Good morning. Welcome to Cencosud's fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Please note that all attendees are currently in listen-only mode. We will open the floor for questions after the prepared remarks. Joining us today are Andrés Neely, Chief Financial Officer, and Irina Aksionova, Investor Relations Director. Statements made today by the company may include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and may be influenced by future events, including changes in the macroeconomic conditions, political developments, legislation, and operational factors that may affect Cencosud's future performance. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise these statements, except as required by law. Please note that no part of this call may be recorded in whole or in part without the prior the company's prior consent.
The earnings presentation accompanying this call, which includes additional information, is available on the company's website in the Investor Relations section. Please, please note that this call is being recorded. With that, I will now leave you with our CFO, Andrés Neely. Andrés, please go ahead.
Thanks, Andrés. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. We closed 2025 for Cencosud with continued progress across our strategic and financial priorities. During the quarter, we delivered revenue growth in five of the six countries where we operate. At consolidated level, on a comparable basis, we achieved revenue growth, margin expansion, returning to double digit levels, and a significant increase in distributable net income, which more than doubled year-over-year. When reported figures were affected by Argentina's hyperinflation and exchange rate accounting adjustments, underlying performance reflects disciplined execution and the results of the actions implemented across the portfolio. Let's begin with the highlights of the quarter. First, we continue to execute our growth plan across the region. During the fourth quarter, we opened eight new stores.
These openings include new locations in Chile and Argentina, as well as a Metro supermarket in Peru and a Jumbo store in Colombia, further strengthening our footprint in key markets. In the U.S., we opened two stores in December, in Illinois and Kentucky, and added another location in January in South Beach, Miami, further expanding our presence in the Miami area. We also continue enhancing our customer value proposition through innovation. Our Jumbo concept expanded further with renovations and new gastronomic offerings in Cenco Alto Las Condes, the opening of a new restaurant at Cenco Costanera, and the completion of the new restaurant in Cenco La Florida in January. Finally, we saw record penetration of private label, reaching 18.9% for the quarter. This was supported by strong progress across countries, with Argentina and Chile showing particularly strong gains.
Private label remains an important lever of both customer loyalty and margin resilience. We also, we also advanced further in strengthening our retail ecosystem. In Chile, we rolled out fast checkout at Paris to improve conversion, launched the renewed Cencosud Seller Center with a fully mobile experience, and continued expanding Cencosud Media with new sponsored brands formats across our own channels. These initiatives support both customer engagement and longer, longer term value-added opportunities. We also reinforced our community engagement with public events. During November, the fourteenth edition of the Paris Parade attracted more than 1 million attendees, confirming its position as one of the most iconic event, events in Chile and an important driver of traffic and brand connection. Turning to events after the quarter end, in January, we received regulatory approval for the sale of our service station network in Colombia.
Financial closing and operational transfer are expected to take place during the first quarter of 2026. Finally, also in January, we held our Cencosud Day in Buenos Aires, where we shared our strategic priorities and presented our financial outlook for 2026, including our investment plan of $600 million. Moving on to the financial results of the quarter. Our revenues increased 1.2% year-on-year, excluding Argentina's accounting adjustments, reflecting continued growth through 2025, despite the stronger prior year consumption environment, particularly in Chile. Chile, Argentina, the United States, Peru, and Colombia recorded year-on-year revenue growth in local currency, and online sales grew 8% year-on-year on a consolidated basis.
Consolidated revenues were affected by Argentina's accounting adjustments, including the depreciation of the Argentine peso, and by lower sales in Brazil, due to the exit of Bretas Minas Gerais stores in the third quarter of 2025. Quarterly Adjusted EBITDA increased 4.2% year-on-year, excluding Argentina's accounting adjustments, with Adjusted EBITDA margin returning to double-digit levels. We saw Adjusted EBITDA improvements in Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, reflecting disciplined execution and the impact of our strategic initiatives. These gains were partially offset by margin pressure in the US, driven by store closure-related expenses and softer holiday demand. In Argentina, due to higher operating costs, mainly associated with the integration of Makro and store closure expenses, as well as continued weakness in home improvement. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2025 reflects one-off expenses associated with the implementation of the productivity plan-...
