Good day, welcome to the Jerónimo Martins First Half Results 2021 Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Ana Luísa Virgínia, Chief Financial Officer of Jerónimo Martins Group. Please go ahead, madam.
Many thanks, Andrea. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining this call. As a reminder, the set of materials, including the release and the slide presentations, are available on our corporate website. From this quarter on, you will also have available in our website a fact sheet that adds a bit of color on our activities to the release. Our first half performance confirms the remarkable work done by all our teams in preparing themselves to deliver on their purpose and targets against a difficult and unstable pandemic context. Dynamic and competitive business models drove strong sales performance and improved value drivers in the first six months of the year. Consolidated sales were up by 6.3% or 8.8% at constant exchange rates, underpinned by the performance of all our banners.
Biedronka grew throughout the period by successfully meeting consumer needs at all moments, innovating on its assortment, and crafting relevant campaigns to capture market opportunities. As a result, our Polish banner was able to reinforce the preference of consumers, both in the difficult first months of the year, when a new wave of COVID-19 infections hit Poland, and in Q2, when the pandemic context improved and consumers felt safer to visit the stores more often.
The banner also benefited from an overall positive consumer demand and good weather in the Q2 . Pingo Doce and Recheio worked hard to continue mitigating the impact of the market constraints that still affect retail, and particularly the HoReCa activities. After a strict lockdown in Portugal in the Q1 of the year, both banners returned to growth as the restrictions eased and the comparison with prior year became less demanding.
Ara, that faced again in Q2 a challenging context, delivered consistently well throughout the period, proving its capacity to build a solid position in the Colombian market. Group EBITDA grew ahead of sales by 12.6% or 15.5% at constant exchange rates. This very positive evolution reflected sound top-line growth, a creative margin mix management, and cost discipline. Operating in the market in a responsible and sustainable way is a priority for all our companies. In this respect, I would like to highlight just a couple of important developments.
We are committed to building a stronger company in terms of our human capital, and we are mindful that the effects of the pandemic will likely continue. We have therefore increased the proportion of our employees with permanent contracts to 70% of the group workforce and further invested in employee support, compared with the same period last year.
Under our commitment to contribute to a forest-positive future, we have continued to take decisive steps, such as joining the Colombian government's voluntary agreement to fight deforestation, ensuring the plantation of over 58,000 trees under the Serra do Açor forest project in Portugal, and continue to publicly encourage the European Commission to adopt more ambitious measures to curb deforestation. These first six months were a good combination of strong short-term delivery and long-term vision.
The delivery on the financial targets is clear. The strong operational performance, that growth sales to reach EUR 9.9 billion and EBITDA to attain EUR 715 million, together with strict working capital management, reinforced our cash position. Excluding capitalized operating leases, it was at EUR 407 million by the end of June, already after the dividend payment of EUR 181 million in May. A very brief update on the operating context before going into the detail of the performance.
Just to remind you that Poland and Portugal were under lockdown in Q1 and started to relax restrictions in April, while in Colombia, the Q2 had more restrictions in place than Q1, although not so severe as in the same period of 2020. I will focus this update on what changed in Q2, starting with Poland. In the Q2 , with the pandemic under control and the easing of restrictions, the environment gained some normality and circulation of people was significantly resumed. This context, together with positive consumer demand, favored consumption. Retail store traffic continued to be limited, with the number of people inside the stores being relaxed from one person per 15 sq m to one person per 10 sq m by the end of June.
In Poland, food inflation increased from 0.6% average in Q1 to 1.6% in Q2. In Portugal, restrictions were also lifted or relaxed, depending on the risk level of the municipalities. Nonetheless, the limit to the number of people inside stores and restaurants, combined with limitations to the opening hours, continued to hamper the activity. Food inflation decline having been muted in Q2. In Colombia, in the Q2 of the year, restrictions to manage the pandemic crisis became more frequent, particularly in April. Those measures were less strict than in 2020.
