Hello, everyone. Welcome to AmRest's first half and Q2 twenty twenty-four investor webcast. My name is Lydia, and I'll be your operator today. After the prepared remarks, there'll be an opportunity to ask questions. I'll now hand you over to your host, Łukasz Wichełkowski, to begin. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Łukasz Wichełkowski. I am President of holding company, and as usual, moderator of quarter results call with AmRest. Today, the company is represented by Eduardo Zamarripa, our Chief Financial Officer, and Santiago Aguilera, Chief of Strategy and IR. Not to take too much time of yours, guys, the mic is yours.
Thank you, Łukasz. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today in Q2 twenty twenty-four AmRest results presentation. It is my pleasure to share with you an update of AmRest's situation at the end of the quarter. In this period, the major European economies have shown relatively weak economic growth and moderate increase in private consumption, driven by real wage growth. However, with relevant differences across countries. As we are gonna see later on, we had a very good performance in countries such as Spain and Poland, while business development in France and especially in Germany were negative. In addition, inflation pressure continues to moderate across the region, supporting an EBITDA margin expansion in most of our markets, but let's start with today's presentation, if we go to the slide two, please.
As we usually do, let me remind you that AmRest is Europe's leading restaurant operator, with a portfolio of almost 2,200 restaurants in 22 countries across Europe, Middle East, and China. We keep a balanced portfolio of franchise and proprietary brands that covers a wide range of consumption occasions. As a result, more than 30 million customers visit our restaurants every month, where they find a distinctive service provided by over 45,000 passionate AmRest people. If we move now to slide 3, I'm going to try to summarize in 5 points the most relevant events for the first half of the year. First, AmRest generated revenue of EUR 1.2 billion in the first half of the year, with a growth of 5.2% compared to the same period in 2023.
Second, the EBITDA generated amounted almost EUR 194 million, up nearly 13% versus the same period of 2023, which puts the EBITDA margin at 15.7%, over one percentage point higher than the same period of 2022. Third, the operating profit generated in the period amounts to EUR 23.5 million, after registering a value correction of EUR 41 million in the goodwill of Sushi Shop. The total impairment book reached EUR 44 million. Fourth, the financial risk profile of the group is very stable, with a leverage of 2 times. This is at the lowest end of the target leverage range defined for the group. And finally, during the first half of the year, we opened 40 new restaurants and renovated 140 units. In the following slide, we will go into more depth and detail on these points.
But let's start with what we are doing in our different brands on the slide four. The commercial position of our brands plays a crucial role in the value generation of AmRest. Let me start with the quick service and coffee brands on the business slide number four. Starbucks maintains its long, strong leadership position among coffee shop users. We have kept our strategy focused on customers' daily coffee habit through coffee offers and everyday beverages. In KFC, since the beginning of the year, we have been delighting our customers by consistently offering totally new products such as the following: Deluxe Shakes, with new flavors such as bubblegum and popcorn, or Pizza Twisters, creating a culinary revolution with the delicious fusion of our iconic KFC Twisters and the worldwide loved pizza.
For Burger King, we are happy to inform that a new Burger King app is now working in Poland, Czech, and Romania. This gives our guests the opportunity to check current offers, coupons, find restaurants, and be able to use special on-the-app user offers. During the following months, additional app solutions will be run as mobile ordering and loyalty program. Now, moving to the fast casual and dining brands in slide five. Regarding Sushi Shop, we already referred to the goodwill impairment costs. Two reasons have triggered this new value correction. The first one, related to economic factors, reflected in the increase in the discount rate used in the model. And the second is the construction in terms of our growth expectations, for the brand until profitability is fully restored.
