Good day and welcome to the Jerónimo Martins first quarter 2025 results 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.
Thank you, Nadia. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining this call dedicated to our first quarter results. On our corporate website, you can find the results release, a slide presentation, and a fact sheet for the period. Our recently approved 2024 Annual Report is also available there, including our sustainability commitments for the 2024-2026 period. Unsurprisingly, 2025 started with a volatile and extremely uncertain landscape, further limiting visibility on consumers' behavior trends. Overall, the rise in minimum wages increased household disposable income in the countries where we operate. Notwithstanding, families remained cautious in their food spending and highly promotions-driven. In light of this refrained context, we maintained our key strategic priority to ensure price competitiveness, to earn the preference of consumers, and continue to strengthen our market positions.
Although basket inflation turned positive at our main food banners, the challenge, well known to us at this point, of operating with low top-line inflation and high cost inflation persisted. Therefore, together with unwavering focus on sales, our teams maintained a tight control over all profitability drivers to mitigate the impact of margin pressure. With price competitiveness ensured, sales grew 3.8% or 1.9% at constant exchange rates. Following sales and even stricter cost management, EBITDA increased 3.8% or 1.2% at constant exchange rates, with the respective margins standing in line with prior year at 6.3%. This performance was achieved in a quarter marked by a negative calendar effect that, for our main businesses, ranged from 3-4 percentage points of sales growth. At the end of March, the Group registered a positive cash position of EUR 332 million.
Looking now at the quarter P&L, I would like to draw your attention to a couple of highlights of the performance. First, sales grew despite the already mentioned strong calendar effect, with a solid contribution from expansion. Second, gross margin increased, reflecting both the work undertaken by Ara throughout 2024 to improve margin, which will benefit 2025 figures, particularly in the first months of the year, and the easier comparable at Biedronka, as a result of the banner's sharp response to a demanding and fast-changing context in Q1 2024, with drastic weakening in consumer demand and more intense competition. Against last year's backdrop, our main banner stepped up investment in successful campaigns that drove outstanding volume growth but visibly impacted the margin mix when now compared with Q1 2025. All in all, at the Group level, sales resilience and gross margin performance offset cost pressure driven by wage increases.
As a result, consolidated EBITDA grew in line with sales, and margin remained stable at 6.3%. Cash flow for the period was an outflow of EUR 398 million. This reflects the normal business seasonality after Christmas and also the fact that Easter this year was in April and, as such, did not benefit working capital as of 31st March. The Group ended the quarter with a strong balance sheet and a positive cash position of EUR 332 million when excluding IFRS 16. The General Shareholders Meeting, held on 24 April, approved the proposal to distribute a dividend of EUR 0.59 per share, a gross amount totaling EUR 370.8 million, which will be paid on 15 May. The shareholders also approved allocating EUR 40 million from the 2024 results to the Jerónimo Martins Foundation.
According to our statutory auditor and in agreement with IAS 1, this amount will appear in the income statement for Q2 2025, booked as a cost in an autonomous heading. I will now guide you through the detail of the performance, starting with sales, which grew by 3.8%, 1.9% at constant exchange rates, to reach EUR 8.4 billion. Our main banners are operating with very low basket inflation, albeit not negative. Group like-f or-l ike was at - 2.2%, impacted by calendar effects and tough comparables at all banners, particularly at Biedronka. In this year, when we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of Biedronka in Poland, we are proud to acknowledge that it has been an amazing journey with regard to the evolution of its value proposition while, throughout the years, price leadership has been a constant delivery of our main banner's promise to Polish families.
In the first quarter, Biedronka maintained a nonstop commercial dynamic to fuel its intense promotional activity and kept its well-recognized price competitiveness. As a result, sales grew by 3.4% to EUR 5.9 billion, or 0.3% in local currency, with a 0.3 percentage points of market share gain in the period. Like- for- like was at - 3.5%, impacted by the previously mentioned calendar effect and the very difficult comparable of Q1 2024. Expansion continued to contribute solidly to top-line growth. The banner opened 56 stores over the three months and remodeled 27 locations. In March 2025, Biedronka also opened its first four stores in Slovakia and a distribution center, being now focused on evaluating the consumers' reaction to its value proposition in that country. Facing fiercer competition in the Polish health and beauty markets, Hebe operated with significant deflation to protect its top line.
