Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Alsea's second quarter 2026 earnings media conference. My name is Gerardo Lozoya, and I'm head of investor relations and corporate affairs. Today, you will hear from our Chief Executive Officer, Christian Gurría, and Federico Rodríguez, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we continue, a friendly reminder that some of our comments today will contain forward-looking statements based on our current business view and that future results may differ materially from these statements. Today's call should be considered in conjunction with disclaimers in our earnings release and most recent Bolsa Mexicana de Valores report. The company is not obliged to update or revise any such forward-looking statements. Please note that unless specified otherwise, the earnings numbers referred to are based on pre-IFRS 16 standards. I will now hand it over to Christian for his initial remarks. Please go ahead, Christian. Thank you, Gerardo. Good morning and thank you all for joining us in Alsea's second quarter 2026 earnings video conference. I will begin with an overview of our performance during the quarter, highlighting key operating trends across regions and brands, as well as our progress in digital expansion and ESG initiatives. Federico, our CFO, will then walk you through our financial results in more detail. Before going into quarterly figures, I would like to briefly step back and provide some context on how the quarter evolved. As anticipated at the start of the year, consumer demand remained uneven across our markets and became more challenging during the second quarter, particularly in Mexico. April was the softest month, reflecting weaker discretionary spending and lower traffic across much of the industry. Conditions improved slightly in May and further in June, but the overall environment remained more cautious than we had initially expected. The FIFA World Cup generated additional customer traffic during June, particularly across Chili's and Domino's Pizza. While the impact was relatively in line with our expectations, it helped partially offset the weakness observed in April and represented a positive contribution in the quarter. While the operating environment was challenging during the quarter, we maintained disciplined execution supported by the strength of our brands and our continued focus on profitability, customer experience, and cash flow generation. With that context, let me provide an overview of our quarterly performance, including our financial results, regional highlights, and key brand developments, along with updates on our digital advancements, ESG initiatives, and expansion strategy. In the second quarter, we reported a 0.9% year-over-year decrease in total sales, reaching MXN 20.21 billion, or a 3.5% increase. Excluding foreign exchange effects, same-store sales grew by 2.6%. EBITDA decreased 6.2% in the second quarter, reaching MXN 2.8 billion with a margin of 13.5%, decreasing by 70 basis points year-over-year. Regarding brand performance in the second quarter, the Starbucks Alsea same-store sales increased by 0.6% versus the same period a year ago. For Starbucks Mexico, same-store sales decreased by 2%, reflecting a challenging environment combined with a deliberate reduction in promotional activity as we prioritize profitability and an enhanced customer experience across our stores and to comparison base in April of last year due to the Peanuts campaign. For Starbucks Europe, same-store sales increased by 2.2% with solid performance in Spain and the rest of the markets, while France continued to lag, but with trends improving toward the end of the quarter and double-digit growth in the Netherlands and Belgium. Finally, in South America, same-store sales rose 10.5%, driven primarily by Argentina. Excluding Argentina, same-store sales increased 3%, supported by a strong performance in Colombia. Domino's Pizza Alsea posted a 2.7% increase in same-store sales. In Mexico, Domino's same-store sales increased 3%, reflecting a gradual improvement over the course of the quarter, partially in June, supported by FIFA World Cup. In Spain, same-store sales increased by 1.6%, supported by continued solid commercial execution. In Colombia, Domino's same-store sales increased 6.9%, sustaining the strong momentum seen in recent quarters. Burger King Alsea same-store sales, excluding Argentina, decreased 2.5%, showing a slight improvement over the course of the quarter. In Chile, same-store sales decreased 5.7% due to an economic slowdown across the country. The full-service restaurant segment delivered a 3.6% same-store sales growth, remaining one of the most consistent performers during the quarter. Full-service restaurants in Mexico increased by 5.4%, led by outstanding performance at Chili's, with a particularly strong June growing double digits. Driven by the FIFA World Cup, Vips also delivered solid growth, maintaining its consistent execution and its attractive value and innovating offerings. Same-store sales for full-service restaurants in Spain grew 