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Salvador Villasenor Barragan: Good morning, everyone. I'm Salvador Villasenor, Head of Investor Relations at Walmex. And I want to thank you for joining once again to our live Q&A session following our third quarter results, which were published yesterday evening. As always, we will make every effort to answer as many questions as we can in the 45 minutes we have scheduled for this call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand over to our recently appointed CEO and President of Walmart de Mexico y Centroamerica, Cristian Barrientos, who will present the team and give his initial remarks before going into the first question. Please, Cristian, go ahead.
Cristian Barrientos: Thank you, Savor, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We're hosting this live Q&A from Costa Rica right after our Board meeting yesterday. I am here with Paulo Garcia, our CFO; with Javier Andrade, our recently appointed CMO for Mexico; and Cristina Ronski, our CEO for Walmart Central America. Before we begin, I would like to share a few reflections from my first 90 days since rejoining Walmex now as the CEO. Over the past 3 months, I have spent time visiting many of our stores and distribution centers across both Mexico and Central America, and I have seen at firsthand how we are delivering our purpose. It's been energizing to see the evolution of the business since I left the region almost 3 years ago. Even more exciting are the opportunities that I see going forward. I'm convinced that with our renewed focus on the execution of our fundamentals, the strength of our people and the newly appointed leadership team, we are very well positioned to take Walmex to the next level. So now we are open to your questions.
Operator: The first question is from Mr. Alejandro Fuchs from Itau BBA.
Alejandro Fuchs: My question would be for Cristian, maybe on Bodega, I wanted to discuss a little bit some of the performance of this quarter, looking at same store sales per format, right? It seems that it's falling a little bit behind Sam's and supercenter in the context of kind of easy comps, right? So I wanted to get your thoughts on these first ones that you just discussed in Mexico. Coming back, having had a lot of experience with the brand for so many years. What are some of the strategies that you're thinking for Bodega maybe to grow a little bit faster its semester sales. And maybe you can share a little bit of the early strategy, maybe early findings that you're seeing at Bodega and how do you see it performing for the future?
Cristian Barrientos: No, Thank you very much. And as we mentioned, Bodega performed in the quarter, a little bit behind Sam's. But we are seeing a really strong business in the 3 formats. We are seeing in this quarter evolution in terms of the relative performance against different banners, and we are seeing more than 20 weeks gaining share in Bodega. So we're confident that with the value proposition that we had in place are performing well. We have been improving. And as I mentioned in the webcast, we are very focused in things that we can control, means EDLP, availability and the evolution on demand. We see a ton of opportunities in all our business and particularly in Bodega, trying to create access to low-income customers to the -- to the prices that we can deliver for them. So we can accomplish our purpose to save them money and live better. So we're very confident with the future of Bodega and with our 3 banners that we have. I don't know if you have more to add there, Paulo.
Paulo Garcia: No, I think it's okay. As you said, Cristian, I think it's -- we talk extensively about that, it's pushing the 3 priorities. Alejandro, it's about the pricing, the new investments. It's about actually availability, making the product available to the customer and accelerating e-commerce. And with that, I think we will continue gaining the trust and the preference from our customers.
Operator: Our next question is from Mr. Ben Theurer from Barclays.
Benjamin Theurer: I wanted to follow up a little bit on kind of like Alejandro's question, but more broader in terms of like the traffic versus ticket performance. And then at the same time, we've obviously seen a little bit of a weaker opening versus a year ago and particularly in Mexico. And I wanted to understand how you're thinking about the need or the opportunities to open stores if at the existing, you have like traffic pressure to a certain degree. I remember we got the announcement earlier this year during your Capital Markets Day about the commitment to open a lot of new stores over the next coming, I think it was 5 years or until the end of the decade. So as we think about it, the need to open stores, while at the same time, we're seeing at the existing stores traffic decline. With what you've seen over the last 90 days, and it might be early on, but do you think there's a need to potentially revisit what's out there in terms of like openings just to avoid cannibalization? And how should we think about the pace of openings throughout the fourth quarter and ultimately, those stores coming online that might be already under construction?
