Dexco S.A. (DXCO3) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, good afternoon. Welcome to Duratex. I'm Millena Machado, journalist, and I'm happy to be again presenting this event. Last year, we were together in this live format that showed us that to be successful in an event, the importance is to be connected by ideas and purpose. So thank you for accepting the invite to be together in this afternoon. 17 years ago, Duratex was founded. And since then, it didn't -- it hasn't stopped changing and evolving. The company is listed for more than 50 years with renowned managers and world leaders in their segments. And this is a movement that is becoming stronger in the last years. Today, we will see the details of a new moment of the company, the beginning of a special phase marked with a cycle of expansion and growth, including strategic planning, objectives, centrality on the consumer and improvement of the culture prioritizing the ESG. Duratex, a company that is more digital and multibusiness. Welcome to Duratex Day. It's now time to learn more about this new chapter. We will start listening to Antonio Joaquim de Oliveira, President of Duratex, that will talk about this new cycle of the company, with the CFO, Henrique Haddad. Then we will have the Vice President of Business Units, Deca and Ceramic Tiles, Marcelo Izzo, and he will talk about the culture and digital transformation and a new novelty, an important landmark in the history of the company. Glizia Prado, Director of People and ESG, will talk about governance, sustainability, and people. And then Antonio Joaquim will be back to close the presentation. At the end, we'll save some time for you to ask questions. You can send now through the chat on the platform. We are in this studio with the [indiscernible] team, following all the safety protocols. After all, health is our greatest asset, all right? Let's start listening to President of Duratex, Antonio Joaquim de Oliveira, who is here with us.

Thank you, Millena. Thank you, all of you who are here in this very important day where we are consolidating this celebration of the 70 years of Duratex. We have several novelties, and many nice things to share with you. You've been following Duratex for many, many years. Since 2009, we started our merger with Satipel and we got in this new market starting a new cycle, focusing on the Deca and Wood business. Since 2009, we start the modernization of the company. We modernized the old plants, and we expand in metals and in fixture. That time, we are celebrating 60 years. We expanded [ Elizabeth ] in the Northeast, and we closed the cycle entering in Colombia, investing in this operation that is very important. In 2013, we started a new cycle. I took over the Board of the company. And we made several measures. We did it in Argentina. And in 2014, we faced an interesting situation. We were getting prepared to a great growth cycle, and we have this deep depression that went through 2017, affecting our sector, especially the civil construction sector. And we decided to do our homework at that time. We hired Falconi, they did a fantastic job. And in 2015, '16, we introduced new metrics and the EVA, and we worked hard on base zero budget looking for operation efficiency. So we did our homework when the market was [indiscernible]. I would highlight as a very important point, the dedication we had to the deep cultural transformation in our company that you follow it closely, we consolidated this cultural transformation with a new purpose, solutions to better living. With this, we started a new cycle since -- from 2017 to last year where we invested in our portfolio and consolidating this strategy. In 2017, we entered in a new sector. After 65 years Duratex decides to, not be only focused on Deca and Wood, we decided to diversify. We acquired Ceusa and we entered in the ceramic tile sector. We did -- we made some important adjustments with fiber. We closed the Botucatu operation. We closed Hydra in Tubarao. So several actions that gave us a very good position, especially financially. One of the major was on the deactivation of [ forests ]. We sold exiting [ forests ], and we focused our wood operations in 4 plants. In 2019, we grew in this ceramic tile and we acquired Cecrisa with the Portinari brand. We decided to focus in this new sector and this really excited us. At that time, in 2018, we decided to go to this new business of soluble cellulose. This is very important. We want to start in this great project. Duratex is the largest investment of Duratex Life as of March 2022. We are also doing some adjustments. In 2020, facing the pandemic, it was a very hard situation in the beginning of the year. We had a very short visibility, but we did a turnaround and reached the 2020 with the best results in our history. All plants operating, consolidating our strategy, and for the first time, we have a positive EVA in our business. This is very important because it reflects the closing of a cycle, and also that we are prepared to a new cycle. That's why we are here today. Today, we will talk especially about this new cycle, from today until 2025. So this new 5-year cycle, we have several novelties. We will invest BRL 2.5 billion in new -- complement of our business, especially growth, organic growth, and will be distributed in wood strongly in Deca and ceramic tile. And you will see these are high return investments based in a sustainable cash return that will keep our leverage. You won't see here any information about inorganic investment. But we are prepared for that because this cycle of organic investment will improve the company, improve cash generation, and will keep us ready a new cycle of inorganic investments. Recently, you saw the launching of our strategy of venture capital. So to detail how is our situation and how we are going to invest, I'd like to invite Henrique Haddad, our Director, and he will share with us how we are going to do this and how we'll get the money to do that, okay? Good luck. Thank you.

