Thank you. Good morning, everyone, welcome to Sonae's Q1 results conference call. As usual, besides myself and the investor relations team, we have on the call Rui Almeida from Sonae MC, Paulo Simões from Worten, Hugo Martins from Sonae Fashion, Luís Mota Duarte from Sonae Sierra, and Cristina Novais from Sonae Investment Management. In this presentation, I will basically cover a brief overview of these first three months of the year, and at the end, we will naturally have time for Q&A as usual. Starting with a brief introductory note, just to mention that, as you all know, we continued to face a quite challenging backdrop in the beginning of 2021. The first quarter was marked by an acceleration of the COVID-19 pandemic across several countries, with Portugal, in particular, facing a new lockdown since the middle of January, which naturally affected the activities of our businesses.
This implied that we were practically forced to shut down a great deal of our operations. Only food and electronics retail stores were allowed to be open, although with important restrictions such as reduced schedules and limited circulation of people on weekends, as well as the prohibition of sale of certain product categories. Our shopping centers were only allowed to have a very small number of stores open. NOS had its cinema theaters closed throughout the quarter. We faced the situation until April 19th, when non-food stores and shopping centers started to reopen. That being said, and given this context, we believe that the performance of the portfolio was quite positive, as we will see later on. Just before diving into the results, I would also like to give you a few notes on our portfolio management activity, which saw important developments in the quarter.
We completed the restructuring of our operation in Worten Spain, as you know, which was an important milestone for the company and enabled a more focused management of a stronger business with the results that we are seeing in the last few months. We also increased our stake in Sonae Sierra at a significant discount to NAV in 2020 and are now an 80% shareholder of that business. We also launched the partnership between Sonae Financial Services and Banco CTT, which I will also talk about later on. Sonae IM continued to see important revaluations in the portfolio, namely regarding Feedzai, which is now the company's third unicorn company. Moving on to the business- by- business results and starting with Sonae MC. Sonae MC had a very strong start to the year.
It continued to follow the growth dynamics of the last few quarters in the context of full lockdown in Portugal from mid-January onwards. Once again, the company was able to reinforce its leadership position, both in terms of sales, but also in terms of customer perception in Sonae Fashion. Total turnover reached EUR 1.27 billion, driven by a 6.6% year-on-year growth and a strong like-for-like sales evolution of 3.6%, especially if you take into account the negative calendar effect and the difficult comparison with last year, which registered a sales peak at the end of March as a result of the stockpiling in the first signs of the pandemic. This strong top-line performance was mostly underpinned by the food retail format, both online and offline, that more than compensated the impact of the forced closure of some of the non-food banners.
Online sales more than doubled in the quarter, showing that Sonae MC's omnichannel customer base continued to grow, benefiting from an expanded e-commerce capacity and an enhanced supply chain. I think it's fair to say that our long-standing investment and leadership in e-commerce is clearly proving its merit, as the company is in a privileged position to respond to the online shopping demand. Sonae MC continued to be focused on growing its digital footprint with several initiatives underway, such as developing different fulfillment models and also partnering with instant delivery services.
In terms of profitability, Sonae MC was able to deliver an improved margin, underlying EBITDA increased 55 basis points to 8.6%, mainly due to its food retail formats, which more than offset the closure and limitations imposed on the other brands, as well as the extra costs directly related with the pandemic, which are still significant, or were still significant in Q1. Finally, Sonae MC's net debt at the end of March stood at EUR 530 million, EUR 164 million below last year, this was obviously backed by the company's solid cash flow generation of EUR 239 million in the last 12 months. Moving on to Worten.
In Q1, Worten also continued to show a very strong performance, taking advantage of the favorable market momentum caused by the pandemic, where we saw the electronics market growing both in Portugal and in Spain, mainly driven by the online channel, but also in this case, growing well above the market and increasing its market share. Worten's total turnover jumped to EUR 272 million at the end of Q1, growing by 17.4% year-on-year on the back of a strong like-for-like sales growth of 29.3% in the period. The online operation continued to represent a double-digit weight in total turnover, growing 2.5 times year-on-year, with the marketplace being a key contributor to this growth.
