BBB Foods Stock

Good morning, everyone. My name is Renata, and I will be your conference operator. Welcome to Tiendas 3B's Third 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 the 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, and thank you for joining us today. I will begin with a review of our third quarter operating results and will be followed by our CFO, Eduardo Pizzuto, who will discuss our financial results. We will then conclude with a Q&A session. The strong momentum we demonstrated in the first half of the year continued into the third quarter, delivering another quarter of excellent results.

Let me highlight some of our key achievements. We opened 141 net new stores, bringing our total store count to 3,765. Over the last 12 months, we opened 603 net new stores. We also opened 4 new distribution centers, expanding our network to 25 regions. Same-store sales grew 20.5% year-over-year. Total revenue increased 40% to MXN 28 billion. Reported EBITDA reached MXN 1.3 billion, while EBITDA, excluding noncash share-based compensation, increased 60% to MXN 1.9 billion. Finally, operating cash flows for the first 9 months of the year reached MXN 7.1 billion, an increase of 128% over the same period last year.

Let's now take a closer look at our operational performance. During the third quarter, we opened 141 net new stores, bringing our year-to-date openings to 419 stores. Over the last 12 months, we have opened 603 net new stores. Our real estate strategy remains unchanged. We continue to expand into new markets while increasing store density in our existing markets. Our strong operating momentum translated into another quarter of exceptional revenue growth. Total revenue reached MNX 28 billion, an increase of 40% year-over-year. Same-store sales grew 20.5%. The drivers of our same-store sales growth remain consistent, continuous improvements to our value proposition, growing brand recognition and increasing customer trust. Our same-store sales performance continues to significantly outperform the broader market. During the quarter, we maintained a gap of more than 21 percentage points versus ANTAD while keeping our internal inflation very low.

I will now pass the microphone to Eduardo.

Thank you, Anthony. Good morning, everyone. Sales expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased by 36 basis points year-over-year to 9.8% in the third quarter of 2026. Most of the expense lines showed operating leverage, including labor. Admin expenses, excluding share-based payment, decreased by 6 basis points year-over-year. While we continue our investment in talent as well as expanding into new regions, strong top line performance allowed for operational leverage generation. 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 third quarter of 2026, excluding noncash share-based payment expense, increased 60% to MXN 1.9 billion, driven by strong sales growth, improved gross margin and operational efficiencies. The adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 83 basis points year-over-year. As you know, we don't manage this business to an EBITDA target. EBITDA will naturally continue to grow over time, driven by our disciplined execution. Our business model generates strong operating cash flow through our structurally negative working capital model. As of September of 2026, adjusted negative working capital reached MXN 10.8 billion compared to MXN 7.8 billion in 2025, excluding IPO and follow-on proceeds. This represents approximately 10.9% of total LTM revenue, also excluding IPO and follow-on proceeds. Our operating cash flows fully fund our organic expansion.

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

Thank you, Eduardo. We delivered an excellent first 9 months of 2026, driven by strong execution across our business. Our business model continues to demonstrate its resilience, scalability and its ability to self-fund our growth. Importantly, our growth is driven by 2 powerful engines, the continued expansion of our store network and sustained same-store sales growth supported by an ever-improving value proposition for our customers. Our newer store vintages are performing better than our previous vintages. They start with higher initial sales and their sales grow faster. This momentum continues into our fourth quarter. And if we look further ahead, we remain confident in the significant growth opportunities before us and in our ability to continue executing with increasing efficiency.

Thank you for your continued interest in Tiendas 3B. We will now open the call for your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Andrew Ruben from Morgan Stanley.

Congratulations on the quarter. Just checking in on the store openings. If we look at the pace so far this year, it looks like it's annualizing a bit below the guidance. But at the same time, we've seen in recent years, 4Q tends to be a heavier period for openings. So given that, I'm curious how you're feeling about the 590 to 630 opening guidance for the year? And then related, is there anything we should consider about kind of a structural reason why you might see more openings in 4Q compared to the other quarters of the year?

Andrew, thank you. No, we're still well within guidance, and you're absolutely right. The fourth quarter tends to be a little bit heavier on store openings, and our pipeline looks very healthy at this stage. So no change in guidance.

We can now go to Alejandro Fuchs from Itau.

Thank you, operator.

Alejandro, you broke up. Can you hear us?

Sorry, is this better?

Yes.

Awesome. Sorry. No, just one quick question on competition. I wanted to see if have you seen anything different in the last couple of months? How maybe are you seeing the trends in the fourth quarter starting anything that caught your attention?

No. We haven't seen anything notable. From our own perspective, nothing has changed. We still are gaining new customers, and we still see a healthy trend in ticket size. But we read what you read, and we see people moving. And I think overall, this is healthy for the market and for the consumer. So all healthy, all good from the competition point of view.

Our next question comes from Hector Maya from Scotiabank.

Congrats on the results. I have two questions. First, how much did commercial margin help Q3 margins, and how should we think about it going forward?

Yes. Hector, I don't know if you hear us, but you were breaking up a little bit. I heard your question is about commercial margin. I would say that there is an expansion in commercial margin in this quarter. And as we've said many times before, margins go up a little bit, come down a little bit. But overall, the trend over a longer period of time is a healthy upward trend. In terms of other things that affected our numbers, I would say we've seen a lot of operating leverage this quarter, too, and that is also very healthy. So net-net, everything is pointing in the right direction. And in the fourth quarter, just expect business as normal for us.

Do you hear me here? Can you hear me?

Much better. Thank you.

Yes. Sorry. And the other question was about Mexico's corporate tax and how we should think about it down the road.

