 percentage point for Pague Menos. In addition to these two elements, we also have a growth of 50% of the volume share of our digital channels, and the digital channels have a lower margin than the brick-and-mortar portfolio. Extra Pharma also has a higher volume of stock losses. We received the company in August 2022 with a very unbalanced stock level, and this put some pressure on our loss level throughout 2023, also putting pressure on the year's results. We finished for Extra Pharma with a margin of 31.1%.
It is an expressive growth of 0.6 percentage point year-over-year, and the continuous capture of the synergies and improvement of the share of private labels, particularly for Extra Pharma and all the other synergies on the commercial side that have been captured by the team in Extra Pharma. On slide number 12, we have our selling expenses. We had an increase of 50 basis points year-over-year. We closed the year at 23% versus 22.5% in 2022. Here, it's important to stress that in 2022, we incorporated Extra Pharma in August.
Because Extrafarma has a proportion of expenses over income much higher than that of Pague Menos because of the lower average sales per store and a much lower capture of synergies in terms of expenses, on the right side, we see 400 BPs as a difference in terms of the share of selling expenses over income, over sales. Since in 2022, we worked with it, consolidated it, and in 2023, we had the 12 months. This also put pressure on the proportion of the selling expenses for the consolidated numbers for the year, but we have been consolidating synergies for selling expenses and also sales and Extrafarma. This trend is one of the main levers and one of the main indicators for the year 2024.
We have a lot of opportunities here to reduce our expenses with trade, leases, services, and also a lot of opportunity to improve the productivity and the average sales per store. On slide 13, as a consequence of the reduced margin and one-year integration of Extra Pharma in our selling expenses, we lost 1 percentage point of the contribution margin. We went from 7.6% - 6.6%. On slide 14, here we have positive news and very important news. One of the main synergies captured from the combination of Extra Pharma during 2023 is that we reduced our G&A expenses by 40 basis points compared with 2022. In 2022, we finished the year 3.1% of G&A expenses over our income and 12.9% in 2023. In quarters three and four, we were closer to 2.3%, 2.5%.
So in 2024, there's still some room to capture more synergies due to the integration of Extra Pharma. On slide 15, our adjusted EBITDA, there was a decrease from 4.5%-4% and an increase of 7% from BRL 40.45 million to BRL 76 million. So in absolute numbers, the company grew, but proportionally or percentually, it decreased. And this was due to the savings in G&A expenses, but the offender of the year was certainly the gross margin. And we have an atypical result that was concentrated in the start of the year, an EBITDA margin of 1.9%. And that was when we concentrated the logistic and systemic integration of Extra Pharma in the start of the year. But in the second half of the year, nominally speaking, we had a growth of our EBITDA compared with the second half of 2022 of 17%.
So looking from the start of the second half, looking forward, there was an important change in the company's EBITDA, so we have good prospects for 2024. On slide 16, we have more information about the integration of Extrafarma. We finished quarter four at BRL 32.8 million in terms of capture of synergies in quarter four. Annualized, it's BRL 130 million that we show on the left side chart. Chart of the BRL 32 million, BRL 26 million is linked with the negative evolution of the EBITDA, of Extrafarma's EBITDA, nearly BRL 15 million, with a positive EBITDA of BRL 11 million. So BRL 26 million of growth in our EBITDA, and the other BRL 6 million have a positive impact on Pague Menos. This is the effect of the logistic integration, freight reduction, and other expenses that have a positive impact on Pague Menos. So annualized, we have BRL 130 million of synergies captured.
We have an important evolution in the Extra Pharma EBITDA margin. As we can see on the right side chart, we go from a -2.6 EBITDA margin on quarter three last year to +2.1%. So a 4.6 percentage point increase or 460 BP increase in one year, and there's still a long way to go throughout 2024. We will finish 2024 with this integration completed and an Extra Pharma EBITDA margin much more similar to that of Pague Menos because the gross margin tends to stabilize at a higher level than that of Pague Menos. On page 17, this is one of the greatest levers that we have been using to improve the performance of the Extra Pharma stores. In 2023, we converted 54 stores that were originally Extra Pharma to the Pague Menos banner in Tocantins, Bahia, São Paulo, and Paraíba.
