Good morning. Welcome to the conference call of VIVARA to announce the results of the Q2 of 2021. This conference call is being recorded and simultaneously translated into English. And all participants will only see and hear the conference call during the company's presentation. Also, the slides of the presentation is not automatic, and each user should change the slides individually.
Then we are going to start a question and answer session. The questions that are asked on the webcast are going to be answered later on by the Investor Relations team. Now I would like to give the floor to Mr. Paulo Kriblansky, CEO of the company. Please, Mr.
Kriblansky, you may start. Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for attending our conference call to announce the results of the Q2 of 2021 of VIVA. As usual, we'll be here available during our conference call. We have Octavio Lira, our CFO and IRO and Melina Rodriguez, our Head of Investor Relations.
Starting on Slide 2, the results that we are announcing today is quite significant for us, and it's been growing almost 14% as compared to 2019 in spite even though the operation of stores still impacted by a partial investment in April. As compared to Q2 'nineteen, we also have gross income, EBITDA and net income that is excellent in addition to the robust margins in all our measurements. The gross margin of 68%, once again demonstrating our capacity to manage cost EBITDA margin, taking out the IFRS 16 of 25% in spite of more preoperational expenses and the net margin of 23%. This net result that we had in the quarter make us very proud. It's twice as much what we had in Q2 2019 before the pandemic.
Now going to Slide number 3. We closed the quarter with VIVARA brand even stronger, demonstrating our capacity of managing costs, adjusting our portfolio in pursuit of optimal execution with customers and then frequent and fast replacement of window shops. And then all of this makes a difference in our execution. All these factors differentiate VIVARA from the competition day after day, consolidating VIVARA and disputed leading jewelry in the market with a market share of 14.7% in the last 12 months. Now moving to Slide number 4, talking about expansion, which is a very important highlight for us.
It goes on at a very strong and in accelerated pace. We had record openings in May. We opened 9 stores in just 1 month and in the quarter, 16%, with a growth in sales footage. In July, we had more another 8 new points of sale, totaling 24 new points of sale, 16 Vivara stores, 3 kiosks and 6 live stores in the new format. So we also have some information about the new model.
It's important to make it very clear that it's still too early for us to talk about the first expectations and to give you an outlook in terms of what we will see in the future. But we are very excited about this format. Now moving to Slide number 5, I will talk about our live store in Praia Ma Shopping Mall opened in May 17. Now when we look at its performance in June July, the last 2 months of operation, we can see that in the 2nd month of revenue of the store, it grew 14% as compared to the average of mature life stores. And the revenue per square meter has already reached 74% of a mature as compared to a mature life store.
And this store has 90 square meters. This store is slightly bigger than the other life stores that we have that are usually 60 square meters. That's why it's so important for us to measure sales per square meter. As a reminder, the curve of maturation of a live store is about 12 months. So this curve is very accelerated.
Another interesting point is that when we look at the customer profile in terms of same store sales, we see an increase of 7 percentage points in customers between 18 to 30 years of age as compared to VIVARA's standard customers. It's important to point out that we are attracting younger and younger customers, which is what VIVARA wants or what Life wants to do is to attract the younger ages. And stores have been following the standard of other live stores. In the 1st month, because of the open increase of investments in marketing in the new channel, VIVARA PRAYAMAR grew, but it grew less than the average of similar stores. It's important to emphasize that this trend is reversed in the 2nd month with a good combined bottom line for the 2 channels.
Just to tangabilize this, so Vivara Parama grew 33% in July, above the same store sales of physical stores of this whole chain, which was 32%. We will be monitoring it constantly in great detail. And our main goal is to for both brands to coexist without one affecting the other. When I started my journey as CEO of VIVARA, it was very clear to me that the challenge was to get closer to the operation, to be present in a day to day of stores, understanding the pain points, the needs and having direct contact with customers. We have been focusing very much in the training of the bases, which is very important for the success of our operation.