Executed in the third quarter of 2025. Excluding these effects, full-year Adjusted EBITDA would have been broadly flat compared to previous year. Moving to the next slide, quarterly Distributable Net Income more than doubled year-over-year to CLP 91.2 billion. The key drivers were a positive impact of foreign exchange gain variation and a lower inflation adjustment impact. Distributable Net Income for the full year 2025 increased 67.2% year-over-year, to CLP 227.7 billion. Regarding our financial position, we closed the year with the net leverage decreasing to 3.2 times on a sequential basis, including the impact of the one-off expenses related to the productivity plan implemented in the third quarter. Excluding these expenses, net leverage would have decreased further to 3.1 times.
We ended the year with almost $960 million in cash and cash equivalent equivalents. In addition, nearly 55% of our total debt maturity is scheduled beyond five years, providing a flexible amortization calendar with ample time to plan for liability match. Moving to the next slide, our foreign currency exposure remains limited. After hedging, 14.6% of U.S. denominated debt remains unhedged, and when including net investment coverage in U.S. operations, the effective U.S. dollar denominated debt exposure declines to 8.4%. At Cencosud Day , in January, we presented our guidance for 2026. This outlook assumes that our markets will grow above inflation in local currency, and it's adjusted for the asset divestments completed in Brazil and Colombia that were already announced in 2025.
It also reflects our continued focus on improving profitability across the group, including unexpected lower recovery in Argentina. Overall, for 2026, we expect consolidated revenues of CLP 1,740 billion, representing a 3% increase versus 2025. Adjusted EBITDA of CLP 1,715 billion, up 13.6% year-on-year, and an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 9.9%, implying 92 basis points of margin expansion. Turning now to our capital expenditure plan, we continue to take a disciplined approach to investments, prioritizing projects that support profitable growth across both retail and real estate. For 2026, we are guiding approximately $600 million in CapEx. This reflects our commitment to maintaining capital discipline, while continuing to invest in the most profitable growth opportunities across the portfolio.
In terms of allocation, around 35%-40% of total CapEx will be directed to new store openings, supporting our expansion plans across formats and geographies. Approximately 15%-20% will be dedicated to store renovations, maintenance, and other recurring investments, ensuring our concepts maintain competitive and efficient. In addition, 30%-35% will be allocated to shopping centers, as we continue advancing our pipeline of expansions and mixed-use developments. Finally, 10%-15% will be invested in our retail ecosystem, including digital capabilities, loyalty initiatives, and productivity-focused projects. This investment plan translating to continued growth across our platforms. In supermarkets, we expect the opening of 17 new stores, including seven The Fresh Market stores in the United States. In shopping centers, we anticipate more than 40,000 square meters of additional gross leasable area, reinforcing our real estate growth strategy.
Overall, the CapEx is fully aligned with the roadmap we presented at Cencosud, supporting profitable growth, margin expansion, and the continued strengthening of our long-term operating platform. With that, I'll hand it to Irina Aksionova to discuss country performance and the progress of our strategic priorities.
Thank you, Andrés. Good morning. Let's look at our quarter results by country. Starting with Chile, where we delivered resilient growth and improvement in profitability during the quarter, with revenues growing 1.6% year-on-year, supported by steady performance across our main business units. Supermarkets continued to grow, shopping centers delivered strong momentum, and home improvement also contributed positively. Department stores were affected by lower tourist traffic compared to last year's higher base. This was partially offset by a stronger e-commerce performance, with online sales and department stores growing more than 20% year-on-year, and a Cyber Day and Black Friday solid execution. On the profitability side, Chile also posted positive results, Adjusted EBITDA increased 15.3% year-on-year, driven by margin expansion in shopping centers and department stores, as well as favorable FX impact during the quarter.
To highlight a few operational indicators, e-commerce penetration in supermarkets reached 14.4%, and shopping centers margin expanded by 280 basis points year-on-year, reflecting continued efficiency and operating leverage in the business. Turning now to Argentina. We continue to deliver revenue growth above inflation, although profitability faced some short-term pressure during the quarter. Revenues increased 48.6% in local currency and were broadly stable in Chilean pesos, mainly driven by the supermarkets business and the integration of Makro stores. We also saw very strong progress in private label, with sales increasing nearly 27% and penetration reaching 20.1%, representing an expansion of almost 400 basis points year-on-year. This was primarily boosted by the recent opening of the import market in the country.