Paulo Garcia: Yes, Ben, a very good question that you're putting on the table. So at the moment, we don't see a need, Ben, to review our ambition in terms of store openings. I think we talked about 1,500 stores in the next 5 years. So we still stick to that. Yes, you already alluded to the fact that we didn't open probably as much as we were expecting in Q3, and there was a little bit of slowdown in that openings, but we have a pipeline, a huge pipeline now for the Q4, a little bit like we tend to do it at the end of the year. But to go directly to your question, at the moment, we don't see necessarily a need to review the store openings in light of potential cannibalization. As to what relates to traffic and ticket, what we are seeing at the moment, maybe I'll hand over to Javier to just give you a little bit more details in terms of how we're seeing traffic and ticket and a little bit the evolution of some of the categories.
Javier Andrade: Yes. Basically, Ben, regarding traffic, what we see is a reflection mainly of the customer backdrop that we're seeing in the retail, but we see a positive trend in the last quarters, and we feel very optimistic about Q4 and what's coming for us for seasonal. We've seen a lot of engagement of the consumers regarding seasonalities and everything that's about to come in on Buen Fin and Fin Irresistible. And the other thing, even though we see inflation in some categories. We're also investing in price, we can give access to the consumer even though we see inflation in some categories, we're also investing in price so we can give access to the consumers to better prices and help them save money and live better. So we want to grow even faster instead of just following inflation. And as I said, we're optimistic about what's coming for Q4.
Operator: Our next question is from Mr. Froylan Mendez from JPMorgan.
Fernando Froylan Mendez Solther: Can you hear me. Well, I guess I'll take the question, but I cannot hear your answer. I don't know why. We had some improvement this quarter, but this is something that you mentioned that there is room to further increase. I would like to know what are the steps being taken? And what was...
Paulo Garcia: I think we need to move to the next one. Let's move to the next one. Sorry. Froylan, we are moving to the next one. If you come back and you can hear us, we'll come back to you.
Operator: Our next question is from Ms. Irma Sgarz from Goldman Sachs.
Irma Sgarz: Welcome to the new appointments on the leadership team. I was excited to see the positions filled and good luck with your new responsibilities. Just 2 quick questions on the gross margin. I understand that the pressure that you posted in the third quarter came specifically also related to the inventory reductions that you are aiming for. So I was wondering if you could just point out if that was concentrated in specific categories or specific formats if that was perhaps more sort of general merchandise related rather than sort of the consumables side and perhaps concentrated in certain formats and how you see that need to adjust your inventories going forward? Or if that's sort of more concentrated and behind you from what your comments on the guidance for the fourth quarter, it sounds like it sounds like it's behind you. And then the second question is just on the private label. I'm curious, just Cristian and Javier, maybe to hear your thoughts about where you feel sort of when you take an assessment of where you're doing well so far and what you still need to be doing on the private label side, especially given that, if I may say, it feels like consumer attitudes are changing towards private label in Mexico and they have been changing over the last couple of years. And where do you feel -- you did call out general merchandise. I think you had in some categories, higher penetration. But on the consumables side, I'm curious like sort of how you're thinking about the strategy there.
Paulo Garcia: Thanks, Irma. Thanks for your question. As usual, spot on, by the way, on the first question and what you just said is spot on, on all you said. So as you know, we've been talking about that we wanted to address our inventories. You probably have seen the improvements that we've done in inventories of almost 3.5 days, days on hand, and we still see an opportunity going forward. In terms of what it relates to investments to If you say, expedite some of this more and healthy inventory that we have, I think it's probably most of it behind us. And as you said, it's mostly in general merchandise and because the general merchandise tends to impact a little bit more a banner like Walmart, but at the end of the day, it tends to grow across all the banners. I'll now pass on the second question to Javier on the private brands and Cristian can also build.