Today, 6 months later from the beginning of my journey, I can say that it was fundamental to have this context for short term results, and it has been determining and looking into the future. We have also intensified the employee engagement, especially for employees or workers of our factory, not only to increase productivity but also the quality. In June, we reached the amazing brand of 140 kilos of metal, which is much more than we were doing on average. This is a landmark that we should celebrate. We continue with our efforts in the long term, working to increase our penetration in the main shopping malls in Brazil.
Through VIVARA's organic expansion, we are advancing in our projects of consolidating the brand life structured to advance in our agenda of digital projects. Additionally, Pivar is very well positioned to make the most of the opportunities that may arise, and we keep our commitment of generating more and more value for our shareholders. Now I would like to give the floor to Otavio, who is going to talk about the numbers of the quarter in more detail. Otavio, please. Thank you, Paolo.
Thank you, everyone, for your presence. I'm going to start my presentation on Slide 6, where you can see more details about the evolution of revenue and same store sales that we have seen along the quarters. As a reminder, until April 18, So that's where our main volume of sales was coming. We saw a slowdown in sales in April. And then after this period, we had a very strong acceleration and an increase of sales of 19.4% in May, 38.1% in June.
And this trend remained along the month of July after the end of the quarter. So same store sales also followed the same trend. We saw an acceleration, so a regression in the 1st month of the quarter and then closing the quarter in July with amazing 36.6 points of growth in same store sales, which was a major contributor for our results. The same store sales in the quarter closed was 13.8%, obviously, considering this trend of acceleration that we have seen affected by the beginning of the quarter and more specifically. Now on Slide 7, the result of that was that the company had BRL 456,800,000 of gross revenue ex returns, as we usually report, a growth of 18 0.4% in contrast of 'nineteen.
So the best reference now to guide everyone in terms of analyzing the company's performance and also internally, we had BRL362 1,000,000 of net revenue, a growth of 19.3%, especially considering the improvement in the activities of the factory, Kanipa. And so e commerce accounted for 17.3% of the period's revenues, and we are going to see the evolution of sales, especially of the offline channels and the trends that we've been seeing in the quarter. But e commerce has sold almost BRL 79,000,000 in the Q2 of 2021. Obviously, a very significant growth as compared to 2019 before the pandemic and with but less than 20 20 with BRL 108,400,000. And for obvious reasons, in that quarter, we had many more limitations in operations and all the initiatives that the company implemented, especially Jewelry in Action, contributing for the increase in the share.
So same stores, again, very strong. And if we compare to 2020, it's also very good in year to date numbers, 63.8 percent, a result which is obviously because we opened many more stores. So we have many more stores open with fewer restrictions because of the pandemic. So now moving to Slide number 8. Here, you can see the revenue by category over the past few years.
So the mix is an increasingly higher mix of jewelry that has been driving the growth of the company. In this period, it accounted for 55.7%, a growth compared to the same period last year and 4.6% greater than the same period in 2019. And this is especially reinforced by a more thriving e commerce and jewelry in action, fully developed and in contrast of 2020 with a less digital operation with stores operating at a stronger pace. Life compared to last year has grown but lost 2.3 percentage points of share because other categories grew more, especially jewelry. And watches lost 6.6% in share, accounting for 12% of the quarter's revenues, especially because of the work that we have already mentioned to you in our last conference call focusing on profitability of the category.
And we tried to limit the number of SKUs and focusing on higher margin and more profitable SKUs. Now moving to Slide number 9. Here you can see the physical stores focusing on our performance in the quarter. So we had more restrictions in April, and the revenues accounted for almost 72% of our revenues. And along May June, we have seen a stability with these revenues accounting for 85% of our revenues and also with the same acceleration of revenues that we saw in total revenues.
