Welcome to Portobello's video conference to discuss the 1Q results for the first quarter of 2024. This video conference is being recorded, and the link can be accessed on the company's website, or ri.portobello.com.br. The presentation is also available for download. To hear the audio in English, please click on the interpretation icon at the menu bar and select the English channel. Please note that all participants will be on the listen-only mode during the video conference, and we will start the Q&A in due time when you shall feel free to ask your questions. The presentation will be in Portuguese with simultaneous translation in English. Before proceeding, I'd like to emphasize that the forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of the Portobello Group and the current information available for the company.
These statements may involve risks and uncertainties since they are related to future events that, therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors, analysts, and journalists should take into account that the events related to the macroeconomic environment, to this very segment, and other related factors may cause results to be materially different from those expressed in the respective forward-looking statements. Today, we count on the presence of Mr. John Suzuki, the Chief Executive Officer, and Ms. Rosângela Sutil, Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. I'd like to give the floor to Mr. John Suzuki. Please, Mr. John, feel free to proceed.
Good afternoon, everyone. It is my pleasure and honor to be here with you once again in order to comment on our results for the first quarter of 2024. As we have been doing already, let's start with Rosângela doing a market update and our operational and financial performance for the quarter. Soon after that, I'll be back to talk to you a little bit about our strategic projects and hope to share with you some of our perspectives for the rest of the year. And as always, we will make sure we'll leave time for questions and answers. So, Rosângela, please feel free to start with the market. Good afternoon, everyone. So, the market evolution has been rather consistent over the months, although with some demand which is still lower than the pre-pandemic, which is the expectation for the volumes to resume at some point.
We have prepared a projection for the year of 2024, according to which we see a total volume of approximately 800 million square meters of ceramic tiles produced here in Brazil. In the next slide, we talk a little bit about this evolution. While the Brazilian market grew by an approximate rate of 3.8% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same quarter of 2023, Portobello grew by 15.4% during the same period. In other words, we made a significant progress in all business units in terms of increasing market share and increasing relevance in the ceramic tile market.
Again, in line with the North American market, the North American real estate sector is still under pressure, if you will, with the high interest rates and that led to the housing starts indicators that were monitored, and we showed a reduction in March 2024 compared to the same period last year. When following the consumption of the ceramic tiles in the United States, they also showed a slow decrease in the last quarter of 2023 once we had that indicator released. It is worth mentioning that this indicator for Q1 of 2024 has not been released yet, and for this reason, we are presenting the closing results for the year of 2023.
However, it is still important for us to highlight the share of the ceramic tile consumption that comes from the local production in the United States, where we can clearly see that this percentage is around 32%. In other words, the sales share from local production in the US was kept resilient, while the reduction came from the proportion of the import consumption volume being consumed in the American market.
Well, having said that, how was the operational and the financial performance in the first quarter of 2024 here at Portobello Group? Well, our net revenue grew by 7.7% if we compare to the first quarter of last year, reaching levels of BRL 525 million. Historically speaking, the first quarter of the year in our segment has had some seasonal effects with lower demands due to the phase of the year that represents some recovery period after the vacations and the carnival. In terms of the evolution by business unit, revenue growth in the first quarter of 2024 versus the first quarter of 2023 occurred in all our business units. The growth at the Portobello unit, which operates in the engineering, resale, and export segments, grew by 5.6% over this same period. The Portobello Shop unit, which is our integrated retail network, grew by 3% during that period.
Pointer, our democratic segments grew by 10.5% during the same period, and Portobello America was our growth highlight, achieving 33% growth in revenues if compared to the same period of 2023. In terms of the net revenues by geographical areas, as we mentioned, growth in the domestic market was of approximately 7%. Portobello America also reported growth of approximately 33%, and the operations in international markets, Portobello showed a growth of over 10% compared to the same period of last year. Even if we consider that we continue to be under the impact of the Argentine economy, both in terms of volume and also in terms of the revenues, well, the good news is that we have this positive outlook for a gradual recovery.