Social unrest in May also brought constraints to the normal functioning of the supply chain, having contributed to an increase in food inflation in the country. Looking now at the P&L for Q2, a couple of notes I would like to share with you. Top-line growth was strong at every banner, but growth rates were particularly high in the Portuguese and Colombian businesses that in Q2 2020 were strongly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
With regard to gross margin, the positive margin mix, which was enhanced by an easier comp against Q2 2020, when the unexpected beginning of the pandemic impacted the basket mix in the three countries, helped to mitigate the pressure of the Retail Sales Tax implemented in Poland. EBITDA margin increased by 60 basis points, driven by the recovery of the operational leverage in Pingo Doce and Recheio, and the delivery of the cost restructuring done in Colombia in 2020.
Below operational performance, net earnings evolution also benefited from a favorable movement in the other profits and losses heading. I remind you that in Q2 2020, this heading was at -EUR 16 million, mainly due to the closure of the pharma business in Poland, and following the effects of the pandemic, the booking of provisions for Recheio trade receivables and Hebe stocks.
The healthy profile of our first half P&L, with sales increasing by 6.3% and EBITDA growing by 12.6%, reflects the quality of Biedronka's business model, an execution that were able to offset the pressure of the retail tax, the successful work of Pingo Doce and Recheio in fighting against the impact of the restrictive measures and the lack of tourists to recover sales and EBITDA, the consistent good performance of Ara that also benefited from an improved cost base.
The net financial cost declined from EUR 96 million in H1 2020 to EUR 74 million in H1 2021. Remember that in the 2020 figures included a foreign exchange loss of EUR 14 million that in H1 2021 was positive in EUR 3 million. Cash flow generated in H1 2021 reached EUR 82 million, driven by stronger EBITDA and better working capital flows than in 2020.
With regard to working capital in H1 2020, funds generated were negatively impacted by the lower growth and an adverse calendar effect. The strength of the balance sheet is intact, even further reinforced by the cash flow generation capacity of the different businesses. The CapEx reached EUR 200 million, with all banners delivering on expansion as planned. Biedronka added 53 locations from a planned 100 for the year, 39 on a net basis. Ara, that plans to open more than 100 stores in the full year, has opened 41 in H1.
With regard to refurbishments, Biedronka, which runs the biggest program in the group, has remodeled 153 stores as part of its plan to revamp up to 300 in the year. We will see an increase in CapEx in H1 as more stores will be open and logistics developments will be accounted for.
Moving now into the details of the operating performance, starting with sales. Sales growth was the driver of the strong performance registered in the first six months of the year. Reflecting the quality of our banner's value proposition, like-for-like in H1 reached 6.6%. Currency devaluation that impacted H1 performance was softer in Q2. When splitting sales performance between Q1 and Q2, we see that Q2 was boosted by growth in Portugal and Colombia, both of the countries severely hit in Q2 2020 by the COVID-19 outbreak.
We also see the impressive ability of Biedronka to keep reinforcing the preference of Polish consumers quarter- on- quarter. Biedronka sales increased by 9.8% in zloty and 6.8% in EUR to reach EUR 7 billion. Like-for-like accelerated in Q2 as a result of Biedronka's ability to continuously adjust to market circumstances, having also benefited from a combination of variables that in Q1 were quite favorable.
Reopening of the economy with good control over the pandemic situation, positive consumer demand, and good weather in May, June, providing extra opportunities. In this overall positive context, on top of a strong price positioning and an evolving offer, the banner builds strong and innovative campaigns to maximize sales opportunities and strengthen consumer preference. Hebe sales increased by 10.4% in local currency, 7.3% in EUR. Excluding the pharma business, which was discontinued in July 2020, top line was up by 23.4%, and like-for-like was at 17.7%, also including online sales. E-commerce continues developing well and represented 14% of the banner sales in the period. Hebe is already running tests through its e-commerce platform to conclude on the potential of new markets outside Poland. Pingo Doce sales reached EUR 1.9 billion, a growth of 4.6% over H1 2020.