Even excluding macro sales, supermarkets revenues grew around 31% in pesos, Chilean pesos, broadly in line, sorry, in Argentine pesos, broadly in line with inflation, despite the closure of 12 Vea stores and one Disco location as part of our continued portfolio optimization efforts. The supermarket business also continued to strengthen its competitive position, gaining 123 basis points of market share over the year. On the profitability side, Adjusted EBITDA increased close to 12% in local currency, but declined 25% in Chilean pesos year-on-year. This reflects a contraction in gross margin, high operating expenses associated with store closures, and weaker performance in financial services, driven mainly by higher risk charges and narrow spreads. We also continued to see pressure in home improvement as cost inflation significantly outpaced category inflation during the quarter.
Overall, while Argentina remains a challenging environment in the short term, we are taking decisive actions to optimize the portfolio, strengthen our commercial execution, and reinforce the fundamentals of the business. Moving on to the U.S., we continue to expand The Fresh Market presence while maintaining a disciplined approach to portfolio management. Revenues increased 1.6% year-on-year in USD, supported by 10.9% rise in online sales, but also reflecting the impact of store closures and the ongoing ramp-up of recently opened locations. During the quarter, TFM opened 2 new stores in Illinois and Kentucky, as Andrés mentioned already, while also closing two underperforming locations. On the profitability side, Adjusted EBITDA declined 17.4% in USD.
This was primarily driven by extraordinary expenses associated with store closures, a weaker than usual holiday season, and the temporary impact of new stores that are still in their early ramp-up stage. Overall, while the quarter reflects some short-term profitability pressure, we remain focused on disciplined organic expansion and on strengthening our customer proposition by offering the best products and shopping experience across our TFM stores and digital channel. Turning now to Brazil, the quarter reflects the continued impact of our portfolio optimization actions, alongside a very meaningful improvement in profitability. This year-over-year decline in revenues is largely explained by the exit of 54 Bretas stores in Minas Gerais, which was executed during the third quarter, as well as ongoing portfolio rationalization. This includes the conversion of 19 Bretas locations from Cash and carry format to traditional supermarkets, and the closure of underperforming non-core stores.
Overall, these actions resulted in a net reduction of 97 locations year-on-year. Despite the top-line effects from these divestments and closures, profitability trends in the core supermarket business improved significantly. Reported Adjusted EBITDA decreased 11% in local currency, but this comparison is impacted by one-off gain in financial services recorded in the fourth quarter of last year, of 2024. Excluding this effect, profitability in supermarkets increased very meaningfully year-on-year, supported by strong commercial execution and updated value proposition in our stores, as well as improved discipline across the operation. At the gross margin levels, this translated into a 283 basis points expansion, while supermarkets Adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 467 basis points year-on-year. We believe that our turnaround strategy in Brazil is delivering results.
While there's still work ahead, we are encouraged by the progress achieved so far, with portfolio actions and stronger commercial execution, building a healthier and more profitable base going forward. Moving on to Peru. The business continued to deliver solid growth momentum during the quarter, with strong execution across both supermarkets and shopping centers. Revenue grew 4.4% in local currency and 11.7% in Chilean pesos year-on-year. This performance was driven by a particularly strong result in our cash and carry format, with same-store sales increasing 4%. Continued acceleration in e-commerce, where sales grew more than 30% year-on-year, and the opening of a new Metro store, as well as the expansion of Wong store at Cenco La Molina during the quarter.
On the profitability side, Adjusted EBITDA increased 4% in local currency and 11.1% in Chilean pesos, reaching an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 12.2%. This improvement was supported by high EBITDA in supermarkets and shopping centers, reflecting increased variable rent income. In shopping centers, phase two of Cenco La Molina significantly boosted visits, increasing traffic by approximately 50%, and we also saw strong sales at Cenco Arequipa. Overall, Peru remains one of our strongest and most consistent performers, supported by healthy demand trends, strong commercial execution, and expansions across our formats. Finally, turning to Colombia. The country delivered a good quarter with growth and margin expansions across all business units. Revenues increased five point nine percent in Colombian pesos and sixteen point two percent in Chilean pesos year-on-year, with all formats reporting sales growth.