So physical stores are driving all this growth and this acceleration. And even in spite of the impact that we had in April on April 18, we opened all our stores. So Life has been gaining share, which is important for the average profitability of the company, especially in physical stores, 57.3% of jewelry, more than last year. Life also expanded its share by 1 percentage point, which is important considering different profitability profile between the categories, which we all know. Now moving to Slide 10 with a little bit more detail about digital sales, which have accounted for 17.3 percent of the sales of the period.
So more and more jewelry, life is stable and watches too. So some interesting numbers here that we are showing to you, specifically in this channel, 16% of online sales were picked up in stores. We have almost EUR 10,000,000 in the shipped from store, which is not contemplated in the share of digital sales. Omnichannel considered here in its full performance had a penetration that was even greater. There were 300,000 visits at all stores that also used e commerce, and we have 70 POS with fully integrated inventory.
On Slide 11. And so here, we have our program, Jewelry in Action, with that has been successful quarter after quarter. This quarter, it accounted for almost 36% of digital sales with BRL 28,000,000 revenue assuring a greater share for jewelry. So in terms of jewelry, 67.3 percent Life, 21% and Watch is almost 10%. You're helping everything to gain relevance in the average mix of the company, which obviously contributes to greater profitability so that we may have found stability in the profitability of sales, as you're going to see in a minute.
On Slide 12, you can see the gross profit and gross margin. So more than ever, it demonstrates the resilience of the company in terms of managing costs with BRL 246.2 million in terms of gross profit, a margin of 68% in contrast of 92.9% last year and BRL67.5%, an expansion of 0.5 percentage points in contrast with last year because of higher gold prices and also the FX rate affecting our BRL prices. And this result was a 29.1% growth of gross profit as compared to pre pandemic levels with a margin of 63%. So a quite significant expansion in margin in a period that is not so comparable. Remembering the results that we reported along the quarters in 2019.
And we have an additional challenge of gross margin in the period of comparison after the second half of the year. So year to date numbers, we have BRL389 1,000,000 of gross profit, a growth of 14.4% as compared to the first half of twenty nineteen with 67.1% margin and once again providing stability, our margin expansion as compared to last year. And now we also have introduced new trends both in revenue and profitability in this quarter. Now moving to Slide 13. You can see the evolution of sales expenses.
So in a period, we had BRL108.7 million, accounting for 30% of the company's revenues, a growth of almost 20% as compared to pre pandemic period with a dilution. So the growth in revenue is associated to an operational dilution, which is enough to provide stability to margins looking just into this line. And in face values, again, 20% growth, especially because of higher expenses with personnel, because of higher sales and our expansion, more investment in marketing because of more relevant digital operation and impacting the company's billing And also freight, as online sales are more relevant and gain share within our total sales, so we need to spend more in freight. And there has been a good evolution when we focus just on the digital channel. There is an evolution of net and net freight costs almost zeroed for the company in this period if you compare year on year with a quite interesting result.
In the first half of twenty twenty one, our expenses were 193.5%, almost 18% growth as compared to pre pandemic level. We still feel a bit of pressure as compared to the Q1 of the year we have. And these expenses accounted for the or represented 33.4 percent of our net revenue, 2 percentage points greater than last year in the first half of twenty nineteen. Now moving to Slide number 14, you can see G and A. And here, you can see the additional basis that we have in the comparison period.
So we had BRL 32.8 million of expenses booked in Q2 'twenty one, stable as compared to Q2 twenty nineteen. So down by 0.5 percent, And this represents 9.1% of net revenue, down by 1.8 percentage points in terms of profitability additional profitability within the quarter. And this is the result of high operational leverage, higher sales, even those 3rd part services. It had a growth between peers, especially those related to strategic consulting that we had to support our mid- and long term growth with the development of the e commerce platform. Year to date numbers, we had BRL 65,400,000 of general expenses, a growth of almost 10% as compared to the 1st Q2 'nineteen.