The base of comparison became less demanding from March onwards. The company grew strongly in Q2 with like-for-like excluding fuel at 7.3%, despite all headwinds, restrictions still in place, low circulation of people, and constraints imposed on restaurants and coffee shops activities. Pingo Doce reinforced its commercial dynamic and maintained the quality offer for which it is recognized, driving volume growth and a good financial performance despite basket deflation across the period. With the lack of tourists and severe restrictions on the HoReCa channel, particularly in Q1, Recheio fought hard to offset the losses on top line until March. In Q2, the banner delivered a like-for-like growth of 21.1%, benefiting from the reopening of the restaurants and coffee shops against a period of lockdown in 2020, and managed to end the half year with flat growth on sales.
In Colombia, Ara performed consistently well despite the market conditions that were more challenging in Q2. Sales in local currency grew 20.9%. In euro terms, sales increased by 11.9%. The like-for-like swing between Q1 and Q2 reflects the comparison with 2020, when the impacts of the pandemic hit the performance as from April. Group EBITDA reached EUR 715 million, 12.6% ahead of the previous period. At constant exchange rates, a 15.5% increase. This sound performance was driven by strong top-line growth and all its benefits on the operational average, enhanced by the efficiency programs ran in all companies, and also lower COVID-19 related costs. EBITDA margins for the group in the first half increased from 6.8% to 7.2%, driven by the excellent work done by Biedronka to grow like-for-like, improve margin mix, maintain cost discipline, and increase efficiency.
The banner delivered on all fronts and was also able to contain the negative impact of the new Retail Sales Tax. The hard work of Pingo Doce and Recheio to recover sales under difficult market conditions paid off in improved margins due to operational leverage. Ara's good sales performance, which together with an optimized cost structure, allowed for a significant improvement at EBITDA level. The first six months' performance confirms that our banners are delivering well as a result, both of their dynamic business models and competitive value propositions, which are recognized by consumers and also of their proven resilience. All banners are prepared to continue delivering and generating cash flow. The strength of our balance sheet supports our capacity to further invest to reinforce our competitive positions.
Despite ongoing uncertainty about the full impact of the pandemic on the economies where we operate, we enter H2 confident that our businesses are in good shape to deliver on their strategic priorities and continue growing while preserving profitability. I finalize by confirming the outlook for 2021 as disclosed on our 2020 full-year results presentation and reiterated in April. Thank you for your attention. Operator, I am now ready to take questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press *1 and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press the # key. Once again, please press *1 if you wish to ask a question. We are taking our first question from the line of Andrew Gwynn at Exane.
Sorry. I was on mute. Good morning. How are we doing? Just two quick questions. Firstly, obviously we had the turnover tax introduced in Poland. I'm just wondering, is it your sense that has now been pretty much fully passed through to the consumer? The second one is sort of a bit of a boilerplate question at the moment, but really around the cost outlook. We're obviously seeing very high levels of cost inflation washing around. We're seeing some pressure on suppliers. I'm just wondering how you're seeing cost inflation at present and what you would anticipate in the second half of the year. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Andrew. On the turnover tax in Poland, in our case, I think that we cannot conclude that we are passing that to the consumers. As I've always said, taxes have a systemic effect on the whole economy. I believe that probably some players will have to pass it directly for the consumers, but what the performance of Biedronka shows, and I can tell you that the company operated in deflation during this period of around 1%. What that shows is that we maintain competitiveness, and that is not shown. The passing of the Retail Tax did not affect our consumers, or this is not what passes from the performance.
Nonetheless, I think what the company did or was able to do in preparing itself, not only from the cost point of view, but in managing its sales and margin mix, introducing a lot of innovation in the offer, and putting relevant promotions in place to really have the operational average kicking in and compensating for the Retail Sales Tax was really quite remarkable in my opinion. As for the cost outlook, we don't hide. I think that we even anticipated, and we always flagged that there would be inflation, particularly on the personnel heading and also on energy. This, of course, may affect not only the cost of the products sold, but also the cost of the materials for the refurbishments, et cetera. This is different pressures on different levels.
What our companies are doing is really to try to accommodate in terms of efficiency to compensate for that and to, as we said, maintain profitability. Of course, the best way to protect profitability is getting sales. Competitiveness at price level and the quality of the offer will continue to be paramount to compensate and to continue to deliver profitability. As I said, this is what we expect in all our businesses for the year.
Just for Poland, are you able to quantify loosely where cost inflation is? Just to give us a sense of sort of the differential that you're running.
