Novos resultados do terceiro trimestre de 2024 do Grupo Mateus. Para aqueles que precisarem de tradução simultânea, basta clicar no botão "Interpretation" através do ícone do globo na parte inferior da tela e escolher o seu idioma de preferência: português ou inglês. Para aqueles ouvindo a videoconferência em inglês, há a opção de mutar o áudio original em português, clicando em "Mute Original Audio". is available with the "Mute Original Audio" button. Please note that this earnings call is being recorded and will be provided on the company's IR website, where you have the full material available. You can also download the presentation on the chat icon in English. During the earnings call, all participants will have their mics disabled. Soon after, we'll start the Q&A session. To be able to send a question, select the Q&A icon in the bottom part of your screen and write your question to enter the queue. As you're announced, a request to activate your mic will appear on the screen. Then, you must activate your mic to submit questions. We'd like to instruct you that all of the questions should be submitted at once. We'd also like to let you know that all of the information in this presentation and possible statements that could take place during the earnings call, related to business perspectives, forecasts, and operational targets and financial goals at Grupo Mateus, are based on beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as information that's currently available. Future statements do not guarantee performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, as they refer to future events and, therefore, rely on circumstances that could or not occur. Investors must understand that economic general conditions and market conditions, as well as other operational factors, may affect the future performance at Grupo Mateus and lead to results that differ materially from those listed in certain future statements. Today, we have the presence of our executives in the company: Mr. Ilson Mateus, the founder and chair of the board, Jesuíno Martins, CEO, Túlio Queiroz, the VP and Director for Investor Relations, and Sandro Oliveira, the VP for Operations, Logistics, and Commercial. We will now pass on the word to Mr. Ilson Mateus. Good morning, everyone. I would like to, first of all, thank God for having allowed us to be here today, this morning, and also everyone listening to us today. I want to start off by discussing our expansion plan for the third quarter. We have another three stores in, sorry, four stores in four different states. I want to mention a point of observation in one of these stores, Barreirinhas, which was a major learning process for us. It's the second store in the city. It's a relatively small city, but this demonstrates the size of our responsibility and the role that we have in these small cities. Besides bringing this and sales, we also provide development for these small cities. We also have other points, like stores that are like Caucaia, João Pessoa, also in the Valentina neighborhood. We have stores that are really important for this expansion project in different states, and once again, taking on this role, which is of the expansion part of our business, which is so important. We also want to refer to slide five, where this store in Caruaru is a store that's in a city that's very strategic. The studies we had really brought us this understanding of the sales potential that the store would have with more services. Within this business strategy, this is a store that we have a proposal in a city this big as Caruaru to work with A and B public, but also with the challenge of being C and D public, with the transformational market that's so important for the business as well. Once again, we're bringing in the store in a different model, which is a cash and carry store with services that are very strong in the back part of the store. These are stores with major traffic in the stores, but also when it comes to the groceries, there's also pretty strong traffic as well. There's a stronger A and B public, which is what we bring in through our research. Moving on to slide six now, we bring in two stores that are very important for our business, which is the José Walter store. This is in a neighborhood that is really high density in Fortaleza, where we were able to have an area that's really at the heart of this neighborhood. It's already surprised us ever since the store opening moment because it was an all-time high for sales. Our director in the region is really happy, and we were super satisfied with the results of the store. So then we also bring in a store on the right side called Casa Forte. It's a store that is really a big reference for us in the city. And in this neighborhood, Casa Forte, there's a sales potential that's huge. So it's one of the main neighborhoods in Recife. And this store also has a pretty good expectation of returns. So it's an EBITDA that's also very strong, and they already start. It's already starting to demonstrate what it's here for. On the next slide, slide seven, we also bring in the services aspect, and we actually brought in a QR code to demonstrate a video we haven't brought here in the presentation yet, but there's a really important video if you would like to get access to the QR code. This store consumers accepted very well because it's a reference, and it's in a, we have a big challenge in this store, right, which is attracting A and B public. That's where you also have this challenge of bringing in the C and D public, right? This is a model after a lot of research we've done. Really listening to the customers upfront. In the beginning, we thought we had to have a cash and carry store, but then we were convinced that it had to be a retail store. And in the store opening moment, we also noticed that what we had decided with people were really excited, and some people even cried because suppliers really knew the store very well. And so this store was really embraced a lot, and there's a huge potential. And all of this brings in the brand strength we carry, right? Because then we were able to really strengthen our brand at this moment with the store opening. And then we want to bring in, on slide eight, another reason for major studies because we already had a gallery there. And so we had a study with Eduardo there. He works with our store galleries, and we brought in brands that are really strong to be in this accessory part of the store with the stores. So these stores are really good, attract good customers. This store also helps dilute costs for leases because the lease costs are pretty high, but these galleries will also help us to offset part of the costs and really bring in excellent results in the first months. Here on slide nine, we also bring in an event that we worked on that was really important. We had over 500 suppliers. Since it's a reference, a benchmark in the region, Jesuíno and all of our directors decided to organize this event the day before the store was actually opened. We were able to welcome all of our suppliers. Since it's such an important store for us, becoming a reference not only for sales, but also for brands, right? That's why we really thought about this. It took about six months, right, to decide this project, but we really needed to have a unique project, and Jesuíno got together with all of our architects, and we were able to really work on this store that was so important for the history of our company, but also this store really opened up our minds to the future stores, and we are also looking to some other projects we had in our drawer, let's say, and it's being a real lesson learning process. We also were honored to welcome our visitor, João Carlos Paes Mendonça. He was, for me and for all of Brazil, a reference in retail, a man that had opened the store Casa Forte over 30 years ago, and he was bold enough to create a lot of new things that up until