Javier Andrade: Yes. Okay. So thank you for your question, Irma. As you said, I see a huge opportunity in private label now. Even though we're performing good and we increased 100 basis points this quarter in penetration. I see a big opportunity in terms of surety of supply that we're working with the global sourcing team, and we're also trying to leverage as much we can from other markets. In groceries, consumables and even fresh, we are improving our capacity to bring in products for the customers and give access to them to better qualities and best prices. And for us, private label is going to be important because it's a huge component of the EDLP approach that we have for the future in the company. So you will see more to come in terms of private label. But basically, we're going to make sure that we have the best assortment possible for each of our business formats and making sure that we cover all the needs that every customer has in our different businesses and also in our different channels. So we're focusing on improving as much as we can all our processes, and we will leverage as much we can with global sourcing and other operations in Mexico. We're also working here with suppliers, specifically to drive efficiencies that we can translate those efficiencies into better costs and better price for the customer with local suppliers. So overall, private label is going to be important, and we're going to be speeding to develop our private brand to the maximum potential that we can.
Cristian Barrientos: If I may add, Irma, the private label points. As you saw in the webcast, we just hiring [ Prativa ] from international to lead Sam's U.S. -- Sam's Mexico, sorry. And Prativa has a ton of experience before managing private labels in the U.S. So we are seeing a tremendous opportunity to work together between China and the U.S. trying to improve our penetration in Member's Mark in Sam's also. So it's a complement that Javier mentioned before in self-service. So we are taking advantage of the global brand that we are and bringing talent to Mexico to help us or to work together in terms of the business of Sam's some and also with some knowledge about private brands. So we're very confident for the future and the opportunity that we have to improve more our private brands program.
Operator: Our next question is from Mr. Ulises Argote from Santander.
Ulises Argote Bolio: Congrats, Cristian and the recently appointed leadership team. Actually, we had 2. So the first one for Cristian. Maybe I wanted to get your sense. Obviously, you were a long-term participant here in the Mexico market, then you went to Chile and now coming back. So I wanted to get your thoughts there. What are your kind of recent impressions on the current state of the market. Any relevant change that you're seeing there in competitive dynamics. Any relevant opportunities that might be worth tackling kind of on an initial basis. And then the second one for Paulo. Maybe if we could just get a little bit more details on the one-off that you mentioned yesterday impacting the net income. Any color that you could add there would be really helpful.
Cristian Barrientos: Thank you very much for your question. And as you mentioned, I moved in these 7 countries in the last 14 -- 13, 14 years. And my first reaction, if I can compare both countries, it's incredible how similar the situation that we are looking today in Mexico were with the situation that I founded in 2023 when I landed in Chile because both countries were growing 0%. And we saw in Chile and also here in Mexico, the huge opportunity that we have to focus on the fundamentals with the idea when the -- let me say, the economy will recover, we will take advantage of -- we will be better prepared to capitalize all the sales that we're looking for. And that's happened in Chile. We moved from 0% and the retail -- the economy grew to 2% and the business there took advantage of that. So we are looking something similar here in Mexico, focusing on the things that we can control, and that is why we set very clear our priorities to go back, let's say, to these fundamentals as EDLP, availability and of course, the e-com acceleration that we have a huge opportunities, both in Mexico and Central America. So we're very optimistic for the future, and we are focused on these 3 priorities to take advantage in the coming -- in the next year.
Paulo Garcia: Just on the second question, Ulises. So I already alluded to the fact that it's a nonrecurring item. So in a business of this size, once in a while, some of these topics pop up. I think I also wanted to give a little bit more reassurance to the market in terms of what we expect going forward. Obviously always the change in laws and regulations that we cannot control the tax effective rate. But actually, we see that hovering more around the 25%. And I think that's probably what is meaningful at this stage for you guys.
Operator: Our next question is from Mr. Bob Ford from Bank of America.
Cristian Barrientos: Bob, are you there?
Operator: Our next question is from Alvaro Garcia from BTG Pactual.
Alvaro Garcia: Congrats, Cristian, on the new role. I noticed in the release that used that you mentioned SG&A should sort of gravitate back to high single-digit growth in line with sales, and I found that a slight change relative to sort of the comments at Walmex, which were you should expect SG&A to continue to grow above sales. So I was wondering if maybe you could expand on that comment. Was that specific to this coming fourth quarter or for the full year or medium term? Any color on that would be helpful.