Sales grew 11.9%, or 8.5% in local currency, to reach EUR 145 million, with the online channel representing 21% of total turnover. Over the period, four Hebe stores were opened in Poland and one in Czech Republic. Pingo Doce's intense promotional activity, together with the contribution of the All About Food stores, delivered 2.8% sales growth to reach EUR 1.2 billion in the period. Like-f or-l ike, excluding fuel, was at 1.1% despite the negative calendar effect. The banner opened one store and continued remodeling the network with 13 locations more, now converted to the All About Food concept. In a tougher context, particularly felt by the HoReCa channel, Recheio kept investing to protect sales. With Easter occurring outside the quarter and a heavy rainy season impacting one of its main categories, in this case beverages, sales declined slightly by 0.4% to EUR 302 million, with like- for- like standing at minus 0.5%.
Ara executed its commercial strategy, marked by strong promotions, to offer the best saving opportunities to the Colombian families. Sales grew 9.1%, or 13% in local currency, to reach EUR 775 million, and like- for- like was at 3%. Expansion remained as a solid contributor to top-line growth. In the first quarter, Ara opened nine stores and one distribution center. Our Colombian banner remains on track to deliver its expansion target for the year that also includes the integration throughout Q2 of around 70 locations previously operated by Colsubsidio. Consolidated EBITDA grew 3.8%, or 1.2% at constant exchange rates, to reach EUR 528 million. Overall, all businesses posted a very solid underlying performance, being able to offset the pressure on the respective EBITDA margin, deriving mainly from higher labor costs. Group EBITDA margin was flat at 6.3%.
At Biedronka, EBITDA margin was kept stable despite the rise in labor costs and the negative like- for- like. In addition to the even tighter cost control, I flag here the already mentioned effect of easier comps on the gross margin that, in the quarter, favored this stability. At Hebe, price investment and a low like for like impacted by strong deflation significantly pressured EBITDA margin. In Portugal, a reference to the slight margin pressure, mainly due to higher labor costs. Finally, Ara continued to protect the improved mix dynamic created in 2024 and to strengthen cost control measures. I flag here that, from an EBITDA margin perspective, Ara faces an easier comp in the first half of the year.
We know that the first quarter only allows for a very limited understanding of the market trends, and this is particularly true having in mind the high level of uncertainty around geopolitics and socioeconomic dynamics. This said, and looking at the performance beyond the calendar impact, sales delivery was solid against a comparable that was extremely challenging to overcome. The work done by the companies to protect profitability paid off and was also supported by the easier comparable for gross margin. Looking ahead, we continue to see an extremely volatile landscape, a somehow sluggish and unpredictable consumer context, as well as sustained and high cost pressure.
As we said on March 19, when presenting the outlook for 2025, which we fully reiterate today, we will remain focused on protecting price competitiveness to grow sales, and we also need to protect profitability by managing margin pressure deriving from higher personnel costs and more intense competition. While we know how difficult it is to reach that balance, we are totally committed to delivering on this target. Thank you for your attention, Operator. I am now ready to take questions.
Thank you so much. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for a name to be announced. To withdraw a question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments.
Now we're going to take our first question, and it comes from the line of João Pinto from JB Capital. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Hi, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have three, if I may. Regarding Biedronka's margin, first, can we assume that Biedronka's gross margin increased in line with the 30 basis points increase at the consolidated level? My second question also on Biedronka. Regarding OPEX inflation, if we adjust for expansion, it seems that OPEX was slightly down year- on- year. Can you give us some color on OPEX drivers? Is there any strong tailwind or any one-off effect this quarter that is offsetting the pressures from staff costs? And my third and final question is on Slovakia. Can you quantify the costs that were booked at EBITDA in the first quarter? Many thanks.
Good morning, João.
In what concerns Biedronka's gross margin, of course, we do not disclose it, but I can tell you that it really increased versus last year. As we said, there is an easier comparable because last year, I think that we were not surprised, but in fact, having to operate with a quite significant deflation in Q1 2024 was really challenging for the company. Now that we turned back, of course, with a very low basket inflation, but nevertheless, it is completely different to operate with a slight inflation and not in deflation. The mix really helped on that. I will not disclose the increase that we had in the gross margin, but in fact, we improved the gross margin at EBITDA at Biedronka, but without, and I really reinforce this, without compromising the competitiveness in the market.
This really had to do with the dynamics and the mix and comparable with last year. On OPEX drivers, I would say that the first one was, of course, what the company really did to contain costs. We knew that the first quarter would be very challenging considering all the calendar effects. I remind here that it was not just the absence of Easter. We had one more day of sales, and one more day of sales in 90 is more than 1% impact due to the leap year. We also had one more Sunday ban in this quarter versus the first quarter in 2024. This, of course, is quite important and justifies the performance. Of course, the company did all its best. It is true that not having a peak in sales also helped with some temporary costs at labor.
