Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining Genomma Lab's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call.
All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
As a reminder, this meeting is being recorded and will be available for replay from the investor relations section of Genomma's website following the call. I'll now turn the call over to Christianne Ibáñez, Genomma's Head of Investor Relations.
Please, go ahead.
Christianne Ibáñez
Thank you, Daniel, and welcome, everyone. On today's call are Marco Sparvieri, Chief Executive Officer, and Antonio Zamora, Chief Financial Officer.
Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that the remarks today will include forward-looking statements, such as the company's financial guidance and expectations, including long-term objectives and forecasts, as well as expectations regarding Genomma's business, products, strategies, demand, and markets. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.
They are also based on assumptions as of today, and the company undertakes no obligation to update them as a result of new information or future events. Let me now turn the call over to Mr.
Marco Sparvieri.
Marco Sparvieri
Thank you, Cris, and thank you, everyone, for joining our third quarter 2026 earnings call. Let me open with the quarter highlights.
First, our recovery plan is reversing the trend, as we anticipated. Mexico improved for a third quarter consecutive.
Sell-out returns to growth, and market share is recovering, with Suerox reaching a historic high at the leading retailer. Second, EBITDA margin reached 21%, in line with our expectations.
This reflects our deliberate decision to invest more in the business, in promotional activity and commercial spending, to accelerate growth. Third, net margin expanded 168 basis points to 11.4%, and net profit grew 18.6%, driven by lower financial expenses and a favorable foreign exchange result.
Last quarter, we told you we expected a continued, gradual recovery during the second half of 2026. The third quarter confirms that the recovery is underway.
Turning to Mexico, net sales declined -2.4%, a third consecutive sequential improvement, from -4.4% in the second quarter, -8.6% in the first quarter, and -22.1% in the fourth quarter of 2025. That is nearly 20 percentage points of recovery in three quarters, supported by strong growth in beverage and infant nutrition.
More importantly, sell-out returns to growth, a sign that consumer demand for our brands is improving. We held or grew market share across all business units, and the innovation we launched in late June is already accelerating growth.
This view shows the sell-out across our monitored retailers in Mexico, our acid test. Last quarter, we shared that monitored sell-out turned positive in the first two weeks of July.
The full quarter confirmed it: +2.7% in July, +7.4% in August, and +8.6% in September, for +5.8% in the third quarter. That is a 24-point improvement since April, and 27 points above the low point of Q2 2025.
Month after month, the recovery is holding. At the leading retailer, our largest client, the recovery remains ahead of the curve.
Sell-out grew +20% in July, +30% in August, and +22% in September, +24% for the quarter, and 41 points above the low point of the second quarter of 2025. Last quarter, we said this client is a leading indicator of what our strategy can deliver.
We continue to execute the same strategy with each of our clients. A key driver of that acceleration is innovation.
Since the launch of Suerox, sell-out at the leading retailer moved from -25% in late May to +81% in August. Over the same period, Suerox value share climbed from 6.6% to 12.6%, a new historic high, up 6 percentage points in the three months.
These results are at a single retailer, we remain measured, but they show that innovation is pulling the brand up, and it is why we are accelerating our launches. Now, let me put our sell-out in the context of the market.
In OTC, personal care, and infant nutrition, we grew ahead of our categories. OTC sell-out grew 5.2% in a category that declined -3%.
Personal care grew 5.8% against a category down -9.3%. Infant nutrition grew 7.4% in a flat category.
In isotonic beverages, our total sell-out still declined -9.7%, while the category grew 2.9%, but where our innovation is on the shelf, sell-out grew 39% on average between June and August. That is the gap our innovation is designed to close.
Turning to our consolidated results, net sales grew 1.3%, reflecting the ongoing recovery in Mexico and 12.2% growth in Latin America, partially offset by continued weakness in the US Hispanic retail market. Gross margin was 61.4%, a 244-basis-point contraction, mainly reflecting the destruction of returned products in the United States and higher promotional investment, including the fully absorbed impact of Mexico's new tax on non-caloric sweetened beverages.
EBITDA margin reached 21%, down 271 basis points, while our productivity savings reduced SG&A by 1.1%, despite higher opex and inflation. Net margin expanded 168 basis points to 11.4%, driven by lower financial expenses and non-recurring favorable foreign exchange results.
