Grupo Comercial Chedraui SAB de CV
BMV:CHDRAUIB
Q2-2025 Earnings Call
AI Summary
Earnings Call on Jul 29, 2025
Sales Growth: Consolidated sales rose 9.5% year-over-year, driven by positive performance in both Mexico and the U.S., and helped by currency effects.
Margin Expansion: EBITDA margin in Mexico improved by 14 basis points to 9.5%, aided by better inventory and promotion management, offsetting higher labor costs.
U.S. Operations: U.S. sales increased 1.3% in dollar terms, with the Fiesta banner outperforming and Smart & Final seeing a 1.5% rise in transactions, though same-store sales fell slightly.
RCDC Transition: The transition to the new Rancho Cucamonga distribution center was completed as planned, with productivity improvements expected to benefit future results.
Guidance Reaffirmed: Management reiterated full-year guidance and expects to achieve, and possibly exceed, margin targets for the year.
Strong Balance Sheet: The company ended the quarter with a net cash position and indicated priorities for capital allocation including organic growth, M&A, and higher dividends if no acquisitions materialize.
Chedraui continued to gain market share in Mexico for the 20th consecutive quarter, with same-store sales growing 3.7% and outperforming the industry. In the U.S., sales grew modestly, supported by store expansion and currency effects, despite modest declines in same-store sales for some banners.
EBITDA margin in Mexico expanded by 14 basis points to 9.5%, achieved through disciplined expense control and improved inventory and promotional management. Higher labor costs were offset by these efficiencies. The U.S. saw some margin pressure from pricing strategies and supply chain transition costs, but Fiesta's strong performance and the expected benefits from the new distribution center are anticipated to support future margin recovery.
The company completed the transition of five legacy distribution centers to the new Rancho Cucamonga facility in California. This move is anticipated to improve productivity, operating leverage, and support long-term growth, especially for Smart & Final and El Super banners.
Labor costs increased in both Mexico and the U.S., contributing to higher operating expenses. However, management emphasized ongoing efforts in promotional activity control, inventory management, and reducing shrink as effective countermeasures. Guidance is for continued margin resilience despite ongoing cost challenges.
The consumer environment in Mexico softened, especially in the Southeast, impacting consumption. Despite this, Chedraui maintained growth and profitability through operational efficiency. Management does not expect labor cost pressure to ease due to persistent government policies on wage increases.
Chedraui remains focused on organic growth, particularly store openings in Mexico, and is open to M&A opportunities in both Mexico and the U.S. If acquisitions are not realized, the company plans to increase dividends as it did last year. The strong balance sheet, with a net cash position, supports these priorities.
Smart & Final's pricing strategy and the integration of the new distribution center caused temporary negative effects on same-store sales and margins, but customer count is rising. Some banners in Southern California have faced headwinds from stricter immigration policies, leading to lower traffic, though management believes this effect is temporary and remains optimistic about medium-term recovery.
E-commerce penetration in Mexico increased from 3.2% to 3.9%, driven by improved customer satisfaction and successful third-party partnerships. This contributed to overall sales growth and highlighted the company's progress in digital channels.
Good morning and welcome to the Grupo Comercial Chedraui Second Quarter 2025 Conference Call. Participating in the conference call, we will be -- we will have Mr. Jose Antonio Chedraui, CEO of Grupo Commercial Chedraui; Mr. Carlos Smith, CEO of Chedraui USA; Humberto Tafolla, CFO; and Artur Velasquez, IRO for the company. We will begin the call with initial comments on Grupo Commercial Chedraui second quarter financial results by the company's CEO, Mr. Jose Antonio Chedraui; and Chedraui USA's CEO, Carlos Smith. Please go ahead.
Good morning to all, and welcome to our presentation of Grupo Comercia Chedraui Second Quarter 2025 results. Our favorable second quarter results were driven by continued focus on our strategies, three main pillars of offering; customers the lowest price possible, providing the best product assortment for each store and delivering a unique customer experience.