What I said is deflation is, or inflation in this case, is mainly on personnel costs at this point and on energy. What we feel is some pressure also on the cost of goods sold. As I said, what we are going to do is making sure that we maintain quite competitive to compensate for that on the operational average.
Okay, perfect. All very clear as always. Thank you.
Thank you, Andrew.
We're now taking our next question from the line of Rob Joyce at Goldman Sachs.
Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Just three. To follow on there from your last point, to clarify on the Polish margin from here, we still think that despite all those different cost pressures you mentioned and the Retail Sales Tax, we still think a broadly flat margin is a good target for this year on, I think, a pre-IFRS basis, so probably slightly down on IFRS. That's the first one . Second one , just on Ara, just trying to piece together all the different bits of information there. How do you feel, are the trading conditions now in this Q3 and going forward, are they more favorable than you'd say in aggregate versus the Q2 ? Are we looking at a Q3 which is going to be incrementally more challenging?
The final one is, you mentioned quite a few times, and clearly from the numbers, the balance sheet is in a very strong position. How do we look at your sort of preferred use of cash? Should we be looking at special dividends? Are you still looking at acquisition opportunities, and can you maybe give us a little bit more detail if you are, as to where they are and what type of assets they might be? Thank you.
Good morning, Rob. As for the Polish margins, what we always said, so I think it's possible, continues to be quite challenging. We think it's possible. What we do really is making sure that we invest properly in order to maintain the competitiveness. As I've already stated, this is really what is paramount, is guaranteeing that growth compensates for any pressure on the cost. On saying that, we think it's possible to maintain it despite being challenged, but as it has shown until the first half, the company was able to deliver this.
On Ara, we mentioned there are two, of course, we don't hide, and although that doesn't take any merit from the team's work, but we don't hide that last year with the full lockdown that affected the country for more than six months, we are having now a more favorable comparison base.
A less demanding comparison base. As you know, the like-for-like, both in the Q2 and in the Q3 , were quite low last year against what we expected due to that full lockdown. I would say that for Q3, we still expect to be somehow benefiting from that. This being said, the most important in Ara's performance is not only the fact that they have really maintained despite all the social unrest and even the pressure on inflation. The company has a very important gap to price inflation, we are now having a gap of more than 5 percentage points. Competitiveness has increased in Ara, and that has been quite important in capturing new consumers.
That, together with a cost structure that has been optimized due to the restructuring that took place in the second half last year, I think it will definitely be very important on the performance for the full year. I think that the company will be able, as I flagged, to deliver a very good performance. We are not seeing the same kind of restrictions that we saw last year. We think also that our expansion will not be hampered. In this case, I think that this will be not so many headwinds as in last year, and a much more prepared company to deal with the pandemic constraints and with the fact that the economy in Colombia is suffering from the pandemic, definitely.
Luísa, sorry, can I quickly interrupt?
Yes.
Sorry to interrupt, are we in a position now we can start thinking about what the longer term margin structure might look like in Colombia? Are we able to start thinking about getting back to giving some guidance maybe on where we can get to, comparing maybe with the Biedronka margin we see?
I think, Rob, it's a little bit too early to give that guidance. Long run, of course, our ambition is always to get that. We are working really to have a sales density that may allow us to really have a great operational leverage and be able to deliver the same margins as Biedronka. That will be always the ambition, for now it's still too early to give guidance on that. On the balance sheet, the preferred use of cash is to finance growth. We think this is the relevance, growth being the basis not only of the profitability for the company, but even for the purpose of the company.
We think that we always said that, being relevant or maintaining the relevance for our employees, our consumers, our business partners and the communities that we serve, the best way to do it is through growing sales and being relevant really for all of them. To finance growth is our best opportunity and alternative. This being said, any, of course, if the growth opportunities will not be totally taking advantage of all our financial position, we never rule out an exceptional dividend. That would be, of course, a board decision depending on the extra opportunities that may appear and the ones that we find value accretive.
Are you seeing those growth opportunities to spend at the moment?
I think that the pandemic also brought some opportunities, but we will not comment on any of those at this time.
