Fomento Económico Mexicano - Q4 2025

Transcript

Moderator (participant)

Hello, and welcome to FEMSA Q4 2025 Conference Call. My name is Alger, and I'll be your moderator for today's event. Please note that this conference is being recorded. For the duration of the call, all participants will be in listen-only mode. You have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. To do so, please use the Raise Hand feature in Zoom, and we will open up your line. If you experience any technical issue during the call, please use the Q&A function to request assistance. I would now like to hand the call over to Mr. Juan Fonseca, Investor Relations Director at FEMSA. Please go ahead, Juan.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Good morning, everyone, welcome to FEMSA's Q4 and Full Year 2025 Results Conference Call. Today, we are joined by José Antonio Fernández Garza, FEMSA's CEO, Martín Arias, our CFO, and Jorge Collazo, who heads Coca-Cola FEMSA's Investor Relations team. The plan is for José Antonio to open the conversation with some high-level comments on performance, followed by a strategic overview and an update on our priorities. Martín will provide more details on the results, and finally, we will open the call for your questions. José Antonio, please go ahead.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Thank you, Juan. Good morning, everyone. Today, I would like to split my remarks in two. First, we will focus on operational results and trends, highlighting some important points and takeaways. We will address more strategic topics, including an update on our priorities, as well as some relevant structural changes we're putting in place as we prepare for the next stage of growth. Let me begin with the performance of our business during the Q4, particularly at OXXO Mexico. Back in October, during our previous quarterly call, we mentioned we had observed what seemed to be an inflection point in the same-store sales and traffic trends that made us optimistic about the Q4 and beyond.

As you saw in the numbers, this improved trend indeed continued through the end of the year and allowed us to close 2025 on a positive note, with same-store sales for Proximity Americas approaching the mid-single-digit growth range at 4.4%, and traffic that, while still negative, 0.6%, was markedly better than what we saw earlier in the year. While we are not satisfied with the year's performance, as we look back at 2025, we have gained many lessons, and we can also take some encouragement from the fact that initiatives put in place in the second half of 2025 have begun to show results. We began 2025 with a challenge. Traffic at OXXO Mexico was falling by mid-single digits, and it was not following the cyclical recovery we had expected.

Initially, we attributed it to the economy and the typical post-election hangover. It took us a little while to diagnose the causes, but once it became clear to us that we had a competitiveness issue versus the traditional trade around some of our core categories, the team designed and put in place a broad set of tactical, affordability-focused initiatives. This including growing our mix of returnable beverage packages, increasing multi-serve presentations, seeking from suppliers more competitive promotions and packaging architectures, as well as agreeing with suppliers on adding low price point SKUs in core categories like snacks and tobacco. The strategy worked as designed. We quickly began to recover market share, and as we saw in today's results, our numbers are now trending closer to our long-term expectations. Obviously, we do not operate in a vacuum.

Earlier in the year, we mentioned abnormally poor and wet weather in most of the country as a relevant factor in our traffic underperformance. Weather was more normal during the Q4. That helped. We also talked about a soft consumer environment and generally lackluster macro sentiment around investment and economic activity in Mexico. Those have not really improved in recent months. They seem to have stabilized. However, by focusing on the variables and drivers that we could control, our effort delivered the desired results. That is an encouraging reminder of the strength and resilience of the OXXO platform. Having said all that, 2025 also highlighted the fact that the core consumer occasions that we serve best, thirst, impulse, and gathering, still have significant opportunities to expand the number of consumer occasions where OXXO can be more relevant and create value.

2025 also highlighted the need to prioritize and focus on a few bold initiatives that will create significant new waves of value. Furthermore, as we already mentioned in our last call, in 2025, we began to address the need for a leaner, fit-for-purpose organizational structure, which has now been fully implemented at OXXO Mexico and is currently being implemented at Proximity Americas, as well as FEMSA Corporate. More details on that later. As we look at 2026, we aim to regain OXXO Mexico's growth and relevance with a clear focus on recovering traffic and same-store sales through a sharper value proposition, and improved customer experience, and strong operational execution.

In the short to medium term, the team is working hard to take our core categories to their full potential, which means enhancing our already strong competitive position on impulse, while also prioritizing and focusing on improving our position in food premiums, with a focus on our coffee and breakfast offerings. On this front, we have a number of tests in place and are already seeing some compelling results from initiatives such as increasing the affordability of our regular coffee offering, while we learn from our successful food propositions in Colombia and Brazil, and adjust them for the Mexican consumer, aspiring to be a go-to solution for a convenient and value-compelling breakfast alternative.

Further down the road, we believe we can also pursue and capture new measures, like the daily replenishment occasion, by improving our offering of pantry essentials at great value, while continuing to strengthen our beyond trade opportunity with incremental payments and financial solutions. In the future, in various forums, I will begin to share more details and updates on some of these long-term initiatives. Considering that we currently only represent around 10% of all the categories in which we participate, we continue to see an enormous opportunity to keep growing our business in Mexico by capturing a broader share of consumer spending, increasing our store base by more than one-third over the next decade, and leveraging that incremental scale to deliver growth while sustaining high returns.

In fact, if we look at the whole of FEMSA, during 2025, we deployed over $1 billion of CapEx in organic growth in Mexico across our business units for the third year in a row, despite the fact that at the consolidated level, you see a reduction versus 2024, reflecting our ability and willingness to adjust the pace of investment in challenging environments. I want to briefly highlight some of the operations delivering standout performances during the quarter, beginning with OXXO Colombia, where our value proposition has finally come of age, and we generated positive EBITDA for the first time for the full year, and nearly break-even EBIT in the Q4.

For its part, Bara showed strong momentum in the discount space, also growing its same-store sales by double digits, while we continue to fine-tune its value proposition and increase the mix of private label offerings, now approaching 30% of the mix for all of Bara. In Europe, Valora generated record operating income in 2025 on the back of strong retail results in Switzerland and solid expense containment. For Coca-Cola FEMSA, as Ian mentioned in more detail during their call, we remain focused on 3 clear priorities. First, driving volume by growing the core, strengthening execution, and reinforcing our portfolio. Second, take Juntos+ to the next level, leveraging AI and advanced analytics to create more value for our customers and improve decision-making. Third, continue fostering a customer-centric culture of empowerment.

However, just like we point your attention to the successes, we must acknowledge when things do not go as intended. In particular, during the Q4, our Health Division again registered a provision for uncollectible accounts for COP 487 million from the institutional side of the Colombian business, in line with similar provisions registered in 2023, as that segment of the market continues to struggle. This comes as the business in Mexico only begins to stabilize after significant downsizing, combining for an underwhelming result for the quarter. Our new management team at the Health Division has completed its initial assessment and has launched a series of initiatives focused on more disciplined use of capital and commercial practices, with a focus on cash flow generation and returns.

This will be a tough year in terms of results for this division, particularly as it relates to our institutional business in Colombia, and the need to stabilize the Mexico operations. Martín will get more into the details in a minute. Now, let me get to the second part of my remarks. Beyond the quarterly results and operating trends, I want to provide you with a broad update on our strategic priorities, as well as some of the changes we are making to our organizational structure to better align with those strategic priorities, and with a focus on increasing efficiency and effectiveness. As we have said in the past, we strive to create value by generating returns in excess of our cost of capital.

This means focusing our investment capacity with precision and purpose on those initiatives that can create the most value, as well as putting the strongest possible team together and deploying our best people to where they are most needed. At the same time, together with Martín and the finance team across our business units, we are putting in place a renewed focus on cash flow rigor, pushing the teams to think about cash with an owner's mentality, and exerting full control over the levers that drive cash, including an obsessive focus on managing working capital and highly disciplined investment in CapEx. Let me briefly touch on expansion, which remains a key pillar of our long-term growth strategy. During 2025, we instilled a more rigorous approach to store-based growth across the portfolio, particularly in Colombia and Brazil.