today we consider to be major innovations. I want to thank Mr. João Carlos. And here on slide 10, I also bring in another store that's iconic. It's a store that all of the suppliers also know, and it's one of the stores that Mr. João Carlos opened at the time. And this is called Store 341. I see a lot of suppliers and people that used to be employees really remembering this, which is also the example of Casa Forte. And so when you hear this, Jesuíno with his team as well, and hearing customers, and we see their passion, and that's where we also were able to research with them. And we had some questions about if the store would be a retail or a cash and carry store, but we reached the conclusion that it really had what it took to work with A and B public, but also with C and D and a transformational market also that's very important and strong. So we gathered all of these target audiences, right? Mas também agregado às sessões de food service muito forte e trabalho muito forte que a gente vai fazer aí para o mercado. And so we're really going to provide this to the transformational market. So it's a store that also has a strong gallery that. And also this will also happen. This will also be a way to dilute this cost, and it's going to really bring in great EBITDA. So on slide 11, besides our expansion, we also would like to end the year reaching an all-time high of store openings, right? So we have 12 stores already. And as we had already mentioned in other meetings, we kind of held on to this expansion plan a bit because of a merger we were going through. So we should receive within this merger plan another 33 stores. And I believe that with these stores underway, we should wrap up with the biggest expansion in our history. We'll have over 50 stores, and this will, of course, bring within what we've been discussing, which is our main strategy ever since we began our first roadshows with our IPO, right? When we started talking about creating density and the importance of creating relevance in this strategy and so occupying more cities that already have a higher density. And so there's a lot of stores and that's why we are sure we're going to be able to achieve our future results. And so on slide 12, I also bring in within these areas. You'll see the openings of new DCs and our commercial areas. And then in the beginning, it provided us with the capacity to really attract all of our different store formats. Here I can show you the importance of each of these models, right, in this expansion because what guides us in this business that we consider to be the anchor in our business is our logistics, right? With our capacity for logistics, we really have what it takes to be able to keep up with all of these business flags, let's say. If you talk about, if you look at the left side, you see this business model, which is the distribution wholesale, and it's a real customized approach for each region. In the DCs we open up, in the beginning, it was kind of a weight on our results, but now they start diluting these costs, right? You have the cash and carry, and we've developed this different way of thinking about this. And we're also discussing different cash and carry models that are traditional. And you have Prime, which is that service where our research really understands that there's a real strong A and B public, right? So we bring in this service cash and carry store with also another cash and carry format that's a little more compact, smaller. And in retail, when we talk about the retail experience, and that's really our main focus, and also the Casa Forte Hiper, which was a real reference. So we demonstrate that this store in João Pessoa is a reference. And then we also bring in the traditional supermarket stores, right, which are the second phase of our projects that we also believe in a lot, and they've led to major results in the states where we're already based. We also have the Camiño store. It's an important brand. Besides our own stores in smaller cities, this store also takes on an important role, which is franchising some customers that are important because of our distribution wholesale. We brought in some partners that we can interconnect because we have our own ERP, and that allows us to create these connections with many customers that already buy from us for quite a while. Mini markets, that's a project that we've been working on. These are condominium stores, and we already have street stores, but we've been testing these stores, and they're doing really well. Then once again, as I mentioned, these stores are anchored in our logistical structure, and that's why we have great ease to supply these stores. On the right side here, you can also see the specialized stores we had for quite a while, which is Eletro Mateus. And we've already started to show this, and it's already left its pilot project, already demonstrated major results, important levels of EBITDA. And it's another additional service that we offer to our suppliers. It's a store that's really well seen by consumers. There's an important role in selling not only diapers, but all of the accessories for newborns and breastfeeding, etc. So then on the right side, you can see our e-commerce, our platform that we've been testing, growing a lot. We have Mateus Express, and that's where we service consumers from inside our stores. And we also have our Mateus ON, which is also taking an important role, which is a platform we're testing, and we hope that in the future, it can bring us excellent results. Of course, we won't be generating and placing all of our expectations upon this. We also never want to forget our physical brick-and-mortar business because that's what supports our business. But we must also continue to bet on this and prepare for the future because that's what we've always done throughout our history. And we're really looking at now, right now, and here, and we have to generate the necessary structure and support for our company. And we are participating in this future that's already present, right? So thank you so much, everyone. And now I'll pass the phone to our CEO, Jesuíno Martins. Thank you, my boss and friend, Mr. Ilson. Good morning, Sandro, Túlio, and everyone watching us from home. And the team here also that's watching us. We have a full room. So we're really happy to have another quarter here. And I have the responsibility to share some achievements we've had throughout the third quarter. And I wanted to start sharing, especially this quarter, the results we've had in our campaign, our anniversary campaign. So this year, we had 38; we completed our 38th anniversary. It's a really important day for us on our calendar, and we want to share this with you. It was a strategy that was really assertive, and we did this this year. Once again, we had a campaign that was really focused on total sales. So that's our main DNA. I want to thank our marketing team, represented by a major friend. And so we were really happy to share this and demonstrate how this campaign really contributed to our third quarter. So it's an important day in our calendar, and I brought in this screen here. This year, we had a two-month anniversary, and that was also an important strategy. And it really contributed to our growth in our same stores. And we can reach a level of over 7% growth of same stores. And so our anniversary was one of the main pillars in this quarter. And I wanted to share the results of this campaign moving ahead on number 15. I also wanted to share, as a fruit of this strategy, what happened to our gross revenue. And as you can see on the left upper side, and we reached BRL 9.4 billion in revenue. And this is an important milestone. We're growing about 20%, providing continuity to this growth. As you guys are watching us for quite a while, you know our growth pace has been quite intense. We also increment another BRL 1.6 billion in revenue when we compare the same