1.3%, reflecting growth broad-based across most of the portfolio. During the second quarter, we opened 30 new stores, 20 corporate units and 10 franchises, continuing to expand our presence across our key markets while maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation. Although the operating environment has become more challenging, our expansion strategy remains unchanged as paybacks and returns of the new openings remain healthy. We continue to prioritize opportunities that meet our return thresholds, balancing new unit growth with investments in our existing store base. Store remodels remain an important part of the strategy as they continue to renovate attractive returns while enhancing and elevating customer experience. We also continue advancing our portfolio optimization efforts. During the quarter, we completed a divestment of Archie's in Colombia, allowing us to further concentrate our resources on the brands and markets where we see the greatest growth opportunities. At the same time, we continue evaluating the potential divestment of other brands within Alsea's portfolio in order to improve profitability and simplify our business model. In addition, last week we successfully opened our first Chipotle restaurant in Monterrey. While it's still early, we are encouraged by the initial customer response and remain excited about the opportunity to continue developing the brand in Mexico. Our digital platforms continue to be key drivers of growth. By the end of the quarter, loyalty sales increased 8%, reaching MXN 5.5 billion, representing 24.3 million orders and contributing 27.9% of total sales. We also surpassed 8.4 million active users across our loyalty programs, confirming the strength of our digital engagement. Additionally, we served 34.7 million digital orders in the quarter, totaling MXN 8 billion, which represents 40.7% of our total sales. Turning to our ESG initiatives, during the quarter, we published our 25th integrated annual report, reaffirming our commitment to creating long-term sustainable value through our sustainability model. As always, the report is available on our website for those interested in a more detailed review of our ESG initiatives and performance. We also completed a global climate risk assessment covering more than 3,600 sites across Mexico, South America, and Europe, representing approximately 73% of our portfolio. This strengthens our ability to identify and manage climate-related risks across our operations and supply chain. Finally, through Fundación Alsea, we continue to expand our social impact. As of the end of the quarter, we have donated more than MXN 53 million and delivered over 490,000 meals, benefiting more than 16,000 people through our initiatives focused on food safety, food security, education, and employability. In Europe, our five brands also participated in the Producto con Corazón, so Product with a Heart, campaign, raising more than EUR 100,000 to support nutrition and well-being projects through Fundación Alsea in Spain. Let me now turn it over to Federico, our CFO, who will provide further insight on the financial performance. Thank you, Christian, and good morning, everyone. The sales decreased by 0.9% in the second quarter, mainly due to weaker consumption in Mexico and a negative foreign exchange effect. Excluding the foreign exchange effect, sales increased 3.8%. In the second quarter, sales in Mexico were up 4.2% to MXN 12.2 billion, mainly driven by the full-service restaurant segment. In Europe, sales decreased by 7.4% to MXN 5.9 billion, while in Euro terms, sales increased by 4%, mainly driven by the consistent performance in Spain. Finally, South America sales fell 6.9% to MXN 2.9 billion. EBITDA decreased by 6.2% with a margin contraction of 70 basis points, mainly due to a weaker consumption environment in Mexico and South America, a stronger peso that represents MXN 65 million of conversion, and a one-off in the second quarter of last year related with the selling of 10 stores of Domino's Pizza to one of the franchisees. In Mexico, adjusted EBITDA increased 1.3% year-over-year with a margin contraction of 70 basis points, mainly due to reduced operating leverage resulting from a slower same-store sales growth, partially offset by a positive impact of some dollarized input costs given the appreciation of the Mexican peso. In Europe, the adjusted EBITDA decreased by 10.5% year-over-year, driven by the foreign exchange effect. Excluding this effect, adjusted EBITDA grew 8%, reflecting lower cost of certain raw materials and efficient control in operating expenses. In South America, adjusted EBITDA decreased by 15.1%, mainly driven by the foreign exchange effect, as well as pressure on certain input costs. Net income for the second quarter decreased 48.4% year-over-year, reaching MXN 528 million, reflecting a less favorable foreign exchange impact on the financing result as this quarter recorded a foreign exchange loss of MXN 81 million compared to the non-cash FX gain of MXN 608 million recognized in the same period last year due to the