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Good morning, everyone. My name is Sophia, and I will be your conference operator. Welcome to Tiendas 3B First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Also, please note that this call is for investors and analysts only. Questions from the media will not be taken nor should the call be reported on. Any forward-looking statements made during this conference call are based on information that is currently available to us. Today, we are joined by Tiendas 3B Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Anthony Hatoum; and Chief Financial Officer, Eduardo Pizzuto. I will now turn the call over to Anthony. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I will begin with a review of our operating results for the quarter and will be followed by our CFO, Eduardo Pizzuto, who will provide an overview of our financial performance. We will conclude with a Q&A session to answer the questions you may have. We delivered another quarter of excellent performance and started the year with a strong momentum. Let me briefly highlight a few key results from the quarter. We opened 123 net new stores in this quarter for a total of 3,469 stores, bringing the LTM net store openings to 580. As of the end of this quarter, we had 20 distribution centers up and running. Our same-store sales growth grew 16% versus the first quarter of 2025.

Revenues in the first quarter of '26 increased by 33% year-over-year to MXN 23 billion. And again, in this first quarter, reported EBITDA was MXN 554 million. If we exclude noncash share-based compensation, EBITDA increased by 39% to reach MXN 1.3 billion. Finally, for the first 3 months of 2026, cash flow generated from operating activity reached MXN 2 billion or a 64% increase year-over-year. Let's take a look at operational performance. When we look at store openings, as we mentioned before, we opened 123 net new stores in the first quarter. For the last 12 months, we opened 580 net new stores. That's a 20% growth compared to the number of stores that we reported in March of 2025. Our expansion strategy remains consistent, and we continue to densify existing regions while gradually expanding into new ones.

Revenue growth remains strong. We continue to be one of the fastest-growing retailers globally. Total revenue in the first quarter reached MXN 23 billion, an increase of 33% year-over-year. We've seen very strong same-store sales growth of 16%. And this same-store sales growth was driven in large part by the ongoing improvement in our value proposition to customers and also a stronger brand recognition of the brand 3B that we see every day getting stronger and stronger. When we compare our same-store sales performance with ANTAD, the gap remains notable. What we are seeing is a gap of more than 14 percentage points, and that despite operating with very low internal inflation. I'll now pass the microphone to Eduardo.

Thank you, Anthony. Good morning, everyone. Sales expenses as a percentage of revenue increased by 5 basis points to 10.3% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026. Most of the expense lines showed operating leverage with a slight increase mainly driven by utilities, permitting and higher D&A. Admin expenses, excluding share-based payment, remain unchanged. In the first quarter of 2026, we continue our investments in new regions and additional talent to support our growth. Separately, first quarter of 2025 included a onetime expense of MXN 54 million related to the secondary follow-on. With respect to share-based payment expense, these charges are noncash and already reflected in our fully diluted share count.

Additional details are available in the appendix of this earnings release, where we also provide projections for this noncash expense. EBITDA for the first quarter of 2026, excluding noncash share-based payment expense increased 39% to MXN 1.3 billion, primarily driven by strong sales growth. The adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 22 basis points year-over-year. As you know, we don't drive to an EBITDA. It will continue to increase over time, driven by the work we continue to do. Our business model generates significant negative working capital, which in turn supports strong operating cash flow. In the first quarter of 2026, adjusted negative working capital reached MXN 9.4 billion compared to MXN 6.5 billion in 2025, excluding IPO proceeds. This represents approximately 11.3% of total LTM revenue, also excluding IPO proceeds. Our accelerated growth continues to be self-funded. I will now turn the call back over to Anthony for some final remarks.

This is a very strong start to 2026 that looks very promising. We operate a high-growth business model that is resilient and that does very well across economic cycles. It is a business that offers very attractive unit economics, generates cash and becomes more competitive as it scales. The market potential is enormous, and the runway for opening store is very long. I am excited and remain confident about the future of 3B. Thank you for joining us today. We will start the Q&A session. Please go ahead, operator.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Héctor Maya.

Anthony, Eduardo. Congratulations on the results. We saw a key competitor implementing some adjustments, which they said led to better results in March. Have you seen anything different in the competition dynamics, particularly, could you please comment if you have seen any kind of change or impact on your sales in March and April? And also just a quick clarification from your press release and different filings, we have seen that the expiration of the lockup period is coming in August 6 of this year. But in your 20-F, we saw that it expires in July 8. So just to double check, when exactly does the lockup expire and how should investors think about it in terms of stock overhang?

Héctor. Good to hear from you. Yes, it's -- just to be super clear, it's August 6 for the expiration of the lockup. In terms of competition, you know as well as we do, this is a very competitive market. It always has been. But specifically, if we have seen anything different this quarter? The answer is no.

Héctor, we will amend the 20-F for the -- just to be specific on the August 6, just so you know.

Super, yes, it was a bit confusing, but thank you for the clarification.

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Ruben.

Andrew Ruben from Morgan Stanley. One of the items you mentioned as one of the same-store sales drivers was brand recognition that it continues to improve. Curious, first, how you measure and identify this. And second, we know it's a minimal marketing approach. So if you talk about brand building as you move into the newer regions and how you compare that brand recognition in your newer versus more dense markets, that would be interesting.

Andrew, let me start with the latter part. Brand recognition is a little bit of an interesting beast. In a sense, we measure it just to be very concrete. We do massive surveys every year, roughly 15,000 customers and noncustomers on a wide geographical area are polled and gives us a fairly good sense of what the 3B brand means to most people that are relevant to us. In terms of -- another factor that you want to take into account is because of our expansion strategy, which is stretching, by the time we get to a new region, we've already -- people already know us because we're not jumping to a completely new region. It's been a gradual stretching of the areas in which we operate. So there's -- that helps a lot in terms of coming into something new and people already know you, they might have already shopped with you in existing store, et cetera. So that goes a long way.

In terms of what we spend, you're absolutely right. We're a minimal spend in terms of advertising, and it's mostly word of mouth and social media. And if you just go and Google 3B on the Internet, you'll see that there is a slew of materials talking about 3B and 3B products, et cetera. And a large, large part of it is not us. It's our customers posting about us, and that helps a lot.

Our next question comes from the line of Bob Ford.

This is [ Bob Ford ], Bank of America Corp. Anthony, how advanced are you in the process of building out the skill sets and the redundancy in your central administrative staff. And then I was wondering if you could also provide us a short update on the progress of the new ERP and maybe the window for your expected deployment. And then lastly, I'm really excited about your [indiscernible], right? And I was curious how they're evolving and maybe how you're thinking about merchandising in the second quarter, particularly when it comes to things like Mother's Day and the World Cup.

Great. Let me start with the latter one as it's fresh in my mind. The [indiscernible] are very important, and they add a lot of excitement to the shopping experience in our store because as most of you know, there are products that change roughly every 2 weeks, and it's always like a treasure hunt and a wow effect that you find in these baskets. And we've been able to sell in these baskets of [indiscernible] a lot of things, and we've sold bicycles, we've sold white and brown goods. We've sold clothing, and we continue to do so, and it's a very exciting category for us. And then one that's shown tremendous potential and growth. So don't be surprised if you see this continuing to evolve and take more participation within 3B sales.

In terms of hiring and what's happening in central offices, as you know, we're very focused on increasing the density of talent, as we firmly believe that that's what drives everything at the end of the day. if you're going to punch above your weight and if you're going to move at the speeds at which we move, the key ingredient is talent. And so we will continue to invest in talent this year and probably through 2027.

I mean at some point, it tapers off in relation to the total size of the company. But at this stage, consider that we're in growth mode. And I think it's an excellent investment that we're making here for the future. The deployment of the ERP is well underway, and I personally am very happy with the progress we're seeing. So this is, as I mentioned in previous calls, a 3-year project, and so I think we're halfway through now.

And when you deploy, will you deploy in modules? Will there be some functionality introduced to the stores before the final completion.

Yes. Always, it's gradual and modular and that's the way to do it low risk, right? You deploy, you test, then you expand it.

And when it comes to changing functional POS systems or just hardware at the point of sale, how should we think about that time period?

Yes. Again, the deployment is planned to be gradual to minimize risks. You will see it appear in one region, and then it will be fine-tuned, refined. And then once it's, let's say, bulletproof, it gets deployed to the rest of the company.

Our next question comes from the line of Alejandro Fuchs.

Thank you, operator, Alejandro Fuchs from Itaú de Valores. Congratulations on a very strong start of the year. I just have 2 brief ones. First one for Eduardo. Was wondering Eduardo, if maybe you could break down for us the same-store sales growth between traffic and ticket so we can get a little more color. And then the second for Anthony, I wanted to see, Anthony, if maybe you could provide more details on how you're seeing these new stores performing outside the center of Mexico, how has been their relative performance this quarter between the different regions. If you can maybe elaborate a little bit more into differences in different parts of Mexico, that would be very interesting.

Alejandro, it is -- 2/3 is coming from volume, which is a transactions and number of SKUs per ticket and 1/3 by average price per SKU. And just to be clear, the latter one is largely driven by a better mix because our internal inflation remains close to -- it's very low. So again, it's 2/3 from volume and 1/3 from average price per SKU.

Alejandro, we have seen very consistent performance across the board in new stores irrespective of geography. And the reason we believe is because we are selling basic goods and behavior in consumption when it comes to basic goods tends to be quite similar across the board. And we all consume roughly the same amount of toilet paper irrespective of where we live. And you'll see that applying -- it's been fairly consistent, I would say. It's no change.

Our next question comes from the line of [ Lorena Romanato ]

This is Gabriela from Goldman Sachs. I would like to explore a bit more the SG&A dynamics in the context of the minimum wage increase, the reduction in work week in Mexico? Is there any measures have been implemented to address this continued increase in labor costs? And we know that G&A also came broadly stable year-over-year with revenues. And we know there is quite a variable component there as you accelerate extension. But how should we think about that trajectory during the course of the year?

Gabriela. Multiple questions here, but I'll start with -- you mentioned labor. Labor, yes, it's a component. And what I would say is, as you saw in my presentation, for selling expenses, we saw leverage in most of line items, including labor. So when we look at expenses, and this is the way we look at expenses as a percentage of revenue, this is something that continues to decrease. If we compare last year versus this year, labor did decrease as a percentage of revenue. And the reason for that is twofold. One is because our sales continue to increase. And then the second one is we do a number of initiatives inside the store and not only the store also at the distribution centers. As we've mentioned before, we measure everything on hours worked.

So we're always having initiatives to reduce the number of hours worked at the store level. So even with the increase in minimum wage, we were able to see leverage on that line item. In terms of the reduction of hours worked, this is something that, yes, we have been testing and we have been considering. And when it happens, it happens, which will happen next year. And this is something really not a big concern on our side. We will continue to drive efficiencies at the store level to be able to cope with that eventuality.

In terms of overall SG&A for the year that you also asked, we don't really provide any type of guidance on SG&A. What we've said before is that in the long run, you can expect that SG&A will continue to decrease as it will decrease as a percentage of revenue. For this year, G&A, we should expect that it's fairly stable as what you saw last year. As you heard Anthony, we will continue to increase our talent pool here in headquarters and also because we're adding more distribution centers this year that also has a portion of admin expenses.

Our next question comes from the line of Froylan Mendez.

