SMU S.A. (SNSE:SMU)
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Apr 24, 2026, 1:05 PM CLT
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Earnings Call: Q4 2025

Mar 18, 2026

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and I would like to welcome you to SMU's Fourth Quarter Results Conference Call on the 18th of March 2026. At this time, all participants' lines are on listen-only mode. The format of the call today will be a presentation by the management, followed by a question- and- answer session. Without further ado, I would like to now pass the line to Ms. Carolyn McKenzie, Head of Investor Relations at SMU. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Carolyn McKenzie
Head of Investor Relations, SMU S.A.

Thank you. Thank you all for joining us today. I'm here with our CFO, Arturo Silva. As usual, we are going to start today's presentation with a few slides describing some of our business highlights, and then we will go to the financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025. After that, Arturo will be happy to take any questions. You can send your questions by chat, or you can raise your hand and we can unmute you. An audio recording of this call will be available on our website later today. Also, please note that we may be making forward-looking statements today. As always, please remember to take a look at the caution regarding forward-looking statements on slide number two of our presentation. We'll get started on slide number three.

2025 was the final year of our most recent 3-year strategic plan, and especially in that final year, we laid the groundwork for what's to come. The main initiatives we implemented provide important context for our 2025 results and also for our expectations for 2026 and beyond. The omni-channel growth pillar featured an ambitious organic growth plan with 43 new store openings in Chile, which we successfully completed. 25 Unimarc stores, ten Alvi stores, and eight Super 10 stores in 3 years, and 16 stores in 2025 alone. The new stores have been outperforming our expectations. In the fourth quarter, on average, sales and EBITDA were more than 20% higher than the plan that we evaluated when we made the decision to approve the projects.

We assume a 3-year maturity curve and over 60% of these stores, which have been operating for less than three years, are already outperforming the average sales per square meter and sales per full-time equivalent for their respective formats. On slide five, we have one of the most important accomplishments of the 2023 to 2025 period, and one that is extremely relevant for our plans going forward. During this period, we transformed our mix of formats in Chile. In 2025, we made the decision to accelerate the conversion of our Mayorista 10 format. We had been gradually converting these stores into the Super 10 format, originally intending to finish the conversions between 2026 and 2028. However, we decided to speed up that process, and we also identified an opportunity to convert some of those stores to our Alvi format and not just to Super 10.

This is because we realized that a number of stores had a significant B2B customer base and also were located in areas with a higher number of mom-and-pops. Therefore, we saw more sales potential for Alvi in those locations. This streamlined our operations as we went from having four formats in 2022 to having three clearly defined value propositions that have the critical mass to compete effectively and contribute to growth. On the next two slides, we have a double click on that decision. The 15 conversions to Alvi all took place as part of an overnight operation on November 1st. We have pictures of that on the slide.

In addition to those 15 conversions, Alvi opened six stores last year, including its first store in Punta Arenas at the very southern end of Chile, which means that its footprint grew from 36 to 57 stores in just 1 year, providing significantly more scale and geographic coverage. Similarly, on slide seven, Super 10 has grown from 16 stores at the end of 2024 to 54 stores today. Given the new scale, we are now better able to communicate the value proposition to customers and build brand awareness because we have the critical mass to do so. At the end of October of last year, we launched a new campaign with the tagline, "Super 10, super barato," which means super cheap, reinforcing the soft discount value proposition to customers.

Finally, in Peru, we opened 11 stores in 3 years, growing our presence in the Piura zone in the northern part of the country and helping build the scale we need to compete more effectively. As part of that growth, we also opened a new distribution center to help make our logistics operations more efficient and supply our stores more effectively. On slide nine, we go to the second pillar of the plan, which is customer experience, where private label development has been a key initiative. These products enhance our assortments across formats, offering excellent quality at convenient prices. Our portfolio of specialized brands covers a wide range of categories, including bakery, fruits and vegetables, meat, seafood, pantry basics, cleaning supplies, paper products, and more. Achieving 13% sales penetration with over 500 product launches during the period.

