Lojas Quero-Quero S.A. (LJQQ3) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome, and thank you for standing by. I'm Paula Lopes, IR Manager. And today with me are Mr. Jean De Mello, CFO; and Mr. Peter Furukawa, CEO. Welcome to this conference call to disclose the results of Lojas Quero-Quero. We can move on now to Slide 3. The presentation will talk about our pillars, expansion and projects and will be followed by a discussion of the results of the quarter, and then we will take any questions you might have. We now move on to Slide 4, and I turn the floor over to Mr. Furukawa.

Good morning to all. It's a great pleasure to be here today with you to share the results of Q4 2024 and the year 2024. It was a year of challenges, but also achievements, which reflect the strength and resilience of our company and our team. In Slide 2, you see our pillars. We continue with our commitment to 5 strategic pillars, which guide us. In terms of earning market share, we moved forward in the sense that in Q4, our sales grew 12% relative to the same period last year. Retail sales grew 10% in Q4 with SSS of 7%. And this was driven by an increase in the number of customers, although the average ticket didn't move up so much. SSS was 6% in 2024. Our CAGR in retail in -- from 2019 to 2024 was 12%. And we expanded our footprint by opening 5 new stores in Q4, and we ended the year with 573 stores. We are committed to excellence in collection, and we had a delinquency rate above 90 days of 10.9%, below last year's and in line with the levels of 2019, which is what we expected. This improvement was achieved despite the growth of 15% in our credit portfolio throughout the year, and this was driven by the greater use of our cards. Our continuous focus on operating efficiency has allowed us to achieve expressive results. Gross income grew 12% in Q4. G&A grew 9%, which reflects better operating leverage. As a result, our adjusted EBITDA grew 37% in Q4 with an accumulated 48% growth. We maintained our financial discipline. And at year-end, the net debt was BRL 87 million, practically in the same level of BRL 81 million in last year, 1x the EBITDA despite investments we made of over BRL 51 million in CapEx. All these results were achieved with -- by an exceptional team in a year marked by macroeconomic challenges, the drought in Parana, Mato Grosso do Sul and the floods in Rio Grande do Sul. Our digital channel is a key part of our strategy and accounts for 25% of our sales. Most of these orders are products which are not part of the assortment of the brick-and-mortar stores. In terms of high performance, we continue to invest in the development of our talent. We trained 150 managers in 2024, and we have 343 of our people in a program to train them to become store managers. Then in terms of our footprint, we continue to move forward. We opened 22 stores in 2024 and ended the year with 573 stores. We are still concentrated in the 3 states in the south of Brazil, although we have some units in Pontal do Paranapanema and in the south of Mato Grosso do Sul. 85% of our stores are in cities with less than 100,000 inhabitants and 72% in municipalities with less than 50,000 inhabitants. In the next slide, you will see that throughout the year, we were recognized by important stakeholders. First, for the third consecutive year, we were certified as top employer Brazil 2024, which acknowledges our best practices in terms of people management. We were also very well assessed by the institutional investor among small caps for having the best -- the third best Board, the third best CFO and the third best professional of IR. We were also awarded the Silver award by the Brazilian program of GHG. And we were included in the IDIVERSA portfolio. We have 8,800 people working with us. In 2024, we promoted 1,300 of our people. We created 363 new slots, and we trained 150 managers, which can now achieve other positions in the company. We focus on making our people develop. In 2024, we also had a very important year in terms of the personal aspects. Very few times in our life, we have the chance to get to know each other as we did in 2024. We could show to ourselves what we are. The flooding in Rio Grande do Sul was a moment of truth where we showed what really marks us as human beings. We showed our strength and dedication, and we made sacrifices for the good of people around us. I have no words to demonstrate my pride of being part of the team. 12 of our stores were completely flooded, but we were never concerned about material losses, but about the people who work with us and the communities. I cried in sadness because of the suffering of people and communities. And I also cried when I saw the heroic attitudes of our teams. Many of our people who had lost everything in the flood, they were carrying people on their backs to take them out of the flooded areas. And these are our people, people who had lost everything and were making sacrifices to help those in need. We collected and transported 1,100 tons of donations for communities, and we have donated 112,000 liters of water. We sold at cost 180 SKUs to rebuild houses such as doors and fridges to over 30,000 people affected. These were 30 million that we sold at cost to help those people. I would like to thank our suppliers who sold everything even cheaper so that we could pass on the savings to affected consumers. Thank you to our partners. I would also like to thank Unilever because they sent us over 20,000 soaps for us to distribute to the people in the affected community. I would also like to thank some fund managers who are probably listening to me now for sending us their personal funds for me to give this money to the teams in the stores, in the affected areas so that they could buy food and cook and take it to the shelters for those people who had nothing to eat and no way to cook. We saw our people cooking in the evening in their homes to take it to the shelters. They took it despite the rain. Congratulations for you for being what you are, people of value. I take comfort in knowing that nobody had to ask these people to do that. And these people never had to ask for permission or ask questions whether they could do it or not. This is Quero-Quero, and I'm proud to be part of it. 2024 was a year of good results. EBITDA grew by 48%. Sales grew. We made consistent investments. We made new clients, and we maintained our net debt at the level of 2023. And we feel good for having achieved this in a very adverse macroeconomic environment. Thank you so much for your attention and for all the assistance you have given us. I'll now turn it over to Jean to talk about the results of the company.