Let me be direct about margins. Last quarter, we said EBITDA pressure was a deliberate choice to prioritize market share.
This quarter, we chose to step up that investment in promotion, commercial spending, and launches, because the returns are now visible in sell-out and market share. EBITDA came in line with our expectations.
In Latin America, net sales grew 12.2%, and EBITDA margin expanded 190 basis points to 23.7%. Central America and the Andean region continued to grow on market share gains and traditional channel expansion, more than offsetting lower sell-in in Brazil, where customers are reducing inventories ahead of the country's tax reform.
We expect Brazil sell-in to normalize in the first quarter of 2027, once the new tax rules take effect. Argentina grew 39%, driven by unit share gains in OTC and beverages and a favorable hyperinflation effect.
In the United States, net sales declined 30%, reflecting distribution gaps amid continued weakness in Hispanic retail market, while sell-out declined -8.8% in local currency. Suerox sell-out maintained double-digit growth, and e-commerce continued to expand.
We are realigning our commercial footprint and distribution model to stabilize performance and support a gradual recovery. We added one slide because there is a significant increase in our cash conversion cycle that I wanted to explain, and I will let then Toño get into further explanations and details.
What I wanted to highlight is that mostly, the increase in the cash conversion cycle is driven by two effects. One is the Argentine non-cash effect that is driven by inflation and currency devaluation.
We have in the base a massive devaluation of the Argentine peso that is causing this effect, number one. Number two is a deliberate increase in the inventory build-up in Mexico.
This has been a very complicated year throughout the quarter since January, and because of everything that is going on in the world with the wars and shortages that we were potentially facing, and we made a conscious decision of purchasing in advance more than what we normally do of the APIs that we require to produce the winter season brands that we expect to be a very strong season in Mexico. We have early signs in this quarter that that's going to happen.
We purchased in advance of very massive price increases because of the oil price. That led to an increase of inventories in Mexico, that coupled with five new launches that we have in OTC and the launch of Suerox Mineral that we needed the inventory to make sure that we can respond to the demand that is coming forward, okay?
I wanted to provide that perspective. That is what took our conversion cycle from 129 days to 165.
One commitment that we are making is that by the end of the fourth quarter, we are going to at least take that number down to 140 days. Obviously, the non-cash or inflationary or currency depreciation in Argentina is not going to impact us in the fourth quarter, so that's going to be gone, and the inventory we should expect to sell most of it in the fourth quarter and the first quarter of 2027, okay?
One note that I added in this slide, because I know this is a recurring concern from investors and shareholders, is the accounts receivables, okay? I wanted to explain how accounts receivables has been impacted by the Argentine non-cash effect.
If you exclude that, our accounts receivables remain very much in line with the last quarter, and we expect to maintain that level going forward. There's nothing affecting the receivables right now.
This is mostly driven by the Mexico build-up of inventory and the non-cash effect in Argentina. We'll answer any questions you guys have after the presentation.
Before I close, let me leave you with four messages. First, Mexico delivered what we anticipated: a third consecutive quarter of sales improvement, and sell-out back to growth.
Second, we are growing ahead of our categories in OTC, personal care, and infant nutrition, with market share stable or growing across all business units. Third, innovation is working.
Our late June launch took Suerox to a historic high share at the leading retailer, and we are accelerating launches and stepping up investment to expand market share. Fourth, we enter the fourth quarter with momentum, a stronger innovation pipeline, and a solid balance sheet, with working capital expected to improve as the quarter's temporary effects unwind.
To close, this quarter confirms that our recovery plan is working. On December 3rd, in New York, at our Investors Day, we will present the new operating model, the company's future strategy, and the new artificial intelligence platform in action.
I look forward to seeing many of you there. Before I hand over to Toño, allow me a personal note.
As we announced in September, this is my last earning call as CEO of Genomma Lab. I will support the transition through the end of the year, and on January 1st, Rodrigo Herrera, our founder and chairman, will become the interim CEO.
I am proud of what we have built together. We kept our financial discipline through a difficult consumption cycle, we defended our market share, and today, we are seeing the recovery we worked for.