Well, it's a very special moment. It's nice to be here because it's a highly successful story and Duratex will make this robust investment in the next year here is starting in wood. We've been talking about wood in the last years. And now it's time to continue with this process of evolution to evolve our capacity to grow, and most of all, to improve the results. We will start with the CapEx to maintain our business and the bottling of our production. We want to operate 100% of capacity, poses some points that we were not used to. So there is -- we give great opportunity to improve 10% of our capacity without any more investments. BRL 90 million, like what happened in 2021, 2023, so our operation will continue in this -- with this growth. We've been talking about the improvement of our mix. We have BRL 90 million to evolve Duratex mix products in the wood sector. Our strategy being consolidated, we have new lines of ceramic tiles that will be fundamental to continue in this trajectory. It's about 50% of our products, tile products which will be excellent. This will add value to our operation and also we'll make our operation to be different from the competitors. This is our great challenge, and this will be very important. This investments is what we have closer in terms of tiles. But we should not forget that in the wood sector, it's fundamental to think in the long term. It's impossible to think in the longer term if you don't pay -- think about our forest base. We have to accelerate the investments that we have in the Northeast forests. We have an important partnership with [indiscernible] and BRL 240 million will be invested to improve the forest availability and to have the option to invest whether in the production of panels and tiles or other initiatives like exports of chips or energy production. We cannot think about growth in wood if we don't have a sustainable forest base, and this will close the investments in wood. The next step, and here, as Antonio highlighted, we have a significant volume of investments, BRL 1.7 billion, Deca and Ceramic Tiles. We reached the moment of important decisions because the capacity no longer exists. So we are talking in the next years, until 2024, we will have BRL 600 million of investments in capacity accounting for 35% of capacity increase in the next years. We are talking about innovation, new products, technology. This will be fundamental to have this open sales and to reach the level we deserve. Another important investment in the area of toilet fixture. We are talking in a capacity increase but also automation. We see how challenged it is to produce toilet fixture. We have BRL 550 million of investments for 30% of capacity and automation. And we assure that with this, with BRL 1 billion in Deca, we will continue this trajectory of evolution in pipeline and in bottom line. Now a very important to highlight. We mentioned some organic investments, but -- that are business improvement or capacity. But here, the highlight is in the filling. we are talking about 35% of more capacity in a new plant. Before talking about this, I'd like to go back to 2 years period. We started with 5 million capacity in Ceramic Tiles. We doubled the capacity. We acquired Cecrisa with Portinari brand. And today, we have 21 million square meters and going to more than 40 million square meters of capacity, more than BRL 600 million of investments. The most modern ceramic industry in Brazil, for sure, continuing with this work when we open the plant 4 of Cecrisa. It's special, why? Because in the city of Botucatu -- in the city -- in the downside -- countryside of Sao Paulo, you have an operation that we all have, the one of -- the greatest availability of raw materials close to the clients. As I mentioned, we are in the Southeast, it is crucial to improve customer service and an operation that we will use, we have already there. We had an operation in Botucatu, and it was idle. We sold part of the property where we produced wood panels. And now we are going to use this for ceramic tiles, and with the possibility of growth in the same area, which is fantastic in the longer-term view. So the highlight of this investment, we are talking about keeping and evolving our strategy to turn our products more sophisticated. We are talking about the giant format of our products that we'll put to the Portinari brand in a special position. Another highlight is something we've been talking for some time, that is this communion and this proximity of metals, fixtures, showers and ceramic tiles. Our best estimate is that in the next years, we can capture more than BRL 150 million above what we considered when we have Cecrisa and it is merged. So we have important synergies now. We have something to add. We have a combination of brands, distribution strategy, service network, several things that will improve our result and will make Duratex and our ceramic tiles to be a reference in the market. With this, we closed the BRL 620 million, which is a fantastic investment. Another important point of our operations. Currently, I spoke of 3, and now we're going to talk about soluble cellulose. It is impressive how the construction work in Minas Gerais has been evolving. We're considering initiating operations in March, not too long, not far along. And we're starting in March '22. And as I said, the construction work is evolving well in spite of the pandemic. It wasn't a simple management task, but we have nearly 7,000 people working in the same environment. So we have protocols and caution and sanitary protocols for our workers and our providers. And it's all coordinated with [ Lenzing ] in order for this operation to begin its successful journey in March next year. So this closes a very important cycle for us. We were very anxious for that because it was a very large investment, but I am sure that this step is very close to be taken. And with this, we closed our 4 most important operations. But as Antonio said, that's not all. Recently, and thinking about the future, we have released our investment fund in ventures, the Corporate Venture Capital, which is an initiative that is very important to us, especially considering the challenges that we don't even know yet. So we have reserved BRL 100 million. And this investment will be divided among several companies. And probably, they will be in the civil and construction area, but will not be limited to it. And the objective is to open new opportunities and learn about new opportunities in the future and bring them closer to Duratex like situations and skills and technologies that we cannot develop internally. And I am sure that with this, we will be able to accelerate the process of evolution of Duratex, anticipating tendencies and trends and opportunities in the future. I may say that we have an example to show you here and this example, for us, is very important. Within this spirit of pursuit for partnerships and relationship with the ecosystem in which we are trying to deepen further, we are announcing the investment of BRL 100 million as a minority participation in the ABC Construction, which is a reference today in the civil and construction materials sector. And our proposal and our objective with this investment is to understand what happens within this relationship with the client and with the final consumer. After all, we know that there's a lot to be done yet. We have to improve the service, the client service, and we must understand further what is expected from Duratex when delivering all these results. And this -- getting closer to this ecosystem is good. And we should have, as a partner, those that are pioneering in this sector with digitization. And we would also like to improve our logistics, the service to our clients, planning in order to integrate the process. And this investment will help us a lot to learn about all of this and to be able to continue progressing that we've been talking about so much in the past years. It is fundamental for us to understand the needs of our clients and consumers. And we will approach these topics later on in this presentation. So this is our investment package that I wanted to talk to you about. And with that, I would like to wrap up my presentation. I will give the floor back to Millena so we can continue with our event. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Antonio and Henrique. It's so special isn't it to know that, in spite of this difficult moment that the world and Brazil have been going through, to know that there are companies that are prospering and the value their teams and invest in our country. So congratulations, and thank you very much, Duratex. We have more novelties to know about, and we must follow our schedule. And [indiscernible] that we've been talking about the client, I would like to call our next guest, who is the Vice President of the Tiling Unit and he is right here. So Marcelo Izzo, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Millena. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here with you once again to talk about this special moment that we're going through considering everything that was already presented. So I believe that this is the more differentiated part of our presentation. I would like to talk about a theory first. We have always talked about evolving our company based on our purpose. And what is this evolution? It's to leave a fragmented vision of the company for a more unified and universal vision. And what is the characteristics of this fragmented vision? It's the focus on the production and the product, and that we'll base our decision making. But in this new unified vision is characterized as to have more solutions in that makes our purpose more tangible and to start with our brand. And lastly, to have the consumer at the core of our decision-making process. That is an essential step and very important when we talk about transforming our organization culturally and having a more center -- a consumer-centric vision. So the consumer becomes the base of our decision-making process from now on. At the end of the day, how can I tangibilize all of that to you to talk about this consumer-centric culture? How do we materialize? And how do we get closer to the client for him to be the starting point of our decision-making process in the organization? We must understand the client. And what are we doing right now at this exact moment? 