We can see this growth margin of 37% at the end of the first quarter of 2024, and as we've mentioned, I mean, the competitiveness in the market vis-à-vis to the occupancy and the subsequent pressure on the price generation and margins. The Portobello shopping unit continues to evolve with positive margins of more than 48% in the gross margin, and our units in Portobello, as we commented throughout the year, that we had carried out some price adjustment strategies in response to the developments in the market and seeking to ensure the continued maintenance of market share gain while maintaining margins of around 37%. In the first quarter of 2024, we had a structure of the mix of sold products in order to guarantee margins and occupation of the plant.
So, for the first quarter of 2024, we had a schedule for a stoppage due to the maintenance on the natural gas supply lines, generating a one-off impact on the margin of around 4.2%. The Portobello America’s unit, as I mentioned earlier, had a very positive evolution in sales. However, based on the revision of the production plan that was presented during the closing of the year of 2023, obviously had an impact on the margin of the first quarter, and that was mainly due to the mix that was sold during this period. And let me highlight that the expectation from the second quarter onwards is the resumption of the margins according to the expectations. Later on, John will talk to us about the evolution of our strategy, and we’ll give a little more color and expectations about Portobello America’s performance.
We have made some progress in the discipline of the management of operational expenses, showing a rather positive evolution in terms of operating expenses in the first quarter of 2024, and the total expenses represented approximately 30% of our net revenue, while a year ago, this index represented approximately 35% of our net revenue. So, that reduction represented something around BRL 15 million, approximately 5 percentage points in relation to the net revenue, as part of the plan to ensure better generation of both results and margins to the group. As a result of that, during the first quarter of 2024, we have reached the level of BRL 82 million of EBITDA. That means a growth of over 60% in absolute numbers if compared to the first quarter of 2023 that we reported BRL 49 million of EBITDA.
This is comparable to a similar level of BRL 79 million, taking into account the expenses that were related to strategic projects and the margin that reached 15.5% in this quarter. As I mentioned, the evolution of operating results is an optimization of expenses type of work, bringing positive results for the first quarter and the expectation of evolution throughout the year of 2024. The net results show the loss of around BRL 20 million compared to a loss of BRL 17.7 million approximately in the first quarter of last year. I mean, the main reasons for that are still the interest rates, the high financial rates in general. Now, as far as the working capital goals, we saw a rather positive development, a reduction in the eight days in the need for working capital for the first quarter of 2024 if compared to the same period of last year.
Even if we consider that we had an increase in the inventories during this period as a preparation for the launch of new products and the new product launch season, and John will probably tell us more about that later in the presentation. So again, the beginning of the year is always an important phase for the preparation and for the launch of new sustainable volume and mix throughout the year. This was compensated by the optimizations in the receivables and supplier portfolios, resulting in an improved working capital in the quarter. Financial investments have amounted to around BRL 45 million in the first quarter of this year, and we are still concentrated on the Portobello America unit with investments in the first partners, especially in the special parts projects and also with the Capex project to support the evolution of the Portobello shopping and the digital stores.
As I mentioned before, we've made a couple of moves to reduce the leverage. So we closed the first quarter in 3.2x the net debt EBITDA, which is approximately 0.1 percentage points lower than the end of 2023. And we are basically sticking to our strategy of gradually and recurrently showing decreases over the course of the year. I've also mentioned, on the other hand, that we are working on the lengthening and the reduction of the cost of the debt. So in the first quarter of 2024, that cost is 0.8 percentage points lower than the same period of last year, and our debt is a year and a half longer than the one presented in the first quarter of last year. As a result of that, the average term repayment of the group's debts is 5.3 years.
Let me now give it back to John so that he can mention more about the strategic projects and to tell us more about some of the issues that I've just raised. Thank you, John. Thank you, guys. Let me comment a little more about the strategic and the priority projects. Before we talk about Expo Revestir, for those of you who still don't know it, Expo Revestir is really the most important event in the sector, not only in Brazil but also in South America. It just took place in March. Once again, Portobello stood out in this fair. This is precisely when we bring to the market the most important launch collection of the year. Due to the increasingly strong commercial nature of this fair, it is also considered a very good thermometer of both the market and our positioning as a brand.