Okay. Thank you very much.
We're now taking our next question from the line of José Rito at CaixaBank.
Hi, good morning to all. The first question on Biedronka. We witnessed a strong acceleration on like-for-like performance in Q2. Can you elaborate a little bit what has been the main driver for this? You mentioned the weather. What other drivers could explain this strong performance in Q2? If this momentum could be possibly extrapolated into the coming quarters, at least in terms of volumes, I mean. Second question on the gross margin. We saw a catch up on the gross margin at the consolidated level in Q2 versus what was Q1. I suppose this has been driven by all regions, I would like to have some additional details if possible. Final question on Justo & Bueno in Colombia. Any insights of what should be the end game for this player? Thank you.
Thank you, José. On Biedronka. This acceleration, of course, I think I mentioned that even in my introduction. It's not just the weather, of course. We think that the weather has this or induces a positive sentiment also on the consumer. We saw a consumer favorable demands in this Q2 , definitely, compared with the Q2 of 2020. As consumer confidence is at a higher level and the consumer is still reacting quite significantly to all our actions. This being said, I think that the main driver really was all the dynamic that the company puts in place, not only launching quite successful new products, so a lot of innovation also on the assortments to really capture this more positive or more favorable consumer demands, and also more relevant promotional campaigns.
We did increase our level of promotions by more than 2 percentage points versus last year. This acceleration is definitely a mix of the consumer more or the reaction of the consumer, but also definitely of the dynamic and the commercial campaigns that were put in place by the company. If this is going to be maintained, of course, it's true that all the comparables, and particularly in Biedronka, for the next couple of quarters will be more difficult or more demanding. We don't hide that. This being said, we think that at this point, we don't see any reason for the consumer. It's true that also depends on the pandemic and on its evolution with the new variants. We don't see at this point a consumer that is tending to be less positive.
We still have some challenges also, namely we don't have only the inflation, we also have deflation, and we are seeing that in a quite significant part of our assortment, namely in fresh, so in fruits and vegetables and in meats. We also have the positive effect of inflation in the salaries. People have more available income, and that helps also in the top line. For the next quarters, we continue to be quite positive, despite some headwinds also on the gross margin.
The only business that didn't grow gross margin versus last year was Biedronka, but that was already expected considering that they had the pressure from the Retail Sales Tax. All the other businesses were able really to post an increase in its gross margin and contributing for the performance and for the number that you see at the consolidated level. As to Justo & Bueno, what we know, and it's public, is that we are in a restructuring process, so in some financial distress, but we don't comment on any of the situation of our competitors. No novelty on that front from our part.
Has this player been more, let's say, soft from a competition point of view?
I don't think so because the environment is quite tough in Colombia. What we think really that drives the performance of Ara is really the fact that it has attracted more consumers because it's really providing a very competitive offer and it's really trying to stop inflation, which is heavily hitting the food inflation, as you can imagine with the way that the households were affected by the pandemic in terms of income. It's quite paramount to maintain competitiveness. I think that Ara is really managed in a very balanced way the prices to really become much more relevant to the consumer. It's been able to attract more consumers to the stores. I think it's more than the others situation is really Ara's merit, the fact that they are being able to increase sales versus other competitors.
Okay. Understood. Thank you.
We're now taking our next question from the line of James Grzinic at Jefferies.
Good morning, Ana Luisa. I had a couple really. The first one, sorry to press you, following on from Rob's question on Colombia. If you can provide us any more context, obviously Colombia is still very loss-making level. Firstly, I wanted to clarify, is it just a matter of building sales densities that resolves that? Are you happy with the sales mix? How important is the overall scale build to really getting a proper return on that investment in Colombia? I don't expect you to share views on timing, but I presume the board has a very clear view of what it wants EBIT to look like in Colombia, given that there's still a lot of incremental investment going into the business. That was really the first one.
The second one, can you perhaps update us on where you are in terms of relative price competitiveness in Poland at the end of Q2? Thank you.