dollar bonds held in the balance sheet. The CapEx for the first six months of the year totaled MXN 1.8 billion. Out of this total, 78% was allocated to store development initiatives, including the opening of 20 new corporate units, the renovation and remodeling of existing locations, and equipment replacement across the brands. The remaining 22% was directed at digitalization projects. By the end of the second quarter, the pre-IFRS 16 total debt increased by MXN 2.1 billion year-over-year, reaching MXN 35 billion. The company's net debt, not accounting the impact of IFRS 16, was MXN 29.5 billion, which is MXN 501 million less than it was at the same time last year. This increase reflects the discipline in free cash flow through a more efficient CapEx, a reduction on the cost of financing aligned with the refinancing of the different facilities, and a more predictable working capital. Consolidated net debt reached MXN 44.9 billion, including leases. At the end of the quarter, 99% of the debt was long-term, with 71% denominated in Mexican pesos and 29% in euros. We remain focused on maintaining a healthy capital structure supported by proven financial management. By the end of the quarter, the cash position stood at MXN 5.5 billion. Turning to the financial ratios, the total debt to post-IFRS 16 EBITDA ratio closed the quarter at 2.8 times, while the net debt to EBITDA ratio stood at 2.5 times. Since establishing the 2026 guidance, the consumer environment in Mexico has been more challenging than we initially anticipated, particularly during the early part of the second quarter. April was the softest month of the year from a consumer demand and traffic perspective and weighted meaningfully on our performance during the period. Encouragingly, trends improved progressively as the quarter advanced, with May performing better than April and June improving further. This sequential recovery was supported by the strength and relevance of the brands, targeted commercial initiatives, and the continued focus on delivering compelling value and customer experiences across the portfolio. While these improving trends reinforce the confidence in the resilience of the business, we believe it is prudent to reflect the current demand environment in the outlook. As a result, we have revised the 2026 guidance to allow single-digit growth for same-store sales, revenue, and EBITDA. Importantly, the capital allocation framework remains unchanged. We continue to expect approximately MXN 5.5 billion in CapEx between 180 and 220 store openings and leverage within the previously communicated range. This reflects the continued confidence in the long-term attractiveness of the growth opportunities and the returns generated by the investment pipeline. More importantly, the guidance revision should not be interpreted as a change in the long-term thesis. We continue to see a strong brand relevance, healthy consumer engagement, and significant growth opportunities across markets. These adjustments reflect a more cautious view of near-term demand, not a deterioration in the long-term fundamentals of the business. Looking ahead, the focus remains on the variables within our control, protecting profitable traffic, maintaining pricing discipline, strengthening the value proposition of the brands, leveraging our digital and loyalty capabilities, and accelerating productivity and efficiency initiatives across the organization. We are not relying on a sharp recovery in the consumer demand. Rather, our expectations are supported by disciplined execution, continued cost management efforts, and the gradual improvement in trends we observed throughout the quarter. Free cash flow generation remains one of the highest priorities. Combined with disciplined capital allocation and a stronger balance sheet following the refinancing initiatives, we remain confident in the ability to generate solid free cash flow while continuing to invest behind the brands and long-term growth agenda. Ultimately, we believe the combination of improving sequential trends, a portfolio of category-leading brands, discipline of operational execution, a strong focus on cash generation, and an unchanged long-term investment framework positions Alsea well to navigate the current environment and continue creating sustainable value for all the shareholders. I will now pass you over to the operator for the Q&A session. Please, operator. We will now start the Q&A session. If you have a question, please press the question button in the browser. Please make sure you are not in full screen mode to see the button. The first question is from Mr. Ben Theurer from Barclays. Please go ahead. Yeah. Good morning, Christian, Federico. Thank you very much for taking my question. Just two very quick ones. Obviously, the quarter had a couple of softer spots, so as we look particularly at the performance in Mexico, and I was wondering if you could maybe elaborate a little bit more on what might have been weaker versus your initial expectations. Given the World Cup that came, some of the tourist traffic that should have come into the different cities kind of surprising to see a little bit more softness here in some of the categories. Maybe just a reconciliation of what were expectations versus what was reality, and where was the mismatch? That would be my first question. Second, could you elaborate a little bit more on France and the performance there most recently? Obviously, Spain has continued to do very well, holding up the European markets, but just wondering about the sequential trends on France, where we stand right now. Those were my two quick ones. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. Good morning, and thank you for your questions. Let me answer the second one first about France. As you are aware, since last year, we launched a recovery plan for the market in order to shift the trends that we were seeing. This year, we have clearly seen an improvement on the trend in terms of traffic with the last three months showing positive traffic versus last year. Basically, it's a very 360 plan. One, the biggest portion is focused on brand equity, and the second one is focused on the conditions of our stores, elevating the conditions of our stores. The third one is on a commercial platform, where we are bringing the brand closer to different events around music, around entertainment, around experience. We believe that has been why we have seen this shift in terms of performance. Talking about France, you didn't ask the question also, but regarding the Netherlands and Belgium, we are seeing double-digit growth since the beginning of the year in terms of sales. That is also encouraging for us as we are seeing the strategy moving forward. Regarding traffic in Q2 and expectations, it's true that what we expected was that Chili's and Domino's Pizza had a very strong and very well benefit by the World Cup. The rest of the brands, talking specifically about Mexico, the FSR brands were performing pretty in line with what we expected. Nevertheless, we clearly saw a reduction of traffic that impacted brands like Starbucks, particularly in airports, and these types of locations. Regarding the cities like Monterrey, Guadalajara, and Mexico, part of the impact that we had is the reduction of movement. There was under promotion, I would say, of home office, particularly during the important games, obviously the 13 games that we saw in Mexico, plus the important games across the World Cup. I would say those are the effects that we saw. Fortunately, we have seen also that as we move into the month of July, we've seen, besides last weekend with the two, the final game and the third and fourth place games, we clearly saw a shift on the trend, in general, in all of our brands. Perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ben. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Alejandro Fuchs from Itaú BBA. Please go ahead. Thank you, operator. [Foreign language] Christian, Federico, Gerardo. Thank you for the space for questions. I have two quick ones, if I may. The first one in Mexico, was wondering, Christian or Federico, could you give us a little more context on what is the company doing in terms of maybe SG&A contention, given that same-store sales are coming a little bit, let's say, below expectations on the second quarter, even though improving. Is there a strategy maybe to contain a little bit of the expense fronts? That'll be number one. Number two, in terms of the guidance, maybe for Federico. The guidance implies a stable margin, right? EBITDA pre-IFRS, because low single-digit top-line growth, low single-digit EBITDA growth. For the first half of the year, we saw EBITDA margin contraction already. You were expecting EBITDA margin expansion for the second half, but you also said you don't expect demand to hugely increase going forward. How can we put in balance those two things? Thank you. Gracias, Alejandro. I will take both of the questions. I will start regarding the guidance. We are not assuming a sharp margin recovery in the second half regarding demand. Rather, we expect a gradual stabilization supported by several factors. This was what happened during second quarter. First, we are seeing a sequential improvement in demand trends as the quarter progressed, particularly after April. Second, we continue to benefit from lower dollar-denominated input costs, which support gross margin during the year. Third, we are executing a number of productivity and efficiency initiatives across the business, including labor optimization. This means increasing productivity, procurement savings, and tighter SG&A management. Importantly, the margin outlook does not depend on a significant acceleration in consumer demand. This is not going to change from one day to the other. The focus remain on improving traffic quality, maintaining pricing discipline, and translating operational efficiencies into profitability. I think we are on the way. As a result, we believe margins should gradually stabilize in the second half, supported by execution, initiatives in productivity, and cost discipline. Margin stabilization is not going to