period last year. And so another quarter that's really consistent when we look at gross revenue. You can see that on the left side, you can see how our accumulated results are this year. We reached BRL 26 billion in revenue. We grew 22% this year, and we had an increment of about BRL 5 billion when compared to the same period. I think in this first block, we're really happy. It demonstrates how we've been resilient when it comes to our gross revenue and the concerns we've had. This anniversary campaign, as I shared with you, provides examples of our concerns with this topic, right? We wanted to share growth in our same stores. I wanted to share this with you guys. I think you guys remember that we had a second quarter that was a little more restrained when it comes to same-store growth. As I mentioned, our anniversary campaign contributed a lot to this. With this, we resume our cash and carry growth. Our cash and carry reaches levels that are a little more robust, and we're able to reach the 5.4% growth of same-store. You remember that in the second quarter of this year, we had growth that was a little more balanced, a little shier, just 2% same-store in the cash and carry. We are now happy with this recovery, right, and the robustness in the same-store growth. We've become a highlight in our sector when it comes to same-store growth. We also want to share that most of the same-store growth comes from volume, right? So over 80% of this growth comes from additional revenue that comes. We grow our average ticket in this period. We gain share. Soon we'll have my friend Sandro sharing the share gains we had. So the second block of the same-store growth, as you can see in the bottom part, accumulated, which is 7.3. And so very resilient. We're really happy with this growth we've achieved in this quarter and the recovery of the cash and carry as well. Then in the third block, we have our gross margins. And I wanted to register our happiness and our joy towards this. We reached a level of 22.7% of gross margins, and we've been very careful with this topic. Among those who know about this in our whole team, if you notice, we grow our gross margin when you compare the same period last year, 0.2 percentage points. And we grow this if we compare with the second quarter this year, 0.3 percentage points. And you can see on the bottom part also, and top part, you see our gross margin accumulated of 22.5. You've also seen our results. You've seen that over a year, we've had the same consistency in gross margins. It's been really resilient. In this quarter, actually, we're really happy because you can see it's a quarter where we had our anniversary campaign, and it was really strong. We also had all of the changes in the ICMS rates that we've been suffering throughout the year. Even so, we still have a gross margin that's very resilient and consistent. I wanted to share a bit of the reasons why we've been very careful with this topic, as I mentioned. We were able to structure the pricing sector, and I want to thank Sandro and Túlio for this and the pricing team that's been very careful with this topic. We know about the efforts that also to keep our gross margins. I want to thank our trading team as well that's been contributing to this result. The new regional office has been helping with this a lot. Sandro will share the improvements we've had in this new regional. Our indirect channel has also improved the margins in this third quarter a lot. I want to thank our friends also for watching us. Even with all of this scenario, with such a strong anniversary, etc., we've been keeping up with our gross margins. I also want to share a bit of the reason for happiness. We've been growing over 33% when compared in the same period. We also can see we're really happy about this. It's our historical EBITDA margin. We've reached a level of 8.2% EBITDA margin, and I'm really happy with this. You can see it's almost one percentage point. One of the main points we've had to be able to achieve these results was our dilution of our expenses, as you've probably seen in our balance sheet. We also, in the first quarter this year, had a bit more of a difficulty because, but in this quarter, we're going to reach this efficiency in expenses and dilution of about half a percentage point. I want to thank Sandro and everyone for the dedication. They've been helping us deliver this EBITDA margin, where we have this accumulated EBITDA margin, and we reach a level of BRL 1.8 billion of EBITDA, and we grow 24%. Finally, I wanted to share our great joy when it comes to our net income. We reached this level of BRL 370 million of net income, and we've been growing 20%. Our margin's at 4.5%. Even with all of the impacts of tax conditions we suffered, our net income is really stable, as you've probably seen. I want to take advantage also of this. I want to thank Túlio as well for leading this agenda. We had some countermeasures we had to implement. That all allowed us to have the same level of resilience in the results we've had with all of our legal team. We have Marcelo and this team dedicated to this topic here. You can see BRL 7 milhões de reais, a gente cresce também nos mesmos patamares. The net income is 4.1, right? We want to thank our entire team. We want to thank you all for your dedication, for your resilience, for your commitment, Túlio, Sandro, Mr. Ilson, towards achieving these results. With our weekly meetings, our discussions have been very rich, and for another quarter, we are so consistent and disciplined when it comes to our results, and I also want to share that we are still optimistic. We have the fourth quarter. We're already in the fourth quarter, and our same-stores growth has been keeping up with the same level of quality, and we have Black Friday, Christmas, New Year's, and so we're really optimistic, and so, God willing, we'll be able to once again achieve excellent results, and finally, I want to say thank you, and then I'll pass it on to Sandro, our VP, as he shares our main achievements that we had in our expansion. Sandro. Okay, thank you, President, and so good morning, Mr. Ilson, Túlio, and everyone that's accompanying us. We really believe it's really a matter of honor to share slide 17 with you guys. And before we even talk about the contributions and the EBITDA margin of these stores that are part of our expansion, I wanted to say that they've been really gaining major relevance in our sources of revenue. And I'm going to talk about this in just a bit with more consistency in the margin evolution. I can also say that in the last quarter, we had some important advances, 3.2% margins in all of these stores we've been operating in our expansion, which helps us with this growth. And it also helps us with greater confidence in the team. I want to thank all of our teams here as well, from the regionals, from the more mature areas, because it's really a joint effort, because it helps us really reach this point where we can present the results. This advance here helps us. We have already about 40 stores on this side. Today, it already represents about 32% of the revenue. From one quarter to another, at a 12-month basis, we added five stores, and we advanced to a 6.4 EBITDA margin contribution. The sum of all these factors is really due to the work performed by this team and tireless search to provide consistency to our results in these new stores and to help them generate more contributions to our results. And then to provide evidence on this slide here, although we continue to gain margins and all of the contributions for the EBITDA, and we continue to gain share. We've been moving towards this with 24.4 points of share. If we remember, we have an advance from one quarter to another to almost 0.4% advances, right? That's when, of course, you look at all of the Pará-Northeast regions, right? We have a last quarter that is very important and also for our expansion and our new regional, where we see the states where we're going to be conducting this expansion so that we can consolidate our results even more and really ensure that the consistency is observed in this entire process, right, which is what foresees everything Mr. Ilson has already discussed and provides for expansion in different formats. So that helps us deliver what we've committed to in our market and all of our team. So that's what I wanted to present here as evidence. And we also want to thank our team with the regions, especially the teams in the newer regions searching for this consistency. And so we have a lot of challenges up ahead that we must deliver till the end of December. So I want to pass this on to Túlio, our financial VP. Thanks, Sandro. Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Jesuíno. Thank you, guys. And so just on the numbers related to the gross profit, page 19 of our presentation, this is the central theme here, which has been as presented the main points. I just wanted to discuss the process here with the consistency on this topic, where we committed to be more consistent, as Jesuíno mentioned, with the commercial team really focused on this topic. We've been working towards this quarter after quarter, searching for opportunities in different segments and really strengthening our pricing areas, Jesuíno mentioned, right? We want to remind you here that on this number, we're incorporating the PIS/COFINS upon the subvention. If it weren't to have this effect as happened in the end of last year, there would still be like 0 percentage points greater. We incorporate not only the ICMS rates, but also the PIS/COFINS topic upon subventions. I think the graph here demonstrates the consistency and resilience and the search for keeping up with the top line as we've been proposing. Then, of course, the significant representativity with the maturity of this new regional and the growth specifically based on gross profit. So that provides a relevant contribution to our gross margins as a whole. And so moving on to the next slide, we see the operational expense numbers, a very important topic that we've been working on with greater dedication throughout this year as a whole. We know about the importance of this topic. And so we know that we've had numbers kind of off track a bit, but we've brought in 15.1 in the second quarter. That's the historical series. Then we have this important dilution for the company. I think there's a lot of things behind this. There's major search for productivity that the company was proposed to deliver throughout ever since the beginning of the year, really bringing in debates on this topic, discussing the main lines with the managers, creating the forums for debate and monitoring. And of course, besides this, all of the dilution process. So that's an important fundamental topic, right? So all of the investments we performed in regards to logistics and the headquarters to be able to make it possible to expand as we were expanding. And we now get into this dilution phase that no doubt is a key topic for us as we design our value journey, right? And then another important focus on the administrative front, as we've been discussing with you guys in the last quarters. And we consider this to be a very important topic to continue to work on productivity for our growth. And so in this way, as you can see, the operational expenses are at 14.6% of the net revenue. And the accumulated results have already evolved to 0.1%, demonstrating a trend towards dilution. Moving on to the next slide, 21, we have the EBITDA numbers that added up to BRL 684 million in the quarter. And that's 8.2% EBITDA margin with a level that, of course, makes us very confident. Here you have a combination of the effects discussed. As you see, the same-store sales have very good quality alongside a gross margin and operational expense. The combination of these factors really brought the company to a level of 8.2%, which no doubt is related to the entire maturity process with this new regional and also capturing the same stores and gross margin and legacy in the mature markets, leading to improved profitability in our cash and carry operation with major traction through the gross margin. So just to demonstrate a bit of the different journeys. And then in the accumulated results in the year, 7.5% EBITDA margin with growth of about 25% of the EBITDA in the company. And then here we want to remind you the expenses on PIS/COFINS on subvention that would lead to about 0.3% EBITDA margin. And so moving on to slide 22, we have this number adding up to BRL 379 million in the quarter and BRL 946 million, sorry, BRL 947 million in the year. And then here it's important to demonstrate the effective income tax rate. And so that was a very relevant challenge throughout the year. And also during 2023, there was a major level of uncertainty. We were able to develop some levers that were listed at the line-by-line approach to be able to create like a buffer for these effects. This is, of course, a live topic. We have our tax team constantly working on alternatives. But this quarter, what we've brought here is exactly the levers you've already known about. We have no news here for the third quarter. And that's why you have the effective rate at about 13.7% and in the accumulated results, 9.2%. Then moving on here to slide 23, we have the cash cycle numbers. And this is a quarter with major seasonality because of the anniversary. We want to remind you all that we kept the dynamics and the campaigns throughout the month of September, not exactly at the same intensity as August. But the idea is that we would replicate these different campaigns during the month of September. And that's why the stock level was pretty stable compared to the same period last year. And so we went from 42 days to 45. And so that went from 37 and kept the same levels. So we have an improvement year over year, four days, as you can observe. Of course, we had the impact of the stocks. That's still an opportunity that's important. The company is really dedicated to this topic. We prepared the level of stock for the beginning of the fourth quarter. And so we had some targets that were really important for the month of October, November. Now we have Black Friday as well. So we are dedicated to this performance in the fourth quarter. Now we have the numbers related to cash consumption. In the first block, we can notice that in the quarter, we are demonstrating this actually quarter over quarter. So in the third quarter, we have operational consumption of BRL 300 million. And that's essentially because of the seasonal stock effect, that pressure, the working capital curve. And in regards to the CapEx, we can see the CapEx scenario. And that's where Mr. Ilson also demonstrated this initiation of the M&A process. And then we consider the expansion strategy as well. So the combination of both factors with the investments involving the operational topic and consumption and the consumption of BRL 525 million in the third quarter. It's important to know and highlight, Túlio, right, that we've already had about 20 stores, which are due to an accumulated CapEx, right? So, considering the different properties and all of this allows us to have, after everything's aligned with the merger, we will really work on the expansion plan with greater ease. Yeah, perfect, exactly, so we had this cash burning phase, but now we have the last quarter with a major effort to adjust this and be able to reach the last quarter up to top notch, demonstrating that we really prepared for this last quarter because we're going to have strong, strong sales with Black Friday. We're really prepared for the period, and we also have very strong expectations for December. Perfect. So now we can move on to slide 25, just to show you the leverage level as we were demonstrating that we used to consider a range of 0.3-0.5. Now