Once again, be able to share with you the results of the second quarter of 2023 of Petz. Before going into the results of Petz, I would like to make a more of a macro commentary to contextualize the background of what was the second quarter for the company. I wanna remember you the last call from the first quarter, where we had several important signs being coming from as signals of reversions of various tendencies. In general, the first quarter was marked by indications that we would have a 2023 in retailing with signs of recovery, a year of important recovery with important signs in the first half of the year. I have said internally, and at the time we said we had cautious optimism as our expression, because indications are not certainties. Indications is just a perspective. I have said that the 1st quarter was what we can call a false positive. When you analyze the retailing in the 2nd quarter overall, you see that the recovery that we were so, that we so much expected for 2023, has still not happened. It didn't happen in the 2nd quarter, and there are no indications of it happening in the 3rd quarter as well. We have therefore, as a backdrop in retailing overall, a year which is very complex, still in the recovery of the economy. When you go to the Petz segment, here I'm gonna remember you that there are 3 pillars which are fundamental to understand the Petz market: the humanization, the quantitative increase in the number of the cats and dogs, and the 3rd pillar is the available income. The 3 pillar. Two of these pillars are very healthy. The growth of the pets population is strong and powerful, the humanization of pets is absolutely present. For that, we can look around us and see what our families... how much the pet has become more and more taking the protagonism inside of the families, inside of family nucleuses. Which shows the resilience of the segment and the growth which is projected for the segment, which is absolutely important. Which also signifies that this perspective of available income not having yet happened, and having a population increase and the growing humanization, the main perspectives, the biggest directives of the strategy that we're going to reinforce what we say previously... in previous calls, you'll see that during the presentation, which are absolutely preserved. Let's start the first, making a remembrance that recovery, what were the first, the principal four pillars in the first half of the year, which we are putting together the message for the second quarter and the first half of the year. The first of them is an initiative, absolutely well successful initiative that we have done, which is the control of expenses and investments. Here, more than ever, we have sought to look at productivity. We have sought to utilize machine learning of the expansion to make stores that are more and more efficient, Lojas with more productive square meters, sales per square meter with more productive shelves, and having a mix between products and services in a way, so that with all the learning that we've had from recent times, the format, store format being balanced of experience with the, with the spider web, for omni-channel usage. The difference between having all of these initiatives, and you're gonna see here that in the third pillar, that we're gonna mention this in the third pillar, were exactly a generation of operating cash and a consumption of investment cash at the best level in recent years. Here, I want to make this highlight, which is very, very important. This first half of the year has been marked by a balance between what we generated in cash, operating cash, and what we consumed in our, in investment cash. This has been a better than the last couple of years, and a, and a significant advance. The second pillar was that which we announced since last year, that we'd focus on closing this gap between profitability of the digital operation versus the physical operation. We made various initiatives to improve the profitability of the digital front, and I always signaled that all of these initiatives would take into account a great deal of science. We've always to preserve our margins, but there's we have no way of of seeing how much we could do this. In the third pillar, a consequence of two pillars, the two previous pillars, together with the management of stocks, suppliers' payment periods, we mentioned with the period. The inauguration of the Hidrolândia store in Goiás, which was inaugurated at the end of last year, now is all up to full speed this year, already producing effects that we desired. The desired effects, especially in the generation of cash, avoiding the accumulation of fiscal credits in São Paulo, which was a recurring problem in previous years. It generated this message that, once again, I repeat, which is that the biggest positive highlight in the first half of the year was this focus, absolute focus on generating cash in a more healthy way than in previous years. Then the fourth, and no less important pillar, was the intensification of the capture of synergies. We all know here, we've never, we never, we've always been transparent about this, that the process of integration was frustrating in relation to periods of time, but not in relation to their direction. We may have made some mistakes as far as the speed in which these integrations may have been done, but the fact is that we're doing it as we announced at the beginning of the year, and this time we're on time. We are within our, our chronogram. We have directors focused on integration, we have processes that are happening, chronograms being fulfilled, and naturally, the consequences of this are happening naturally. This quarter is marked by a quarter that is, where we have gotten close to the break-even of the acquired companies. We're almost breaking even, we're almost coming out of that negative number from the acquired companies, heading towards a 2024, already thinking about the profitability of these acquisitions. Above all, redesigning the structures so that we can create the maximum value in these acquisitions. Here, I would like to point out a highlight for a process that is already absolutely concluded from the legal point of view, which is the integration of Zee.Now. It has all of its sales being done through Petz, and it's already being placed to... set up to run within this year. The Petz stores will be expediting the Zee.Now products. With that, we've included a very important part of the Zee.Dog process, which corresponds to 50% of all of the Zee.Dog volume, and also the other front subsidies dog are running along very well. Here is a point that's important. As I said, we believe a great deal in the long term. We, we believe in our model and in the fragmentation of the market, and in the low market share, which we still have, we see lots of space for us to, to develop all around Brazil. This means that we have our guidance of the opening of stores that we mentioned at the time of the IPO, all the way back at the IPO. I want to contextualize so it doesn't seem like this is that we're constantly changing. We haven't changed any of this. At the IPO, we said that in the next few years we would open between 30 or 40 stores per year, and we made an exception in 2022, opening 50 stores, and we gave that guidance. We complied with the guides of 50 stores, and this year we talked about 30 or 40 stores, and we're absolutely on track. We are going to open 30 to 40 stores this year. We inaugurated in the second quarter, 11 stores, so we're absolutely normalized in the expansion plan. 52% of the stores are located outside of São Paulo, of the total, of the whole park of 231 stores, which is the biggest participation of stores outside of São Paulo. Definitively, outside of São Paulo will be more than half of São Paulo. Data which is very important of being, of being sensitized when we talk about our levels of profitability. 54% of the stores, more than half of our stores, are not yet mature. They're still in a, in some point in the stage of maturing. Almost 50% are still in the first year of inauguration, and so it's a company which is very young, and which brings all the consequences, whether it be in pressure, margin pressure, whether it be in a high level of depreciation, which creates a large difference between EBITDA and net profit. We don't have profit for the for the due to financial questions, but yes, due to depreciation, we have 23. We're in 23 stores. We only lack four states, and in shortly we'll be in one more, and then we'll be lacking three states in which we operate. The feeling when we think about the first half overall is that we discussed internally here, the best word to use for the first half for us, was this feeling of having a mixed feelings about the first half. Why? 