Froylan Mendez from JPMorgan. Eduardo, could you just give a little bit more granularity on the sources of gross margin expansion during the quarter? I know you mentioned commercial -- this was mainly coming from commercial margin. But was it on improved terms, product mix or some operational efficiencies? And secondly, you mentioned those big service you do every year. I was wondering what have been the key findings from this year's survey compared to last year's surveys regarding changes in consumer habits, preferences? And how is this information influencing your strategic decisions at the store.

Let me take that one, Froylan. How are you? On the massive surveys, they're basically -- they ask questions about where do you shop? How do you shop? Why do you shop? How do you make a decision? Where do you spend your money? What do you think of the brand? Do you know what it means, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So what we do see over time is an increasing brand recognition of the 3B brand and what it stands for. And then we also see shifts in decision-making. Who's your -- where do you shop first versus where do you shop second? And I think all the tendencies favor 3B, and you see a very strong favorable tendency over the last 5 years. In terms of exactly influencing our decision, yes, it does because there's definitely shifts in consumption pattern.

Some categories gain strength and some lose strength. So post COVID and during COVID, anything related to pets saw strengthening and anything related to consumption of alcohol are decreasing. And you see those things. And of course, you adapt and you focus more on those that have more promise. And that's completely normal, and we do that on a continuous basis.

Froy, in terms of your question on gross margin, yes, we did mention that commercial margin on the increases. This is -- it's both on the 2 topics that you mentioned. It's mix, it's efficiencies. But I'll end up with saying that it continues to be volatile, right? So -- but this specific quarter, yes, it's both. It's mix and driven by efficiencies with our suppliers.

Yes. And I mean I'll add, Froylan, that it's no secret that as you scale you are improving your purchasing power across the board and not only ours, but whoever is supplying us with products also gains purchasing power. So and gains efficiencies. And those translate partially into margin and partially go into price, and that basically drives the virtuous circle.

Our next question comes from the line of Antonio Hernandez.

Congrats on your results. It's Antonio Velez from Actinver. Just a quick one regarding which categories were best performing during the quarter and also regarding your recent pilots, any findings that you have there?

Yes. On the -- look, across the board, all categories have done extremely well this quarter. And I would say, if you look at some subcategories, we've seen a decrease in sweetened beverages, and that's driven by a new tax on sweeteners that kicked in, in January, but it was more than compensated for by the non-sweetened beverage subcategory. And so net-net, an increase across the boards in all categories. What was your second question, sorry?

Well, regarding, for example, the fridge, frozen, all these different like new product categories within the store any new findings or how are these new categories working out for you?

Well, they're doing extremely well. And one thing to keep in mind is that we don't launch a new category unless it's been extensively tested maybe obsessively tested. So by the time we do launch it, we're fairly certain that it's going to do extremely well. And so these categories you just mentioned are extremely promising.

Our next question comes from the line of Joe Thomas.

Anthony and Eduardo. It's Joe Thomas here from HSBC. Just digging into that last question a little bit more. Could you talk about the fresh trial, specifically, please. And if there's any sort of sales uplift associated with that and what the opportunity is to extend that to retrofit existing stores for that? And then on a related topic, CapEx for the year. I'm just wondering if you could give some sort of update around that and how you expect it to be phased over the quarters.

It's worth just stepping back and saying that at any point in time, there's about 60 different products/new lines being tested in our stores in parallel and some of them make the final cut, and then you see them deployed across the companies. In the case of fruits and vegetables in particular, the results are promising as the test has been running and been fine-tuned and refine-tuned. And we remain quite optimistic that it's a worthwhile category to have. In those test stores, yes, it's no surprise then when you add fruits and vegetables, you do see an uplift in tickets. It's normal. And so we remain quite excited about this category. In terms of your second question was CapEx, I'm going to let Eduardo answer.

Joe. On CapEx, we're disclosing in our 20-F, it's about MXN 5.2 billion, which that includes the number of stores that we guided, also includes additional distribution centers and of course, all the equipment around that, including trucks and cars, et cetera. So we are today quite comfortable with that number and executing on that for the balance of the year.

Our next question comes from the line of [ Alberto Rodriguez ]

No question here. Thank you.

We have a follow-up question from Héctor Maya.

Héctor Maya, Scotiabank. I recall that the penetration of private label last quarter was 58% of sales. But could you give us an update on what the level was this quarter? And also, is there a threshold at which the business starts structurally changing from what we have now with higher penetration? Or would you say that everything remains the same, if you operate at 60% of private label compared to 70% or 80% penetration. I mean more than at the margin level, how would things change with suppliers, their scale, their relevance? And how do you think about development of new SKUs and how you arrange them at the store with a higher penetration?

Héctor, no, we don't -- we update this number once a year, but you can imagine that the trend continues upwards. In terms of, do I see a change of how we operate with more private label. The answer is no, not really. And here, I will tell you just take a look at BIM who's been in this market way longer than we have. It's a little bit like a time machine that gives you a fairly good answer as to what things might look like a few years down the road. But immediately for us, there is absolutely no change if you go from 50% to 60% to 70%, no structural change. In terms of those -- part of your question was how do things change with suppliers.

I would answer that by saying things change naturally as you get bigger. I mean, suddenly, you're selling 30% more, you're buying 30% more. Everybody has to march in lockstep to sustain that growth, and that has not stopped for the last 10 years, it's been the case. So it will continue to be so in terms of planning ahead of time and projecting growth and projecting procurement needs, et cetera, et cetera. As you know, we plan way ahead of time. And that has allowed us to sustain these growth rates above 30% now for over 12 years without any hiccups. And to be able to do that, you need to be very disciplined in terms of execution and in terms of planning. And I expect that to continue.

Our next question comes from the line of [ Guli Arshad ]

Can you hear me out?

yes, Guli. Please go ahead.

So Anthony, congratulations on your usual strong results. I know that a strong IT department is one of the pillars of 3B growth story. So how are you incorporating AI mentality and processes inside the company? Or is it relevant?

Yes. No, absolutely. Great to hear from you Guli, to start with. There was a question earlier on about SG&A and expenses and I made a comment about our investment in talent and a big chunk of that investment in talent is actually in IT. And with the firm belief that a lot of our future growth is driven by executing across the board on IT strategy. Sometimes I joke internally that we're an IT company selling groceries. So yes, there is a very strong component of artificial intelligence that's starting to take root in the company, very similar to what's happening in many companies. And you can see already the effects in terms of improved efficiency and gains of time across the board. And I think this tendency will continue and gets stronger, especially as companies providing these tools start providing better and better tools. And the speed at which we've seen improvements in these tools is absolutely staggering. So expect that this becomes part of normal life in 3B.

Our next question comes from the line of Federico Galassi.

Federico Galassi, The Rohatyn Group. One question from my side is in the last year, 1.5 years, the corporate business, if you want, for more information to the IDR, the new counselor, et cetera, was of one of the teams that drag the margins, taking out the operational side, do you believe that you have the structure necessary to grow in the last -- in the next years?

Sorry, Federico. Let me see if I understood your question. You're asking that do you think we have we have built the right structure centrally to sustain our growth rates going forward. Would that be your question or?

Absolutely. Beyond the operational side, not that we continue to grow the new stores.

And again, this belief and philosophy that we have of planning ahead of time, which has served us extremely well and explains how we can sustain such rapid growth rates over time and not have any hiccups applies to everything, and it applies to thinking about what the corporate structure essentially should be and what kind of talent needs you need and how many people you need in which areas you can execute on your plans and across the board, how do you raise the level of performance of the team in general. And that's been all planned for and not today. So we're executing on it, and I think we're in very good shape to sustain future growth. And I come back to this very strong belief we have that it's the team that makes the difference, right? Everybody knows how to sell groceries and it's all a question of how well do you execute and how fast do you execute.

We have run out of time for further questions. I would now like to hand the call back over to Anthony Hatoum for his closing remarks.

Well, thank you, everybody, for participating and joining us today. I'd like to thank all our investors, current and future for believing in us. And I'd like to thank all the analysts who have joined us today for their continued coverage and their excellent questions. Thank you again, and we look forward to talking to you in the next earnings call.

Thank you. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Sophia, and I will be your conference operator. Welcome to Tiendas 3B Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Also, please note that this call is for investors and analysts only. Questions from the media will not be taken nor should the call be reported on. Any forward-looking statements made during this conference call are based on information that is currently available to us. We are joined by Tiendas 3B Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Hatoum; and Chairman and; and Chief Financial Officer, Eduardo Pizzuto.

I will now turn the call over to Anthony. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I will begin with a review of our operating results and will be followed by our CFO, Eduardo Pizzuto, who will provide an overview of our financial performance and who will outline our guidance for 2026. We will conclude with a Q&A session to answer the questions you may have.

We delivered another quarter of excellent performance and closed the year with strong momentum. Our results in 2025 reflect the continued strength of our business model, rapid and disciplined store expansion, strong same-store sales growth and solid cash generation. During the fourth quarter, we continued to scale the business while improving our value proposition for customers and strengthening our operating infrastructure.

Let me briefly highlight a few key results from the quarter and the full year. During the quarter, we opened 184 net new stores, bringing the full year total to a record 174 net openings, which exceeded our guidance of 500 to 550 stores. We also opened 2 new distribution centers in the quarter for a total of 4 new ones in 2025. Same-store sales grew 16.6% in the fourth quarter versus the same quarter last year, and increased 18.3% for the full year versus last year.

Total revenues in the fourth quarter increased 34% to MXN 22 billion. For the full year, revenues grew 36% to MXN 78 billion. In the fourth quarter, reported EBITDA was MXN 79 million. Excluding noncash share-based compensation and a onetime asset write-off, EBITDA increased 23% to MXN 1.2 billion. Eduardo will provide more detail on the write-off later in the call. For the full year, reported EBITDA was MXN 1.2 billion. Excluding noncash share-based compensation and the asset write-off, EBITDA increased 30% to MXN 4.4 billion.

Finally, for the 12 months ending December [indiscernible] 2025. Cash flow generated from operating activity reached MXN 4.7 billion, representing an almost 25% increase year-over-year.

Now let's turn to operational performance. We accelerated our store expansion. As mentioned earlier, we opened 184 net new stores in the fourth quarter. For the full year 2025, we opened 574 net new stores. That is a 21% growth compared to last year when we opened 484 stores. Our expansion strategy remains consistent. We continue to densify existing regions while gradually expanding into new ones. To support this growth, we also opened 4 new distribution centers in 2025. Revenue growth remains very strong. It is likely that we are 1 of the fastest-growing retailers in Lat Am, if not globally. A quick recap here. Total revenue in the fourth quarter reaching MXN 22 billion, an increase of 34% year-over-year, very strong same-store sales growth of 16.6%. Same-store sales driven in large part by the ongoing improvement in our value proposition to customers.