We do not need to hire so many temporary employees to manage the peaks, as we will do for Easter, of course. It's true that we also benefited from more savings in terms of fuel costs in Poland. Overall, I think that, as I said, in all headings, the company tried to save as much as possible to compensate, so in terms of consumption, to compensate for the increasing price. This goes from packaging to everything that has to do with the rest of the costs at the operational, but not just at store and logistics, but also at the head office costs. If this will be sustainable or not, I think that part probably not. It will not depend just on us, as the fuel, for instance.
What I can say is that, of course, the company will continue to do its best to manage also and have a tight cost control to compensate some of the pressure and compensate what has been already a rise in salaries and in labor costs that was quite significant in line with, at least for our store and logistic centers, in line with the national minimum wage increase, not to lose also competitiveness on the labor market, considering the tightness of labor in Poland, as you know. For Slovakia, I really apologize, but we will be very, very limited in what we will disclose on Slovakia because I think really that is not in the best interest of our investors to provide a lot of information to our competition, in fact, to be very blunt. I think that we will, of course, be open for stores.
It's true that it will be dilutive. I think I flagged that in our last conference call. We have a DC currently for four stores and, of course, a head office, all very controlled and very tight, but of course, with no top line to compensate for all those costs. I will not disclose that. I can tell you, João, that is not if you look at the other costs that we have at the EBITDA level, in fact, they did not progress massively, although they have the corporate costs, Slovakia, and also the agribusiness, but the progression was not that massive. I think that we are managing also very tightly those costs.
Many thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. The question comes to the line of William Woods from Bernstein. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. The first one is, could you just elaborate a little bit more on the margin mix benefit that you got in Biedronka in this quarter? I suppose when you look at it, obviously, you held margins pretty flat year- over- year, but obviously, last year, Q2 and Q3 in Biedronka had a lot more pressure. Do you think we could see margin improvement in Q2 and Q3? If not, why not? The last question is just on the Polish competition and the Polish competitive environment. Do you think that the number of promotions has come down quite significantly over the last few weeks, but that passing on inflation is still quite difficult in the market? Or are you not seeing any change to the competitive environment there? Thanks.
Thank you, William.
On the margin mix, of course, I will not elaborate much, but I can tell you that if we compare with last year, as I said, we had to invest significantly. It was really a big correction and a big competition in the market because it was really everything happened quite fast at a certain point with the increase in costs. Came also much more competitiveness in the market and much more competition with everybody fighting for sales, particularly, of course, more on the discount side, but everybody, because there was no help from inflation, on the contrary. It was really, I would say, a very tough first half of the year last year. We have to take into consideration that last year, Easter was on Q1. When we are talking about Q2 and also high pressure, you also have the calendar effect.
It is very difficult, I would say, that we should wait probably for the end of the first half, at least to have a more comparable base to take any conclusions. This being said, the environment continues to be quite competitive, no doubt. Biedronka continues to invest in prices, particularly in some of the categories that are much more under pressure and where basically you do or you build your price perception also. This being said, Biedronka is not being just competitive on those categories. It is also on the other ones. In terms of level of promotions, I would say that this quarter was probably less. No, it was less, slightly less than the first quarter of 2024. This had to do a lot with the dynamic of the market and what I just said.
I think that most food retailers were really pressured with a double-digit increase in labor costs last year, and simultaneously with deflation at the top line. This was quite tough and really led to a more intense competition. I think that this dynamic is what explains. Of course, if we look ahead, we will have a Q2 with Easter. It's true that Easter also brings some extra promotional activity. Not just Easter. All the peaks in sales are usually the ones that are more promotional. We have in Colombia Muisca, which is quite important also as a peak of sales in Q2. This can have also an impact on the mix. What I can say is that Biedronka, and I think I mentioned that on the full-year conference call, Biedronka will do its best, of course, to protect profitability, but will not lose competitiveness.
This will really depend also on the reaction of the consumers and on the competition moves in the market.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, William.
Now we will proceed with our next question. It comes to the line of Frederick Wild from Jefferies. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Oh, good morning, Ana Luísa and team. Thank you for taking my questions. First, could you give us a little more detail on consumer behavior into the quarter and out of it, whether you are seeing any changes there and how it evolved through the quarter? Obviously, there are quite a few moving parts with Easter within that. Second, could you give us a more precise basket inflation figure at Biedronka, please? I think it should be about +1%. If you can confirm that, that would be super helpful.