Good morning to all. Once again, it's a pleasure to be here talking to you and to give you a little bit more color about the company's results. Peter has given you an overview. I will just give you a little bit more color and details about the year behind us. It was a challenging year, but we had grown in operational terms, and we have changed the directions in terms of the growth in sales and the growth in income. And this becomes very clear in this slide. As you can see, the main activity of the company is retail. We have services. We have credit card that support our retail activities. And in financial services and in credit card, we see growth in terms of demand and whilst ensuring profitability. I'm going to talk a little bit of delinquency and default, which is under control and is sustainable. But as you can see here, growth by 14%, 17% in the year, and this growth was aligned in the quarter. In terms of the retail activity in 2022, 2023, those were difficult years with less consumption. In 2022, we had negative 7%, but we continue to grow the number of stores. And then in 2023, as we said, this was a year of stabilization. So despite the drop, we saw stable volumes. The volume of products stopped dropping. We think in same-store sales. We also saw a deflation in the products that we sell, although the volume was flat, the same-store sales dropped by 5%. For 2024, we expected the volumes to pick up. And also, we expected a slight inflation, which is exactly what happened. On the left-hand side, in your screen, you see when we look quarter-on-quarter, what the evolution was in 2023, all the quarters were negative. And then in Q4 2024, we were less negative. In 2024, there was a drop in same-store sales by 3%, but the volume was stable. At year-end, the growth was 7% in same-store sales with a growth in volume. And also, we benefited from an increase in prices. The prices are not aligned with IPCA. It should be aligned in 2025, but there is a contribution there to our results. In Q2 and Q3, we had more sales because of the additional demand having to do with the flood and also the sales at cost. Q4, however, was the quarter which really reflects the company's performance, more sales in terms of volumes, higher prices, which we think is going to continue in 2025. We grew 12% in terms of revenue in the quarter, and we grew also the revenue in the year at around the same level. On the next slide, you see that this growth in revenue was also driven by a growth in margins. The margins grew in 2023 and also in 2024. In 2024, as you can see here, we grew also our retail margin. There is a greater demand, which is not really what we expected, but also the prices are a little bit higher. So our operations, our retail has been able to deliver a growth in the retail margin in 2024, which, of course, has a positive impact in the net income and the net -- and the gross income. Revenue grew, margin grew a little bit. gross income grew, and this allowed us to grow whilst controlling expenditures. Sales expenses grew 9%. General and administrative grew 11%, but this is despite the expansion of the company. So we have to take into account inflation and the expansion of the company. It is important to highlight that we had credits that are here under other revenue and expenses in 2023 and in Q1 2024. That's why it's difficult to compare all the lines. But when we look at sales expenses and general and administrative expenses, you can see that we are seeing one of our main objectives, which is operational leverage, which is now possible because of the pickup in sales in retail. On the next slide, you see the company's EBITDA. As Peter said, we grew 37% in terms of adjusted EBITDA and 48% the EBITDA -- the adjusted EBITDA of the company throughout the year to BRL 94 million. The accounting EBITDA under one-off things, we would have BRL 237 million in EBITDA. So the pickup in retail had an impact on the profitability, on operational leverage and also adjusted EBITDA. We are still below the profitability that we can deliver and have delivered in the past, but the trend is to grow EBITDA quarter-on-quarter, and we expect and hope to continue to do that. EBITDA grew 48% in the year, and it was a difficult year, as Peter has said. And then on the next slide, this grew -- you can see that this growth was whilst maintaining the company stable, although the interest rate is high, we delivered BRL 48 million and in the quarter, BRL 6.3 million in net income. Here, you have the credit. which hurt a little bit the basis of comparison. But in terms of adjusted net income, we take the one-off effect, and it was BRL 8.5 million in Q4 2024, which is in line of what we saw in 2023. We are still being hurt by the high interest rate, but the company is stable and ready to continue to grow from now on in terms of operational results. On the next slide, we can see what I said in terms of revenue. We are growing in a sustainable way. And here, this means maintaining delinquency low and maintaining a healthy credit portfolio. At year-end, growth was in line with what we had seen in the last quarters and years with no major variation. And at year-end, we had a delinquency rate of 10.9% for the portfolio above 90 days, which is extremely healthy and below Q3 of 2023. We continue to be conservative in granting credit, and we have been able to obtain greater profitability, more revenues and driving our retail business. So 10.9% was the delinquency of over 90 days. So this growth in terms of results has to do also with the growth of this portfolio in a healthy way. Then on the next slide, you can see that this growth in the portfolio has to do with a greater use of the credit card of the company. There is demand for our card, but we are still conservative given the macroeconomic scenario. The penetration of the card is below what it was in 2017, 2018, 2019. That is we have plenty of room for growth, but this growth would only come when the macroeconomic scenario is more positive and benign. We continue with the policies, and we deliver growth in the portfolio and in the revenue whilst also ensuring that the gross income grows. Now moving on to the next slide. We see our focus, Slide 17. We want to grow the portfolio whilst controlling delinquency and also focusing on the cash flow. In 2023, we decided to invest less. That is expanding below what we saw in the previous years because of the cost of capital. Last year, we opened 22 new stores. We refurbished 23, and we invested BRL 52 million in the growth of the company, which is in line with the investment we made in 2023. We decided to grow using the operational cash of the company with no financial leverage. And this gave us the results you're going to see here on Slide 12. We had BRL 87 million in terms of adjusted net debt, which is in line of 2023 and 2022. When we look at adjusted net debt over EBITDA in the last 12 months, this is less than 1%. It's actually 0.4%. I would like to reiterate that given the seasonality of retail, we consume cash in the first semester and generate cash in the second semester. This was the case in previous years and was also the case in 2024. We have a net debt which is greater in the first semester, but this is controlled towards the second semester, and we delivered on that. Additionally, we issued FIDC Verdecard, which funded the growth of our portfolio. We maintain the rating assigned by Standard & Poor's, which shows that our focus is really to grow, focusing on the cash flow and on a sustainable growth. We gave you the details. And now I turn the floor over to Paula, who's going to direct the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] The first question -- actually, the first 2 questions are for Peter, and they come from Mr. Vinicius Pretto from BBA. Peter, what are your priorities for 2025? And whilst the macroeconomic situation does not improve, what are the internal opportunities to improve results? And then you have now a premium format in pilot mode. So how do you see the expansion of this format?