We have closed early cohort and underperforming stores as we keep refining our value proposition, resulting in a more measured number of net additions. This was a deliberate adjustment, not a structural shift in our ambition, and we are well positioned to accelerate growth going forward. Our top priorities remain consistent with what we have discussed in the past. As I just mentioned, the Mexican market will continue to be at the top of our list. OXXO Mexico remains our first priority as we continue to capitalize on the wide space opportunity, while we strengthen and expand our value proposition by consistently adding incremental layers of value to ensure we increase our relevance for an evolving Mexican consumer. Mexico is also Coca-Cola FEMSA's largest market, and we continue to develop and deploy the right market and portfolio strategies to grow our core and successfully navigate a challenging regulatory environment.

At Bara, we now have two growth engines, having just opened our second distribution center in Monterrey. Together with our Bajío and Jalisco growth cell, we will continue to fine-tune our value proposition and raise our mix of private label beyond the current levels. 2026 should also be the year that we increase our pace of store expansion, with plans to grow our store base by approximately one-third during this year. Moving to Brazil, our second largest market, we now have full strategic control of OXXO, we will continue to fine-tune our value proposition while we also accelerate growth within the state of São Paulo. In particular, we will continue to develop our successful prepared food offerings, while we also increase our operational focus and execution.

For 2026, our target for store expansion is approximately at 100 net new stores, representing slightly more than 15% growth as we continue to build scale in this high-potential market. Brazil is also a very high priority for COF, where they see a compelling opportunity to keep growing the business, enhanced by cutting-edge digital capabilities with Juntos+. In Colombia, we have achieved strong unit economics at the OXXO store level, anchored in a successful value proposition for prepared food. As a result, we are ready to further scale the operation in a disciplined manner, with plans to increase our store base by 20% in 2026. Beyond Latin America, we are excited about our operations in the U.S. and Europe.

In the U.S., we remain focused on fine-tuning our value proposition with a focus on prepared food, testing different alternatives, and continuing with the conversion of the store base to the OXXO banner with positive results. For its part, Valora has exceeded expectations, particularly through the strength of our Swiss retail platform and the management team's proven ability to operate with increasing levels of efficiency. To better support these priorities and to prepare us for a sustained long-term, profitable growth, we have redesigned our organizational structure, integrating the leadership teams that existed at FEMSA Corporate and at the Proximity and Health Division, consolidating them at the FEMSA corporate level.

As a result, in addition to Coca-Cola FEMSA, we will have the four large retail divisions reporting to me: OXXO Mexico through Carlos Arroyo, Proximity Americas and Mobility through Constantino Spas, Health and Multi-Formats through Jacobo Caller, and Europe through Michael Mueller. All corporate functions, such as finance, strategic planning, human resources, corporate affairs, and sustainability, will also be consolidated at the FEMSA level. This consolidation will allow us to run a leaner, more streamlined organization while realizing meaningful synergies and efficiencies. Another critical component of this restructure effort involves Spin and OXXO Mexico. As we have continued to develop the value proposition of Spin during the past five years, we have come to understand that the physical growth path of OXXO and the digital growth path of Spin not only are not divergent, but they actually converge and intersect.

Digital does not replace the store, it amplifies it, and the store is not a constraint on digital, it is its greatest competitive advantage. As a result, we have redefined our Ecosystem 2.0 as a model focused on OXXO Mexico, creating greater alignment between Spin and OXXO. The principle is straightforward: one client, one strategy, and one aligned PNL. This implies narrowing our focus and emphasizing the role of Spin within the OXXO store network. For example, by postponing the application for a full banking license, and instead giving us the time to clarify the lending opportunity through the right partnership. This increased alignment of the Spin and OXXO platforms will allow us to merge digital and physical talent, capabilities, and ways of working, to reinforce our omni-channel value proposition, where payments, services, loyalty, and data are embedded into the store experience, while creating important savings and efficiencies.

Spin already reduced its negative EBIT for the full year 2025 by almost 30%. We are estimating a further improvement of close to 20% in 2026. In the context of this important strategic adjustment, today we want to recognize Juan Carlos Guillermety's leadership in building digital capabilities that are critical for FEMSA. Under his guidance, our ecosystem strengthened its value proposition, consolidated strategic partnerships, and defined our financial ambition, setting the foundation for this new stage of integration. Juan Carlos will transition into an advisory role. Rodrigo García Jáquez will assume the leadership of Spin with a clear mandate: consolidate execution, ensure a permanent alignment with OXXO Mexico, and maintain operating discipline.

We expect the combined effect of all these restructuring efforts and a sustained improvement in performance from Spin to result in a positive impact on our bottom line of approximately MXN 1 billion on an annualized basis, which will show up in our results, mainly at the corporate level. The efficiencies will ramp up during 2026 and reach their full impact in 2027 and beyond. Martín will also elaborate on some of the ground level implication of these changes. With that, let me turn it over to Martín to go over the numbers in more detail.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Thank you, José Antonio. Good morning, everyone. Let me begin by walking you through FEMSA's consolidated financial results for the Q4 of 2025. During the Q4, total revenues increased by 5.7% year-over-year, reflecting a combination of improved trends in Proximity Americas and continued growth outside of Mexico, particularly in Coca-Cola FEMSA and Valora. Operating income increased by 8.5% as cost containment initiatives offset gross margin pressure. These results reflect, for the most part, a recovery in the Q4 relative to the first three quarters.

Net consolidated income for the quarter amounted to MXN 12.7 billion, representing a 33.6% increase compared to the Q4 of last year, driven mainly by an increase in income from operations of 8.5%, non-operating expenses that fell by 62.7%, and a decline of 26.6% in income taxes due to non-recurring items, which were partially offset by MXN 830 million of foreign exchange loss from our U.S. dollar-denominated cash position, compared to a gain of MXN 2.7 billion in the comparable period, and lower interest income as a result of a reduced cash position during the period. Turning to our operating results, starting with Proximity Americas.

During the 4th quarter, total revenues increased by 5.3%, or 6.3% on a comparable basis, mostly driven by same-store sales growth in Mexico, as well as top-line growth in OXXO Colombia and Peru. Gross margin stood at 48.1%, reflecting a 40 basis point expansion as a result of an improvement in OXXO Latam, driven by increased scale and more disciplined commercial negotiations with suppliers. Operating income increased by 7.7%, while operating margin was 12%, reflecting the initial benefits of our overhead reduction and productivity initiatives, along with disciplined expense management, which allowed us to translate most of the gross margin expansion all the way to the operating level. During the quarter, Proximity Americas added 209 net new stores, closing the year with a total of 1,125 stores.

At the same time, we have been prioritizing a rigorous evaluation of our entire store base, and as part of this process, we closed a number of underperforming stores in Latam, particularly in Colombia. These actions allow us to enter 2026, refocusing growth on profitability and strong unit economics at the store level. Moving on to OXXO USA, we ended the year with 50 converted stores under the OXXO banner. We continue to make progress in our food service strategy, expanding our hot food and coffee offerings, as well as assortment expansion. All these initiatives are part of a learning process as we continue to refine the value proposition in the region.

At Bara, we added 63 new, net new stores during the quarter and 157 during the full year, remaining on track with our long-term growth ambitions, while continuing to optimize the discount offering. In Europe, Valora delivered revenue growth of 2.5% in pesos in the Q4. Gross margin was 37.9%, operating income increased by 10.8%, reflecting continued cost discipline and a favorable mix in Swiss retail, while navigating a challenging macro environment in Germany and a softer performance in food service B2B. The decline in gross margin of 550 basis points is a result of the reclassification of full year 2025 distribution expenses from SG&A to cost of sales, all in the Q4.

On a comparable year-over-year quarterly basis, the Q4 2025 gross margin would have expanded by 70 basis points. There is no impact on operating income as a result of this reclassification. Moving to the Health Division, Q4 revenues increased by 4.6%, or 6.7% on a comparable basis, driven by strong growth in Colombia and Ecuador, complemented by flat performance in Chile, while Mexico remained under pressure, primarily due to lower store base compared to last year, following the closure of underperforming locations as part of our restructuring efforts. Additionally, during the quarter, we reclassified the full year 2025 distribution expenses from SG&A to cost of sales, all in the Q4. This change was made purely for accounting presentation purposes to better align the classification of distribution costs with the nature of the expense.

