BBB Foods Inc. ($TBBB)

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

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I will begin with a review of our operating results and will be followed by our CFO, Eduardo Pizzuto, who will provide an overview of our financial performance and who will outline our guidance for 2026. We will conclude with a Q&A session to answer the questions you may have. We delivered another quarter of excellent performance and closed the year with strong momentum. Our results in 2025 reflect the continued strength of our business model, rapid and disciplined store expansion, strong same-store sales growth and solid cash generation. During the fourth quarter, we continued to scale the business while improving our value proposition for customers and strengthening our operating infrastructure. Let me briefly highlight a few key results from the quarter and the full year. During the quarter, we opened 184 net new stores, bringing the full year total to a record 574 net openings, which exceeded our guidance of 500 to 550 stores. We also opened 2 new distribution centers in the quarter for a total of 4 new ones in 2025. Same-store sales grew 16.6% in the fourth quarter versus the same quarter last year and increased 18.3% for the full year versus last year. Total revenues in the fourth quarter increased 34% to MXN 22 billion. For the full year, revenues grew 36% to MXN 78 billion. In the fourth quarter, reported EBITDA was MXN 79 million. Excluding noncash share-based compensation and a onetime asset write-off, EBITDA increased 23% to MXN 1.2 billion. Eduardo will provide more detail on the write-off later in the call. For the full year, reported EBITDA was MXN 1.2 billion. Excluding noncash share-based compensation and the asset write-off, EBITDA increased 30% to MXN 4.4 billion. Finally, for the 12 months ending December [indiscernible] 2025. Cash flow generated from operating activity reached MXN 4.7 billion, representing an almost 25% increase year-over-year. Now let's turn to operational performance. We accelerated our store expansion. As mentioned earlier, we opened 184 net new stores in the fourth quarter. For the full year 2025, we opened 574 net new stores. That is a 21% growth compared to last year when we opened 484 stores. Our expansion strategy remains consistent. We continue to densify existing regions while gradually expanding into new ones. To support this growth, we also opened 4 new distribution centers in 2025. Revenue growth remains very strong. It is likely that we are one of the fastest-growing retailers in Lat Am, if not globally. A quick recap here. Total revenue in the fourth quarter reaching MXN 22 billion, an increase of 34% year-over-year, very strong same-store sales growth of 16.6%. Same-store sales driven in large part by the ongoing improvement in our value proposition to customers. Looking at the full year. Total revenue in 2025 reached MXN 78 billion, representing 36% growth compared to last year. This growth has been compounding year after year. Our revenue CAGR for the last 4 years has been 35%, driven by the strength of our expansion strategy and by our store performance. When we compare our same-store sales performance with ANTAD, the gap remains significant. We are seeing a gap of more than 15 percentage points despite operating with low internal inflation. We just updated our spaghetti chart that many of you have seen before. This chart shows the sales trajectory of our store cohorts from 2005 through 2024. Sales are adjusted for inflation to make this an apples-to-apples comparison. 2 points stand out. Newer stores are opening with higher initial sales levels than earlier cohorts. At the same time, all store cohorts continue to grow at a healthy pace. For newer cohorts, their sales curves are steeper. And for older ones, we continue to see their sales growing. This reflects the ongoing improvement in our value proposition as well as growing brand awareness and growing brand equity. I would like to highlight a few additional operating metrics. For stores with 5 or more years of operations, the average number of transactions per store per month increased by 2.5%. Average ticket size increased by 11%, driven primarily by items per ticket and an improved product mix and to a much lesser extent by price inflation. Finally, in 2025, private label represented 58% of total merchandise sales. This compared with 54% in 2024. I will now pass the mic to Eduardo.