These efforts to fulfill our mission of improving people's lives by providing preferred products at the best prices in every location and inspiring our employees to grow and developing Chedraui played a key role in our success. In Mexico, strong customer preference helped us continue gaining market share.
For the 20th straight quarter, our same-store sales outpaced and [ that's ] self-service sales growth, surpassing it by 122 basis points. This performance was driven by our strong customer relationships, outstanding product assortment and more effective promotions.
Despite a slowdown in the consumer environment, our profitability at Chedraui, Mexico continued to improve. Our results were driven by internal initiatives focused on better inventory and promotion management along with disciplined expense control.
In the quarter, EBITDA margin was 9.5%, 14 basis points higher compared to the second quarter of 2024. At Chedraui USA, Fiesta Mart delivered a solid performance, exceeding expectations with continued same-store sales growth despite a strong prior year comparison.
For Smart & Final, the strategic initiatives implemented in the second half of 2024 continued to gain traction, contributing to a 1.5% year-over-year increase in transactions compared to Q2 of 2024. Finally, we are pleased to report that the transition of the 5 legacy distribution centers in California to our Rancho Cucamonga distribution center, RCDC, was completed in the quarter as planned.
In the coming quarters, we expect to gradually see the benefits of improving productivity reflected in our results. Now to start our presentation. Please turn to Slide 4, where I will highlight key achievements of the quarter. Consolidated sales saw high single-digit growth, driven by positive sales growth in Mexico and the U.S.
Chedraui Mexico's same-store sales growth of 3.7% for the second quarter surpassed and tads for the 20th consecutive quarter. Chedraui USA's total sales grew by 1.3% in dollar terms in second quarter 2025, driven by sales floor expansion over the last 12 months.
Consolidated EBITDA grew 6.3% compared to second quarter of 24% and 8%, excluding RCDC transition costs. Consolidated EBITDA margin of 8.9% and 9% excluding RCDC transition costs. Net cash to EBITDA stood at minus 0.05x. We accelerated our organic growth by opening 30 new stores in Mexico and 1 store in the U.S. during Q2 of 2025. In the following slides, I will comment in more detail on these key highlights.
Turn to Slide 5, please. During the second quarter, consolidated sales grew by 9.5% in Mexican pesos, reflecting positive performance -- the positive currency translation resulted from a 10.1% depreciation of the Mexican peso compared to the U.S. dollar. Consolidated EBITDA for the quarter grew 6.3% to MXN 6,552 million compared to the second quarter of 2024.
EBITDA margin of 8.9% was impacted by RCDC transition costs and Smart & Final pricing strategy. Excluding transition costs, consolidated EBITDA would have totaled MXN 6,656 million, reflecting 8% growth and a 9% EBITDA margin compared to 9.1% in the second quarter of 2024.
On Slide 6, consolidated net income continued its positive trend. Over the past quarters, net income's compounded annual growth rate was 25%. When excluding our RCDC transition costs, net income compounded annual growth rate was 26.1%.
Our return on equity has been impacted by RCDC transition costs and Smart & Final's pricing strategy. However, even when accounting for these items, our long-term strategic focus has driven ROE improvement of 280 basis points to 13.2% in the second quarter of this year. This highlights our commitment to creating long-term value for our shareholders.
In the following slides, we will review the main highlights of our businesses in Mexico and the U.S. On Slide 7, our customers' preference for Chedraui, Mexico enabled us to gain market share for the 20th straight quarter and same-store sales growing 3.7% outperforming in [indiscernible] at self-service sales growth of 2.5%.
In the quarter, we increased our penetration in our e-commerce sales from 3.2% to 3.9%. This growth was driven by improved customer satisfaction and repeat business rates for our digital channels. Also, third-party partnerships over Rappi, DD Rappi Turbo and Mercado Libre continued to drive growth, while meeting customers' diverse shopping patterns.