Looking at the full year. Total revenue in 2025 reached MXN 78 billion, representing 36% growth compared to last year. This growth has been compounding year after. Our revenue CAGR for the last 4 years has been 35%, driven by the strength of our expansion strategy and by our store performance. When we compare our same-store sales performance with ANTAD [indiscernible] remains significant. We are seeing a gap of more than 15 percentage points despite operating with low internal inflation. We just updated our [ spaghetti ] chart that many of you have seen before. This chart shows the sales trajectory of our store cohorts from 2005 through 2024. Sales are adjusted for inflation to make this an apples-to-apples comparison. 2 points stand out. Newer stores are [indiscernible] with higher initial sales levels than earlier cohorts. At the same time, all store cohorts continue to grow at a healthy pace. For newer cohorts, their sales curves are steeper. And for older ones, we continue to see their sales growing. This reflects the ongoing improvement in our value proposition as well as growing brand awareness and growing brand equity. I would like to highlight a few additional operating metrics. Our stores with 5 or more years of operations, the average number of transactions per store per month increased by 2.5%. Average ticket size increased by 11%, driven primarily by items per ticket and an improved product mix and to a much lesser extent by price inflation.

Finally, in 2025, private label represented 58% of total merchandise sales. This compared with 54% in 2024. I will now pass the mic to Eduardo.

Thank you, Anthony. Good morning, everyone. Sales expenses as a percentage of revenue declined from 11.7% to 10.5% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2025. While the fourth quarter of 2024 included onetime charges related to depreciation and amortization, which explains part of the change, in the fourth quarter of 2025, we also saw operating leverage across most expense lines. Admin expenses, excluding share-based payments, increased by 35 basis points primarily due to investments in new regions and additional talent to support our growth. With respect to share-based payment expense, these charges are noncash and already reflected in our fully diluted share count. Additional details are available in an appendix of this earnings release, where we also provide projections for this noncash expense.

EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2025, excluding noncash share-based payment expense and the asset write-off increased 23.5% to MXN 1.2 billion, driven primarily by strong sales growth. The adjusted EBITDA margin declined 48 basis points year-over-year. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we also recorded a onetime charge related to the write-off of an accounts receivable balance of MXN 230 million. This was associated with the [ culmination ] of a relationship with a provider of our payment terminals. The balance represents a receivable outstanding at the time of termination. We decided to record a full write-off. We note that payment processing has since been migrated to terminals operated by 1 of the top 3 banks in Mexico with no disruptions to our operations. We are pursuing all available legal actions in connection with this matter.

Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2025 increased 30% to MXN 4.4 billion. Over the last 4 years, EBITDA has grown at a CAGR of 42%, reflecting the strength of our business model. Even though we do not manage this business to an EBITDA target, you can see in this slide that our EBITDA margin naturally increases over time as a result of our continued store maturation, scale and operational efficiency. Our business model generates significant negative working capital, which in turn supports strong operating cash flow. For example, in December 2025, negative working capital reached MXN 8.9 billion compared with MXN 6 billion in 2024, excluding IPO proceeds. This represents approximately 11.4% of total revenue, also excluding IPO proceeds.

Moving on to guidance for the year. We expect same-store sales growth between 13% and [ 10% ], a range of 590 to 630 net new stores and revenue growth between 29% and 32%. We have updated our target unit economics, which remains very attractive. As shown on this slide, with average CapEx of approximately MXN 5.5 million per store, we're targeting a payback period of about 26 months and a cash-on-cash return of roughly 55% by year 3. The higher CapEx per store primarily reflects additional refrigeration equipment, slightly larger store formats and a higher proportion of stores that we are building from scratch. Importantly, these targeted economics are based on the performance trends we are currently observing in our newer stores. They do not include potential incremental revenue from the initiatives associated with a higher CapEx per store.

I will now turn the call back to Anthony for final remarks.

Thank you for joining us today. We operate a high-growth business model that has proven to be robust and resilient across economic cycles. It offers very attractive unit economics, generates cash and becomes more competitive as it continues to scale. We remain very confident in the long-term opportunity ahead for Tiendas 3B and look forward to updating you again next quarter. We will now start the Q&A session. So please go ahead, operator.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Alvaro Garcia.

I have 2 questions. The first 1 on stock-based compensation. We noted the increase mainly in options, new [indiscernible] price of $35. I was wondering if relative to last year, where we sort of got 2 waves of announcements on alongside 2Q results, if that was the award, we'll see for all of 2025 or if we should expect more awards throughout the rest of the year?

And my second question is on the new unit economics. You just mentioned Eduardo that the sales per store doesn't consider sort of the new initiatives from new CapEx. So the close to MXN 30 million per store material increase relative to the previous version for year 3, does that not consider the new initiatives? Or is it just the return itself.

Alto. So in terms of the options that you're [indiscernible], what you're seeing in the numbers is what was granted in all of 2025, so you should not expect an additional number for 2025. I'm assuming that was your question.

Correct. That was my question.

Okay. Perfect. So no, that is the number in the total number that was granted, and you can see on the appendices that what are the exact numbers that was granted in December of 2025.

Then on your second question on the unit economics. Yes, Alvaro, we are we're actually very conservative about updating this chart because even though we are upgrading the sales curve and that is purely based on our most recent vintages, the performance of it. Let me tie it back to the spaghetti chart. If you look at 2024, for instance, that little dot that you see on the chart, that's the performance of 2024. So we're taking not only 2024, but also earlier vintages, we constructed that sales [indiscernible] exactly what it's doing. So we are not assuming, as of now, any incremental sales because of the additional equipment that we're installing in the new stores.

Our next question comes from Melissa [indiscernible].

This is Melissa [indiscernible] from Bank of America. Anthony and Eduardo, I need to better understand the traffic and ticket dynamics. What is the trajectory of transaction counter stores mature? And are you happy with the 2.5% growth in stores opening 5 years or more?

And then Anthony, you mentioned that the increase in average ticket is primarily coming more items per basket versus price. But can you quantify the components? I imagine a higher share of private label is deflationary. And then I think related to that, how should we think about product innovation here? And how are some of the newer items performing versus earlier vintages?

Many questions, so I'll try to break it down. Let's start with same-store sales. Absolutely right, 2/3 of the growth is explained by volume and 1/3 by average price and average price in large, driven by a better mix with inflation contributing very little. The 2.5% increase mentioned in ticket for relatively old stores is fantastic. We -- every time we think that 1 of our older vintages, it's maturing, we find that we're still attracting new clients. And the increase of tickets is extremely positive in a sense that every time we managed to get a client to buy 1 more new product that they're not buying before. That's a huge jump in productivity and in sales. You had other questions, if you don't mind repeating them.

I wanted to understand a little bit about -- more about your innovation and how we should think about that this year. So how are maybe some of the newer launches, new SKUs or items performing versus past introductions?

In general, let me just step back by saying that, we remain relatively low SKU business. So across our whole portfolio, you're seeing innovation, and you're seeing new products being introduced. And at any point in time, we are testing about 60 different new products and some of them work and some of them don't. So by the time we introduce a new product, there is an extremely high probability that we know that it's going to work and work very well. So what you see in the store is all accretive and very positive. To bring it a little bit more down to earth, you'll see innovation and cosmetics, you'll see innovation in frozen. We've been the pioneers in democratizing frozen in Mexico, a lot of innovation and ice creams, a lot of innovation and personal health care, in dairy, in drinks and beverage. So I'm very -- I'd say I'm very positive that this trend will continue, and you'll continue to see new things being introduced. And at any time you walk into 1 of our stores, you'll see a number of new products being tested. Private label will continue to very naturally increase its participation in our sales. It's something organic, and that happens and that has always been happening and continues to happen as you've seen the latest numbers. You're absolutely right. It is deflationary because on average, our private labels are significantly cheaper then, let's say, the more commercial brands that they replace, but they more than make up for it by volumes. And internally, of course, we measure units sold at, I can say that same-store sales growth when measured by units is extremely healthy.

Our next question comes from [indiscernible] Mendez.

Anthony Eduardo, [indiscernible] from JPMorgan. Two questions. First, on the stock-based compensation, the new grants that were given. According to our calculations, they make up around 2% of the outstanding shares, this compares to closer to 1% in the previous year package. Could you help us understand where the delta is coming from? Is this just in terms of the growth of the company, more people getting shares or it's just the same amount of people but getting more shares, that would be very important for us to understand.

And secondly, we look at EBITDA after leases. And against our numbers, there was -- the results were a little bit low -- well, lower than expected. I wanted to understand the timing of the openings in the fourth quarter if most of the openings in the fourth quarter were during the latter parter, it means that the ramp-up impacts in a higher extent the margin. And if the stores that you're opening in the last part of this year are already under this new format with more fridges, [indiscernible] GLA that can lead to higher leasing costs that came up of our estimate?

Let me start off with EBITDA, your second question. Actually, our fourth quarter -- it was a fantastic quarter in the sense that, I mean, compared to any other quarter that you've seen in the past, we opened 184 stores in 2 new division centers. So we've significantly accelerated the pace in Q4. So what does that translate into in the numbers that you were coming up to is a lower-than-expected EBITDA, and it's just because of that. It's just the share size of the volume of stores that we opened in the quarter and also the 2 new distribution centers on top of the 2 that we opened in Q3. So a total of if you're comparing that to Q4 of last year, that makes a significant increase. So that is where the -- as you asked a question on the pace of openings, that's what explains the pike in -- the spike in lease payments and leases.

You had a second question on EBITDA, and I will take the share base in a minute. But you had another question on EBITDA.

Yes, it's part of the increase in leasing cost also relates to the new type of store that you're starting to open larger with bigger [indiscernible] stores inside the store. If this is also part of this incremental leasing costs going forward, probably.

So the leasing -- let's break that into [indiscernible]. Leasing is building, which is stores and DCs and then the rest of the leases that we have, which is equipment. So that entire number is leases. And I'm not sure if you're checking the only building or are you also taking the...

Taking both.

Okay. So taking both. Yes, you will see that we have the equipment for the distribution centers. So we have a cold room, frozen room and also some additional cars. So that explains the -- again, the spike on leases for the fourth quarter. So we're gradually migrating into the CapEx that we -- that I just mentioned in our unit economics. So you will see that our stores this year will have -- we will move from a 10 door cold room, for instance, to a 15 door cold room and additional freezers. So we're migrating to that. But the vast majority of the change [indiscernible] comes from just the volume that the number of stores that we opened in Q4 and the distribution centers as well.

And then I know you had a question on share-based payment. Can you repeat for me, please?

Of course. If we take the incremental number of units granted in -- at the end of last year and divide that by the standing shares, it's around 2% of shares outstanding, let's say. And if I compare that to the last year granted package, it was closer to 1%. Just trying to understand where the delta is coming from, if this relates to the growth of the company. So you are including more people getting this package? Or is it more the same people receiving more units of the package?

I'll take that one. [indiscernible], it's actually growth and increase in the number of people. And let me step back by saying that we can make all of these numbers appear by giving out more cash, but we have found that over time, this option plan that we have has been the best investment with the best return on investment that we've seen because it allows us to attract the kind of profile of people with a can-do attitude and an entrepreneurial attitude which you see reflected in our numbers. It allows us to retain talent when everybody is trying to put your talent, it aligns incentives with shareholders and very simply put, it explains a lot of the attitude and can do aspect of our business that is simply reflected in the numbers as a consequence. So we're very likely to continue and even expanded in line with our growth and the number of people that bringing in -- on board. But again, there are options. So you -- somebody else mentioned the strike price of these options. And when our share price is below [indiscernible] they have 0 impact. And we all hope that our share price goes up, and I'm very happy to take the dilution that comes with that when that happens.

Fair. Just as a follow-up. So that 2%, let's say, implied dilution, that's the level that we should expect going forward or that can come down at some point?