This performance was supported by continued format optimization, particularly in cash and carry, where new stores delivered close to 30% year-on-year growth. Same-store sales increased 4% in supermarkets and nearly 13% in home improvement, driven by strong demand in B2B sales. Online sales also remain a key contributor, growing 16.3% year-on-year. Profitability improved significantly during the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased 72.7% in local currency, with EBITDA margin expanding by almost 200 basis points year-on-year. This result reflects the tangible progress of our strategy in Colombia, with disciplined commercial execution, effective pricing and cost actions, format optimization, and improving operating leverage across the business. Now, moving into the advances, in our strategic pillars. Let me briefly highlight the continued progress of our private label strategy.
During the quarter, private label reached a record penetration of almost 19%, increasing 121 basis points year-on-year, with consolidated sales of almost $850 million. Growth was broad-based across countries and categories, supported by strong momentum in both food and non-food items, and supported also by strong seasonal campaign executions. Moving into the organic expansions across the region, during the quarter, we opened 8 new stores, adding close to 20,000 square meters of selling space, while continuing with an active remodeling plan across several formats. In real estate, we incorporated more than 68,000 square meters of additional gross leasable area during 2025, reinforcing the growth of our footprint and long-term value creation. We remain focused on disciplined expansion in strategic locations, supported by our profitability focus and ongoing regional portfolio optimization. During the quarter, moving into sustainability.
During the quarter, we advanced in our sustainability initiatives, including adherence to the TNFD standard, the launch of the regional human rights policy, and programs promoting healthy nutrition culture across the region. Before closing, I would also like to highlight the important awards and recognitions received during the quarter across our brands and countries. For the second consecutive period, Cencosud was ranked as the number one corporate brand in Chile in the Cadem Citizen Brand Study, reflecting the strength of our reputation and customer connection. We were also recognized across multiple dimensions, including employer branding, innovation, and sustainability, with eight awards at the Eikon Chile Awards, and recognition in smart energy for our progress in digital solutions. In addition, our banners continued to stand out in reputation studies, with Jumbo ranked first in its category for customer connection.
Paris leading its category in corporate reputation, and Cencosud Peru once again recognized as the best retailer to do business with. Overall, these distinctions reinforce our continued focus on delivering the best-in-class customer experience, service excellence, and a long-term trust across the markets where we operate. And with that, we conclude our prepared remarks, and we'll begin the Q&A session. Andrés, back to you.
Thank you, Irina. We will now open the microphone and chat box for questions to our management team.
If you would like to ask a question, please use the Raise Hand feature. The first question comes from Melissa Byun from Bank of America. Melissa, you can ask your question now.
Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for taking the question. I did want to ask about The Fresh Market. So if you could provide a little bit more context on the operating environment, and the sales weakness that you mentioned in December, and then also what drove the decision to increase marketing investment. And then if you could also talk about maybe some of the additional initiatives that you're undertaking to recover your sales, and what you're seeing in terms of sales trends during the first quarter to date. Thanks so much.
Yeah, maybe let me start. Hi, Melissa. So first, during the first quarter in the U.S., there were, I would say 3 main things going on. First, we closed 2 stores that we mentioned that impact our sales. Not only because we had more, less sales, but also for all the expenses related to those store closures. Then we also had a more weak holiday season in the U.S., and that's why we also increased our marketing expenses and increased our promotional activity in the U.S., ending up with good sales, but with a weak EBITDA for the quarter. And also, as we have mentioned in the recent quarters, we also ...
As we have been opening stores, and as these stores mature, we are also seeing these stores with performance, which is increasing but still lagging more mature stores. It is still early during the first quarter of 2026 to provide a clear outlook. What I would say now, this difficult and hard winter season in the U.S., with a lot of snow that has generated some closures for a couple days in some stores. But that said, we don't see material changes with the performance that we saw during the fourth quarter until now.