Commercial initiatives, like the new menu elaborated by the Spanish chef, Albert Adrià, or an unprecedented collaboration with the iconic video game character, Pac-Man, will help this group, complemented by a rigorous program of operational efficiency, commercial positioning, and the creation of synergies with the rest of the group. At Pizza Hut, we are cooperating with Garfield movie premiere in Poland and Czech Republic. At La Tagliatella, following the demand and our goal to let everybody enjoy our dishes without dietary limitations, we have opened a new La Tagliatella Senza Glutine in Barcelona. This is the second restaurant of this kind that shows our commitment with the celiac audience and our objective of increasing our strength in this segment. And finally, at Blue Frog, we are providing to our guests with an unforgettable taste adventure. We have introduced our new order menu in May.
Appetizers, snacks, and revolutionary grilled products make a delicious blend of creativity and value for Blue Frog, which has been a great success in mitigating the difficult consumption situation in China. If now we move to slide 60, as I mentioned, AmRest generated a revenue of more than EUR 1.2 billion in the first half of the year, which growth of over 5% compared to the same period in 2023. This growth is relevant in a context where consumer spending has been subdued. I think that the success has been to adapt in this moment to a very price-sensitive and value-seeking customers.
On the right-hand chart, you have evolution of the twelve months trading average revenue per store, that continues with a steady growth for the last three years now, providing a good indicator on both the health of our business and the level of exploitation of economies of scale through the sales leverage. Moving to slide three, as can be seen in this slide, the group progress in digitalization is another factor that continues to support our activity level, as sales through digital channels making up 57% of total sales during the quarter. In terms of consumption channels, dining consumption remains stable as the preferred alternative for AmRest's consumers, according to 45% of consumption locations. We see stability of the distribution channel breakdown during the last quarters. Now moving to slide four. EBITDA generation stood at 194 million EUR during the first half of the year.
This is an increase of 13% compared to 2022. The EBITDA margins reach almost 16%. This is over one percentage point higher than the same period of 2023. The main factors behind this margin expansion are lower cost pressures and the positive effect generated by the increase in the average sales per restaurant, the continuous progress in efficiency, and the achievement of clear strategic objectives aimed at promoting optimization and saving initiatives throughout the group. The graph on the left shows the price evolution. According to the price of some of our main inputs, it is clear that the enormous cost pressure experienced in a few quarters ago is now behind us, and our margin is benefiting from the rotation of new concepts.
If we can go to slide 90, in terms of operating profit, the generation amounted almost EUR 24 million, representing a margin of 2% after goodwill impairment of EUR 44 million in the period. Let me share a few thoughts on this very important level of adjustment. More than EUR 41 million corresponds to an extraordinary value adjustment of the goodwill associated with Sushi Shop. Therefore, it has no impact on the group's liquidity or cash generation capacity of the group. This remaining part is associated to restaurant impairments, where the number of restaurants where impairments are reversed. 41 surpassed the new impaired 40 restaurants. Let me straighten this idea. This number of 40 restaurants impaired is less than half of the last year number, which is 89. I think this is a good indicator that the evolution of the quality of our portfolio of results.
For this reason, I consider that it's also very important to look at the results generated in our ordinary operating business, excluding the extraordinary items. This is just the operating profit, excluding Sushi Shop impairment, that you can find in the graph, shows a generation of EUR 65 million during the first half of the year, and a margin of more than 5%, with an expansion of 1.1 percentage points versus last year. In other words, a clear sign of the strength of our company. Moving to slide 10, you can see that AmRest operates directly or via franchisees, a portfolio of 2,177 units. This portfolio has undergone structural changes during the last years in order to provide a better and more efficient capital allocations, which resulted in the transfer or closure of underperforming business.
We have listed the most relevant transfer of business performed and their EBITDA contribution. As explained, currently, we are negotiating the transfer of an additional business unit that comprises the 123 sub-franchise Pizza Hut restaurants of the French market and the equity restaurants that we operate. In addition, you can see that the gross number of restaurants opened during the period reached 40 units. With this, Santi, if you can cover the main financial highlights, please.