I would say [indiscernible] dilution is 100% tied to where our share price is going to be. So depending on what your projection of our price is, it could be that number. Currently, the last grant is almost with 0 dilution to our outstanding base. So a little bit of a difficult question to answer, but Eduardo will put in some numbers as to historical perspective here.

[indiscernible], if you look at the appendices, what I would suggest is if you look at the appendices that we published, on appendix once you see articulation of a diluted shares. And as -- this is something that we've been publishing for the third quarter, for 3 quarters. And in this case, we ran an exercise on an illustrative share price of $35, and you'll see that if you compare that to what we did in Q3, for instance, you'll see the dilution as we see it, and it's less than 10%. So it's a bit tricky, the 1.9% that you mentioned because of -- I think we are -- whatever number you're putting in terms of share price will -- the dilution will come or not or less or more dilution will come in. But that's the way we look at it.

Yes. No, fair. I was mentioning numbers based on number of shares like RSUs, plus the stock options divided by the number of shares without taking the strike price, which I understand.

I think it's unfair to not look at the strike price because the strike price is super potent in terms of motivating people and aligning incentives, Right? It's worth also mentioning just we're on the topic. RSUs, you have to think of them in lieu of cash. I would give all-day RSUs instead of cash, divest and they align incentives.

The next question comes from Irma Sgarz.

Irma Sgarz From Goldman Sachs. Just a quick follow-up on sort of the trajectory for operating leverage into 2026. The G&A line, excluding share-based compensation, of course, obviously took a step up in 2025, and I understand that there were some structural investment made both in the headquarter team, but also in some of the more downstream-oriented teams in the stores. Although I think most of that should be going through the sales, but to support the overall structure, I guess, of the -- so I was hoping to just understand, it's fair to think that G&A expenses just after this huge step-up that we saw in 2025, the growth should be significantly below the top line growth targeting and thereby releasing that operating leverage that I think is so important for the longer-term margin trajectory for the business? That's my first question.

And then if you can just perhaps shed some light on what you're seeing in terms of your ability to -- or sort of your -- the direction of your geographic build-out in sourcing these new 600 or so stores that you're going to open in 2026. And I was intrigued that you mentioned more sort of a little bit more CapEx incrementally, not just on equipment, but also on sort of the work around building single spending stores, and I was trying to understand that a little bit better. If that's a question of sort of pushing into new areas or availability of real estate. If you can just dig a little bit further into that comment.

In terms of the leverage that you're talking about, and I heard on more on the admin side, as you know, we don't provide any specific guidance on the margin or SG&A. But I think what we should expect that is over the long run that -- and as I mentioned before, we should expect that these admin expenses to decline as a percentage of sales. Having said that, we will continue to retain talent and increase our talent pool to support the growth that we want to -- that we're seeing for the next few years. We do see tons of opportunities in the next 3 to 5 years, and we want to make sure that we have the talent in place for that growth to happen, specifically, again, on admin expenses. So we continue to hire people on the IT front on many different levels of the company. So specifically for 2026, at this point, I would not give you any specific answer on that one. But over the long term, yes, for sure, that number will come down as a [indiscernible] sales.

Regarding real estate and expansion, our strategy has not changed. We stretch and we densify where we are and the runway is completely open. There is no impediment to our foreseeable growth in terms of store openings. As Eduardo mentioned, our stores are bigger than in the past and therefore, cost a little bit more to build. And fundamentally, we're putting new equipment in there, mostly in refrigeration, and very conservatively or not reflecting any expected sales growth that you would get by putting more refrigeration equipment. And this is likely the number that we've shared in unit economics is the number you can expect to see with a good degree of confidence for 2026, irrespective of the mix of whether we're opening stores that are built literally from scratch who are taking space and rehabbing it.

Our next question comes from Andrew Ruben.

Andrew Ruben at Morgan Stanley here. I think a lot of the items have been answered already. So maybe if we just give a bit of a look back. So 2025, you delivered store sales that was a bit above 18%, average is above what you posted in 2024 and above what you're guiding for in 2026. So I'm curious if you could tell us any specifics of what happened in a year like 2025? What's the difference between a year where you're getting kind of a low teens comp versus 1 that's 18%, if it's anything related to the macro innovation within the stores. I understand the general parts of the model, of course, but anything as we look back just to better understand the differences in comp trends between the years.

Well, that 18% exceeded our expectations. And as you correctly said, the guidance at that time was 11% to 14%, and suddenly, we do 18, which is a stratospheric number. So coming back a little bit more to reality on the 15% and 16%, which are amazing numbers still. I would say that I wouldn't see too much into it. If we continue to grow at the guided same-store sales, I think we're going to have another fantastic year. But sorry, I can't tell you exactly why we hit 18% on that 1 quarter.

Our next question comes from Hector [indiscernible].

Anthony, Eduardo, about the space...

Hector, you disappeared.

Yes. Sorry. Could you hear me now?

Yes.

Yes. Perfect. Sorry about that. About the space for refrigeration and the larger size of the stores from your update on unit economics. To what extent is this related to a potential introduction of fresh categories in the future? Or is this related to something else? And the new stores, how large would they be now? And what was behind the decision to build some of these stores from scratch. That would be the first one.

So let me talk about store size. It's been fairly consistent for the last 2 years, but definitely bigger than stores we had 10 years ago. So when I say slightly bigger, they're slightly bigger, and that affects CapEx. We've adjusted our mix for 2026, assuming conservatively that we would have more stores built from scratch, that has -- everything derives from our real estate master plan. So we take a good look and say, where do we think we want to open stores and then we come up with an emit of how many stores we believe are going to be built from scratch versus taking an existing space and refurbishing it and we come up with this number. There's no magic to it except it's an expectation based on serious planning and we come up with as good an estimate as we can come up with, and we make it conservative.

Now in terms of equipment within the store, yes, you'll find more refrigeration equipment because we are expanding in our categories of refrigerated and frozen. And it has nothing to do with fresh, which is a completely different category, which, as you know, we're testing. So there's, as I mentioned earlier, across all categories, we are seeing innovation and we are seeing growth while respecting the core tenets of being a hard discounter, limited SKUs, very high rotation SKUs, focus on private labels, lots of value for money in everything we offer, that you'll see consistently in everything we offer great value for money to our customers. That, in turn, is very likely to support robust same-store sales.

Anthony, very clear. And the last 1 on the impact of the new provider and the payment processing. Now that you switch to a 1 of the top 3 banks in Mexico. How do the transaction fees and commercial terms with the new bank compared to the previous provider? And should we expect this to impact sales expenses going forward?

No, not at all. We're even more competitive.

Our next question comes from Antonio Hernandez.

This is Antonio Hernandez from[indiscernible]. Just a quick 1 regarding the new regions where you are expanding with new distribution centers, new stores and so on, which ones excite you the most -- where do you see more opportunities? And maybe on the other hand, which ones may be -- which of the regions are maybe underperforming your previous expectations?

At the risk of sounding boring, we see extremely consistent performance across all our regions. And fundamentally, when we ask ourselves why? we are selling basic goods and customer behavior doesn't change much when it comes to basic good consumptions. So we're excited across the board with every store we open, we make sure that it's going to be successful. Otherwise, we don't bother opening a store. And what you will see is a consistent performance for 2026 versus 2025 with possibly robust same-store sales growth and very likely across all vintages, you'll continue to see growth -- real growth.

That's all the time we have for the Q&A session today. I would like to hand the call back over to Anthony Hatoum for his closing remarks.

Thank you all for participating today. Investors, analysts and even competitors who are listening in. We have a very strong, robust company, which has demonstrated year after year that it can grow and grow without hiccups at the rates we're growing is quite an achievement. We expect that to continue. We expect our value proposition to customers to continue offering more. And therefore, again, this virtuous cycle of better value proposition, increased sales is very likely to continue for the foreseeable future. This is a business that is not going to say [indiscernible], but it's extremely robust through cycles. And fundamentally, at the core of it all, is an amazing team that executes flawlessly quarter after quarter. Thank you again for participating, and I look forward to talking to you next quarter.

That concludes today's call. You may now disconnect. Goodbye.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Danielle, and I will be your conference operator. Welcome to the Tiendas 3B Third Quarter 2025 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Also, please note that this call is for investors and analysts only. Questions from the media will not be taken nor should the call be reported on. Any forward-looking statements made during this conference call are based on information that is currently available to us.

Today, we are joined by Tiendas 3B's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Anthony Hatoum; and Chief Financial Officer, Eduardo Pizzuto. I will now turn the call over to Anthony. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Tiendas 3B's third quarter earnings call. I will begin with a review of our operating results for the quarter. and will be followed by our CFO, Eduardo Pizzuto, who will provide an overview of our financial performance. We will conclude with a Q&A session.

We've delivered another quarter of exceptional growth, outperforming other listed players. We opened 131 net new stores in the quarter for a total of 3,162 stores. We opened 2 distribution centers in the quarter for now a total of 18. Our LTM store openings are 528 stores. Same-store sales grew by 17.9%. Total revenues increased by 36.7% to reach MXN 20.3 billion.

EBITDA reported a loss of MXN 404 million. If we exclude our noncash share-based payments, then EBITDA increased by 43.6% and reached a positive MXN 1.2 billion. For the 9 months of 2025, cash flow generated by operating activities reached MXN 3 billion or a 30% increase year-on-year. We ended with a net cash position of approximately MXN 1.1 billion. In addition to this, we have $151 million in short-term deposits.

Let's turn to operational performance. We are increasing the number of store openings. In the first 9 months of 2025, we opened 390 stores. This compares to 346 stores opened in the first 9 months of last year. Revenue growth remains rapid. We continue to be one of the fastest-growing retailers globally. Total revenues reached MXN 20.3 billion or an increase of 36.7% year-over-year, this, with a very strong same-store sales growth of 17.9%.

Same-store sales is being driven by the continuous improvement of our value proposition to customers and more consumers realizing that. When comparing to ANTAD, our gap continues to increase. Our gap versus ANTAD is almost 17 percentage points today.

I will now pass the microphone to Eduardo.

Thank you, Anthony. Good morning, everyone. Sales expenses as a percentage of revenue increased from 10.1% to 10.2%. On one hand, we see real operational leverage as our store mature. On the other, we see this quarter an increase in D&A expenses as a percentage of revenue. I expect that next quarter, the comparison will be more favorable. Admin expenses, excluding share-based payments, increased by 16 basis points due to investments in new regions and hiring more talent.

With respect to share-based payment expense, these are noncash and already reflected in our fully diluted share count. Please see the appendix of this earnings release. You can also see the projection of this noncash expense in the appendix. EBITDA increased 43.6% to reach 5.8%, driven by sales and margin growth and operational efficiency.

I want to touch on operational leverage and margins. Close to half of our stores were opened in the last 3 years. When we look at our older vintages, their EBITDA margins are close to those you would see at other hard discounters. As you know, we don't drive [indiscernible]. It will naturally increase over time as a consequence of all the good things we are doing. Ours is a business model that generates significant negative working capital. And in turn, we generate significant cash flow from the changes in negative working capital.

We can see, for example, that in September '25, we had MXN 7.8 billion compared to a negative working capital of MXN 5.4 billion in the third quarter of '24, excluding IPO proceeds. We are roughly at 10.8% of total revenue, excluding IPO proceeds.