Hector, I'm not sure if you're referring to this new law that limits deductions. But if that is the case as of today, with the information that we have today, this is a law that would mainly affect temporarily cash flows. So as of today, we don't expect any changes for our plans for next year. But of course, we will give you guidance on our next call, which will -- in which we will review Q4.

Our next question comes from Bob Ford from Bank of America.

Just a follow up on Hector's question with respect to commercial term improvements. I was curious, were those realized as a result of your price volume optimization processes strictly? Or did volume-based rebates play a role at all in that improvement? And then when you think about the improvements in transportation costs that you referred to, how should we think about capacity utilization in the network? And I'm just curious, what do you see driving the improvements in transportation costs?

Thanks, Bob. Very thoughtful questions. Let me start with the last one. The world of transportation for us, let's say, is a world with a lot of potential going forward. We barely scratched the surface and what we can do to further optimize transportation costs. And it's a very exciting topic for us, and you'll see a lot more happening in 2027 on that front. In terms of commercial margins, it's a little bit of everything you mentioned, right? So of course, the main driver of improvement has always been scale. And as we continue to scale, everything improves, including rebates, as you mentioned. So I would expect this to continue for the foreseeable future and no changes in anything that we haven't seen in the past.

Great to hear. And just one follow-up, and that is going into year-end, how are you guys thinking about seasonal? What's different in seasonal for you compared to prior years?

Big differences, we see none. But definitely, there's a seasonal effect with end of year because, of course, seasonal products get sold in the month of November, December and sometimes through January, too. And there might be some timings in payments of rebates for sales that are done in December, you see the rebates in January. So that's the only effect that is likely to be seen, and that's nothing new. We've had it every single year for the last several years.

So in terms of your irrepetibles or things like that, very similar to prior years, nothing?

I would think so. With improvements, again, improvements driven by scale, right? What I'm showing you this year in December is probably going to be much better than what we showed you last year in December.

Our next question comes from Irma Sgarz from Goldman Sachs.

I'm sorry, I want to just go back to the commercial margin or to the gross margin, sorry, with a bit more detail. If you could just break down, I think a lot of analysts had expected some quarter-over-quarter or year-over-year pressure or at least less expansion in that gross margin. So I think that was a positive surprise, especially in the context of you building out 4 new distribution centers in this quarter.

So could you just provide a little bit more -- you point to the commercial margin, whilst you do acknowledge the pressures from this build-out. Just within that commercial margin, is there any sort of more breakdown that you can provide in terms of how much of that comes from better supplier terms compared to mix effects compared to perhaps some other sort of pricing intelligence-related benefits or shrinkage-related benefits, just to sort of understand the different components, how much they weighed. And I assume that most of this is sustainable and that you can continue to build on it.

Irma, thank you for your question. Anthony went over a little bit about the commercial margin. And I think the difference in this quarter is the fact that we opened 4 new DCs, and it did have an impact. If you look at it sequentially, it did have some pressure on margin. But if you look at versus a year ago, there's no doubt that the overall margins expanded. What happened this quarter, specifically with our logistics expense is that out of the 4 DCs that we opened, 2 of them opened in the early part of the quarter, so in July. So most of the preopening expenses happened in Q2. So that's one part.

The second part is that we continue to get better at preopening expenses. So we continue to get smarter on how we do the opening of distribution centers. And then the balance of that is overall transportation expenses continue to get better. The older distribution centers that we opened, for instance, last year, they're doing their job and they're becoming more efficient. So everything is accretive. So all in all, as we open more DCs, we become more efficient, and that helped out in the overall expenses, and that's the consequence you see on margins.

Our next question comes from Alvaro Garcia from BTG Pactual.

I have a multifaceted question here on the impact to same-store sales and average ticket from frozen. We've been able to visit some stores recently, and it's pretty clear how dynamic that category has become. So I guess my question is, one, first, where are we in the middle of sort of this rollout to increase freezer capacity for your entire store base?

And two, just, I guess, a broader question on sort of the identity of the store, Anthony. Where do you see the identity of the store? It felt a lot more like a convenience store than a grocery store in some of my more recent visits and how I saw some customers shopping for those specific categories, sort of that impulse element behind your business. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on sort of that convenience versus grocery identity.

Let me start with the last one. Yes, convenience versus grocery store. No, we firmly believe that we're still a grocery store that where the client comes mainly to fill up their pantry. But it's true that in maybe in urban areas that you're more likely to visit if you visit stores in Mexico City that you might see a smaller component, which is convenience driven, and that's normal. But we're definitely a lot of value for your money grocery store come do your pantry shopping with us.

In terms of categories, and you mentioned frozen. Yes, it's one of the exciting categories that are naturally developing in 3B. We were the pioneers in Mexico and bringing high value for money frozen to the market. It took a very long time to develop the category. And what you're seeing today is the result of many years of work and the natural evolution of this category, similar to other categories, which you didn't mention, which very normally, and that's what we do for a living is improve every single product in our catalog and every year, try to give you better value for your money.

So -- but frozen is more visible because you see a CapEx in freezers. And I just remind everybody that we look at the ROIC of this CapEx very carefully as we do with everything else and every single other investment. It remains -- frozen remains a growth category, and we have several others that are also growing quite fast and will continue to grow through 2027 if we do our job correctly. There was another part to your question, maybe Alvaro, that I missed?

Yes. I guess the only part is where are we in the rollout? I know that we're looking to sort of increase the number of freezers. But obviously, the new stores come with the freezer set that you'd like, but I know you're looking to increase the number of freezers in some of your older stores. So where are we in that process? Any color there would be helpful.