This year, we have reached a record with 3 Best in Show Awards at the Expo Revestir: Fita, V-Stone, and The Edge product. So very important event to reinforce our competitive edge, not only in terms of innovation, design, but above all, brand. We had more than 800,000 square meters of incoming orders. So just to give you an idea, we presented a 23% increase if compared to 2023. So we brought more than 150 expert customers from 24 different countries in this fair of around 1,000 square meters, of which 600 square meters only were the exhibition area for products and launches, and 400 square meters was saved for networking area.
So with that, we were able to promote a good experience to our customers, including more than 2,800 specifiers, architects, and interior designers who are part of our Mais Arquitetura community, which is the largest relationship program for this community of architects and designers here in Brazil. Now, let me tell you a little more about our integrated retail strategy, which is pretty much translated through Portobello Shop, although it is also part of our chain integration process with the Portobello business unit. I mean, at Portobello Shop, it was another quarter of growth. And as you've probably followed, this is the most resilient business unit that has been performing the best throughout this post-pandemic period, a tougher market period as we've all been experiencing.
The growth was estimated in 3% if compared to the first quarter of last year with 156 stores and with growth in our own stores with altogether 28 units. It's never too much to emphasize that our strategy is not to transform our franchise network into our company-owned stores. No. On the contrary, we continue to believe rather adamantly in the power of the franchise. But it's also very important that we have a good network of our company-owned stores to practice the retail practices as we do in developing our best practices. Our own stores, I mean, have been trying to fulfill this role, and we are doing so in an increasingly important manner to our results. Today, it represents 48% of our revenue, and the growth of our own stores is also an important element, 11% if compared to the same quarter.
So that means 5% in the same-store sales. So again, we have reached a pretty high level of the NPS. That means 89%. This level is not seen that often in the retail, particularly in the building materials and also other areas related. We only see that in sectors as entertainment. So that reflects the good work that we have been doing, promoting a good customer experience. Now, speaking a little bit about the new internationalization strategy, this was pretty much materialized by our Portobello America project. So this quarter was another very important one from the progress of this project with significant growth in the sales and a good progress in the ramp-up of the factory. Just this quarter, we grew in the U.S., at least if compared to the last quarter of last year, 71% in terms of volume sales. Sorry, in terms of volumes.
Now, in terms of sales, I mean, we continue to exceed our factory capacity. We have really achieved a good level of sales. Just recently, we have taken part in the Coverings, and we said some words about the Expo Revestir. So now in the U.S., Coverings is the most important fair of the sector in the U.S. We have taken part before, but it was the first time this year that we have taken part with product launches that were produced locally in the U.S. The response was fantastic as well as our commercial performance. We have been attributing an ever more commercial role to this fair. We've also made significant progress in the factory ramp-up, and this is a topic that we've already mentioned in previous calls.
This is obviously still a huge challenge for us considering this project, particularly because of the items like qualified workforce. We still continue to share the view that the main fundamentals of the plant are still very sound, since technology to raw materials. In this context of full employment that the United States has been experiencing, we really haven't had major difficulties in hiring, although we have to say that we felt the impact of that in the qualification. That naturally had an important impact on the production performance until the end of last year. The actions that were taken by the new leadership. João Oliveira took over just last January as the CEO of Portobello America.
So the actions taken by this new leadership were pretty much in order to simplify the plan, either from the product mix perspective and trying to mitigate other complexities and also adjusting costs and expenses. So all that has had incredible good effects, incredibly good effects, both in terms of productivity gains and quality. It was a very good quarter in that sense. Now, this mix adjustment was also felt in the sales. You can see that boost in sales that I've already mentioned. So we've decreased our volumes because of the margins that are generally lower. And you will see from the results that, unfortunately, those industrial gains that I'm sharing with you in terms of productivity and quality are still not that obvious in our results.