This consolidated performance remains highly anchored, obviously, on the Portuguese operation, where Worten has managed to consolidate an outstanding top-line evolution with a robust like-for-like sales performance of 28% versus last year and another quarter of market share growth. In Spain, as you know, we performed a strategic reposition with the aim of focusing on e-commerce in mainland, while maintaining a leading omnichannel presence in the Canary Islands. As such, during Q1, Worten closed 14 stores in the territory and sold 17 stores to MediaMarkt. These stores were open until the end of February. The repositioning was implemented as planned. Regarding profitability, the underlying EBITDA grew from EUR 8.2 million -EUR 17.3 million at the end of Q1, with a margin improvement from 3.5% - 6.4%. This was mainly driven by the strong sales growth in Portugal. As for Sonae Fashion.
At Fashion, the performance in Q1 continued to be strongly hit by the pandemic, which resulted in a total turnover decrease of 22% year-on-year to EUR 61 million. This impact was particularly heavy in the Portuguese operation after the declaration of the new lockdown since mid-January, which implied the shutdown of all physical stores. From March 15 onwards, restrictions started to be lifted, first with sales allowed at the wicket, and later with smaller high street stores allowed to open. We know now that most stores were only allowed to operate after mid-April with very positive post-reopening sales. Online sales were critical during this period to sustain this level of revenues as they continued to register strong growth and doubled year-on-year in the quarter, with important contributions from all brands leveraging a larger customer base, enhanced digital tools and properties, and a growing willingness to shop online.
Regarding profitability, the underlying EBITDA decreased year-on-year to negative ground and reached a -EUR 4 million, which, given the context, we believe was a remarkable achievement, only possible due to additional cost reduction measures that partially mitigated the sales evolution in the quarter. As for ISRG, as you know, we consolidated the company's fourth quarter, so that runs from November to January into our Q1 accounts. In this quarter, ISRG continued to be impacted by the restrictions to the normal functioning of physical stores, both in Portugal and in Spain, which culminated with the shutdown of all stores in Portugal mainland since mid-January. Nevertheless, the last quarter of 2020 was a quarter of recovery, with turnover only decreasing 6% year-on-year to EUR 221 million. With a strong contribution from the online channel, which increased by a factor of 3 versus last year.
Regarding profitability, this was also a quarter of recovery, with EBITDA reaching EUR 31 million, EUR 3 million above last year, and a margin of 14.2%, mainly due to the company's cost-saving measures during the period. ISRG's performance allows for an equity method contribution to Sonae's results of EUR 4.6 million, EUR 2 million above last year. At Sonae Sierra, the performance in Q1 continued to be highly hampered by the pandemic, as you know, mainly in Portugal, where the new lockdown forced all shopping centers to practically shut down since mid-January, implying further rent discounts. In the remaining European countries, some restrictions were temporarily in place, also with negative impacts on both traffic and sales. As a result, total discounts across the European portfolio totaled 38%, with Portugal being by far the country most severely hit as discounts were in the order of 47% of rent.
Considering the last 12 months, total discounts in Portugal amounted to 64% of rent, which compares to 28% in the remaining European countries. Nevertheless, occupancy rates continued to be high, with an average in our European portfolio of 96% and 98% in Portugal. Regarding valuations, Sonae Sierra does not conduct asset revaluations in Q1 and Q3. Net results stood at EUR 3 million in Q1. At the end of March, Sonae Sierra's NAV stood at EUR 897 million, basically flat when compared to December, with some adverse effects impacts offsetting the net results in the period.
As the restrictions on traffic and opening hours are being gradually lifted, Sonae Sierra is placing a strong focus in close collaboration with its tenants to ensure that the entire shopping center ecosystem is well-equipped and well-placed to rapidly return to normality whilst meeting the highest possible health and safety standards in an omnichannel environment. For Sonae FS, this was a very important quarter as it was marked by the implementation of the new business model for the Universo Card after the termination of the commissioning agreement with BNP already at the end of 2020. The new business model was successfully implemented during the quarter and the operation is perfectly stabilized. The partnership with Banco CTT was successfully concluded already in the beginning of April and was a crucial step in the development of a new integrated business model leveraged on the capabilities of both parties.