Let me answer it generically by saying that refrigeration strategy is very dynamic. I mean you'll see changes in our refrigeration approach in the next years. It's not likely to stop. We're always looking to optimize everything in the store, increasing -- including refrigeration, and we do it on many levels. For example, we try to reduce refrigeration costs while offering you refrigerated goods, and that will result in physical changes in the store that shouldn't surprise anybody because we're driving towards better ROIC on refrigerated goods. So what you will see going forward is more changes in both refrigeration and frozen, but always driven by what I mentioned before, improve the ROIC, give better value to your customer.

Our next question comes from Joseph Giordano from JPMorgan.

I'd like to explore 3 fronts here. So first, looking at this commercial margin, right, I understand there's lots of scale gains. So if you could comment a little bit on how you're seeing like maybe the price gap widening of 3B versus peers, which may help in this context, this pantry loading and all these changes in like journeys to the store. The second one goes with part of your comments around the new stores ramping up faster than the history. So my question to you is if we are actually seeing higher returns on those stores in the sense that eventually like not just the CapEx the same, but also the terminal sales or the sales of maturity is probably higher than what you had back in the past. And in this growth profile, like how the new categories like maybe like frozen are really helping on this additional growth?

Sure thing. Price gap, we haven't seen much change, notable change. The price gap remains and it's steady. So in this quarter, we haven't seen anything that jumps. So I would say that is -- continues to be what it was in previous quarters. In terms of new store ramp-ups and higher ramp-ups, it's true that over time, what we've seen is the store sales curve becoming steeper and for all our stores, the maximum sales going up over time. And what we'll do is in the next quarter or thereafter, we will update our spaghetti chart, which will clearly show that graphically to everybody.

So that trend continues. And again, it's driven by 2 things. One is our brand is much better recognized today than it used to be, and that trend continues. But most important is the value proposition to customers, which is notably improving over time. We are continuously offering our customer more value for money. And in the categories that we have, like you mentioned frozen, what you find today in the freezer is much more relevant and more value for money than it was last year. And this keeps on driving what you see in same-store sales. It keeps on driving this curve, which you see steepening, starting higher and reaching higher. For the time being, this continues. Joe, did you have another question related to that?

Sorry, Anthony, the last question. No, I think like you responded at all. It's more about like the private label helping the pantry loading, but you already answered that. Thank you.

Thanks.

Our next question comes from Vinicius Strano from UBS.

Could you please break down same-store sales growth between traffic and ticket? And within ticket, how do you see items per basket evolving? At what level items per basket are mature stores are reaching if you're seeing growth here as well? And any commentary around which categories are leading growth and how they are contributing to margins? Any color on how mix might be helping margins as well? This would be my questions.

So it has been very consistent for the past quarters. So 2/3 is coming from volume, which is the number of tickets and price per ticket. And the balance is price. And within price, it's -- the vast majority comes from mix, not from inflation because remember, our internal inflation is very, very low, actually close to 0. So that is where same-store sales are coming from. In terms of items per basket, yes, you can expect that we continue to see that number going up. If you remember at IPO, we're talking about 2 to 3 items. Today, we're talking about a range of 4 to 5 items per transaction. As Anthony mentioned earlier, as we continue to improve our value proposition, that number tends to go up. And you heard a third point that I couldn't hear properly. Can you repeat that third question?

The other question was just about which categories are leading growth and if you're seeing -- if you could just comment around mix contributions to gross margins as well.

In terms of categories, when you look at the breakdown of categories, fundamentally, if you look at every item in our shelves have to have a very high rotation. So everything is contributing to growth. Of course, we have had slightly newer categories like frozen or cosmetics, which are having an outstanding performance, but everything improves. Dairy, for instance, continues to have a very solid growth as part of same-store sales. And then did you ask about mix? Did you have an additional question?

Yes, if you could just comment around mix contribution to gross margins as well.

There is no doubt that we're offering higher priced, but even higher value for money products. So that might be contributing to mix in a positive way, as you're correctly asking. But I would say, fundamentally, our focus is on getting existing customers to buy more from us, and we're seeing that happen on a continuous basis. So as you increase the value proposition to your customers, suddenly somebody who wasn't buying something and that something could be in any category and decides to buy it from you, that is extremely powerful. That's what I think is the main driver and will continue to drive what you're seeing today.

Our next question comes from Antonio Hernandez from Actinver.

Congrats on your results. Just a quick one regarding the new pilots that you have overall across your different stores. Any new highlight there? Any pilot worth highlighting?

Look, at any point in time, there is about 60 to 80 pilots, let's call them that or tests that are running in our stores. Some of them you'll pick on because they're very visible like, let's say, fruits and vegetables or meat, you physically see them, they take more space. They have special shelving or refrigeration. But a whole bunch of them, you won't necessarily pick on because they look like any other product.

So we've never stopped piloting products, and we do it very aggressively and very consistently. And not all of them work, but those that work, you will see become part of the catalog. And we also maintain our discipline in number of SKUs because we always question when we do introduce a new product, which one should we drop across the board. And unless something is very, very different and unusual and unique, do we just add it on to our SKU count. And our SKU count today remains very conservative at around 900 products. And we've said before, we have the ability to increase this without changing anything in our operations or in our logistics to a significantly higher number. But we will maintain our very strict discipline in terms of very high value for money, very high rotation and everything else, we're not that interested in offering.

Our next question comes from Federico Galassi from The Rohatyn Group.

Two questions. The first one is you opened -- let me know if I'm wrong, but you opened 4 distribution centers this quarter. If we see in 1 year, you opened almost 10. The 2 questions are how much efficient are these new distribution centers? And the second one, if you continue to have in mind that one distribution center is almost 150, 160 new stores? This is the first one.

