Dear ladies and investors, we are very pleased to welcome you to our first quarter results for 2024. I'm Serkan Savaş, Reporting and Investor Relations Director , and I'm presenting the results together with my colleagues, Fatih, our CFO, and also Akif, our IR and ESG Manager. We hope you have managed to download our presentation on our website, and in this presentation, we are providing both inflation-adjusted and unadjusted figures to enable quarterly comparison for investors. I now give the floor to Fatih, our CFO, for introduction and highlights of the quarter.
Thank you, Serkan. We will first look at our highlights for the first quarter. Before starting giving details, please note that all the figures here in this slide are inflation-adjusted. Our quarterly net sales were TRY 104 billion, reflecting 17% year-on-year growth. Our ongoing store expansion program and 5% positive traffic growth continued to support sales figure. Our EBITDA margin was 4.3% in the first quarter without inflation accounting. I'm sorry, without inflation accounting, the margin stood at 7.6%. Net income was TRY 3.9 billion, with a corresponding 3.7% margin. In the first quarter, we opened more than 300 new stores.
As a final highlight, capital expenditures was 3.5% of our revenues in the first quarter, in line with our guidance. We will be elaborating the details in the coming slides. And moving to the operational performance, starting with like-for-like sales slides. Please note that all numbers are without inflation, inflation adjustment here. Like-for-like sales increased by 74% in the first quarter, while like-for-like basket size increased by 66%, which is higher than our internal inflation of 62%. As a side note, in the first two months of the second quarter, our internal inflation increased further to 66%. Positive momentum in traffic continued in the first quarter, and like-for-like customer traffic increased by 5%. We expect positive trend to continue in the second quarter with a lower pace. Moving on expansion details.
In the first quarter of this year, we have opened 268 new BİM stores and eight FİLE stores in Turkey, and we have opened 24 stores in Morocco and nine new stores in Egypt. In total, we had consolidated number of 12,791 stores by the end of Q1. Our store expansion program was in line with our plan so far. When we come to CapEx slide, our CapEx with inflation accounting was TRY 3.6 billion in the first quarter, corresponding to 3.5% of net sales. Excluding inflation accounting, quarterly CapEx was TRY 3.5 billion, corresponding to, again, 3.5% of net sales. We are progressing in line with our expectation.
The second phase of our biscuit chocolate factory, solar energy investments, and strong store openings are the main investment expenditures items in the first quarter. This is the end of my part in this presentation, and I'm handing over to Serkan again.
Okay, and thank you, Fatih. Starting with the sales progression, we are on page 10 in the sales slide. If you look the sales without inflation accounting, sales grew by 95% in the first quarter, year-on-year, and reaching around 100 billion TRY. This is fully in line with our full year guidance. We already have expected the top-line growth momentum to be started at the higher levels in the first quarters, and gradually come back due to the high base effects and lower inflation in the coming quarters. So now we are keeping our top-line growth guidance for the time being, which is in line with our guidance. The realization is in line with our guidance. And including inflationary accounting, sales increased by 17%.
This is a real term increase, with inflation accounting, and, the store openings around 11%, and plus the second, the positive traffic, supported the sales growth in the first quarter. Now, let's, discuss about the gross profit and gross margin progression in the first quarter. Including inflation accounting, our gross margin reached to 17.2% in the first quarter, which is, 200 basis points higher than the same quarter last year. As you remember, last year, the first quarter was the earthquake year, and we had some negative impacts, on the gross profit margins first quarter of the last year. So this is mainly, because of this, negative impact is kept. And if we exclude the inflation accounting, our gross profit increased by-...
124% in the first quarter when compared to last year's same quarter. Gross margin without inflation accounting reached to 20.6%, which is 110 basis points higher than the previous quarter. But this is, we can also say that this is exceptional. This exceptional gross margin performance in Q1 was temporary, and we expect a normalization in the remaining of the year by investing in lower prices. So generally speaking, over 20% is a little bit exceptional in our case. What's the normalization? Today is 19, 19.5 is the normalized gross margin for time being. So we expect a bit normalization in the coming quarters about the gross margin profits, gross margin, excluding inflation. About the OpEx, now the next slide is about the quarterly trend of the OpEx.
