Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Portobello Group's video conference on its earnings results for the second quarter of the year of 2024. This video conference is being recorded. The file can be accessed on the company's website, ri.portobello.com.br. The presentation is also available for download. To hear the audio in English, please click on interpretation button in the bottom menu and select the English channel.
Please be advised that all participants will attend this video conference on the watch mode only during the presentation, and as it ends, we will begin with the questions and answer session, when further instructions will be provided. Presentation will be held in Portuguese with simultaneous interpretation into English. Before proceeding, let me reinforce that the forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Portobello Group's management and current information available to the company.
These statements may involve risks and uncertainties since they relate to future events, and therefore they depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors, analysts, and journalists should take into account that events that are related to the macroeconomic environment, segment, and other factors, could cause those results to be substantially different from the ones expressed in the forward-looking statements. This video conference, we'd like to welcome Mr. John Suzuki, Chief Executive Officer, and Ms. Rosângela Sutil, who is the Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Let me now give the floor to Mr. John Suzuki, who will begin with the presentation. Mr. Suzuki, proceed.
Good afternoon, and welcome again to our second quarter of 2024 earnings results presentation. As usual, start remark on contextualization that Rosângela shared with us. Right after this, hope to go through the financial and operating performance, contemplate more about the strategic partners, outlook for the second half of the year, and we'll end with a question and answer session. Let us proceed.
Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to share the results of another quarter. In the second quarter of 2024, we saw a recovery in the sales volumes in exports of ceramic tiles, showing a growth of 7.2% compared to the second quarter of 2023, and consolidating 5.6% of cumulative growth. The first half of 2024, compared to first half of 2023, emphasized data. The Portobello Group has been currently outperforming the market. As a result, the results in gain in market share. In the second quarter of 2024, operation grew by 20.4% yearly.
In the end of the first half of 2024, the group consolidated a total of 18.8% growth in sales volume. United States ceramic tile market is still facing challenge, and data from the first quarter of the year that recently released by the TCNA, show that the consumption fell by 10.7% compared to the same period, 2023. This consumption dynamics has a greater impact on imported goods, maintaining stability for local manufacturers, as seen historically. Data from Housing Starts, which reflects the dynamics of civil construction market in the U.S., still shows a lower volume of launches than last year. However, with a slightly more positive outlook until the end of the year, although still depends on economic developments that should influence this market dynamic potentially.
Now, moving on to the Portobello Group operations and financial performance, let's take a closer look at the progress made in the second quarter. The group's consolidated net revenue, we had good progress with a growth rate of 7.3% in the second quarter, amounting to BRL 589 million in revenue for the period. In terms of business units, we found growth in all our 2.6% compared to 2023, and Portobello America, which grew 27.9%. In the breakdown by geographical area, the U.S. operation grew more than 27.9%. With that, the share of international markets now represent 22.6% of the Portobello Group's total revenues. Moving on to the gross profit and gross margin.
In the consolidated group, with a gross profit of BRL 250 million reals, or 36.5% margin, compared to the second quarter. We could see a reduction that was mainly impacted by the ramp-up of production of... Partially offsetting this, we could see the positive margins of Brazil. The focus on the Portobello unit and the recovery of cost competitive point. We could see that production operated at full capacity and reduction of costs, despite the market was still operating at a certain point. Reduces the percentage to the 33.8% in the second quarter of 2023 to 28.4% in the second quarter of 2024. This result basically reflects the company's disciplined management. The expenses with a better dilution of its fixed expenses as well.
The EBITDA, we reported a growth that was close to 42% in the second quarter, or third and second quarter of this year, reaching BRL 11.2 million in EBITDA, and that margin is of 15.5%. The net results have reported a loss of BRL 11 million in the second quarter of 2024, compared to 38 million in the second quarter of 2020. This evolution is a result of the evolution of the results on the strategic operations, together with management actions and productivity. Working capital with the highest structural actions, saying that improvement of this indicator with lower cash.
Investments made in the second quarter in line with the planning for 2024 showed a significant reduction of 67.4% in the company's potential paybacks at the present, including maintained only what was already programmed and essential to maintain something in crisis. Our Net Debt for the quarter fell to a significant reduction in the company's leverage level, reaching 3x Net Debt to EBITDA. We ended the quarter with a 1.6 percentage points reduction in the average cost, and a 14 percentage points improvement in the average debt maturity next year.
Moving on to the qualitative development. Still during the second quarter, we finished structuring of our first FIDC, which published was right on. They will enable us to significantly improve the company's financial management processes and governance processes. Another was the approval of the company's fourth share buyback. The acquisition of approximately 1.2 million shares be carried out in 15 months, and the total plan presenting 0.8% of the company's total shares, with 2.2% of outstanding shares. The main plan is basically to hedge a long-term incentive plan for the company's executives. Now, let me give the floor back to John, so that he can talk to us about the strategic projects. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Let me start by talking about internationalization project, which is mainly materialized by Portobello America, where we continue to make important progress. So with regards to the sales, despite the still adverse scenario in the local market, Rosângela presented earlier, we showed a strong growth of more than 40% compared to the second quarter of 2023. The volume of sales exceeded the production by more than 2x in that period.