Federico, yes, the number hasn't changed. It still serves roughly the same number of stores. The operations of the warehouse in general have not changed. But of course, you're always optimizing your logistics. The optimization happens at 2 levels. One, internal operations, there's always room for improvement for shaving minutes of work and moving boxes and trying to drive down the cost of moving a box through your system. And I don't think stops, right? And I did mention earlier that on the logistics front, there is significant opportunity going forward, and it's for us to make that happen.

Now in terms of the other real mechanical advantage of opening more distribution centers is compacting distances. So every time we open a new distribution center, we're also reshuffling the stores so that the truck distances from warehouse to store become smaller. And that's a significant impact, and that happens every time we open a new distribution center. So yes, from that point of view, we do expect continuous improvements over time as we get bigger.

Very clear. And the second question is a rough number. You have about 20% same-store sales in your measure, that is 2 years. And when we compare with ANTAD, other channels that this quarter was close to 0. The question is, I am assuming that you are gaining market share to the modern and traditional channel. But beyond that, you are seeing a new client that they are moving or shifting from big box to proximity, if we can call proximity. That's the question.

It's a very hard question to answer because from our perspective, we don't see the full picture. I can't tell you if anybody is losing market share or if the customer is really changing behavior, used to buy something somewhere else and move to us. I'm going to assume there is some of that, but I don't have any concrete data to share with you in saying this is happening exactly that way or this way. All I can tell you is that if the customer did not see more value in our offer, we wouldn't be seeing the numbers we're seeing.

Our next question comes from Alberto Vadia from Fruit Tree Capital.

I have 2 questions. One is regarding Yema. And we know it's a tiny piece of the pie, but just where do you see it? And if you could give us a quick update on it and where you see it in 10 years. And our other question is regarding talent and culture. And a lot of times, that's -- when we talk about culture, talent, it's revolving is stock-based compensation. We're more curious of how you see talent development at the base -- at the entry level, the person at the cashier, the stocking at the distribution center. That's it.

Look, we're firm believers that investing in talent is a high return on investment effort, and we will continue to do so. We pay maybe more than others attention to the HR and to the culture functions. And we believe that these have paid off in droves and have propelled us to where we are today and will propel us going forward to where we'd like to be. It sounds philosophical, but we firmly believe that it's the team that makes the difference, and we're investing in the team and we'll continue to do so at all levels, all the way from the cashier, as you mentioned, to the most senior person in the company. And you'll see that physically and you'll see that in our numbers.

In terms of Yema, it's a very exciting concept. It's only 4 stores, as you mentioned correctly. It will continue to grow, and it will grow at its own pace. It is hitting a niche of the market that nobody seems to have been looking at and the reception from customers has been exceptional. So it will continue to grow, but we haven't guided or -- and we're unlikely to guide anytime soon as to where it can head to. But very exciting, and we're very glad to have it.

Our next question comes from Guli Arshad.

Guli, we can't hear you.

Yes. Okay. Now you can, right?

Yes, absolutely.

So congratulations on a great quarter. So I have basically 2 questions. First, how do you manage the scaling of your private label providers? And related to that, do you have different private providers for different regions for the same product? That's the first question.

Let's start with that, Guli, because it's a very important question and one that merits its own time. If private labels, as you know, play a strategic role in our growth, and this is where we offer the most value to our clients. And of course, when you're growing at the rates we're growing, you ask yourself, well, where do I have a product that is good 3 years from now. And if you're not asking that question today, you won't have it in 3 years.

So basically, we very proactively manage the procurement side and make sure that by the time we get to that 3-year point, everything is in place. So for example, in 2026, we're not talking about 2026. We're talking about '28 and '29 with all our suppliers. And that's the way the business has operated, and that also explains why this business has been able to grow at 30% plus per annum now for the last 12-plus years without experiencing any hiccups. So it's the right strategy and we will continue the same way going forward.

In terms of do we have 2 suppliers for 1 given product, there is no right or wrong answer here. It all depends on the product, and it all depends on the supplier. Sometimes for geographical reasons, you want to have 2 suppliers because the logistics make more sense. Sometimes for strategic reasons, you want to have 2 suppliers because you protect your supply base and you make sure that it's redundant if there is any risk of interruptions. So really, it's on a product-by-product basis that we look at it and make decisions as to how many suppliers supply a given private label product.

So you might have, for example, 2 yogurt providers instead of one?

Exactly. That could happen. There's always a benefit in having longer runs with one supplier, but you always have to trade off. You have to include logistics and you need to include growth capacity and you need to include safety of supply.

Very good. So my second question is really kind of a business school jargon, but I'm so impressed with your growth. So my question is, what do you think is your distinctive competence as well as a differentiator compared to your competition?

Yes, indeed. I do feel like I'm at business school. Look, I'm going to -- it might sound poetic here, but I really think that it's the team. A better team, you can do great things.

I agree.

Our next question comes from Vanessa Quiroga from Eternal Capital Group.

My question is regarding the tax reform that is currently in the process of being approved. Can you comment on any potential impact on the effective tax rate that you're currently paying, both accounting and cash?

Vanessa, we've addressed this earlier in the call today. And basically, this -- with the information and again, I underscore that with the information that we have today, this is a law that will temporarily affect or mainly will temporarily affect our cash flows. So having said that, as of today, we have no plans to change our plans for next year. So for now, no changes with the information that we have today. But of course, this is constantly under review, and so we need to see the final draft. And then we will give you, of course, our guidance in our Q4 call. But as of today, that's the information we have.

I see. And do you expect this to change your capital structure in the sense of preferring to raise debt maybe in order to manage better the cash flows for instance?