I leave confident in what come next: Genomma's greatest strength powered by artificial intelligence. I want to thank our team for their disciplined execution, their commitment; Rodrigo and the board for their trust; and you, our investors and analysts, for your support and your candid questions during my time as CEO.
Genomma is in very good hands, and I will follow its next chapter very closely. Thanks so much.
Toño, please go ahead.
Antonio Zamora
Thank you, Marco. Thank you for all these years.
Good morning, everyone. Our third quarter results reflect two realities.
Mexico is recovering, and we're choosing to invest behind that recovery. At the same time, the United States remains a difficult market, and part of this quarter's net income growth came from a positive forex result.
I will address both of these topics. Three points frame this quarter.
First, sales: Mexico is improving. Net sales trend improved for the third consecutive quarter, and sell-out returned to growth.
Latin America grew 12.2% in Mexican peso terms, and the US declined 30% and remains a principal challenge. Second, margins: margins declined partly by design.
We increased promotional and commercial investment, and fully absorbed Mexico's new tax on non-caloric sweetened beverages. The effect of returned products in the US from the past winter season also weighed on our margins.
Operating savings significantly offset inflation, and SG&A declined 1.1%. Third, cash: cash generation and liquidity are sound.
Operating cash flow rose 12.5%, free cash flow rose 52%, and 85% of our debt is now long term. Working capital increased, and I will explain why in a moment.
Net income grew 18.6%, with a significant contribution from a foreign exchange gain, and we will go into the details a little bit later. Let me now turn to the results.
Revenues: net sales were 4 billion 497 million pesos, up 1.3%. Latin America grew 12.2%, which more than offset declines of 30% in the US and 2.4% in Mexico.
The 7.3% appreciation of the Mexican peso against the US dollar created a translation headwind on our international results. Gross margin was 61.4%, down 244 basis points.
Two factors drove the decline: the effect of returned products in the US and higher promotional investment, including the full absorption of Mexico's new tax on non-caloric sweetened beverages. The second was a conscious decision to support growth.
The first was not; it was the result of a past, milder-than-expected winter season in the US. EBITDA was 945 million pesos at 21% margin, in line with our expectations, and 271 basis points below last year.
We are accepting lower margins in the near term to invest in growth. The trade-off is justified only if it produces sustained improvement in sell-out and market share, and that is the standard against which we will evaluate these investments.
Cost discipline was maintained. Operating savings significantly offset inflation, and SG&A declined 1.1%.
Net income rose 18.6% to reach 550 million pesos, and net margin expanded 168 basis points to 11.4%. Lower financial expenses and a foreign exchange gain more than offset a lower EBITDA margin and a higher inflationary loss on our monetary position in Argentina.
The FX gain is non-recurring, and without it, we have to acknowledge this, net income growth would have been lower. Over time, earnings growth has to come from operations.
Let's move now into Mexico. In Mexico, net sales declined 2.4%.
It is still a decline, but it is the third consecutive quarter of improvement, and nearly 20 percentage points better than the low -22% in the fourth quarter of 2025. Beverages and infant nutrition grew strongly.
In Mexico, a market that, as we all know, remains soft, we outperformed our categories in OTC, personal care, and infant nutrition, and market share was stable or growing in every business unit. Sell-out returned to positive territory, which is an encouraging signal of consumer demand.
The product we launched in late June drove 39% sell-out growth among customers carrying it, and Suerox achieved a record high value market share at our leading retailer. These are early indicators, and we will need to see them sustained.
We are accelerating launches and increasing investment to expand market share. As a result, Mexico's EBITDA margin was 20%, down versus last year, and this reflects investments ahead of the sales ramp-up we anticipate, partly funded by administrative savings.
A word on currency before turning to the US: the Mexican peso averaged 17.27 pesos per dollar—now it's changing, but that was during the quarter. This represented a 7.3% stronger peso than a year ago, which reduced our US results when translated into Mexican pesos.
The US, as we said before, remains our most challenging market. In the US, net sales declined 30%, reflecting distribution gaps amid continued weakness in the Hispanic retail market.
Sell-out declined less, but still it was a decline of 8.8% in local currency. On the other hand, there are positives: Suerox sell-out maintained double-digit growth, and e-commerce continued to expand in that country.