Many thanks, Eduardo, and good afternoon, everyone. Always, it's my pleasure to have the opportunity to address you on our quarterly results presentation. I would like to highlight a few ideas before starting. The results that we present today have bittersweet taste. On one side, as Eduardo has explained, the ordinary course of our business has been very positive, despite the very challenging situation in some of our markets and for some of our brands. This fact precisely highlights the distinctive advantage of the diversification of our business model. Second, margin expansion is still to improve, with double level in nominal amounts of revenue, and EBITDA continues to be our dynamic.
Behind this growth, there is a huge work in terms of digitalization, data analytics, marketing, logistics, and so on, that allow us to be close to our customers and serve efficiently to millions of guests across twenty-two countries every day. The bitter part, of course, is this impairment that we have registered in Sushi Shop goodwill. A lot of things have affected this brand over the last quarter. The situation in the French market that is very challenging and that we have talked on several occasions. Also, the impact of the salmon prices, the transformation of the delivery business, and more things. However, I think that it's important to stress that the value correction registered is mainly due to a revision on the growth expected for this brand, which is conditional on an improvement in profitability.
But by the way, this is already taking place, and this trend should consolidate. As we have underlined, this adjustment has no impact on liquidity or on the cash flow generation capacity of the group. AmRest is a well-diversified company with many brands in many countries, and we don't see any reason for changing the full year guidance that we shared at the beginning of the year. The weakness that we are experiencing in the French or German markets are being compensated by the excellent performance in other markets. Now, let's go back to the presentation. On the slide 12, we have the main financial results of the half year, which I think, or rather, Eduardo has already covered. So let me zoom in on the figures for the quarter on the slide 13. During the Q2 of the year, revenues amounted to almost 639 million EUR.
This is 6% higher than the same period of 2023, with a same-store sales level of 100 versus last year. In this regard, the most up-to-date information for the middle of August points to a level of 101. These are aggregate numbers that include excellent performances in some markets, as Poland and Spain, but important contractions in other relevant markets like France and Germany. Nonetheless, this has not prevented us to report today a new record in revenue generation for the group. The EBITDA generated was almost 113 million EUR. This is also a new record in nominal terms, with a year-on-year growth of 11%, which puts the EBITDA margin at a very decent level of almost 18%, which is over one percentage point higher than one year ago.
In terms of operating profit, EBIT, we generated EUR 4.9 million due to the value correction already explained. This represents an EBIT margin of almost 1%. Finally, the cash flow stood at EUR 47 million, which is almost 40% higher than one year ago. In this regard, let me remind you that we expect a more linear allocation during the year of investment on new restaurant openings than on previous occasions. Moving to slide 15, you can find the quarterly sales and financial sales index evolution.... The upward trend in terms of revenue generation continues with the 5% growth in nominal terms, which I referred before.
Again, let me explain that this aggregated number includes growth in many markets, as 16% in the case of Poland, 13% in the case of Spain, but declines of 9% in the case of Germany, or 2% in the case of France. In slide 15, we have plotted the quarterly EBITDA evolution. Almost EUR 130 million were generated, with a growth in nominal terms of 11%. This year, once again, is a new record, but equally important is the recovery in profitability with a margin expansion of one percentage point. In terms of operating profit, the figure decreases at almost EUR 5 million. Moving to slide 16, the adjusted or renewable operating profit sits at EUR 46 million. This is 25% more than a year ago, and represents a margin of more than 7%.
As we have indicated, this adjustment of the theoretical value or book value has no impact on the group's operating cash flow generation, which however, due to seasonal factors of the business cycle and payment terms, should increase in the coming quarters. On slide 17, I would like to point out a few things. First, we have a net increase of 80 equity restaurants during the last year. In the last 12 months, we have increased our equity portfolio in 80 restaurants. In terms of franchisees, the number has been flat due to the decrease that we experienced in the French market. Second, the 5% increase in revenue with a flat same store sales, we consider that is a good performance given the extremely challenged commercial conditions that we are having.