We don't think it has that kind of impact. It might shift cash flows on a temporary basis. But again, let's hold up until Q4, and we'll have a much more concrete and better answer for you.

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

I'd like to thank you very much for being with us today, for your continued support and your continued interest in our company. Thank you to the analysts that are covering us. Thank you to the investors who trust us. And thank you to all our team for making all of this happen. And I look forward to talking to you on the next call. Thank you.

Thank you. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Daniela, and I will be your conference operator. Welcome to Tiendas 3B's Second Quarter 2026 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Also 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, 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 our Q&A session.

We delivered another strong quarter, sustaining and even building on the momentum we achieved in the first quarter. Here are the key highlights from our second quarter results. We opened 155 net new stores during the quarter, bringing our total store count to 3,624 as of June 30, 2026. Over the last 12 months, we've opened 593 net new stores. We also opened one new distribution center, expanding our network to 21 regions as of the end of June.

Same-store sales grew 20% compared to the second quarter of 2025. Total revenue increased 39% year-over-year to MXN 26 billion. Reported EBITDA reached MXN 960 million. Excluding noncash share-based compensation, EBITDA increased 44% to MXN 1.6 billion. For the first half of the year, cash flow generated from operating activities reached MXN 4.3 billion, representing 119% growth compared to the first half of 2025.

Let's now turn to our operational performance. As I mentioned, we opened 155 net new stores during the second quarter. Over the last 12 months, we've opened 593 net new stores, representing 20% growth in our store base compared to June 2025. Our expansion strategy remains unchanged. We continue to balance densifying our presence in existing regions while selectively expanding our footprint in others.

Our revenue growth remained exceptionally strong, and we believe 3B continues to be amongst the fastest-growing retailers globally. Total revenue reached MXN 26 billion in the second quarter, up 39% year-over-year. Same-store sales increased 20%, reflecting another quarter of outstanding performance. This strong growth continues to be driven by ongoing improvements to our value proposition, increasing brand awareness and growing customer loyalty.

Our same-store sales performance continued to significantly outperform the market. During the quarter, we maintained a gap of more than 20 percentage points versus ANTAD, while our internal inflation remained very low. I will now pass the microphone to Eduardo.

Thank you, Anthony. Good morning, everyone. Sales expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased by 56 basis points to 10% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026. Most of the expense lines showed operating leverage, including labor.

Admin expenses, excluding share-based payment, increased by 57 basis points year-over-year. As seen in previous quarters, admin expenses reflect our continued investment in talent and expansion into new regions to support our accelerated growth. In the second quarter of 2026, admin expenses reflects a onetime cash expense of MXN 37 million related to the equity follow-on offering in May 2026.

With respect to the share-based payment expense, these 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 second quarter of 2026, excluding noncash share-based payment expense, increased 44% to MXN 1.6 billion, driven by strong sales growth, improved gross margin and operational efficiencies. The adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 21 basis points year-over-year. EBITDA in the second quarter of 2026 includes a onetime cash expense of MXN 37 million related to the equity follow-on offering in May 2026. Excluding this impact, the adjusted EBITDA margin in the second quarter of 2026 was 6.2%. As you know, we don't drive to an EBITDA. It will naturally continue to increase over time, driven by our disciplined execution.

Our business model generates strong operating cash flow through our structurally negative working capital model. As of June 2026, adjusted negative working capital reached MXN 10.2 billion compared to MXN 7.1 billion in 2025, excluding IPO and follow-on proceeds. This represents approximately 11.2% of total LTM revenue, also excluding IPO and follow-on proceeds. Our operating cash flow fully funds our organic expansion.

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

Thank you all for joining us today and for your continued interest in Tiendas 3B. We delivered a strong first half of 2026 with consistent and solid execution across our key operating and financial metrics. Our high-growth business model has continued to demonstrate its resilience across different economic environments. It delivers attractive unit economics, generates strong cash flow and becomes even more competitive as we scale. We remain confident in the significant long-term growth opportunity for Tiendas 3B.

Thank you, and we will now open the call for your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Andrew Ruben at Morgan Stanley.

I'm interested to understand a bit more about the gross margin performance. And just thinking about some of the drivers. You mentioned stronger commercial margins. So trying to understand what might have changed, if anything, quarter-on-quarter there. And then second, the lower transportation costs. I think this is the first time you've mentioned that in a while despite the DC buildout. So trying to understand these drivers, how much they contributed and how that pertains to any forward outlook on gross margin would be very helpful.

I'll take the gross margin question, Andrew. As you know, it's a dynamic process in the sense that this is a sum -- what you're seeing here is a sum of the gross margins of all the SKUs we currently carry. In large part, let's say, the main driver, as we scale, we are much more efficient in terms of buying or in terms of manufacturing a good. We get better input conditions. We improve the logistics of moving that good over. And that fundamentally basically gives you a bigger pie that, if it's a private label product, you've divided in a very equitable way with your producer. And then you turn around and you say, "Okay, now I have a bigger pie. Let's decide at what price do we put it?" And it's mostly a very ongoing adjustment of prices, where we try to optimize volumes and dollar margin.

And then we sum it all up, and you see that, yes, it's improved, but it's the result of all these little improvements that we see across the whole portfolio. Will the trend continue? Very likely, you'd see this improving as we scale and as we are just getting better at what we do. There comes a point where in terms of percent margin, you're basically passing more into price than necessarily retaining it. But end result, the most important thing to look at is the dollar margin generated. And as long as this continues to grow healthily as we see it here, we're all very happy.