These stores, as we can see on the right side, grew by 17.5% same-store sales in quarter four. So the banner conversion in these states, where the strength of Pague Menos is much greater than that of Extrafarma, this is contributing greatly to improve the performance of the Extrafarma stores. So that is why we decided now in the first quarter of this year to convert another 47 stores in the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, and Pernambuco. So in all these states, we will only have Pague Menos stores, and we will keep our Extrafarma stores in four states: Ceará, Maranhão, Pará, and Amapá, which are states where the Extrafarma banner is very strong.
We're still monitoring and testing in these states, but we will probably keep the Extra Pharma brand in these regions, but also trying to extract the best that we have in each of the banners in this region. So we have great prospects for this lever here now in the first quarter of the year with the 47 conversions that I just talked about. On page 18, we have the net result of the company. We finished the year with BRL 14.2 million in income, an important reduction versus 2022, where we delivered BRL 161 million. We have an important effect here of reduction of our financial expenses. In quarter four, our financial expenses were BRL 25 million lower than quarter two and quarter three.
So looking at the BRL 25 million of positive effect in quarter four, we have something close to BRL 100 million less financial expenses in 2024 just due to this effect of reducing our leverage and the reduction in interest rates. On the right, we see the bridge comparing the net income of 2023 to 2022. We see that the main offender here is certainly the financial result, which was close to BRL 216 million in financial expenses, higher than that of 2022, which put a lot of pressure on our results. We will keep working. You're going to hear more about this from Jonas. One of the main levers for the company in 2023 that we will continue to use in 2024, which is reducing our leverage.
We're working strongly to reduce our cash cycle, improve our EBITDA, capturing synergies from Extra Pharma, monitoring the execution of fiscal credits, and other things that can help improve our leverage and the financial soundness of the company. This is our cash cycle and cash flow. The cash cycle on the left shows an important evolution of the medium stock term. We went from a peak investment of 129 days in the first quarter of the year, which was when we integrated Extra Pharma. So the logistics and systemic integration occurred in quarter one. So we had an additional investment to ensure the supply of the stores in that period and also the peak price increase. Then we finished the year at 116 days and an important reduction. We can shorten further the stock time. We recomposed partially the average payment term.
The average term, the normalized payment term is about 25 days. So we still have 10 days of anticipation of accounts receivable that we have been able to decrease as we recompose our accounts receivable. And this has been reducing the financial expenses of the company as well. On the right, we see the evolution of our operational cash flow. This is one of the three main points of the year. We have been having record-breaking cash generation. We generated BRL 264 million of operating flow, 26.5% more than the previous year. And this is due to the reduction in our stocks, improvement in the average payment time, and other elements. And on slide number 20, the last slide of this presentation, we see the company's indebtedness. On the left, we see a good evolution of our company's debt.
We went from a peak of 3.1x the net debt/EBITDA ratio to 2.4x , a reduction of 0.7x . On the right, we see the evolution of our net debt. We finished 2022 with BRL 1,167 million of net debt with BRL 367 million of operational cash generation, as we saw in the previous slide, an investment of BRL 125 million. So free cash flow, positive generation free cash flow of BRL 141 million, but the payment of the second installment for Extra Pharma, closer to BRL 100 million, and the expenses with the debt service put pressure on the results. But this was compensated by the increase in capital that the shareholders made in September last year. So we finished the year at BRL 1,192 million in net debt. We know that we are above what's ideal. One of the three main focuses of the company is to reduce its debt.
We should finish 2024 with a net debt/EBITDA ratio similar to what we had before we acquired Extra Pharma. We are striving to reduce the company's leverage. This is the end of my presentation. Now I turn it over to Jonas. Jonas, please.
Thank you, Novais. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Mário. First of all, I would like to greet all our investors, journalists, and analysts present here today, people who believe and show interest in our company. First of all, I'd like to introduce myself. So next page, let me tell you some of my background. I have three children. I'm married. I'm Brazilian. I have the chance to work in the past 30 years in the industry. But I started my company much longer before. At 15 years, I became an entrepreneur, and I learned what was entrepreneurship in our country.