Paulo Garcia: Yes. Thanks for the question, Alvaro. So I think what we said is twofold. One is, as we said it in the beginning of the year in terms of the guidance, we do expect to have for this year, high single-digit growth in terms of SG&A, which is much different than what we have said in the past. And for that means we continue to invest behind in the business. We always shed clarity on that token, but also driving efficiencies. And actually, these days also more midterm efficiencies also fueled by AI. I think in terms of also what we said it was that we do expect that SG&A to grow more closer to sales. That's our expectation there, Alvaro. So that's also what we want to see going forward.
Alvaro Garcia: Great. And then just one. Maybe for you Paulo, could be for Cristian on gross margin. This Is a business that over the last 10 years has seen a 300 basis point increase in gross margin, which by Walmart standards, I think, is pretty darn high. So in the context of really doubling down on EDLP and really being true to that purpose, how do you feel about gross margin investment over the medium term?
Paulo Garcia: Yes. I'll say and then Cristian can immediately jump and chip on that. You clearly see that -- so we have been investing behind pricing behind and we find our customers to help them save money better, as we said it. We do want to continue to invest more. We want always to invest, have the lowest prices in the market. As part of that investment, private brands penetration increase is also a part of that and a more EDLP approach, Javier can allude to the fact that we can do that in a better way than we've done in the past. I think we want to have the right P&L shape, Alvaro. So of course, we want to invest behind our customers. It's also important to know, and you know it very well and a few others as well, the shaping of P&L is also somewhat changing as we have the new contributions from the new businesses. That is helping our gross margin. We have easily around always 20 to 30 basis points in our gross margin as a positive effect that we want to invest behind our customers. And to do that, we need to, of course, continue to work on SG&A efficiencies to get it closer to sales, certainly keep it high single digit. I think if we do that and we sweat more the investments we do in terms of gross margin, we will be putting more money in the pocket of our customers.
Cristian Barrientos: And also, if I may add, Paulo, around ecosystem, ecosystem is helping us to improve our profit, where we separate internally gross profit through commercial margin. And we have seen a more stable commercial margin. And also, we are working on managing the approach in our Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 connect with the EDLP approach. And we have seen, as Paulo mentioned, opportunities or better participation on margin in private brands and also managing -- better managing our Tier 3 to improve maybe our mix in the total box, and that is why we are seeing a more stable margin. But we -- as I mentioned before, we strongly believe in the EDLP, and we will be focused on EDLP, trying to maintain as stable as we can our flow of merchandising and connect with our purpose.
Operator: Our next question is from Mr. Antonio Hernandez from Actinver.
Antonio Hernandez: Congrats on your results and the new appointments. Just wanted to follow up on Ulises' previous question regarding more than the macro environment, are you seeing anything more specifically on how consumer environment or the consumer's mindset has shifted or changed from your previous stage here in Mexico and Central America or more specifically in Mexico. Are you seeing any type of difference from back there to right now. And maybe also on the competitive environment competition.
Cristian Barrientos: Well, to be very honest, only 90 days. And my first reaction is I had the privilege to travel in these 3 years that I landed in Chile to Mexico. And I see a more advanced or a more advanced market in terms of the -- how open we are to take, let me say, some technologies and connect with the e-commerce side. And that is why we put the e-com acceleration as a key priority. We are taking advantage of the brand that we are and bringing, as you saw in our webcast, single hallway to provide to our customer a less friction experience, connecting on-demand with 1P, with 3P, and we are seeing a very good adoption for customer. So if I may say something, it's going to be around technology. I've seen in my first 90 days, customer more open to receive these kind of technologies, open to give us, let me say, their cell phones and allow us to build this beneficial program. And with that, we can use data and be more precise in terms of selecting the assortment, in terms of price elasticity. So I'm seeing a more advanced customer, let me say, and very open to receive this kind of new technologies and reduce friction for them?
Operator: Our next question is from Mr. Renata Cabral from Citi.
Renata Fonseca Cabral Sturani: Congrats Cristian for the new position. My question is about the One Hallway that the company delivered this quarter. So if you can give some color for us on the main milestones that you are seeing now in terms of store coverage or plug in more vendors from the U.S., for instance, in terms of overall opportunities. Of course, we always look at what Walmart U.S. did, but we understand that there are some differences in terms of the market, maybe other opportunities as well. So if you can give us some color of what you see ahead for this One Hallway would be really helpful.