I'll take the second portion, Andrew. In terms of transportation expenses, I guess, overall, there's no doubt that as we continue to grow and gain scale, we become more efficient in all our operating line items. Specifically on logistics for Q2, 2 things played in our favor. One is we have ongoing efforts to optimize our transportation costs, not only for new regions but all of our regions. And the second one is specifically for the distribution center that we opened in Q2, we did a better job in managing the preoperating expenses of this region. So of course, that is something that we will apply in future regions.

And I'll take advantage of your question just to give you an update on distribution centers. We have, in addition to the one we opened in Q2, in the past few weeks, we opened an additional 2 distribution centers, and we expect to open a third one within Q3. So for a total of 3 DCs in Q3. The reason I mention this is because we might see some pressure probably in logistics expense just because we're adding 3 additional new distribution centers.

Our next question comes from Bob Ford at Bank of America.

Again, congratulations as well. With respect to same-store sales, how much of the growth is ticket versus traffic? And how should we think about the year-on-year improvements that you're seeing in terms of item counts per transaction? And then I was also curious, you've got some phenomenal innovation. How much of that growth is coming from new SKUs?

And additionally, could you give us a little update on the progress with the ERP rewrite? There's been a revolution in programming over the last 12 months. How is that speeding up development or maybe allowing you to run a little leaner than you expected? And should we think about -- or how should we think about deployment, both in terms of functionality in the system as well as any complementary changes you may need in logistics or the point-of-sale?

Bob, good to hear from you and many questions. Let me start with the first one regarding to where is the same-store sales growth coming from. We have about 2/3 of the growth is explained by volume, 1/3 is explained by price. And within price, the large impact is coming from better mix. We remain with a very low amount of inflation in our price number.

There was a second part to your question that was talking about categories and category growth. When we look at all our current categories, they're all growing at various rates, but they're all growing. When we look at maybe 1 or 2 commodity categories where we're relatively well penetrated, they're still growing but possibly at a slightly slower pace than, let's say, newer categories that just entered, which you very rightly saw, we have a couple of new categories which, starting from a low base, are growing quite rapidly and successfully.

We've been extremely careful about introduction of new products or categories. As you know, we like to keep our SKU count on the low side. It brings a lot of benefits to us. So every time we put in an SKU, we have to make sure that it does rotate, that it's highly accepted. And many times, we just drop an SKU that's less attractive. And this will continue. I don't see a stop to that. And as you know, our stores can handle a significantly higher number of SKUs, but we're extremely conservative in introducing new ones.

One last part to your question is, 3B is a platform, and we've said that many times. We touch a client very frequently. And this client not only needs groceries. So then you can basically say whatever this client needs is something that you can potentially offer as long as you don't violate your core principles.

On the second part of your question, which had to do with our ERP, I'm very pleased with the progress on our new ERP system. We are testing Phase 1, and I think it's going quite well. AI tools have definitely accelerated our ability to program. And what I've noticed, though, is that we've just brought forward a lot of stuff that we had planned to do a little bit later. And we've even added more features that we thought we would put in a bit later. So net-net, we're on track, and it's coming quite well. There was a last part to your question, but maybe I missed it.

Yes, it was actually kind of plugging into maybe you're signaling this when you talk about the broader platform opportunity. But I was asking you a little bit, too, about how you're thinking about complementary changes to the supply chain or the point-of-sale systems and just trying to get a better sense for the calendar of deployment and maybe the functionality that we'll expect over time.

Yes. I mean there's no doubt that in this new generation of ERP that you're seeing, our point-of-sale is a much more potent point-of-sale that has the ability to deliver more than just ringing up a product. And that's the whole idea of giving us optionality to offer more services to the client down the road. And in terms of logistics, again, as you get bigger, suddenly, you have many more doors opening for optimizing your logistics. As you know very well, we don't do much on the backside of logistics, and that's quite an interesting opportunity for us to explore.

Our next question comes from Joseph Giordano at J.P. Morgan.

Anthony, so I want to explore a little bit -- Eduardo, sorry -- to explore a little bit the upgraded store format you guys have been talking about. So it's a little bit larger, more doors for refrigerated goods. So I'd like to understand like what's the percentage of new stores that are coming under the new format, if it's 100%. And second, what's the typical sales uplift we are seeing from those locations? And last, if I may, like how should we think about the ramp-up? So it looks like the ramp-up of the new stores are much faster than in previous vintage.

Joe, good to hear from you. Yes, 100% of our new stores open under the new format. We'd like to try and keep as much format discipline as we can going forward. And there's no doubt that we chose this upgraded format because it has much better performance than our older stores. Having said that, our older stores are still performing extremely well. Eduardo, do you want to touch on the others?

Yes. I would just add, you asked also on the ramp-ups, Joe. And what I can say is that, we're very happy to see how these stores are performing. So if you remember, we updated our unit economics analysis in Q4. So it's pretty much trending against what we had projected. And the same thing with pretty much all our stores are tracking in the direction that we had expected. So there's no news there other than the ramp-ups continue to be very consistent, and we're very happy with the evolution of our 2026 vintage.

Our next question comes from Ulises Argote at Santander.

I had kind of a follow-up to a point you made earlier, Eduardo, but you guys opened close to 280 stores in the first 6 months of the year, and this came with only one additional distribution center. So just wanted to get some color if this is more related to some temporality effects there on the opening of distribution centers. And you already said Eduardo, there will be 3 new ones on the quarter, but I wanted to get a sense there if you're finding any efficiencies being able to serve a broader store base from each distribution center given what we saw in the first half of the year. Appreciate any thoughts there.