I will now turn the call back over to Anthony for some final remarks.

We are hitting, we're exceeding our targets with same-store sales that stand out versus industry. Our business is robust, noncyclical and battle tested. In terms of store growth, we have significant runway with room for no less than 14,000 3B stores in Mexico. Today, we are opening more stores and faster. Our same-store sales growth is not only due to our newer stores, our older vintages continue to grow their same-store sales faster than inflation. This is driven by the continuous improvements in the products we sell both in terms of quality and price.

Our brand equity continues to strengthen. This drives a faster sales ramp-up of our newer stores and draws new clients to our stores. Our older vintages are already showing EBITDA margins that are in line with those recorded by other listed hard discounters. We continue to invest in talent. We believe that this is a key success factor. The talent density within our team stands out in the market.

Our share-based compensation approach has been a key driver to our success. It attracts entrepreneurial talent and aligns everyone with shareholders. Just as a note, our Board of Directors decided in its last meeting not to make additional reserves for our equity incentive plan for the year 2026. We continue to do the same, just better and faster. The future looks bright.

We'll now start the Q&A session. So please go ahead, operator.

[Operator Instructions]

And our first question is coming in from Bob Ford at Bank of America.

Congratulations on the quarter. Anthony, I know your gross margin is a dependent variable, but can you comment a little bit on how you're thinking about your current value propositions and the volume response? And do you see any need to further sharpen value propositions? It looks like there's been some additional price reinvestment in the marketplace. And I was wondering if you could also tell us how we should think about market share in the trade areas around your oldest cohorts and the implications for some of the younger units.

And then as you scale, I was curious if you're beginning to see unsolicited interest from national suppliers, right? And as you scale, how should we think about your use of national suppliers, particularly as you go into new categories and segments just because those smaller vendors may not be able to supply you in terms of the quantities that you'll need as you continue to grow.

Let's talk about margins. Because we're scaling, you'll naturally see an improvement in our commercial margin over time because on one side, you're lowering your purchasing costs and two, you're increasing your logistics efficiency. And the question, as we have seen many times is, okay, how does that translate into percentage margin versus an investment in price? And I've shared before that on the pricing side, it's dynamically set by doing elasticity testing.

The bottom line is that we are improving our value proposition to our customers. So we're increasing scale. And we are also opening new stores, so we're increasing scale, and therefore, we're getting better purchasing terms across the board. And naturally, over time, we will see a very natural increase in margins. However, I stress that quarter-to-quarter, we will see volatility in this number, and this is very normal.

As you know, we don't set any specific targets for margins, but we're very comfortable that over time, this number increases. And if you look at other publicly listed hard discounters, you can sort of extrapolate where this naturally ends. Now in terms of market share related to our oldest vintages, cohorts, well, we're very pleased to see that even our oldest vintage continues to grow its same-store sales well above inflation.

And when we look at it, the main driver is, again, an improved value proposition and what we sell today is so much better than what we sold you 5 years ago. And that as a consequence, does 2 things. One, it still draws new customers. And from the existing customer base, what we are seeing is purchases of more things within [indiscernible]. And if you look at it numerically, what you see is an increase in number of tickets and an increase in ticket size.

And then internally, we ask ourselves the question, okay, how long can this last? When do we reach saturation in these oldest vintages cohorts? And we do extensive market research on these old cohorts, and we see that we have significant room still today to penetrate their wallet. And that is even before taking into account potential new categories that we might introduce.

Your last question was about suppliers. There was 2 parts to that question, if I'm not mistaken. One, are we getting unsolicited requests from national suppliers? And my answer is yes. I mean we're becoming a significant player in the market. And therefore, it's only natural that suppliers will come and knock on our door and say, can we do business with you? And that's great. And second, our existing supplier is able to keep up with the pace, and the answer to that is, yes. And the reason is simply because we've planned for it a long time ago.

All our planning in terms of supply chain is done 3 years ahead of time. So that mitigates the risk -- any risks associated with ensuring that supply is there at the right time. And that's how we operate across 3B anyway. Long-term planning takes out a lot of the execution of operational risks that you would normally have in a business like ours.

Our next question is coming in from Joseph Giordano at JPMorgan.

I want to explore one thing you mentioned on the release the fact that new like store vintages are actually maturing faster than you should expect. So my question goes 2 ways here. So first, like, don't you think that like maybe the maturation level -- so the sales at regime is still a moving target. So as you flagged, you continue to see increasing number of tickets or so clients and larger baskets. So that's the first question.

And the second question to you goes into like the return levels, right? So back in the day, I recall you guys mentioned a 60% cash on cash return on the new stores. So I'd like to understand how the new cohorts are actually behaving in terms of returns because it seems having higher returns. And in that aspect, how should we think about like further expansion acceleration going forward?

So Joe, you're absolutely right in observing that new vintages mature faster. And therefore, they have improved return on invested capital versus the ones we've opened 10 years ago. And simply put, and our brand is better recognized in the market today, and our value proposition is so much stronger than what it was. And therefore, it's natural that when you open a new store, clients come to it much faster and buy more immediately as opposed to taking the time it used to take to get to know us and know if our products are good or not.

And that trend, I think, will continue. As long as we continue to improve our value proposition to customers, which is basically our job every day, you will see that phenomenon continue. In terms of -- again, I'm going back to older cohorts and what the returns have been versus today's cohorts. I think the returns are just as good, if not better. And that's due to the acceleration, as you pointed out so nicely. So we are not seeing anything but better numbers in everything that we're opening that's new.

And even though, let's say, we take extreme cases of we open a store next to an old store, and therefore, it might cannibalize. And these things happen, but are, let's say, a few and far in between. Then we simply look at the 2 stores together and see what their performance is. And together, their performance is better than what it used to be as a single store. So across the board, an improvement in returns and performance for the newer vintages.

And Joe, it's Eduardo. Just to finalize on your questions as we do on a yearly basis, we update our models, and we continue to update the models. And you're right, on the moving target because we have not seen maturation yet. Even for our 2005 vintage, we continue to see very strong increases. So yes, we will do the same modeling this year and it will be with improved numbers for the coming years.

Now eventually, like I mentioned in the previous question, theoretically, you reach a point of saturation, where there is no more real growth because you're selling everything you can to everybody that is within reach of your stores. But all our research points out that we're far from that point. And like I mentioned before, that's not even taking into account any new potential categories that might come to market via our stores.

Our next question is from Álvaro García at BTG Pactual.

Two questions. Eduardo, you mentioned in your prepared remarks that next quarter, we might see more favorable comps on sales expenses specifically. So if you could expand on that, that would be helpful. And my second question is a follow-up on the faster ramp-up of new stores. I was wondering if maybe you could provide a -- maybe some color on the regional basis, you are opening up new regions, new DCs and new regions. So in the context of that faster ramp, is that faster ramp in stores in sort of the central area of Mexico? Or are you seeing that ramp up in your regions as well?

Thanks, Alvaro. On the -- on selling expenses, it's really related to D&A. What I meant by that is that in -- and this is something that we touched on, on the call on the fourth quarter of last year. So there's a portion of D&A that was recognized in the fourth quarter of 2024 rather than on the third quarter of 2024. So that's why you'll see a more favorable number in fourth quarter of 2025. That's on the selling expenses side.

In terms of faster ramp-ups, we're seeing them across the board. There is no notable differences geographically or by type of store or by their location. And fundamentally, when we ask ourselves, should there be -- and the answer is not really because at the end of the day, we're selling basic goods, things that everybody consumes all the time. And we haven't seen a real change in behavior geographically as we're expanding into new regions.

Also keep in mind that in terms of the real estate strategy, we have been extremely balanced in where we open our stores on purpose in order to see maybe there is something different as we expand. And the answer is no. It's been very, very consistent.

Our next question is coming from Alejandro Fuchs.

Congratulations on the results. I just have very 2 brief ones, maybe to dig a little bit deeper into Álvaro's question on the expansion. Obviously, you're opening a lot of stores quarter by quarter. I wanted to see if maybe you could share if you see any difference in terms of competition depending on the region that you're entering in Mexico and the softest new regions that you are penetrating or anything that has been interesting that you can share from the new regions.

And then second, in terms of same-store sales, you mentioned, Anthony, that this is because of volume, right, number of tickets and mix as more SKUs in the ticket. If you have to pick those 2, how is the proportion who is maybe growing a little bit more or adding more to the semi-store sales? Is it more volume? Or is it more mix? That will be all.

Okay. With regards to competition, as we are expanding, let me step back and say that -- now Mexico has always been a very competitive market, very dynamic and healthily so. And so we have seen no increase or change in this competitive landscape. And if anything, we are becoming more competitive. So bottom line is no changes in terms of encountering new competition or a different kind of competition. Let me just say that it's strong and healthy competition across the board and has always been the case with a 3B that's becoming more competitive over time versus everything else.

Alejandro, respect to your second question on same-store sales, what we're seeing is very consistent to what we've seen in the past is that we're seeing more transactions in the stores. And in addition to that, we are also looking into more products in the basket. We don't disclose the percentage of those numbers, but it's mainly coming from having more people coming into the stores and just taking more products home. That's really -- it bolts that to those 2.

And that's versus price inflation, which is minimal in our case.

Our next question comes from Héctor Maya at Scotiabank.

Congratulations on your results. Two key things on a very strong same-store sales growth. How confident are you on maintaining this space? I mean, particularly next year? And if you think we could continue to see this kind of levels as older stores continue to mature, that would be number one. And the second one is related to the higher commercial margin, I know this comes from your elasticity analysis, scale efficiencies and brand negotiation with suppliers, but could you please guide us through your decision process here to define what to do with the savings that you achieved? Like how do you decide how much to take from that? And when do you decide to pass the full savings to consumers? Just to get a better sense of margin despite quarter-to-quarter volatility.

Hector, let me start with the last part of your question. So we are generating real savings in purchasing given scale, given stronger relationships with suppliers, given efficiencies across the board that we particularly focused on. I mean we're very focused on seeing where can we save money, where can we improve the value proposition. And therefore, where can we increase now volumes because people are buying more of this better product. And you can see the positive flywheel effect.

And so it comes your question about, okay, so how much of this goes into margin and how much of this goes into price. And we do it on a product-by-product basis, very much driven by elasticity testing in the market. At any point in time, in 3B, you'll have about 60 products that are being tested across the board for pricing elasticity. And we optimize them for volumes and dollar margin. And the result of doing this all the time across all our products is the margin that you see today in our numbers.

So it's extremely hard for me to guide you and say, well, this is going to be this much next quarter. But what I can tell you from previous experience and if you look also at other hard discounters, you will see that naturally, over time, a certain amount of these savings are going to percent margin and a certain amount are reflected in higher sales curves. So basically, that also drives same-store sales across the board.

So again, apologies, but very hard to give you specific guidance, but I can give you the tendency, the trend as one where, over time, it does improve quarter-to-quarter, it remains volatile. So this sort of leads into your first part of the question, what can I guide you in terms of same-store sales for next year? Would it be as robust, and I can say with a high degree of confidence, based on all the work and research we've done that we see no reason why same-store sales would be any weaker than the than this year. So we expect them to continue to be strong, mainly driven by the fact that we know and we have in the pipeline significant improvements in the products that we're going to be bringing to market over the next 12 months.