The business model change implies an interest remuneration on the outstanding credit stock instead of an upfront commission on every loan that is achieved. Due to this business model change and as the credit back book only started being generated in December 2020, the company's turnover naturally shows a discontinuity that will be mitigated in the coming months with the growth of the credit stock. In any case, it should be noted that the company's activity continued to be affected by a reduction in private consumption in a lockdown context, resulting in lower income, especially in business lines such as ATM withdrawals, personal loans, and store purchases. Overall, in Q1, turnover stood at EUR 4 million, and profitability evolved from EUR 2 million in Q1 2020 to - EUR 4 million in Q1 this year. It's also worth highlighting that Universo's market share in Q1 was 16.2%, 1.5 percentage points above Q4 of last year.
This digital strategy led the company have already 470,000 digital clients at the end of March. A 42,000 increase than at the end of 2020. Again, in financial services, the business was affected by the restrictions, but performing better than the competition. A quick note to MDS, our insurance brokerage company that registered double-digit growth and more than doubled its operational profitability year-over-year in Q1. As for Sonae IM, Sonae IM consolidated turnover reached EUR 24 million in Q1, a decrease of EUR 2 million when compared to last year. This is mainly explained by lower transactional activity of third-party products, which was partially offset by a stronger performance of the cybersecurity area, which continued to record double-digit growth. As for profitability, there were relative improvements in cybersecurity companies as well, with underlying EBITDA increasing EUR 1.6 million when compared to a negative figure last year.
In terms of portfolio activity, and with a cash invested of more than EUR 150 million as of March, the company's NAV reached EUR 323 million. Apart from some follow-on investments, Sonae IM added a new retail tech company to the portfolio, Sellforte, and reached important achievements in some of its minority investments, namely Feedzai, which I already spoke about. Feedzai announced a Series D round with an implied valuation that turned the company into a unicorn. Out Systems that reached the unicorn status back in 2018, announced a new capital raise at an underlying valuation of $9.5 billion, which is a strong sign of the company's recent track record and also its future profits. Already in April, following a secondary market transaction, Sonae IM sold part of its stake in Arctic Wolf, resulting in a gross capital gain of sorts at EUR 12 million and a gross cash-in of EUR 36 million.
Finally, NOS. As you know, NOS has already published its results last week. Turnover slightly declined 2% year-on-year to EUR 337 million, and this was mostly driven by the impact of the lockdown in the cinema exhibition business, which saw revenues decrease by 55% year-on-year. The core telco segment was very resilient and grew revenues by 1% year-on-year, very much supported by the B2B segment, with B2C still affected by reduced roaming revenues. At the EBITDA level, the performance was slightly better, with a year-on-year decrease of -0.4% to EUR 152 million, with important efficiency measures driving the margin improvement.
Net income recorded a significant improvement year-on-year in Q1 to EUR 31 million, implying a higher equity method contribution to Sonae's accounts, mostly due to the high level of negative non-recurring items registered last year, the majority of which related to the reinforcement of provisions related to the pandemic. NOS continues to have a very sound financial situation with a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 1.5 x, an average cost of debt of 1.6%, and a liquidity position of roughly EUR 500 million. Moving on to the consolidated results. In consolidated terms, turnover surpassed EUR 1.6 billion, representing a 6% year-on-year increase, underpinned by the strong contributions of Sonae MC and Hugo Martins. Underlying EBITDA reached EUR 114 million, EUR 14 million above last year.
If you recall, non-recurring items last year included the recognition at Sonae of a EUR 21 million capital gain from the transaction of Sierra Prime, which led consolidated EBITDA in Q1 to be in line with last year, despite the positive evolution of equity method results at both NOS and ISRG. In such a challenging environment, direct results stood at -EUR 1 million, significantly above last year, when a high level of COVID-19 provisions were registered. Indirect results mainly reflected the revaluation of Sonae IM's portfolio, leading Sonae's net results group share to positive grounds at EUR 1 million, practically a EUR 60 million improvement year on year. In terms of cash flow, operational cash generation in the last 12 months stood at EUR 205 million, EUR 31 million above last year, and this was driven by the improvement of operating profitability and optimized working capital management and also lower operational CapEx in the period.