There is no impact on operating income because of this reclassification. As a mechanical effect of this change, gross margin was impacted by approximately MXN 1.8 billion, reflecting the proportional shift of those expenses into cost of sales. This is the full amount for the year 2025, which we are recording in the Q4. If we only recorded the amount corresponding to the Q4, the impact to gross margin would have been a reduction of 110 basis points relative to the comparable period. During the Q4, we reclassified certain administrative expenses into selling expenses for the full year. For comparability purposes, we suggest focusing on the sum of selling and administrative expenses.

Operating income from the quarter was MXN 573 million, with an operating margin of 2.5%, largely reflecting a deteriorating environment in the Colombian institutional business, where we took a charge of MXN 487 million for uncollectible accounts. Excluding this effect, operating income would have been MXN 1 billion, with an operating margin of 4.6%. At OXXO Gas, same station sales increased by 8.7% during the quarter, supported by higher wholesale volumes, which is allowing us to leverage our scale and optimize logistics. Operating margin stood at 4.8%, maintaining profitability levels compared to last year, reflecting disciplined cost management and operational efficiency. Turning briefly to Coca-Cola FEMSA. During the Q4, the company delivered revenue growth of 2.9%, supported by growth across geographies, particularly outside Mexico.

Operating income increased by 13.3%, reflecting continued focus on efficiency and disciplined execution. As always, we encourage you to refer to Coca-Cola FEMSA's earnings call for a more detailed discussion of the results. As José Antonio mentioned in his remarks, we continued advancing our restructuring process. The initial phase began late last year with the Fit for Purpose initiative, which was focused on OXXO Mexico and Health, and we expect to generate more than MXN 800 million on an annualized basis, and has recently been put into place. We are now extending that discipline across Proximity and Health, FEMSA Corporate and Spin, including the consolidation of overlapping structures between the Proximity and Health Division and FEMSA Corporate, and between OXXO Mexico and Spin, to generate additional savings.

These initiatives will generate approximately an additional MXN 1 billion on an annual run rate basis, beginning in 2027, most of which will be reflected at the FEMSA Corporate level. Due to the timing of the transition and the implementation of the new structure, we will not begin to see the full run rate benefit until the end of 2026. These efficiencies are primarily driven by headcount optimization, the simplification of the organizational structure, as well as improving results at Spin, supported by underlying business momentum and an organizational restructure in that business. Importantly, in the Q4 of 2025, we recorded provisions related to this restructuring process, which will temporarily offset a portion of the savings before the full benefits are reflected in our results. Before closing, let me briefly address capital allocation.

During the Q4, we deployed MXN 14.2 billion in CapEx, bringing full year CapEx to MXN 45.3 billion, focused primarily on store expansion, manufacturing, supply chain infrastructure, and strategic capabilities across the company. That said, full year CapEx came in below 2024 levels, mainly driven by three factors. First, in Mexico, a softer macro environment allowed us to prudently postpone certain capacity and infrastructure investments without compromising service levels or long-term growth plans. Second, as we just mentioned, we implemented a measured slowdown in expansion in selected markets, particularly in OXXO LATAM, where we prioritized profitability and unit economics over pace of growth. Third, this outcome also reflects a renewed discipline in capital allocation, ensuring that every peso deployed meets a return threshold and strategic priorities.

On this point, we are increasingly linking expansion decisions to clear visibility on traffic recovery, margin sustainability, and cash generation. Importantly, none of these adjustments alter our long-term growth runway. Instead, they demonstrate our ability to be flexible on investment timing in response to market conditions, while preserving financial strength and return discipline. In terms of shareholder remuneration, for the full year from March 2025 to March 2026, total capital return to shareholders through ordinary and extraordinary dividends and share buybacks amounted to $3.1 billion at the exchange rates at the time of payment. Importantly, this past January, we completed the deployment of our extraordinary dividend for 2025, totaling $1.7 billion at the exchange rates at the time of payment.

Regarding our previously announced $900 million share repurchase objective, we executed approximately $600 million, with the remaining $300 million pending execution. This delay was primarily driven by blackout periods during most of the second half of last year, which limited our ability to execute buybacks. Consistent with the roadmap we presented a year ago, our plans from March 2026 to March 2027 include extraordinary returns of approximately $1.3 billion. Tomorrow, we will present our recommendation to the board of directors regarding both ordinary and extraordinary returns of capital, and we will communicate the board's resolutions accordingly. We expect that by the end of this year, we will be slightly below our target of 2 times net debt to EBITDA, excluding Corporación FEMSA, which will require us to consider additional returns.

Given how close we will be to the target and the potential inorganic projects that we are currently evaluating, we want to retain the flexibility to execute on such projects or to announce extraordinary capital returns, including buybacks, later this year. It goes without saying that the performance of our business this year will also inform any additional extraordinary decisions. We look at the year that begins, we are confident in the resilience of our portfolio, the actions we have taken to unlock further value across each of our divisions, and our ability to continue executing with discipline. Our focus is clear: improving returns on capital, strengthening the fundamentals of our core businesses, and allocating capital thoughtfully to continue to create value for our shareholders. With that, we can open the call for your questions.

Moderator (participant)

Okay. At this time, we're going to open up for questions and answers. If you have a question, please click on Raise Hand for all your questions or write it down on the Q&A section for written questions. Please remember that your company name should be visible for your question to be taken. We do ask that when you pose your question, that you pick up your handset to provide optimum sound quality. Please hold while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Thiago Bertolucci from Goldman Sachs. Please, Mr. Bertolucci, your microphone's open.

Thiago Bertolucci (Research Analyst)

Yeah. Hi, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. José Antonio, congrats for the results. Martín, thank you very much for your time. I have 2 questions here, right? The first one is on the balance between growth and profitability, particularly in OXXO Mexico, right? I remember last earnings call, José Antonio, you mentioned a number of initiatives to improve traffic and protect demand. Obviously, a lot of this has been already playing out, still in this quarter, you had better gross margins and lower traffic at OXXO Mexico, right? My question is, going forward, how ready do you think the assortment and, you know, the value proposition in Mexico is already set?

You know, if there is any low-hanging fruit or any clear initiatives yet to be done, if you could help us just understanding, particularly in which category, that might come from. My second question, maybe for you both, on the initiatives and restructurings, right? Obviously, we understand directionally what you're trying to do here, but just on the magnitude, right? This is relevant. Martín mentioned, like, MXN 800 million, plus another MXN 1 billion from the Fit for Purpose and Spin. This is, like, almost 3% of your net income, right? I think the question here is: What are those low-hanging fruits, and how possible, you know, these kind of efficiencies can exist in a company so efficient as FEMSA?

Why hasn't this been done before, and what makes you confident that, you know, going forward, and this could be fully executed on track? Those are the questions. Thank you very much.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Hola, Thiago. Thank you. Very complete and full questions. I'm happy to address them. I will address the first one. Then I will address a brief thing on the second one. I will let Martín complement me. On growth and profitability, if you look at the full year of 2025, to me, it was a year that left me disappointed. It was much better the second half of the year. I am very happy with the turnaround that we were able to implement. I am much more obsessed-

With bringing profitable traffic and growing market share in our core consumer locations than on short-term profitability. Obviously, I am much happy of how the year ended on the Q4, because it looks like we're taking a turn. I am very happy with how the year started. I don't want to give any spoilers, we see the trend continues upwards in terms of traffic, and that keeps me optimistic. Our obsession is not profitability just for profitability per se. Our obsession is we are about 10% of the consumer locations we address.