We have also been growing our supplier base using the trading company we acquired at the end of 2024 to strengthen our global sourcing, achieving cost savings that help us compete better. Another key part of the customer experience is the promotional activity we offer in order to deliver savings. We have been adapting our promotional strategy over the last two years in response to changing customer needs and preferences. This has led us to our current layered promotional strategy, which combines long-lasting campaigns with short, high-impact campaigns. This is an adjustment to our previous high-low pricing strategy. We still have some high-low activity focused especially on fresh products. We also have these longer-lasting "low, lower" campaigns.

We are able to leverage our multi-format strategy by designing promotions that cover the same product categories across formats while remaining true to the marketing and pricing strategies that are specific to each format. On slide 11, the next pillar of the plan is efficiency and productivity. In the face of rising labor costs and higher electricity rates, our efficiency initiatives have contributed to productivity gains throughout our operations. These include self-checkouts, self-service scales, digital shelf management technologies, and a digital treasury system in our stores, as well as other technologies in the supply chain and back office, allowing us to optimize our organizational structure, carrying out two restructuring plans in 2025, one in the first quarter and one in the fourth quarter, generating savings on personnel expenses going forward.

On this slide, you can see that our sales per full-time equivalent, which is an indicator we use to measure productivity, increased 3.4% in the fourth quarter, although revenue was down 0.7%. In the full year, even with a 2.4% decline in revenue, we still managed to improve sales per full-time equivalent. On slide 12, we have also been working to offset the higher electricity rates, migrating qualifying stores to lower unregulated electricity rates. In 2024, 15% of our energy consumption in Chile was contracted under unregulated rates. In 2025, we increased that number to 20%, migrating 36 facilities over the course of the year.

We were previously expecting to reach 50% of energy consumption under unregulated rates by 2027, but we have made even further progress, and we now expect to make it to 55% in 2028. As an added benefit, under these contracts, we are also using electricity from renewable energy sources. We are more than tripling the share of renewable energy in our operations between 2024 and 2028. Finally, with respect to the committed and sustainable organization pillar of our plan, we were pleased to be included for the second consecutive year in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook, which recognizes companies that achieved an outstanding score on the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment. We were one of only ten companies in our industry that qualified for this recognition, and with our score, we ranked first in Chile, second in Latin America, and eighth globally.

The Corporate Sustainability Assessment provides us with an external benchmark with which to monitor and evaluate our sustainability management in areas that are key for our industry. These results show that our sustainability strategy is aligned with global best practices. These results have also allowed us to qualify for the Dow Jones Best-in-Class indices, giving us access to a broader investor base. That concludes our summary of the 2023-2025 plan. In December, we launched our plan for 2026-2028. If you missed that presentation, it is available on our website. Today, we just have a brief summary of the main initiatives. Our focus is to drive growth, competitiveness, and efficiency, and we will do that by building on the foundation of our newly streamlined multi-format strategy.

Today in Chile, we are operating three formats with critical mass, each of which has a clear, well-defined value proposition. The new plan has three key pillars, growth with value for the customer, technology assets, and efficiency and productivity. Our sustainable culture will support the execution of the plan. On slide 15, the growth with value for the customer pillar encompasses many different areas of our operations and strategy. The overarching goal of this pillar is to grow and enhance our value propositions for all of our customers and all of their shopping habits. This includes both final and B2B customers with different levels of sophistication and both fill-in and stock-up purchases. Our initiatives target all components of the customer value equation, assortment, freshness, private label, offline and online purchases, competitive prices, and fast and easy shopping experiences that help save time.

