Good morning. This is Centauro's conference call where we'll discuss the company's results for the third quarter of 2019. At this time, all participants are connected in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, the question and answer session will be open when further instructions for your participation will be provided. If you need any assistance during the call, please ask an operator for help by pressing star zero. Please note that this conference call will be recorded. Each presentation accompanied by slides will be simultaneously broadcast via web at the website ri.centauro.com.br, and will be available for download at the same website as well as the company's earnings release. Before proceeding, it is important to clarify that any statements given during this call related to the company's business outlook must be treated as estimates. They depend upon the country's economic conditions, the performance and regulations of the retail sector, and other variables.
Therefore, these projections are subject to change. Here with us are Pedro Zemel, Centauro CEO. José Salazar, CFO and IRO, and Daniel Regensteiner, Treasury and Investor Relations Director, who will discuss Centauro's performance in the third quarter of 2019. After the presentation, they will answer your questions. I'd like to turn over to Mr. Pedro Zemel. Mr. Zemel, you may proceed. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us in our conference call for the third quarter results of 2019. I will start the presentation on slide two. We are the largest sporting goods retailer in Latin America. We want to become the major sports destination to the entire sports community, delivering the best products, services, and experiences. We are keeping a fast pace. This quarter, our digital platform represented 17.5% of our total sales, an increase of about two percentage points vis-à-vis the same period last year.
Our effort to improve our digital platform resulted in a reduction on the website loading time and the improvement on the app usability. Our app sales were 85% higher when compared to the third quarter of 2018. In this quarter, the omni-channel sales reached 11.7% as a percentage of the company's 1P ticket , almost four percentage points higher than the same period of last year. We keep developing new omni-channel features that are being impactful on the purchasing decision of our customers. Another important initiative to improve the quality of the omni-channel experience is the RFID project. We have already completed the system development and tagged the remaining store inventory. In the fourth quarter, we will complete store training to establish an inventory process using RFID. With that, our inventory accuracy will be greater, and we'll gradually increase product offerings on the digital platform.
Along with our growth, we were able to keep the evolution of our NPS. NPS reached 83.6%, 85% in brick-and-mortar stores and 75% in the digital platform. Moving to slide three, we can see the key highlights of our third quarter results. The omnichannel sales grew by 61.6%, reaching BRL 88.5 million. An important highlight is the increase of the endless aisle relevance, the megaloja. It allows customers who enter the store and did not find a product to access the entire inventory of our store. Through system-wide improvements, salesperson training, and incentive alignment, megaloja achieved 4.2% of our brick-and-mortar sales. In the third quarter of 2018, there were practically no sales in this category.
Another interesting aspect of the omni-channel is how it has helped our customers to buy apparel online, but allowing them to try it on and exchange at source products that they purchase on the digital platform. This factor has increased online apparel sales, which once again was a highlight on the quarter and accounted for 46.7% of our click and collect sales. We opened 2 new stores and renovated 4 stores this quarter, delivering additional 7,000 sq m of G5 sales area. In the last 12 months, we opened 8 new stores, renovated 8 traditional stores, in addition to almost 18,000 sq m of G5 sales area. We ended the quarter with a total of 196 stores. Our net revenue increased by 9.9% compared to the same period of 2019, achieving BRL 621 million. Our net income picked up by 20.1% vis-à-vis the previous year, reaching BRL 47 million.
Our same-store sales, adjusted by the World Cup effect, grew by 8.2% as a result of an increase of 5.4% in brick-and-mortar stores and 22% of GMV. Comparing the third quarter of 2019 with the third quarter of 2017, the quarter's result was 23.816.6% brick-and-mortar stores, 69% GMV. I turn over to Salazar, who will discuss the quarter's financial highlights. Good morning, Pedro, thank you for the introduction. Moving to slide four of our presentation, we will discuss in detail our net revenue in the third quarter of 2019. As Pedro just mentioned, we had a 9.9% growth in our quarterly net revenues. If we compare the nine months of 2019 with the same period of 2018, the growth was at 9.6%, pushed by both channels, brick-and-mortar stores and the digital platform.
The brick-and-mortar stores, which grew by 8.9% in the quarter, were boosted by the addition of two new stores, by the renovation of four stores, and by the megaloja sales, which achieved 4.2% of our brick-and-mortar sales. In the digital platform, there was a 14.9% increase of the net revenue in the quarter, which can be partly explained by the continued advance of the omni channel. On Slide five, we'll discuss gross profit and gross margin. Gross profit increased by 20.3%, reaching BRL 306.9 million in the third quarter against BRL 273.3 million recorded in the same period last year. In the first nine months of 2019, there was an 11.4% increase in gross profit vis-à-vis the same period as in 2018, reaching BRL 848 million.