The total addressable market is huge, and OXXO should remain the favorite part of the Mexican consumer for not only our core categories, like impulse, like tobacco, like beer, like soft drinks, but more and more other consumer occasions, like breakfast and coffee, like daily replenishment, which we are already playing there, but we are not playing to win as much as we want. That's what's gonna be our obsession. To be able to give you a number, it's tough. What I do see is that there's still a lot of margin expansion to be gained from our core supplier partners. A lot of some of that has to be given back to the consumer to bring them on a profitable way, more and more into the store.

For us, a year with same-store sales traffic decline is a year that's a miss. We need to gain traffic on a same-store sales basis, and we're gonna be obsessed with that. However, obviously, it has to be profitable growth. I hope that answers you the first question. For the second question, we began even my tenure in Proximity, with an obsession of trying to get leaner and meaner, and we were able to do that in Health and in OXXO Mexico. We've now instituted some efficiency opportunities in SPIN, and we have just finished the same thing with FEMSA. On an FTE basis, I think we're done. We are not seeing a need for more restructuring.

We have the team that we need in place to accomplish our goals. There's still opportunities to do non-FTE restructuring. We are looking at every little expense that we make, everything that we think is redundant, not necessary, or not bringing us traffic to the store, should go. We're reviewing every consultant, every law firm, everything, every expense that we think may not be necessary going forward. There should be even more opportunities that Martín mentioned, it's too early for me to promise you a number. With that, I'll open it to Martín.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Yeah, I mean, as to your broader question of this, why now? Look, I've been around the block a long time with different types of companies. This tends to happen like this in terms of waves. You go through phases where you're making bets, and you're expanding, and you're building capabilities, and as you begin to see the results of that, you naturally prune. With José arriving to this to the seat of the CEO, he wanted to give us a renewed focus on this issue that he had already started at Proximity.

With his arrival, given that the structure we ultimately decided to implement, which was to collapse the P&H division, with FEMSA Servicios, that also created a new opportunity that didn't exist before, when we had decided to maintain that division. As to the figures and the numbers, it's just very important to note there's two numbers. There's one that will tend to be reflected more in Proximity Americas, which has to do with the Fit for Purpose, which was announced, and we discussed for the first time last year, and then that should be impacting in Proximity Americas generally, throughout this year as it gets implemented and rolled out. Some of that also gets reflected in Salud, because I also mentioned it was in Salud, so some of that will be seen in the overhead expenses of Salud.

The part that is at FEMSA Corporate is a combination of two things. It's a combination of reduction in costs. Definitely, there has been a net reduction in FTEs throughout the organization, particularly relating to the merger of P&H and FEMSA Corporate. Some of this has to do with Spin, so it will be reflected also at FEMSA Corporate, because FEMSA Corporate is the one that consolidates the results of Spin. In the case of Spin, it's not only a significant tightening of costs, which is directly related to the narrowing and focusing of the strategy and the ambition of Spin. As we mentioned on the call and in the press release, we're postponing the license. Premia will no longer be offered to third parties outside of the OXXO ecosystem.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

The FEMSA ecosystem.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

The FEMSA ecosystem. We've also narrowed some of our efforts on payment platforms in small mom-and-pop stores. Some of these things have been delayed or postponed for the foreseeable future until we have greater visibility about the payment platform in the store, the credit initiatives.

Part of what's included in that figure is our expectation that the losses at Spin should be coming down because of all these cost reductions, but also because we expect the momentum of the business with this renewed focus and alignment to improve. Obviously, that is a sort of view about what will be the improvement in the top line performance of Spin. It's a little bit harder to rely on because it depends on a lot of external things going right as well.

Thiago Bertolucci (Research Analyst)

This is great. Super exciting to hear all of this from you guys. Congrats, and thank you very much.

Moderator (participant)

Our next question comes from Ricardo Alves from Morgan Stanley. Please, Mr. Alves, your microphone is open.

Ricardo Alves (Executive Director and Equity Analyst)

Hello, everybody. José, Antonio, Martín, Juan, and Jorge, thanks for the opportunity as usual. Pleasure to talk to you. My first question on OXXO, I think that another impressive performance on the gross margin, it's great to see that. In our conversations, we've seen some people more concerned about financial services in the long term. I wanted to think about your gross margin performance and financial services in a, you know, taking advantage of all these long-term strategic initiatives. I wanted to think about that in the long term. Are there main initiatives that you're already working for 2026, as we speak, to kind of defend your position and to remain relevant?

You know, the two main components of the gross margin that we always discuss, commercial income and financial services. I think that commercial income is easier for us to understand, given your physical presence, given the World Cup this year, and et cetera. Perhaps my question is more directed to, you know, your strategy around cash in and cash out. You know.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Yeah

Ricardo Alves (Executive Director and Equity Analyst)

We've been talking about remittances for the past couple of quarters, so an update here would be great. I'll ask my second question later. Thank you.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Thank you, Ricardo. As you say, commercial income is still early and growing, and it's a huge source of growth, and I think we're just scratching the surface in terms of what we can do with retail media and other commercial income projects. On terms of financial services, look, it's still growing on traffic. Or if you blend it all together, and if you put even, you know, top-ups for cell phone, this thing is driving growth. It's growing a traffic at same-store sales level. It's accelerating. We just put Banorte as part of the corresponsalía network, and it's driving tremendous growth.

We see the need and the consumer demands needs for payments, being able to use the OXXO network as an ATM is still, and I think it's gonna be for the foreseeable future. If you ask me long, long term, that's in a way. I would say we haven't even scratched the surface on what we can do with remittances, but we've been, we keep installing the cash machines in more and more stores, and I think there's still a huge opportunity for us to capture market share in remittances.

Long term, it is obvious that as people go more and more into digital, some of these services will fade or will reduce, as we are seeing with cell phone top-ups reducing and going more into digital payment. I think that's where Spin plays a huge, a critical central role within OXXO, and that's why the decision to turn it back into the OXXO ecosystem. If you look about, if you look at Spin is a phenomenal fintech, but we've under-delivered in help making it a useful tool to bring people into the store. I think Spin's value really does not come from choosing between OXXO or being a fintech. It comes from really bringing both together.

Spin, OXXO is really the best competitive advantage that Spin has. There's a lot of things that we have not been promoting well, that you can do with a Spin QR. You can take a picture of a Spin QR, and you can tip your waiter, your gardener, your whatever, or you can give money to a colleague, and you can make it go into the OXXO store, and with a QR scan, really very quickly, deliver it or pick the cash up. I think we're just scratching the surface of what you can do when you combine a digital application and a physical network of over 25,000 stores.

We have a lot of things on the pipeline, things in, like, Pudo, working with some of the e-commerce players. I think we're just scratching the surface of the services that will come and replace the wave of services that will go entirely digital. I'm optimistic that the pace of change will allow us to adapt, and we will come up on top on the long term, obviously, there will be pluses and minuses throughout the coming years. Does that answer you, Ricardo?

Ricardo Alves (Executive Director and Equity Analyst)

It does, José Antonio. Thank you so much. Should I ask my follow-up now or go back to the queue?

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Yes, please, go ahead.

Ricardo Alves (Executive Director and Equity Analyst)

Yes. Yes, sure. The other one is probably for Martín. I think that a helpful summary, Martín, that you gave on shareholder distribution, strong year in 2025. Congrats on the execution there. As we're thinking about 2026, however, we've ran a couple of sensitivities, and we get easily to a, you know, a potential excess cash beyond MXN 3 billion. I'm not saying that this is the number that FEMSA is going to be distributing to shareholders, but, you know, it seems to us that the excess cash balance by the end of this year could be significantly higher. Unless some of the basic assumptions that we saw in 2024 and 2025 could have changed.