It's good to see you around. The first question about 2025. It's a challenging year ahead. In terms of interest rate, you know how much this impacts consumers in terms of building. And it also impacts our P&L because of the funding of FDIC and the company's funding. So it is a challenging year. We are focusing on containing expenses. But what I'm going to say is not guidance, but in the first 6 days of the year, we are growing more than we grew in Q4 2024 in terms of same-store sales. So there is room for growth. I think the teams are very aligned. They are looking for sales inside the stores and outside as well. We have opportunities for growth. We are doing some tests. We are doing some pilots. Some are doing well. And as regards growth, all of our team is very realistic, and we think we can deliver the results we expect this year. In terms of the new format, I didn't want to talk about it, but somebody took a picture, some of the salespeople took a picture, they spread it and people got to know about that. It's a pilot. There is a segment in the upper class, they work with architects, and we want to understand how that segment operates. We have 2 stores. We are learning. We are going to make mistakes, of course. We are going to improve other things. But at this point in time, I'm not thinking about expanding that. This is a year for us to learn about that segment. It could be good, it could be bad. But what I saw in this macroeconomic period where there are difficulties for the C and D classes, the A classes, the upper classes are doing really well. So we have to learn because we might want to operate in different segments to cover different social classes in Brazil, but it's too early to talk about that.