Thank you, James. In Colombia, it's true that it's loss-making and we expect and of course we had some headwinds that avoided or make it more challenge to attain our objective, which was presented a positive EBITDA pre IFRS 16 this year or next year. I think it's still possible. It's loss-making, but as you probably saw from the numbers, there is really a very big improvement done by Ara. That's, I would say the first one of the reasons is of course a different cost base, but the most important is, as you said, I think that what we are doing is really building a sales density that we expect and so the board expects and believes really in not only in the ability of the company to grab the opportunity because we see it intact in proximity and in the market.
The idea really is that the operational leverage can kick in and with that, of course asset turnover will be much higher. Even if margins may not be the same as Biedronka, although the ambition is that they could be, we will be having a quite important return on invested capital. The idea really is to reach that, of course, and we are working to have it as fast as possible. It's true that it was very challenging to start a business from scratch. We knew that that would be challenging. I think that everyone now believes that Ara is really reinforcing its position in the Colombian market. We have now the suppliers really willing to bet on us and to grow with us.
It has been quite paramount to also build the gross margins, and it will be very important in having a profitable company in the future. In terms of where we are in price gap. No big difference at this point. Biedronka continues to maintain a gap not only for the hypermarkets, which is higher than 10%, but also for the other discounters. We think that on foods, that is really paramount to maintain the competitiveness and we are willing to invest to grab sales and not to lose competitiveness in the Polish market.
Very clear. Can I just ask a follow-up on Colombia? On that asset turn, is that 20%, I guess 20% to your mind , the clean picture, the sort of asset turn you really need to build sales densities at the appropriate level? Do we need to go significantly higher than that?
Overall, I think we are almost there. I think that we have still, and we have been building also on the margin, of course. I think that on the asset turnover, we are on track. On the margins, there was, as I said, some setbacks because, of course, of all the situations, we are picking up on that, of course.
That's clear. Thank you. Bye.
Thank you, James.
We are now taking our next question from the line of João Pinto at JB Capital.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Regarding the gross margin growth this quarter, you said that part of this was driven by an easier comparable regarding sales mix. For the second part of the year, do you expect pressures on gross margin to remain low, like in the Q2 ? They should increase as the comparable versus not as easy? My second question, I assume that the OPEX to sales ratio has not fallen as much as it did in the Q1 in Poland, even the gross margin did not fall as much and EBITDA margin was stable. Can you give us some color on the decline in OPEX to sales decelerated from the Q1 to the Q2 ? That's all.
Thank you, João. On gross margins, of course, it will be more demanding. We don't hide that because as we said, the gross margins in Q2 2020 was highly pressured as even on the uncertainty and the instability. The companies invested to really keep and grab sales that were being under pressure all over. That's really affected. This being said, the companies, what they are doing is really to maintain the level of dynamism and new campaigns and even adjusting the offer to have the best sales and margin mix to be able to offset the further pressure that they may feel. On the OPEX decline, of course, in Poland, as you remember, last year, not only we had more COVID costs related, so that has been much softer in this quarter.
I would say that for the remaining quarters, we will also, I think that the COVID-19 costs are already incorporated in most of our contracts, from cleaning to safety and all of that. This being said, overall for the full year, what we really expect is that the operational leverage will play a role, relevant sales will be able to continue diluting costs.
That's clear. Thank you.
Thanks, João.
We're now taking our next question from the line of Cédric Lecasble at Stifel.
Yes, thank you for taking my questions. Actually, I have two. The first is on the way you manage your basket inflation. We see an increasing gap in Colombia between food inflation and your basket inflation. Still quite a material gap in Poland. The question on Poland is really, how do you manage your basket inflation? How do you arbitrate between profitability and market share? Could you update us on your market share evolution?
Down the road, the biggest picture question is, how do you think your profitability in Poland will be like two years from now or midterm versus pre-Retail Sales Tax profitability? Do you see some players suffering? Do you see some players that are pushing prices up, giving you another advantage? How do you see things after all this settles down and the dust settles down in one year or two years?