In April 2024, we started our first small format production line, and this is a line of special products that are high-end highly demanded, and which is very characteristic of the American market, which represents another very important positioning of our brand. The production line, specifically, continued to make progress in the processes, both maturing and stabilizing the process we talked about a lot in the first quarter. We made progress in the activity and the quality, so reducing the costs. Margins, however, still reflect, and this is due to the natural cost of stock rotation. In the 6th design, we're ramping up the operation. We have successfully adjusted the unit fixed level.
We, we reduced the expenses over revenue by 21 percentage points, compared to the second quarter of last year. And this level still fails to reflect the ideal level, because obviously we still have some way to go in terms of revenue growth. But you see the growth is definitely over the course of this year, reinforce the confidence that we all have in this project and some important perspective for the next quarter, especially if contribution results are expected. We had already mentioned this last quarter, but it's worth reinforcing our participation in this year's conference, which took. Portobello America was once again, highlights of the period, this time, with all the launches of the collection based on the product produced at the Tennessee factory, and the 4 launches of the new line.
It is worth noting that this is the largest ceramic tile trade fair in the United States, and this is a very important moment to strengthen and robustize our position in that market, with the aim of being recognized as a brand of design and innovation, and all made in U.S. So Portobello Shop, our business unit that leads the integrated retail, also remained very good results. In the second half, we have 156 shops, of which 127 franchises in our shops, with the conversion of two franchises into owned shops. This year, one of the main focus has been qualification of our network, whether sales performance or productivity, with an emphasis on the locations with high growth potential and underperforming operations.
Our own shops already account for 47% of the business revenue, double-digit growth, reaching 10%, despite the fact that this was still a quarter of low store sales at 1.7%. We continue to have a high NPS, 86%, which demonstrates good execution of our strategy of valuing customer shopping experience. An important highlight that we bring for this quarter is the B2B expansion. We can say that the main object of this channel is effectively to aim at strengthening its presence in specific fragments. A customized solution is ultimately provided by our Portobello shop network. And this new channel, which complements others, that we have in the group, is designed to maximize sales of the Portobello segments, with sales teams dedicated to serve our franchise network for units.
The results of this channel saw significant growth, with revenue increasing by 47.2% in the second quarter of 2024, compared to the last year, representing more than 7% of total revenue. Another very important pillar, which is part of the Portobello Group's strategy, is sustainability. On June 17, 2022, we held a vision, and that is basically aimed at highlighting our vision for the future and the evolution of our commitments to sustainability. Our 45th anniversary marks this innovation and pioneering spirit, and reinforces our role as protagonists in the evolution of the sustainability. Let's take a look at outlook for the second half of the year at Portobello. As I have already mentioned, in more details, we expect progress in the process of ramping up our operations, and should have a very important impact on our results.
Portobello Shop has proved to be the group's most resilient unit, over the last few years, and that is still part of one of our greatest integrated retail, and are focused on distributing our levels. And we've already had higher levels than the ones at the moment, either through growth in the sales segment, or the maturation of the chain's growth, or even through the pricing strategy. As for Portobello unit, we must continue to grow all channels, and we seek to evolve with our product mix through launches within our innovation cycle, as well as making progress on pillars.
There's a lot of internationalization, and the export of the Portobello unit is also part of our internationalist strategy. Further, we must continue to make progress on our strategy of strengthening and training small and medium-sized sellers, as well as expanding our products. Export. The resumption of industrial activities should continue to generate good results going forward, either from the perspective. Rosângela, let's talk a little bit more about..
From the perspective. Yeah, in terms of economic effect, we affirm the specific the management costs, as well as the numbers of. As a result of that, investments are at a level which is good. On our side, we continue to work on profitability management, implementation of financial company capital structure, mainly with the lengthening and amortization schedule and reducing the effective costs of these debts. Thank you.
We will now start with the questions and answers session for investors and analysts. If you wish to ask a question by audio, please press the raise hand button. If your question is answered, you can leave by clicking the lower hand button. Questions can also be asked in writing in the Q&A option. Our first question comes from Mr. Gabriel Duarte.
Good afternoon, Mr. Gabriel, and thank you for the opportunity. What is the forecast for the start of the third furnace?
Hi, good afternoon, Gabriel. Thank you for the question. Oh, you do, all right. We aim at opening this second retail furnace, and we started the special pieces operation last April, and we plan to commission the third furnace. And the third furnace should start its operations in the beginning of 2026. So 2025, definitely a year for us to implement this line, and so that we can start with the operations effectively in the beginning of 2026.
Our next question also comes from Mr. Duarte.
Do you have any updates with regards to the anti-dumping policy?
Be more specific about this, I mean, because we have many anti-dumping policies around the world, so I'm not sure whether your question refers to any of those in particular. So maybe we could just wait for you to specify that for us.
The other question is, from Gabriel Duarte.
What are the expectations of the company about that?