We plan to open 60 stores and upgrade 80 stores in the next three years, while also growing our omni-channel coverage and expanding our private label penetration from today's 13% to 16% in 2028. As we look to grow sales, open new stores, upgrade existing stores, grow our logistics network, expand private label, and increase efficiency, we need to implement digital technology assets that will help us build a more flexible, efficient company that is prepared to deliver greater value to customers, which brings us to the technology assets pillar on slide 16. Between 2023 and 2025, we updated our ERP system, SAP, to the S/4HANA version. We are prepared to take the next steps to transform our existing transactional core into an agile digital core that accelerates the adoption of new technologies.

In 2026, we will rationalize our infrastructure and migrate to a modern cloud, enabling cost savings and laying the foundation for adopting new technologies, such as an enterprise AI framework to build optimization algorithms for operations and new digital business capabilities. All of this will be implemented under ISO/IEC 27001 security standards. Building our digital technology assets is key for the next pillar of our plan, efficiency and productivity, on slide 17. This pillar has been a constant presence in all of our strategic plans as a disciplined approach to expenses is part of our culture, and we will maintain that while adding further process optimizations and technological tools to drive productivity and help mitigate cost pressures, thereby contributing to profitability.

We have efficiency and productivity initiatives throughout our operations, including supply chain, stores, and back office, as well as energy efficiency. On slide 18, CapEx for the next three years will be around CLP 370 billion, distributed fairly evenly across the period, which means the CapEx for 2026 will be approximately CLP 120 billion. 55% of that amount will go towards growth initiatives, especially store openings and upgrades. This year, our plan includes 16 store openings and 36 store upgrades, as detailed on the slide. We are already off to a great start with four openings to date, two Unimarc stores in Chile and two Maxi Ahorro stores in Peru. Going on to the numbers. On slide number 19, we have revenue for the full year and fourth quarter.

Revenue decreased 2.4% in the full year, but we had a significant sequential improvement in the fourth quarter, where total revenue was down 0.7%, but Unimarc increased revenue by 1.9%. This was a combination of 0.9% same-store sales growth and the contribution from new stores, which, as I explained before, have been performing very strongly. The weaker performance in the soft discount and cash and carry formats is largely related to the store conversions from Mayorista 10 to Alvi and Super 10. Initially, the sales of converted stores tend to decrease as the process involves physical interventions to the stores and changes to assortment that have affected the customer experience. However, we believe this is a temporary effect and that these formats will allow us to compete better in the future.

The increased scale and geographic coverage of these two banners, as well as the brand relaunch for Super 10, will increase awareness, helping attract new customers to these converted stores. We are confident that the new format selected for each location, whether Alvi or Super 10, will offer a better value proposition for customers, and that should lead to better sales performance. In addition, as we have explained in previous quarters, in 2025, we made a strategic decision to focus on profitability, which involves optimizing our promotional strategy in the retail segment and eliminating certain low-margin volume sales in the cash and carry segment. The effects of that decision are clearly reflected when we look at the gross margin, which expanded 150 basis points in the full year and 90 basis points in the quarter.

On the next slide, we can see that the higher gross margin led to an increase of 2.5% in gross profit in the full year and 2.2% in the fourth quarter, despite the lower revenue. As you can see in the graph on the right-hand side of the slide, this improvement in gross margin has been consistent throughout the year. We had already achieved a significant recovery in the fourth quarter of 2024, returning to 31.5% after two quarters in the 29%-30% range. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we had a further expansion of 90 basis points on top of that. In the last three quarters, we've had a gross margin over 32%.

On the next slide, slide 21, we have operating expenses, which increased by 5.6% in the full year and 5.5% in the fourth quarter, explained almost entirely by extraordinary increases in labor costs and electricity rates, affecting personnel expenses and service expenses, as you can see in the graph on the right. Specifically, the extraordinary increases were in the average minimum wage, which was 9% higher in 2025 than in 2024, the reduced workweek in Chile, and exceptional increases to electricity rates, causing our electricity expenses to increase 17% in 2025. These extraordinary increases had an impact of approximately CLP 20 billion for the year, explaining why our expenses grew above inflation. However, both the minimum wage and electricity expenses rose less in the fourth quarter, and we expect this to continue to be the case.