Finally, just on from William's question on margin, you said at the full-year call that Biedronka margins should be down. Is that still what you believe, or is there now a bit more flexibility? Could we see full-year Biedronka margins flat or even slightly better? Thank you.
Hi, Fred. Good morning. On consumer behavior, two things, of course, that we monitor quite carefully. One, of course, is the progression and the official numbers that the statistics office provides to the market. On these numbers, we continue to see, let's say, a cautious or refrained consumer, particularly in what food is concerned. There was a pickup in durable goods from what we saw, but not really on food throughout the quarter. This even taking into consideration the calendar effect, of course, that we have to take out.
The underlying, let's say, progression in terms of consumer demand continues to be quite challenged. On our sales, what we see also is the consumer quite price-sensitive. Not really, as I usually say, not really trading down. In fact, they have more disposable income, but we do not see really a pickup, at least on this first quarter. This being said, this is a very difficult quarter for us to extrapolate much. Of course, we have quite detailed information, but some of the movements are really very difficult to see because they really have to do with the calendar and even with the Easter effect. On basket inflation, it was really very low in this quarter. It was a very low single digit. I would say more or less in line with what you mentioned.
As for the EBITDA margin, what I mentioned is that we could not exclude being more pressured, although not with the same pressure as last year, because we were seeing and we would have to raise salaries in line with a quite high single-digit minimum wage increase. This, of course, would make us more dependent on top line progression to really be able to dilute that, although we would do our best again. I think that the company, after quite a while and a number of quarters when this pressure was really very hard, is somehow managing, and it is no longer a surprise or a sharp change in terms of cost. We were already expecting this. I also did not exclude having a stable EBITDA margin, of course.
This will really depend, again, on the competitiveness in the market and on the consumer behavior, once again. From our part, the company is doing all its best to really manage very tightly to, if it has to invest more, at least not to dilute so much or not to pressure so much the EBITDA margin. We do not exclude it, but we do not exclude it also to have a stable margin for the year.
Perfect. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question, and it comes from the line of Michal Potira from UBS. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Hi, it's Michal Potyra from UBS. Thank you for taking my questions. Some were already asked, so maybe just a little bit of follow-ups.
Just on especially the gross margin performance, the second quarter last year, I understand, was materially impacted by the increasing of VAT in Poland. I remember back then you said you were not passing on the tax increase, or at least not in full. Perhaps you can give a little bit more color how that should be visible in your P&L next quarter, please. That is the first question. The second question, again, a follow-up on the competitive environment. There was an article in the press today from one of your peers, Netto, basically saying that the price war in Poland is over. Perhaps you can comment on that.
The third one on Hebe, if you could also provide a little bit more color, is that lower margin profile just like a Q1 phenomenon or something we should expect in the remainder of the year as well? Thank you.
Thank you, Michal. On gross margin, true, April last year was quite pressured by the fact that we had the government putting back the VAT on the staples, also on the basic products, and we did not pass it to the consumer in general. We have, let's say, it could be an easier comp for April. Of course, we also have to take into consideration all the other moving parts that have to do even usually, as I said, all the peaks of sales in Poland, considering the competition or the level of competition.
You have to take into consideration that Easter and Muisca tend to be quite important times where we do more promotions to drive sales and take advantage of that period. At this point, I would not say, but it is true that we pressured last year in Q2 in April, more specifically, and we had that question of not passing the VAT when this was put back by the government. On the competitive environment, we do not like to call it a price war because, in fact, it is true that it was much more intense, as I said, when you had all the, let's say, all the drivers of the business being pressured for all the players, considering the correction of the inflationary period. With no help from inflation, as I said, you have much more pressure to fight for volumes.
This was really the big hit, I would say, from last year. Meanwhile, when I look at the Polish market, I would say that it continues to be a very competitive market. I would mention that even Netto is probably feeling that. Of course, if they feel that it's a little bit more easy, probably it's because that I can say for sure, it's much easier to manage with a slight inflation, as I usually say, than managing with a strong single-digit deflation, which is terrible in all senses because you have to push for volumes, but volumes also bring higher costs. Sometimes if you have deflation in your prices, it really does not bring you the value for the sales. That is really a very hard and quite a schizophrenic point of the market to be in for the mass market food retail.