The reason for that is because we can only see that gradually as the gains are harvested at the level of the factory. Those products, they rotate in the stock, and then we'll start to feel those effects only throughout the next few quarters. It's never too much to emphasize that we remain very confident about this project in the United States, despite all the challenges that we have been facing at our plant. I mean, we have been witnessing great progresses, especially in the social aspects of this project. We have already developed an important customer base, both in distribution and in the home centers. We have a portfolio of products that it's either because of the product itself or the design or the pricing. We've already been testing the market and rather successfully. Our portfolio was shown to be rather successful.
The levels of services that have already reached are obviously, we still have some room to improve that, but it is pretty comparable to the ones required by the American market, which is rather demanding. So as I said, those elements, foundations, are quite, quite solid. Now, speaking of sustainability, we should mention that we just recently released our annual sustainability report, always using the established methodologies such as the GRI and the SASB. This is the work that we have been developing since 2022, during which we've established a very well-established plan, materiality matrix with the SDGs divided into the three pillars: the most eco-efficient, the most stable, and the most governance. Through this table here, we can see that this is gaining considerably more visibility.
And in the most efficient pillar, we are committed to achieving 50% renewable sources in the energy matrix, and we will already be able to demonstrate a very important evolution with this partnership that we have recently announced for the annual self-production of wind energy. In addition to that, as already announced, we've obtained the Platinum LEED certification of our Jardim Social store in Curitiba, and our commitment of reaching 50% of women in leadership positions by 2027. We also had great progress reaching 44% of our leadership as women already in place and 20% of employees involved in the volunteer program by 2020. So far, we only have 13%, so we still need to make progress there as well. And finally, in the more governance, having 100% of trained employees in the ESG code of ethics and LGPD is our goal. We are already making progress. That means 58%.
Those are relatively new topics in the company, but we need to step on the gas pedal there. So we would need to reach 100% of suppliers assessed by 2026. We have already started with a pilot project at our most hardly affected unit by this commitment, which is the Portobello unit. So we are making quite a good progress in that commitment as well. Well, let me finally comment here on the outlook for the rest of 2024. We have already mentioned on the last call that the year of 2024 specifically would be the year for us to focus on our execution, in other words, on operational excellence, and to reap the rewards of the investments that we have made in the recent years.
Obviously, after having gone through a rather positive period for our entire sector between 2020 and 2022, we have experienced this normalization post-pandemic period. Now it's time for us to have this moment to reap those rewards. This is how we have achieved the results of the first quarter of 2024, good results despite somewhat adverse circumstances. That's how we hope to proceed for the rest of the year. Now, if we look at the business itself at Portobello America, as I've already said, we hope to proceed with the ramp-up both in terms of the sales, but mainly in terms of the factory. Profitability will follow along the years as we mature and as we execute this plan. At Portobello Shop, we hope to continue with our strategy of several stores integrated.
So this is a strategy based on the integrated chain model that is a good thing for the clients, and not only for the B2C, but also for the B2B and what we call here the small engineering, is the engineering retail of the Portobello shopping that I'm making reference to. As for the Portobello unit, we believe we will continue to grow. This first quarter was of growth in all our channels, and we continue to believe that we will grow and we'll continue to grow throughout the year of 2024 just the same, with some emphasis here to the share of exports on our internationalization strategy, which is also a part of this internationalization avenue, let's put it like that.
And finally, at Pointer, we keep on making progress with the strategy that has been so successful, which is the polarization strategy, focusing on small and mid-sized dealers without losing sight of the strengthening of the home center channel that is larger customers and vendors. But in particular, in this group of customers where we seek to have scale gains, which is fundamental for Pointer in order to avoid downtime that we've just mentioned. Well, let me now give the floor back to Rosângela so that she can comment on the financial perspectives. Sure. John. Thank you. Well, you see, from the economic and financial perspectives in terms of EBITDA, we hope to reaffirm our expectation of being disciplined in the management of our expansions and the focus on cash generation.