We accelerated adoption of the 40-hour workweek for stores that are fully adhered to our efficient operating model. Even though the law allows for a gradual reduction, we have already absorbed the full impact. We also have our operating efficiency and productivity initiatives to help keep expenses under control. Consequently, we expect to see more moderate growth in operating expenses in the coming periods. On slide 22, we have EBITDA, which decreased 6.1% in the year and 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Although we did have an expansion in gross profit, this wasn't enough to offset the extraordinary increases in operating expenses. Going forward, we are optimistic that a combination of top-line growth and more moderate increases in expenses will contribute to EBITDA growth and an expansion in our EBITDA margin.

On slide 23, we have net income, which was up 29.5% in the year and down 27% in the quarter. The main effect in the full year was a non-operating gain of CLP 60 billion before tax on the sale of assets and purchase options in the first, second and third quarters of 2025. We continue to operate those assets under new long-term rental contracts that we signed with the buyers, so there was no impact on operations from these transactions, but this is a more optimal financial strategy. These transactions also gave rise to a higher income tax expense. The net effect in 2025 was CLP 44 billion. On the other hand, we had a non-operating loss from the organizational restructuring plans that we carried out in the first and fourth quarters.

In the full year, the impact was close to CLP 13 billion, and in the fourth quarter, it was CLP 3 billion. As I mentioned before, these plans generate savings going forward. On the next slide, we have our financial ratios. On the left, net financial liabilities to EBITDA, including store rentals, was 5.2x in December, and when we adjust for store rentals, it was 3.6x . In 2025, we paid around CLP 140 billion in bond maturities, leading to a reduction in financial debt. Our cash balance only decreased by CLP 70 billion. Even while EBITDA was lower, we still saw an improvement in the net financial debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio.

When we look at total financial liabilities, we have an increase essentially in obligations for rights of use, which is where we recognize store rental contracts under IFRS 16, and this is due to both the new contracts for the stores under the leaseback operations and contracts for new store openings. New store openings have a temporary negative impact on these indicators because when we open a new store and we sign a new rental contract, that contract is recognized as an obligation for rights of use under financial liabilities, and we have to recognize the full amount of that liability. We also have the full impact of the CapEx that we need to build the store on our cash flow. The store doesn't contribute its full EBITDA until it reaches maturity, generally around its third year of operation.

This affects the net financial liabilities to EBITDA ratio as well as the net interest coverage ratio. The impact on the adjusted ratios is less because those ratios don't include the rights of use or the respective interest expense. On slide 25, we have our bond covenants. The net financial debt to equity ratio is at 0.51x lower than in December 2024, again because of the lower net financial debt that I described on the previous slide. Net interest coverage is lower than in 2024, but still well above our limits. On slide 26, at the top of the slide, we have a summary of our cash flow for the full year 2025.

We started the year off with a cash balance of CLP 155 billion, which included the cash that we had raised through bond placements during 2024 in preparation for the 2025 bond maturities. During the year, we generated operating cash of CLP 266 billion, plus CLP 94 billion in net proceeds from the sales of assets and purchase options mentioned before. If you look at our cash flow statement, you will see a cash inflow of CLP 129 billion from these sales, but there was also an outflow of CLP 35 billion from the prepayment of the lease that we had on the distribution center. Hence the net amount of CLP 94 billion.

The main use of cash for the period was net debt amortizations of CLP 141 billion, mainly relating to the Series T and AK bonds that matured in March and April, and that we paid using proceeds from the bonds that we issued the previous year. We had been maintaining a significant cash surplus over the last several quarters, as we had CLP 240 billion in bond maturities over the last two years. We have now returned to more normal cash levels as our refinancing needs through 2026 are extremely limited, as you can see in the maturity profile below. We have bank debt that tends to be revolving and only CLP 11 billion in bond maturities for all of 2026.