On Hebe, it is true that the first quarter is also not the most important in terms of seasonality for the health and beauty markets. What we see is also some escalation, a little bit similar to what we saw in food last year. This quarter, Hebe operated with quite significant deflation, and this had to do really with the dynamics of the market. A much more competitive market is also being pressured on labor costs. This being said, we count, of course, on the company also reacting and being able to accommodate somehow. We do not expect, of course, the same level of pressure, but it is going to be a tough market nevertheless in health and beauty, do not hide.
Thank you.
Thank you, Michal.
Thank you. Now we are going to take our next question.
The question comes to the line of Izabel Dobreva from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Hello, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I had a couple on Poland. Firstly, just to go back on the Biedronka margin as a follow-up, could you clarify whether it is reasonable to assume that Q1 was the toughest point for margins in the year given the strong calendar effects that we were aware of and the deeply negative like at the headline level? Is it reasonable to assume that Q1 margin was sort of as bad as it gets in terms of the trend? My second question is thinking a little bit more about the Biedronka gross margin into Q2.
Putting it all together, should we assume that the gross margin in Q2 may be down a little bit for Biedronka, given that there will be again the reversal of the calendar effect in that quarter and more Easter promotions? Is that the right way to think about it, given gross margin was up last year during Q2 on calendar impacts partly? My final question is just the Sunday trading ban. Could you give us an update on what is the latest you are hearing on that? If it does get lifted, what impact do you expect on your business?
Hi, good morning, Isabel. Usually, it is true that when we say that Q1 is the toughest, I would not say that way. I think Q1 is 90 days usually.
It is true that it really amplifies and means that if it is usually the lowest in terms of sales, as we are mainly a company with fixed costs, it tends to be, in principle, a little bit more difficult when it comes to margins. This being said, I think that I flagged already last year when we compare, and if we do just a comparison with last year, of course, we had all or it was the first quarter that when we felt not the first. In fact, it was Q4 2023 when we started having the first signs of a correction, a strong correction, and a sharp decrease in inflation, in basket inflation. Last year, we had deflation. Of course, this really puts a lot of pressure on the business.
This year, I cannot say that probably the Q1 will be the toughest when it comes to comparables. This being said, in Q2, I do not remember really that Biedronka has increased their gross margin. We do not guide for gross margin, even not for EBITDA margin, in fact. I would say that from what I remember, it is true that we were or we managed to be quite resilient by then, but we continue to have a decrease in our gross margin in Biedronka because of all the pressure and because of even the VAT that Michal mentioned earlier was also another source of pressure. I would say that, as we mentioned, first half would be, I would say, quite challenging. We will have other kinds of challenges in the second half, and we flagged that it will depend on consumer behavior.
This being said, I think that we have a lot of moving parts in the margin to manage, and we'll try to do our best, of course, as I said, to protect profitability without giving any space to lose competitiveness with sales and without losing the preference of the consumers. That is the most important for us. The way that the margins will progress will depend really on these variables. If we manage to protect, yes, of course, we'll deliver the best possible margin, but this will mean that we will keep competitiveness to get the market and to get the sales that are quite important for us. On Sunday ban, I don't have any news at this point. Sometimes there are some news that maybe the government will get back or not. I think it has some positives.
Of course, it will also mean getting back to a different dynamic for our operations. We are now used to operate with a ban, but I think that if all operators will be able to be open on Sunday, that will also have a positive impact on overalls.
Thank you.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. We are going to take our next question. It comes to the line to a phone. It is from BNP Paribas. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Hi, thanks very much for taking my questions. Appreciate it. First one, just you mentioned you gained in Poland 30 basis points of market share in the period.
Can you just give us a view of what you think the market growth was in that in the period and what the volume inflation mix is in that? Yeah, helpful to do one by one, actually. If we could start with that, please.
Okay, good morning, Rob. No worries. On the 30 basis points that market share increased, I think really this is a very remarkable performance by our banner in Poland. I think that after so many years adding market share, and in this kind of context, I think it is a very good market share progression. I would say that is probably due to calendar effect because we are talking about three months' market share. It is the year-to-date March that we are providing.
I would say that I would not be expecting the market to have grown in volume, on the contrary, due to the lack of Easter and the leap year, Rob. I would say that we will be talking about gaining share in a market that in this particular quarter did not grow.
Okay, okay. The market, you think it is a volume share gain. The market arguably did a lower than 4% negative volume in the period.
What I say is that the market has probably, so we did not gain volume either, but this has to do a lot with calendar.
Okay, understood. If we look at the rest of the year, consensus has sort of like for likes getting to, I think, above 5% for most of the rest of the year.