For instance, I don't know if maybe the potential ticket for M&A is higher than before, or maybe if the 2 times target of leverage, you know, maybe if we stay below 1.5, 1.7, that would be okay in the longer term. I just wanted to provoke you a little bit more here. It seems to us that the excess cash position could be significantly higher. Just wanted to hear your thoughts on that. Thanks again, everybody.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Sure. I mean, without trying to understand your number on this call in real time, which would probably not be prudent, or helpful, I would remind you that given the extraordinary $1.3 billion that we've already committed to distribute, the $300 million in buybacks, and let's just assume the board approves, which I don't think is a difficult assumption to make, that the ordinary dividend will be consistent with what we paid last year. We're talking about easily $2.4-$2.5 billion being paid out this year, March to March. That's all. Nothing else happening. If for some reason, we do spectacularly, so my estimate is of excess cash is less than yours.

Number two, if for any reason it is what I expect and/or even better than I expect, we will reserve the right during the year to do more buybacks, announce another extraordinary dividend. We're not foreclosing the possibility, it just seemed, given how close I expect to get to the 2 times net debt to EBITDA, that now we're just really, to be honest, playing with some decimal points as opposed to. I don't need to be that precise because I have the flexibility, and the company has the flexibility during the year to buy back more shares or call a special meeting, shareholders meeting and declare another extraordinary dividend. I'd be happy to offline.

Ricardo Alves (Executive Director and Equity Analyst)

Sure

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Walk through numbers and try to understand where your $3 billion comes from.

Ricardo Alves (Executive Director and Equity Analyst)

Absolutely. Super clear, Martín. Thanks, everybody.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Thank you, Ricardo.

Moderator (participant)

Our next question comes from Rodrigo Alcantara from UBS. Please, Mr. Alcantara, your microphone is open.

Rodrigo Alcantara (Analyst)

Hello, good morning, José, Martín, Pam, Jorge, Juan, whole team. Congratulations on the results. Two questions. The first one on the Fit for Purpose. Amazing what you're doing there. Just for the sake of the conversation, I know that you, José, have been in the road talking to investors, and as a frequent answer that you have. A frequent question that you have received is in relation on how KOF fits into this new structure that you are envisaging. My question is precisely to hear from you now in the call, like, what you are answering when you receive this question about KOF within this Fit for Purpose.

My other question would be, very quickly, if you have any early comments on the unfortunate events that we have seen in terms of security arising to, you know, from what happened two days ago in Jalisco? We have seen some news flow there about X number of stores being affected. Any commentary on that would be helpful. Thank you, guys.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Thank you, Rodrigo. These are, as you say, a very relevant question. The first one being very frequent one. The second one, I hope it's not, it's never asked again.

Rodrigo Alcantara (Analyst)

Yeah.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

On the Coca-Cola FEMSA side, as you know, we are always evaluating possibilities for all of our businesses, and we do not see ourselves as a conglomerate. We are very focused on what we bring value. We love these two, our businesses, our main businesses, where we are, and we see huge future for ahead of them. We've proven to you guys that we are pragmatic. We are a 135-year-old company that started with beer, and we don't, other than the huge amounts of beer we sell from many brewers in OXXO, we are not into beer anymore, and we will remain ourselves very pragmatic going forward.

If these two companies, Coca-Cola FEMSA and Proximity or retail, were two separate companies, would you consider merging them? The answer is absolutely no. The possibilities of separating has a lot of implications, a lot of things that we're going through, a lot of analysis that has gone through our minds. I would let the comments there. For now, the structure that we have works great for us, and if something changes, we would address it at the appropriate level. On the second thing, Rodrigo, obviously, it was a very sudden and unfortunate events the last couple of days. I do wanna take a minute first to recognize the heroic and incredible work done by many of our employees and frankly, customers.

We've received dozens of videos, comments, memories of people filming, protecting our stores, protecting our collaborators. We have a heroic employee that basically put her life at risk to save one of the stores. I just wanna say, first, no customer at all was even injured during these disruptions by organized crime. 4 employees suffered minor injuries, all of them are out of danger. I was incredibly moved and touched by the amount of customers and employees that threw themselves to save some of the stores that we were in danger. On the great scheme of things, we were not as harmed as much. We had to close for 1 day, up to 6,000 of our stores.

Rodrigo Alcantara (Analyst)

Wow!

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Yes.

Rodrigo Alcantara (Analyst)

Yeah.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Precautionary, no?

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

For precautionary.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Yeah.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

On a day after, we had opened over 90% of them, and today, only about 300 stores remain closed. If you look at the amount of damage that the country received, I mean, we had about 200 stores with some level of affection. It could be a looting or all the way to a store burned. I would say most of those stores, in a week or so, will be up and running. The fact is that we are everywhere. We are in every town in Mexico. We are...

It's not that we haven't seen anything that's against us, it's just that given that we are all over the place, we tend to be the first ones targeted, but there were other supermarkets, other convenience stores, other pharmacy chains affected, which it's just that we tend to get the most coverage. I also do wanna recognize the incredible closeness and collaboration with the security personnel, army officers, Guardia Nacional. The authorities have been incredibly close to us and helpful in monitoring the situation and giving us feedback, and we've been able to give feedback. I am very impressed by the security authorities, both our army, marines and Guardia Nacional, and the response has been tremendous.

I was also very thankful for that incredible back to normal that came quickly. I really hope these things don't happen again. We have protocols in place that have made my team very proud of how we were able to respond and have no incident on customers, and some minor injuries on employees that are out of danger. Thankfully for addressing that question, and thankfully, Thanks for letting me give these comments.

Rodrigo Alcantara (Analyst)

No, for sure, and that's good to hear, José. Thank you for the detailed answer.

Moderator (participant)

Our next question comes from Alvaro Garcia from BTG Pactual. Please, Mr. Garcia, your microphone is open.

Alvaro Garcia (Associate Partner)

Hi, gentlemen. Thanks for the space for questions. I have two questions. The first one on the restructuring. Martín, I know you've run through it. I just kind of wanted to walk through the numbers. You know, in the past, you've mentioned a cash burn at the corporate level of almost $200 million, a cash burn at the Spin level of around $150 million. Today you've mentioned the MXN 1 billion and the MXN 800 million. I was wondering if you could just clarify, if it's MXN 1 billion, if it's MXN 1 billion plus MXN 800 million, I know some of that might be at Proximity Americas Division, but I guess at the corporate level specifically, how should we think of what used to be that cash burn?

What might that look like on a pro forma basis into 2027? That would be very helpful. Will Spin formally be merged into OXXO? I know that has relevant sort of fiscal implications. That's my first question. I have a very quick follow-up, which I can ask after very quickly. Thank you.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Spin will not be merged into OXXO. There will be activities that were undertaken at OXXO and Spin that will be centralized in one of the two businesses, but Spin will remain as a separate, distinct operating unit with its own budgets, its own routines for management, and its own support functions in order to ideally protect the unique capabilities that have been built around that business. Number two, as the cash burn of Spin, in effect, the way we account for the cash burn of Spin is in a very conservative fashion. So that MXN 200 million figure coming down to MXN 150 is a figure which is Spin standalone. What does that mean?

Given the transfer pricing rules and allocation of revenues, and so on, there is a formula pursuant to which Spin has to share the revenues that are generated from certain service offerings that Spin provides that use the store. It has to pay for certain services that are executed in the store by this store employee. That number, just to put it in its context, is a very conservative way of measuring the cash burn of Spin on a standalone basis. On an ecosystem basis, it's significantly lower than that, and I'll give you a prime example.

Spin by OXXO generates a cash burn at Spin. When you look at the ecosystem of all the payments that are executed in the store through Spin by OXXO, which arguably might never be executed had not Spin by OXXO existed, when you look at it, that business, for example, is break even, is easily break even. We do expect that cash burn to decline. From the MXN 200s to MXN 150, you should continue to see it come down. Some of this will be difficult to account. When you see it in others, there will be eliminations, accounting eliminations, which will counteract some of the effects.

We will do everything we can to give visibility and transparency on this as we progress throughout the year, and you ask us the follow-up question, how we're undergoing on this. Yes, the two figures are complementary of each other. In other words, there are some. There's MXN 800 million at P&H, I'm sorry, Proximity Americas, which relates primarily to OXXO Mexico, but also includes... And I should have been maybe a little bit clearer, but does include an amount for Salud, which is basically cost reductions across the businesses, but very focused on overhead, but it also included savings within the operations. The MXN 1 billion refers primarily to savings at FEMSA Servicios, FEMSA Corporate, from the collapse of the two structures, P&H Division and FEMSA Servicios.