In the first quarter, minimum wage hike tempered OpEx to sales ratio to 14.8%, without inflation accounting. This corresponds around 170 basis points cost increase compared to previous quarter. I can say that it's almost a good start for the year, considering 50% minimum wage hike. And, we expect the OpEx sales ratio to be normalized in the remaining of the year through a better operating leverage. If we elaborate the details of the OpEx in the next slides, the graph you'll see in the next slide, page 13, shows the change in operating expenses as percentage of revenues by item. As I mentioned in the previous slide, personnel expense was the major contributor to the increase in OpEx items.
Minimum wage increased by 50%, as you know, and negative impact on OpEx in the first quarter. We assume that there will be no second minimum wage hike this year, and so we will be starting to benefit from operating leverage from Q2 to the year end. On the other hand, utility expense continue to contribute positively due to high base of the previous years. So we are benefiting from utility expenses, but somewhat benefiting from the utility expenses included in cost of sales. It corresponds, it's 1.4% as of first quarter. Now, let's look at our EBITDA figures, quarterly EBITDA figures in the next slide.
Including inflation accounting, EBITDA was TRY 4.4 billion , and margin, EBITDA margin was 4.3% in the first quarter of 2024. It is 90 basis points higher than the first, same quarter of the last year. As you know, there were some negative one-offs in the first quarter of last year, such as earthquake. Excluding inflationary accounting, EBITDA was TRY 7.7 billion , and EBITDA margin was 7.6% in the first quarter of 2024. Unadjusted EBITDA margin is comparable with the last quarter, Q1, Q4, from Q4 to Q1, but this is already expected due to 50% minimum wage increase. This is already within our expectations.
All in all, I can say that it's EBITDA margins, and we are happy to start the year with an EBITDA margin in line with our guidance, despite the challenge of the minimum wage hike. So, we keep our EBITDA margin guidance as is. And we are moving on the net income slide. Including inflation accounting, our quarter net income was TRY 3.9 billion, corresponding to net margin of 3.7%. Excluding inflation accounting, net income was TRY 4.4 billion in the first quarter of 2024, and net margin was 4.4%, which is 180 basis points higher than the same quarter last year.
In this quarter, this 2024, there's not any one-off in, this year, since the old negative one-offs were recorded in the first quarter of the last year, like earthquake impact, early retirement scheme impact, something like that.
... I think we had some technical issues, but I hope you can hear me now. We were talking about quarterly cash flow bridge, including short-term financial assets. Our cash position was TRY 9.4 billion at the end of first quarter, higher than last quarter. There is an improvement in working capital cycle in the first quarter, but negative net working capital day is still lower than our normal level. As inflation expected to normalize, we plan to improve our inventory days throughout the year. On the next slide, looking at the revenue breakdown by format and geography, BİM Turkey forms 87% of total sales, while FİLE's share in consolidated revenues increased to 7%. The remaining 6% is coming from our foreign operations.
In Turkey, we can see that our private label share has declined to 60% due to SKU expansion and more offerings in the in-and-out category. On FİLE side, we opened 8 new stores in the first quarter, and number of FİLE stores reached 244. FİLE online sales account for 5% of FİLE's total sales. FİLE share in total consolidated sales exceeded 7.4% in the first quarter, compared to 5.5%, previous year, same quarter, thanks to its robust performance. If we look at first quarter of 2024 in Morocco, and our total number of stores reached 711 in this country. Fourth warehouse of BİM Maroc in Marrakech opened in March. Our plan is to open 100 stores in Morocco this year.
In Egypt, we continue to open new stores. We opened nine new stores in the first quarter, and the number of stores in this country reached 365. The operational improvement continues in Egypt. The operation is not full cash positive yet, but progression is good, so we will continue opening stores in Egypt this year. Our plan to open around 70 stores this year. Now, this is the end of our presentation. Now we can take your questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Akif, and if you have any questions, please raise your hand through Zoom, and so we will give the floor to you one by one.
Hello.
Suayip Teymur ? The floor is yours.
Yeah, it's Suayip Teymur from Kuveyt Türk Asset Management. So at the very end of your presentation, you have mentioned about the Egypt and your plan to have 70 new stores. But how about Morocco? Do you have any plan for Morocco?