'Cause when you think about the initiatives that we've done to protect our profitability, the generation of cash, it was exceptional. The cash generation surprised us greatly, remembering that today Petz has BRL 500 million cash on hand, so we're absolutely comfortable. We're still net cash positive. We have no net debt, and this in a country where interest, real interest rates are still absolutely high. Even with the reduction of 0.5 point, the interest rates are still stratospheric. Having net cash on hand is a privilege for very few, especially in the retail world. This is a very, very big strength of Petz to also embase all of our strategy of how we will go forward in the second half of the year. One point of attention, and that's why we said this word, "mixed feelings," is that especially in the second quarter, perhaps due to the market being weaker because of that false positive that I mentioned in the first quarter, we started to see Instead of seeing companies heading towards to protect their respective profitabilities, also a little more of a run towards to make sales. When this happens, naturally there is pressure on, on margins, because practically speaking, what I'm saying is that we started to have more promotional activities within the segment, outside of the specific segment of the marketplaces in general, focusing on the Petz segment to penetrate into this segment. Here, it's good to say that we have always been very, very comfortable in relation to that, in the sense of knowing that if at some point in time this type of thing happens in the market, we would have the responsibility as leaders, and the comfort to have leadership in costs, to know that we have a very much, our, our body's above water, and that we will know perfectly well how to protect our Petz market share. Next slide. Talking about, having talked about what was the first half, now I'm gonna talk about the second half of the year, and what we want to do during this second half. Update our strategy is the same. Our, our pronouncements are the same, but I want to remember what was our, our pronouncement at the beginning of the year. This, we said that this year we would protect our profitability, with initiatives, in margin, in costs, in detriment to the a more accelerated growth that we were looking at. I've always said and added this phrase, the following phrase: as long as this does not interfere in our market share. We never considered that we wanted to lose market share, in a in the, in, to protect profitability. With the market weakening in the second quarter, associated with the fact that the level of competition is higher in the, in this half, we assumed a shift which was announced at the beginning of the year. We're very comfortable with that, and we know that we're heading in the strategic direction that we planned since the beginning, which is. We have now arrived at the moment to protect our market share. The levels of growth are indicating levels of growth in line with the market, very close to the market, and that we are not going to give any kind of a opening, no, to not compromise our, the growth of market share. Our priority in the second half is to protect our market share, which means that profitability, which was the anchor of protection in the first half, will no longer be the anchor to protect us in the second. Yes, market share. In practice, what I mean to say, we are absolutely ready to confront competition, heavier competition, that the market has been signaling at the end of the second quarter and beginning of this third quarter. We're absolutely ready for this challenge. As I said, we have absolute conditions to do that. Our omni-channel model is very strong. I've always said that a client, to change us for another competitor in the same segment or for a marketplace, would have two reasons to do that. Everybody who's hearing me here, put yourself in the role of a consumer. Why would you change the person you're buying from? 2 reasons. 1, for the level of services. If a competitor appears who offers a better level of service than your current supplier, you consider changing? In this case, we're very, very well positioned. We have a very high NPS. We're delivering in 2 hours in the principal cities of the country, 1 business day in almost everything, 90% through omni-channel usage. We're, in this question, we're absolutely protected, and we have no concern as far as our level of service. The second reason that people would consider changing a supplier is if the other supplier offers a good level of service, but at a better price. It's natural, the consumer's correct in thinking that way, and we have to be connected with this feeling of the consumer. That's why we see this shift of protecting to protecting market share. We will not permit loose clients who have a very important long-term value for us going forward, due to circumstances of an increase in competition. There are always occasional changes which do not generate the expected results. This many times happens in new levels, however, but we're absolutely ready to confront the time that is necessary, all of the initiatives in the sense of penetrating this market through price, by price. It's a big trade-off here that we are consciously ready to do. We will protect our long term in detriment to short-term pressure. It's a choice that we have to make if we want to protect some several million BRL of profitability, short-term profit, or if we want to protect, thousands or hundreds of millions of millions of clients who will have a life of consumption for many, many years together with us. We know how difficult it is to conquer a client, and we're absolutely not, disposed to, to let these clients go due to an occasional situation or to achieve a quarterly result. I want to take advantage here to signal that, in a very clear way to the market, that we are making, once again, the option, taking the option to protect and endorse our growth in the long term, to protect our future, which protects our relationship with our clients. For anybody who is thinking about the next quarter, no, if that's not good? Yes. If we compare the to get a result in a given quarter, it's not difficult. To get a result in a long-term picture is what- is how things is not common, and that is definitely we do not consider this to go down that route. On the contrary, as I said, we think it's much more healthy for us to a lack, a discomfort of having our margins pressured and results pressured in the third quarter and the fourth quarter, but preserving a 2024, which in our conception, is gonna be a lot of indicators to generate the economy, in the economy and in our activity and for our company. We see clients exchanging their suppliers due to the reasons I've mentioned. For that reason, we have our private label brand. We will continue. It continues. It's an excellent news to share, news to share with you. It's the best moment since the beginning of the pandemic from the standpoint of costs in raw materials. We have, in truth, a very clear signalization of several manufacturers that the lowering of raw materials. In the first moment, the industries that have been pressured on margin, in their margins, are taking advantage of this to recompose their own margin, which is natural that this happens, the recomposition of their margins. We also foresee that at some moment this could even lead to an effect, a deflationary effect in the food segment, pet food segment. The more indication of what I'm saying is that the private label of dry, dry food, which we have considered to come out with since the, the beginning of the pandemic, and we were not finding space due to lack of interest suppliers in the question, through all this question of raw material. Today, we have a number of interested suppliers, which is very interesting, in producing the products that we want, and we will do that. We hope to do that by the end of this year, we're all ready to enter this area of dry dog, dry pet