I became a photographer and a filmmaker, and I opened a company with a friend. This was something that I carried with me during my career, the initial stages of my career and my formal education. I graduated in psychology. I love people. I think this is my main passion and what really marks my trajectory. I briefly worked with psychology, with autism, and vulnerable children. Then I entered the pharma industry in 1984 in Roche. Then I worked in Stiefel, GSK, and Bayer, where I worked for more than 12 years. I feel very privileged because I had the chance to live and work and lead people in Europe, Oceania, and countries in Latin America also when I lived in Brazil, but I had responsibilities in other countries.
And this brought me the possibility of seeing a very thriving retail from the most fragmented markets, such as Europe, to the e-commerce developed markets, such as Germany, and also Oceania. For example, Australia, New Zealand, as you know, is a more consolidating market, difficult to operate, and where execution, operational excellence, and the culture of retail is very important. So I feel very privileged because I have seen all these realities always on the side of the industry. And before anything else, I'd like to thank you for your receptiveness, the receptiveness of the Queirós Family and the Alves Family. And particularly you, Mário, the way you received me and the way you showed me the company and the way we are carrying out my onboarding has been crucial for me to feel at home.f
So I feel free to look around and understand the moment that the company is going through and free to talk to the team about our future. When we hear the history of the company that was created in May 1981 by this visionary, Deusmar, we see that clearly this exponential growth, this expansion that the company showed over the years, conquering Brazil from 1981 to 2015, this was marked by this vision, by the courage, by the strength, and the energy of Deusmar and by the establishment of the company's culture. Then your office, Mário, your administration, Mário, was marked by points that are really striking, such as the investment in G&A, so how it helped in this journey, the IPO, and the acquisition of Extrafarma. And also, I'd like to give special highlight to the COVID pandemic because this is what humans are like, right?
Because through love or pain, sometimes we forget about the past, right? I remember I was living in Italy, and my house was 40 km from Bergamo, which was the peak of the pandemic, the epicenter of the pandemic in Italy. We were tested in our humanity, and the corporate resilience was also tested during that period. I have a lot of respect for Mário's management during the pandemic. I have a very clear focus on execution. I'm passionate about people, I'm passionate about customer service, execution, operational excellence. I don't believe in retail that works without that. I've heard a lot of feedback. Feedback is always a gift. I'm going to explain some of my journey until here and the review of the strategic plan focusing on our capabilities. What are our capabilities?
The systems, the processes that we have today, and what we need to have in order to become a company that is an even-rated winner. Next page. So let me explain to you this process. I've always worked with a project of 90 days, not 100 days. This is a more kairologic and not chronologic day, more about focusing on the quality of time. So the first 45 days is about connecting and listening. So I listen to the people and their stories without trying to change the root of anyone. So listening and connecting, understanding the culture, knowing the stakeholders with very deep interviews and understanding the capabilities of the company with the purpose of awakening and energizing the company at that time. Then the 45 to 70 days, we'll deepen this analysis, look for behavior patterns, look for number patterns. We have a lot of data.
This is a very interesting part of retail. We have more than 21 million active customers. So we have the great possibility of looking at the data. We have data in our stores and looking at behavior patterns that can guide our strategic plan. And also capture some quick wins, some low-hanging fruit. We are focused on our expenses. We're also reviewing the 2024 budget, which had already been approved, but we're reviewing it now. And I can tell you that we have opportunities. And the objective here is to raise awareness and engage the company for this new moment. 70-90 days, we will better structure a work plan, deepen our analysis, finish the diagnosis, and engage the company in our future pathway with the purpose of continuing to engage and continue to communicate.
One of the things that, one of the most important lessons in my career and with my mistakes, was that we have to keep the team together. The team has to work together. Lacan used to say that it's not about what we say, it's about what others hear. So communication will always be key for us. On the next page, we'll give you some color and show you some pictures of the events that I had the chance to take part in, the visits in the industry, and about this energy and what we see. Because retail, we have simple people in extraordinary missions.
The fact that a product is produced in Denmark, and then it travels to São Paulo, and then it comes to our DC in Fortaleza, and then it goes to our store, and then it reaches the hands of a consumer, a patient, at the right quality and the right time is an extraordinary mission. But we are simple people with extraordinary missions. So on the next page, I'll show you what I call listening, learning, and feeling. So I traveled a lot in the past days, a lot of work, a lot of traveling, a lot of listening.