Thank you. Thank you. And, generally, speaking in Morocco, also, we a bit speed up our openings and around 100 store openings this year we are planning to open. So today we have around 715 stores in Morocco right now. So, likely for the full year, we are opening around 100 or a bit higher than 100 stores at the end of the year.
Thank you.
You're welcome. Okay, Hanzade, I think the floor is yours.
Thank you, Serkan Savaş . I have a question about your margins. You highlighted that you are looking for your sustainable gross margin to be around 19%-19.5%. Actually, this was previously 18%-18.5%, so I noticed that you step up in this sustainable margin guidance. Can you please explain the drivers? I mean, is it the SKU mix or you are considering more contribution from international markets into your margins? And the second question-
Thank you.
Can I-
... Hanzade, yes, you are right. Actually-
Serkan Savaş , you can continue. Sorry.
Hanzade , are you hearing us? There's some technical interruption, I think. Now I only-
Yeah. I can hear you now.
Okay, sorry for interruption. There is some technical problem here, but now it's I think it's okay right now. Yes, you are right. A little bit, we a little bit improved our gross margin. The first is coming from the product mix. The product mix are in and out, group spot and spot, in and out. Week low products and margins improved well in the last few years, and also the sales ratio of these products, in and out. You know, Fridays, on Fridays and on Tuesdays, we have some in and out to improve our customer traffic. So those kind of products ratio increased well, and this also increased the customer traffic, customer traffic. So this a little bit add to our gross margin, gross margin in the last few years.
The second, of course, you know, the FİLE operation contribution is rising in the last few years. For example, a few years ago, it used to be around 4% of total revenues. Now, in the first quarter it is 7%, and today in May, it's around, approaching to 10%. So FİLE operation, margins is a bit higher. The gross margin is a bit higher than our general, margins. So this is also contributing, our, gross margin, permanently. So step by step, we are also our negotiation power is, rising, and, we are more diversifying our supplier base. We have a new procurement team. They are working, to improve our cost level. For example, sometimes we are getting the packages, all the of product levels, we organized all, procurement of the packages.
So we have some kind of post projects in terms of procurement. So to sum up, all coming from all these projects and initiations, gradually we a bit improved our gross margin. So generally speaking, it's trading around 19% levels right now.
Okay, thank you very much. You highlighted that, I mean, the positive trend in traffic continues in the second half, but at a slower pace, I understand. Do you see a higher competition in the second half from your peers? And, have you also invested in prices in the second quarter?
Yes, of course. In the second quarter, it is going well, is positive, turn is positive, and we are also investing in second. We also invested somewhat in this first quarter as well, and in second and the coming quarters, we will also doing some investments in lower prices. But generally speaking, it wouldn't dilute our expectations, EBITDA margin expectations. And this is also one of the reasons that it's normalized EBITDA, normalized gross margin in the coming quarters for over 20% to 18%-19% levels. So yes, competition is a bit tough. Now, the competition is based on the promo. There's very high promo-like promotions, campaigns, so we are also somewhat responding them.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome. Ilya, I think the floor is yours.
Yes. Thank you very much, Serkan and Akif. Congratulations with strong results. I have a quick question on your store renovation program in Turkey, and specifically, what's the percentage of renovated stores now, and if you continue to see around 10 percentage points positive impact on, on like-for-like post conversions, which I think you mentioned in the past? And very quickly, my second question is, about competition, particularly for new locations, considering your expansion pace. Are you facing any issues here with finding, good quality locations? Just mindful of, the pace of other players as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Ilya. The renovated stores is almost approaching to half of the stores right now, half of the stores. So it's around 5000-6000, around approaching to 6,000 stores already renovated as of May, let's say, today. So, but of course, it will take a few years to renovate the old stores. We don't urge, we don't rush to renovate all the stores. Whenever a store is under renovation phase and renovation cycle, then renovate it. We don't actually rush for this. So today, it's almost half of the stores are already renovated. About the new store openings, we don't give any official guidance, but generally speaking, today, it's running around 1,000 opening per year, actually, in twelve months periods, and likely to continue going forward in the following quarters.