As you know, the last 12 months saw significant and extraordinary increase in M&A investments, which reached EUR 317 million in total and enabled Sonae to increase shareholding positions in NOS, Salsa, and more recently, Sonae Sierra. This strong investment in our portfolio was partially offset by EUR 71 million of the cash-in from asset sales, mainly related to Sonae IM and Sonae MC sale in these back transactions, and also by dividends received of EUR 18 million in the period. All in all, Sonae's free cash flow before dividends paid in the last 12 months and on a comparable basis stood at a - EUR 64 million. I recall that these figures do not include dividends from NOS, which are temporarily held as dormant. Considering dividends paid in the period, Sonae's consolidated net debt reached almost EUR 1.4 billion, implying a EUR 164 million year-on-year increase.
This figure excludes the Sonae FS spinoff of EUR 122 million, which is no longer in our balance sheet, given the partnership with CVC, which was signed in April. All in all, Sonae continues to hold a solid and conservative capital structure with a comfortable financing position, which includes a low cost of debt of 1.1%, an average maturity profile of 3.7 years, and an LTV of 14%. Additionally, if we look at the leverage profile of our main businesses, it also remains quite solid and prudent across the portfolio. Sonae MC reached a 3x total net debt to underlying EBITDA ratio. NOS, as I already mentioned, maintain a ratio of net financial debt to EBITDA of 1.5x, and Sonae Sierra currently holds a loan-to-value of 25% and has a very strong liquidity position.
Just a final note to our people, I think it's very fair to say that without their tremendous dedication and hard work, we would not be able to present this set of very positive results. Also a word to all our other stakeholders that trust us, including our shareholders, to whom we paid in May 17th a 5% dividend increase to EUR 0.0486 per share, a total of EUR 97 million, corresponding to a quite strong dividend yield. Looking forward, we see now all of our businesses opening up again since mid-April, and the signs we are seeing in these first few weeks are very encouraging. At the same time, we see the COVID-19 vaccination program across the globe being implemented, obviously with very promising signs as well of a return to a more normal business activity.
We have been preparing the return to this new normality across the portfolio. Today, we truly believe that we have businesses which are leaner, more digital, and more prepared for the future. The future is now. We will remain focused on ensuring that our people and our businesses have the right conditions to outperform and reinforce their competitive positions. We will be focused also on unlocking value across the portfolio so as to improve our financial position even further, and obviously also on capturing opportunities that are already arising in the aftermath of the pandemic. That's it for me for now. Thank you all, and please, you can now open the session to Q&A.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session starts now. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. Our first question comes from José Rito from CaixaBank BPI. José, please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good morning. On Sonae MC, I have three quick questions. The first one on the like-for-like. I'm not sure if you detailed on the presentation, but what was the Easter effect on sales in Q1? Or if you could provide the accumulated like-for-like at the end of April to basically adjust for this potential Easter effect in Q1. The second question on the reopening of restaurants from mid-April, if the company witnessed any major change in the like-for-like dynamics or if the momentum remained as strong. Finally, on the margin side, if there were any change on the operating leases that justifies the 55 basis points margin improvement. Also bear in mind that EBIT margin was up by 10 basis points in the quarter.
Let's focus on these three, please, first, and then I have two further questions on Worten, but I would prefer to go by division if it is possible.
Very good. Thank you, José. Rui, do you want to take these questions on Sonae MC first?
Sure. Hi, José. How are you? I suppose you're fine. I hope you are fine. Regarding the first question, due to the Easter effect on our P&L and our trading activity in the first quarter, we need, as João said in the very beginning, last year was a leap year, and we have a disadvantage comparing to last year's of roughly 1% in terms of like-for-like. This year, the Easter effect was, yes, was in the beginning of April. We slightly benefit, but it was not major impact in our trade activity. I would tend to say that the fact that we were having a less one day in comparison was penalizing much more our activity than the fact that we have the Easter effect helping us during the first quarter. The second question you raised was regarding the April activity.