So more than 10,000 kilometers that I flew or drove, 9 states, more than 200 stores, our stores and the competitor stores, 3 DCs, Pará, Maranhão, Ceará, 3 internal events of the company, the Pharmaceutical Forum, which helped me realize that we are an ever-changing company with mobility in its social architecture. Most of our pharmacists were graduated with a scholarship offered by the company. This is so strong. This is so powerful. We are the second largest chain in Brazil and where we offer the greatest opportunities due to the quality of the people we have here, due to this change in the social architecture. These structured conversations happened with more than 50 customers, more than 200 people. When I say structured conversation, they last more than 1 hour.
11 CEOs were visited, came here to Fortaleza, to our headquarters, and they were also visited in São Paulo with a clear work plan for listening, three investors, nine board members. On the next slide, I talk specifically about the continuity of some of the priorities that we had been working on, and we will continue to work on 2024, efficiency, integration, and reducing our leverage. About operational excellence, I've been talking about this. This is my obsession. I can't use another word. It's my obsession to have world-class customer service and perfect execution. So a greater focus on execution and customer service, same-store sales because this is vital for retail to grow, and more austerity in our expenses. About the Extrafarma integration, I am 100% committed since day one to capture the synergies, continue capturing the synergies that Novaes explained to you.
Also, the convergence of our operational standard of Extrafarma Pague Menos with the rollout of the banners, ensuring that the conversion of the banners is successful and that we have a hypercare to know how this is being deployed. And in the leveraging, the optimization of our investments and reduction in our financial expenses. If you look at what we just published, we had BRL 470 million in EBITDA and BRL 445 million were consumed with financial expenses. So this is a vital point for us to be able to deleverage and so that we can invest in a more strategic way. And monetization of strategic credits that you know we have an expressive amount of them, and we're working to accelerate that. So this is what I wanted to share with you today, and now we can open for questions. And I'll also make some final remarks.
So I turn it back to you, Novais.
Thank you. We will now open the floor for questions. We will take questions from investors and analysts. If you have a question, please press the button raise hand on the bottom bar. If at any time your question is answered, you can remove yourself from the line by clicking again on the button raise hand. Please wait while we pull for your questions.
The first question is from Ruben Couto, Santander. Mr. Couto, you can ask your question now.
Thank you. Can you tell us more about your expected gross margin for 2024 considering the readjustment expectations for the year, also the increase in the ICMS and COFINS, a lot of moving parts? So can you give us some more information about what you're expecting for 2024 and how you're coping with all that? Thank you. Hello, Ruben.
Hello, Ruben.. Thank you for your questions. I will ask Novais to help me with the answers. What I can tell you is that the ICMS increase was transferred to the price immediately. The prospect for the margin, we believe that it should be about 4-4.2, so very similar to last year. There'll be no major mismatch like we saw from 2022 to 2023. And Novais can answer your third question. Novais?
Yes, Ruben, thank you for your question. So, Ruben, the gross margin will be one of the levers for us to grow our EBITDA margin in 2024. We are working towards neutralizing the price increase, which should be 4.5% for drugs, similar to that of last year. But the ICMS increases that we made in the start of the year were like a pre-price increase in the start of the year, so this should also help with our margin.
We also have other levers that we're working on. The generics category is one that has been growing and also contributes to improve our margin. Our private label also has been giving us some great news in the past few quarters in Extra Pharma. We already have a private label share that is greater than that of Pague Menos. We are at 7.1%. So we're working in all these fronts with all these levers. And since Jonas worked for 25 years with the industry, he has a strong relationship with the industry, the pharma industry as a whole. In these first days, he's already working closely with these 11 companies. And we'll also be doing this with other pharma industries to generate promotions and campaigns, to generate sales and margin. So we're very positive. The first quarter is always a tighter quarter.
But our projection is to have better margins compared to the same period last year. And about the, I think Ruben was asking specifically about the ICMS readjustment that we had in some of the states at the start of the year, but I can also talk about subvention. Subvention for us is ICMS. This is what protects us right now. There's zero impact of the subvention effects right now, and also the PIS effect, which was an advance of the rules that took place at the end of last year. So we're also looking for protections to rule out PIS and COFINS over subventions, if that was your question. Otherwise, we can answer. We can provide you with more information later. No, that was exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you.
The next question is from Tales Granello, Safra. Mr.