food. Here, we. An important fact, which is a big differential for us, is the Zee.Dog Kitchens. Zee.Dog Kitchens, even though they have the economic challenges, but as a product, more and more we are extremely happy with what's happening there. The reports of users of the Zee.Dog Kitchen who are falling in love with the brands... What does it mean that you fall in love with the food brands? It means it's a revolution that this product is causing for the pets, which has become a child for that home. Since the pet is a member of the family and you give him a product which the pet loves, and which reinvigorates him, and he's much more, he's much more, much happy. The pets are much happier. We've seen various reports. We have we're seeing that we have a great product in our hands, and with sales that have the potential, a very big potential, to grow. Naturally, we have challenges in productions, we have challenges of costs to be able to do this, but the most important thing we have, which is the recognition, more than expected of the consumer, it's not just a little bit of recognition. Here, we're also saying that naturally, in the first half, we protected our profitability by the in front of the competition, but also by controlling expenses. In this, in this half of the year, the second half of the year, this will be intensified. If we protected our margins in 2 pillars, 1 pillar we're gonna take out, which is the question of commercial competition. We, as I said, we're gonna offset that initiatives in marketplaces or other companies in our segment, in this segment, by price. In expenses management, we're more attentive than ever. In the management of data intelligence, as I said, all of our decisions are very much based on multiple indicators, so that we can do things correctly. This shift of protection of market share, we don't have to wait. We're not gonna have to worry about we're gonna lose clients. The consumers... Remembering that this type of correction... This is a transatlantic, it's a giant ship. It's the... You can't just turn around quickly. You can change, you can change the rudder, when you turn the rudder, it does not produce an effect on the next day, not in favor of or against. When you do the question of protecting your margins, you make several initiatives. Has no effect, these sales, it may lose something over time, but the profitability, as you see, is much quicker. When it's the opposite process, it's exactly the same rationale, on the contrary. The results of this, it will bring us. We estimate it will take us to 2-6 months to be totally concluded in this new direction which we are heading. Here, pointing out that in a few weeks, we'll, we'll be refreshing the brand. The brand is. This brand, we'll bring a brand that is absolutely modernized, more compatible with the digital brand, with a omni-channel brand. Remembering that when we made this mark, we only had physical stores, so this refreshing of the brand, will come together with this new moment of the company of becoming, of being a company which today is 35%-37% of digital sales, of being an ecosystem. The health plan, in other occasions, it's a complex theme, but at the same time, we're very motivated to know that there are that there are several plans in the market, but there are no plans, with what we're designing and what's in, in the oven, and what's being developed by our IT team. That, still within this year, we expect to place this pilot program in. It'll be a big relief in the question of profitability of services. It's as if I was saying that we carry the costs of services on our... We do not yet have the benefit of the utilization of these services, because we have an unused capacity in the veterinary area, which is quite high. With this plan, at the first moment, you will fill this unused capacity, which is generating costs. We're paying the bill, but we're not having the first line, the top line income, attached to that. We're very excited about the perspective of coming along with the health plan, which will be democratic, and which will generate more, more attachment between our tutors and the company. Very well, these are the principal messages for the second half of the year. I'm gonna pass it over to Aline, and I'll be back in a bit to answer your questions. Thank you very much. Good morning. I'm gonna pass a little bit the results, financial results and several strategic projects. Basically, as Sergio mentioned, the brand refreshing of the group in this process, which has begun approximately a year and a half ago, it was headed up by Petz Innovation Studios. It's a totally internal team. We have no agency creating this. It was created after the acquisition of Zee.Dog, and the, the idea of, is to reimagine the ecosystem and the future of the Petz brand. A 20-year-old company, it's a traditional brand, a traditional retailer which has a brand. What we wanna do is that this brand will deliver an ecosystem which also has a good retail, traditional retailing, and physical stores. As Sergio said, it's a much more digital brand. It's not just a super app. The super app, it's much more beaten already, and the brand refresh, you're gonna be able to tangibilize it very soon. Among the pillars, we have a new purchasing experience, new colors, new logo, some new stores with new facades, a new physical communication, whether in the physical or in the digital, in the packaging of our private label products, without mentioning that we, for the first time, will be operating in the unique digital world, uniting our products with services. You're going to buy your product, mark your appointment for a training session, talk about grooming, mark veterinary questions, and eliminate these friction points between us and our clients. Next, next slide. The four pillars of our brand refresh: we have the digital product stores and people. Here, I'd point out the benefits club clubs, which is the Petz Loyalty Club, Loyalty Club, which has a digital card. We're gonna advance on that very quickly. In a better. Okay. There's a lot of things. The private label. No, private label has, without talking about sensitivity of price, we have sensitivity of prices. Finally, in September and one in December, it will be very interesting. This rollout over the next years. We're not trying to make a total change. We chose 4 Lojas, iconic stores, which also. A lot of things about packaging. We have a benefits club, which we are doing the rollout right now along during the third quarter. It works on the stores, in web, in services. What's the objective? To increase frequency. I want the client to come more to the store and open up more of the app, and the more he comes to the store, the more he'll spend. We increase our wallet share of everything that he spends with his pet. Basically, it's a desire to increase more the cross-selling in between selling, between products and services, and bring a journey which is not new in the market, but in the pets market, it is new, with much more cashback, with digital cards, with coupons, with challenges, in a way which is very individualized. We're able to do promotions which are quite individualized for our clients. This year so far, we were looking at a free version of this club, starting next year, we have, paid benefits for those who are preferred. Next. Here in our, in our brand is the, several products which have joined in our stores in this semester, in this half, and this, it's already changing. This is part of the brand refreshing that we're doing. The design is new, the logo is different, the initial of Petz. Lots of more is coming, as it continues strengthening this ecosystem of private label brands. Why is it important to have these private label? It's a big... The products are not found in the market, not with our not in the marketplace and not with our competitors. We also have a difference in margin, which is significant with the private labels, which comes between 5%-8% in terms of gross margin, compared to products that we buy from suppliers. Next slide. Here's interesting to mention how much we have been able to, especially after these acquisitions, to increase our share in private labels. We increased by 24%. Our share of market private label is already 24% in the categories in which we already offer products. It's lower when we look overall because I still have lots of, of animal food in the mix. Our