Of course, this is for you to judge, that we are seeing that we are doing better than our main comps in most of the markets. If we move now to slide 18, you can find the only changes in the restaurant portfolio. Just to recap, that we have a net growth of 8 restaurants during the quarter, with 22 new openings and the closure of 16 units. With this, at the end of the quarter, and have operated a portfolio of 2,127 restaurants. Moving now to slide 19, please. Here we have the cash and debt evolution. The group's gross financial debt was slightly reduced to EUR 609 million, after EUR 12 million repayments during the last quarter.
The risk profile has not changed much, and the leverage remains at the low end of our target, that is, two times. In terms of liquidity, we keep a cautious level of almost EUR 147 million at the end of the quarter. This includes a decrease of EUR 31 million during the period, as a result of accelerated investment. This level of liquidity, together with additional liquidity lines and credit facilities for more than EUR 265 million, we consider is appropriate, but sufficient level according with the group. In the slide 20, you can find our financial debt structure and liquidity profile. Basically, no changes with respect to the previous quarter. More than 90% of the current capital debt is long-term debt.
Going into slide 21, you can find the breakdown of revenues, EBITDA, and the number of restaurants that we have in each segment. This segment comprises businesses in 22 countries, where we observe very different commercial dynamics, as we have explained during the presentation. In slide 22, as usual, we'll start with Central and Eastern Europe, our more relevant region from business perspective, that represents 58% of business revenue. Revenue generated during the quarter in the region reached 369 million EUR, an increase of more than 10% over the previous year. Highlight the excellent performance of the Polish market, where revenues increased by almost 16%. Moving into profitability, the EBITDA generated during the quarter amounted 74 million EUR, representing a margin of 20% and an 8% increase year on year.
The restaurant portfolio amounted to 1,189 units, following the opening of five restaurants and the closure of one during the quarter. Cumulative opening for the year amounted to 17 and closure, five. Let's continue now in slide 23 with Western Europe, where our quarterly sales in the region amounted to EUR 224 million. This is flat compared to 2023. This development highlights the significant divergence in the evolution shown by different countries. While sales in Spain grew at a rate of more than 10%, Germany registered a decline of 9%, and France, almost 2% contracted. Nonetheless, the EBITDA in the region reached almost EUR 37 million, representing a margin of more than 16% and a growth of also 16%. The restaurant portfolio closed the period with 900 units after the opening of 14 restaurants and the closure of eight.
In cumulative terms, fifty restaurants were opened during the first six months of the year, and fourteen units were closed, eight of them in France. If we move now to slide four, twenty-four, we have the performance in China, where sales during the quarter declined by 6% in EUR terms to a total figure of 25 million EUR. However, the decline in sales in local currency were 4%. The macroeconomic situation and the global downturn in consumption explain this decline in business generation. However, we would like to remark the recovery in activity as a clear progress. Behind this, it is the commercial management carry over the Blue Frog team that is adapting well to this complicated environment, which has resulted in a significant expansion of margins and growth in EBITDA generation.
EBITDA generated was almost EUR 6 million, representing a margin of 24% compared to less than 21% one year ago. Finally, the number of restaurants managed by Blue Frog in the region at the end of the quarter were 86 units, following the opening of 3 restaurants and the closure of 5. During the first half of the year, we have opened 5 restaurants in the region and closed 7. Eduardo? Thank you.
Thank you, Santi. And with this, we are open to any questions that you may have.
Thank you. Please press star followed by the number one if you'd like to ask a question, and ensure your device is on mute briefly when it's your turn to speak. If you call online, you can submit written questions in the Q&A box provided. I'll just pause here briefly.
Maybe I will take the privilege of moderator and start with some questions from my end. Thank you, thank you very much for a very detailed presentation. I wanted to ask you for more elaboration on the one hundred and twenty-four franchise Pizza Hut restaurants in France. How the project actually looks like, what, where are you heading towards and what is the general idea for those assets of yours?
Thank you, Łukasz, for the question. We are still in discussions with Pizza Hut in terms of having the
The transfer.
The transfer of the market to them. We consider that this should take place in the following weeks, even, no? But we wanted to give an update on this, on the market. Now, and this is part of our strategy of allocation of resources to the most profitable investments and business.