Is that sort of consistent with the performance you've seen in the first quarter or at least the exit rates?
On that, Rob, of course, we will not guide. I think it's going to be very challenging to have 5% like- for- like, considering all that we are seeing in the market currently. This will not, as I said, we will fight to have the best performance possible at the sales levels while also protecting our profitability. This being said, I think it's quite challenging the number that is being considered when we take into consideration the base from where Biedronka will have to grow.
This, again, will depend a lot on consumer behavior and even on consumer trading up at a certain point because the volume base is completely and very challenging, not only in the market, but particularly in Biedronka that gained a lot of volume last year.
Okay, thank you. Last one, just I think this is going to be explained by the VAT, but it looks like the inflation in terms of food and beverage CPI in Poland sort of fell from high 6s to sort of low 5s in April. Is that purely the VAT thing, or is there anything in terms of inflation outlook we should be aware of?
Of course, it's difficult to comment on the official statistics because, as I have been mentioning, I think that there are some loopholes there.
I would say that what happened in April was mainly the VAT because for the consumers, of course, you have the numbers with VAT and the fact that we are now comparing with a period where you have put back the VAT in April last year. It is fully comparable in a certain sense. I think that most of the change in the inflation was really driven by the VAT effect.
Okay, very helpful. Just to wrap up on that, where is your food inflation in your own basket running at at the moment?
We are not commenting on that, but we said for the quarter, it is in this very low single digit.
Okay, okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Rob.
Thank you. Now we are going to take our next question. The question comes to the line of Antonio Seladas from AS Independent Research.
Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Hi, good morning. Just have a small question in terms of working capital. You mentioned or explained that it's mainly seasonal impact. Nevertheless, when you look for your investment on working capital for the last two years, we notice clearly a deterioration. So my question, should we expect this kind of performance to continue, or do you think that working capital will improve from now on? Thank you very much.
Hi, Antonio. As we've been mentioning, it's true that there has been a correction in the working capital. In this particular quarter, what you have to take into consideration is really, I would say, compared with the other years, is the impact of not having Easter. You have already all the investment in the stocks for the Easter season, and we estimate that to be EUR 200 million.
It's quite significant when we are looking just at the cutoff on the 31st March. This being said, I wouldn't be expecting, on average, with the exception of some, let's say, of the calendar point and depending on the day that we will be reporting the numbers and finishing the different quarters, overall and on average, I do not expect a deterioration of the working capital. This being said, the working capital and the term conditions and even the level of stocks is part of the drivers that we have to manage when we negotiate also with suppliers. We will use the working capital from a tactical and strategical point of view together with all the other profitability drivers.
Yeah. Okay, so that's also related with gross margins. Yes.
It may, of course, I would say that currently it's quite indirect, but of course, it also relates because, as I usually say, we have to give, for instance, better conditions to some of our smaller suppliers if we want to have alternatives in terms of supply for certain products. Alternatives, of course, bring us the possibility of not or of having better cost of goods sold, of course.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad. Now we're going to take our next question. It comes to the line of Izabel Dobreva from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Hello again. I had a small follow-up just on the like for like.
I wanted to clarify when you say that 5% will be hard to reach, are you referring to the full year or the second half of the year? The reason I ask is because the consensus for the full year is actually 3%, not 5%, and it is 5% for the latter part of the year. I wanted to understand, does your comment relate specifically to the full year given the difficult Q1, or are you also saying that the second half of the year it will be difficult to have 5% like- for- like? Just a small one, could you give us some clarity on the calendar impact for Q2?
Hi, Isabel. Thank you, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to clarify. What I was saying was having a 5% for the full year.
It was what I understood really from the question of Rob, probably not to, so what I said is really that I think that 5% is very ambitious to have for the full year. For the remaining, I think it's tough again. Again, it will depend on consumers, but this is something completely different if we just talk about the remaining of the year. On the calendar effect, I would say that at least if we are talking about the effect of Easter, I would say for the full quarter, it's probably between 2% and 2.5%.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Dear speakers, there are no further questions for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Ana Luísa Virgínia, for any closing remarks.
I would like to conclude just by saying that, as anticipated, Q1 was indeed challenging, but the teams did a great job in managing all the uncertainty and volatility the quarter offered. Our banners will continue to invest to safeguard competitiveness and improve the quality of operations on the ground. The figures presented today confirm the strength of our market positions and the focus of our teams in each market where we operate. Thank you for your questions and for attending this conference call. I wish you all a nice day.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a nice day.