Also continue, we also continue the growth strategies, as Cencosud continues to grow. As we announced at Cencosud Day, we plan to open another new seven stores, with five leases already executed. We still, you know, continue seeing U.S. as a key market for growth going forward.
Yeah, and maybe to address the second part of your question. So we're putting a lot of focus on e-commerce in the U.S. We are also tackling the catering segment in the U.S. with our value proposition, which has proven very successful. And also, we keep refreshing and improving our offering of fresh products in the different stores. We keep innovating, having different products and trying different things in the stores. And the things that go well, we roll them out quickly to the whole portfolio in the U.S.
Thank you. And if I could just follow up, how much were the store closure costs that you incurred in the quarter?
We are not disclosing particular, closing expenses.
Okay, thank you.
We're among the material things we have in the quarter.
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you, Melissa. Next one on the queue is Andrew Ruben from Morgan Stanley. Andrew, you can ask your question now.
Hi, thanks very much for the question. Curious to ask a bit around Chile. Last quarter, there was a lot of talk around the strategic plan, the restructuring expense that you saw there. I didn't see as much focus this quarter, so just an update on that project, if you saw any tailwinds that helped drive the margin expansion this quarter, and how to think about that trend as we go through the upcoming year? And then just looking by segment in Chile, we see the overall margin expanded, but it looks like there was some contraction in supermarkets, some contraction in home improvement. So maybe just digging a bit more on the segment level, and again, to help understand how the progression might be through this year ahead. Thanks very much.
Hi, Andrew. Thank you for the question. On the productivity line, the majority of expenses related to the plan were executed as we reported in the third quarter. What we actually saw during the fourth quarter, we didn't see that much tailwinds, but we actually saw some savings. So we believe we had a closer to probably maybe 20% of the expenses related to productivity plan already reflected in the EBITDA for the fourth quarter as savings. So that's a very positive dynamic. And I think as we earlier said, like last quarter, that we would expect to see the recovery of that investment, as we called in the productivity plan, throughout the next 12 months.
And then on Chile, in the home improvement sector specifically, so would you continue seeing still weakness in the construction sector in the country? However, post-elections, we're seeing a little bit more positive dynamics in the area. So we're seeing movements in the real estate segment, we're seeing people making more, like, a long-term investment. So we're expecting to see a better performance ... not necessarily performance, but better recovery throughout 2026, as we're already starting seeing some kind of positive signals from that construction segment.
And Andrew, if you allow me, regarding supermarkets. So we, during the fourth quarter, we see a soft demand in the supermarket category. We still see promotional activity in that segment also happening in Chile. And probably that's most of the impact that you see in the fourth quarter results that we delivered.
Great. That's very helpful. Thank you both.
Thank you, Andrew.
Nicolas Larrain from J.P. Morgan, you can ask your question now.
Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my question. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the presentation as well. I had two questions. The first one is in Argentina. You mentioned, you know, how expense inflation is running, you know, above, you know, top line. I wanted to understand how do you see maybe, you know, throughout 2026, this gap closing, you know, between your expense inflation and maybe what we can see in terms of ticket, in the top line for home improvement and food retail? That would be my first one. And also, then going back to supermarkets in Chile, if you could comment briefly on how you are seeing January, you know, early ...
Some early comments that you can give on the start of the year, that would be super helpful. Thank you.
Yeah. So hi, Nicolas. So in Argentina, remember that an important part of the productivity plan that we executed in the third quarter was in Argentina. So we expect, during 2026, in the remaining quarters, to continue capturing those savings that will contribute to compensate all the, still all the, all the, the expenses that are lagging inflation and still will probably increase. So far, it's very early in the year. We haven't seen any material changes in Argentina in terms of demand and consumption, both in the home improvement and in the supermarkets category. In home improvement, where the performance is tougher, we haven't seen positive signal yet. We have a challenging year ahead for that category.
I just would like to comment, just to clarify that our SG&A in Argentina is actually growing above inflation rates. But at the same time, you have to consider that we are including the Makro operation that we didn't have last year. So if you see our total growth and compare it to our SG&A growth year-over-year, it is much lower, our SG&A growth. So we have been controlling expenses in Argentina, even though we have all this Makro operation that we didn't have last year.