So with 11.3% of the company's revenue, 0.1% less than 2 years ago for comparison purposes. On Slide number 15, you can see the effect of everything, of good cost management, a good performance in the factory and the resilience in managing all our products and good control of expenses. As you have seen, the company has presented BRL 88,600,000 EBITDA in Q2 'twenty 1, a growth of 46% as compared to the Q2 of 2019, very significant growth with an increase of profitability of 4.5 percentage points in the period with 24 0.5 percent of EBITDA margin in the quarter, very strong growth contributing with a contribution not just from stores, also from digital operations, which has contributed for the generation of operating cash in the period. In the half year, we had 99,100,000 BRL EBITDA. So in the second quarter, we had a good performance in different channels.
We had this represents 17.1% of EBITDA margin in the first half of the year, down by 0.6% in a period because of higher expansions and seasonal results in the first half of the year that we also saw in our last conference call. Now moving to net income. As Paolo mentioned, amazing results. The company more than doubled its net income in the period as compared to pre pandemic BRL 81,700,000 with a margin of 22.6 percent in the period in contrast to BRL 40,800,000 in more than BRL 13,400,000 in the Q2 of 2019, a growth of 100.3 percent and expansion of 9.1 percentage points. So in the quarter or rather in the half year, we had a net income of 85 so with a recurring net margin of 14.8% higher than in the first half of twenty nineteen with 13.3%.
So there is a growth with the expansion of profitability of 1.4 percentage points in this period. So in fact, this performance has made us very happy. And now moving to Slide 17. You can see the evolution of our CapEx. The company has accelerated the allocation of investments quarter after quarter.
What happened in May April led us to delay by a few months the acceleration of the expansion of our physical stores this year. And we follow and keep the objective of opening 40 to 50 stores this year. We have advanced quite a lot with all entrepreneurs. We have signed contracts. We have BRL 19,600,000 that have been invested along the Q2 this year, especially in new stores and BRL 12,200,000 in systems and IT, especially support to our e commerce and omnichannel structure with almost BRL5 1,000,000 invested in a period.
For the second half of the year or even before that, in the first half of this year, we had BRL32.5 million invested in the 1st 6 months of the year, especially new stores, but with a better distribution between reforms and maintenance factory and IT with the most significant investments that we have invested, 5.6 percent of our revenues. And we are going to accelerate that in the second half of the year because we held up investments, not just openings. We are going to have more openings in the second half of the year, but we also in factory and technology to support all the additional. So we had 140 kilos of metal in the first half of the year. We are seeing opportunities in building additional inventory so that we can make the most of our competitive advantages at that time when the competition is weaker, not just in terms of new sales, but we'll be investing more in new factories but also in technology.
On Slide 18, you can see the evolution of the company's gross and net debt. So here, nothing much new has happened here as compared to last quarter. So it has gone down as compared to the end of last year and much longer times. Today, we have BRL286,800,000 of gross debt with almost 61% of that amount in the long term and very good timings and also maturities will be in December. So we have BRL 50,000,000 of debt that will mature in December.
And depending on the circumstances and how we get there, we'll decide whether it's worthwhile carrying over that amount or whether we should think about a lower indebtedness. We closed the quarter of BRL670,900,000 of cash, which led to a cash of BRL 384,000,000, an expansion of BRL 72,500,000 in the period, especially because of operating cash generation. And we can see more details on the next slide. So we had strong cash generation along the Q2 of the year, BRL107,100,000 in the period. So cash from management operating activities.
And we had BRL 87,500,000 in terms of free cash generation, which is less than what we had Q2 last year. But the company has completely different timing. Q2 last year, we had a shrinking of sales. So in terms of operating results, we're much weaker in the Q2 of 'twenty, almost 0 and reduction of inventory because of the lockdown and also in the factory. In contrast, in the Q2 of 'twenty one, very accelerated activities with strong cash generation, a growth in sales.