we're getting 0.5 times the EBITDA because of the cash consumption we just demonstrated now, and if we could move on to the next one, there's a disclaimer that Mr. Ilson mentioned, and he brought in this information, so in the third quarter, you have a total CapEx of BRL 232 million, as you can observe. Of course, the main number is related to new stores, but it's important to demonstrate the information Ilson mentioned here on the bottom part of the slide. When we talk about the CapEx in the year of BRL 867 million, and when we look at the BRL 674 in the left bottom part, left bottom corner, we can observe that from the BRL 664 million of new stores, BRL 327 million are from stores that were opened, and BRL 337 million are stores that are still in progress. So that's an important point because that's basically half of the amount being stores, construction projects that are in progress, right? And when we look at the properties, from the BRL 128 million, BRL 88 million are properties for future stores in the land bank at the company. And then BRL 40 million are properties related to stores that are already in operation. So when you look at the accumulated results of BRL 876 million, BRL 425 million are related to future projects or those that are in progress, so projects that are still not initiated. Then, guys, these are the main points we wanted to start off with. From now on, the entire team will be available to get into the Q&A. Thank you very much. Now we're going to begin our Q&A session. We want to thank you, remind you that if you have questions, you must select the Q&A button on the bottom part of your screen and write your question to enter the queue. As you're announced, a request to activate your mic will appear on the screen. Then you must activate your mic to be able to submit a question. We'd ask you to please ensure that all questions be submitted at once. First question from Luiz Felipe at BTG Pactual. Luis, we'll enable your audio so that you may proceed with your question. Luis, you may proceed. Good morning, Mr. Ilson, Túlio, Jesuíno, and Sandro. So two questions on my side. The first, when you talked about the leverage, which is really in the range you had discussed within the market. So we want to mention that when you look at the cash cycle, how can we expect improvements in the next quarters, right? We know that there's a strategic aspect for the fourth quarter and growth, etc. But how can we expect the improvement in the cash cycle? And then a second question related to marketing income from suppliers. If you could also just talk about what we should expect as a dynamic throughout the next quarters. Thanks, Luis, for the question. So on the cash cycle, I think that we saw the behavior in the last year. And we also had the cyclical movement, right? From the fourth to the third quarter, we went from 86 days to 77 days. What we're working on here is towards this in this direction. Let's say, of course, we have the operational challenges, as you all know. During the month of October and November, we had results that were very important with the top line performing with important quality level. Of course, this contributes, right? It really helps connect with the strategy to start off the quarter. We had a month of September that had strong mechanisms connecting the beginning of October the same way. That's where you really have this connected effect. As you all know, we believe that not only in the short term, when you think about the fourth quarter, but also looking up ahead, we really know about the opportunities in regards to this topic. It's a topic that maybe lately we've been most discussing, let's say. So we've been strengthening this and improving the controls in this sense and engaging more and more with the commercial team on this topic and all of the work that the group has been dedicated to so that in regards to this topic, and we have an internal goal that's connected to variable compensation in regards to these topics with stocks and supplier payment conditions where all of the team is involved when it comes to variable compensation, and everyone wants to reach their goals, right? Not only us here, but the entire commercial team, which is really engaged in this topic, and for next year, of course, we haven't finished the budgeting process. We're still discussing the last points, and the idea, of course, is to continue to improve this topic. We know we've been. We know how important the topic is, and we know how there are gaps as well in between our numbers and our competitors' numbers where we have access to this information because it is public, and we've been aware of the size of the value creation when it comes to the ROIC and all of the value generation points when it comes to this topic, so we have commitments to also looking into 2025 and 2026, so then when it comes to the second question you presented when it comes to the supplier budgets, right? Maybe you and Sandro can talk about this as well, Luis, when it comes to the trade marketing income, we've been trying to really prepare for this, and so we dedicated a lot of time and dedication to structuring this area. We have a robust area to work on this segment. And no doubt, as I mentioned to you all, it has been contributing to the margin gains we've been achieving. And no doubt, there's still a path we need to follow. And yes, there's still room for this, but I do hope to share this with you guys during the next quarters with this evolution. So it's hard to give you the numbers in a more precise manner, but I wanted to share our optimism in regards to this. And I think there's a path ahead of us. So we want to do this with a lot of balance and carefulness because we always want to deliver quality EBITDA margins. So this has been a challenge, and I hope I answered your question. Muito obrigado e obrigado também, Túlio. Obrigado, Luis. Thank you, Jesuíno. That was a great answer, and thank you, Túlio, as well. Our next question is from Rodrigo Caihim, from Itaú BBA. Rodrigo, we will open the mic so you can ask your question. Rodrigo, please, the mic is with you. Two questions on my end. So first, I would like to understand when we are calculating the marginal square meter in terms of price so we can understand where the stores are expanding in a year. We see that the marginal price of square meters continues to be very high. In some quarters, it's even higher than the legacy square meter. So what is the mathematical impact of the consolidated margin that the expansion of the new stores will bring when they are brought into the base? And secondly, on CapEx for expansion. You broke down the CapEx for next year. And if we look at the store level, how is the store's CapEx per store for the cost of expanding the network? How has it evolved over time? And what comfort do you have on the marginal CapEx and the marginal ROI that the new store expansion can bring into the groups? Can I answer? Yes, please. Thank you for your question, Rodrigo. In fact, that is quite a precise read on the performance of the units that we have opened and that are performing now for 13 months since expansion. But what I can say also is that the same store performance has been higher than the legacy, and they also perform above what legacy stores perform. And this has contributed to increasing the margin of the network. The challenge over the timeline is something that we have discussed. So how we can balance the gain of shares, the intensity of the gain of shares when we look at the same stores, especially during expansion periods, with the contribution of their results to the marginal gains and how we can also assure the increase of the gross margin. So just to be more practical, the answer is yes, they do bring our same store right up. This has been a reality for most of the stores. And that then makes us find the results that will make our EBITDA numbers more consistent at