Thank you, Anthony. Good morning, everyone. Sales [indiscernible] expenses as a percentage of revenue declined from 11.7% to 10.5% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2025. While the fourth quarter of 2024 included onetime charges related to depreciation and amortization, which explains part of the change. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we also saw operating leverage across most expense lines. Admin expenses, excluding share-based payments, increased by 35 basis points primarily due to investments in new regions and additional talent to support our growth. With respect to share-based payment expense, these charges are noncash and already reflected in our fully diluted share count. Additional details are available in an appendix of this earnings release, where we also provide projections for this noncash expense. EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2025, excluding noncash share-based payment expense and the asset write-off increased 23.5% to MXN 1.2 billion, driven primarily by strong sales growth. The adjusted EBITDA margin declined 48 basis points year-over-year. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we also recorded a onetime charge related to the write-off of an accounts receivable balance of MXN 230 million. This was associated with the termination of a relationship with a provider of our payment terminals. The balance represents a receivable outstanding at the time of termination. We decided to record a full write-off. We note that payment processing has since been migrated to terminals operated by 1 of the top 3 banks in Mexico with no disruptions to our operations. We are pursuing all available legal actions in connection with this matter. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2025 increased 30% to MXN 4.4 billion. Over the last 4 years, EBITDA has grown at a CAGR of 42%, reflecting the strength of our business model. Even though we do not manage this business to an EBITDA target, you can see in this slide that our EBITDA margin naturally increases over time as a result of our continued store maturation, scale and operational efficiency. Our business model generates significant negative working capital, which in turn supports strong operating cash flow. For example, in December 2025, negative working capital reached MXN 8.9 billion compared with MXN 6 billion in 2024, excluding IPO proceeds. This represents approximately 11.4% of total revenue, also excluding IPO proceeds. Moving on to guidance for the year. We expect same-store sales growth between 13% and 16%, a range of 590 to 630 net new stores and revenue growth between 29% and 32%. We have updated our target unit economics, which remains very attractive. As shown on this slide, with average CapEx of approximately MXN 5.5 million per store, we're targeting a payback period of about 26 months and a cash-on-cash return of roughly 55% by year 3. The higher CapEx per store primarily reflects additional refrigeration equipment, slightly larger store formats and a higher proportion of stores that we are building from scratch. Importantly, these target unit economics are based on the performance trends we are currently observing in our newer stores. They do not include potential incremental revenue from the initiatives associated with a higher CapEx per store. I will now turn the call back to Anthony for final remarks.

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

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from García.

I have 2 questions. The first 1 on stock-based compensation. We noted the increase mainly in options for a new strike price of $35. I was wondering if relative to last year where we sort of got 2 waves of announcements, one alongside 2Q results, if that was the award that we'll see for all of 2025 or if we should expect more awards throughout the rest of the year? And my second question is on the new unit economics. You just mentioned Eduardo that the sales per store doesn't consider sort of the new initiatives from new CapEx. So the close to MXN 30 million per store material increase relative to the previous version for year 3, does that not consider the new initiatives? Or is it just the return itself.

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

Correct. That was my question.

Okay. Perfect. So no, that is the number -- the total number that was granted, and you can see on the appendices that what are the exact numbers that was granted in December of 2025. Then on your second question on the unit economics. Yes, Alvaro, we are we're actually very conservative about updating this chart because even though we are upgrading the sales curve and that is purely based on our most recent vintages, the performance of it. Let me tie it back to the spaghetti chart. If you look at 2024, for instance, that little dot that you see on the chart, that's the performance of 2024. So we're taking not only 2024, but also earlier vintages, we constructed that sales curve, and it's exactly what it's doing. So we are not assuming, as of now, any incremental sales because of the additional equipment that we're installing in the new stores.

Our next question comes from Melissa Byun.

This is Melissa Byun from Bank of America. Anthony and Eduardo, I'd like to better understand the traffic and ticket dynamics. What is the trajectory of transaction counts or stores mature? And are you happy with the 2.5% growth in stores opened 5 years or more? And then Anthony, you mentioned that the increase in average ticket is primarily coming more items per basket versus price. But can you maybe quantify the components? I imagine a higher share of private label is deflationary. And then I think related to that, how should we think about product innovation here? And how are some of the newer items performing versus earlier vintages?

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

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

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

Our next question comes from Froylan Mendez.

Anthony, Eduardo, Froylan Mendez from JPMorgan. 2 questions. First, on the stock-based compensation, the new grants that were given. According to our calculations, they make up around 2% of the outstanding shares. This compares to closer to 1% in the previous year package. Could you help us understand where the delta is coming from? Is this just in terms of the growth of the company, more people getting shares or it's just the same amount of people but getting more shares, that would be very important for us to understand. And secondly, we look at EBITDA after leases. And against our numbers, there was a -- the results were a little bit low -- well, lower than expected. I wanted to understand the timing of the openings in the fourth quarter, if most of the openings in the fourth quarter were during the latter part of the quarter, it means that the ramp-up impacts in a higher extent, the margin. And if the stores that you're opening in the last part of this year are already under this new format with more fridges, larger GLA that can lead to higher leasing costs that came up [ over ] estimates?