15 days ago, we made an agreement with a multinational company that will help us understand with the needed depth, the journey of the consumer. And what is the consumer journey? I will try to explain spaces that we have chosen to understand in depth what this journey is about. It's characterized by 5 phases. The first one is inspiration; the second, consideration; the third is conversion; and fourth is execution; and lastly, vitalization. And what we are going to understand with this journey, and I will try to give you an example, when you decide to renovate your home, what is the percentage of people that are inspired by our brands? From those people that are inspired by our brand, how many of them consider doing their renovation with our brands? And from those who have decided to use our brand, how many have really been converted to do those renovations with our brands? And the other stages, how many of them have actually executed, after all the other steps, how many, at the end of the -- have really executed the renovation services with our brands? And at the end, after all this journey, how many consumers have we finalized? One thing I already know from you because of our survey is that effectively, our inspiration ratio is larger than our [ visualization ] ratio. That means that we -- you usually lose consumers along the journey. And what we want to know is why we have been losing consumers along this journey. And from this understanding, we would like to approach solutions that allow us to have the [ visualization ] ratio very close or even equal to our inspiration ratio. So we have started now with -- we will start now in September, October, our first wave. And from that, we'll have more qualitative surveys in order to improve our service. And this will be a continuous process in our history from now on, and that will mobilize all our decision-making processes. And base it on all of these information that we'll be receiving from the consumer. At the end of the day, after understanding this journey in depth, we know that those who speak to the consumer, it's not Marcelo, it's not Antonio or Haddad or Olivia. It's our brands. So we're giving another essential step in relation to talking to the consumer. And we have started this with [ inter ] brand. We have started this partnership 2 years ago. It's a very solid partnership, and it allowed us to reformulate the architecture of our brands. We created positioning for our corporate brand and for each of our brands where there is an exchange between the promise of the corporate brand, which must add value to its brands, as this -- in the same way that these brands must also add value to the corporate brand. And that is a process of brand architectures that we have started. So once -- and I've already said this, those whose stock to the brands are -- to the consumer are the brands we have decided to create a brand architecture that combos from the super dependence. And you can see on the screen that there is a dependency. This is our architect -- current architecture. We have some smaller brands that are more independent and some that are less independent. So as you can see, we have a super dependency between our brands and the mother brand, the portfolio brands and the corporate brand. And we want to give more freedom to our brands. So we would like for the brands to come to leave this dependence, this stricter dependence with the mother brand to more independency. And this is a work we've been carrying out so that they can have a different visual language and a different objective of brand. And that is the work of our branding architecture that I have been presenting to you. And this is for -- this is how Deca presents itself to the consumer. As I said, all this architectural work is based on 2 important factors. First, to try to identify the promise to the consumer and to change the image, the visual language. Although Deca is an iconic brand, when we look at how we talk to the consumer not long -- the other past years, it's not very consistent in its promise. We did not have a very clear promise towards the customer. So this is how we've been presenting ourselves to our customers now, until now. And from now on, with this brand architecture, we have a promise that says, designed to see and to live. And so this is the Deca's brand promise. Deca, designed to see and to live. And we believe that this translates the essence of the Deca brand. And as you can see, all the visual language that is presented here is changing and changes the language, not only because of the promise, but also in the visual part of the brand. The Portinari brand from all of our portfolio brands is the most consistent in the way it talks to the consumer. So it's the one that has changed the less. We have adjusted a small facelift on it. So it's changed small details and made it more modern. So its signature is -- continues, that is to have environments with feeling. So it's one that has changed less. So now Portinari environments with feeling. So it's continuing just the continuity of the promise with a little change in its visual language and making it a little bit more modern and that is how we've been talking to consumers right now. And the other brand is Hydra. Hydra has become very inconsistent. It did not have a very clear promise, but it was consistent in its visual language. With Hydra, we played a small -- played with words because it becomes something that reflects the essence of what is a shower, an electrical shower. Because the electrical short has cold and hot. And what are the colors that represent cold and hot? It's red and blue. So we have mixed the 2 colors and that brings a surprise, and that expresses the new way to present Hydra to our consumers. So Hydra promises, from now on, innovation that bring wants to life and that reflect what it is and what we want the brand to be for our consumers with this new visual language. Another brand, the change was Duratex. Duratex from the -- is the portfolio brand and the corporate brand. So they were a little bit inconsistent with about the promise. Again, I'd like to express that they have a very consistent visual language, but they were not very consistent in their promise. And Duratex has -- we have made a lot of work with it to become to its essence. So the promise that we have designed and that we're going to start talking to our consumers about really expresses what the brand is. Duratex is inspiration that transforms. I mean this is really translates the essence of the Duratex brand. And when I talk about the Duratex brand, it's not a corporate brand. It's the portfolio, the product, the brand. Duratex inspiration that transforms. With this new visual language, and in a way, gives it relevance and makes it -- gives it more highlight within the sectors brands, competing brands. And also Ceusa was a very, very surprising brand because it translates what it is and what the product is. This is the way we have been presenting currently. We've done some significant work in differentiating what is Portinari, what is Ceusa and how they can coexist in the same space. And we have come to a position for Ceusa that translate what it is, which is creativity that surprises, of course, based on the way that we translate that through the products. So that is how we're going to present Ceusa from now on to our consumers through this promise that is creativity that surprises. And of course, Durafloor. Durafloor is another brand that has passed through a rejuvenating process, such as the other portfolio brands from Duratex. They were never very consistent on its promise, but yes, on the visual language. From now on, with this rejuvenating process for Durafloor, now we have the process is -- the promise is it's the base of all beauty. So this is a visual language and this is its promise. As I said, I believe, it was a very nice, modern, nice nation, and we -- in a more useful way to address our consumers. So this is what we are currently, Duratex and its portfolio brands from a visual perspective of logos. And from now on, we're going to be presented this way. This is our new portfolio of Duratex, with its signatures, its logos, its visual language. And obviously, as I said, its promises. And within this perspective of leveraging our competitive position, we needed to create also position for this corporate brand. As I said, our largest competitive advantage is to be able to be in all homes and offices. Our corporate brand promise was created like this. So it's to live, to enjoy the environments and spaces. But on the other hand, when we talk about environments, it's full of personality and feeling and emotion and intimacy, and while our categories are more rational, when you go to a store, you can see how the products are presented, how all categories are presented. They're very rational. So within this rationality, we will try to communicate how our -- how do we sell ourselves throughout history to our consumers. And we've realized that the whole communication was product-centric. It wasn't -- it's focused on the communication with the product. So we wanted to change that. We want to invert this logic of the category. We have to bring more life to our presentation. We have to bring more life to the environment. At the end of the day, what we're seeking to do with our communication is to bring wants to this relationship, bringing to the communication the same perspective that people have when they think about their home and their spaces. And that is our will. That is our intention, to invert the logic of this category, to transform everything that is -- into a verb, which is a noun, into a verb. So the bathroom is not only a bathroom, it's also to relax. And the kitchen is not just a kitchen, it's also to cook. The flooring is not just the flooring, it's also to walk. And the office is not only the office, it's also to work. So we want to be the stage in order to build new memories. And that is our role as an organization. And that is what we would like to do. We want to be the stage for people to build new and beautiful memories. And within this principle is that we created our communication policy. We try to bring this human part, this ambience part, and stories for this environments that are dear to us. We had a fantastic work with Africa, an ad agency, and you will watch the video as the premier. This is the way you see our corporate brands and the way we talk when you see live the environment. I hope you like it. [Presentation]