The follow-up question on Colombia, which is more or less linked to this one, is are you trying to recruit customers in Colombia over the next, let's say, 12, 24 months? Would you continue to put pressure on your prices to recruit more and more clients, improve sales density? Should we have a kind of muted profitability profile over the next two, three years and suddenly an acceleration where you are, where you want to be in terms of sales density? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Cédric. In terms of the basket inflation, of course, the basket inflation compares the same products. As we are also introducing innovations and in some cases putting further promotions on some of the products, it's quite difficult to manage. What we use really is that possibility to offset in terms of the sales mix, to offset the deflation. It's really playing with novelties, with different products, with promotions, and that brings a lot of relevance and compensates, of course, for the fact that in different periods with the same products, being still investing on those products that, of course, we should not be in any way uncompetitive.
That is overall, not only in Poland, that happens in Portugal and in Colombia, of course. The consumer reaction is different because the consumer confidence is also different in the three economies. In terms of trying to arbitrate between profitability and market share, I think we were always very clear that the first priority would be sales. Of course, probably that would translate in market share. The idea, and we think it's possible, with all the initiatives that we are taking, not only at the commercial level, but also at the efficiency level on the costs to preserve the profitability.
We don't want to increase our margins. We really want to leverage on those to maintain the relevance at the top line, because we think really what pays off is what we usually call the operational leverage. Is really by increasing sales, we dilute costs and we maintain relevance with the consumer.
Sorry.
It can be a difficult balance, as you can imagine, particularly if the consumer does not react. That's the way we see it. We think that growth is the main leverage in terms of profitability for the company. It's going to be or continue to be the priority. Sorry, Cédric.
No, sorry, Ana Luísa. Thank you for your answer. Just two precisions. The first one, down the road, what you would be targeting would be similar profitability as in the past before. Absorbing the introduction of the Retail Sales Tax, but with all these measures and keeping profitability more or less where it was before the introduction of the Retail Sales Tax. Could you please, if you have any data on market share, you know the most recent data in Poland, update us on market share evolution.
On that, Cédric, we keep, of course, and the company is working to, as we said, preserve profitability in terms of margins. As I said, if we are able to, by investing more, to have a higher asset turnover, so a return on invested capital that is even higher, that is the priority, is really on the top line, as I said. In terms of market share, year-on-year, Biedronka until May, which is the last numbers that we have, has increased its market share by 1.7 percentage points. May 2020 year-to-date May 2021.
Thank you.
On the profitability in Poland.
It's not a secret that the market is changing, and you know that some players are leaving the market. Other players are going in, usually on a more hard discount kind of type, on the more proximity. You continue to see all players that decided to stay in the country to increase their networks and their footprints in Poland to grab the growth opportunity in the market. I think that we still expect a lot of pressure, but you have, it's true, you have Tesco, we don't know. Recently, there were some rumors that Carrefour might leave the country.
In two, three years' time, I would say that Poland continues to be a very attractive market for some, and probably for others they will feel the pressure, particularly if they cannot adjust their format or they are not operating in the right format to really meet the needs of the Polish consumer.
Thank you very much, Ana Luísa.
I think that Biedronka has proven that they have been evolving continuously with the consumer. In the case of Ara, it's true that we are recruiting consumers and trying to increase our number of tickets because we keep investing in our prices, and we are really currently, in terms of the products that we offer, which is a limited offer, as you know. In terms of the products that we offer, we are very competitive, and that has been quite important in a much more price-sensitive consumer, considering the current context, that has been quite important in having new consumers in the stores buying our products and, of course, being able to increase the sales density of each store.
I think that's probably what we expect. We were not so sure when the pandemic kicked in, but what we are seeing now is the consumer reacting. The government apparently is not putting so restrictive measures to fight the pandemic. I think that they are not really wanting the economy to be closed again because that hampers significantly the socioeconomic context. This being said, I think that we will be able to maintain our path of growth and resume our way to profitability.
Very clear. Thanks a lot.
Thank you, Cédric.
We're now taking our next question from the line of Xavier Le Mené at Bank of America.
Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Two, if I may. The first one, actually, on Portugal. We've seen the profitability still below where we were in 2020 and 2019. Should we expect, actually, the profitability to go back to where it was before, or do you think that you will exit the pandemic with potentially more costs and potentially a lower sales density, which potentially means that it will take a bit more longer to get back to where you were in terms of profitability in Portugal? That will be my first question. Second, a follow-up on Colombia, again. Back to James, your question about the sales density. You mentioned that you reach already the sales density, potentially, in Colombia to hopefully get to break even soon. Do you need also to increase your network?