So here, we have this BRL 82,000,000 in accounts receivable line and the building of additional inventory once again affected. We have the intention of continuing the second half of the year and make the most of this time of weakness of more by the competition so that we can effectively have a more broad ranging mix and fuller mix in terms of jewelry, but also to support the growth of Life. And here, we should also highlight this contribution from vendors of €80,000,000 in a period. I think that this apart from the typical seasonality, this is the result of opportunities in the market and the result of our timing and the timing of the company. This number translates BRL 67,000,000 of the operations of risk, and we are gaining time in the purchase of gold and silver.
And we should mention that the strategy makes sense. And we have been able to get significant spreads from our suppliers with lower scale, which pay the cost of operations of more robust suppliers. So we have been able to gain significant time without any additional cost, which made it possible for us to have the results that you're seeing now. So ladies and gentlemen, this is all we had to present to you today in terms of the results. So it's worthwhile mentioning the whole team of VIVARA.
We are all very happy with our performance. So stores are really excited with all the performance that we've been delivering. This is good for everyone. Everyone is happy. We are going to start the second half of the year with very interesting trends.
The continuation of these good growth rates that we have seen along the Q2. I think that we are still seeing one of the major opportunities of consolidation in the Brazilian retail. The market is very fragmented. There's a huge difference in scale and then our competitive advantage in terms of vertical operation, higher investments in marketing, faster replacement of products, super well functioning omnichannel and then also easier contact with customers in at levels that VIVARA had never seen before. So in the second half of the year, we have more solid inventory as generating additional sales result that we have been seeing for our entire store base.
And this will contribute to the high profitability of the company. We're still seeing the good performance of the new life stores, as Paolo said. And this is going to be very interesting. So we're building critical mass, and we are going to continue to accelerate the incorporation of these stores along 2022. You're going to see more live stores as compared to VIVARA, thereby contributing for this channel to gain channel, providing additional profitability, not just in 2022, but also in future years.
So this is all. Once again, thank you very much for your participation. Now we are available for your questions. Thank you. We're now going to start our questions and answer session for investors and analysts only.
Our first question comes from Robert Ford from Bank of America. Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Congratulations on your performance. Paolo, when you talk about the mix and having the right inventory at the right place, How you determine that?
And changes in manufacturing, how that has this contributed to assortment? [SPEAKER CANDIDO BOTELHO BRACHER:] Bob, thank you for your question. This is a super important question. It has been a driver in the recovery after lockdown. So we need to price the excess and shortage.
So we need to get to optimal inventory. And so our products are gifts. So more than 50%, they need to find the right product at the right store. And we had a major review within what we call GM, so marketing group, store by store redefining and restructuring, all minimum of demand forecast unit of SKUs in stores, so having all the demand forecasting. So we needed to increase inventory and opportunity to invest in inventory based on projected future sales.
So we evolved our inventories, supplying hub stores. And then we've been want to have the right product at the right store, the right assortment. And I think this has been one of the differentials this quarter for us to have a good performance. We haven't yet been able to capture all the gain of this inventory management, but we have been seeing a growth related to that and more opportunity for the second half of the year. And also in talking with stores, we saw the opportunity of new SKUs, the mix in complementing both in collections and commercials.
And we've been developing this very well in our factory with items with a perception of jewelry with very good value added and good margins for the company. So this acceleration of new items in lines for the second half of the year is very much in line with what we executed in the Q2. Thank you very much, Paolo, and congratulations. Our next question comes from Daniela from XP Investments. Good morning.
Congratulations on the result. I have two questions. One is about the gross margin. So it really gets our attention, the magic that you're working in terms of keeping this margin in spite of the strong increase of raw materials and FX devaluation. So what do you attribute that to?
Is it because of verticalization, collections? So what are the main drivers for you to mitigate those increases and still have such a good gross margin? And what about the future? Can you expect more expansion in the margin? And number 2, in talking about M and A, I think this morning, there was news talking about that.