Froylan, let me start off with the -- EBITDA, your second question. Actually, our fourth quarter, it was a fantastic quarter in the sense that, I mean, compared to any other quarter that you've seen in the past, we opened 184 stores in 2 new distribution centers. So we've significantly accelerated the pace in Q4. So what does that translate into in the numbers that you were coming up to is an lower-than-expected EBITDA, and it's just because of that. It's just the sheer size of the volume of stores that we opened in the quarter and also the 2 new distribution centers on top of the 2 that we opened in Q3. So a total of 4, if you're comparing that to Q4 of last year, that makes a significant increase. So that is where the -- as you asked a question on the pace of openings, that's what explains the pike in -- the spike in lease payments and leases. You had a second question on EBITDA, and I will take the share base in a minute. But you had another question on EBITDA.

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

So the leasing -- let's break that into 2 [ point ]. Leasing is building, which is stores and DCs and then the rest of the leases that we have, which is equipment. So that entire number is leases. And I'm not sure if you're checking the only building or are you also taking the equipment?

We take both.

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

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

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

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

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

Froy, if you look at the appendices, what I would suggest is if you look at the appendices that we published, on Appendix 1, you see articulation of wholly diluted shares. And as -- this is something that we've been publishing for the third quarter -- for 3 quarters. And in this case, we ran an exercise on an illustrative share price of $35, and you'll see that if you compare that to what we did in Q3, for instance, you'll see the dilution as we see it, and it's less than 1%. So it's a bit tricky, the 1.9% that you mentioned because of -- I think we are -- whatever number you're putting in terms of share price will -- the dilution will come or not or less or more dilution will come in. But that's the way we look at it.

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

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

The next question comes from Irma Sgarz.

Irma Sgarz From Goldman Sachs. Just a quick follow-up on sort of the trajectory for operating leverage into 2026. The G&A line, excluding share-based compensation, of course, obviously took a step up in 2025, and I understand that there were some structural investment made both in the headquarter team, but also in some of the more downstream-oriented teams in the stores. Although I think most of that should be going through sales, but to support the overall structure, I guess, of the build-out. so I was hoping to just understand, is it fair to think that G&A expenses just after this huge step-up that we saw in 2025, the growth should be significantly below the top line growth that you're targeting and thereby releasing that operating leverage that I think is so important for the longer-term margin trajectory for the business? That's my first question. And then if you can just perhaps shed some light on what you're seeing in terms of your ability to -- or sort of your -- the direction of your geographic build-out in sourcing these new 600 or so stores that you're going to open in 2026. And I was intrigued that you mentioned more sort of a little bit more CapEx incrementally, not just on equipment, but also on sort of the work around building single standing stores. And I was trying to understand that a little bit better if that's a question of sort of pushing into new areas or availability of real estate? If you can just dig a little bit further into that comment.

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

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

Our next question comes from Andrew Ruben.

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

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

Our next question comes from Héctor Maya.

Anthony, Eduardo, about the space...

Héctor, you disappeared.

Yes, sorry. Could you hear me now?

Yes.

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

So let me talk about store size. It's been fairly consistent for the last 2 years, but definitely bigger than stores we had 10 years ago. So when I say slightly bigger, they're slightly bigger, and that affects CapEx. We've adjusted our mix for 2026, assuming conservatively that we would have more stores built from scratch. That is -- everything derives from our real estate master plan. So we take a good look and say, where do we think we want to open stores and then we come up with an estimate of how many stores we believe are going to be built from scratch versus taking an existing space and refurbishing it, and we come up with this number. There's no magic to it except it's an expectation based on serious planning and we come up with as good an estimate as we can come up with, and we make it conservative. Now in terms of equipment within the store, yes, you'll find more refrigeration equipment because we are expanding in our categories of refrigerated and frozen. And it has nothing to do with fresh, which is a completely different category, which, as you know, we're testing. So there's -- as I mentioned earlier, across all categories, we are seeing innovation and we are seeing growth while respecting the core tenets of being a hard discounter, limited SKUs, very high rotation SKUs, focus on private labels, lots of value for money in everything we offer, that you'll see consistently in everything we offer, great value for money to our customers. That, in turn, is very likely to support robust same-store sales.

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

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

Our next question comes from Antonio Hernandez.

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

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

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

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

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