Please turn to Slide 8. At Chedraui, Mexico, favorable same-store sales performance and a 3.4% increase in sales floor area drove sales growth of 7.1% compared to the second quarter of 2024. Chedraui Mexico's EBITDA for the quarter grew 8.7% to MXN 3,254 million compared to the second quarter of '24. EBITDA margin increased 14 basis points to 9.5% of sales due to strategic expense control, as well as in inventory and promotion management, which offset higher labor costs.
I will now turn the meeting over to Carlos Smith, CEO of Chedraui USA for his comments on our U.S. operation. Carlos, please go ahead.
Thank you, Antonio, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start by sharing that we have completed the transition of our 5 legacy distribution centers to our new Rancho Cucamonga distribution center, RCDC, within the expected time. And activities transitioned to RCDC during the second quarter, and we are now focused on improving productivity at the facility.
I want to thank the team for their hard work, effort and dedication in successfully completing this transition. The RCDC is now responsible for distributing dry, frozen and perishable goods to our Smart & Final and El Super stores in the Western U.S. and is critical to supporting our long-term store growth strategy.
Our perishable pricing strategy launched at Smart & Final in the fourth quarter of 2024 is aimed at attracting more customers to our stores and strengthening brand recognition. It has continued to deliver positive results as seen in the 1.5% increase in customer count for the second quarter of 2025 compared to the previous year.
Please turn to Slide 9. Chedraui drive USA same-store sales in dollar terms declined by 0.3% compared to the same quarter last year. El Super and Fiesta both faced high same-store sales comparisons from the prior year quarter. Fiesta same-store sales continued to show a positive trend, growing close to low single digits.
At the same time, at El Super, transactions experienced a decline of less than 1% impacting sales growth, which we believe is a result of a stricter immigration policy in Southern California. At Smart & Final, same-store sales decreased 0.6% in dollar terms, primarily due to a lower average ticket from business customers and our ongoing pricing strategy.
Overall, Chedraui USA's total sales increased by 1.3% in dollar terms supported by an expansion of our sales floor over the past 12 months. Additionally, the depreciation of the Mexican currency against the U.S. dollar by 10.1%, contributed to a sales increase of 11.7% in Mexican pesos.
Please turn to Slide 10. Our perishable pricing strategy at Smart & Final, combined with declining RCDC transition costs continued to impact operating leverage. However, this was partially offset by Fiesta's strong EBITDA performance, resulting in a 4.3% EBITDA decline in dollar terms.
Chedraui USA's EBITDA in Mexican pesos grew 4.1% and 7.4% with our RCDC transition costs, driven by a favorable currency translation effect. The EBITDA margin in the U.S. stood at 8.3% and 8.6% when excluding RCDC transition costs. El Super and Fiesta Mart continued to achieve strong results with combined EBITDA margins of 9.8% in the quarter and 9.9% when excluding transition costs compared to 9.4% in the prior comparative quarter.
The completion of Fiesta store remodels continues to attract customer traffic to the stores, strengthening profitability of the banner. Smart & Final's EBITDA margin, excluding supply chain transition costs was 7.4% for the quarter. We are confident that the ongoing pricing strategy and the efficiencies from RCDC will contribute to Smart & Final's margin recovery in the coming quarters. This concludes our report on the U.S. operations.
Thank you, Carlos. We now turn to the consolidated financial results on Slide 11. Consolidated sales totaled 73,884 million, representing a 9.5% year-over-year increase, driven by positive sales trends across all businesses and favorable foreign currency translation.
Gross profit rose 10.1% and 10.6% without our RCDC distribution costs, mainly due to favorable inventory and promotion management in Mexico, which compensated for RCDC transition costs and Smart & Final pricing strategy at Chedraui USA.
Gross profit as a percentage of sales stood at 24.1% in the quarter and 24.3% without transition costs, compared to the 24% in the prior comparative quarter. Consolidated operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization increased by 12.4% compared to the second quarter '24. This increase was mainly due to higher labor costs in Mexico and the U.S. higher store count in both countries and the depreciation of the Mexican peso.