Do you need more stores to potentially increase the profitability going forward? Linked to that, do you think that actually making potentially an acquisition in Colombia could significantly step up your footprint and then your overall profitability? It's also a question of store density overall, or back to the initial point, is it just sales density per store?
Thank you, Xavier. On the profitability for Portugal. What we believe really is when things are, I wouldn't say probably back to normal, but in terms of the circulation of people, this is paramount. Traffic and all the consequences that go with it for both Pingo Doce and Recheio are quite important. For Recheio, as you can imagine, having the restaurants, the hotel, so the lack of tourists hits very significantly the company's performance at top level. Also affected Pingo Doce because they have restaurants, they have coffee corners. Whilst there will be restrictions in terms of the circulation of people, I think that we will see some pressure on sales and hence on the profitability of the chains.
This being said, what we believe is that things will improve, and the companies have been working not only on their offer or on the way that they are organized to make sure that they get back to the levels of profitability that they had before. We think that is possible, and in everything in Portugal. It will take some time, particularly in Recheio, more than in Pingo Doce, because of that dependence on the HoReCa channel. This being said, we think that this is still a possibility. To get to the levels of profitability that we had, and it's what we are trying to build as fast as possible. Again, top line will be paramount for this.
We can do, and we are doing everything that we can at the cost level with more efficiency, with working on the logistics, on the supply chain, on the different ways that we work. Top line is going to be definitely the key driver of profitability. In Colombia, the way that we see it, yes, we think that we should have more stores to grab the potential, but we also think it's possible to reach break even with the stores that we have if we have the right sales density. We don't need an acquisition to really leverage the current store network. We think that we can reach break even with the current footprint that we have.
Thank you. That's very helpful.
We're now taking our next question from the line of Maria- Laura Adurno at Morgan Stanley.
Thank you very much for taking my questions. With respect to Hebe, what is the % of sales that is generated in store versus what is generated online? The second question that I had, going back to the Colombian market, there's been also some shifts in dynamic over there with some players which are weakened financially. Is your strategy still to very much grow organically in that country? More broadly, you had previously mentioned interest in potentially expanding into other countries in Eastern Europe. I'm just wondering where your thoughts are on this front. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Maria- Laura. On Hebe, the online sales accounted for 14% of our turnover in the first half. We think it will continue to be relevant, although we know that it also is influenced by the lockdown and the closure of the shopping centers.
Is it-
Apologies, yes?
Sorry, is it 14 or 40%? Sorry.
14. 14. Still the stores are quite relevant. It's 14. Okay?
Thank you.
On the Colombian markets, our first priority, of course, and we never hide that, is to grow organically, to have the right spots and the right store formats that we can operate under our business model. As I already said, we think and we are betting in really becoming more relevant. I think that it is up to the company to continue to be as competitive as possible to attract the consumers and to be relevant to the consumers. That, of course, if that will affect some of the players, I think the main issue was really the pandemic at a certain point. For us, what is really paramount at this stage is to maintain that relevance to the consumer, to be by the side of our clients that really saw their income decrease over the pandemic.
The main priority is to continue to grow organically on that market. In Eastern Europe, we continue to monitor the markets. We don't hide that we are doing that. If we see a growth opportunity, of course, we will look at it. We don't hide, but we don't comment or give any details at this stage.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, Maria-Laura.
Thank you. There are no other questions on the line. Please continue.
Thank you all for your questions and for attending this conference call. In H1, and particularly in Q2, we maintained a strong cash generation leverage by Biedronka's performance and by the progression of the remaining businesses that were able to overcome the challenges in their respective markets. Conscious that environment-wise, the way ahead can still be bumpy and that comps will start to be more demanding, we are confident that the flexibility of our business models will allow us to live up to our strategic priorities. To grow sales, to protect profitability through efficiency, and to responsibly engage with our people, our consumers, our suppliers and remaining business partners, and the communities that we serve. Thank you again, and I wish you all a nice day.
That concludes our call for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.