Our gross margin had an increase of 1.1 percentage points in the third quarter of 2019 and 0.8 percentage points in the first nine months, reaching 49.9% and 51.1%, respectively. There were two important factors which explained the gross margins increase in the quarter. The April share increase, the impact of ICMS exclusion from the calculation basis of PIS/COFINS. In the accumulated results of the first nine months, there was also a reduction of the markdown. On Slide six, we'll discuss operating expense variations. As you can see on the chart, we are reporting an increase in operating expenses in the third quarter and a drop in the first nine months of the year.
The increase in the quarter is mainly explained by an effect of BRL 14 million resulting from the INSS credit that had a positive impact on the third quarter of 2018, but not the same impact on the third quarter of this year. In the first nine months, the dilution of expenses is mainly explained by the ICMS exclusion from the calculation basis of PIS/COFINS. On Slide seven, we discuss our EBITDA. We are reporting BRL 80.6 million of EBITDA in this quarter, a 1.8% reduction when compared to the BRL 82 million reported in the third quarter of last year. The EBITDA margin was also affected, reducing from 14.5%-13%. As explained in the previous slide, an effect of BRL 14 million resulting from the INSS credit positively impacted the third quarter of 2018, which resulted in a drop of our EBITDA this quarter.
In the nine-month period, EBITDA grew by 60%, reaching BRL 268 million, EBITDA margin advanced five percentage points when compared to the first nine months of the previous year, reaching 15.9%. This improvement again is explained by the ICMS exclusion from the calculation basis of C&C. Now on Slide eight, I'll discuss our financial results. The financial results in the third quarter of 2019 came in negative at BRL 2.5 million against the financial results of BRL 21.6 million. In the first nine months of 2019, the result is 90.6% better than in the same period of 2018. The deleveraging resulting from the IPO is the key driver for this improvement. Now Slide nine, we discuss our net income. We reached BRL 46.8 million in the third quarter of this year, a growth of 21.8% when compared to the BRL 38.4 million the third quarter of 2018.
In the nine-month period, the increase was even greater, a growth of 549.5%, moving from BRL 25.9 million last year to BRL 167 million in 2019. On Slide 10, we will discuss our cash flow that came in positive at BRL 40.7 million. Cash generation was impacted by the payment of income tax resulting from the recognition of C&C's credits in the second quarter of this year and the inclusion of tax installment programs of approximately BRL 30 million of C&C's outstanding. Excluding this effect, operating cash generation will be around BRL 90 million. The cash flow from investment activities in this quarter came in negative at BRL 42.3 million, 78% higher than the amounts in the third quarter of 2018, basically because of the expansion plan of stores. The cash flow from financing reflects the reduction in the balance of factor receivables. Now on Slide 11, let's discuss our indebtedness.
You can see on the first graph of the chart that we report our adjusted net debt. To determine our total debt, we added the factoring of receivables and tax installment payments to loans and financing. The company's adjusted net debt had a drop of 75.3% and a decline from BRL 862 million in September last year to BRL 218 million the same period of 2019. When compared to the same period of 2018, the 2019 figures reflect the positive effect of the IPO proceeds, which allow the company to deleverage and discontinue the use of factored receivables. Now on slide 12, we will give more details about our investments. We observed a growth in our CapEx both in the third quarter and in the first nine months of 2019 vis-a-vis the same period as of 2018.
In this quarter, the 78.1% increase is driven by the increased pace of store openings and remodeling, also investments in the RFID project is considered in the others line. That concludes our presentation. We can now start our Q&A session. Thank you for your participation. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now start our question and answer session. If you have any questions, please press star one. If to remove a question from the list, please press star two. Our first call is from Helena Villares, Itaú BBA. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I have two questions. You were able to deliver the RFID of the whole inventory. Do you believe that will have an impact on the mix of sales? Maybe style/fashion will be different. Now that you can reduce your safety stock levels, you might have a better assortment. Does that make sense?
Could we have different mixes for sales? Could that have a positive impact on the gross margin because you could maybe sell more or improve your assortment in the style products? My second question relates to the brands. We have observed that Nike and Adidas have increased their market share in sporting goods as a whole. Do you agree with that? If so, wouldn't that be a positive impact because you have a close relationship with those brands? I would like to hear your take on that. Thank you. This is Pedro. Could you repeat your second part of your question related to the brands? Is your question related to a change in market share and whether that would change our way? We believe that Nike and Adidas have changed their market share. Do you see that in your sales? Would that have an impact?