Operating income of MXN 4,248 million, grew by 4.3% compared to the second quarter of '24 and 6.9% when excluding RCDC transition costs. Consolidated EBITDA increased 6.3%, which represented 8.9% of sales and an 8% increase after adjusting for RCDC transition costs. The EBITDA margin, excluding these costs represented 9% of sales compared to the 9.1% in the second quarter '24.
Financial expenses increased by 6.8% to MXN 1,271 million, explained mainly by higher interest expense due to the capitalization of new property rents in accordance with IFRS 16 and a decrease in interest income from Mexico's cash position due to lower interest rates.
Consolidated net income grew 2.4% compared to the second quarter of '24 and totaled MXN 2,062 million, which represented 2.8% of sales. When excluding transition RCDC costs, net income totaled MXN 2,135 million and represented 2.9% of sales.
Finally, please move to Slide 12. We closed the year with a net cash position of MXN 1,128 million and our net cash to EBITDA ratio improved to minus 0.05x from minus 0.02x in the same period last year. CapEx for the first half of 2025 totaled MXN 3,574 million, representing 2.4% of sales and coming below the prior year, primarily due to the significant investment in our new distribution center during 2024.
Now please allow us to move on to the question-and-answer section.
[Operator Instructions]
Our first question comes from the line of Tiago Hardin with Citi.
I would like to explore a bit more Mexico. So we saw this EBITDA margin expansion, very interesting. Just wondering if we could discuss this a little bit more. I understand that the gross margin was enough to offset. So just wondering if we could discuss how you saw on SG&A.
You mentioned labor impact. So just what we have seen for this line? And also for the rest of the year, if this pattern, is this current print is something we should expect for the second half of '25?
Tiago, thank you for your question. Well, yes, the margin expansion was basically due better managing promotional activity, as well as inventory in Mexico that was able to end up with a better EBITDA margin.
Even though we had an increase in expenses due to labor costs in Mexico. And we believe we can be able to hold the margin expansion throughout the second semester of the year, our guidance was to increase point -- 10 points of extra EBITDA margin. And we believe we are going to achieve that without any problems even in the second quarter -- even in the second semester of the year. We are managing inventory and promotional activities in a very efficient way.
Our next question comes from the line of Alejandro Fuchs with Itau.
[indiscernible] I have two, if I may. The question will be on Mexico kind of a follow-up to the previous question on the gross margin, right? I think that we feel a lot of problems about increased some volatility in ending this quarter overall from the market yet you delivered another impressive gross margin performance.
I want to see if you can walk us through some of you [indiscernible] what has changed in the last couple of years in terms of inventory management shrinkage and some of the improvements that you're seeing? What has changed from the [indiscernible] saw 3 years ago, 4 or 5 years ago to today, your cost on some of these changes? And are there other half follow-up on the U.S.?
Alessandro, I was not able to hear very well. There is something with the communication or the line. But what I understood is that you were asking about the gross margin in Mexico, and how it has changed throughout the years. That was my understanding.
And well, I think, I would say two things about gross margin in Mexico. First, that the gross margin increase. It has been shown throughout the market, with throughout our competitors. And that probably was to support the expense expansion due to labor costs.
It has been shown in our competitions, in our competition as well as in ourselves. In the case of Chedraui, I would say that we're becoming better and better in three aspects. One is shrink. We have been able to reduce shrink. The other one is better management of our inventory and that has been allowed us to reduce price reductions due to inventory obsolence and then management of the promotional activity.
That explains really well about how we have been able to increase margins, without affecting our pricing strategy and being able to support the labor cost increases and be able to end up with better EBITDA margin. I don't know if this was your question, if I understood it correctly, and if I've been able to answer your question.