Well, I hope you have enjoyed. This is the avant-premiere. We see the way we were able to translate it in this ad, what it means to live environments to Dexco. This is the new company in the way we will talk. And this is how we are going to launch the new company, Dexco. We are very, very excited, Antonio, myself, Glizia. And this change in the corporate name, this launching added to all the organic investments and expansion are a symbol of this unique moment. It's a change in our phase, putting the consumer in the center and we are really, really excited with this movement. And again, I hope that all the communication we'll have may touch your heart. So before going on in this presentation, we showed each of the brands in isolation. Now you can see our total cover of our brands. You have the Dexco brand and all the brands that makes its portfolio. This work was done to create some independence of the brands to connect with the consumer, which is on visual identity. And some of them will allow Dexco to say that it lives environment. So it's a platform for the child brands and will be the sum of the child brands to talk to the mother brand. And now about investments. This campaign will be launched Sunday, the 18th, and our investments will impact more 110 million of consumer groups with approximately BRL 930 million of impact. Consumers will see or watch about 8.5x this campaign from July to November. We'll have the open TV, close TV, cable TV, digital, press, media, a robust campaign to symbolize this brand. But more important is, since I mentioned in my presentation, that we're making a change in the organization. We will put the consumer in the center of our decision-making process. We need to talk to these consumers. That's why we create this independency. So the brands can talk to the consumers. So our projections for marketing investment will increase 130%. This will make each brand free to communicate with their consumers. And again through the sum of every communication of every isolated brand will make Dexco able to say that it lives environment. Another point is what is digital transformation to Dexco? What does it mean to us? Well, our -- look, in the digital transformation is in the 3 pillars. First, the consumer journey, putting in the center of the decision-making process. Through the technology, we want to bring solutions to be closer to the consumer. Technology will play a crucial role in the way we get Dexco and its brands to the consumer. The other is the efficiency journey. We want to be a more positive and effective company. And then people's journey, how can we create an inclusive environment in the digital and in the organization. And finally, is very important in this relationship between Dexco and consumer, we are making another step. We hired [indiscernible], a consultancy specializing in retail. We are building our first flagship store. The consumer will have consumer experience totally different from what he used to have. But to open a flagship store brings demand from the consumer with expectations with better experience, it takes some time. We need a consultancy job to do this in Sao Paulo. And then we will open in the third quarter of last year. So what is important is that to make this physical experience and the promises of Dexco of living environment. I hope you have enjoyed it. I hope you are as excited as we are. I hope you have loved the campaign and the competitive advantage of being the only company that can say that we live environments. But anyway, there is a rational difference between living environment of Dexco and living environment presented by our brands. The difference is the macro, mix and mini. This is the rationale of living the micro environment. Dexco is greater than that. It does not leave the micro, but lives in the macro and mini. But to talk about the macro environment, I think it's better to have Glizia to talk to us. Thank you very much, and I hope you have enjoyed.