share of private label is 8%, but when we look at that, we have a penetration of 24% in that 8%. This 8%, there's a question about that in the chat. This 8%, we want to come up to 15%. It's our current goal. How are we gonna do that? As Sergio mentioned, investing more in dry, dry food, dry pet food. We have the Zee.Dog Kitchens, but we don't have the dry dog food sales, which is the majority of sales in our stores and in the market. We have our offerings, offering this to our clients. As Sergio mentioned, the fall-off in, in food opened space for our suppliers to be able to negotiate attractive conditions for them to have their own margins, and we're able to have something along the lines that we want to close then that gap between having our private label and what we're able to buy from suppliers. The biggest highlight that I want to bring here are, are hygienic carpets. Petix entered into our results, dog pads, and 78% of all of the dog pads that we sell are already ours, our brand. This is 21 percentage points above the same period of last year. How we've been able to do this? By creating new SKUs, creating a price level which is more intelligent, looking at how we sell in the B2C, which is inside of the pets store, compared to how Petix is, Petix is sold in the B2B channel. We have adjusted this, and this has been reflected in a very big increase in the sale of Petix products in the pets stores. It's not just dog pads. Collars and harnesses are also increased to 20%-54%, which we started recently. We're already in 16% with wet dog food. What we see on this slide, on the right-hand side of the slide, this rearchitecture of brands, and today we have brands in these different price points. What's very good is I'm able to have. I'm gonna in basic, have 100. If I have a collar, that's 60. If I have a Spike collar, the, the Petz collar, which is positioned below in a better, it's in the level of BRL 100, and the collar of Zee.Dog is BRL 140, BRL 160. I'm able to increase my addressable market and the number of clients that I attend through private labels. We're very, very comfortable with this. This was one of our principal competitive differentials. Next, here's a status, is an update on how we're doing with the Zee.Dog integration. As we already mentioned, we produced a lot of results, of negative results from the acquired companies. We reduced that loss. We've had a lot of work, which has not yet appeared in these numbers, which is the integration of the system in accounting, fiscal, payroll, et cetera, all the back office stuff. Several changes in terms of management, reports, efficiencies in several business areas in which there were duplications. Looking at the core business, we also have advanced greatly. How? Zee.Now we have a structure of which is very integrated with the digital structure of Petz. Many promotions which are done in together, very much architected between these two channels. In the fourth quarter, we have the Petz stores as hubs for Zee.Now, for the addressable market for Zee.Now. Here I point out that in the global, in Europe, we had a falloff in sales during this, in this quarter. The international market, as well as here in Brazil, still confronts several challenges with inflation. What I've done here is adjusted the structure of these locations, putting in a little bit the direct sales and starting to work with distributors so that we can. Looking at this Zee.Dog, diminishing the losses that we've seen of Zee.Dog over these next months. As Sergio mentioned, Zee.Dog Kitchen is something we're very powerf- we're very proud of, and we're looking at. The end, the fact, the manufacturing are, have, have, have reached breakeven. How to new, new packaging, new ways of making this product even more attractive, and increase the market, the addressable market. Another thing that's important to mention here about Zee.Dog is the question of franchisees. We've advanced in states in which it's not yet, which is the case of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Here, Sergio spoke about the healthcare plan. What we bring here is data, giving a spoiler of when this is going to be launched. When we look at the North American market, it's at 2.5%. It's a very low market penetration. When we compare it to the Brazilian market, it's still- We have 0.5% of cat- 0.3% of only 350,000 pets. When we look at our. Look at the, the idea is to get our clients. Convert them. And convert them. Into Zee.Dog's health plan. I health plan. I nto, our health plan. Our plan will be different. Prevention. It's focused on prevention, it's not an emergency plan. It also is, but we also want to reduce. Agency. U se these. Agency that has the cost within the house, and does not yet have a revenue associated with it. I would say that our I would say that our greatest strength is the cost of acquisition, our CAC, which we talk about with pet acquisition. When we talk about this, CAC cost, acquisition cost, it will be much lower because these are clients which are already ours. Agency. A nd we're able to access this. Pressing. Many of our, of our purchase is already identified. W e've had a series of hirings. In the last few months, of people. W ho come from human health and they understand healthcare plans, which is going to help us to regulate this market. We have very few rules, but we believe in the professionalization and formalization of this market in the future. We have lots of people supporting us and helping us with the best calculations of... We should be launching this pilot in São Paulo at the end of this year, beginning of next year, and seeing what's happening right now. We are structuring all of this, which make this viable, so that we have no friction between the client and the healthcare plan. I am going to go very quickly. Several investors have asked about the journey of sustainability. We have made a great deal of advances in this first half. We have greenhouse gas advances, the question of GEE. We will be elaborating our report, our sustainability report, very soon. It will be our first report, our first sustainability report. Our pillars, which we put here, are generation of value for society, sustainable operation, and responsible businesses. This is all focused on that, which is our principal objective as a company, which is the health and animal health and wellbeing. Here are a few examples of elements that we worked with in the first half. I'm gonna mention two things which we talked a great deal about in sustainability, but this will have to come with financial sustainability as well. Several things which are important to mention here. Several- some packaging, which we see in our e-commerce in some stores, there are at least 10 stores which are operating in this way. We no longer place the, the plastic envelopes a- around the bags of dog food, and we, and we, we just put it in, put it, which is generates an economy of packaging, no way- not creating more plastic for the environment, also don't have the cost of this package. It's going very well. It should increase very soon the number of deliveries in stores which will deliver this without these plastic covers. Another initiative which we're very proud of, we have more than 20 stores in which we have adjusted all of the automation of the air conditioning. 