So you are definitely a market consolidator, both organically and inorganically. So I would like to understand your strategy in that direction. [SPEAKER IGNACIO CUENCA ARAMBARRI:] Thank you, Daniela, for your questions. I'm going to answer first the first one, and then Paolo is going to answer and talk about M and A. So I think that margin management is something that we have great success.
It's not magic, as you said. It's a result of very hard work, pricing, category, definition. So there's an effect of the mix, which is very relevant as we presented to you on the first slides. So Life has a share, a bigger increasing share and watches losing share to jewelry and gold. So this effect of the mix between peers is very favorable for us to keep the margins that we are reporting.
And also, there's a detail, I think, that Life has been growing in spite of its share stability. And during the period of more intense activities in the factory, we have worked very hard on in sourcing the manufacturing of this part of our products. So keeping the average price of each item that is produced, we have been able to reduce the manufacturing cost. We have already reached 70% of in sourcing of life in our Manaus plant, and we are planning to increase more than 80% of the items we sell, manufacturing our Manaus plant. So our expectation again and we want to have stability in the profitability of sales between years.
And we hope that this level that we have been producing of profitability will continue along the second half of the year, an increase of CONIPA, our factory in Manaus as it increases activities and contributes to our retail sales. So this has increased greatly because of the manufacturing level that I have been telling you. And they really contribute to this higher profitability. And this will support good results for us along the second half of this year, too. So year on year, I think that in past years, we have demonstrated resilience, and this is how we hope to end 2021 in spite of the cost increases that we have seen because of the FX rate and the higher dollar for us.
Now Paolo is going to answer about M and A. Well, talking about M and A, I would like to confirm before any opportunities and evolution is, DIVARA has gone to 14.7% of market share in 12 months, a growth of 3% in market share gain. When we say 3% market share gain means that VIVARA grew more than the size of the 2nd and third competitors. If they have 2% market share, VIVARA grew more than a whole company that are in the 2nd or third places. So we show how strong our brand is and how much we can still grow with VIVARA and Life.
And when Otavio talks about our good positioning and opportunity of consolidation, we do believe that VIVARA and Life will be part of the consolidation. About M and A, this is a very hot agenda. In here, we have been evolving with models that will complement VIVARA and Life. It's important to emphasize that nothing that will take out our share, that won't make sense for our share, we are taking all of that into account when we look into the future. So this is something we are looking into.
Yes, this is an active agenda, but our focus still is to implement the very strong growth that Vivara can have as we demonstrated in the first half of the year. So same store sales was really fantastic for us. And we are working and we are open to market opportunities, okay? Excellent. Once again, congratulations on excellent work and results.
Our next question comes from Elena Villaris from Itau. Hello, everyone. [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Well, I think we can't hear the question from Itau. So now going back, we have two questions from Itau. Number 1, you closed the presentation talking about life and expansion.
Can you tell us about the real estate dynamics that you see in shopping malls? Do you see good opportunities for the opening of live stores because there are more vacancies in malls? Can you tell us about that? Tell us more about the competition. It's a question we ask every conference call but will make sense to us.
Also because you have just mentioned that you are growing more than other players, and I would like to get more details about that. Okay. About expansion, we've been keeping a fast expansion within our plan. So we are going to open 40 to 50 stores this year. We are keeping this plan and demand is very strong for us in malls, very much because of the success of life in the meal model.
We have opened the 1st store in Santos, now El Dorado, Moca, Belen, Puerto Alegre. And they have all been performing very well, complementing the mix in the mall, complementing the mix of VIVARA. So acceptance has been very good, the store model, customer acceptance. And I think that regardless of shopping mall vacancies, this is a model that consumers really like, and this opens doors for us. We're still very diligent with points of sales.