Investments in 2024 will be kept at the required levels only in order to maintain the quality of the product delivery and technological upgradings with this very same objective. On the leverage side, we continue to seek sequential progress in reducing the leverage quarter by quarter until the end of 2024. On the liability management side, we are working on the development of financial solutions in order to improve the company's capital structure, looking at the lengthening of the debt amortization schedule. As we've already presented some quite positive results, the expectation is still to evolve in this direction throughout the year, along with the reduction in the effective debt costs. We hope to be able to present this to you throughout the year of 2024. Thank you.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, as we mentioned, this was a very important quarter both from the evolution and the strategies as well as from the results. It is worth remembering that we are still living and we are still going through some adversities, right? A sector that has been under the influence of the post-pandemic normalization with the idleness effect that has affected this sector and some other sectors. Here in Brazil, the interest rates soared up. Still, despite all that, we had good results and important evolutions in our strategy. Let me just thank you all here and start with the questions and answers. We will now start with the questions and answer session for investors and analysts. If you wish to ask a question, please press the button raise hand.
If your question is answered, you can just lower your hand after that. Questions can also be sent in writing through the Q&A tab. Mr. Jair Oliveira is the first one to ask questions. And he said, "During the last video conference with regards to the results of the Q3 2023, it was said that the CapEx should be resumed to the maintenance CapEx. Can we consider those BRL 45 million of the first quarter of 2024 as a reference one for the coming periods, or should we have a reduction?" Thank you. Well, we hope to maintain, and as we said, we hope to keep this CapEx as a maintenance and reposition, of course, for technological updates that are necessary for our productive processes in the maintenance on the quality of the delivery. Now, in the first quarter of the year, it's never too much to have a caveat.
I mean, the CapEx that we disclose is the financial CapEx. So it's the disbursements, cash disbursement for the CapEx that has already. But we naturally have some carryover of procurements made last year. Throughout the year, this is probably going to be reduced, and we should close the year with an update, as mentioned. Mr. Jair has another question. He says, "In January 2024, there was a reduction in the price of industrial gas in Santa Catarina and more than 8%. In the aggregate figures, together with 2023, this sums up to almost 30%. However, the consolidated margin has been growing. Could you please let us know more about that? Do you expect any trend reversal for this year?" Thank you once again, Jair. Now, let me first give you an overall view.
So we obviously had significant pricing increases because the demand was superior to the productive capacity. Throughout the year of 2023, since 2022, actually, when we observed a standstill market with a very high level of idleness, we still have in the Brazilian market some idleness of approximately 40%. With that, we have a very strong competition for prices, for sales volumes to keep a specific market share level. In the beginning of 2023, and I would say that in the second quarter of 2023, we have made an important price readjustment, especially in the segments or in the channels that were supported by the Portobello. With that, in terms of the gas reduction, that was important for the maintenance of the current image levels.
But we guaranteed ours in order to guarantee our relevance, we always had updated volumes above the market trends. On the other hand, in the first quarter of this year, we've had two additional impacts that I've, if I'm not mistaken, mentioned during the presentation. The first, with this reduction of the margin that had an impact on the Pointer margin, that had an impact on the group. That impact was marginal, but it still represented a pressure. We also mentioned Portobello America with the planning of the production and mix of products, generating the production plan and the product mix. That was another pressure to the group. Additionally to that, with a positive compensation, we had the Portobello shopping that started with very high margin levels that maintained around 48%. In other words, bringing this composition between 37% with an outlook or a perspective of gradual gains.
And if you allow me to add, and this is no different from what Rosângela said, I mean, the Portobello Group has a lot of diversity, diversity of businesses, diversity of channels, and of markets. We act in a very cyclical sector, and as Rosângela mentioned, we are going through this downward cycle with a lot of idleness. And naturally, when the companies feel that, just as we did. Mas essa é uma característica bem importante para vocês entenderem que essa diversidade is a very important characteristic for us to understand that this diversity brings a lot more resilience. We have some punctual effects here on the quarter, either Portobello or Pointer. But as a rule of thumb, our business demonstrates much more resilience that are concentrated on specific channels, on specific markets, and in a single business, that we are multi-channel, multi-business, multi-market.