15% of the cost of air conditioning is being reduced by this automation. Obviously, we have other initiatives related to a pet adoption program, Adote Petz, which is our big program of sustainability so far. One that's very important for you to know, a partnership with the Re-Dogs Instituto. We have several animals which they train, totally for free, to be utilized for emotional support dogs for animals, especially for autistic, for children in the autistic spectrum. They're being responsible for all the medical care for these dogs, to guarantee their health and the prevention of disease. Next slide. Looking at the financial results, I'm gonna go very quickly. It's important to say that in the quarter, we grew 18% the total revenue, consolidated revenue. When we look at Petz standalone, it's a little bit below that. Products, products growing more, 17.2%. We had a closing, which was very, very important, of units, a temporary closing of service units, whether it be grooming or whether it be clinics. We had a falloff in services because I had these units in my base of comparisons. By removing that, I removed some growth. In gross margin, when we look at the consolidated numbers, we had pressure of 120 basis points, and here I have the effect of Petz, standalone Petz of 80 bips, and I, this becomes 120 when I consolidate, and that's the gross margin of Petix, which is traditionally lower because we're talking about an industry instead of a retailer. Has a margin of about 15%, while our margins are closer to 40%. In terms of EBITDA, as Sergio also mentioned, we have been doing very well in the question of expenses. We have decreased sales expenses. Our G&A is under control, obviously it's not enough to compensate the pressure on gross margins. We're consolidated with 80 bips of pressure. When we look at quarter-on-quarter, we're able to have a gross margin, an EBITDA margin 30 basis points above what we delivered in the first quarter. We're looking at another point which is important, is the EBITDA of acquisitions. The first time since we did acquisition of companies, this is the lowest level of losses that we've had with the acquired companies, we'll be speaking about that more going forward. We have an improvement, and it should continue during this coming quarters. One of these highlights is BRL 60 million instead of BRL 3 million in the first quarter of the previous year... of the previous quarter. Very much efficiency in capital, working capital and suppliers. We've reduced the cash cycle of the company by 11 days in just 1 year. Here's the data for the first half. The first. It's easier to see, to see the photo with less distortion, quarter-by-quarter distortion. We've had growth of 20%. Without any doubt, it's growth above that which we see in the market. The gross profit, we grew by 17%, and the adjusted EBITDA of 14.3%. We look at pressure on margin, on gross margins in the semester, we have 110 basis points, and in EBITDA, 40 basis points. A generation of operating cash, very positive when we look at the half. Remembering that in financial terms, during this half of the year, we captured approximately BRL 4,400 million in debentures. Not to make this too long, we've had more growth in this semester of 20%, in line with what we had mentioned at the beginning of the year. It's a point that I wanted to call your attention to, is same-store sales, which is a little bit more complex compared to the first quarter of this year. The version, the version, normalized version, where we removed stores which were opened very close to other stores, and we had some normalization due to digital, this number is approximately 8%. It's a number that we use here for internal management. It's been a reflection of the more challenging environment for retailing. It's been, it's improved, but it's still there. The fast growth in the expansion. We opened 45 stores in the last 12 months. This has had an impact on same-store sales. Please go ahead. In terms of digital, the message of this slide is the stabilization. We have 3 quarters where we have stabilized our inner digital penetration, which is a reflection of the initiatives that we've done in profitability, which means that the digital has not had this uncontrolled growth due to the stress on the profitability. The highlight for 2023 are 2 initiatives due to profitability. The first is we, we charged, was charging a pickup, service charge. We implemented it in the first quarter, and we stopped stopped it in the second quarter in this line of improving our competitiveness. At the same time, we added a tool which does not permit the, the discount on the discount. Basically, previously, we had a discount on a product, and then if you were a subscriber, if you had a 20% discount on a certain product and more 10% for being a subscriber, it no longer works that way. On the, the available discounts, it's the biggest available discount, which helped our profitability to be improved in the digital sales, together with the, the service fee, which we've been charging for several months since December of last year. We continue to be very, very happy with our omni-channel base of clients. We had growth of 15% year -on -year. The omni-channel client has spent about 60% more than the physical than the client in the physical stores alone. Gross margins, we've already talked about that. When I look at the group, we have a bigger. due to the consolidation of Petz. If I look at the standalone, these 80 basis points have come from a combination of digital penetration, a higher digital penetration, and a mix which is higher. We're growing, which is taking longer than expected for the discretionary purchases in our mix. The competitive effort in digital sales, which has been more intensified in June, especially when we removed some tools of profitability to become more profitable. Expenses, we've been able to do a very strong job in expenses. Even though revenue has grown 18%, expenses have, operation expenses grown 14 or 17. We've had a dilution of expenses. Where has this come from? We've been more and more efficient in performance, delivery of last mile, energy consumption, and several initiatives in supplies. We've been able to do a lot, and the idea is to continue in the second half of the year. On the contrary, to become more competitive for the final clients, to be able to secure more in our expenses, and this continues. Here I would say, on the contrary of this reduction of expenses, we also have several factors. One, we have one more distribution center in Hidrolândia, in Goiás, which generates a little more personnel, more transport expenses, 'cause I'm having transport that's farther than from São Paulo, several reinforcements that we've done in our corporate structure, whether it be HR services and so forth, preparing the base for the launch of the healthcare plan. Here, finally, I just wanted to mention that in this graph here, the four wall, which we have adjusted in the last four quarters, you'll see there's a maintenance of the same standard level of the maturity of the stores and the profitability per year of store openings, very similar to the previous quarters. There's no concern in this area. If I could highlight one point at the bottom, the question of the negative EBITDA of the acquisitions. We have a mix of, of Zee.Now and, and Zee.Dog Kitchen stronger, which means that the EBITDA margin is a little bit more pressured, because these are businesses which are still immature in maturation. In the case, in the case of Petz, we see an improvement in margins during the semester because, it still suffered with stocks that were a little bit too high due to a higher price of cellulose, but these numbers are very positive for the second half of the year. Finally, my last slide here, the cash position, the highest- the highlight is the financial highlight in this quarter.... in this half is, is we're talking about BRL 60 compared to. There's a great deal of efficiency in stocks. When we look at the number of days of stock on hand, we've been able to reduce it by 18 days year-on-year, which makes a difference in suppliers, a much lower level in the number of suppliers. I'm not having to make concessions to get the suppliers to get a better improvements in stock efficiency. Another point that's extremely positive, which is that I no longer accumulate the credits when I sell, when I sell from São Paulo to outside of São Paulo, and I would accumulate a lot of credits. We have BRL 100 million on the balance that we want to monetize this year. The truth is that when with this, with the DC ingross distributes to the stores, we no longer have this accumulation of tax credits. We're very happy with that. As Sergio said, it's the first time that the stand line, everything that we generate, we pay in investments. Of course, we've been very criterious in our investments. We reduced greatly in the line of reforms and maintenance and others. We had BRL 19 million last year. We lowered it to BRL 3 million this year because I have no longer a series of. We have no more distribution centers. We have no more maintenance on the CDs that, DCs that we already had. We're no longer the Petix, Petix, the machines. These one-off expenses are no longer part of our reality, beyond the fact that we have been more careful in the opening of stores, the size of stores, the CapEx per square meter. All of this shows efficiency, a greater efficiency. Finally, in terms of leverage, in