We're not going to open stores in any mall or any point. So we're only going to 9 10 very good points of sales, corners or very intense flows inside the malls so that we have perennial and sustained expansion and consistent too. As to competition, we are seeing our players having a little bit more difficulty with the re openings from replenishing inventory because of higher raw materials, higher prices of raw materials. But also, it's because of the strategic way VIVARA is positioned in terms of marketing for you to go online with revenues that are much lower than VIVARA for you To buy within Google and Media, you need to need to have volume. And as they don't have volume, they are more affected, so in the second quarter.
So VIVARA has a strategy of working more at the top of the funnel with the marketing, not just in terms of conversion, but with brand inspiration. And it's slightly more expensive for competitors to go into paid media market and have a good performance. So we see that they feel this coming back, but very much because of the growth of VIVARO and the acceptance of our lines and campaigns. Would you like to complement Otavio? I'm sorry, technical difficulties.
We had a bit of an echo on feedback. [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Well, Paulo, just answering. We are in an industry where working capital is very expensive and very fast. So when we see a period when sales shrink strongly as in 2020 and also very intense sales acceleration this year, this growth in sales and the growth of inventory and to deal with the sales growth, this in fact costs a lot of money. And I think that we are at a time and position where scale makes a difference.
The capital structure also makes difference. And because of that, it doesn't mean that they are having the financial difficulties, but they suffer because they are slightly more conservative in the evolution of the inventory and also in the sales evolution, whether inventory on the opening of new stores. I think that will follow this very fast pace of opening 40 to 50 new stores planned for this year, and no one else in the market is going in that same direction with such a fast pace of expansion. Yes, there are other players opening stores, but we're talking about single digits new stores for the year, which contributes for the growth dynamics that we see in Vivara in contrast with what we see in the market. We have seen very clearly the share in the last 12 months was 14.7%, a good expansion as compared to 1 year ago, but the share in the quarter was almost 17%.
And so we are accelerating the space so we can make the most of this good side of the pandemic so that we can advance in the allocation of capital in the inventory to deal with additional sales acceleration, not just towards the end of the year, but also next year. And that's why we believe in continuing this accelerated consolidation process that we've been seeing. So congratulations on your result. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Olivier Petronello from JPMorgan.
So I would like to understand the SG and A, which was the greatest surprise to us. How structural this is? So are these levels of expense continue? So when we think of expansion, everything going back to normal and the operation of physical stores will go back to normal. Do you think you'd be able to keep this level of SG and A?
Thank you for your question, Olivier. Excellent point that you've raised. And I think here, it's worth remembering the following aspects of 2020 2019 results, which we gradually expect these effects to shrink during quarters. So the benefits provided not just by higher discounts in rental, especially in 2020, but we have also been able to have good negotiations in 2021. So it affects the Q2.
And MP, So reduction in terms of labor. So reduction in work shifts and also temporary labor contracts. So we are managing it. So of the numbers that we monitor, whether it's rental or the payroll, we are at a higher level than you can see because of the benefits that are contributing for the company. Even so, considering the acceleration in sales that we are expecting, we are monitoring closely the productivity of the company, of which of our employees add to the company.
And these numbers have been very positive. I think that we have almost 3,300 employees, and revenue is growing 25% as compared to 2019. And we hope that this continues with positive trends into the future and will help us to dilute better the expenses, especially fixed expenses because obviously, in the sales expenses, we have the marketing at this new time with life with slightly more relevant branding. And when the digital business is accounts for more of our business, has a higher share in our total businesses, especially because of freight and taxes, especially the tax rates. So once again, more precisely, we hope to continue to have good results with stronger operational dilution along quarters, but that our benefits today that certainly will not be present in the long term.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Otavio. Thank you. If there are no more questions, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Kruglenski for his closing remarks.
Please, Mr. Kruglenski? So I would like to take the opportunity of my closing remarks to thank the entire VIVARA team for all their hard work during the pandemic lockdown. You have made the company restructure and reinvent itself and to continue growing. And thank you all very much for your attendance and for keeping up with us.
Thank you very much. Thank you. The conference call of Vivara about the Q2 of 2021 has now ended. Have a good day.