the end of the day. I hope that somehow answers your question. Rodrigo, about CapEx, we have invested in our CapEx over time and showed you some of the real estate that in some of our larger stores are stores that are considered larger. But you'll notice that we did so and the stores are performing quite well. We also have the estimate of bringing great assets from these stores. Now, for next year, we're already trying to balance this out so we can improve the ROIC. As you can see in the slide that I presented, there are 20 stores. A big part of those stores are super, and that also, well, will become more dense in the states where we're already more dense. So we have super, we have atacarejo, and we're going to bring in a few more service stores as well because those stores are giving us great results, results that are above what we expected. So what we're trying to do is balance the game at all points. And that's where we're putting our energy. So I think it's important to connect to your comment that the stores have made important sales per square meter, and this is connected to our strategy. We are usually more aggressive with our pricing. We are more aggressive with our margin behavior in year one. And from year one to year two, we increase the gross margin. So the gross margin goes up from one year to year two, but not same store sales. And then after year two, same store sales then go up as the store matures. But there's this important behavior that you mentioned. They're very strong in terms of sales, but with low gross margins. And since from year one to year two, there's one of the, well, this is one of the points that really contributes to the gross margin. Túlio, just to see if I understand. Mathematically, then as these stores join this consolidated same store, there can be a mathematical effect of bringing the consolidated amounts down given year one strategy. Perfect, yes. Just ask in a different way, and obviously, I don't want numbers, but more qualitative answer. If you look just at same store sales for the more mature stores, basically, Maranhão and Pará, the behavior of those stores, how it behaves in terms of the inflation of food, and how do you see same store sales for those more mature stores? We saw a behavior that was quite important over this last quarter, which is a quarter where we saw the culmination of some important factors. So the maturing of the new regional, as I mentioned, and increasing. So when we look at the legacy, there's the same store. I think this increase of the gross margin and how we derived it from pricing, etc., also had an effect on the group as a whole. So the profitability in our wholesale increased a lot. And that's why the price component has contributed to the pricing strategy as a whole. So profitability of wholesale in very relevant states like Maranhão and Pará were very important. And this obviously happens in the stores in these states as well, where when you have a gross improvement, you have an increase in profitability, not only because of the dilution of new markets, but also because of this leverage. I think that's it. Perfect. Túlio, Mr. Ilson, Jesuíno and Sandro, thank you for your answers. Our next question is from Santander. We will open your mic so you can make your question. Ruben, please. So, I would like to know about this issue of margin when you see some increase in profitability in Maranhão, Pará, Piauí. You mentioned that there's a lot happening in wholesale. So the initiative regarding to stores, are they also related to pricing, like Jesuíno mentioned? Are there gains moving forward? Can we expect that as well? Another question would be more in relation to how you see this more recent and stronger dynamic. Do you have the expectation that this will bring a more positive effect to the same store in the fourth quarter? If we could even divide expectations in the fourth quarter, that would be great. Thanks. Com relação à margem bruta, a sua leitura está correta porque ela, sem dúvida, as lojas. So Ruben, I mean, the stores do evolve over time, and this is due to the effort that we've made to fix the pricing area. And we've had gains in all channels, including the direct channel, which this quarter performed better. Well, obviously, this was because of the change in ICMS, and all of the channels would be affected by those results or affect those results. And I think the effort that was made and everything that the commercial department did, the sales department did, bringing better negotiation, better conditions, all of those attitudes and countermeasures contributed to this gain in gross margin, not only in retail, but also in wholesale now. Well, I wouldn't highlight the wholesale being responsible for that if I understood your question. In terms of the inflation of food, inflation started increasing a bit. You follow this in September has increased a bit, October a bit more. And so this will definitely contribute to the increase of those stores in the fourth quarter, despite the fact that all of the strategy is focused on bringing the growth of the same stores, and there is a very robust calendar for the fourth quarter of this year. And I think that's where the great strength that will move those stores forward is. Obviously, inflation has its role in helping, supporting, and moving forward. I'm not sure if you want to complement that, Túlio. So in the new regional stores, we have a lot of consolidating routes as well. And we're also very concerned that when this is consolidated by route and category, since we're a multi-channel company, we have to be prepared with the necessary stock and structure so we can gather the best responses. Thank you. Thank you. A nossa próxima pergunta é do Joseph Giordano, do JP Morgan. Joseph, iremos habilitar o seu áudio para que você possa. The next question is from Joseph from JP Morgan. Joseph, you can make your question, please. Hello, good morning. Voltar no tema da rentabilidade da. I would like to go back to the issue of the profitability of marginal expansion. When we look at the square meter and other numbers in our Q3 MD&A, I would like to hear from you if the expectation of profitability in new regionals could be even larger than where you have legacy stores. A second question would be about the competitive environment. So being that the competitive environment has been a bit volatile and also, for example, financing, we had a conversation. I'd like to hear your perspective on that, how you saw this movement, and also how you could benefit from the competitor's plans as well. And also, if you could comment on that transaction as well. Thanks. That's a good reflection that Joseph brings to the table. So how far can we go with expansion? How far can expansion take its margins? As you mentioned, Joseph, we have a competitive environment in these regions, which is different. It has its characteristics. And we also have a path in which our stores have matured, and we gather the fruits, we harvest the fruits as they happen. So today, since we have an important complex of stores that are over 13 months old in this region, I would tell you that, I would say to you that we are within the planned. And the idea is that we will make this more consistent and any scenario that allows us to be more profitable, we won't think twice. But up until now, we have tried to stick to the plan and see what we have in terms of opportunities and our store opportunity formats. When you expand some retail, you have the opportunity to bring your margins up. And it's not that you have a comparable base with your competition, but I think that if in this new market we can be more profitable, we will be. But currently, we are trying to move towards what we planned and take advantage of the growth of our teams in all of the aspects, operational, commercial, in this path forward. I think in terms, Joseph, and in general, eu diria que em especial esse ano, e