Tales, you can ask your question now.
Good morning. Just a follow-up. There was an impact of the Extrafarma inventory this quarter. Is this something we will continue to see, or is this just a one-off event that we shouldn't see in the future? So I want to understand what will happen with the Extrafarma stock. Jonas said that he is now undertaking a deeper analysis. So I want to know what he saw that's different from what he was expecting in terms of positive points in the company that could be helpful in this first year of his administration.
Tales, thank you so much for your questions. Let me start with your first question, and then Novais can add.
Like we said, we already saw an impact in 2023 of the unbalanced inventory of Extra Pharma, but in 2024, we will continue to see some impact of that because we made all those investments in stocks. We knew we had this opportunity in Extra Pharma, and the stocks take about two years to equalize. And the shelf life is about two years for those that were not for the items that were not sold. So we will still see some pressure in terms of stock losses for Extra Pharma in 2024. I don't believe they will be as relevant as they were in 2023, but we will still be seeing an impact of that. I have nothing to add. You can continue, Jonas.
All right. Thank you, Tales, for your question. I want to start with a purpose.
So what makes someone who's living in Australia come to Ceará, to live in Fortaleza? I think what really convinced me to come was the mission to perpetuate this company, to continue this work that was Deusmar's dream. And working in a company like Bayer for more than 12 years, a company that is 160 years old, you see the beauty of perpetuation. This was the purpose that brought me here. Because all privilege brings also a lot of responsibilities. I'm trying to pay back and come back to Brazil in a very unique moment, in a moment of a lot of optimism. What I thought that makes me very positive is the people. In my first and second week, I didn't look at numbers.
I had discussion groups at all the levels of the organization for at least one hour with the people in a room. And what was really striking to me was the psychological safety. I'm a specialist, and I love this area, leadership and working with people. So I saw this psychological safety in the people in the company talking about what's good here and what can improve. So this saves me a lot of time. And mobility in the social architecture, I think this is extremely powerful. We work in a country where we know inequality is very high. We live in a developing country. So seeing a company with people that have been working for 25, 30 years in the same company and that have really adopted the company's culture is something that really makes me happy.
Another thing is that we have efficiencies to capture, and this is very clear. So there's a lot of opportunities that are quick wins. Let me give you an example. And I'm being 100% transparent here. For example, the non-sellable, you have, for example, expired products. Due to a systems-related issue or negotiations, we had difficulty receiving for them. And when we go to the industry, and I know about the industry, what the industry wants is that compliance is right, and they want to be bulletproof for the audit costs. But if you show them what happened, if you show them the documents, you can recover those amounts. And this is something that I am working on. Also, the diligence in our expenses, the austerity in our expenses. There's a paradigm that approved budget. Since it is approved, we can spend the money, but this is not my culture.
I am focused on expenses and costs. I don't like discussing costs. I like discussing value. So I saw a lot of bright spots that we have already started working on. We have a meeting with a team of directors and executives and VPs to list the priorities. So we're working in the short term and focusing on the strategic discussion of what Pague Menos is and what it isn't, what we are and what we aren't. Because only by having a clear understanding of where we are and what we need to do can we analyze the external scenario, the external conjuncture. It's a very thriving market, but still very fragmented, so that we can be very clear about the strategic positioning, how we have to work, and what are the levers for the next coming months. I hope to have answered your question, but I'm very positive, very optimistic.
Right after this call, we will be flying to the Midwest and the South because it is essential to talk to the people and to listen to the people, and we will continue to do that.
Thank you, Jonas.
Thank you, Mário.
Thank you, Tales.
The next question is from Clara Lustosa, Itaú BBA. You can ask your question now.
Good morning. Thank you for answering our questions. I have a quick follow-up about your gross margin, but you've answered a lot of my questions. I want to further explore the point about your digital channels. I know it's an important driver. And in the short term, it brings a negative impact on your gross margin. So I want to understand how you will be conducting this in 2024, considering the effects that you talked about in your other answers.
If you can share your main initiatives to improve the profitability of this channel. My second question, a financial question, about the recognition of your fiscal losses. You talked about this, about the adjustments that you made in your results. But if you can give us more color about, is it the operational improvement in Extra Pharma that is already generating profit, and then you can think of a horizon to use these, or you still have an off-balance stock, and as you work on the operational part, you could still recognize this in the future. So can you share more with us about this? Thank you.