Would you grow more in comparison to your competitors because of the relationship with your suppliers? Thank you for your question. Let me take the first one about RFID. About the RFID project, we have completed as planned in the end of the last quarter, the implementation of the RFID system. We have changed processes at the distribution centers, implemented antennas at the distribution centers and stores, and we are tracking the project. Now, we are developing the inventory using RFID at stores, and we are doing this more frequently. The greatest benefit we expect from this project is in reduction of losses and increase of the efficiency. The greatest benefit we expect is the availability of products that is on the digital platform. The safety margins in terms of stocks at the stores is complicated. It's complicated to count products of the retail stores.
With RFID, we'll have more accurate stock level. The impact of that, of course, we're not sure whether it's going to be disproportional among categories. I understand your point. You're talking about apparel, where usually you have more products left out, but there is also an impact on the SKU of shoes. If you have a given size and a given brand that was not available and it may become available. The first test that we ran did not indicate a significant change in mix, but over time, we may reassess this point. The analysis indicate an increase in sales in the digital platform because of higher stock availability. The second point related to impact on gross margin could be the result of an impact on mix, but also from another effect. We have divided this project in different phases to implement it quickly.
We will have just an impact on price in the medium term because of the possibility of working better on markdown. If you have one product left in one size and one color at a store, we need to put these as a promotional item with a markdown price. If you have combinations of products that we have left out from different stores, we might rethink whether we can sell these products in the digital platform with full margin, not needing to mark it down. In the second stage, we believe that the RFID project could have a positive impact on growth margins. This was not an immediate impact that we expect. Not in the short term. About your second question, there is nothing worth noting related to a change in share of one brand or another. Over time, some brands have provided better gains.
I don't see any major trend indicating that one given brand will just thematically have a bigger share or larger share. We don't see that as a trend. Is my answer clear? Yes. Thank you. It was very clear. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to remind you that if you want to pose a question, please press star one. Please wait while we collect the question. Once again, if you have any questions, please press star one. Our next question is from Ms. Lars Goldman Sachs. Good morning. I have two questions. First, could you comment on how or what kind of expectations you have for the fourth quarter? I know we still have important weeks ahead of us, but on the consumer side, or traffic in stores or confidence in purchasing. I would like you to comment on your insights about that.
Thinking not just about the fourth quarter, but also 2020, what about the margin? What kind of evolution you expect? Do you think that the company will keep on this investment cycle, or do you plan to reduce this investment cycle? Good morning to you, [Ermine]. Thank you for your question. I will answer your questions. I think we can address some of what you asked. About the fourth quarter, there are two points that I'd like to comment on. First, in August, we have not have comparisons against the World Cup. That makes a lot of difference. In the third quarter, in August and September, these months was much better than July when compared to last year. That's a good indication related to what is going on for Centauro, and we don't see why the positive trend would not continue.
Of course, this is retail, and we fight for sales on every day. There's also Black Friday and Christmas. We need to wake up every morning and fight for sales every day. Since August, our performance has improved when compared to the World Cup figures, and there's no reason why this shouldn't continue. There's also a second point that we commented on the earnings release. Our expansion pace has picked up. We opened, if I'm not mistaken, seven months at the end of this quarter and between the end of the quarter and today. This expansion pace also makes us increase the volume in sales. The last quarter is going to be a very important quarter for expansion purposes. Overall, this is how it works in retail.
In addition to that, we have a higher number of stores since the IPO, because of the IPO. We are moving in this direction. Your second question about 2020 and reduction in D&A. Looking backwards, looking into the past, we believe that as we will increase revenue, the D&A will reduce. Even with the store expansion, our margin in stores is good and better in compared to the average EBITDA margin of the company. Every time we open a new store, we have to buy things to expand the margins of Centauro. What we have observed in the past years, looking back, thinking about our history of expansion in margin, we believe that we have recurringly seen that as part of our business as we grow and as we expedite the pace of growth, a reduction in D&A and D&A should become true. Thank you.
Thank you.
Again, if you have any questions, please press star one. If there are no further questions, that concludes this question and answer session. I would like to turn over to Mr. Pedro Zemel for his final remarks. Thank you. I would like to thank the entire team for their effort and the results achieved in the third quarter. Moving towards the fourth quarter in a very accelerated pace to prepare ourselves to Black Friday. We have already began these efforts in our digital platform and also preparations for Christmas. We have already opened another seven stores, and we have established new agreements. We want to satisfy our customers, develop our team, and deliver growing and relevant results to our investors. We want to position ourselves as the major sporting goods store in the country. If you have any questions, you can contact us.
Thank you very much for your participation and your interest in Centauro. See you next time. This conference is concluded. We thank you.