Ulises, thank you. We are on track in terms of our openings as what we had planned in the beginning of the year. As we've discussed in previous calls, every time we open a new distribution center, we, of course, benefit from 2 things: one is we continue to increase our footprint in the country; and the second one is we do become more efficient because our transportation expenses get benefited from that.

We've seen that in the -- in pretty much all our DCs that we have opened. So for the back half of the year, yes, we're opening 3 additional ones in Q3. If we see opportunities to open more in the back half of the year, we might do so. And again, it's because at the end, we become more efficient.

There was a second portion of your question.

No, I think it was just to understand if there was kind of any temporality into what we saw in the expansion on the first half with just one DC being added.

Yes. As I mentioned earlier, we were benefited this quarter by those 2 factors that I mentioned, transportation expense and the fact that we were smarter in the preopening expenses for the region that will be applied for the next regions that we open. But just a heads up on -- as I said, might be some pressure on logistics expense in Q3 just because we're opening 3 additional DCs. But in the longer run, eventually, these will become even more efficient. So nothing very different from what you've seen in the past.

Our next question comes from Héctor Maya at Scotiabank.

Congrats on the strong results. Just wondering if you saw any tailwind from the World Cup? And if so, how much do you think it contributed to same-store sales? And also, I wanted to know how you are thinking about the increase in the pace of G&A investments in the second half or if the level we saw in Q2 could be a good run rate?

No, World Cup did not have a relevant impact on our sales. I mean it was even hard to tease out anything, if at all.

In terms of G&A expenses, Eduardo, you have a better handle on that?

Sure. I think it's -- Héctor, as you know, we don't guide on these metrics. But I think it's fair to assume that -- and we will continue to invest in talent just because we are convinced that it drives value, strong value actually. So we will continue to do so for the back half of the year.

So I think it's fair to assume and expect something very similar to what happened in Q2. So let's say, 3-ish percent of revenue. I think that would be -- in the short term, that would be a fair assumption.

Our next question comes from Irma Sgarz at Goldman Sachs.

Yes, just picking up on that G&A point, as you've made clear on your previous answer, you're looking to continue to invest in talent. Can you just be a little bit more explicit in terms of like where -- which areas of the organization you're looking to add talent? Obviously, you've brought some important people on to the team sort of market facing over the last 12 months. But I'd be curious to just hear a little bit more on the backend part that we don't maybe directly see which areas of the organization you're looking to add. Or is this more sort of retention of talent and incentives and employee value proposition that you're investing in there on the G&A side?

And then just curious, I know it's a bit in the nitty-gritty, but I know you're testing in some stores to go cardless and I know you have a lot of cash expenses actually or cash transactions in your stores, but just curious if you could tease out for us what you've learned there and if there's any meaningful sort of margin gain from that or even incremental margin gains that you envision?

Let me start with the last question. What you're referring to is the cardless exercise is a test where we've basically taken out credit cards and debit cards to see what happens. And I can just give you a very high-level answer saying that nonmaterial impact. But it's a test, and it doesn't mean we're going to expand it. And at 3B, at any point in time, you're going to find several tests running on different topics, but they all have the same kind of objective with either trying to generate more revenue or reduce costs or reduce risk. And it's always something where we're trying to create more value for the customer. So that's on that.

On the matter of G&A investment, it has much, much less to do with improving salaries and benefits to employees and much, much more to do, and that's where the core value is in adding talent and densifying talent in across the board critical areas. So you'll see it in purchasing, you'll see it in logistics, you'll see it in systems, you'll see it in specialty areas where one person can have a dramatic impact on creating value for the company. We're very aware that it adds to the G&A number, but we're also much more than convinced that it's a very valuable investment with very high return.

And perhaps, should we -- as we think about '27, should we think of that as an ongoing process?

You meant -- you said fresh, right?

No, in terms of talent.

Yes, talent is an ongoing process. And at this point in time, there is no limit to adding talent. But again, for us, it's if we do add, for example, one new person, whatever they cost, what are they going to contribute? And the answer always has to be significantly more than what they're going to cost us, and it's been the case so far.

So the dilution that we should think about to the operating leverage should come more still through the selling expense line?

Exactly. Exactly.

Our next question comes from Jorge Izquierdo at BTG Pactual.

Congrats on the results. I have a quick one regarding store size going forward. As basket size increases, how are you thinking about store sizes and the need to have parking availability in the future?

Interesting question. I think at this stage, we're extremely comfortable with the current store size that you're seeing in the new generation of stores. And then the addition of parking or not boils down very simply to how suburban or urban are you. In urban areas, very difficult to have parking. So that sort of limits your ability to do so. But as soon as there is a need for parking and you've opened the store where there is parking, then absolutely, we're putting parking.

Our next question comes from Antonio Hernandez at Actinver.

Congrats on your results. Just a quick one regarding working capital. Well, as new categories are being introduced or even piloted, how should we see working capital going forward? There's, of course, an improvement, but how much should we weigh in these new categories?

Antonio, thanks for your question. Let me take a step back. Our overall philosophy, as you know, is we only carry items that have very high rotation. So by definition, what we look for in a new item, new category, whatever that is, is that it complies with that principle, not only high rotation, but an amazing value.

So if we consider that into your question, then there should be no impact on working capital because we always look for items with very fast rotation. And so there should be no material impact on working capital. In fact, if you look at our trends over the past, let's say, a few years, you'll see that we've been improving -- slightly improving our inventory days. So it's below 20 days. So that's what we should expect going forward. So no changes really on that front.

Our next question comes from Joe Thomas at HSBC.