April activity market is not growing at the same pace it was growing in the months before. The fact is, as you may understand, we are comparing, as João said in his presentation, we were comparing to the fact that the market last year was in a total lockdown situation. The government is implementing some relaxing measures in order to start having the market working regularly. People are starting moving from sitting at home, as they were having in the last year situations to start going to restaurants and then the whole retail channels are benefiting from that situation. The market is not growing at the same pace. It's not growing. According to our last figures that we are having, is growing between 3%-4%, but we continue to gain market share.
Our like-for-like in April were positive, we continue to not having with the same levels that we were having in the first quarter, but gaining market share, which is the most important issues. Margins. During the first quarter, margins, as we mentioned, and João mentioned as well in the very beginning, we had very significant positive like-for-like in volume. The inflation rate was about 0.9% in our company, pretty much aligned with the inflation rate in the Portuguese market. We have almost, in the food channels, in the food segments, upper market and supermarket, we have like-for-like above 4%, meaning volumes grew more than 3%. That means we benefit from that situation. Meaning as well that team, as a retailer, when we are having a growth in terms of volumes, benefits from that situation.
Meaning as well that when we compare to last year's situation, we have this huge situation where people were ordering and we were surprised by the increase of volumes. Today, we are totally prepared. We can manage quite well the shrinkage, and we saw a huge decrease in terms of shrinkage in our operation as well as we saw some restrictions in order to have the total marketing campaigns that we were having according to the law. That means that we save some costs in terms of marketing campaigns. In terms of shrinkage, we optimize our operation as well, and we benefit in terms of EBITDA margins during the first quarter. Going forward. Yes, there are some issues that we need to take into account. In the second quarter last year, we had also some formats that they were totally closed. For instance, Arenal, the beauty in Spain segment.
Even the food service formats like Bagga, Go Natural, et cetera, they were penalizing our activities. Today we are benefiting from that situation. Our margins, it's fair to say that we are expecting to maintain the levels that we were having last year in the second quarter. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Rui. Just a follow-up on this margin evolution. You mentioned that the marketing spending, can you say how much was the reduction on the marketing spending in Q1? Was it 50% reduction year-on-year? As you mentioned, I understand that the good like-for-like evolution in volume has a positive contribution to the margin. Last year you actually had even higher like-for-like than the margin was in some quarters, flattish. That's why I would like to understand what the main driver for the margin. I understand that like-for-like, it's positive, but on the marketing spending, you mentioned that you witnessed a reduction. Can you give a little bit more detail? How much was the reduction on this marketing spending in the quarter?
Well, I told you that the evolution of shrinkage and the evolution of marketing campaigns were the most important drivers to increase our margin in the first quarter. I apologize.
Okay
Very comfortable to release more than that. I think according to the figures and according to the volumes that I mentioned to you, it's fair to anticipate which were the evolution of these two items. Okay?
Okay. Thank you.
Okay.
On Worten, two questions. The first one is which categories has performed better in the period, in this Q1 results? Secondly, just to confirm if there are any positive contribution to EBITDA in this quarter from the restructuring in Spain, or that should only be expected over the coming quarters?
Very good. Thank you, José. Paulo, can I take you, too?
Yeah, sure. Good morning. Good morning, all. Good morning, José. Thank you for your questions.
Good morning.
Regarding the category that performed better during the quarter, in fact, we saw quite positive sales performance from most of business areas. My understanding, the growth rates were higher in IT, including IT accessories, and small domestic appliances and also entertainment. Those were the areas with higher growth.
Growth was quite transversal to most categories. Regarding the impact of the restructuring in Spain, we had some positive impacts, but most of the profitability gain comes from increased sales performance. During the quarter, we had the store in Spain selling off the remaining stock. We had some costs regarding that liquidation of stock. That is why we still do not have a significant impact from Spain, from that restructuring, I mean.
Yeah. Okay. Understood. Thank you.
Thank you, José.