Hello, Clara. Thank you for your questions. Let me start with your first one. So about the impact of digital on our gross margin. Digital is a very important channel for us. It's a very competitive channel.
But as for the margin, I think it's more about the mix, the product mix sold on digital or products that have a lower margin. We have been working on competitiveness. We were very aggressive in the recent past to gain share on our digital channels. We have been improving the quality of the services provided, the navigability of our digital channels, so that we didn't have to have price as our only differentiator. But we continue to be very competitive in price as well. We have been making some adjustments to improve the profitability of our digital channels, but particularly with expenses, to be as aggressive as possible and to continue to be as aggressive as possible in our digital channels, particularly the app and the website. We're projecting a very robust growth of our digital channel with a gain of share in the total sales of the company.
We're working today about 14%. Extra Pharma has been growing. It went from less than 3% share. Today, it's over 10%, and Pague Menos is over 14%. We believe that there will still be some pressure, but it's more related with the mix of products that's being sold online. About the fiscal losses, tax losses, I'll leave this one for Novais.
Yes, let me give you some more information about this first part of the answer. Based on the IQVIA data, we are one of the chains that's gaining more participation, that's gaining more share on digital in Brazil. Our team was able to improve the EBITDA margin of digital channels in quarter four versus the previous quarters in about one percentage point. So we're gaining share, and at the same time, we're gaining profitability. The two banners. So the company as a whole has the RA 1000 stamp.
So the quality of service as measured by the Reclame AQUI is considered really good. We have 86% of our deliveries in less than two hours. So the operational efficiency of our channels is really good. As you heard from Mário, it is a strategic lever for us to continue to gain share in the market. But of course, it puts some pressure on the gross margin. But for the EBITDA margin, this is very positive. It contributes greatly, and it brings us new customers. So the team is working to continue to improve the profitability and the share of the digital channels. And about the tax losses, it's about what you said. Extrafarma, while it was administrated by the Ultra Group, it had a large stock of losses coming from previous years.
Since in quarter four 2023, we were already able to deliver some net income for the company. We're only with one year, 1.5 years of capturing synergies, and we should finish 2024 at a level of EBITDA and net profit that is much more positive. Our projection for future results is good, very good. Consequently, there was no reason not to record the deferred income tax over the losses of previous years. So we considered all this as non-recurrent because these are losses from previous years and not the current year. We don't have any more stocks; we already reconstituted everything that was recorded as losses in previous years. We will be realizing this deferred income tax as the profitability advances.
As demonstrated, the evolution in 2023 was very positive, and in 2024, we're expecting a very positive evolution as well. I hope to have answered your question. Thank you.
Thank you. Very clear.
I just have one final addition. From the strategic standpoint, omnichannel is the strategy for the future, and what we want to reach, we want to be consistent in our investments, particularly for the app and digital as a whole, because we want to be sure that we are future-proof. That's what I wanted to add. Thank you.
Thank you, Jonas.
The next question is from Laryssa Sumer, XP. You can ask your question now.
Good morning, Jonas, Luiz. Thank you. Mário, thank you for answering our question. We have two questions. First, looking at the short term, we have seen the cases of dengue and COVID increasing again in the past few months.
So we want to understand what is the impact on your sales and profitability in quarter one, and also what is the performance gap between the regions that you mentioned in your results. Should this gap remain in the first months of the year? And what is impacting this gap in the different regions? And I have another question about the gross margin of Extra Pharma. You said that you expect this gross margin to stay above that of Pague Menos. But does it make sense to think of a reduction to encourage more sales or a change in the mix? Thank you.
Hello, Laryssa. Thank you for your questions. Yes, you're right. The dengue outbreak is impacting our sales. The sales in quarter one are above expected, particularly in February.
We have seen record numbers in the sales of tests and vaccines, the few vaccines that we were able to offer. We've sold them really quick and record-breaking sales, and this has been a focus for our health hubs. Also, the stronger winter season is bringing more people to the drugstore. So this also has an impact in the traffic, particularly related with the dengue outbreak. Novais and Jonas, you can add if you want. And your third question about the Extra Pharma gross margin, I think this has more to do with geography. In the states where Extra Pharma is present, we have a better performance. And when we look at Pague Menos in the states where Extra Pharma is strong, we also have a better margin. But when we look at Pague Menos in the entire country, then the gross margin is lower.