The other uses of cash for the year were lease payments, in addition to the distribution center prepayment of CLP 62 billion, interest payments of CLP 63 billion, dividends of CLP 51 billion, and CapEx of CLP 113 billion. We have an ending cash balance that is still a bit higher than normal. We generally think of CLP 40 billion-CLP 50 billion as standard, and we ended the period with CLP 85 billion, which gives us plenty of flexibility. Finally, we've had a few announcements in the beginning of this year, so we wanted to include a summary here. In January, we carry out another organizational restructuring plan, which will have a negative impact of approximately CLP 12.5 billion before tax on our first quarter financial statements

This will generate savings that offset the cost over the course of the year, and then those savings remain for future periods. In February, our board of directors authorized management to execute our share buyback program. As a reminder, this program was approved by shareholders in 2022 for a five-year period, but technically shareholders authorized the board to execute the program. It's not very practicable to have the board actually doing the day-to-day execution, so they expressly authorized management to do this. While the authorization was granted in February, we were in our pre-earnings blackout period, so we couldn't make any purchases until yesterday. The board also agreed to call an extraordinary shareholders meeting to evaluate the possibility of approving a new buyback program. If the new program is approved, that would be for a new five-year period and the existing program would be terminated.

Finally, in March, we announced additional sale and leaseback operations for two stores using the same structure as last year, and we also sold two properties from our land bank. In all four cases, we signed long-term rental contracts. We will continue to operate the existing stores just as we currently do. As far as the land, that was originally purchased in order to secure the locations for future store openings. For those two properties, we signed rental contracts to operate the stores once the respective real estate projects have been developed. These transactions will have a positive impact of approximately CLP 2.3 billion on net income in the first quarter, and there will also be a net cash inflow of approximately CLP 6.7 billion.

We rent almost all of our stores, but we do still have four stores that we own and could potentially sell using the same structure, and we also have nine other sites within our land bank. That is it for our presentation. Thank you for listening. If there are any questions, Arturo will be happy to take them now.

Operator

Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. We are now moving to the question and answer section. If you would like to ask a question, please press star two on your phone and wait to be prompted. If you are dialed in by the web, you can type your question in the box provided or request to ask a voice question. We'll just give a moment or so for the questions to come in. Okay, we have our first voice question coming from Alonso Aramburu from BTG Pactual. Alonso, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Alonso Aramburu
Associate Partner, BTG Pactual

Hi. Good morning. Hi, Arturo, Carolyn. Yes. A couple of questions on my end. Given the trends you've been seeing, can you give us any sense or expectations about what you are thinking about sales growth and EBITDA margins for 2026? Related to that also, you mentioned more moderate growth of expenses. How much is that? Is that in line with inflation, above inflation, slightly below? If you can give us some color on that. Related to the low margin volume that has been taken out of the stores, are you done with that strategy or there's more cutting of volume that needs to happen still in this year? Thank you.

Arturo Silva
CFO, SMU S.A.

Thanks. Hello. Trends for 2026 in the sales in the first months of this year, January, February, and the first days of March, show a significant recovery in Unimarc in line with the Q4 in 2025. Even more than this recovery in the last quarter of 2025, with good performance in old store and also in opening stores. However, due to the conversion effect in Super 10 and also in Alvi, because in this store, the performance has been lower because in the first phase of the conversion, this store suffers in terms of sales because the customers suffer in terms of service in the conversion because the store is not closed operating in this period. We're expecting that in the next quarter, the sales of this store will be in the level of the average of the rest of the store in the portfolio.