The next question comes from João Pinto from JB Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. On Sonae MC, two follow-up questions on José Rito's previous questions. On sales, Rui, you already told us that like-for-like was positive in April. The same applies for the beginning of May? I am just asking this because the comparable base for the second quarter looks even tougher on a two-year basis than the first quarter. A follow-up on margins. The reasonable assumption would be for stable margins next quarters, right? A third question on Sonae MC is regarding competition. Are competitors increasing promotional activity to recover share? Are there any material changes in the competitive landscape? Finally, on ZOPT, is there any news regarding the dissolution process and the issue with the dividends? Thank you.
Thank you, João. Maybe I can take the ZOPT question first, and then I will hand it over to Rui to take the Sonae MC related questions. The answer on the ZOPT question is quite straightforward. It is no, we do not have any new developments on this front. We are obviously not standing still, and we are evaluating all the different possibilities and maintaining a close dialogue with the involved parties, namely our partner and the court. There is nothing new to communicate at this moment in time. We remain confident that the judicial situation will be untied soon, but I think the good news is that the company is functioning perfectly normally and with no impact from this situation. That is our main focus, to ensure that the company continues its normal activity and generating value.
In the background, we are working on trying to solve the situation. No new facts to communicate at this point in time. Rui, do you want to take the Sonae MC question?
Sure. Hello, João. Hi. Regarding the like-for-like in May, it is too soon to start giving you some figures about our activity. Yes, as you may know, last year during the second quarter, we had a terrific performance. We continue to grow comparing to 2019 in the very high level. Last year, specifically in May, we grew a lot. This year is obviously, the situation, as I mentioned earlier today, is not comparable. They are not comparable because we were totally in a situation of a total lockdown last year, not this year. We feel that the market is not growing. In fact, it is not growing at all. Well, at least according to the internal figures that we are getting, it is not growing at the same pace as it was growing in the past.
I think it is too soon to start giving you the like-for-like figures regarding May. Naturally, according to the figures that we are getting, we continue to not be losing in terms of market share. Regarding the promotional activity. Well, the promotional activity, as I mentioned in, I don't know, probably last year when we were talking about the performance of this quarter, I said that all players in Portugal were totally devoted to supply and deliver products to customers during the period of hoarding that the customers were having when the lockdown started. Well, even considering in April and in May, that situation happened as well. The majority of the players were not so focused in trying to manage promotional activity, but they are totally focused in order to grant that all customers were having the products they need in order to have that situation supply.
Yes, the promotional activity increased slightly in the first quarter of 2021 comparing to the first quarter of 2020, I would tend to say that it is totally in a normal situation comparing, for instance, with the first quarter of 2019. Having said that, we reached the figure that we were having in the past. Nothing is different comparing to 2019. Everything is moving accordingly. We see that the majority of the players are in a totally rational way, doing promotionals in a rational way, not damaging the market and that's something that we are seeing going forward as well. Thank you.
Thanks, Rui.
The question about margins?
Well, João, if you don't mind, could you repeat the question about margins?
I think the first one-
Regarding the second quarter, right? Second quarter.
Yeah. Let me just remind everyone that we do not give guidance on financial results. I think that's important to bear in mind. The question was if we should expect stable margins in the next quarter, next few quarters.
That's what I talked to. Yes. The market is, as I mentioned to you a while ago, the market is pretty much aligned what we have in terms of margins in terms of what we had last year up to now. We need to consider that situation. The market is fierce and the market is aggressive in terms of promotional activity, more aggressive comparing to last year. Yes. We need also to consider that last year, during the first and second quarter, we had some formats that were totally closed with some difficulties that are leaving behind that time, and we were penalized by that situation as well. Adding those formats now start working and start delivering some cash flow. We will benefit from that situation as well. Up to now, I can give you any guidance regarding the second quarter in terms of margins.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you, João .
The next question comes from Artur Amaro, from Caixa Banco de Investimento. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. I think part of my question has been answered. It was related with the Sonae MC EBITDA margin. Just to have an idea, what led to the EBITDA margin gain in the first quarter, 8.6%, if I'm seeing correctly, versus 8.1%. The reason why I'm trying to understand what led to these efficiency gains is if to see if it's possible to extrapolate for the rest of the quarter. This was a very particular, complicated quarter due to the 2.5 months full lockdown. Just to understand if based on the performance achieved during this first quarter, if I could increase the estimates for the margin for the rest of the year. Thank you.