If you ask me, does it remain strong 10 years from now, I can probably say, I don't know. But I can say that for the very immediate future for the next couple of years, it remains very strong.

Our next question comes from Alexandre Namioka at Morgan Stanley.

The majority of mine have been already answered. Perhaps touch on the -- on what Anthony mentioned bell like begin the the product categories here. If you can give us any update on how the [indiscernible] category sort of pilot test is evolving. If we should see next year already some of these newer categories already in the stores.

We're constantly innovating, not only in perishables, but across the board in all product categories. I mean that's what we do. The latest example, the one I'm very excited about is our new ice cream bar, which is a banana with chocolate, and it is a blockbuster. So innovation and bringing in more value to our customers and new exciting products, we still have significant runway without breaking any of our principles of a hard discounter, which is limited assortment and an assortment that rotates very fast and, therefore, generates significant amount of negative capital, which is, we think, a competitive advantage.

To answer specifically on the matter of perishables, they have -- they're very high potential categories. But however, we have set ourselves very high standards in terms of quality, and other metrics, efficiency back, we want to make sure that the whole value chain is working perfectly before we launch it. But all our tests are extremely positive, and we remain very optimistic about that.

Our next question comes from Irma Sgarz at HSBC.

It's Goldman Sachs.

Yes. Yes. My questions are just a couple of sort of double clicking on a couple of the other questions that the other analysts brought up on on that product development and product mix, Anthony, it's very interesting what you were just saying sort of on the different products that you're bringing in. And I think the earlier comments on how the even mature cohorts are the customers still sort of migrating up in the increase in the basket size.

So perhaps maybe if you could share some color on when you see sort of the typical customer journey what typically brings them into the store? What is sort of is there a path that certain categories are being put in the basket first and then they migrate to new categories. What have you learned sort of in that journey of your customers, especially the oldest cohorts of the customers? And then linked to that, I know you're doing multiple year plannings when you think about both expansion and product pipeline.

So I'd be curious if you also have something to share about when you think about demographics and shifts in the Mexican population. How to adapt how you have perhaps already adapted your product mix to that? And how -- I think I know some of those examples with some of the sort of health-related items. But more importantly, going forward, if there's any specific trends that are you keeping an eye on and that you're looking to get in front of?

And then the final question, sorry to go on here, but hopefully, it's helpful for everyone. When we just think about operating expense leverage into next year, is it -- I know you've sort of -- you've had some heavy lifting around putting some structures in place this year. Is it fair to think that, that should be growing below your same-store sales next year?

Thank you, Irma. Let's start with the customer journey. And I would say that in general, it's word of mouth. Your neighbor tells you what a great store they have into. And suddenly, you decide to go visit it, and it happens to be walking distance and in your neighborhood and you walk in and you do see a lot of brands that you're not familiar with. And our private labels are managed as brands. And we position them and communicate them as well as any FMCG company would do in the market. but you're not familiar with that.

So what happens typically is you would start with basic goods, you'll buy eggs because they're at a great price and they're very fresh you'll buy oil because it's at a great price, you'll buy rice. But slowly over time, as you've correctly pointed out, you will see, oh, well, they have canned goods, let me try that. and the detergent has not tried that. And by the way, anything you buy has 100% money back guarantee, no questions asked, I don't even need to see your receipt. And that's a very powerful trust builder.

And over time, you start migrating to more sensitive products and eventually, you end up trying our cosmetics and you realize that they're great and that they're at a great price, and you have no reason to go back to the other cosmetic that you were using that was much more expensive. And that's what we've observed in the customer journey, and that continues to be true today and more so when we introduce new products.

In terms of what we could introduce in the future and what we're working on, some of you have pointed out that we have ongoing tests on perishables, but we also have ongoing tests on many other categories that you won't necessarily pick up as you walk in through the store. And that's true because even though we're focused on basic goods and high rotation goods, we are far from supplying everything you need, and there is a lot of potential to continue to increase our offering in what we currently offer as categories.

And I think I've mentioned previously that our stores are designed to absorb much more SKUs without even -- without having to change anything either store size or logistics or anything in the back office or transportation. And that's very important because that allows us and gives us significant cushion to expand our offering without incurring operational inefficiencies.

On the contrary, it's all designed to become more efficient over time as we scale. I'll let Eduardo answer the question on operating leverage, especially as it looks like for next year.

So Irma, without providing any type of guidance, truly, the answer becomes on how fast we expand. And as you know, we've been rapidly expanding, and we believe that, that will continue to be the case. What's been very helpful for us and the way we view things is what I mentioned in the release is that when we're looking at leverage for the older stores, we're seeing very strong leverage there. And if we divide the company to the stores that have been opened for more than, let's say, 2, 3 years, we've seen very strong leverage.

You don't see that immediately because of the pace of growth. I mean we've opened close to 50% of our stores in the past 3 years. That's a massive amount of store openings in a very short period of time. So that drags the number down. And as I mentioned in our last call, it's a little bit perverse because the faster we grow, the less leverage you'll see in the very short term. However, that provides and that increases shareholder value drastically. So we will continue to operate in the same way, and we'll provide guidance for the next year in our next call.

Mechanically, the operating leverage is real and very powerful. Any of you, if you model it, you see it.

Our next question comes from Alex Wright at Jefferies.

Yes. So given some indications of the long-term runway in terms of the number of stores that you're targeting. And you've consistently spoken about people constraints really being the main constraint on growth in the pace of expansion. So I wanted to ask, really, as you grow larger, you're obviously increasing the internal talent pool and the average experience of your teams quite rapidly. So is that something that you see alleviating some of those HR pressures that could allow you to expand more rapidly in terms of new store openings than you already are?

And then the second question I have is on the CapEx for this year. I believe your budget was about MXN 3.65 billion. You've done about MXN 2.4 billion in the first 9 months, while being well on track to meet your store openings. Obviously, still have a couple of DCs to open in the fourth quarter. Is it fair to say there's some headroom there to come in below CapEx budget? Or are there certain investments that you expect to be making in Q4 that will lead to a pickup in CapEx in the fourth quarter?

With regards to people, let me just start by saying we set a very high bar. And we're very proud that we invest in talent development and in human resources in general because we firmly believe that, that's one of our key success drivers what's allowed us to grow now for more than 12 years at the growth rates of plus 30% that you've seen without any hiccups, and that's very unusual. And so we will continue to invest significantly in human resources and in developing talent.

And I'm proud to say that I believe we have probably one of the best talent densities of anybody in the market. So going forward, is that an obstacle for expansion? It's always been, let's say, the gating item. But again, as we in everything, long-term plan, we work backwards. We say, if we want to open that many stores 3 years from now, how many people do we need? And then we ask ourselves, well, where are these people today. And what do we need to do today to make sure that 3 years from now, we have enough people of the caliber that we want with the profiles that we want in order to open that number of stores successfully and have them operate at the level of quality and efficiency that we'd like them to operate at.

So yes, I would say that is always on our radar, but I think we have a very robust plan to tackle that and proof is in the pudding. We're opening more stores today, and they're all very successful.

I'll let Eduardo handle the CapEx question.

Sure. Alex, yes, so you're right. We still have a couple of more DCs to open for the [ half ] of the year. So we opened one. So there's an additional one that will happen in early December and the balance of the year with more store openings. So I think we're going to be very close to the number that we projected late last year through around the MXN 3.7 billion.

Our next question comes from Santiago Alvarez.

[indiscernible] Congrats on the quarter, we really appreciate the color on growth and EBITDA margins on the other cohorts. Can you provide any information regarding on how the product sales mix is behaving on those older cohorts? Is private label sales as a percentage of merchandise reaching the levels you were expecting?

In regards to EBITDA, we don't disclose this number, but conceptually, what I can tell you is we are -- those stores are reaching what other our discounters in other geographies are reaching. So let's talk about around, let's say, 7% EBITDA margins. So what we're seeing in our older cohorts is that all these stores are starting to get to that number.

In terms of the profile of these stores, what we're seeing is, of course, the sales penetration is higher than what you see on a consolidated basis. There's -- as I mentioned in previous questions, a significant amount of leverage that gets us to the 7% EBITDA margin. In terms of private label penetration and the profile of these stores is -- I mean, at the end of the day, as Anthony mentioned, we're selling very basic goods that the average Mexican consumer consumes on an everyday basis.

So there's really no significant differences between the profile of the stores. All of the stores are pretty much selling the same products. It's just a matter of time for the newer cohorts to get to that level of sales and, therefore, profitability with no major differences from one type of store -- one age of store versus the next.

I think you had a second question on private level penetration overall. Is it as were we expecting? And the answer is yes. I mean, as you saw in the numbers that we have published is end of 2023, we were at mid-40s. End of 2024, we were at mid-50s. And this is a number that continues to evolve. If you visited the stores lately, you've seen that we've launched more products, and they're all doing fantastic. So that number continues to be. We're very happy with the results of those numbers put it that way.

Our following question comes from Julie Arshad.

Yes. Anthony and Eduardo, congratulations on a great quarter. I have a kind of a sensitive topic I would like to ask you. Have there been any interest from larger national and/or international players about your business? And what are your thoughts of a potential bear hug from them? And I ask this question because I consider your shares very undervalued and your growth is incredible. So would you comment on that?

The short answer, [indiscernible], by the way, is not to my knowledge, we've talked with international players in terms of cooperating on certain matters, but the topic of a bearhug has not emerged today. In terms of the shares being undervalued or not, I'll let the market judge on that. This is a company that continues to show extremely high growth, healthy growth and improving returns across every single metric. So hopefully, the market recognizes that at some point.

[Operator Instructions] We have not received any further questions. I would now like to hand the call back over to Anthony Hatoum for some closing remarks.

Thank you to our investors who continue to be very supportive and very enthusiastic. Thank you for the analysts who are covering us who keep us challenged with interesting questions. And thank you over all for participating in this call. I'd like to leave you with a thought that our company continues to perform very strongly, and the future looks very bright for us. Thank you again.

That concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Leonard and I will be your conference upgrade. Welcome to Tiendas 3B Second Quarter 2025 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Also, please note that this call is for investors and analysts only. Questions from the media will not be taken nor should the call be reported on.

Any forward-looking statements made during this conference call are based on information that is currently available to us.

Today, we are joined by Tiendas 3B's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Anthony Hatoum; and Chief Financial Officer, Eduardo Pizzuto. I will now turn the call over to Anthony. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Tiendas 3B's Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. I will begin with a review of our operating results for the quarter. And will be followed by our CFO, Eduardo Pizzuto, who will provide an overview of our financial performance. We will conclude with a Q&A session to answer any questions you may have.

We continue to add breadth and depth to our management team. Today, I would like to take the opportunity to welcome to the team to new members. Amparo Martinez, who joins us as General Counsel; and Joaquín Ley who will head Investor Relations. Welcome. We delivered another quarter of exceptional growth, far outperforming other listed grocery retailers in Mexico due to our unrivaled value proposition.

In Q2, we opened 142 net new stores for a total of 3,031 stores. Our store opening rate is accelerating. Together with this acceleration of store openings, we have invested in 4 new regions that we will open in the second half of this year. That means for new distribution centers, logistics and all the personnel required to run it and its operations.