We are realigning our commercial footprint and distribution model to stabilize performance, and we expect the recovery to be gradual. EBITDA margin was 8.6%, down 492 basis points, primarily reflecting operating deleverage and the impact of returned products from the past winter season, which, as has been mentioned, it was very mild.
In Latin America, most countries depreciated against the Mexican peso, creating, as well, a translation headwind for the region. Latin America net sales grew 12.2%.
Argentina grew 39.2%, driven by unit share gains in OTC and beverages and a favorable hyperinflationary effect. Excluding Argentina, Latin America grew 1.6%.
Central America and the Andean region performed well, with market share gains in OTC and beverages in key markets and expansion in the traditional channel. Brazil, on the other hand, declined as customers reduced inventory ahead of the country's tax reform.
We expect Brazil sell-in to normalize in the first quarter of 2027, once the new tax rules take effect. Regional EBITDA margin, including Argentina, expanded 190 basis points to 23.7%, reflecting operating leverage from higher sales.
The foreign exchange result that we mentioned was a gain of 41 million pesos, compared with a loss of 122 million pesos in the third quarter of 2025. During the quarter, we paid down intercompany balances, reduced the amount of exposure to different currency movements, and also the Mexican peso is now getting to more normal levels.
This was one of the drivers for the net income growth during this quarter. Turning to the balance sheet, as of June 30th, 1 billion 880 million pesos of our debt was due in 2026.
During the quarter, we replaced most of that short-term debt with a long-term bank credit. We drew on a 10-year amortizing term loan with Bancomext, and we announced last quarter that we also closed a 1 billion peso unsecured loan with Banamex, maturing in 2029.
As you can see, this is our maturity profile today. As of September 30th, short-term debt decreased 63% to 1 billion 195 million pesos, covered 2.3 times by cash and equivalents of 2.76 billion pesos.
85% of our gross debt is now long term, and the net debt closed at 5 billion 242 million pesos, 94 million pesos lower than in the second quarter. As you can see in this graph, 2027 remains our largest maturity year.
We continue with our plans to extend maturities and lower our cost of funding, as we will present in the coming quarters. Working capital is the area that requires the most attention this quarter, as Marco mentioned earlier.
Our cash conversion cycle reached 165 days, up 36 days from the second quarter. Receivables increased 12 days, inventories increased 21 days, and payables decreased 3 days.
There are two temporary effects that explain 28 of the 36 days, which are: a non-cash inflationary accounting effect in Argentina of 13 days that Marco explained earlier, and a planned inventory build in Mexico of 15 days ahead of the winter season. There's a lot of innovation coming, including cough and cold launches in the fourth quarter of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027.
If we exclude Argentina from these figures, receivable days rose only 3 days, with no material increase in overdue balances. We expect the cycle to decline to approximately 140 days in the fourth quarter, as the winter inventory in Mexico sells through and the Argentina effect normalizes.
Even at that level of 140 days, it would remain above what it was a year ago, and improving cash conversion cycle is a priority. Operating cash flow grew 12.5% to 496 million pesos, after a planned 476 million peso investment in working capital.
We also covered capex, interest payments, debt repayment, and dividends. Free cash flow increased 52% to reach 470 million pesos for the quarter, from 309 million pesos a year ago, and totaled 1 billion 420 million pesos over the last 12 months.
Our capital allocation, as we all know, seeks to balance three objectives: first, investing in the business; maintaining a sound balance sheet; and also returning cash to shareholders. On September 30th, we paid our 17th consecutive quarterly dividend of 20 cents per common share, totaling almost 195 million pesos.
Capex total closed to 25 million pesos, including 21.2 million pesos invested in our manufacturing plant and distribution center. Net debt to EBITDA is 1.4 times, and our debt service coverage is 5.5 times.
This gives Genomma the flexibility to keep investing in the business while meeting our commitments to shareholders. To conclude, this was a quarter of mixed results, and we want to be clear about both sides.
On one side, Mexico continues to improve, sell-out has returned to growth, cost discipline held, operating cash flow increased, and our debt maturity profile is longer. On the other side, the US remains difficult, margins declined, working capital increased, and part of our net income growth may not repeat.