So it's really important that we see, and in this comparison, that we can see the group has demonstrated this resilience in a much better way, gaining market share. Mr. Jair has a third and last question, and he says, "Regarding Portobello America in terms of net revenue, without giving any guidance, could you give us some color on the level of magnitude from the moment that the plant is turning on in a satisfactory manner? What about the margins? Will they be normalized as of next quarter?" Yeah, we don't give guidance, Jair, but let me just say a few words about that. So we have replanned the industrial ramp-up of the plant. So the plant is in a more adequate rhythm, and with that, we have those effects that I have mentioned here on the quarter.
So what we hope to have along the coming quarter is that with the productivity gain, the quality, and with this product turning around our inventory, we hope to capture the gains throughout the next quarters. As we gain stability on our plant, we will also make progress on our mix of products. We will evolve on the mix of products, and this will naturally reflect on the sales, right? This is something that we have already stated: the bigger the mix, the bigger the profitability, the bigger the margins. The second quarter is still a transition. The second half of the year is when we hope to have better maturity levels to envision the P&L, either from the revenue levels perspective because we hope to keep on growing, as well as on the margins.
But this is something that happens throughout the months, and it's, again, never too much to remind you that we have been working with the sales levels that exceed the plant production capacity. So we have a lot of outsourcing, some supplies here in Brazil from our plants here in Brazil or from outsourcing that we do in the US. So we envision that as an impact for the growth in the coming quarters. Next question from Guilherme Cambraia. "Could you give us some more details on Portobello America gross margins in this quarter? When will we see a normalized gross margin levels?" I think we will mention that, but just so we don't leave a question unaddressed, Guilherme, as we said in the presentation, we have been replanning the plant at this point in time. We have adjusted the plant velocity, the production mix.
With that, we'll have two effects. We have the carryover. We had a ramp-up with a very high cost, and at the same time, we had to readjust the sales. We had our mix at the sales and was not so. This combination of factors sort of narrowed down our gross margins. And this is going to improve. We hope to have this improving the coming quarters. And it's never too much to highlight another point that with the same reality in mind of profitability and revenue, we have also adjusted our structure of costs and expenses in order to guarantee our internal control so that on the operational profit perspective, that we should at least get close to our goals. Next question from Vanessa Foglia.
How do you see the impact of the reconstruction of the state of Rio Grande do Sul on your sales?" Thank you, Vanessa, for your question. If you allow me, let me start by answering this in a slightly different manner. Of course, this is a very sad, regrettable moment for us here to see the population of Rio Grande do Sul being plagued by the floods. We have 10 Portobello stores in the state, and we have many clients, either for the resale or engineering. We have many family members in regions. So we have many different fronts, in particular in collecting donations, financial resources. The company has been basically doubling all of them and sending the support through our 10 shops that, fortunately, were not affected by the floods.
We are also restructuring ourselves in order to support either the employees or the partners. So this is the focus at this point in time, right, Vanessa? Just so you know a little more about the short-term impact, Rio Grande do Sul represents in Portobello Shop in Portobello 3% of our sales. So from the added potential perspective, we don't really envision a lot or a very significant impact. Not at least on the short term, maybe mid or long term. But it's still too early, Vanessa. We don't know what is the magnitude of the impact of those floods. So I would like to be more prudent and wait a little longer in order for us to be more assertive about the impact of that crisis on our businesses. Next question comes from Giovanni Costa.
Despite the losses in the first quarter of 2024, will you have the distribution of interest without your own capital or the rebuying of shares?" Well, our policy includes 50% of the net profit in this first but this is because the losses of 2023, with regards to the losses of the first quarter of 2024, this is still considered a seasonal effect where we have lower business volumes, and this is not enough to cover the financial expenses. So the expectation is that, yes, throughout the year, we should have the generation of net profit. And with that, we hope to be able to pay dividends that are relative to the year of 2024. And the policy will also have a perspective of anticipation to be defined throughout the year. About the rebuying, at this point in time, nothing was specifically approved for the plan.