Yes, was super clear. Maybe if I can do a follow-up on the U.S. for Carlos adjusted EBITDA margin in Fiber almost 10% if you exclude the one-off from the distribution center, very impressive. Can you walk us through, Carlos, maybe, where do you see your profit looking in the U.S. or in the medium term now the operation of the new DC? And then how do you look at the $4 million a some markets performing for the remainder of the year?
I think I understood. But yes, the Super and the Fiesta banners are performing quite well, even with the additional RCDC costs that are flowing through, particularly on the super side. So as we see that in the next several quarters, as we've discussed, we continue to shed supply chain costs through the end of the year.
So we're bullish on seeing some improvement in the super banner as we move along. On the Fiesta side, we've had a -- once again, a very strong quarter. Gross margin expansion at the level, purchasing gross margin has been very, very solid. We grew -- we expanded it over 100 basis points, primarily through improvements in our purchasing gross margin as well as in our mix.
You hear me talk a lot about expanding our perishable sales mix. We did that very well in Q2, and that's flowing down to the EBITDA line. So we are expecting those conditions to continue through the end of the year.
Our next question comes from the line of Bob Ford with Bank of America.
Carlos, how should we think about U.S. immigration in the crack down and the impact it's having on traffic in your stores, if any? And how should we think about the next steps at Smart & Final and the big unlocks facilitated by the RDC with respect to lower cost, better freshness, wider availability of private label, et cetera.
Bob, yes. Well, certainly, June had some added headwinds for us related to the integration issues. The most exposed areas for us was Southern California and Arizona less so in the Northern California markets as well as Texas and Nevada, even though all of the Western U.S. I would say, was -- had some exposure to this.
However, we believe this is temporary, Bob. We are very bullish on the Hispanic market. And we know that our formats are very well positioned to deliver value to our customers, which, as you know, right now is top of mind for everybody. Everybody complains about the -- how expensive groceries are.
So like I said, I think our -- we believe that our formats are very well positioned to address this. and we continue to gain share. So once again, it's a headwind, no doubt. We believe it's temporary. We're hoping to see some signs out there in the field that reflect an easing of this. But once again, we think it's temporary. With regards to Smart & Final, we're on the right path. We're seeing customer count growth, unit sales growth. We recognize that we're causing internal deflation. But we will continue to lean in on our strategy that's focused on expanding our customer base via pricing and perishables. And we are now fully integrated into our new facility. Perishables will be an asset. We're moving a lot of volume quicker than it's been moved before at Smart & Final. Our assortment for private label is fully integrated into the DC, which will benefit all super quite a bit. And I visiting our stores lately, I'm very, very happy.
Our in-stock position is terrific. So all of those components -- our great ingredients for continued top line growth at Smart Final that we will continue to see, we are displated in produce by 15%. And -- exactly. And that is through our price investment. And we know that we will cycle through that. But we're steadfast in our belief in what we're doing and customer count is telling us a great story, unique phone being up is telling us a great story. So yes, we're excited about the following quarters, not only next quarter and Q4, but 2026 and beyond.
And could you share metrics with respect to the improvement in-stock position? Or I don't know if you have a way to measure the freshness or the shelf life of the produce given the transition of the RCDC?
Yes, I would say from -- I'm not going to tell you exactly what our in-stock levels are, but I can tell you that they're the lowest [indiscernible], we started tracking them through our perpetual inventory system, which is phenomenal.
Our perishable shrink is coming down. Our inventory levels in produce are coming down and our sales contribution from our produce departments is creeping up. That tells you a story.
Our next question comes from the line of Antonio Hernandez, private investor.
Just smart and finally, already -- you've already been mentioning about the different tailwinds that you see ahead in terms of sales, in terms of profitability and so on. But if you could provide more color on what are the EBITDA margins that you see maybe on a normalized level once all these RCC ramp-up is time? That will be very helpful.