Wow, so many changes. The brands are much more than -- and impacting. We know change in a company like Duratex, now Dexco, also reflects the actions related to sustainability. Now we will have the Director of People and ESG of Dexco, Glizia Prado, welcome.

Thank you, Millena. It's a very important moment to celebrate the seventh (sic) [ 70th ] anniversary. This acronym, ESG means environmental, social and corporate governance. Our trajectory of 7 decades with the -- our executive leadership and collaborators managing our business makes it possible to enter in a new growth cycle totally connected to Dexco. This is sustainability in a broader way in all environments, in the consumer environment, the internal companies environment and society environment. We want to transform the company and our stakeholders. But more than talk, I'd like to show to you a video, we prepared for you with Dexco ESG. [Presentation]

Dexco vocation is to help you to live environments. Everything starts with our forest, in the selection of raw materials in the environment and helping our collaborators, consumers in the society. Dexco also think about the work environment with an inclusive culture, collaborative, promoting the well-being creativity and plurality. Our view fosters what we call wise reforms with pride, we can ensure the growth with sustainability and keep the balance -- the positive balance of carbon. Everything we think about we do and produce is to provide balance, enthusiasm and health to environment. This reflects in the way we promote intelligent solutions and innovative above all to transform your environment. We are Dexco. We are Deca, Hydra, Durafloor, Duratex, Ceusa and Portinari. And from one environment to another, we are doing everything for you also to live the natural environment. Dexco living environment. I hope you have enjoyed this video because this is what we believe. Since we are a public company, the governance was always part of our DNA. And with this, we can think about sustainability with the business strategy. In addition, in this environmental governance, we are important players when we talk about forest and water. That's why we are proud that comp -- at Dexco is a positive carbon company. This means that consumers, when they acquire our products, whatever is the brand, they are contributing to the environment and mitigating climate impacts contributing to a more sustainable world. We are a multibusiness, multibrands, multiproducts company, and we are present in several places. In Brazil and Colombia, the diversity inclusion is part of our culture. And in this [ fluro ] environment, we consider it the great driver of our innovation. It drives us to generate more value to our stakeholders and the communities we are inserted. In our trajectory, we produce the environmental practices, social and corporate governance, but we want much more. That's why Dexco has 3 important commitments: the well-being of people environment; the positive impact of carbon; and to facilitate the journey of construction and reform. In the beginning of this year, we established goals to the entire executive committee, and we create a dedicated area to ESG. This includes the interest of all audiences, and we believe as a privileged company that can talk about all environments, we started a new growth journey with the entire team engaged to live this change and to provide a sustainable and exceptional results. Now Millena, the floor is yours again.