Our task now is to convert the improvement in sell-out into sustained sales growth, bring the cash conversion cycle down to approximately 140 days in the fourth quarter, and maintain the financial discipline that underpins long-term value creation. Finally, just a reminder that on December 3rd, we will host an Investor Day in New York, where the company will present the new strategy and a demonstration of the artificial intelligence agents that will help the company accelerate results.
Please register to attend. Here you have a QR to do so, if you haven't done it yet.
It will be worth it. It's very important that everybody knows that being there is not the same as attending remotely.
It's worth attending in person. We encourage again to register.
With that, I will hand the call back to the operator for your questions.
Operator
Thank you, Antonio. We will now begin the question-and-answer session.
To ask a question, you may raise your hand using the raise your hand icon located at the bottom of your screen. To withdraw your question, press the same icon at any time.
This will be required in order to allow you to then turn on your microphone and ask your questions. One moment, please, while we hold for questions.
Thank you. Our first question will come from Alvaro Garcia from BTG Pactual.
Alvaro, please turn on your microphone and proceed with your question.
Alvaro Garcia
Hey, Marco. Hope you're doing great.
Obviously, a lot to get into on the working capital front, but I wanted to start off with a question for Marco, just sort of as you hand over the keys. I was curious if you could maybe talk about what you're proudest of in your tenure as CEO, and maybe what you'd see as unfinished business, again, as you hand over the keys.
Thank you.
Marco Sparvieri
Thank you, Alvaro. No, I think that over the past years, the company has made a huge amount of progress in several fronts, which I am very proud of to see, and will continue to be proud as we embark on the new phase of the company.
I would say number one, obviously, is the commercial expansion of this company. If you look back 10, 12 years ago, this was a company that was mainly focused on the pharmacy channel, okay?
Now, the pharmacy channel today is one of several channels, and it doesn't represent the majority of the business, on the contrary, okay? That has been a massive achievement for this company.
We went from having two customers, two retailers in the US to now be serving more than 80 customers in the US. In Latin America, we went from having a bunch of customers, no more than 10, 15 customers in total in all the markets.
Today, we serve more than 180 customers in total in Latin America. In Mexico, we were very dependent on the pharmacy channel and Walmart, and today, we have a traditional channel that represents almost 28% of the business.
That was built from scratch. This was a very hard work that was done by the entire team throughout the years.
That's one thing. Second, I would say the startup and the build of all the manufacturing facilities that the company has.
If you go back seven, eight years ago, everything we did was manufactured by third parties. Today, more than 68% of our business is manufactured in our own facilities.
The greenfield startup of all these plants was very exciting, and I think it brought a massive amount of savings in COGS and improvements in quality for the company. I think the team that the company was able to build over the years today whatever you look in the different functions, markets, areas, whatever, you see top-level people leading the functions, people with extraordinary careers from other companies that came to the company trusting they could continue to grow and to add value with us as a company.
Finally, I would say that the very strong relationship that we have with suppliers and customers, I think that's something that we have built. I expect, Alvaro, that all these things, I don't know if you guys know or read the book that is called Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, which is basically this Chinese story in which, like everything in life, has a cycle, and every cycle that comes after the one that is finishing needs to build on top of what is being left, okay?
I am 100% confident that under the leadership of Rodrigo and the current leadership team, the company will continue to build on everything that we have done as a company in the past several years.
Alvaro Garcia
No doubt. No doubt.
Thanks for that, and hey, all the best going forward. It's been a pleasure, and thanks for all your help over the years.
All the best.
Marco Sparvieri
Thank you, Alvaro.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Antonio Hernández from Actinver.
Antonio, please go ahead, turn on your microphone, and proceed with your question.
Antonio Hernández
Hi, good morning, Marco, da gusto oírte. A great round of highlights and congrats, and thanks for all your support throughout these years.
My question is regarding Suerox profitability. How did profitability turn around throughout these last couple of quarters with the IEPS effect, and of course you took advantage of that from a competitive standpoint having better prices versus competitors.
Now what about margins? How was profitability throughout these quarters?
Marco Sparvieri
I don't want to brag too much about this, but I think that this is a world-class way of managing this situation by the company and the team. First, when we started working on how to improve Suerox COGS, that was back in 20 by the end of 2023, we were purchasing the preforms and the labels and the caps from third parties.