mais especial ainda nesse último trimestre. I would like to say that this year, and more especially now in the last quarter, the interference of this in our results is almost zero. So we didn't feel or any interference that could have been more acute during this time. That's one point. Now, regarding our more careful planning, which you quote, we obviously follow the public and I think Túlio and Sandro understand this. We are focused on our business. We're focused here. We want to keep growing. We want to keep delivering this consistent results and becoming more and more resilient. So we're very focused here and on the resilience of our business, on better results for our business. And I think that that's what I can say. That's our north. The rest is a consequence. About what's new, I think Mr. Ilson could talk about that. Just to hook onto what you said in terms of expansion for all of these regionals, we are very well defined in terms of what needs to be done, where we need to get, and we're focused on that. So regardless of any possible scenarios, we are focused on that. We know what needs to be done. We're concentrated on that expansion plan. That's what we're focused on in terms of the integration of what's new. It's an important moment of change for the consolidation. We have good expectations. I think when that moment starts, we will take great steps. That will strengthen us when we move into those three new states. That should also make us very optimistic in terms of that. Thank you. And perfect answer. Our next question comes from João Soares from Citi. João, we are going to enable your audio. So you can ask your question. Good morning. I would like to explore some important questions here. First, understanding the growth of wholesale. We see wholesale growing during the last quarters. And what can you tell us about how we break down the new DCs and the new routes in the DCs that already exist? So if we look at 2025, how can we understand the growth of wholesale being that we didn't have such good investments this year? Second point, Túlio, if we could start imagining the effect of this on our working capital, if we could somehow trace what the stock levels should be. And if we look at the fourth quarter, also, what opportunities could we have in terms of our working capital? And last, also, Sandro, you have experienced a gain of share, and I would like to know where you're making that share. Is this a gain on big networks? It would be interesting to understand if you could share with us where this share comes from, etc. Thank you. Com relação ao atacado, à medida que a gente foi avançando com os correios, a gente já in terms of wholesale, a gente foi criando essa estrutura e elas foram muito importantes. We set up our structure, and it was very important. Now the stores help wholesale, wholesale helps the stores, and we are expanding some DCs exactly because of our growth. Mas já faz ano, mas também lojas novas. Of the same stores and a gente começa a mostrar para os nossos fornecedores a nossa capacidade. We start showing our suppliers our capacity to potentialize points of sale, POSs. So where we have a very high potential and of these points of sale, and we are now implementing this in the new regionals. This is also adding a lot to our growth, which we hope that we will be able to continue finding new distributors and new suppliers and ensuring this growth. Okay, thank you very much. Well, let me just complete the answer to that question about our working capital and our stock. I think that as you have seen, we have made an effort, a structural effort here of cost for opportunity so we can improve our levels of control, adjust the operation of stock as a whole, and when we look at the evolution that we have been tracing over the last few quarters, we had 88, 84, and this number is certainly a number that we're comfortable with. So if we think forward-thinking, we know that we have opportunities on these different levels. So I think the idea here is not to build the short-term numeric strategies or expectations, but. Proveem retorno de qualidade, naturalmente esse assunto vai encaixando. E claro que a gente continua. And naturally, this depends on the structural improvement of our working capital. So if this year we have reached the level of 82-84, we don't only understand that this level is recurrent cash, but we have opportunities to make more over that amount. So that should clarify for you that this is something that we are already working with and will continue to work intensely on. All of the organization that has a direct impact on this subject has its metrics completely related to the subject. Thank you. About the gain of share, João, I can complete the answer to that question because we understand that the Northeastern states are diverse in nature. Every state in the Northeast has a structural design, has a way it operates in retail and wholesale. It's not a big conglomerate. So we have states like Ceará where we have structured wholesale, structured retail. And then you have a state like Pernambuco. Pernambuco is a state that's more focused on wholesale of services, cash and carry. So that's what we can tell you about each state, that most of our share is directed to the structure of each state. So the scenario in Brazil is interesting among other things because of that, because we need to understand how to position ourselves in terms of what the state and the cities compete with. So, some states are coming from the traditional retail, some states are coming more from the work of nationals. So, there's not a very good recipe for the cake. We are able to operate with what every state offers in terms of challenges. So, at the end, we have been able to conquer quite an interesting space and consider also making the network more dense. I just wanted to hook onto what you're saying and the importance of our multi-channels because we're going, we fit each of our businesses into every situation, every state's location and nature. We're able to fit the model that works out best. Túlio, there was nothing extra seasonal impacting your working capital, just to know if there was something more aggressive this year or if it's just seasonal effects as well. Last year, we had the birthday campaign only in August, so we had a September which was normalized, and this year we proposed for two months. So I think that's the only difference between one period and the next. And I think that's why we have to be concerned of the stock. Obrigado. Thank you. Thank you for the results and congratulations for the results. Our next question is from Carlos. Carlos, we will open the mic so that you can ask your question. Please, Carlos. Thales. Hello, good morning. Congratulations for the results. I wanted to ask a question about SG&A and the optimization of processes. So we can understand and add some color to what you've done and what is the size of the opportunity. And then a follow-up on the question of cross margins. I would like to know how much comes from the maturing of those 20 basis points and what comes from the new initiatives and if those new initiatives that you have taken are totally implemented or if you see more room for that moving forward? So I think this issue of SG&A is an issue which we started to work with more intensely over the last year, so a company like ours has been growing very strongly over the last few years, so it's natural that our focus has been the business opportunities, the sales, the margin possibilities, so we understood that now it's time to look more carefully towards everything which is related to expenses, especially the expenses that have less contact with the clients. So, of course, we won't put this under risk to preserve the levels of services, but there are diverse operations, the administrative factors as well as time in stores, which don't have this direct quality for clients. So, we've been working a