It also includes the momentum we expect from Spin at its top line. It includes also significant savings at Spin from the narrowing and focusing of our ambition.

Alvaro Garcia (Associate Partner)

It includes, I'd imagine it also includes additional headcount from that you're moving towards the corporate level. That's also included in that MXN 1 billion figure?

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Yes. Yes.

Alvaro Garcia (Associate Partner)

Okay.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Well, again, it's the net savings from moving some of those people over here, plus the people here.

Alvaro Garcia (Associate Partner)

Perfect

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

savings we will execute.

Alvaro Garcia (Associate Partner)

Awesome. Thank you. Just one very quick one on OXXO. That was super helpful, really appreciate the color, and I will be asking that going forward. On revenue growth, at Proximity Americas, it grew 5.3%. Same-store sales was 4.4%, sort of the lowest gap we've seen between same-store sales growth and total revenue growth in quite some time. That productivity factor, if you could comment on that'd be very helpful. Thank you.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Hey, Alvaro, this is Juan. Yeah, I think, you know, there's a number of things at play there, but a couple of them are, you know, some of the growth is actually also happening now outside of Mexico. We saw a really good quarter from LATAM, and we had some currency headwinds there. You know, if you look at the comparable number, as you can see in the table, it's a little bit higher. There's another factor which has to do with the openings and closings. We mentioned we are closing a fair number of stores in different markets because they are, for lack of a better word, mediocre. They, you know, they're selling, and we're replacing them with hopefully better stores, but that are brand new, right? Or much newer.

I think in some ways we're exchanging potentially better stores, replacing stores that clearly kind of exhausted their potential and never really reached what we expected. I think that's also playing into that number. I think we're gonna do a deeper dive, and happy to take this offline, because you're right, normally you would have expected something perhaps in the order of 8 as opposed to the 6 that were shown.

Alvaro Garcia (Associate Partner)

Thanks so much for the space. Really appreciate the color, as always, and congrats on results. Thank you.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Alvaro.

Moderator (participant)

Our next question comes from Robert Ford from Bank of America. Please, Mr. Ford, your microphone's open.

Robert Ford (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you so much, and good day, everybody. José, how should we think about the strategy in Brazil? You know, how does it change following the separation from Heineken? At your current same-store trajectory in Brazil, how long will it take you to cover all the central administrative and overhead expenses? Where do you see the most promising category, SKU and service opportunities in Brazil for OXXO?

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Great question, Bob. Thank you. To be honest, we're very excited for what we are being able to achieve in Brazil. It was great to have a partner for the first few years. It gave us confidence, security, it gave us some training into how to build and gain permits and stuff. Now we're very excited that we're ready to go on it alone. The potential we see is still enormous.

we've, I think it's the third year in a row that we grow same-store sales on double digits. I'm pretty sure that number is right. 2026 also began very, very strong, I mean, we've got good weather, we've got carnival, but we see huge potential. To give you a precise number of how many stores do we need to get to, you know, pay for its overhead, I don't have the number, but it's still maybe, it's gonna be probably around 1,000 stores, which I have full confidence that we will be over 1,000 stores in Brazil. I think our huge challenges in Brazil are twofold.

One, we need to continue growing the same-store sale, business to a level that allows us to really absorb all the costs within the store. The cost structure in Brazil still has opportunities Vis-à-Vis Colombia, turnover-wise, cost to hire, cost to fire, et cetera, all these operational things, but they've been improving dramatically month-over-month. At the moment…

This number will, as soon as we are able to stabilize, and if we are able to, you know, have 7 net employees per store, a gross margin of around 38%, and around MXN 1 million per month, which all of them are, you know, 5%-10% off, that's when we will know this will be a 10,000 store business or a 5,000 store business. It's that dramatic, the turnaround. In terms of categories that we are excited, we are impressed by the food offerings. We have very strong margins on food and coffee, and we play a strong game there. We sell phenomenal pão de queijo, coxinhas, empanadas.

All these things are to Our customers love them and are eating them frequently. Our coffee offerings are amazing, it's obviously pure Brazilian premium coffee, and we sell at a good price. The other great thing is the consumer occasion, the impulse occasion of beer gathering, it plays a humongous role in Brazil. Obviously, you don't have the service component that we have in Mexico, but there are other services that we're beginning to try, and in terms of gaming, and other gift cards and other things that are part of the landscape in Mexico and could play a significant role in Brazil that we are trying to implement.

Overall, it's too early, but I am very passionate about our Brazilian business, and I will not rest until we have 10,000 stores in Brazil, hopefully not far into the future.

Robert Ford (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, take it easy.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Does that answer you, Bob, or were you?

Robert Ford (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

No, it does. Very helpful. José, and just with respect to the Mexican drugstore business, what are the next moves?

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Oof. That's a tough one. Thank you, Bob.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Bob, you're going from-

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Uh-

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

from the best to the, not, you know, fortunate one.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Yes, from a darling to a tough one.

Robert Ford (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

The school coming.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

We haven't nailed the pharmacy in Mexico. It's been a tough business. We are not experts at it. We have a phenomenal business in Chile. Our pharmacy business in Colombia, getting discarding the institutional side is great. In Ecuador, we're growing, we're growing share, we're growing profits. Our South American business is great. Mexico, I think we don't play with the league against against the real good players. There is a future for pharmacy in Mexico, maybe more closely related to OXXO in over-the-counters and on digital. If I see a future for OXXO Pharmacy, it has more to do with helping doing an omni-channel type of pharmacy.

I think there are certain corners of Mexico where we can be profitable, in the Pacifico region and in the southeast. Overall, it's, we're not winning in that, unless we do something different or we exit that business, I don't see a foreseeable change in our health Mexico business, being very honest.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

No, and I.

Robert Ford (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

You know, just, I mean, this is somewhat obvious, but, you know, if you look at the competitive position that we have in all the other, in the other three countries, we're either the main player or the number two player moving towards number one, and in Mexico, we never really were able to get to that critical mass and really take away from the couple of large incumbents. That, you know, this being a scaled business, you know, that was a tough one to break, and so that's, I guess, where OXXO comes in terms of can we do something disruptive than use OXXO? That's still very much in the drawing board.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

I would just add, I mean, we have now a great CEO of our pharmacy in Mexico. He's doing wonderful things with the tools he has, and I think the business is stabilizing, and it will not burn cash this year, hopefully. It's not winning, that's for sure. Thank you, Bob.

Robert Ford (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

No, thank you.

Moderator (participant)

Our next question comes from Antonio Hernández from Actinver. Please, Mr. Hernández, your microphone's open.

Antonio Hernández (Head Director of Equity Research)

Hi, good morning. Thanks for the special question, comments on your results, and thanks for that asked that difficult question before me. Another question that I have is regarding Bara and OXXO. What about maybe cross-selling across the different private labels, different SKUs? I know it's a different value proposition, but still, I mean, you're growing Bara, you're facing competition at OXXOs, any findings that you have there or anything that you could provide would be helpful. Thanks.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Can you clarify? You're saying we're facing competition between Bara and OXXO, or what are-

Antonio Hernández (Head Director of Equity Research)

No, no. OXXOs in terms of affordability, what was mentioned.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Ah

Antonio Hernández (Head Director of Equity Research)

Earlier in the call. Maybe some findings or any learnings that you found in Bara and that you can apply to OXXO as well, cross-selling-

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Okay, that's.

Antonio Hernández (Head Director of Equity Research)

SKUs, something like that.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

That's a good reflection. Okay.