May, we captured BRL 200 million in debentures, at 1.65% for 5 years, we consider a very attractive rate. We're very well capitalized. In March, we had picked up BRL 200 million in March at 1.3%. We still haven't touched this money. It's 100% applied, because the operation has been able to pay its way during this half. Look at our net profit. The net profit has fallen because we have a dynamic of depreciation, which does not favor. We opened a lot of stores. We made very relevant, means our depreciation has grown above the rate in which we have grown. This has impacted our profit. Basically, it's that. We're now going to go for the question and answer period. Sergio, I'm gonna start with a question from Luiz Guanais. I'm sorry, he left here. Good morning, Luiz Guanais of BTG. Can you please talk about the evolution of working capital in the last quarter, and what we expect in the next quarters, considering the expansion plans of Petz? If you could talk about the competitive environment and pricing, please do. Thank you. Well, Aline. The question of working capital. That's an improvement, which should be maintained in this cycle, in this financial cycle, it improved greatly. In the consolidated, year-over-year, that just in stocks, it was 18 days. This, in a certain way, will answer that we should be the focus, the total focus of the company, and in fact, it's our goals, our short-term goals. As a goal of the company, the short-term goals of the company, we no longer have revenue, EBITDA, same-store sales. We also have cash generation and CapEx. I think that's very interesting. We're very much aligned in this, in this matter. Guanais, good morning. Thank you for the question. I think that we're. As you, you focused a great deal on our competitiveness, and with reason, we made a, your report, which is very interesting, comparing the platforms and the direct competitors, and it's basically that. As we said in the, in the results call just a little bit ago, we are absolutely ready to protect our market share, which is worth... Which means that we will protect our, our clients, our relationship with our clients. The dynamic for the future of this is complex to be evaluated, because it wouldn't be fair to place any type of, so be the temporary aspect or the dynamic or the intensity of this, because the premise is strategic, the premise is qualitative. The premise I'm talking about, we're gonna protect our relationship with our client, no matter what. No, it's not even if you're a direct competitor in our segment or if you are outside of our segment, which would be a marketplace, for example, and want to penetrate in the pets market. We have the responsibility of leadership. We have the responsibility, with hundreds of millions of clients, of thousands of clients, which trust our brand and expect a commercial posture if the market is more competitive. As we had said, we took this option of protecting our years-long relationship with our consumers in detriment for some pressure, short-term pressure on our results. As a result, we are very, very comfortable for that, as I said, BRL 500 million in cash, a company which has positive cash, and we are still have no net debt. We're very well positioned in the omni-channel world, with a background. From our standpoint, from the management standpoint, is it would be a mistake, in my, we have the, to have the, the shortsightedness to look at the third or fourth quarter results and forget that we have 2024, 2025, 2026. Answering you objectively, it would be in the intensity and in the time that the market, that the market demands. We're not going to, as has always been our philosophy, we're not gonna attack the market, but we're also going to protect and give a guarantee to our consumers that they will not find any option in other, purchasing in other places due to price or due to, quality of service or speed of delivery. If we're gonna lose clients, it's gonna due to incompetence of our service or because we handled the client badly. we would be punished for that. Anybody would be punished for that in our competence. This, internally, due to prices or due to level of service, we will not lose clients due to this. Next question is from Victor Ghasub from Itaú BBA. "In the second half, the penetration of digital will be more comparable to the second half of last year. The same is true with Petix. Due to these initiatives of profitability in digital, it'd be plausible to maintain a maintenance of gross margins compared to what you saw in the second half of last year?" Hi, Victor. Yes, thank you for the question. Exactly for the reason which I just mentioned, I think that when we had a call in the first half of last year, we talked about protecting profitability. Now we're having a call where the shift is being, we're gonna protect our market share, whatever that might mean in terms of, in terms of profitability. It's not reasonable that we put here any expectation of an anchor between the protection of profitability, this, which means that we're protecting our market share. This will depend exactly on this commercial dynamic, which is a, an open dynamic. The biggest marketplaces are participating, and it's there with our direct competitors participating also. It's gonna be whatever it is. We're, we're certain that, that if we direct it in this way, we are preserving the long-term vision of the company, which for us is the most important thing. Next question from Victor is, "With the penalty of importation of $50 and, or more, the tax- taxing of these purchases, do you see that as a threat?" Thank you for the question, Victor. It's, this is something that I've been personally involved in, in meetings with Min- Minister Haddad. Let me just give you a little more context here. I don't see this... This is not a risk for the sale of accessories. It's a re- it's a risk measure for Brazil. It's a measure that has, that has no parallel in the history of the world. You have countries which do protectionism, and you have the countries who do a more liberal approach, and you have what Brazil did, which was the deprotectionism to those who protect or generates jobs. It's something that does, not because of the accessory, but for the retailers as a whole, and for the national industry as a whole. It's so, it's so crazy. For us, it's a matter of time, and we hope that shortly it will be corrected. This, at the limit, if you want to... I'm going to answer you objectively, pets as an accessory, yes. Is there a risk? Yes. Are we worried? No. If this stays this way, we're gonna do what's gonna be very bad for Brazil, but for the company, it's good. We have an office in China. We buy a bunch of stuff in China. Instead of importing and paying 100% to nationalize these things and sell it here, I'll just leave our warehouse open in China, open up a warehouse and do the cross-border from China to here, paying 17% of ICMS and no more taxes. We're gonna sell it cheaper to the consumer and only pay 17% for everything up until 50%. It's so senseless, this measure for Brazil, that we're not even taking the initiative to do this. We're going to wait at least until the end of the year to see that this will probably be corrected, which is the expectation that we have with our, through our relationship with the Ministry of Finance. Not because we want to have any type of import tax, we just want equality. Instead of increasing the taxes, which gives no benefit to local companies, and to be able to sell it with $50 of exemption, but we have to see that it's gonna generate a, a problem for Brazil. It will be a loss for the Brazilian economy. The third question, I think we have already answered in a certain way: "How do you see the competitive environment, not just the vertical companies, but the marketplaces as well?"