Is there any problem finding store location? No. We, we are not finding because cities are growing, and we are opening smaller stores, 300 sq m-350 sq m stores, and cities are growing. New building construction is actually improving in Turkey. So, we are not facing any big problem, and we don't anticipate expect any problem in the near term.
Great. Great, thank you so much. Maybe just to clarify on like-for-like impact post store renovation. Is it still around 10 percentage points?
Sorry, like-for-like contribution too?
Not contribution, but the impact of store renovation on your like-for-like performance. You mentioned previously that renovated stores see around 10 percentage points of like-for-like uplift post renovation.
Yes, right.
Is it, is it still the case?
It is. We haven't, you know, we don't, you know, do a similar analysis on that, but it is roughly 5%-10%. Up to 10%, there is a positive impact on the traffic when we renovate old stores.
Okay, great. Thank you so much. Very clear. Congratulations again.
Thank you. Thank you. Cemal Bey, please go ahead.
Thank you for the presentation, Serkan Bey, and congratulations for good results. I also appreciate the transparency of your disclosures. I think you have been a very good example in times of hyperinflation. I really appreciate, and I, I'm optimistic for, at least for the future, for, you know, the maybe, the, the other companies, you can be a good example, even, you know, under any conditions. So thank you, thank you very much for that. That's why, you know, the market continues to give premium to BİM. So those, those qualitative, you know, factors are always important. So just, the, my comment. If I turn to my question, I would like to understand, in first quarter, we had impressive performance, but was it, parallel to your, your guidance?
You know, so in your you know, guidance, you made some maybe assumptions for the first quarter. Do you see upside risk to your, you know, guidance after first quarter results? That's my first question. The second one is about the cost side. I see a increase in the employee, the personnel cost, maybe higher than your peers. But when I look at the other items, like, let's say, utilities or others, you have very efficient, maybe because of higher base or anything, but I see a more efficient OpEx management. Do you see those things sustainable, or were they specific to first quarter? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Cemal Bey. First of all, thank you for your good words, and we are very happy to hear that about transparency, and you like our presentation. So we always accompany to be transparent, and we will continue this. Thank you for that. And in the first quarter, of course, as I mentioned during my presentation, the first quarter results in line with our guidance. We already expected this kind of trend. We already expected the sales growth is starting the high levels, in 95%, something like that, and gradually come down going forward.
So, it is actually a little early to actually say about our guidance, but generally in the first quarter and in the five months, also, the post first quarter results are also in line with our guidance, all kind of guidance, the sales growth, EBITDA margin, and the CapEx. So today, there is no reason to actually revise our guidance for time being. So but of course, we were following the cycle and following the second half of the year, how would actually the sales trading would occur in the retail market, because the purchasing power is a bit tightening right now in the second half of the year, likely. But today, everything is on track. There is no reason to change our guidance for the full year.
The cost side, yes, actually, in the first quarter, we have some kind of cost pressure coming from minimum wage hike and wage hikes. But so I think the good stuff, we were expecting a bit higher cost in the first quarter. So I can say that we already started to benefit from operating leverage, maybe late first quarter in March, maybe. So, assuming that there will not be any second minimum wage hike in the second, in the first of July, again, like last year, so we will benefiting more from the operating leverage. But of course, if there is not any second minimum wage hike, it doesn't mean that we would not actually give any actually anything.
Maybe we will have some side benefits, something like that, but it wouldn't have any major impacts on our costs. So, likely we will have what's going on in the coming quarters. The OpEx to sales is likely to come down, and also gross margin is also a bit started to come down. So we are keeping the EBITDA margin stable going forward. This is general trend we expect going forward. Like last year, you actually in our OpEx slides, we have given the trend of the OpEx. First and third quarters are high, but coming quarters benefit operating leverage. So, coming quarters, we will have more efficiencies in OpEx side as well.
Serkan Savaş , there's another question. When we compare your inflation accounting standard-based financials, we see higher effective tax compared to pre-IFRS 29. What did affect this? And what should we think for the following quarter? Because the effective rate comes to around 39%, and in the pre-inflation accounting numbers, we see 19%. So, how could we elaborate this for the future? I know it's very difficult, but at least, you know, do you have any comment on that?