Same Store sales grew by 17.7% versus 10.7% in the second quarter of last year. Total revenues increased by 38.3% to reach MXN 18.8 billion. EBITDA increased by 22.5% to reach MXN 844 million. If we exclude our share-based payment expense, which is noncash, then our EBITDA would have increased by 32%. During this first semester, cash flow generated by operating activities reached MXN 1.9 billion or a 56% increase versus 2024. We ended with a net local cash position of approximately MXN 1.1 billion, and we have a $150 million cash position, mostly from funds we raised at the IPO.

Let's turn to operational performance. We are increasing the number and the rate of store openings. In the first 6 months of this year, we opened 259 stores compared to the 215 stores we opened in the first half of the previous year. If we look at this on a 12-month basis, we opened 528 stores versus 460 stores in the previous 12 months.

Our revenue growth remains rapid. We continue to be one of the fastest-growing retailers in Mexico and possibly globally. Total revenues reached MXN 18.8 billion, an increase of 38% year-over-year, with very strong Same Store sales growth rates of 17.7%. And Same Store sales growth continues to be driven, by continuous improvements in our value proposition to our customers.

And we are seeing an increasing number of tickets as well as an increasing number of items per ticket. When compared to ANTAD, we appear to be increasing the gap in the growth rate of Same Store sales. We see in the second quarter a larger gap of 15 percentage points. I will now pass the mic to Eduardo.

Thank you, Anthony. Good morning, everyone. Sales expenses as a percentage of revenue slightly increased from 10.4% to 10.5%. This increase had 2 main drivers. Due to our accelerated rate of store openings, we see higher store personnel and D&A expenses. This is normal. 45% of our total store base was opened during the last 3 years.

As North store vintages mature, sales expenses naturally decrease as a percentage of revenue. This is what happened with our older vintages.

Moving on to admin expenses. Admin expenses as a percentage of revenue increased by 31 basis points from 3.6% to 3.9%. This includes recognizing an incremental MXN 111 million in non-cash share-based payment expenses. To recap our share-based compensation plans, it consists of a legacy plan of 20 years that terminated at IPO and a new standard plan that started at IPO.

In addition, this June, our Board granted a share-based awards tied to our IPO. This award announced in our IPO and follow-on documentation does not change our fully diluted share count. It was already factored in. It just results now in an accounting recognition of a non-cash expenses upon granting. For those investors who prefer to look at this non-cash expense, we have made it easy to review by providing a breakdown in the appendix of our earnings release. We encourage you to read it.

Moving on to EBITDA. EBITDA reached MXN 844 million, a 22.5% increase year-over-year. EBITDA margin was 4.5%, down 58 basis points. The margin impact mainly comes from higher logistics costs, associated with our opening of 4 new regions in the second half of this year. Non-cash share-based payment expenses and the acceleration of our store opening rate. If we exclude noncash share-based payments, then the EBITDA margin would have been 5.8%, down 27 basis points and our EBITDA would have increased 32% year-over-year.

I would like to anticipate the very normal question about operating leverage. It is real, but hard to see when viewed on a consolidated basis, that, given the increasing rate of store openings. When we look at it on a store vintage basis, we see it clearly. And therefore, we're confident that when our store opening rates flatten, it will become very evident. However, we chose to go for the higher growth rates, and this is what is going to maximize shareholder value creation.

Finally, on working capital. Our business is a business model that generates significant negative working capital. And in turn, we generate significant cash flow from the changes in negative working cap. We can see, for example, that in June '24, we had MXN 5 billion compared to a negative working capital of MXN 7 billion in the second quarter of '25, excluding IPO proceeds. We are roughly at 10.5% and of total revenue LTM, excluding IPO proceeds. Our accelerated growth continues to be self-funded.

I will now turn the call back to Anthony for final remarks.

We are exceeding our targets. We are accelerating the rate of store openings. This, along with related investments affects our consolidated margin. But across the board and especially at the vintage level, we continue to see the benefits of scale and operating leverage. Sales and Same Store sales are booming, reflecting our unrivaled value proposition. And we are funding all this growth and investment internally from increasing cash flows.

We continue to invest to sustain accelerating growth because by doing so, we are creating additional shareholder value, and we are increasing our lead versus the rest of the market. Ours is a winning business model, we will keep on executing, and we will continue to do it just faster and better.

We will now move to start the Q&A session. Please go ahead, operator.

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from the line of Bob Ford. Please state your company name and ask your question.

Bob Ford, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Anthony, Eduardo congratulations on the quarter. What do you attribute the acceleration in Same Store sales, too? And how should we think about ticket traffic, items per basket trends in the quarter, the inflation rates in your assortments and maybe the momentum as you come out of the shift of Easter into July and early August.

Bob, many parts of your question, so I'll try to segregate it. I think fundamentally, it's an amazing value proposition that we keep on improving in everything we offer our customers. And that has not changed at all. Since inception. We continue to improve on our products, whether it's quality or price or packaging or the assortment, and fundamentally, that's what's driving more traffic into our stores and for existing customers enticing them to pick up 1 more item.

And in terms of where is that Same Store sales coming from a more numerical point of view. We're seeing a notable increase in number of tickets. We are seeing a real increase in the ticket size. And when we look at it in more detail, part of it is a number of items that you pick up. And also the mix has changed and made the ticket a little bit bigger. And of course, we always look at inflation. But in our case, it's a minimal part of the ticket increase. In fact, I might even say that internally, we have deflation of prices. Did I cover all parts of the question?

No, I think you did. And I was just curious, if you look at the your meat and produce pilots. I think you're creating a lot of excitement. How are those developing? And to what extent just scaling that having an impact, if at all? And how should we think about it moving forward?

Look, we're cautiously optimistic, and we're fairly conservative when we look at it. And keep in mind that this is still at a test level. So by no means is it impacting sales -- the sales numbers that you see today. And even I believe if we never introduced fresh fruits, vegetables and meats in the future, you would still see significant and notable Same Store sales growth.

Having said that, there's absolutely no doubt that when you do introduce a new categories such as meat or vegetables, you are going to see automatically an increase in the ticket.

Coming back to the test results, I would be, I would say, cautiously optimistic. Again, we're very conservative when it comes to rolling out a new category. We wanted not only to work on the top line, but to make sure that everything behind is working perfectly that our logistics are efficient, that our sourcing is efficient, that we can scale with our problems. Keep in mind that this is a company that's been growing now for many years at 30% plus with no hiccups.

And I think part of that is due to the fact that we're cautious and optimistic in how we do things, and we'd like to make sure that things are running well before we scale them up.

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Ruben.

Andrew Ruben at Morgan Stanley. You mentioned the 4 new regional openings. It's pretty sizable. So I'm curious about some of the opening and ramp-up expenses. You mentioned logistics, but when we think about maybe the marketing to build the brand, the hiring -- is there anything different in terms of the intensity for new regions versus existing stores or kind of your existing regions?

And then when we think about the ramp-up period, should we consider kind of similar or longer? Just really any implications given that you have the 4 planned for the back half?

Let me take the first part of this question, and then I'll let Eduardo comment on ramp-ups and costs. I think there is absolutely no change in how we've been doing things since inception. We stretch, we don't leap. And therefore, when we do open a new region, and as you know, our region is a distribution center together with all associated stores and all the functional areas to support these stores running as an autonomous mini company, if you want to think of it that way.

We tend to open that new region next to an existing region. So by doing that, we have mitigated any risk of branding and name recognition on the contrary when we do open it. People already know who we are. And we shorten the ramp-up of this new region. It's not starting from scratch. It inherits a number of stores from existing regions. And typically, the stores that get transferred are closer to the new region, so you get another benefit, which is more efficient logistics. You've compacted the distances.

Of course, this region doesn't open with all the stores that can run and typically a region can run up to 150 stores, but say it opens with 40 to 60 stores. And then as it adds stores, then it becomes efficient. So basically, we're talking about going from this 40, 60 stores at start to what we call a cruising speed at 150 stores, where we think we've reached an optimal point in terms of running a region.

I don't think we've seen any change in the time of ramp-up, and I don't think that we've seen any change in how we operate it. So it's all been very smooth. It just happens that this year, the 4 new regions are more lumped together in terms of when we open them, and that happens to be in the second half of this year.

Eduardo, do you want to add something to this?

Yes. I would just add that Andrew, for reference, yes, the additional expenses on this, it's mainly on additional personnel transportation and training for all these people that are going to be managing this 4 new regions. But then in terms of the ramp-up, really, no major changes from what you've seen in the past.

The only thing that I would add is that adding more regions for us, it's a great thing because at the end, we become much more efficient. As Anthony mentioned, we compacted distances between the DC and the stores. And in addition to that, we also gained 1 more new real estate team, which positions us better for our continuous expansion. So all in all, good things for the rest of the year in terms of these 4 new regions.

Our next question comes from the line of Joseph Giordano.

I want to explore on 2 things. So first, on the top line, I mean, I'd like to understand a little bit like the evolution of the private label here. So you mentioned you have like larger baskets, so more items. So to understand here how the penetration of private label is evolving into this first half of the year and if the value proposition is really like making a big difference here when it comes to Same Store acceleration versus the market?

The second question is more technical one is concerning leases. So if we look at the total, this is not just the rental as it was a little bit higher than what we saw last quarter. So I'd like to understand a little bit like how the refrigeration equipment and potentially like those new lease effect in that? And what could be the recurring level?

Because we understand that maybe you have some higher upfront lease payments when we have those new contracts coming.

Thanks, Joe. In terms of private label development, it's been -- this is our bread and butter. We are continuously improving the portfolio of private labels and all the other products that we sell, and it's a dynamic process. What you've seen between, let's say, 2023 and 2024 was a major increase in private label penetration. And I wouldn't be surprised that this trend continues in 2025. We will typically give you the number in Q4 of this year as to where -- what we reached in terms of PL penetration.

But no doubt, it's a main driver of net increase in Same Store sales because fundamentally, what you're doing is you're just giving more for your money and an improving private label. It's as simple as that really. Eduardo, do you want to give some color on leases?

Yes. Joe, you broke up a little bit. Can you repeat that your second question, please?

Yes, yes. When we look at like the total lease expenses like interest and lease payments, the level was much higher than everyone was expecting this quarter. So I would attribute that to refrigeration, that since you have the 4 new leases, but I would like to understand like you have like any kind of upfront payments to understand like where this expense should stabilize going forward?

Okay. Thank you. Yes, it did went up a little bit. It has to do with actually more leases coming from growth of stores, equipment at the stores and also the future new regions, which is we're equipping them with cold rooms and frozen rooms as well. So it's the combination of that makes that increase in leases, Joe.

Is there any kind of upfront payment, Eduardo here, like to understand like to select the new level?

No, not from payments.

Our next question comes from the line of Alvaro Garcia.

Alvaro Garcia from Pactual. A couple of questions, 2 questions. One on the equity incentive plan, the 2024 equity incentive plan. We saw that in 2Q '25, you've increased the number of both RSUs and options related to the 2024 plan. And I was wondering if that was performance specific or what drove that increase into 2Q? And maybe if you have some sort of -- I know it's difficult to give guidance, but what a full year '24 number might look like? And then I'll ask my second question afterwards.