... in relation to what is your expectation in the long term for this penetration? In a quick way, as Aline mentioned, today I'm talking about 15% of our participation in the market for the next few years, and the com- competition, I've mentioned it quite a bit. For us, the competition, if it comes from the biggest competitors that we have, the biggest in the segment, or if it comes from the big marketplaces, it doesn't really make too much difference. We don't think of whether the competitor is a marketplace or if the competitor is a, or a specialized direct channel. We think about this with the, with the head of the consumer. He's doing his purchase. If this marketplace is relevant for the consumer, if it's relevant or irrelevant for the consumer, that's the competitor that we're gonna have to offset. It's obvious that there's space for everybody, there's space for everybody to grow, whether it be the specialized channels or the others, the way to grow has to be a different route. Because anybody believes that they're gonna grow in this market just on price, is going to have to see that this is a strategy which will not be interesting, 'cause simply it will not be able to be differentiated by just price. That's how we look at this leadership. It doesn't permit that anybody, "Oh, I can sell cheaper." As we said, for 20 years I've been saying the best strategy to, to lose market is, is to sell cheaper, as long as you work it out with your competitor, and that the competitor who sees you selling cheaper and, and doesn't also lower his price. Anybody that has the innocence thinking that the others will allow you to sell more cheaper, we will not allow that. Anybody who wants to sell more cheaply in this segment to the consumer, knows that they're gonna find Petz, which is the leader in this segment, and which will protect our clients in the sense of maintaining our relationship that we have and maintaining these clients in-house. Remembering also that the price is not the only equation. There are other elements of this equation which we will come out winning. For example, delivery and faster deliveries. We have 95% of the cities where we're able to deliver in 2 hours. At the end of the day, it's a combination of price, delivery, cost of delivery, service taxes, service fees, and so forth. We look at this and position ourselves. There's a question here from Rubens from Santander, which is a little bit along the lines of what we're saying: "Sergio, it's very clear your priorities for the second half are focused on the on market share. I see that you'll be having. You're ready to go up against your principal platform competitors. Can you speak a little bit more about the 50% of the market, which in theory continues in the hands of the small pet shops? Has this group been able to maintain their share, or are they losing share during this process of competition?" Rubens, very good question. Thank you for your question. With no doubt, this group of the 50% is a group that is a donor, who ends up donating share in the past. When we look at, in the future, any tightening of competition, as we see at the end of the second half, this, and the beginning of the third quarter, we see very, very strong competition. Any competition that any growth in competition where you see a donation of share, it will come from that 50%. It's natural that, that that would be the case. When the sea is calmer, there's a migration more... a slower migration. If the scenario of commercial competition is more stronger, anybody who has less scale, less financial strength to stand a commercial dispute, is gonna lose share. It's part of the process. It's a natural part of the process. Question from Jêrome Squarize from Citibank, from Citi: "I wanna know a little bit more about the physical world. Are you gaining share in the physical stores in both value as well as volume? In this, how are prices and volume evolving? Jêrome, thank you for your question. In fact, we have a dynamic of growth, and I would say in the market overall, where growth has been more driven by sales, digital sales, than by physical sales. In this context, we are very much aligned. It's just that our way of looking at things and our metrics, which is what matters, is the metric of everything, to the point that we no longer consider that the investment in a physical store is a investment in the physical. Because when we set up our physical stores, digital sales. Way of looking at this is very, very integrated. If market share of the physical stores is. diminishes, it's because it's very fluid. That client who purchased through an app, uses the physical structure to pick it up or receive at home, for us. What should concern us is anything in a company in the pet segment, is a company which just does not utilize the digital question, 'cause the consumer is becoming a more and more mixed consumer. He, he wants to buy on the app, he wants to buy it at the store, he wants to pick it up at the store, and receive it at home. We're very well evolved since the beginning of the pandemic. The next question is from Felipe Cassimiro from Bradesco BBI. "First, I wanted to understand your message about competition, especially in relation to commercial margins. Is the idea to be more aggressive in prices? What type of initiatives are you thinking about? Are we able to quantify the impact that we should see on your gross margins? Felipe, yes, thank you for your question. Let me tell you, no doubt we will feel an impact on our gross margins. We have no way yet to quantify that. We're gonna be more aggressive in the sense that we're going to do something which in these years we've never had to do, and there is no need to do it, which is to be aggressive with the market, to. What we see is that in the first half of the year, we were protecting our profitability, and we allowed ourself in the first half of the year to become a little bit less competitive, giving space for others to act with promotions or better commercial conditions, which could be superior to ours. We knew that the market as a whole had pressure on margins, so we expected to lead this movement in a more a more conscious consumption. The market was not did not cooperate. We're gonna look at price, we're gonna wanna gain share. No problem. As I said, since the IPO, I've always repeated, if at some moment the marketplaces or the competitors in the specialized channel imagine that the way to gain market is price, forget about it, because they're not gonna gain the market through price, 'cause price we're gonna protect. We're gonna protect it no matter what was necessary to do. What's the impact this would have on margins, and also on your results? The, the impact which is necessary to protect our market share, since this is a variable that comes from others, from the platform of marketplaces or the direct competitors, whatever they do, we're, we're ready... We're here, and we're ready to, at the side of our consumers, to preserve this relationship. Next question from Felipe is, "As far as the increase of competitive leveraging your strategic suppliers, it seems that your stocks have gone to a very low level compared to the historical levels. How is your relationship with the principal pet food suppliers?" In general, it's very, very good. It's exceptional, our relationship to the suppliers, our partners, they're not worried about our sell-in or sell-out. Everybody understands very well this management of stocks that we've been doing. In practice, this means that we have pressured a little bit our purchases, because they have more logistics of inventories. But the sell-out, the selling was not affect. There was one or another case of a supplier who perhaps, in our evaluation, has made an option to giving, turning their backs a little bit on the platform, on the more structured platforms, and more wide-ranging, so, such as ours, and the direct competitors, which in our conception, due to everything that we've done in the last 21 years, is a very big strategic error which they're making. However, we always believed that we have ways, ways to correct that. This can always be corrected. We have several questions here about the healthcare plan, which I think, we've already answered most of them during the presentation, without many spoilers. We are setting up the plan so that we're able to have a pilot, first of all, in São Paulo, and this pilot project will happen at the start of the end of this year, hopefully. What we have no limitation is the concept of the plan is already set up, but we have more limitation is in the integration with our systems. All the actuarial parts has already been designed, and we're doing this process both of the acquisition of store plan, as well as in the digital world, and putting this to happen through systems. At this time, the idea is to not share this commercial strategy or type of plans, et cetera. Perhaps in the next quarter we'll be able to do that. The other plan. The other question that