Antonio Hernández (Head Director of Equity Research)

Thanks.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Very interesting question. Thank you, Antonio. I think the worst thing you can do is try to change your positioning just based on your competitor. We have a phenomenal competitor, competitors in the discount space, that's obvious. They're growing, they're doing well, and they play a good game in their hard discount space. I think Bara has to, in my opinion, a stronger value proposition for the long term against other discounters. It needs to grow its private label offering, I like our odds in competing against the discount space. The discount space is gonna grow dramatically in Mexico over the next couple of decades. Bara has a real chance of becoming one of the leading players there.

I like what we have. We are very our value proposition for Bara is very much adapted for the Bajío and Jalisco region. Our stores we're opening in Monterrey are to me the perfect mix of what the Norteño needs. You see beer, you see assortment of beer. You also see private label of food and daily replenishment, and snacks, and supermarket or groceries. I love our concept, and that's where we're gonna compete against those players. OXXO has a great role to play in getting into affordability, in beer, in soft drinks, in tobacco, in snacks.

For the daily replenishment, where we have a role to play that's different from the discounters, is that daily replenishment. I need something urgently, I don't need that big pack size. I need the brand I know, the brand I love, the brand I recognize, in a smaller format for my daily things because I forgot shampoo and I need something for the gym or whatever. That consumer occasion also will be where it competes. More similar assortment to what you see on the traditional trade, where it's still 50% of the consumer basket, by the way. I think OXXO has a lot of room to grow on the daily replenishment, more similar to the traditional trade.

Bara and whoever wants a very private label, very low pricing, they could go to a Bara or one of our competitors for that. Having said that, we do see private label becoming more relevant in OXXO and complementing the offering that we have. We already have a lot of private label in OXXO, in our cooking oil, in our coffee, in some snacks, and we see that even in diapers and some house cleaning products. I think OXXO can also develop some powerful brands around private label, especially where, in some categories where commercial income is not as significant, and we can play a bigger role.

I think each one will have its place, and I see a lot of growth for OXXO, and I see a lot of growth for discount, hopefully more Baras than other ones.

Antonio Hernández (Head Director of Equity Research)

I suppose some suppliers from Bara could be leveraged.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Definitely, some of the suppliers in Bara and even some of the private label suppliers of our pharmacy business in South America are interested in coming over and doing some things that we can sell in OXXO and in Bara. Does that answer you?

Antonio Hernández (Head Director of Equity Research)

Okay. Okay, thanks. That's very clear. Just a quick follow-up, do you have any white space potential number for Bara in Mexico?

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Tens of thousands. They're slapping me here for saying that, but I think there's room for many thousands.

Antonio Hernández (Head Director of Equity Research)

Many thousands

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

of Bara. Yes, that business is here to stay. It'll be huge. I don't want to sound Donald Trump, huge, but it's gonna be big.

Antonio Hernández (Head Director of Equity Research)

Okay.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Yeah.

Antonio Hernández (Head Director of Equity Research)

Perfect. Thanks, for the color. I appreciate it. Have a nice day.

Moderator (participant)

Our next question comes from Héctor Moya from Scotiabank. Please, Mr. Moya, your microphone's open.

Héctor Moya López (Analyst)

Hi, thank you for taking my questions, and congrats on the results. José Antonio, Martín, I just wanted to understand from the excess cash right now and the planned deployments, the cash deployments, about $1.5 billion might be set aside still for M&A, correct? On this, how has the appetite for M&A changed in the U.S.? I mean, has it changed a bit due to political uncertainty, or the current immigration policies may be affecting traffic in states close to the Mexican border? On the ongoing work to adapt the value proposition in the U.S., how long do you think you would still need to reach a point in which you feel comfortable enough to now go on a more aggressive growth path by organic expansion or more M&A in the U.S.? Thank you.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

I will address it briefly, and I'll let Martín and Juan complement me. Thank you, Héctor. We're not saving that money exclusively for inorganic M&A. I think Martín expressed it very well. We are evaluating a lot of opportunities on throughout FEMSA. Not all of them are inorganic M&A. There are other things, and all those things are put into the equation, and we wanna be cautious before we pronounce whether we give this cash in either buybacks or other opportunities to even considering another extraordinary dividend. It's not exclusively that we're hunting for inorganic M&A.

Having said that, we have a lot of things coming our way, some of them in the U.S. for convenience stores. To be honest, none... We have been surprised by the expectations of the sellers, and we wanna be very cautious. We are not concerned about traffic in the Texas region for immigration or stuff. We have a very long-term view for the U.S. The U.S. still has a long way to go to consolidate, and we are learning a lot from our little operation in Texas. We're getting more and more relevant in the El Paso region. We wanna be the winners and win share and gain the confidence of the El Pasoan, the Midland citizen, the Odessa. That's where we're concentrated.

We see we can gain share against the QuikTrip and the other local players, we will become more aggressive in growing our footprint. We bought a couple of stores here and there in El Paso, and we're very happy with that. We're looking more at talking small chains. The bigger chains, I'm very surprised about their expectations for multiples that are outrageous. Some of it has to do that everyone wants to thinks that they're the next Casey's. To be honest, not all of them deserve those valuations. Credit to Casey's that they've done a tremendous job. No, we have a long-term view, and we're still looking at opportunities in U.S., but we're being very cautious with our returns.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Yeah, I mean, very little to add. Our interest has not diminished. We have been unable to find an entry point with the right risk/reward in a reasonable period of time that made us willing to pull the trigger. As we have said, the entry into the United States is a function of finding the right opportunity. It's not an unconditional need that we have. It has to be based on being able to find value-creating opportunities.

Héctor Moya López (Analyst)

Excellent. Very, very clear. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Martín Arias Yániz (CFO)

Gracias.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Thank you, Héctor.

Moderator (participant)

Our next question comes from Renata Cabral from Citi. Mrs. Cabral, your microphone's open.

Renata Cabral (Equity Analyst)

Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for the space here for questions. I have two follow-ups here, one on Brazil and Bara. My question is, are Brazil and Bara already seen as scalable platforms? I know it was already discussed here as great opportunities, just to understand from your view today, that's durable, there's durable economics, or they are seeing a proof of concept in terms of proposition that they can offer to the clients, compared to OXXO, obviously, already consolidating, very clear for everyone. In terms of capital allocation, timing allocation especially, we are seeing the company much focused on the strategy. Now, you have just discussed about the health business that the company are working towards that.

We see the company much more focused, we discussed here three and more really important opportunities, such as opportunity to grow in the U.S., Brazil, Bara. Do we have a top two that maybe in the next five years you see more opportunity than the others? If you can shed some light, qualitatively, it can be, I would really appreciate. Thank you.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

I got your question on Bara and OXXO Brazil very clearly, and I'm happy to add some comments, but I didn't understand very well the second question. Can you repeat it, Renata, please?

Renata Cabral (Equity Analyst)

Yeah, in terms of the big opportunities that we already discussed here in the call, for instance, Bara, OXXO, expansion in the US, can we have one of them should be bigger in the next five years? The company today is allocating more time in which of those initiatives?

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Okay. Okay, I think I get it. Obviously, Bara and Brazil are Our obsession is OXXO Mexico and Coca-Cola FEMSA Mexico. Those are the motors and have huge growth opportunities that are our priorities. What keeps me very excited and to, frankly, come to, with a smile to work every day is OXXO Brazil and Bara. Bara is much more advanced in ready to, in readiness to hyperscale. We've been tailoring the value proposition for the last probably five years, and today we have a value proposition that we love. We are happy. We opened a distribution center in Monterrey, and we are ready for hyperscaling. In Mexico is where it's easier to transfer capabilities of hypergrowth.

you should expect a faster growth in unit numbers in Bara than in OXXO Brazil. OXXO Brazil first is a São Paulo bet. It's still very much São Paulo bet. It still has a lot of room to cover in São Paulo. And we've focused much more in quality versus quantity. We are ready to open about 100 stores in 2026. That is a low number to what we would love to, but we much rather mature the right processes in place, the category management in place, the commercial income capabilities in place, the categories that really are gonna move the needle, and the process control that would allow us...