Yes. We typically would prefer to leave all of this until the end of the year, but sometimes, there are events like hiring key personnel that require you to give options or RSU midstream. I wouldn't think that this is -- this would be more the exception than the rule. And in terms of guidance for the year, all I can say is that we're well within market parameters for what you would expect a high-growth company to be distributing for a total year in terms of awards that are equity linked.

And then my second question is on sales. My sense sort of speaking to people on the ground is that across income cohorts, the brand is really resonating with the higher income segments. And I was wondering if you're seeing some of that in the data. I know -- I mean, you've discussed the higher ticket and the drivers behind that ticket, but I was wondering if there was a comment to be had on the higher income cohorts driving performance at Tiendas 3B at the moment. Maybe a comment on [Gamma] outperforming other private label. That's my question.

Yes and no. And let me say that, that the stores that we have as a percentage of total stores that are in neighborhoods with higher economic power remain relatively a smaller segment of our total stores. But there is no doubt that the higher the purchasing power the more you can buy, and therefore, you see typically a little bit higher ticket sizes, more frequency of purchase. And at the end of the day, we've seen it also. You see it at BIM where BIM is present today in all sorts of neighborhoods.

So anybody who's looking for value for money irrespective of socioeconomic starts is going to be attracted to our store. And our criteria for opening stores does not -- there's no limit. I mean, as long as we have clients, and we think that we will find a client, we will open a store. And yes, it's been quite successful in all social economic levels in which we've operated.

Our next question comes from the line of Alejandro Fuchs.

Alejandro Fuchs from Itau BBA. Congratulations on the results. I have 2 very brief ones, if I may. The first one is in terms of competition, right? You guys have been outperforming the market quite consistently. I wanted to see if you see anything different in terms of competitors reacting to this, let's say, or you expect anything different for the next second half of the year? That will be the first one.

And then the second one on the new regions that you're entering, I wanted to understand if this is north or south of Mexico. And if you expect competitive dynamics and performance of the stores to be similar to the ones that you already have maybe more towards the center of the country.

In terms of competition, we have seen no real change in the environment. The market in Mexico has always been highly competitive, and that's a good thing. And it's good for the consumer at the end of the day that it pushes us to always try to offer them more for their money. But at a granular level, I see no change in the dynamics of the environment or the competitive level that we've seen in the last 2 quarters. It seems to be more of the same.

In terms of seeing a change as we enter new geographical areas where we expand from where we are outwards because remember, we're always expanding by stretching as opposed to jumping to a new area where we have 0 presence Again, it's been very consistent in terms of buying habits. And fundamentally, when we think about it in more detail, we are selling basic goods things that everybody pretty much consumes irrespective of geography and almost irrespective of socioeconomic level. And the ramp-ups of our stores, our client behaviors, our client reactions have all been very consistent.

I would say at an extreme possibly when one day we reach the U.S. border, we might see some changes in purchasing behavior just because tastes will probably change as we get closer to the U.S. But for the foreseeable future, it remains stable and predictable.

Our next question comes from the line of Irma Sgarz.

I just wanted to touch upon the gross margin pressure, which I think was largely expected given the branching out into new regions, but I was wondering if you could just help us think through a little bit of how we should think about the ramp-up or the dilution into the back half of those expenses that you've layered in anticipation of this build out this quarter, if it's correct to think that we should relatively swiftly, as you laid out, as you grow the store base at the rate that you're growing, I should think that relatively quickly you grow into those new expenses that you've layered on?

And the second question I had, if I may, is if you could just comment a little bit about the mature stores, Same Store sales growth, sort of what you're observing there in terms of sort of just magnitude because it's obviously a little bit hard to parse that out from your Same Store sales, which obviously still is also seeing the benefits of stores that continue to ramp up the mature ratio curve.

Irma, let me start with your last question, which is Same Store sales growth. Well, there is no doubt that given that we have a large number of new stores when you think about it. In the last 3 years, we opened more than 40% of our stores that, that would sort of bias the Same Store sales numbers upwards. But I can also tell everybody that even when we look at our oldest vintages, stores that are 20 years old, they're still growing extremely healthy, much better than inflation. Posting a very solid Same Store sales growth.

And fundamentally, what drives that again is that the portfolio of products that we sell across all our stores has been continuously improving. And so in that very old store, the customer that comes in today sees something that is significantly better than what they used to see 5 years ago. And that drives in more purchase from that client and possibly even more clients that we were not reaching before.

On the matter of margin, right? I can say that our commercial margin is very healthy. And that as Eduardo had mentioned, the -- the decrease in margin that we're seeing is driven by the acceleration in store openings and the expenses that it generates. And of course, you have to pay upfront for all these expenses before you see the sales materialize.

And as you said correctly, eventually, you achieve these sales and this expense gets diluted. But here's the perverse thing. The faster we accelerate the more we have these expenses, even though we're creating tremendous value for the shareholder. And at the end of the day, we've chosen to go that route.

We'll try to accelerate our growth rates and create tremendous value for the shareholder. Even though optically on a consolidated basis, you're going to see a margin that is possibly not growing as fast as you want. But I think it's very worthwhile because at the end of the day, what's important is for us to create more value and also to put more distance between us and the rest of the market.

That's very helpful. May I just follow-up. If I do the math sort of the stores that are in year 4, 5 of your entire store base, so much closer to, I guess, sort of the mature margin, if I may say. So that percentage is actually up a little bit year-over-year just you're obviously accelerating at the margin, but it's also a much larger store base and there's like past cohorts continuing to mature.

So I was just wondering if why that wouldn't already sort of drive some benefits in terms of dilution of the selling expenses at least I understand that G&A also is seeing some upgrades that you're making to internal structures, and that's well understood already from last quarters, but on selling, I was just a little bit curious about that.

Yes. I wouldn't see much into that more than the fact is that when you do accelerate, you're going to get that expense upfront. Take the extreme case, of course, if we reduce our store opening rate to 0, you will immediately see a pop in margin and EBITDA. But of course, we're not going to do that. We're going to continue to try and open as many stores as many healthy stores as we can because that -- every store we open that is successful is value accretive. But I don't know, Eduardo, if you want to add some more color to this exactly as to where 4-, 5-year cohorts are doing versus how much they represent of the total number of stores.

Irma, are you there?

Yes, I'm here.

Sorry, we lost you for a second. Yes.

I think you can take it up.

No problem Irma. We will follow up. Eduardo, we're not hearing your mic.

Operator, please go ahead with the next question.

Our next question comes from the line of Héctor Maya.

Hector we are not hearing at least, I'm not.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, yes. I can.

Yes, we can.

Anthony, Eduardo, always a pleasure and congrats on the results. Just wondering if you see that the Same Store sales performance could be sustainable at this level during the second half of 2025? Or if you are having any signs of moderation, anything that concerns you? And also, even with the further opening acceleration and level of acceptance that you are seeing from consumers, still, I believe that there are lots of people that maybe are not yet familiar with the industry as with.

So just wanted to understand, is there any point in the future in which you would be open to allocate a budget for marketing to create more awareness for the brand?

Hector, you're asking extremely tough questions, hard. Same Store, let's start with Same Store sales expectations going forward in I'm not going to answer this directly, but I'm going to tell you that we don't see anything right now that would say that this would flatten out or decrease, but at the same time, I can't tell you if it's going to be 17% next quarter over 16% or 15%, but let me just say that it's been consistently healthy and I do expect it to continue to be healthy for the next quarter.

In terms of spending on marketing, again, a very tough call. I think our best marketing has been word of mouth. And even when you think about it, we have great marketing coming from social media, which is not generated by us. It's just another way, a modern way of doing word of mouth. And I think that, that has driven a lot of new customers to our stores.

In terms of formally spending on marketing, we've done so in the past in many tests and we don't exclude it from the future. But what we found to be extremely challenging is to link this marketing dollar spent to the increase in sales. We're getting the increase in sales, but we cannot tell you that it was the marketing dollar. And fundamentally, I believe that -- it's the value proposition improvement by itself that drives the vast majority of the increase.

And that, of course, in turn generates the word of mouth, and that in turns creates that virtuous circle of increasing Same Store sales. But bottom line, we don't exclude it, but it has its challenges.

Our next question comes from the line of Ulises Argote.

Ulises Argote from Santander. A couple of questions from my side. So the first one on the supply chain side of the equation. As you continue to expand here further through the country and at this faster pace, are your private label suppliers mostly keeping up with this expansion? Or are you bringing new suppliers on Board? Just trying to get a sense of how things are evolving in this site.

And the second one, I think it's kind of a bit obvious, but is there space to revise the store opening guidance you provided at the start of the year given the current run rate of store openings.

Ulises, I'll start with the last one. We're not revising our guidance. We usually don't. But I think we'll just -- we're confident that whatever we give us guidance is going to be met. In terms of your question about supply chain, again, it's as we improve our suppliers also need to improve. And I think in the past, I've talked about how we do it, everything is long-term planned.

So we can predict with a fair degree of accuracy how many stores we're going to have in the future and the volumes of products we would need to have to meet demand. And as such, we start working on ensuring that we have that supply and the quality and the price that we want way ahead of time. Think about a 3-year lead time to ensure that you have everything ready. And by doing so, you mitigate a lot of the risk and you can ensure that your growth, even though it's very high growth rates is smooth and continuous.

And again, by thinking ahead, you mitigate a significant amount of risks, not only on the supply chain, but in human resources and technology and anything you can think of.

Our next question comes from the line of [ Andres Ortiz ].

Andres Ortiz from BT Pactual Asset Management. I would like to ask about compensation once 2024 equity incentive plan ends [further] release, you expect that the non-cash expenses finished by 2028. But how should we think about management compensation once start this plan ends? Should we expect additional equity incentive plans going forward or higher wages, just to get that sense.

Andres, I'm going to answer the question on a conceptual level, and then I'll let Eduardo talk about the expenses. Since inception, we've always believed that equity-linked compensation is key to attracting the right profile that we want and motivating and aligning anybody who works at 3B with the interest of shareholders. And I can say unequivocally that our success today is in large part because we've attracted the right profile of somebody with a can-do attitude that is working towards creating value.

And I think we'll continue to do so looking forward. Our new equity-linked compensation plan, the 2024 plan is one that goes forward. It doesn't -- I sort of understood from you that might end, no, it doesn't. It's -- these are yearly allocations of equity that we give out that the Board approves and gives out to people in 3B, who have demonstrated leadership.

And also, as I mentioned before, to attract and retain people who we think are the right profile for a high-growth company like ours. And I would say that our Board is also very conscious about this matter of how much equity linked compensation to give out and does it within market parameters going forward. And so that -- the benefits -- if you ask me personally, I'd say the benefits of equity-linked compensation outweigh the equivalent benefit of just giving out cash compensation.

The only thing that I would add, Andreas, is that and Anthony briefly touched on it and just clarifying that table that we disclosed on the appendix to is the non-cash expenses for the next 4 years for what has been granted. So anything on top of that will affect this table. But just for everybody to have clarity on what will happen with this non-cash expenses, that's what we laid out this table.

We will now pause for further questions.

Well, thank you -- sorry, go ahead, operator.

We have not received any further questions. I would like to hand the call back over to Anthony for his closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thank you all for participating and for your interest in our company, much appreciated next time. And please don't hesitate if you have any questions to reach out to myself, Eduardo, Martin now, who is part of our Investor Relations team.

That concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.