Okay. W-w-we-
Sorry.
Could we write down for that an impairment? How do we look at it?
Not really. As we mentioned, we only have one equity store, so of course, the transfer will have some impacts on the financials, but nothing that is relevant or significant for the company.
So just to point out, no, we have provided the details of what has been the contribution and previous transfers of the assets. And in this case, so the figures should be also similar, no? So this goes with the strategy, as Eduardo was pointing out, you know, this efficient capital allocation, and to get rid of underperforming business in our portfolio.
... Great, thank you, and speaking of impairment, what bottom line of yours for a second, because it looks much worse than it could be from the Sushi Shop. Can you remind us if there is any goodwill left at Sushi Shop? What should we expect going forward?
Yes. Yes, of course, there's, of course, there's still some, some goodwill, and is in the level of EUR 70 million.
Seven zero?
771, in fact. EUR 71 million.
Okay. Right. Thank you for that. And, so we are seeing you doing this restructuring and, improving efficiency. Now you are speaking of, handing over a Hut business in France to, to Yum. What's the time horizon for this restructuring? When should we expect, your chain of restaurants be, or being ready, cut to the core, and, you should go normally without an, any impairment. Do you have any time frame?
Particularly, particularly for this transfer should take place in the remaining part of this year, you know?
But other than that, are there any large projects of yours to trim the fat, or you want positive-
Nothing at this point. This is pretty much, you know, if you see, we have been mentioning. It's focusing on the latitudes and the businesses that generate a higher contribution for the company, and this is the aim of this project that we have been carried out for several years, you know, but now that we see in different latitudes, different businesses, we are there.
I think that Eduardo was providing a very important data before, you know, with the number of restaurants that have been impaired during the first half year, you know. So the total number of restaurants impaired was 40 units. We have 43 units, and we are impairment where were reversed, no? And this is the lowest figure we have in many, many years, you know, and it's less than half the figure of restaurants that required impairment on previous years, you know?
I think that despite the fact that we have this goodwill impairment in the case of Sushi Shop, because we have reviewed this growth potential of brand at this stage, the quality of the portfolio, you know, is good news, and that the number of new non-performing restaurants that we have is getting lower and lower.
Okay, thank you. So, as you are closer and closer to end of the structuring, and there should be no longer a pressure on the bottom line, should we expect a dividend and a timeline? What's your strategy for dividend payout?
That's an interesting point, because and we are in an evolution of the company, as we have been stating for quite several quarters, you know, being very focused in terms of profitability, and we have been very, very vocal on this. We are walking towards a value company without resigning, designing for the growth story of the company. And we have several steps that we have taken in place in order to go towards this. The first one, optimizing the portfolio, which we discussed now briefly in the call. Second one, stabilize the profits. There has been very challenging times in terms of consumption, in terms of economy topics, which unfortunately are not closed yet.
There are still challenges in terms of the economy that are happening around the world, and Europe is not different. The third one is in terms of margin recovery. We are seeing that coming in the numbers that we have shown in the latest quarters. So we are working to that, and it's the path together. So, that's where we are getting to.
Do you have any milestones and ratios you want to achieve to be able to think of dividend?
It's still early to talk about that, but we have been working, as I was saying, in order to get there. You know, and we are at a good pace to get that, but it's still preliminary to enter into those details.
Okay. Great, thank you. Operator, I don't want to monopolize the call entirely, so if there are any questions, please.
Thank you. We have a question from Jakub Krawczyk with RBI. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Yeah. Hi, everyone, I hope you can hear me all right. Congrats on the figures. I have a question about Sushi Shop. I apologize in advance if I missed something from the call, but what is the strategy for the Sushi Shop, and how would you rate the chances for greater goodwill impairment on this EUR 31 million. And can you please remind me, is this the first goodwill impairment for Sushi Shop? And obviously, I think there could be a worry that should you adjust your business plans further, there should be further impairments to that in the next, let's say, Q4, for example, or something. So can you just give some color on that, please?