The weight of the Unimarc sales in the total sales is very important. That's why we are expecting a significant increase in the first quarter in terms of sales for this reason. In terms of gross margin, it remains stable. In terms of expenses, we implemented, as Carolyn McKenzie mentioned, the restructuring plan that should be paid during this year. In general, we are expecting the sales growing more than the previous year. Also, the expenses controlled at the level of inflation because we are not expecting extraordinary increase, especially in salaries and also in electricity expenses. Also, we implemented some measures to reduce the headcount in the first quarter and also more stores with non-regulated rate for the electricity. These two expenses are very important in the total expenses.

For this reason, we're expecting growth in expense in the level of inflation in the next year, especially this year, and not in the level of 5.5% or 5.6% like 2025. In consequence, we are expecting improvement in our EBITDA margin in the level of 8% or 8.5%, more in line with the Q4 in 2025 for the next quarter. Is there another question?

Alonso Aramburu
Associate Partner, BTG Pactual

Thank you, Arturo. Just to follow up on that. The 8%-8.5% is for the full year 2026. That's your expectation? Or is that for the next quarter?

Arturo Silva
CFO, SMU S.A.

Okay. No, 8.5%, we are expecting to reach close to 8.5% this year. Actually we plan to go for the 9% again. It's our long-term target.

Alonso Aramburu
Associate Partner, BTG Pactual

Okay. My second question was regarding the low margin volume you have been taking out of Alvi. Are you finished with that or are you still reducing the number of SKUs?

Arturo Silva
CFO, SMU S.A.

In Alvi, the idea is to improve the margin. Because specifically in the level of the store, in the old store in Alvi. In the gross margin in the Mayorista 10 store that we convert to Alvi, of course, we'll reduce the margin, but also we will reduce the expenses in this store. Finally, the idea is to have a preferred performance in terms of the sales margin and expenses, as old store in the new stores or in the new store, in the converted stores as well. Also in the volume, we adjust 100% of the store of the same low margin in Alvi, because it's a phenomenon, not only in the new store, also in the old store. Now we are improving sort of the direct sales or institutional sales, but with a good margin, not as was in the previous year.

For this reason, the Alvi margin will be stable in the next quarter as well in the level of the last three months and in Q4 2025.

Alonso Aramburu
Associate Partner, BTG Pactual

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next voice question comes from Joel Lederman from Itaú. Please go ahead, Joel. Your line is now open.

Joel Lederman
Associate and Sell-Side Research Analyst, Itaú BBA

Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. Can you hear me?

Operator

Yes, yes, we can hear you.

Joel Lederman
Associate and Sell-Side Research Analyst, Itaú BBA

Thank you very much. I have two questions. The first one is just a follow-up on the data question. I just want to understand better the dynamics of the same-store sales, the discount formats, if you could separate the ticket and the volume. How should we understand the discount formats without the strategic SKUs that you are putting out? Just to understand how should we understand the evolution of same stores going forward. My second question is regarding the payback of the one-offs. How do we see that in terms of the year? S hould it be a gradual evolution of the payback or is concentrated in the full quarter of 2026? My third question is regarding the potential for default stores and the land bank that Carolyn McKenzie mentioned in the presentation. If you could give any color regarding those, would be great. Thank you very much.

Arturo Silva
CFO, SMU S.A.

The payback of the restructuring plan is around ten months. As we implement in January, therefore we will recover the investment in November. We will have one month with net savings. The main saving will be in 2027 for this specific plan and the rest of the year, of course. Another question was soft discount?

Carolyn McKenzie
Head of Investor Relations, SMU S.A.

The first question, Joel. The audio was kind of going in and out. I think you were asking about-

Arturo Silva
CFO, SMU S.A.

The hard discount or the soft discount performance that was?

Joel Lederman
Associate and Sell-Side Research Analyst, Itaú BBA

No, no. I'm so sorry. In terms of the same-store sales of the discount formats, which was 9.1%, negative 9.1%. I just want to understand how much of that is related to volumes and prices, and how much of that is related to the SKU that you are taking out of the system due to a strategic way to see the business.

Arturo Silva
CFO, SMU S.A.