Yes. If -- Well, you saw through our release that EBITDA margins came back at 3.1%, I believe, in Q2, which was double where we were in Q1. Our normalized levels back in 2023, We're, I think, on a U.S. GAAP basis, just 5%. And our target is to get them to the 6% range in the U.S.
Our next question comes from the line of Ben Theurer with Barclays.
I was wondering if we could talk a little bit about capital allocation priorities going forward. I mean, you have a history of M&A in the U.S., very successful on the integration side. You now had a little bit of a CapEx project here with the distribution center.
At the same time, you have a very strong balance sheet with essentially no debt. So I was wondering, as you look into opportunities to potentially further grow the business, where are you seeing opportunities from a and M&A side? And if not, how do you think about potentially optimizing your capital structure dividends or buybacks? What are the opportunities you're seeing? And what are the priorities if you could rank them?
Thank you for your question, Ben. Well, obviously, we're focusing growth organically and open to consolidation. We believe, and we're always looking at, and we believe there will be opportunities in the U.S. and probably in Mexico as well.
But if we are not able to reach those potential M&A growth expansion. We'll be focusing in using the cash generation for dividends as we did last year, for example, where we duplicate dividends. And this year, we'll do it exactly the same again. So yes, we'd like to do as efficient as possible capital allocation, first, growth and we're not able to succeed that path, we'll go and do an increase of dividends as we did last year.
Okay. And then just a quick follow-up as to the Mexican market and the opportunities here. Obviously, you have a set of banners and a set of targeting. But just given some of the macroeconomic challenges, any thought or any idea just to potentially also explore opportunities to have a Chedraui banner maybe more focused on what would be hard -- definition of a hard discounter. Is that something you would consider? Or is that off the table?
We're not -- we don't believe we are capable of operating hard discount concepts. We just don't believe in that we are very focused in proximity formats in the future with a better assortment and quality with our pricing strategy that is allowing upbeat even against the hard discounters in some categories, but we believe we have a better concept to on the proximity for the customers.
And yes, there are big opportunities this year. We will expand with 130 new Supercito we are on the right path as well as other smaller formats such as Supercito and Superce to be able to fulfill that proximity mission that we intend to achieve.
Our next question comes from the line of Argos with BTG.
I have two questions on Mexico. On the softer consumer environment, and I know you've sort of tightened the belt into this year, and that's very clear on the SG&A front in Mexico and your margin performance in Mexico.
But I was wondering if you can comment on whether you think the softer environment in Mexico might sort of slowly but surely produce less tight labor market. So maybe giving a little breathing room on what's been a very tight labor market over the last 5 or 6 years? That's my first question, and I'll stop there.
As you have mentioned, and it's very clear that, yes, there is -- we are seeing a weakening of consumption in Mexico, particularly in the Southeast region due to mostly due to mix and the base created in the years before by also other investments such as [indiscernible] and the new dose broadcast refinery we believe that even though that we're seeing this softening of the consumers.
We believe we need to keep focusing in being able to gain market share and try to sustain same-store sales growth and being able to be and pad as we have in the recent years so that we suffer less than expected in this particular situation. We have an efficient operation that allows us to make money even with the weakening of the consumption base. And we're just focusing in being probably the ones that lose less in this particular environment, Alberto.
Would you say -- just a follow-up on that, do you foresee less increases in labor in the coming years because of the softer environment?
Well, it's difficult to predict I see that the government has committed to labor increases and they have been, I would say, very strong supporting that commitment. So it's difficult to predict. I don't think they will use that commitment, and we expect 10% to 12% increases in the next coming years on the labor cost. I don't see that policy changing in the near future.
Yes, that's clear. And then just one more on gross margin in Mexico, very clear answers earlier on sort of on shrink and inventory management and promotional activity. But I was wondering if you can comment on mix -- my sense is that the premium consumer is still doing quite well.
Selecto has obviously increased as a percentage of your revenues in Mexico. I was wondering if you can maybe comment on sort of your banner mix and how that might play a role in your gross margin.