The second question is also from Vinicius Pretto. Investors were concerned about retailers in terms of the slowdown of sales in December, which could be a signal of the economy slowing down before the expectation. What have you seen in the beginning of 2025?

It's a pleasure to see you here. I think Peter answered part of your question. Yes, we heard about a slowdown in December. what we said when people asked us about December, we said that we had to look at seasonality because just looking at 1 day, a week will not reflect what we believe is going to happen going forward. There wasn't a strong slowdown for us. Black Friday was in the last week of November. So naturally, sales slip from 1 month to the next. But in terms of the moving average, I mean, we saw same-store sales growth and the level of sales that we saw in Q4 is what we believe is going to happen in 2025. Maybe 2025 will be slightly better. So for us, in the short term, the performance of December shouldn't be a problem, and it wasn't. January and February still brought a growth in sales, which is what we expect for 2025. In 2024, we moved from deflation to inflation, and we had a sales pickup. We believe that inflation is going to hold throughout 2025, and we are going to continue to sell the same volumes in retail, we believe. Historically, building retailers experienced a longer cycle. There is greater inertia, if I may say so. And if you remember at the end of 2023, there were questions in terms of all the products having SSS, which was positive, and we saw that in 2023. But for building, it was a little bit slower. It picked up during 2024, and it should continue to pick up in 2025. So building retail has a slower response, but it tends also to maintain a more benign scenario for 2025.

The next question goes to Peter. Considering the macroeconomic scenario, what do you think in terms of expansion for 2025?

We should open 20 stores in 2025. We are not going to step on the accelerator, but the shops that we opened in the last 24 months, they have been performing really well. We are going for the low-hanging fruits. We are opening stores, Daniel and his team. We are only opening stores where we are sure that they are going to be successful. So it makes it easier for us when we have 20 stores in our plan. Last year, we opened 22 stores, and the results have been really good. And this year, we are with the same mindset. Opening less than 20 would be difficult because we have to keep a team. We are going to do more refurbishings this year than last year, but we have to keep the team because once the macroeconomic scenario improves, we will probably expand at a greater pace, and we will need the team. So this is what I had to say about expansion.

The next question is from [indiscernible] to Jean. Congratulations for the results. What is the impact of the macro scenario on your suppliers? Are they under pressure? Are they asking for shorter receivable time?

The whole supply chain will suffer in terms of the high interest rate. As I said before, we could have done a lot better had the interest rate gone down as we expected. If they were -- if the interest rate was at 10%, we would have reaped a lot of benefit, not only in terms of income, but also in terms of our clients as well, our customers. In terms of suppliers, there are 2 things we should highlight. As you can see, our sales are growing. So the suppliers are selling more to us. They can also grow their sales and their income. So this is beneficial for the company, unlike what happened in 2022 and 2023 when we were seeing less same-store sales, and we were buying less. Today, things are completely different. It's a lot more benign. We are growing revenue, we are growing sales. In terms of pressure, the greater pressure is that for those who have large debts. We have been working with our suppliers. We have been able to grow, and we try to work with them as partners. Payment terms is difficult because this would have an impact on our results, but we have been able to maintain the payment terms with our suppliers, and we have been able even to improve them. This is possible because we are selling more. In our supply chain, they have benefited from the growth that we experienced. It's very difficult to think about the medium to longer term, but the scenario was a lot more benign now than it was in 2022 and 2023.