Thank you, Artur. I think Rui already touched upon that topic a bit, but Rui, do you want to add something else and address Artur's question?
Artur, hi. I think, or at least I tried to explain that situation. During the first quarter, we have significant volumes increase in a like-for-like basis, just to start. Back last year, in the very first quarter, we were surprised by the peak of sales due to the starting of the lockdown period here in Portugal. We didn't have our operation totally fine-tuned. This year, we had our operation totally fine-tuned, and we benefit from that situation because we have the processes and the procedures all totally fine-tuned in terms of operations. We benefit by the decrease in terms of shrinkage as a percentage of sales. Also, we were surprised by some restrictions in order to start having marketing campaigns in terms of promotional activity.
Also, what we started to have is we backed a lot and we were totally very well received, and we start to get very good results in terms of digital marketing. That digital marketing doesn't cost us so much as the other channels that we were using to start having last year in terms of marketing. We benefit from that situation as well. That's why we grew in terms of margin, comparing to last year during the first quarter. I need to confess that by the fact that we grew a lot in terms of volumes, was probably the main driver to continue to grow in terms of margins during the first quarter.
Okay, very clear. Just as a second question, if I may. Clearly, Worten has been benefiting from the strong, from the huge or almost exponential increase of demand on the online channel during the last year and the first quarter of this year. Do you think that this trend will be sustainable, assuming that the pandemic will slowly get over control and one day will end up by disappearing? Do you think that this increase on revenues will be sustainable for the coming quarters? Basically, this is the question.
Paulo, do you want to take this one?
Yep. Thank you, Artur, for your question. Regarding the sales growth that we have been observing, it's very clear that the pandemic benefited the sales in Worten. The categories that we sell clearly were appealing to consumers during this period. Sales grew significantly from the second quarter of last year, mainly. The comparison basis from the second quarter onwards will be more difficult.
Okay.
If you are asking if we believe that the current increase in sales will continue throughout the year, the increase that we saw in the first quarter, no, I don't think so. I think that the increase last year was very significantly supportive. The comparison basis is much more demanding.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you for your question, Artur.
The next question comes from António Seladas from AS Independent Research. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions, and congratulations on the figures. I have just one question related to Sonae Sierra. I know that you don't like to talk about the current quarter. Nevertheless, if you can provide some color on how the stores are opening, how the shopping centers are performing since they opened? Thank you.
Very good. Thank you, António. This one's for you, Luís.
Super. Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and good morning, António. Our shopping centers across Europe are witnessing a strong and encouraging performance or recovery, I would say, very much in line with what we had seen in late summer, early autumn last year, reflecting a clear return to normality. Having said that, there are still three factors that limit comparability and that limit footfall, particularly working from home, which is affecting mainly shopping centers located in city centers and where offices are nearby. The lack of tourism, which typically is an important factor driving footfall in our centers, and that is clearly limited at this point in time.
We are seeing still some tight restrictions, particularly in Portugal, in terms of the number of people that we can have per 100 sq m, which has led to frequent shopping center temporary closures in terms of the number of people that could enter the shopping center. The worst is that it actually affects the experience in the sense that a lot of people spend time viewing and far less time in the shops. We are also still seeing some limitations in terms of the opening hours or in terms of capacity also across other countries in Europe, and that is particularly affecting food and beverage. These three factors are clearly not normal, are very temporary, and are affecting comparability of numbers. We are seeing a generally very good recovery in line with what we have seen during the late summer, early autumn.
The other good thing to note is that we are seeing a very meaningful increase in average basket size, which can also be led by people going to the shopping center with a much more targeted approach to purchase something specific rather than doing a lot of window shopping. That means that sales tend to be less impacted than footfall. That's broadly where we are. We remain positive on the remainder of the year, and we are seeing a gradual recovery to normality.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Pleasure. Thank you, Luís. Thank you, António.
Okay. There are no further questions from the participant lines. I hand the floor to Mr. João Dolores.
Okay, if there are no further questions, I would like to thank you very much for your time. Thank you for listening, and I hope to be with you again soon in our Q2 results conference call later in the year. Thank you very much and goodbye.