Perfect. Thank you, Jakub, for the question, and thank you for the comments on the results of the company. No, I think we're really happy on that, that the company is delivering on that, but also, as we have highlighted, we have the topic of Sushi Shop, and I would split the answer in two parts. No, first one is still there are economic factors that are affecting the businesses, no, and there are, particularly, France, as a country, is having a challenging time, no. It's not alone. Also, Germany is having a difficult time.
So that's one thing that we need to take into the consideration in order to drive the premises that we have over there. No, so that's why part of the impairment is related to an increase in the discount rate of the model that we have there. But what is important in here is to pay attention of the development of the countries in which Sushi Shop is present. The second one, and also is related to this one, is we want to be more prudent in terms of the growth of the business.
We are not, as I was mentioning, before, we're not resigning to the growth, but we want to be more prudent on that because our main focus right now is profitability of that business. We have established a task force in which of course all the Sushi Shop team is involved, but we have a direct involvement of the CEO of the company, Luis Comas, a direct involvement from myself, the marketing team, the operations team, development. So it's a key priority of the organization right now, the development of that market.
Now, we are working on a lot of initiatives, commercial one, how to drive more traffic to the stores, revenue management initiatives, value delivery for the consumer, how to make the brand more relevant to the consumer. And also we have initiatives in terms of the procurement in the local team, but also on the global team, no? A lot of effort has been done in terms of negotiation. On salmon has been a very tough time in terms of pressures of salmon, and it's a very important, it's the most important protein for us in that business. So we are working on all the fronts in order to deliver what we have in the current plan.
Okay. Thank you so much. I mean, I actually note that, you know, your EBITDA margin in Western Europe, in general, has narrowed behind to Eastern Europe. So I think that's a big win, despite the, you know, the headwinds you mentioned in France and Germany. Can you just clarify one thing for me? Because I think Santi mentioned that you have communicated the previous transfers. Of course, you have to communicate in due course. But is there like a... do you remind the market about the impact of previous transfers in some organized fashion, or is it enough to know, sort of go back in history to your previous documents to find the details on how things were booked then?
Or have you now reminded us exactly in some form on a slide or in the, in-
Yeah, no, thank you for the question. So, on those previous transfers, there was no impact on the book value. Basically, what we were illustrating is that they have a negative contribution to our EBITDA margin. A similar story should be expected in this case.
Mm-hmm, and it's, it's Pizza Hut France, correct?
Yes, this is Pizza Hut France. We have the MFA in this market, and what we have is 123 franchises, and we have only this one equity store. So we are in the negotiations for transferring the management of the whole country to Pizza Hut Europe.
Is there any update on the strategy for the brand, for the Pizza Hut flag, from Yum! or from yourselves on where this business is headed? Because obviously it's been having a bit of an identity crisis, or maybe I don't know, positioning crisis, for many players right across the industry. So I'm just wondering, do you see any developments on that side of the brand?
Yes. Yes, Jacob, I would say that, in the markets in, France and in Germany, it was very intense in terms of delivery. It's a little bit different in the C EE market, in which we operate because we have more dining. And we have been working a lot, in terms of the Pizza Hut brand in, in that segment, no? Which, we have been working, and we have been developing for many, many, many, many years, no? So we have the segment which is very relevant to delivery, which pizza is a great category for having that. But part of the distinctiveness that we have on CEE market is that we have restaurants, and on that, what we have done is having a better, or a big offer for our consumers, no?
We have pizza, we have salads, we have pasta, so we have menus that complement the portfolio to give to the consumer a better experience, no? We are having and investing a lot in terms of the applications to get in the restaurants a very nice experience, no? In fact, one of the projects that we are doing right now, and if you have the opportunity to visit one of our restaurants in Poland, we are having in some of our restaurants, some robots are helping us to give the service in the restaurant. Of course, that has positions overall in terms of the operation. These robots, what they are doing is they are.