On a brand that is so large, the cost of doing that is very high, okay? It was by chance that we started working on a very large project to acquire the manufacturing machinery that we needed to manufacture our own preforms.
That got us to a massive improvement in COGS, because, just to give you the numbers, we were purchasing the preforms at 1. 1.19 from our suppliers, and today, we're manufacturing the preforms at 0.83—$0.83 of a peso, okay?
That's a huge amount of COGS saving. Same thing with the labels.
We purchased the line to do our own labels, and we managed to get to a great negotiation with the caps manufacturer. When you look at the Suerox, I'm going to quote some COGS numbers here, but you need to double-check this with Christianne later on, but when you look at our COGS of Suerox, basically, the impact of the COGS was in the range of a 1 point, okay?
After absorbing all the IEPS and getting more aggressive in pricing, most of that investment was absorbed by the savings that we got in the product, on the, as I said, the preforms, the labels, and the caps. It ended up very well for us.
Antonio Hernández
Perfect. Thanks a lot.
Have a nice day.
Operator
Thank you. Antonio,
Antonio Zamora
this is Antonio Zamora, just expanding on Marco's comment, and to give you a sense of the huge impact of this productivity in our Suerox business. If I compare the cost of goods sold of manufacturing one Suerox bottle today versus the cost that we used to pay back in 2021, okay, today our cost is 21% lower than what we used to pay back in 2021.
Obviously, from that point in time, you would need to add a lot of inflation that we were able to offset and create significant productivity. All of these initiatives that Marco described about the preform, internalizing into our plant, launching the second line, the labels, etc., that created massive productivity that obviously helps the Suerox business.
Do we like the IEPS tax? Of course not.
Of course, that's adding costs that we didn't have. Fortunately, we had all these initiatives, and we were able to offset them.
We know it's a very competitive market, and we will continue expanding on productivity initiatives to become even more competitive. A lot has been done in that business, and I think it's remarkable.
Thank you, Marco, for all the work that has been done, as well as the team that made all these productivity gains a reality.
Antonio Hernández
Perfect. That's a great achievement.
Thanks.
Operator
Thanks so much. Our next question will be from Froylan Mendez with J.P.
Morgan. Froylan, go ahead, turn your microphone on.
Froylan Mendez
Hello, guys. Can you hear me?
Marco Sparvieri
Yes. Perfect.
Froylan Mendez
Marco, muchas gracias por todos estos años. Thank you so much for your help and support, the best on your next journey.
Going into my question, and sorry if you touched upon this, I arrived a little bit late to the call, but could you just help us understand the 3Q non-recurring impacts on top line and costs from the US inventory returns? If you already answered, I can then check with Cristián and don't lose your time on answering that if you already did.
The second and probably the most important one on Mexico margin recovery, EBITDA contracted almost 7 percentage points, you did have some sequential improvement in sales. How much of that compression was deliberate investment versus operating deleverage, and going forward, what needs to happen for Mexico margins to recover from current levels?
Thank you so much.
Marco Sparvieri
Thank you, Froylan, for your words. The second question is on Mexico's margin, or—
Froylan Mendez
Yes, in Mexico.
Marco Sparvieri
Yeah. Okay.
The to call is very simple. In the US, we had a very very soft season this past year, and normally, this is then when you start getting the returns from customers.
It was a very large amount of products that were put out there in the stores. As to be very competitive, you have to have the product at the stores, not only to have the product, if someone asks, they can take it, but also to have displays.
You need volume, and the presence of the brand at the stores is very important, and for that, you need the volume put out there, okay? That's what we did, and that's what we will continue to do.
As I said in the discussion, we are preparing here in Mexico and in the US for a very aggressive commercial competitiveness at the source, at the point of sales with product. We are shipping a lot of products to the stores, expecting to have a very strong season and expecting to grow market share and win against our competitors.
That's what we are going to do and we did in the past. This is the time when normally, we start getting returns from customers that didn't sell the product because of the tame season, okay?
That's basically what's happening in the US. It's a one-off, and it won't repeat in the next quarters.
I don't know if that clarifies.
Froylan Mendez
Yes, if you have the exact number on impacting revenues and impacting COGS, it would be very useful to normalize going forward if that's not going to happen, but again, I can check with Cristián later on.