Javier Andrade: Yes. Thank you, Renata, for your question. I'm very excited about sharing some ideas and thoughts about One Hallway. Let me start by saying that we are focusing very strongly in on-demand first just to make sure that we are protecting our core with groceries, consumables and fresh. And with One Hallway, we have now the opportunity to simplify the access and the experience for the customer where they will see all the opportunities in items and experiences in just one place in our digital platforms. And as you said, similarities between U.S. and Mexico are bigger than what we expected at the beginning. And basically, when we started the shift to One Hallway, we leverage all the technology from the U.S., the search engine and the technology. And what we're seeing now is interesting because we were expecting kind of a downside of the business during the transition. And with all the learnings that we have from the U.S., we were able to have a better transition in Mexico. We're seeing more loyal customers to our platforms. We're seeing more bigger baskets, if I may say, the customers are now purchasing groceries, consumables and GM, not necessarily just from on-demand, also from extended assortment, and we're working. And we recently shared inside the company that one of the core strategy is going to be cross-border. So marketplace is going to have a huge acceleration in the upcoming weeks and months. So what I can say is that we feel very confident that we're going to be leading the omnichannel experience for the customer, for every customer in Mexico, and we will give them access to the digital economy also through the ecosystem. So we are closing the loop, and we're going to be expecting growth and sustainable growth for the future with One Hallway.
Renata Fonseca Cabral Sturani: Super good. Just a quick follow-up. For us, it's clear the potential for top line growth for 2026. In terms of margins, do you think that in 2026, that will be also accretive or that will take some time?
Paulo Garcia: I think do you refer to the margins here in e-commerce in the marketplace, Renata?
Renata Fonseca Cabral Sturani: Yes.
Paulo Garcia: So I've always alluded to the fact you guys know if that if you think about our on-demand business, it's a profitable business already. We always said that our extended assortment business of 1P and 3P in a different stage, it's pretty much a business of critical mass. So critical mass here is important. So we are in that journey. So we actually see a lot of value creation can be created in the future as we go through that journey in improving the volumes that we pass through the 1P and in particular, marketplace.
Operator: Our next question is from Mr. Andrew Ruben from Morgan Stanley.
Andrew Ruben: Just one quick follow-up on the e-commerce side. For Marketplace, we saw [ celebrace ] grew 30%, but there was a 30% decrease in SKUs. So just trying to understand the strategy and what drove the divergence. And then just a second item, there was a quick mention of tariffs within the release or the conference call. So I just wanted to clarify, is that more of a general statement on macro uncertainty? Or are there specific ways that the tariff backdrop has been impacting business.
Paulo Garcia: Yes. If I can just start on the second one. I think it's more just a general statement, Andrew, the way you put it. I think we're just seeing that was a little bit the uncertainty around tariffs, but also a little bit the uncertainty around the TMEC agreement. What it does at the moment is just it's hampering a little bit the investment in Mexico or the big investments. So that ultimately, hampering the investment leads to less job creation that you used to do it in the past. I think that creates a bit of uncertainty and therefore, impacts the consumption. I think that's the statement. I think if you think about tariffs as such and direct impact to our business, we're not seeing necessarily a meaningful impact of tariffs in our business. To the first question.
Javier Andrade: Yes. And basically, to your question about SKUs and sellers, it was temporary because of the transition we were doing in technology, but we expect to recover very fast in terms of SKUs and sellers. And we're working closely with the U.S. to expedite this. So we know that it's important for us to have the right value proposition in every category. So it was just temporary.
Operator: Our next question is from Mr. Froylan Mendez from JPMorgan.
Fernando Froylan Mendez Solther: I want to ask -- I'm sorry, if they already asked, I couldn't hear most of the call, but on working capital, we saw an improvement in this specific quarter. Can you give us some color on what changed? And what are your expectations in the mid and long term on your working capital cycle. I guess, it's for an additional improvement, but more color on how sustainable is this quarterly improvement? If it had more to do with your pricing strategy or just the temporary and the type of SKUs that were sold during the quarter, what are different from the previous ones? More color on that would be highly appreciated.