Thank you, Glizia. Well, we have here the Dexco President with us, Antonio Joaquim. Antonio, welcome back. You have the floor.

Thank you, Millena. Well, we had an hour full of novelties, information. And later on, we can go into detail, share more with you. It's a great honor to be here introducing Dexco, a company that is born already with 70 years of age with these great brands, Portinari, Ceusa, Durafloor. We are born strong, but more importantly, Dexco is born with a well-defined strategy for the next 5 years. And this strategy is involved in all these ESG concepts with this brand architecture that Izzo also mentioned, and of course, all the investments that Haddad mentioned are investments -- very, very smart. These are very smart investments to put the company in new levels of profitability. We are not investing just to expand the capacity. These are investments well directed because we want to grow with focus. So this is strongly based in Deca and Ceramic Tiles with the highest portfolio. But Wood is also focused to expand the capacity with lower investments and also generate value. So I'm really happy, but I'd like to highlight 3 major commitments of Dexco. They are the basis of our strategy. First, to promote the health and well-being of environment. This is a huge commitment. We have products and process for that. I'd like to ensure this is the second commitment that this growth will be with a positive carbon balance. We see many organizations targeting the positive carbon within 10, 20 years. We are talking about it now and keep this condition with this very important service given by our forest and the responsible action of our industry. And our third commitment is to invest in the facilitation of the consumer journey in the renovation. Our focus and investment will be in these ideas. 3 commitments promote the well-being and health, the positive carbon in the entire scale and facilitate the journey of construction and renovation. This is the strategy for Dexco. For the next years, and I hope the next 70, Dexco also is born with the new way of doing. You know this already. This way of doing is totally adapted to this new company, this new strategy and the new projects in process, in people, clients and results. Our purpose of solutions for a better living is perfect for Dexco. It embraces everything we want. With this, I'm really happy. We are well prepared for this new cycle. With this new company, Dexco, we'll have a new ticker at the stock exchange as of August 19. And if you are not Dexco investor, you can negotiate with the ticker, DXCO3. If you were already a shareholder, nothing's changed. You go from DTEX3 to the new one. I invite you to be one of our shareholders and to follow the company in this new rich an important phase of the company.

Very good. Congratulations. Congrats to all of you. It is clear then. It's not just a change of name, but a new company, a new positioning and a company that is born with already 70 years, but it's more -- it's more younger than ever, okay? Well, now, it's a special moment of our meeting, where we'll have the Q&A session prepared. Okay. So let's go.

So we are all here united for this moment, which is a very special moment. We are gathered for the first time, right, under the Dexco umbrella. So we received several questions, but -- and you, our audience, can also still send your question in the chat that is on the right-hand corner of your screen. So we have at least 20 minutes for our Q&A session. And to start our panel, we have a special message from Ms. Lucy Sousa, President of Apimec, National Apimec.

Good afternoon to all. It's an honor for Apimec Brazil to be participating in this event. It's a 35-year partnership with consecutive meetings with investors and executives from the company, which renders them the emerald price for attendance, and I congratulate them for that. And I will also take the opportunity to make the first question to the company which is, now that Duratex has altered its name to Dexco and its ticker, the corresponding ticker, in the stock exchange has changed to DXCO3, what are the steps that those who already have shares from the company should take? Thank you very much.

Antonio?

Well, I thank you for the question. And it is very simple. Those who already have shares doesn't have to do anything because the transfer -- the change is automatic. But those who will become new investors in the company shall use and seek this new ticker as of August 19.

So we also have the remote participation and questions from a few people who are live. First, Thiago Reis from Suno Research.

I would like to, first of all, congratulate the company because I think few companies can make such a strategic forecast presentation and this strategy is always something good. And I would like to congratulate you from Duratex. And my question is related to M&A to mergers and acquisitions. So what are the plans of the company for M&A? And what is the limit for leverage that you would like to respect? And what are the verticals that you were -- that have more growing opportunities through M&A in the future?

Before the answer, I would like to guide those that are participating live with us. I mean Thiago did -- made 3 questions, but please, I would like all of you to just make 1 question so that everyone can participate.

Thiago, we have spoken a bit about that today. We are very focused at this moment on the part of organic growth. The essence of those BRL 2.5 billion that are being invested is focused on the organic growth. So we will still have a very low leverage limit. So -- but we are still looking at the opportunities in the market, and we will be able to have more leverage in those levels that we will be after these investments as well. So as the opportunities arise, then, of course, it all depends on when and how they occur. We will be addressing them, but Duratex has a strategy. And of course, the organic investment depends on external factors more than internal ones.

So let's go to our next participant. It's Isabella Vasconcelos from Bradesco.

Do you hear me?

Yes.