Yes, Cemal Bey, actually, yes, together with the inflation accounting, there are lots of things changed, actually. But I can say that this is most all coming from deferred tax losses. As you know, through inflation accounting, we are generating monetary gains, monetary gains, around TRY 6 billion monetary gains. We benefited from that. So, we are... From these monetary gains, we are recording some deferred tax asset, deferred tax liabilities. So this is generally coming from deferred tax or asset, but in pre-IAS 29 figures, it's almost 20%-23%, it's almost in line. Going forward, yes, maybe we will have, till year end, we are likely to have some kind of deferred tax liabilities going forward.
But of course, this is very actually actually difficult to say about this inflation accounting. We are all, everybody is very new, is not very familiar yet, but likely to have some kind of this deferred tax liabilities going forward.
Thank you, Serkan Savaş .
Thank you, Cemal Bey. And, Dominic Leon, please go ahead. The floor is yours.
Yes. Thank you so much for having us, and congratulations on strong results. My first question is regarding the increase in branded labels as a percentage of the mix of your products. If you could give us a little bit more color there, you know, do you expect that to continue? And then secondly, would be a quick question regarding, you know, rumors of a Canadian expansion, and if there's been any highlights on that front. Thank you very much.
About, yes, the first question, the increased branded products. Yes, our branded products is a bit up and private label is down, but this is not, actually, on the performing of our private labels, not coming. But this is a some of dilution. Dilution, as I said before, Spot and group Spots, we, In-and-Outs, which are In-and-Out. This is a kind of tools, kind of SKUs. We are responding to the market in campaigns and promotions. These are kind of tools to compete in the market. So we improved well, the share of these sales. Total In-and-Outs increased to around 15%-20%. So this is, mostly our branded products. So this little bit dilutes our private labels products as well.
And also, actually, the Private Label products, which we are selling, the basic commodities, the basic commodities, inflation is much lower than the headline inflation, maybe 20%, 30%. So, technically, the dilution is coming from the price-wise, the price increase of these commodities, which we are only selling Private Labels, is very much lower than the headline inflation. So, the total nominal value of these Private Labels are relatively down to others. This also dilution impact. So, and also we are in In-and-Out, we are a little bit focusing on the branded products to attract newcomers, new joiners to the stores and competitive to be more competitive in the market. So, but our priority, priority is still Private Labels. So business model doesn't change.
We are still focusing on the private labels, so we are doing as much as we can to improve our private labels. But of course, there is brand life in the markets. We cannot sell the private labels in the market. So, but this is just a very small share loss, but it is not... It's just a dilution. First of all, I can say that. It's okay for you?
Yes. Yes, thank you.
The second Canadian expansion, we do not have intention to expand the Canadian market. Actually, this, I think, the rumor, as we, our CEO also announced something to Reuters, and, if... There is not any touch, there is actually communication from the Canadian government to us right now. So, and we do not have any agenda right now, but if they actually have some kind of communication, of course, our board and high-level senior management will consider to the market, just the market, but today, we do not have any agenda to expand any third country right now.
... Okay, great. Thank you.
You're welcome. And I think, there is no any further questions. Thank you so much. I will give the floor to, Fatih Meriç for the closing remarks, and also, but by the way, I would like to say that this is my last call, and, I'm, still within the group, but I will be joining the BİM Maroc team, starting from the first of July. This is. I would like to thank you for the last 18 years. I'm very glad to work with you, and I'd like to actually talk with you, communicate with you going forward. So, my colleagues, Akif and other my colleagues, will actually actually run the business, in BİM Turkey, but I will be, actually, adding value to BİM as in BİM Maroc.
And, Fatih, this floor is yours for closing remarks.
We are congratulating Serkan for his new role, actually. So he's leaving tomorrow, and so he's played his role, and so very well, so in new markets, actually. As you know, actually, so Maroc, in Maroc, so we are growing very fast. And so thank you, thank you for your attendance to the meeting. And so this is my second quarter second meeting, actually, so in presenting quarterly results, actually. And I hope so this is consecutive better results, and so I hope so this will continue, and so we'll make you happy about BIM. And so this is end of our call. And so again, thank you for your attention.