Paulo Garcia: Thank you for the question. So we've alluded in the past quarters that we were actually attacking our working capital. We are not necessarily entirely happy with the performance that we had on inventory days. You have that quarter 2 was already a better performance than the previous quarters. And this quarter, in particular, a reduction -- a significant reduction 3.5 days versus where we were a year ago. I think you can expect us continue to tackle inventory, continue to improve. I think ultimately, if we have less inventory in the store, it leads to more productivity. If it leads to more productivity, leads to money that we have at hand to be able to invest behind prices and therefore, put the spinning wheel to work and for to get more growth, you should expect that to continue to happen consistently in the coming months and not just necessarily a one-off. You do also -- there were concerns also in the past, Froylan, about our DPO and the fact that was increasing. That has to do, of course, we had to reduce purchases in the past to address inventory, now gets to a more stable level. If you remember, I said that in the prior quarter, and I think that's what you can expect going forward.
Fernando Froylan Mendez Solther: Excellent. And if I may, just on your comments on what to expect into the fourth quarter, you said that between the second and third quarter, does that mean you are reiterating your top line guidance into the year? And when you say that SG&A should grow in the same level as top line. Should, we not expect then EBITDA margin expansion, but let's say, a stable gross margin for this year?
Paulo Garcia: I said 3 things for the quarter, Froylan, and just to allude to the things we said. One, we did said one thing on guidance for the Q4 on growth indeed, and we expect growth to be along the lines of what we saw in Q2 and Q3. And if that's true, then you can do the math versus what we previously had said overall for the full year. I think we are focusing on what we can control and what we have the line of sight. We have line of sight. The good -- as Javier was alluding to for the peak season, and we expect along the lines of what we did in Q2 and Q3. On SG&A, as you've seen in this quarter, we grew only around 5%. As you know, there will be phasing. Sometimes you invest more, sometimes you invest less, so you create more efficiencies, but we stick to our objective to continue delivering the high single-digit growth. And then -- and when you think more in the mid and long term, we definitely want to see SG&A more in line with sales in order to deliver the near-term stabilization of the margins that we promised. That's the second. And the third one that we said for the -- I said it for this particular quarter, Q4, is that we expect a sequential improvement in terms of profit delivery. We always said that Q3 was going to be better than H1, and it was. And we expect a Q4 that will be better than Q3.
Operator: Our next question is from Mr. Bob Ford from Bank of America.
Robert Ford: Congratulations on the new role, Cristian. Just curious how you're thinking about evolving trends in small box retail in Mexico, maybe historically why Walmex has not really leaned into proximity in the past and how we should think about Express or other proximity formats moving forward? And then also in the footnotes of the results for the last couple of quarters, there's been a note about transfer pricing and tax risk. And I was just hoping you could expand upon that, particularly in the context of this little hiccup on tax expense.
Cristian Barrientos: Yes. So first, if you -- on the proximity.
Paulo Garcia: Yes. So let me start with the second question, and Cristian can talk a little bit more about how he thinks about proximity risks, and I can build on that. So Bob, so this is what we saw in the quarter. It's just a one-off that we saw it. It doesn't relate with the footnotes that you're alluding to in terms of the transfer price risk or any anything that will be linked to that, Bob.
Cristian Barrientos: And in terms of proximity, if I may answer your question, we changed brands in 3 or 4 years ago. And we -- personally, I truly believe that we have a huge opportunity to continue to expand our business in -- Supermarket business. We have a ton of experience here in Central America. We have more than 100 stores here. We have almost 100 stores in Mexico also, but with a different size. So in the middle class that is very big in Mexico, we are seeing a lot of white spaces. That is why we changed the brand. We have a strong -- or, let me say, a better presence in Mexico City, but we have a huge opportunity to grow this supermarket business in regions in Mexico. We recently opened 2 stores with very good performance, and we have planned to continue to open this one because we have seen a lot of white spaces in the region. So we're very confident with these kind of stores or business because of the experience that we have in Walmart.
Operator: That was the last question. I will now hand over to Mr. Salvador Villasenor for final comments.
Salvador Villasenor Barragan: Thank you very much. We would just like to thank everyone for joining us once again and looking forward for our fourth quarter results and talking to you soon.
Operator: Walmex would like to thank you for participating in today's video conference. You may now disconnect.