Marco Sparvieri
I don't have the numbers by heart, but you can follow up with Cristián.
Froylan Mendez
Perfect. In Mexico is the one that—
Marco Sparvieri
No, Mexico, let me give you the full picture of Mexico, because it's important. Mexico went from a very low margin, I'm talking like 4%, 5%, maybe a little bit more, six years ago, we were running a business in Mexico with, basically, sometimes no margin or very low margins in the high single digits or low double digits.
In the last, I would say, four to six years, working on the COGS, working on the spending, working on the SG&A, everything, we managed to take the Mexican margin to the range of 26%, 27%, which was extremely healthy, and we were able to sustain that for many years. Obviously, because of how soft our business got last year, especially in Mexico, we lost market share in some categories, our consumption got really soft in some channels and customers, I made the conscious decision of investing back in the business strongly, okay?
What you guys are seeing today in terms of the sell-out recovery is actually the result of that. Whether that was 100% perfect, the deployment, execution, and the ROIs of all those investments, I don't know.
I don't think so. I, in particular, kind of decided to more on the risky side of investing more, but secure the market share recovery and the sell-out.
Now, going forward, I think that the company has the fundamentals to, once we see that our brands are getting more traction, like what is happening right now with Suerox, and what is going to happen in other brands after we see the results of the new innovation launches and communication models and so on, I think that the company has everything to gravitate back I don't know if all the way back to 20 27%, but it will get closer to that number throughout next year, for sure. All in all, what I can say right now is that the way the financials are structured in the company as a whole, not just Mexico, but as a whole, is that our EBITDA margin will gravitate back to where we were before the decision to invest back in the business, which was the levels of 23% to 24% overall as a corporation.
Mexico, I'm not sure we'll get back to 27%, but it will for sure be higher than 20%.
Froylan Mendez
Marco, if I may, from the innovation initiatives which you are pushing into the market and probably reflective of this let's say investment in margins to put out a strong campaign around the new innovations, which is the one that excites you the most, the one that you're betting the most? You have Suerox Mineral, you have some on the Tío Nacho side.
Can you tell us a little bit which one is the one most exciting, the one that has to go right to go back to that 27% margin?
Marco Sparvieri
No, for sure because of the size of the brand, not because of the quality of the initiative, but because of the size of the brand and how good the product is, if you guys tried it, I think Suerox Mineral has a massive potential of adding a huge amount of top line to the company. I can give you some numbers that are off the record, but in the customers where the product has been launched, more than 80% of the sales of Suerox Mineral is incremental to the brand.
When you look at the total brand sales, the growth levels are extremely high. In Walmart, we hit more than 80% growth on the brand at some point in the past few months.
In OXXO, we are seeing very high levels of growth already, more than 30%. Also when you look at the traditional channel, which is the channel that is the biggest channel for beverages, when you talk to the mom-and-pop owners and when you talk to consumers and so on, in the stores where you have Suerox Mineral, the Suerox Mineral is selling 3x or 4x than what the old Suerox was selling before, especially when it is located in the fridge.
Everywhere you talk to consumers, people love it; you talk to customers, they like it. That I think is, from a top-line point of view, the biggest one.
Now, we have very strong initiatives coming, already deployed and being executed in many OTC categories that I am very excited that they have differentiation, they have the power of the brand, and I'm very confident that they will work really well, as well as Tío Nacho and so on.
Froylan Mendez
Excellent. Thank you so much, Marco.
My best to you. Thank you so much.
Marco Sparvieri
Thank you, Froylan. We'll see you soon.
Antonio Zamora
Froylan, just expanding on Marco's answer, I think it would be, and let me emphasize this again, it would be very interesting for everybody to attend Investor Day on December 3rd, because what Marco described are the initiatives that we are currently taking place. On December 3rd, you will see new tools that you haven't seen yet, and you will see how the future will look like in terms of innovation, new product launches, new formulations, etc.
We expect to see you, Froylan, and Joe, and obviously, everybody here. It's very important for everybody, if you want to understand what comes for Genomma in 2027 and beyond, it's very important to attend Investor Day in person.
Froylan Mendez
Thank you. Perfect.
Thank
Antonio Zamora
you.
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