But yes, we're always paying attention to the opportunities to foster sales. But as you heard during our presentation, it's more about geography than competitiveness of Extra Pharma. That's why we think that we will see levels higher than that of Pague Menos. And about the gap between the regions, Novais, do you want to answer that one?
Yes, certainly. Clara, sorry, Laryssa, if I understand your question right, the difference between the regions was not that marked in the beginning of this year because in quarter one, 2023, I think the comparison basis was weaker for everyone. But we saw an important improvement in quarter one this year compared with quarter one last year and less of a difference between the regions. So to add to what Mário said about the dengue and COVID outbreaks, just one piece of information.
The bug repellent category grew by 200% in January and February this year compared to last year. So yes, this outbreak has been bringing some incremental sales due to the level of contamination. And about the Extra Pharma margin, fortunately, we have been able to foster sales in Extra Pharma without touching the margin. We already did all the changes to the margin we did during the first year of integration. So all the CRM work that we did to reattract customers and to boost the banner are helping us now foster sales without us having to hurt our margins.
And as you can see, our results see pressure in terms of margin, but we intend to maintain the margins and, if possible, even improve it so that we can reach a level of EBITDA that is more adequate in the midterm and much better than what we have today, and at the same time, maintaining the performance of our gross margin. That's it, Laryssa. I don't know if Jonas has anything to add. I just want to say that we are a people's company. We are made by people. We take care of people. So let's highlight the importance of Qdenga. We immediately came into contact with Takeda. We are now in contact with Takeda to make the second dose available to consumers that took the first shot with us.
So the role of the health hub, of having Clinic F arma, and our role of being close to the population during the periods of crisis, ensuring that communication is good and that we're taking care of the people, I think this is something that is essential for us. This is part of the context of your questions, and this is part of the DNA of the company. Thank you.
Perfect. Thank you for answering my questions.
This question and answer session is now closed. Now, I would like to turn the conference to Mr. Jonas Marques for his final remarks.
Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank you all for attending our video conference today. I want to tell you that feedback for me is always a gift.
I think the main outcome of all these sessions, these conversations I am having with people and traveling around Brazil and talking to people is hearing about what is making us invest or not invest in our company. So we will do the homework we need to do. And if I listen to you and I make an intersection of everything I hear, some of this feedback is really harsh. And this is also part of it. This is part of the relationship that we want to build, this long-term relationship that we want to build with you. Transparency is crucial. So I can assure you that we will have full transparency. If we have good results, we'll announce the good results. If we don't have good results, we will not cover for it. We will show you what it is. I think that clarity and transparency are essential.
Also, numbers follow behaviors. Another thing that I heard from all of you is about our capacity to deliver. We need to deliver on our promises. First quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter. It's not about coincidences. It's not by hazard. I also want to talk a little bit about the future. I know I'm taking on some risk here by talking about the future, but what we want is we are what we deliver. We are what we deliver to all our customers in all our stores every day. And this is really challenging when we think that we have nearly 1,700 stores and 26,000 people. But I truly believe that energy can transform.
This is the energy that we want to resparkle in our company because we are passionate about people, about taking care of people, about having a fairer society, a fairer country. This is my commitment as a leader, the leader that I'll strive to be. Because I'm CEO of my family. I'm CEO of the company. But if I'm a true leader or not, this will depend on how I behave. If I'm elected by you as a leader. I will finish this call now. Right after this call, we'll fly to the Midwest and we'll talk to the CEOs of other companies. We'll talk to the leaders of our stores to really listen to people, to improve the service to our customers. Because we can't improve the service to our customers if we don't improve what we do for our team.
We have to listen to our team, to our people. We have to inspire people so that they can enchant our customers. So what I want to tell you is that it's been a pleasure to be here today with you. I will see you again in three months, and we hope to bring you even better news, ever better news. Please keep sending us your opinions, your feedback. Feedback is always good. It's always a gift. We want to work in close proximity with all of you. Have a great day.
Pague Menos' conference call is now closed. Thank you all for attending, and have a great day.