Okay. Congratulations for the presentation and for this new cycle of the company. I would like to make 2 questions. The first one is about the expansion plan that you announced. I would like you to please give a little bit more information on the return expected for each project, and what is the new rentability level and this expansion plan. And the second question is about synergies between Deca and Ceramic Tiles. You said that you have BRL 150 million additional synergies, so would you comment, please, on that, on the expectation and the timing, please?

Antonio, please?

Isabella, thank you for your question. So first of all, we have all these projects that were announced, they were very well assessed and through our financial basis and our strategic basis and our financial team. So I can talk about without talking about something that is not adequate to the market rules, but what I can talk about is that all these investments, they expand the level of -- for our company. It's smart money. It's very focused. It is not the traditional value that you have when you can have after years we are -- their investments with a very fast return. They're all focused on products that add value and therefore, more margins. So we expect that these investments not only -- not to impact substantially the leverage of the company, but also to bring more margins enhancement and the market enhancement. And regarding your second question about synergies, Marcelo is here, next to me, and I think he can give more information on those BRL 150 million that we will seek in the next 3 or 4 years simply with the merging of Deca and Ceramic Tilings.

The composition of those BRL 150 million that were announced by Haddad is done through synergies from costs and our rent. And the composition of this will be basically what we have done is a restructuring in functions, all the workforce, we have one phase for customers. The second was force of sales and marketing back office and the planning department as well. So when we sum those 2 synergies, the income and the cost gives us this BRL 150 million that will be capitalized as of 2022. So in 3 years, the sum of these synergies will allow us to have BRL 150 million.

Can we go -- move on to our next question? Okay. So now we have Caio Ribeiro from Credit Suisse.

Congratulations for this presentation, and this new phase of the company. My first question is about, you talked about organic growth and this potential for M&A that you already foresee with these investments. But I would like to know how the dividend policy may change or may not change along this period of time for payments above the minimum of your dividend policy that will -- during this period. And also, I would like you to talk about the alternatives of financing that you will have for this investment cycle.

Antonio?

Caio, thank you very much. I know you've been following us for a while now. So let's separate the answer. So first of all, we do not have a change in our dividend policy. It all depends on the moment and the closing of each year. We hope to be able to pay good and high dividends, even though we are conducting this M&A processes. And these expansions are very significant, but -- so they -- we hope that it does not impact too much what we want to pay in dividends. Of course, we have a very low leverage at the moment, but when we have this -- we have the leverage that is lower than what we are foreseeing, then maybe we will have dividends that are higher. But it all depends, and it will depend each year. We will -- we do not intend to change the policy, but we will adequate and adapt the dividends throughout the time. The second question was about financing. So this package is -- we're always looking at the market as Haddad always looks for new operations to optimize or payment flows. But we intend to do all this investment based on the generation of cash flow at the moment. So at the moment, we do not need to expand the capturing for these investments. So they are -- we have the money with the forecast for the next 3 or 4 years and very focused in 2022 and 2023, but a few of them maybe will go until 2024 and like the forestry investment. We also have opportunities for specific investments like the forestry area. We also have access to credit in positive factors. So I believe that we will use the search for finance only to optimize our cash flow and our payment flow, and our debt that is already very well structured. So we do not expect much impact in this sense.

So now we have Leonardo Correa from BTG Pactual.

First of all, congratulations for all of this transformation process. And my first question is regarding that we've been following the investment of millions and this new phase of the company, which has been evolving through years, but it has been accelerated because of trends lately. So the data we have is that looking in the long term, how do you see the business division in terms of representativeness, which of the current businesses will have more representativeness. I believe that would be diluted in the long term. But I would like to know what the face of this new will be from now on due to all of these investments and the repositioning of the company and the brand with this new focus, what will be the product with more representativeness for all you guys? If you can quantify that a little bit, it would help us to understand how the business will evolve from now on. And also regarding this transformation, it seems clear for us that the position of the company is closer to the consumer now, and it's less an industrial company in the classical conception of industry, you are being closer to -- coming closer to the consumer to eventually have more flow and have more positive events that come from this new strategy for the company. So I would like to understand the rollout of the flagship stores that you are intending to implement. From what I understand, there is one store that was being built at some point, but is that all? Or will this be a process of building several stores. I would like to understand a little bit more about the flagship store issue.