No, the idea is to recover the same-store sales with our strategy of Super Barato or is that we will relaunch the commercial strategy in November of 2025. The campaign includes this pricing strategy and also the awareness of this format, because now we have 14 and 54 stores. In the past we had only 16. Therefore, we are betting on this more awareness to improve. Also, we have in the 2025, b ecause we reduce the volume sales into this format as well, but this effect will not be present in 2026. Therefore, the only negative effect we will have in 2026 will be a conversion effect, as Carolyn mentioned, in the first phase because these stores suffer for the remodeling plan in the store. In the next quarter we are expecting to improve our same performance.

And for the all, potentially for the commercial strategy with our improvement in the assortment as well, in line with the soft discount operational model. And to which the improvements in same-store sales as well.

Joel Lederman
Associate and Sell-Side Research Analyst, Itaú BBA

Thank you very much.

Operator

Okay.

Arturo Silva
CFO, SMU S.A.

Of course, for the conversion effect, the recovery of growth in terms of sales in Alvi and Super 10 will be slower than Unimarc for this reason.

Carolyn McKenzie
Head of Investor Relations, SMU S.A.

Great. We have a text message from Santiago Venegas from Principal Financial Group. Santiago asks, "Apart from optimizing promotional activity, what are some other measures to drive top-line growth in the coming periods? And also, what is the expected maturity time for converted stores from Mayorista 10 to Super 10 and Alvi to perform at their highest level?"

Arturo Silva
CFO, SMU S.A.

Okay. In general, the converted store should be better performance or the maturity, or with the maturity probably after 12 months is our experience in this case. After 12 months, recover or we could reach the average sales of the rest of the product. Or we were expecting the end of this year to reach this level of performance.

Carolyn McKenzie
Head of Investor Relations, SMU S.A.

That's the first part of the question. The measures to drive top line growth.

Arturo Silva
CFO, SMU S.A.

Essentially our promotional activities are improving in the assortment with this promotional, the short-term promotions in Unimarc, combined with the long-term promotion for two or three months in the base basket with very attractive prices for more long-term periods and apoteósico or short-term promotion in perishable products, essentially meat or beer on weekends, essentially, with very good result in January, February, and March of this year and also in the end of last year. We insist on this combination of promotion in Unimarc and in Super 10, the Super Barato strategy. In Alvi, we have also combination of super promotion activities and also improving our assortment and also the omni-channel strategy in e-commerce stores and also direct sales with sales force with the idea to have more coverage that for each store with sales force into the institutional sales.

That is the strategy in addition in Alvi's world. It's very important, the private label in this strategy because we have better private label in terms of quality and prices because we are purchasing product directly in the source without intermediation. That is the strategy to obtain better conditions and use better conditions to pass through for the prices and with more attractive prices and more quality in private labels will also be very important to improve the growth of the sales and the top line in the next quarter. Also we have an average of some stores, 80 stores in the next three years. This average, especially in Unimarc will allow to convert these stores to the level of the new stores that we will have very good performance.

With this remodeling plan, we will have a better set as well in the level of the best stores of the performance. That is the combination of measures in addition of promotional activities to improve the top line in the next quarter.

Carolyn McKenzie
Head of Investor Relations, SMU S.A.

Great. Rafael, I don't see any other questions.

Operator

Maybe I'll just do a quick reminder. If you are connected via the phone and you would like to ask a voice question, please press star two on your phone keypad and wait for your name to be prompted. If you're connected via the web, you can send your question as a text with the box provided or also request to ask a voice question. I'll just give a moment or so for any additional questions to come in. Okay. Looks like, we have no further questions, so let me pass the line back to the team for their concluding remarks.

Carolyn McKenzie
Head of Investor Relations, SMU S.A.

Great. Thanks for joining us today, everybody. Feel free to get in touch if you have any additional questions, and we hope you'll join us in the next quarter. Have a great day.

Operator

Thank you. We are now closing all the lines. Goodbye.

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