The next question is for Jean. What is going to change for the company's plans in 2026 and 2027?

The Selic rate will have an impact on demand, of course. Our main product is building materials. So people will think twice before building, refurbishing. People depend on financing to build a new home, not so much for refurbishing, but Selic has an impact on demand. But we work with this kind of rate in 2023 and 2024. If the Selic had dropped in 2024, as we expected, it would have been a lot better. But in terms of the prospects today, we have a repeat of 2023 and 2024. We don't think there is going to be an impact on the pickup of sales. We could have better sales, but I think that the trend towards a pickup in sales is there. What is going to have an impact is on expansion because of the cost of capital, which is higher. We want to maintain our net debt under control. We want to maintain income. So we won't be able to accelerate expansion as we would like. Once the Selic goes down, well, that could be possible. But the company's strategy was designed for a scenario with a high Selic rate. The downward trend was inverted in the middle of 2024. Despite that, I think operationally, it's going to be a good year for the company.

The next question goes to Peter. In terms of the stores in Rio Grande do Sul, are they performing as expected?

This is a good question. We started very well in Mato Grosso do Sul, it was the best expansion decision. However, there was a drought in Mato Grosso do Sul, which affected them last year. So things were good, but less good than we expected. In Sao Paulo, we had difficulties in the expansion process. We had 5 stores. We had problems with the team, but they're doing well now, these 5 stores. So I don't see a major difference between these stores and other stores in other states. The positive point is that Mato Grosso did really well, better than any other state. But Sao Paulo is at the same level as it was in Santa Catarina and Paraná when we opened the first stores. They suffer a little bit because it's difficult to have a good media campaign when you have a small number of stores. So the price is a bit higher, but no problems. There is a lot of space for us to expand. But we want to be responsible. That's why we are curbing expansion. Cost of capital is far too high. So we are going to be realistic. We want to maintain the net debt within the limits that we had in the last few years, and we have to be conservative in terms of cash.

The next question goes to Jean. Is the company going to make subscriptions whenever we pay dividends?

At the end of 2024, we did a distribution of dividends, and we paid interest on equity capital. And we also made a subscription to fund capital, and we also had the approval of the Board for these 2 operations. The idea is we have the benefit. We pay interest on equity capital, we pay dividends. But given the cost of capital and our focus on the cash flow, we decided to give the benefit to those investors who would like to reinvest in the company to increase the capital and these 2 amounts matched. It's hard to say what is going to happen in the future, but it is something that was successful. And this is going to be closed throughout the next few weeks. We did it 2 years in a row, and this was very well received by the shareholders who participated last year and this year, when we are heading towards the end of the operation.

And with this, we end the Q&A session. I now turn the floor over to Peter for his final remarks.

Thank you so much for taking an interest in Quero-Quero. The year was challenging, but it was really, really nice and good. We are much stronger now. The team is very engaged. We are seeing growth. We are seeing opportunities, and we are going to go for it whilst keeping the company healthy. Hardships have happened. We showed our resilience. At the end of 2023, the beginning of 2024, I was very concerned. I didn't know when growth would pick up. I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, but I didn't know whether it was the trend coming in our direction or not. But it was the end of the tunnel really. So we grew and had very good results in 2024. And in 2024, I think it's going to be a good year. It's not going to be a walk in the park, but I'm optimistic. And I think this is going to be so given what is happening in our stores and with our team. We are always available to take your questions, and thank you so much for supporting us during the floods. We feel very, very happy to have you supporting us. Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]