Thank you very much for your long questions, but good questions that are difficult to address, but let's try. Well, the first question is very clear. Those of you who follow the company, Duratex, you know that we have come from a process of giving more relevance to other businesses, not only the panel. So we enter the soluble cellulose business, which is very significant. We have 49% of participation. Then we entered the ceramic tile industry. And now we are reinforcing this moment. It doesn't mean that more business is different. So when we are investing BRL 2.5 billion, from which 2 of them are focused on Deca and the Ceramic Tiles and [ ABC and funds ], it becomes clear that at this point, we are expanding the investment the capacity of those business divisions in Deca and Ceramic Tiles in relation to Wood. So proportionally, we are expanding our participation of those divisions. But individually, the Wood business still is Duratex's largest business unit, and we believe that it has a lot of potential and is by far today, the most -- the one that has the most impact in results. So what we intend in this business is to characterize this diversification. This bet that we are making in the -- at the end areas and leaving the commodities. Even in Wood, it's important at this point to say that instead of expanding the capacity, we are expanding the capacity in wooden tiles. So the wooden business continues. And our intention is to expand and grow the company without leaving any of the business units. So what we're doing now is -- when you look at our past, when we had 70% of our investment in wooden panels and 30% in Deca, now we see what soluble cellulose, Deca and Ceramic Tiles will represent in these new businesses, the position -- the relative position of wooden becomes more dilutive in the group. So that is true. The second important issue that you mentioned is that we, at this point, are beginning significantly movements of getting closer to the consumer. Haddad and Izzo and [indiscernible] also mentioned this. This is our new posture, new attitude, which is very important to come closer to the consumer. When we decided this, we have one of our shareholders always comment this. So we have 2 showrooms at Avenida Brasil, one from Portinari, and one from Deca, and he always asks us, is a showroom a good business? And I said, yes, it's very good. So why don't we have more if it's so good? So we don't have more because it's an expensive operation. So we need -- what I think is that we need to change that. We've been working on this for a long time now. And for a long time, we've also been evolving the idea that we're materializing now with Dexco to build a flagship store. So you can imagine that it's like if we had all our showrooms in one place where we could also have the experience of serving the customer in a more consolidated and direct way. So if you ask us, if we intend -- we would -- do not want to compete with our clients. Of course, they are very detailed -- very limited experiences. Maybe we will have other flagships, but not like this one because this is a very large store. We will not have any other like this one in other regions. But maybe we might have some kind of experience that also with our clients in these segments is boutique or specialized stores. We would like to work alongside our customers, taking this stop-shop concepts in offering all solutions in one place. So these are the plans that we have been working together with our clients in that. As consumers, we love that idea to have everything in one place, to see everything installed. It's so different to see a project -- a complete project than just the product separately.

So one more participation. We have [ George Lorenson ] from Morgan Stanley.

First of all, congratulations. It was very good to have an idea of the positioning of the company and the strategic points of the company. My first question is focused on the short term regarding the demand and supply strategies. We've been living a very typical context from the second half of 2020 in terms of pricing. And I would like to understand how you see the scenery now regarding supply and demand, is it still very limited? Or is there a place to expand as we saw in the beginning of the year? And the second is related to the costs. If there is still something relevant for us to see any changes in OpEx and other business units? Or do you see prices of materials being more stabilized for you versus what you already have in stock? Those are my 2 questions.

Thank for your question. These are important points. We are very optimistic with the demand, both in short and long term. We are not only looking to the short term, as you mentioned. We know that 2021 will be a very good year. The market is hot -- in Wood, Deca and Tiles, the market is very good. And we don't expect any decrease in this during the year. But I also have this view that we can have a very good demand or higher demand in the next years. In 2022, '23 with all the launches we had in '19, '20, and again, in 2021, then we didn't sell yet -- we didn't sell any facet of the new launches. So we will do this in '22 and '23. We are very optimistic with the low interest rates, and this momentum of valuation of the house. This has increased renovation. They associate our activities to launchings, to new buildings. Now it is much more associated with renovation than anything else. So we are very optimistic in this sense relating to the other subject, the issue of inflation, it is very important. We had an important inflation. But what improved for us since we were living that moment because of the dollar, important components, high demand with the suppliers, we also had to control the pricing more in -- as a daily activity. Now since the price of the inputs are decreasing, and we expect it to improve in the second half, we are well positioned in terms of price. We can, with this, mitigate the inflation effects. So I think we can manage it. We have just done in June, the -- an increase of price to balance the inflation, too, but if it's necessary, we will do it again, but we will be looking to inflation, but I hope it will keep the same. We have several other questions. I want to thank all the questions. We won't have time for all of them. So I want to thank you for those who participate. Thank you very much. And again, as of August '19, Dexco ticker will be DXCO3. So we made this communication, but it's okay if you don't remember, but it's the DXCO3, the new ticker.

Well, this is the end of our event. But before I'll give the floor back to you, Antonio, for your final remarks.

I thank very much the participation of all of you and the team that worked a lot in these last weeks. And I'd like to say that many questions were not answered, but we do have the questions. We cannot answer because of the other event, but all the team will be available. You can come to us. You can contact us directly and we'll be pleased in answering your questions. Now very recently, we have the results -- we will have the results call, and we'll give more time for any other questions. Okay. So thank you very much. And I hope we will be successful in this new journey. Well, I'm sure of it. We see the energy, the motivation, the confidence, your engagement and commitment. So once again, congratulations. And I'm really happy to be part of this event. And these changes are already positives and -- let's see if they will be revealing -- well for those who were with us in [indiscernible] thank you very much, presence made all the difference. It was very important. It's important to Dexco and to you.

See you. See you next time. Bye-bye. Thank you.