has been repeated from other analysts is from Nicolas from JPMorgan, about the Zee.Dog Kitchen. "What is lacking to get to a break-even EBITDA? Is it just a question of more volume?" Hi, Nicolas. Not necessarily. Here, we have to have the seriousness to mention that we are not a factorer trying to find options for manufacturing, because our expertise is retailing and branding, and in this sense, it's going very well. In the manufacturing, we will need to perhaps have an opportunity to, which are not yet clearly seen by us, but which are addressed. We should have, in the next months, a clearer. In theory, you always have to use the term volume, which is the solution. It's not the only thing. We have to look at the type of packaging, which has a very important part of the price of the product. We have in packaging which is more intelligent in the sense of costs, and which did not hurt the experience of the sale. We need to understand the, the size, of the pot, of the package, so that we can have better costs. There are various ways to look at this beyond volume, and we're looking at this with the hiring of a consultancy to look at all of these questions. We also have a question here from Bank of America. In the new scenario of market share. How can we think about the standalone margins for the year? How ready are you to look at these, commercial activities. If we're looking at something that would be more aimed at online, which we'll see this, competition. Aline? Aline? No, I had a little problem here on my... in the battery of my. Let me repeat it here. Vinicius from Bank of America? In this new scenario of protection of market share, how should we think about the Petz' standalone share for the year? The level of margin, the level of margin for standalone, the EBITDA margin standalone. Vinicius, thank you for your question. The incoherence of the previous answers, we're in a moment of making a decision, a quantitative decision. It's not a qualitative decision. It's not a numeric decision. The fact- the question of protecting profitability addressed this question, that we were protecting our margins, and there, there we had a number to protect. Here, we're protecting a relationship with the consumer. We're protecting-... giving them the comfort so that the, the consumer knows that he doesn't have to change Petz for a marketplace platform or for a direct competitor due to price. That's where we have to look at the long-term consideration. How much does that cost? What's the impact of this on margins? Whatever's necessary to protect this. So answering. It's not an answer. It's not a really a good answer, because. What I'm saying here. The level at the, the market will determine. It's what you do, the initiative, the stimulus to not sell cheaply is to, just to gain a sale. If you're selling cheap, cheaply, and you're being offset, what changes? You're not able to, not able to sell more cheaply. It would be due to the vertical of marketplaces or direct competitors, that price is a good way forward. If we think they have to do it, due to all of the structure that the company has and all of these 21 years, and the respect that the consumer, I did the whole IPO saying this, and I continue saying this: the company is not a company which lives thinking about quarter by quarter. Petz is a company which is constructing value in the long term. For investors that wants to see this as a long-term thing, the decision that we're making right now is a decision to preserve long-term value for our consumers. Could it be bad in the short term? It could be. If it could be unpleasant? Yes, it could be. In the long term, I am certain that the investors who are here, with us, are gonna see that we have made a decision, and the, and the correct decision, of constructing much more value in the long term. The gain that we have is commensurate. You protect the, the margin in the third quarter or fourth quarter at the cost of losing dozens of thousands of, dozens of thousands of clients in the long term. I think we have lost Sergio. I'm gonna add. To his answer, a question as far as expenses, we have controlled a great deal, our expenses. Our expenses are much more in our hand than this question of the competitive questions of the market. We've presented a lot of things in the second quarter, and the idea is that in the third and fourth quarter, we're gonna be even more obsessive in each one of the expense lines of the company. I'm not sure if Sergio's gonna get back on with us, but in any event, we have already answered most of these questions. We've already answered. Vinicius, I'm gonna answer your second question. As far as the competitiveness, if it's focused online, yes, initiatives of greatest competitiveness will be more directed towards the digital, but of course, they have ramifications on the physical store. Sometimes we have a client that's in the physical store, but he has the app in his hand, and he's looking at the price of the competitors. We have the policy of beating that price. We'll match that price. We have a more aggressive question. This bumps up against the physical stores as well. Finally, I think we covered. Most of these questions have already been covered. See if there's. There's a question from Danny, from XP. She asks, "When do we expect to deliver a positive EBITDA with the evolution of the consolidated margin?" As far as the EBITDA of the acquired companies, we commented. We made a series of structural adjustments. We're dealing with some of these structural in these international units as well, so that we are working with a fixed expense that is lower. The more we don't have the international sales happening as I was foreseen, we see this. Having seen this, plus the improvement of the Zee.Now margins and the Zee.Dog Kitchen, we have a reduction, a significant reduction in the contribution of the negative contribution of Zee.Dog in the second half. We've have this, we still have some, but this should be reduced at least by half during the second half of this year. Petz continues in a positive direction. It's a company with a positive EBITDA. It has a very small operation in the U.S., which should reach break-even by the end of this year or beginning of next year. When we look at what we had in the way of negative contribution from the acquired companies last year, which was something of BRL 12 million or BRL 13 million, today we're gonna have a great reduction in that loss, even though it won't be in EBITDA, which is equivalent, which will be a break even for the acquired companies. I don't know if Sergio's has been able to come back in. Basically, all of your questions have been answered, and the other questions are very similar to those which have already been answered. There's one here from Andrew in Morgan Stanley, where he asks about the plans for the optimization of the store format. I would say here, there's nothing terribly specific in relation to what we've already done. We already have opened all of our stores absolutely without services this year, so the great majority of our new stores, if not all, have come without the clinics and without grooming, and this should continue in the second half of the year, with the exception of 1 store, which might be the first in a capital city or something, want to offer a complete experience. With that, we've been able to optimize the CapEx per square meter of these stores. We've made the stores a little bit tighter. We've made the shelves higher. The corridor is a little bit more narrow, so that we don't lose the capacity of sales of these stores, but have spent a great deal less in CapEx per store. What we see differently in the format is the number of Zee.Dog franchises, which are small stores. Those of you here know us here in São Paulo, we opened one in Ibirapuera Shopping last, last week. These are small stores, 30, 35 square meters, and we're gonna involve these-- evolve these with the passage of time. We understand what are the cities where we want to have franchises compared to those where we would like to operate in a B2B, but we understand that this might be an expansion of the Zee.Dog brand in this learning of how it is to operate a, a, a franchise, which is still something new for us. I think we've addressed all of the questions here. I want to thank you all in the name of Petz and Sergio for the call. Thank you all, and have a good afternoon.