And regarding supermarket-
Yes.
Yeah, regarding supermarkets in Chile, we are seeing similar trends to basically what we've seen during the whole second half of 2025. So no changes as of today. We continue working on our value proposition, retail media, private label. We have achieved a record private label penetration this quarter. So, at the same time, we are also focusing in our e-commerce, which is a driver of future growth. But as of today, we continue to see similar trends to the previous quarters.
No, but thank you, Andrés. And if I could follow up just in the supermarkets in Chile, are you able to give any color on how Santa Isabel is performing versus Jumbo or the other way around? Anything you can give us on that? Thank you.
Yeah. Santa Isabel is since second half or the beginning of second half of 2025, it's beginning to be a little bit more aggressive in terms of promotions, and that has helped to a certain extent. However, as you see on the consolidated figures, there's no big changes in both businesses are having fairly similar trends as of today.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
Back to Andrew Ruben. You have a second question, a follow-up question. Andrew, you can ask your question now.
Yeah, thanks. Just take the opportunity and sneak back in here. So just talking about a bit more about Brazil, you had the same store sales that were positive in 3 Q, inflected negative again in 4 Q. I mean, not a major sequential change, but just curious what you're seeing for the rate of change in that market. You know, we got the full update around the initiatives at the investor day, but you know, more tactically, just the view on the ground, I think would be quite helpful.
Yeah. What we are seeing in Brazil is different stories in the different region. So we have seen very solid performance in Rio de Janeiro with Prezunic. Also in São Paulo with Giga. It's more challenging in the Northeast, where we have GBarbosa and Mercantil, and it's where we have put a lot of focus on improving our value proposition. Many of our stores were tailored more to the cash-and-carry-like format, and what we are doing now is changing those stores to a supermarket format. That process generates some impacts in sales and also in expenses, and we are in the middle of that process. We have reconverted many stores to supermarkets, but we are in the middle of that process in the Northeast, which also is reflected in the consolidated figures.
To complement that, Andrew, as you mentioned, there's not a major change compared to the third quarter. But at the same time, we are seeing the market to be a little bit more tougher during the fourth quarter. It's something that we expected by the end of the previous quarter. So it was kind of expected. Just to remind the whole attendees that we faced double-digit negative same store sales during the beginning of 2025. So we have managed to shrink the gap and now be more and have more flattish same store sales, even though we reached positive same store sales during the third quarter.
But we still managed to have a much better performance in terms of same-store sales compared to the beginning of the year and also on the profitability side.
No, that's, that's very fair. I appreciate that follow-up. Cheers.
Thank you. Now we have next on the queue, Alonso Aramburu from BTG. Alonso, please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good morning. Thank you for the call. I wanted to ask you about the closure of stores during the quarter. There were several closures in Argentina, right? 13 Bretas stores, and also a couple in the U.S. and some street stores also in Colombia. So can you just give us maybe some strategic thinking behind all of these closures, where there's more closures to happen, maybe in the first quarter of this year, in 2026? And why so many closures in Argentina, right? I was surprised about the number in Argentina. And also, if in the U.S., are you evaluating other stores that could potentially be closed in the short term? Thank you.
Hi, Alonso. Let me start with your question. So, as part of our capital allocation strategy, one of the important parts of this, that process is keep reviewing our store and location portfolio. Over the year, we have seen some locations that don't work well. We have and, and, and we, we, we, we mentioned this in the, in the same day. So we have defined very strict parameters on when we want to close one store. But as we haven't closed stores for so many years, we have, we found stores that were not performing well for many years, and we have made the decision to close them. In particular, in Argentina, in some regions, we had some overlap, so we are- we, we decided to close some stores.
And also in Brazil, there were stores scattered in some regions that were very far away from our operation hub, with very high logistic costs, and bad performance that we decided to close. In particular, in the case of the U.S., this is more an exception, but we had two stores that were not performing well on a consistent basis, since the acquisition in 2022, and we decided to close them. One of those stores was in Illinois, the other one in Massachusetts, if I'm not wrong. We also opened one store in Illinois, compensating that footprint that we are losing in that state. And this is dynamic, so we will keep looking for the best performance.