I believe it's still on anti-dumping.
And finally, about the FIDC. How effectively work? Is this to invest on old receivables or new ones, and how could that help in the net debt?
Hi, Gabriel. With regards to the FIDC, I mean, this fund is a factor, is available for the company to use and, upfront as discounts. So the whole turnover of a group of clients can be received immediately, directly through this fund. And so this fund definitely aims at managing the receivables management working capital. And if we look at our debt volume, that would represent something like 0.3x the net debt, EBITDA.
Our next question comes from Mr. Eduardo Kalil.
So the results release mentions that the Portobello America plant has reached a quality index of 84%. Could you give us some more color on the quality index, and could you specify what is your aim and for after the ramp-up process?
Hi there, Eduardo. Thank you. Thank you for the question. You are right. I mean, we mentioned this, and it, well, it's a relatively simple concept. And at the end of the line, of the production process, we classify the level of quality in two parts: you know, premium quality and commercial quality. Commercial grade, which is slightly lower. The level that we seek to reach is 90% quality. So it is also worth mentioning that our greatest challenge is not quality only, but also productivity, of course.
So those are the two main variables that we have been keeping an eye on. And as we, as we mentioned in the presentation, I mean-- And this is- This was highly significant in the second quarter, and we are still counting, we're still observing some, you know, progress throughout the months. And we still couldn't see that translated into the results, because obviously, we still have to do the stock rotation process, better productivity, better costs, better quality, lower cost production. So it will take a while until this is produced and translated into better margins.
The next question comes from Leonardo Abboud from XP Investimentos.
Could you please further detail what had an impact on gross margin of the PBA operations, and what should we expect for the second half of the year?
Leonardo, this is somewhat connected to the previous comment on productivity, quality, and cost. So given the ramp up process of the plant itself, we were operating with very high costs, so the costs are now getting close to the levels that we definitely need to reach in order to accomplish a good profitability to our process. So this is the main effect on our growth margin. Obviously, there will be effects on the revenue composition, either through the product mix or the panels mix, but the main effect is gonna be on cost.
And let me mention something on the top line. Top line, I mean, we've been doing really well. The acceptance of our product, either because of its design, product or portfolio, it's been positive. Our pricing levels can be considered adequate, if we consider our objectives, the project objectives. During the presentation, you probably heard that our sales level has actually overcome twofold the current production. We have been generating a lot of revenue. The challenge remains, and the bottleneck is at the plant level.
Another question from Gabriel Duarte from Itaú BBA.
Do you have any updates with regards to the anti-dumping policy? The anti-dumping policy that has been considered by the American government against Indian ceramic products that might end up reducing the imports from India to the US. What are you expecting with regards to that? Thank you.
Thank you, Gabriel. Now, I got the point. Well, indeed, this is a work in progress, and we could see this anti-dumping and the Indian product, and we should say that that has an important representativeness in the American imports. The American market actually imports 70% of its demand, and something like 20% of that comes from India, at a very competitive cost, naturally.
So this anti-dumping process started out at the beginning of the period. It's been accepted and consolidated in the month of May, so that was the first step. And that has gone through a second stage already, which was the analysis of the request for it. So it was already considered valid and validated. And so the next step pertain to effective preliminary and effective actions towards fighting anti-dumping, Indian anti-dumping strategy. And this is supposed to happen in between September to November. This is our expectation, although we still have some level of uncertainty with regards to that. But that's what we aim at, and this is what we expect. So now, I mean, it's just a matter of wait and see and what how this process is going to develop.
Our next question comes from Mr. Tiago Nascimento, an investor.
Good afternoon. How do you plan to restructure the debt, since your current cash is still equivalent to the one that is going to be due in 2024? I mean, any one expectation or new emissions?
Well, aside to the business evolution strategy, and we have been saying a lot about Portobello America's results evolution. It's been generating very positive figures for the operations and the cash generation. The second half of the year, slightly intense in terms of seasonality, and that usually reinforces the company's cash. Additionally to that, yes, we do have a pipeline of financial, alternative financial operations, and they have different levels of maturity. So at this very point in time, we are not intending to do a follow-up.
Again, we remind you that in order to ask questions, just click on the Raise Hand, button, or you can send your questions in written to the Q&A, tab. Again, in order to ask a question, click on the Raise Hand button or send them in written, through the Q&A tab in the Zoom menu. Well, the question and answer session is now closed. I'd like to give back to John Suzuki in order to, make the company's closing remarks.
Well, let me just thank all for your participation. It's our pleasure to share our performance data with you. Let me just reinforce our confidence. It's been a very good second quarter with growth in all the businesses, market share gains in all the businesses. I really have managed to convey the consistency of our strategies throughout in all our businesses. Not only we've been growing and recovering profitability, but we have been consistently executing the strategies that were defined for each one of those businesses. On our end, we continue extremely confident with our businesses and what is still to come in the future. Thank you very much, and see you next quarter.
Good afternoon. Portobello Group's earnings results video conference is now closed. Thank you for your participation, and have a good day.