Congratulations on the strong results. A couple of things, please. Firstly, same-store sales, as you pointed out, it was plus 20% on a comp of plus 17% from last year. And so if you look at this on a 2-year basis, there is a real meaningful acceleration. Given that the improvement is coming from -- it sounds like it's coming from volume more than anything else, is that sort of 2-year momentum the best way to think about how to model this out into the future and the sort of performance that can be maintained?

And secondly, I had a question on competition because we're hearing a lot of noise in the market, including from FEMSA, about their rollouts. And I just wondered what you're seeing about the -- what you're seeing in terms of the competitive intensity in the hard discounting space and what it is that you're doing to stay ahead of that competition specifically.

Let me take that last one. Regarding to FEMSA, we don't see anything more than what we've already seen. It's good to keep in mind that we already operate in a very competitive market, and that's been the case now for many years. And I continue to believe that the market potential in Mexico is significant and that there is room for several players to thrive in the sector that we call discount. So from our side, nothing new, nothing that will change what we're doing at all. We continue to do what we're doing, and I think that's going to continue to work extremely well.

With regards to same-store sales growth, if you go back to some of the discussions we've had with the market earlier, it doesn't take much in our case to see an increase in same-store sales. All we need to do is sell one more item per customer, and you can see that number significantly increasing. And so we see that increase in number of products we sell to a given existing customer as something that will happen naturally over time because our products are just getting better and the value that we're offering to the client is continuing to improve. The day that stops is probably the day you don't see any more expansion in same-store sales. So I would be conservative, but I would still remain positive that, that's going to happen.

Our next question comes from Isabella Lamas at UBS.

I have 2 questions. First one, I'd like to tap also on your growth, specifically on how could we think in terms of how much growth has been coming from new customers compared to the increased share of wallet from your existing ones? And also if you could elaborate on the main initiatives that you have in place to expand this number of items per transaction that you've just mentioned? And also, if you see the company gaining increasing relevance within customer share of wallet, is this a trend that we should continue seeing from now on?

And my second one is regarding your expansion, specifically on the real estate front. If you see -- if you continue to see solid availability for real estate for your pipeline, if you see better negotiation conditions with landlords or any change in that? And also, given that you have a very solid performance, cash generation remains healthy, if you could be considering accelerating the expansion pace?

Let me start with the real estate question, and it's a fairly straightforward answer. There is no constraints on real estate. The runway is tremendous in Mexico for us. So we haven't seen any constraints on that front.

On the matter of where is the growth going to come from, more penetration of wallet or more customers. It's always been a balance. And historically, if we look back and we look at our numbers, we see that it's been a mix of both. And it also depends on how old the store is. So you can imagine that older vintages will capture new clients at a slower rate, whereas, of course, our newer vintages are just capturing clients much more rapidly. And I think Eduardo mentioned earlier on, it's also that we're seeing a faster ramp-up. So it's like we get new customers, not only more customers, but we get them faster at the initial part of the store opening, and that has a very beneficial impact.

But across the board, what you will see is an increase in penetration of wallet. An increase of penetration of wallet comes from 2 things: one, you can add new SKUs and automatically, you'll get something more there; but even without adding any new SKUs, and as I mentioned, we're super conservative on adding new SKUs. The existing portfolio is still not by any metric fully penetrated. There's still tremendous potential for existing customers with the existing portfolio to still see an increase in same-store sales. And that we have pretty good data on and we continuously monitor that. So we're pretty confident that there is a lot more to do with what we have right now without adding anything new.

Our next question comes from Froylan Mendez at J.P. Morgan.

I just wanted to dig a little bit more on the gross margin. In the past, you have said not to really extrapolate a single quarter margin into the full year or the next quarters. It sounds that the extra openings in the second quarter could -- in the third quarter could lead to a giveback on the gross margin that we saw this quarter. But is there anything also seasonal on the gross margin during this quarter, maybe more, I don't know, World Cup campaigns or more people using your DC versus the past. Some more granularity on the gross margin into this quarter and what to expect into the next would be appreciated.

And secondly, on the stock option plan, we know that the employee stock option plan had this restriction period during the earnings season. I understand that it's liberated tomorrow after 48 hours of the earnings release. Any comments on any mechanism that avoids any disorderly sales from management that wants to obviously gain liquidity after many years of having received stock options that would be highly appreciated.

Let me answer the question of options. You would think that people will rush to the doors to sell their options, and I don't have a feeling that that's going to be the case. In any event, we do already have in place mechanisms to ensure that when naturally people want to sell some of their options, it's done in a very orderly and timely way. So that's already in place. Your first question was around...

Gross margins, Anthony. If there was something one-off?

Yes. No. Again, we don't see seasonality in our gross margins really. And we do see volatility quarter-to-quarter in the gross margins for the fundamental mechanism in which gross margins change SKU per SKU. But as I've always said that if you look at it longer term, the trend is always positive. Now I did answer Andrew's question on that saying that there is a natural moment in time where you basically say the percent gross margin maybe stabilizes, but your dollar gross margin basically continues to increase dramatically.

So it's all due to the fact that how much of this are you passing on to the customer in terms of price that then detonates more sales that then generates more dollar margin versus how much you're keeping and showing a better percentage gross margin. At the end of the day, what's most important is your dollar gross margin increasing healthily over time, which is a reflection of all the good things you're doing.

Thank you. That is all the time we have for questions today. So that concludes our Q&A session. I would like to hand the call back over to Anthony Hatoum for his closing remarks.

As always, we appreciate very much, and thank you very much for your interest and participation in our company. Thank you to the analysts covering us, and thank you to all the shareholders who are participating here today. And of course, thank you to all the 3B employees and again, our customers who make all of this possible. Until next time, thank you very much.

Thank you all. You may now disconnect.

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.