Of course, closing stores is the last resource that we use, but it's part of the tools that we have to improve our capital allocation and profitability across the board.
Great. Thank you. And as a follow-up, you closed all your Spid stores in Colombia, I believe, but you still-
Yes
... have a few of them in Chile. Is that a format that you intend to keep, or are you evaluating also more closures in different countries?
So in Chile, we paused the opening of new stores for now, and we are seeing very positive performance in our Spid portfolio. So we wanted first to consolidate all the growth that happened in the recent quarters and years in that format. It's a format that is looking promising, and again, this is dynamic. As we move forward, we will prioritize the most profitable products. Spid is one of the formats that we have that is performing better and could be part of the options that we have to continue growing in particular in Chile. In the case of Argentina, just to provide some color, we had Spid, and we changed that to Vea Express. So we have now a different brand, a similar format.
Actually, we made some changes to the value proposition there, and those stores are also performing quite well in Argentina.
Thank you very much.
We don't have any further questions from the call. However, we do have some more questions coming from the chat box. First one is: We understand comps remaining tough into first quarter of 2026, given last year tourist flow. Is this fair to assume same store sales could remain under pressure near them? How should we think about the outlook from here?
It's coming from?
That's coming from Goldman, Goldman Sachs.
That's in general or in Chile?
In Chile.
In Chile.
In Chile. Yeah, yeah, so we, we do have a very strong comparison base during 2024. Both, I would say the fourth quarter and the first quarter of 2024—fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025—was very much stronger compared to what we're seeing currently, mainly because of much higher tourist activity, again, mainly coming from Argentina. We're not seeing that during this last months. So it's, yeah, it's reasonable to expect that the first quarter could be similar in the comparison base as the fourth quarter to the previous periods. But it's still earlier in the year, so we've just, you know, finished one month, so it's still two months to go. We'll, we'll see how we will progress. But yeah, it's, it's a, it's a reasonable assumption.
Right. Second question from Goldman Sachs. There are two questions related to the U.S. and the closure of stores and same store sales. I believe we have covered that already. However, if Goldman Sachs team or anyone else has a further question regarding that, we can always have a one-on-one call with the IR team. And third, regarding the Argentina operations, can you talk a bit more about the main trends that you're seeing in Argentina business and the outlook for customer spending into 2026?
Yeah. That's, that's a tough ... Anything related to long-term outlook in Argentina is a tough question. I believe we are quite positive on Argentina, in general, the country, right? So the macroeconomic environment still remains challenging. We are seeing some positive trends, but I would say consumption is still affected in the country, mainly because there are much higher expenses related to, like, services, inflation, and other kind of cost inflation, which affects spending, income, or remaining disposable income for the people. So that obviously affects retail and other areas where consumers shop. So we again, as I said, like, this, it's still early in the year. We are seeing positive dynamics in the country, but yeah, but the consumption remains still under pressure.
Maybe to complement, so our view in Argentina is more on the long term. That said, shopping centers is a category that is we are seeing a lot of momentum, international brands coming to the country, looking for, for locations. We are seeing a lot of momentum there. That's a part of our business in Argentina that is performing quite well. In the other categories, particularly in supermarket, we're not seeing big changes on what we saw on the fourth quarter, but not until now, during the year. And as we mentioned, income improvement, we are seeing a very soft or weak demand. We also don't see any changes so far in the year. But we are just starting, and we have a full year.
Also regarding Argentina, we remember that we have integrated Makro. We are in the process of capturing synergies. And just to provide you with an update, we are starting to develop our retail media program in Makro. We have also started to incorporate financial services into Makro. We are integrating them into our private label program, so we have a full list of potential synergies and new capabilities that we are going to start accelerating due to this acquisition that we did in February of 2025. So as Andrés and Irina mentioned, we are optimistic about the country and also the assets that we have there, our value proposition. I don't see any further questions from the call or chat box, so actually, thank you for joining the call.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you so much. Bye-bye.