lot with what we have available here, and we dropped a quota for 2024, which brought operational expenses increases. It was an effort which was made in stores during the year that was very interesting and was careful to preserve our points of contact with clients and customers. And we also diagnosed different areas, opportunities for optimization, reviewed and revisited and assessed different departments. That was just one of the cases, but there are other elements as well. So, as you can see, this is an effort which is continuous. Productivity and cost reduction needs to be a consistent effort. All of the responsibility, authority, consequences, the rights of accountability, and our accountability within systems as well. We start having instruments and a toolbox where I'm able to consider a higher level of maturity and better opportunities that come gradually. I think that, as you can see, the efforts have been made by the company to continuously improve and perfect this in our profitability curve moving forward. Thales, in terms of the gain and gross margin, it's important that I tell you the following. When these changes happened, we had an important block here because if we hadn't had a lot of dedication on this issue, it would affect gross margin quite a bit. I also want to take advantage of all of the effort that the salespeople did and the sales department, especially our pricing department. I have to share with you that the work, the effort they made, pricing in terms of finding help from our main suppliers so that this couldn't impact our margin, and the leveraging of that new pricing, and then obviously the improvement of trading and everything that we have generally done. I can tell you, Thales, that the gains come from the main efforts that the task force and the sales department have made. I hope that answers your question. That's where we see most of the progress coming from. Thank you, Thales. Thanks, guys. Thank you for your answers. Let's go to our next question. Danniela Eiger, from XP. Danniela, will open your mic so you can ask your question. Please, Danniela, the floor is with you. Good morning, Wilson Jesuíno, Túlio. Congratulations for this quarter's results. My questions are along two follow-up questions. First, the stock dynamic. I understand there is the regular seasonality, but you also talked about preparation for the fourth quarter. I would like to know if you have focused on specific items in terms of the acceleration on inflation on food types. Is this a strategic decision to try to avoid inflation or expand margin and not contain your losses? What was the strategic decision regarding your preparation for the fourth quarter in terms of stock decisions that were made regarding food items? Also about the EBITDA, when you made the routes more dense, busier, this was something we expected since the beginning of the store openings, and we see it coming strong now, but you said you're also investing strongly in the capacity of your DCs to structure this moving forward. So how can we understand the recurrence of the gains in margin from the routes becoming more dense? Thank you. Thank you, Dani. I can start answering your question. Thank you, Dani, from XP. So regarding our stock strategy, we have lots of different regionals. So as you know, we set up a sales department. All of our Northeastern states, these Northeastern states have more stores. That's where our presence is stronger. That's where we brought the team focused on the massive challenge that we have, which is delivering results to our customers and where everyone is able to negotiate at a regional level, considering regional specificities. I think that is what we do well here at the group. We think local, we think regional, and we take into consideration those tailored demands. So it's not that we focus on A, B, or C category. All of our sales departments in all of the Northeast states, we're focused on making a stronger third quarter, a more robust third quarter in terms of results. Sandro has said this, and I would like to repeat as well that here we have improvements to be made. As Túlio said that we are focused on delivering the best possible results, Dani, where there was no specific focus on one category. So obviously, strong effort on the sales department side for all of the Northeast, working to deliver the most consistent results that we can. Túlio, can you talk about the EBITDA margin, please? I think when we talk about gross margins, that is directly related to our pricing strategy. So what Dani's asking is about the recurrence of the EBITDA margin, profile of stores, etc. She also talked about how we've made the routes more dense and busier. Can I comment on that, if you don't mind? We have areas there where we need to expand some of the DCs. So as the stores come and the wholesalers come, everything adds, you know? So it's a bit of everything, and that's not something that you are going to find from one second to the next. It's a constant, consistent, progressive evolution where we improve slowly. And what's most important to us, Túlio, Sandro, and Jesuíno, here at the board, is delivering consistent results. We don't want peaks in the results, highs and lows. We slowly consolidate, we slowly gain market share, and that helps us to, and that clearly contributes to the regularity of our results. So that's where we're focused. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your answer, and congratulations on the excellent quarter and great third quarter results. The session for questions and answers is closed, and now we would like to pass the word to the company for their final considerations. So I would like to close by saying, I want to thank God for the victories of our company, for our financial gains, which were very great. I want to once again tell you that we have faith in our God, and we thank our God in which we put our faith. God's word tells us that up until now, the Lord has helped us, that has given us victory after victory, and in Psalm 37:5, it says that the word of God, deliver your path to God, trust God, and He will support you. We who fear our God know that all honor and all glory should be given to God. This comes from God. God is our provider. God is the one who has given us our strategy, our wisdom, and, you know, the wisdom to care for our company, the company that He has supplied us with, the company that He wants us to care for. Jesuíno Martins, todo o nosso diretor está aqui na mesa. Túlio, nosso VP financeiro, está almoçando, que tanto tem contribuído aí com operações, comercial, logística. And I want to especially thank each one of you as you are at this moment at the stores defending each of the sectors, working in the cash, in the bakery, in the logistics, in the groceries, in the fruits and vegetables, our service stores, our cash and carry stores. Each of the 60,000 employees, I'd like to hug each of you guys because we see this strong dynamic. We know the pressure in the day-to-day results, and we, of course, depend on you guys, and you guys are the ones that really make the business happen. So thank you so much to each one of you. And we also want to say thank you to each of our suppliers that are a major pillar in our business. And our life will only keep going on if we have your support, as well as our investors listening to us and, once again, believing in our work. So really trusting in us and our consumers as well. And so really helping with different processes. And we've been really happy with this store opening in Casa Forte as well. It was a major lesson learned, and this is something that we definitely think is impossible to price, right? So thank you so much. Bye, guys. The earnings call for the third quarter of 2024 at Grupo Mateus has officially ended. The investor relations department is available to answer any of your other questions. Thank you so much to all participants, and have a great day.