So our next question comes from Mr. Odécio Corsi. "Could you give us some more details on the hedge policy of the company? Is the current exposure of $60 million?" Well, our hedge policy was approved in the board meeting, and this is revisited on a yearly basis. So we have a protection of up to 74% of our revenue in dollars. So departing from the premise that we export products to many different countries, USA included, and we have a small cost component in terms of dollarized costs. So this is a policy that should be reviewed based on our expectation and aligned with our strategy of increased product volumes in the US. So we should have a higher participation of dollarized costs. But at this point in time, we are working with the current policy.
So we basically protect the results structure, and we are not still working with the debt exposure, especially if we think in terms of the principal, the exchange rate variation. Rosângela, I think it is really worth mentioning that we are doing a hedge on our dollar exposure here in Brazil, and we are managing our business in the U.S. as a business in dollars, right? So the exposures that are left from the U.S. operations, they are not hedged because they will generate a result, either positive or negative, in dollars. And since we see this business in dollars, we are not wishing to run this risk for the business, differently from what happens here in Brazil, as Rosângela has already clarified. Next question from Mr. Juan Pires.
He says, "Could you give us an idea of the occupation of the plant in the PBA of Q4 of 2023, the first quarter of 2024, and how do you envision the indicator for the coming quarters?" Oh, the occupation of the PBA? It's 100% because we measure it against what is available within the defined plan. So let me say a little more about that. Last year, we were operating with more shifts than the usual, especially because we were trying to accelerate the plant ramp-up up until last year. And we've also changed our capacity, and we are now operating at 100% of our capacity. Nossa próxima pergunta vem do senhor André Prates. Ele diz. André Prates is the next question. Appositely to what we expected in the beginning of the year, 2024 is still going to be a year of high interest rates.
Are you planning a reduction of the financial debt for the coming quarters? Well, as I mentioned during the presentation, we have worked in different fronts, from both the debt elongation as well as deleveraging. So that means reduction of the net debt via operational results and cash, and also the reduction of the effective cost of the debt vis-à-vis the market expectations. So it is a reduction, but not exactly within the expected levels. So in the first quarter of this year, we closed with 0.8 percentage points of effective reduction in the cost of the debt if compared to the first quarter of last year. And throughout the year, we gradually hope to have some future reductions. We would like to close the Q&A session, and we will now give the floor to Mr. John Suzuki for the final remarks.
Well, let me just thank you once again for your participation. Just before we will close the session, I would like to make a comment. We had a change here on our statutory directors, and that was something that was somewhat planned. As we mentioned in the beginning of the year, we had some organizational changes. Luciano, who used to occupy the CTO position in the corporate, he took over in the beginning of this year as the CEO of the Portobello unit. And in that position, I mean, it really wouldn't make sense for him to continue to be a statutory director. So he's not a statutory director of the group. And elected by the board now, who's taking over is Christiane Ferreira, our creative director. We call her CCO, Chief Creative Officer. So together with myself and Rosângela, we are the statutory directors.
So it was an important move, not only to reinforce the importance of the innovation of design and branding topic within the group, but also for us to make progress on our commitment of being more diversified. And we have two women now and a man. So it was a pretty relevant move. And let me just reinforce once again that from the strategy perspective, we continue to pursue the same strategy in a slightly different moment from the ones we've experienced until the beginning of last year, when we had a slightly more favorable market, and we actually had a question here involving the interest rates. Not only we had the post-pandemic, but also the interest rates. So it's a market which is much more unfavorable or less favorable. But the strategy is the same, and we keep on advancing either in integrated retail or in the internationalization.
We are still very confident that this strategy is going to bring good fruits. So thank you once again for your participation, for your questions, and we hope to see you in the next quarter. Portobello's video conference is now closed. Thank you for taking part, and we wish you all a great day.