For OXXO Brazil to become a very valuable bet, if you do the DCF of OXXO Brazil, growing at 100 stores a year versus growing 1,000 stores a year, moves exponentially the value of OXXO Brazil going forward. 100 stores a year is not enough for us to call OXXO Brazil the second wave of FEMSA. We're working hard on solving the operational things that we need to solve so that OXXO Brazil can grow at, I don't know if 1,000, but a store a day. That's still a few years down the line. I think it's behind us. In terms of other bets, I think we have our plate full with OXXO Mexico, OXXO Brazil.

I would say we are incredibly surprised, and I don't wanna scare you guys, but we're incredibly surprised about what we are beginning to see as opportunities for growth in Europe, mostly organic. It's, it's, Europe, the management team in Europe has done a tremendous job in getting more value, and we are still in a very early stages of OXXO USA. We think, I think we shouldn't call it OXXO USA. We should call it OXXO Texas, New Mexico, and that region, and we see huge opportunities for growth there as soon as we are able to refine our value proposition. That's where we are right now. I think those things are further down the road, and not in the near future.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Yeah, I would add to what José just said. I mean, if you just look at the numbers that we provided you know, in this call, about how many stores we're gonna be opening this year, obviously, this is just one year, and it doesn't, you know, it doesn't speak too much about the future. You know, we said for Bara, we are aspiring to grow it by one-third in 2026. For OXXO Brazil, we spoke about 15%. OXXO Mexico is less than 5%, right? Obviously, you know, it has to do with how big the base already is, but it also has to do with how, you know, what is our conviction about the value proposition and how many incremental tweaks we need to make.

I do think that in Brazil, it feels like we've been in Brazil for just a little bit of time compared to how long we've been, you know, working on Bara, never mind how long we've been working on OXXO, right? There's nothing magical about this. It's, you know, you just get to the point where you step on the gas at different points in time. But also, to José's earlier comments, where you begin to think about eventually thousands of stores in a way that is actually somewhat literal, as opposed to, you know, just hypotheticals.

Renata Cabral (Equity Analyst)

Great point, Juan. Thank you so much. Thanks, José, for the comprehensive answer as well. Thank you.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Thank you very much.

Moderator (participant)

Our next question comes from Ulises Argote from Santander. Mr. Argote, microphone's open.

Ulises Argote (Analyst)

Hi, y'all. Thanks for the space for questions here and all the details that you have shared. This has been extremely helpful. José, I actually had one for you, and kind of taking advantage there as you kind of ramp up into the CEO chair. On your opening remarks, you said you were not satisfied with the results that we saw on the year, right? I know there's always room to grow and always room to improve, if we are here one year from now, and specifically maybe two or three key things, what has to change from where the company is today for you to start next year's remarks saying you see a successful 2026 in the books?

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Great question, Ulises. I would love to see hitting our top line growth of, you know, mid-single digits in OXXO, with profitable traffic growth in same-store sales. At least, I mean, for me, at least same-store sales growth of traffic, which is a tough challenge because we have, you know, IEPS in soft drinks, or taxes in soft drinks, other taxes in tobacco, a beer, the beer category with some struggles. You know, with the World Cup, with all that we're doing with food, with all that we're doing in affordability and coffee, for me, success should mean same-store sales growth in the OXXO Mexico level. That should be added with market share growth.

Obviously, I would love to see Colombia in an EBIT, at least EBIT breakeven, and then Brazil hitting its targets of getting closer to a nice gross margin, opening 100 net new stores successfully. To me, that's what I would qualify as success. Europe should give us another strong year, more because of efficiencies that they're still pulling out of the business, hopefully with a couple of interesting deals that we're looking with partnering with some service stations.

Coca-Cola FEMSA taking advantage of the World Cup, and being able to transfer most of the price of the IEPS without any share loss gains, even with some gains in share, and then gaining ROIC. All of them should be able to be gaining return on invested capital. Finally, if we are able to open a store a day in Bara, one store a day in Bara profitably, I will celebrate with champagne. That's success for me next year, or I mean this year, sorry.

Ulises Argote (Analyst)

Amazing. That's great to hear and super clear. If you reach that Bara per day target, I'll send you the champagne myself, José. Thank you.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Thank you. Thank you, I will send you a selfie or invite you for a toast.

Moderator (participant)

Our next question comes from Henrique Brustolin from Bradesco BBI. Please, Mr. Brustolin, your microphone is open.

Henrique Brustolin (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hello, everyone, thanks for taking my question. José Antonio, I wanted to circle back to your comment on OXXO Mexico, about what the opportunities you have for the new consumption occasions, right? Or the ones, the large opportunity you're seeing in breakfast, coffee, daily replenishment, which you're already present, but as you mentioned, you can effectively start to play twin on them. I just wanted to hear a little more, you know, what needs to change operationally, in terms of assortment, pricing, or even store execution, for this to start to gain more traction? How do you see the transition in terms of timing and implementing all these initiatives taking place, to reflect in the performance of OXXO stores in Mexico? That would be my question. Thank you very much.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Great. Just to be clear. Thank you, Henrique, just to be clear, on regards to food or in general?

Henrique Brustolin (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

The question was in general, if there is anything specific that you know, can move the needle more or you are or more focused at, it would be great to hear as well. It was a category on food and daily replenishment...

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Yes

Henrique Brustolin (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

That you mentioned you can play to win.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

I mean, we've really tried a lot of things on food over our history, and it always has been a struggle because of the huge level of complexity that it brought into the OXXO store. We were able to simplify complexity first when we did this partnership with Caffenio, and we brought the coffee, these Japanese thermos that were, you know, a huge advantage and simplified the store operations many years. Now, we're moving beyond that, towards automated coffee machines. We all just came from a trip to Japan, and now our coffee machines look like 10-year-old coffee machines. It's impressive how the coffee store infrastructure has evolved in developed markets.

There's huge potential for us to bring coffee into our stores. Just to give you an example or just to give you some guidance on coffee, we sell about 28 cups per store per day in Mexico. Japan's convenience stores sell over 100. Colombia or Colombian stores, which by the way, Colombia and Mexico have similar per capitas on coffee, are about 90 coffee per day, per store. We have a long way to go in becoming. We have very good coffee. It's 100% Mexican coffee from Hidalgo, Oaxaca, and from Veracruz. I think we need to really win the narrative on why the best coffee to start your morning is the coffee at OXXO.

It's high quality, it's really affordable, it's on a very convenient price, we're considering even lowering the price. People do not go to OXXO just for the coffee. They want a filling, hot breakfast option, we are trying many different things, we haven't delivered something that, you know, turn it national. We are looking at this hero product, we're trying a few things, I think that also brings a lot of complexity to the store. How do you bring freshly baked product with some protein on it to start your morning in a fulfilling way? We are doing it incredibly well in Colombia, where over 25% of our revenue is food. In Brazil, it's almost 20%.

In Mexico, we have a long way to go to get to those numbers, but I am continuously impressed by what the OXXO team is bringing to the table in terms of evolution. We're also trying a lot of little things, like the pizza program in Monterrey, which has been a huge success. I don't know if it's gonna scale so much, but it's incredibly successful. The beach things we're trying. I think there's a lot of things to develop on that. That will be just part of the story. The other one is we need to be more competitive on daily and replenishment, and we need to continue to gain share in our impulse categories.

A lot of things moving on, but I think, if we are able to win on breakfast, on the breakfast occasion and start moving the needle on daily replenishment, we should have a strong 2026.

Henrique Brustolin (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

That's very clear. Thanks very much.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Henrique.

Moderator (participant)

This does conclude the Q&A section. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Mr. Fonseca for any closing remarks.

Juan Fonseca (Head of Investor Relations)

Thanks, everyone, for attending today. Obviously, you know where to find us. The IR team is always around to double-click on questions that maybe were not raised during the call. Thanks, have a great rest of the week.

José Antonio Fernández Garza-Lagüera (CEO)

Thank you, everyone.

Moderator (participant)

Thank you. This does conclude today's presentation. You may disconnect now, and have a nice day.