It's -- yes. Well, Selecto, obviously has a better gross margin than the rest of the formats, but also the select format has more expenses. In the end, all of the formats compensate a little bit and we end up with a similar EBITDA margin, I would say, some of them with better gross margin than others, but the ones that experienced better gross margin have also an increase in labor cost because they have better service levels.
So we're focusing in the end in being able to expand our EBITDA margin in all of our formats, and that's how we have been able to sustain. We believe that we can expand at least 10 basis points this year on the EBITDA margin and we are succeeding at the moment, we have been able to expand 17 basis points, which it's even higher than what our guidance projected at the beginning of the year, Alberto.
[Operator Instructions]
Our next question comes from the line of Ulises Argote with Santander.
Just a [indiscernible] from my side. So the first one would be, I was wondering if maybe you could share some color there as how to -- the sales performance was through the specific months during the quarter, both in Mexico and the U.S. just to kind of gauge if that was kind of sequentially improving and then something happened there? Or what was kind of the dynamics there?
And then the other question was just a quick kind of follow-up on some of the previous comments you have been making. So basically, we should understand that you guys are reiterating the guidance for the year across all lines? Is that kind of a correct assumption for us to be making?
Well, I'll talk about Mexico. We're seeing a better trend in the second quarter than in the first one. But that's mostly due to calendar effect where the Easter season was on the base of the first quarter of last year and affected the first quarter.
And then now this year, without that base we see or we saw that the Easter season happened in the second quarter. So that helped the sales trend in the second quarter, but we still see a weak consumption throughout the whole Mexico, particularly in the Southeast region. That's very clear to us.
About the guidance, yes, we're seeing that we're going to be able to achieve our guidance. We don't think there's any need to change that. And probably on the margin side, we will end up with a little better margin -- EBITDA margin than what we projected in our initial guidance. And well, Carlos can explain to you about the U.S.
Yes. We got off to a relatively good start during Q2 for the July holidays [indiscernible] final actually reached a record sales week not counting the COVID weeks, but we're off to a very good start. Sales were in very decent shape through May, and then we hit a little bit of a headwind in June to land just slightly negative 0.2%.
Carlos, just maybe a follow-up to that. So the light trends are already looking better than what you saw in June, which maybe was when you faced the most challenging headwinds. Is that kind of the message that we should be getting from this?
I'm sorry, repeat the question, please?
So the July trends are already better than June with June maybe being the most difficult month there in terms of the headwinds? Is that kind of the correct way to interpret what you were saying?
No. The immigration headwinds started in the middle of June and continued through July. So like I said, we believe this is temporary. We're seeing some signs out in the marketplace of some reactivation of activity.
There's -- we're seeing signs of less social media noise out there, less traditional media none out there. So we're seeing some signs that we believe are positive, and we'll just have to wait and see how long it takes for people to just kind of regain their routines.
Our next question comes from the line of Emiliano Hernandez with GBM.
Just a quick one here. Can you share maybe directionally, how are you seeing same-store sales, particularly in Supercito. And how long are you taking these formats to mature? That was my question.
Well, same-store sales in Supercito are doing pretty much in line with our other formats in the same regions where we participate. What we're seeing in the Supercito is since we're growing very fast opening stores. We're seeing a big percentage of the stores not yet mature that will produce 2 things. One, it's inefficiency in the beginning because sales do not reach what they would when they mature.
So we're inefficient on the expense to sales ratio that affects. But on the other hand, we also expect a better same-store sales growth due to the new stores that have not matured. Therefore, sales expand a little faster that's basically the Supercito situation.
We're happy with the expansion we're being able to achieve. We will meet our guidance of being able to open 130 per sites in the year. And on the other hand, that also produces financial inefficiencies, but that will be supported with growth in the coming years.
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question-and-answer session. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Chedraui for any final comments.
I just want to thank everyone for joining, and hope to be talking to you at the end of next quarter. Thank you all. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.