With that, we send to our consumers in the tablet, and gives a very nice approach to the service in terms of the organization. Also, we are working in terms of payment in the tablet or ordering from the tablet, besides having the waiters. So we are enhancing the experience that we have over there with very good results on the C EE market.
I think that you have liked, you know, at one point, you know, that the, sometimes when we speak about Europe, we think Europe as a whole, no? And, for some brands, the situation in different countries, the position, the perception of the case on those countries is quite, quite different, no? So, in the case of France, of course, what we are reporting here is that we are in negotiating some of the transfer of the business. What we can tell right now is that there are no more transfers on the table, at this stage, and that we are very happy with the position that we have in the other countries, no? And we have a lot of initiatives are taking place, as Eduardo has just already explained.
Okay, thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Again, as a reminder, it's star five, oh one, to ask an audio question, or you can submit written questions in the Q&A box provided. We have a written question which reads: Did you stop reporting revenues from the sale of licensed Starbucks locations in your 1Q 2024 results in the German market?
No, we have a special situation for this specific pool of restaurants. There are 22 Starbucks restaurants in Germany, and that we don't manage. So, basically, what we are doing is to provide some services to them. Analyzing the situation where we don't have the right to run those licenses or to revoke them, and we consider that these are not to be core, those restaurants are in the portfolio of companies, no? So what we have done is to exclude this number of restaurants from the restaurant count, but for these services that we are providing to them, we get some money, and of course, we will continue to do so.
Part of the beauty of our business and group, of course, is that we have different clients that generate revenues, and this is one of them.
Thank you. We have no further questions on the line, so I'll come back over to the-
Maybe one question more from my end. Like for Sushi in the first quarter, in the Q2 it was zero. Can you share with us what are the current trends over the third quarter? Any kind of trading updates, and even like a little breakdown into Western and Eastern Europe would be very helpful.
I think that, one factor that has been very important is, the Easter week, no? So, what we were expecting for this year, and this is part of what we are seeing, is, that it was to be a challenging year. We were expecting to have a gradual recovery of activity as the year progresses. This is what we are seeing, but during the first Q, what we have is, it was, the abnormal effects of the Easter. So that was happening, if you want, in the Q1 numbers. And on the opposite, this is damaging the comparable figures on the Q2, no? So, the most relevant, no less, as we have said during the call and the locations, no, is this big divergence that we are seeing across different countries.
We were expecting that different monetary policy approaches will generate different situations where they synchronize the economic cycles across the countries, and this is what we are seeing, no, but once more no part of the beauty of the business that we have is that we are present in 22 countries, putting everything aggregated and together, we are able to propose 5% growth, no. It's very important in our business as well, our neighbors, no, and as we were thinking before, no, I think that our numbers are good numbers from this perspective, and of course we have the digital side or the digital pace that we mentioned before about this issue in terms of the growth in one of our brands.
That is something that we are working on, but we know what we have to do, and we are doing.
I will also take the opportunity for the question. Traffic is very important, no, as you were mentioning, like-for-like, no? And this is a metric, and this is a KPI that we follow very, very closely. In all the regions, in all the formats, all the restaurants, the traffic is really important. We want our guests to continue visiting restaurants. So that's why everything is focused on the consumer, and we measure this a lot. In these times in which there are certain constraints in terms of the economy is one of the topics that give us a very good sign of how we are performing, no?
Up to now, given the geographic diversification that we have, we are performing, and we are getting the results that we are showing. But this is not, this is not over, no. As we were saying, there are a lot of economic challenges that we have in the future, but we are focusing on delivering, and very close to our consumer, so that we can continue delivering positive results.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Well, if there are no further questions, thank you very much to everybody for attending this conference call. It was great to have you here and to have the opportunity to share the results of this quarter of AmRest. As I was saying, traffic is very important for us. We are working towards that, and hope to see you soon in one of our restaurants, increase that number. Thank you very much and have a nice weekend.
Thank you.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your line.