come from a consumer demand change on the short term. That's the thesis that we have for the second part of this year. Regarding the SG&A, I know that you guys used to do some kind of arithmetic to analyze how is the SG&A. It is important to note that part of the year-over-year comparison that you are calculating is affected by a more favorable base in the prior year. In the second half of 2025, we benefited from a one-off gain related to the sale of 10 stores to one of our franchisees in Domino's Pizza. This was a positive impact into the operating expenses. In addition, the reopening expenses last year were unusually low a year ago due to timing difference in the store opening schedule and development pipeline. This does not mean that we are being more unproductive in terms of the SG&A. It's just a delay of the openings, plus a one-off in the second quarter of 2025. Super clear. [Foreign language] Federico. [Foreign language] Alejandro. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Luis Terzariol from Citi. Please go ahead. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. My first one is regarding the performance of Starbucks Mexico. I wanted to have a better color on the outcome that you expect with the actions that you have been taking, and the format, such as the store remodelings and the store refurbishment program. What should we expect from the performance of the stores after you fully deploy them? Is there any sales uplift or margin uplift target that you can share with us? When should we expect to start seeing these benefits in the company's results? My second one is regarding the new stores portfolio of site same store sales. If you could just give a little bit of a comment on how did it contribute to the quarterly performance as well as if you can talk a little bit about the mature portfolio, the performance for the quarter. Thanks. Sure. Okay. Regarding the new stores pipeline, Luis, as said before, we're not changing the thesis for the past quarter this year. The long-term thesis is pretty much the same. That's the reason that we are not changing the framework, not only for 2025, but for the next five years. As you know, this year we will be opening 220 stores in the different geographies. In Mexico, 70% of that growth, and Spain, 30% of that. Regarding the brands, pretty much the same, 60% Starbucks, 20% Domino's Pizza, and 20% the full-service restaurant brands. The paybacks that we are seeing nowadays, even with the reduction on the same store sales, not only in the Starbucks, but in the whole portfolio from the first quarter to the second quarter in Mexico, does not change this thesis. The paybacks that we are seeing, especially in Starbucks, when we are opening, we have paybacks from two to three years. Those are really good, and the casual dining is pretty much the same. Some of the questions will arise if we are going to change the breakdown from Starbucks to full service. That is not going to change like that. We delay to open a new store from Starbucks or from Domino's or the full-service restaurant brands around 18 to 24 months. It is not easy to find one of these sites, and especially with the returns that we are seeing on a cash basis, we do not have a reason to change the long-term strategy of Alsea. Starbucks. Luis, regarding Starbucks, we are focused on rebuilding traffic through both brand and operational initiatives. Yesterday, for example, we launched our Juntémonos Más campaign, so Let's Get Together campaign, which is our new brand platform that reinforces the Starbucks role as the third place, a space that brings together people beyond home and work. At the same time, we are rolling out the new POS platform that will improve speed of service, operational efficiency, and customer experience. Plus, as you mentioned about the remodeling, we have committed to 85 remodeling and more than 60 openings in Mexico this year. We expect to finish the remodeling by the end of September, beginning of October, we don't impact the higher sales period. In the case of openings, we should be delivering the 60-plus openings by the end of December. We will start looking at the effect of the remodeling as we go through the years. As I have mentioned before, in Starbucks, the impact of the remodeling in terms of sales goes from 3.5%-7% on same store sales, depending on the extent of the remodeling. If we are able to add a terrace or a mezzanine or improve the distribution of the store, depending on how the customer uses the stores, which we already know, those are the improvements in traffic that you could see. We will see this across the year on the stores as we remodel. This is an ongoing process as we are going to continue with the same strategy following 2026, where we're going to continue allocating an important part of the CapEx on the brand in remodeling and uplifting stores, and to elevate the customer experience. Thank you so much for the color, guys. Thank you. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Ms. Isabella Lamas from UBS. Please go ahead. Hello. Hi, Christian, Federico, Gerardo. Thank you for the space here for the questions. If I could ask you from our side here, starting by the same-store sales trends by month. You've mentioned that there was a gradual progress, with June much better than May, better than April. I was kind of wondering if you could give a bit more color on how are things progressing since June. How do you see July up to the point across geographies, especially in Mexico, if you could give a bit more of detail on that. Overall, if you think you could expect some recovery and progress, across the third quarter. That's my first point. The second one, if I could, ask about Starbucks, specifically in Mexico. If you could also provide a bit more detail in, what do you think could be the reasons for the softness we saw in the quarter? If you expect a recovery path, and maybe could we see some positive levels, going into the next quarter? That will be it. Thank you again. Thank you, Isabel. I will take both questions. Regarding Starbucks in Mexico, how we view the second quarter is a combination of different factors. The first one is a softer demand due to the macroeconomic environment we are seeing. As I mentioned before, lower airport traffic, which represent an important number of our stores. Movement restrictions during the FIFA World Cup, particularly in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, and during this period, the promotion of home office, in these particular cities, which are our largest cities. Nevertheless, we continue with our middle long-term strategy of the brand, as I mentioned just before, prioritizing remodeling, store uplifts, and new store openings, in order to make sure we continue elevating the customer experience. At the same time, how do we bring the brand closer to more customers? Having said that, this is what we've seen during the quarter. We have also seen a gradual recovery as the month of July started. When we see the games spread out more, we've seen clearly activity going back to normal. We have seen clearly this in a positive way, particularly to your question about Starbucks. How do we see, I believe that the question is going to be a little bit repetitive to what I just said about what are we gonna do with Starbucks moving forward. This Juntémonos Más campaign, which was launched yesterday, is really a focus on the third place and Starbucks values and what makes Starbucks what it is. At the same time, this rolling of the new POS platform in Mexico, which was something that we were working for several months to begin the launch, has started already. We did a pilot in some of our stores. We have clearly seen the benefit with a better performing platform, which help us with speed of service and when you put all together in a transaction. At the same time, we continue working on innovation. Being a Starbucks, innovation in beverage, one of the key factors that we see it continues moving the needle. We have some new beverages coming as we move on during this quarter. By the end of the quarter, with the return of the classic drinks like Pumpkin Spice Latte and in Christmas campaign with the classics like Toffee Nut Latte and some innovation around merch and food. We believe that we are already seeing in July a recovery. We are confident by the end of the quarter; we should be much better than what we delivered in Starbucks in the second quarter. Complementing the first question regarding the same-store sales evolution, Isabella, the key point is that April was clearly the lowest point of the quarter. We have seen sequential improvement in May and June, both for Alsea and all of the brands, and we continue to see that positive trend in July. In fact, the current same-store sales trends, I am watching that right now, are tracking closer to what we have seen in the first quarter than to the levels we experienced in April. We also expect that the end of the World Cup period will provide a more normalized backdrop for the demand. As said before, the haircut on the guidance is not taking into account a huge recovery in the demand. Isabella, sorry, if I may add a couple of things for Starbucks Mexico. We faced in the second quarter a tough comp. In the initial remarks from Christian, we mentioned the Phoenix campaign, that we didn't have, let's say, this 2026. That was something that affected the quarter, particularly again in April, which was the softest month. Christian were saying, we were trending positive in May and June. We also had the Cherry Blossom campaign last year, which again, didn't have this week. We've been keeping saying to the market that we were trying to get, let's say, or not related too much into the merge campaigns, which brings, yeah, traffic, but usually are kind of lower margin initiatives. That's something that we've been, again, doing on purpose, trying to benefit our profitability. Thank you, guys. If you allow me, could I do a quick follow-up? How do you see the market share trends for Starbucks in Mexico? Do you see the market growing? A quick comment about that, quickly. Thanks. Yes. As I mentioned before, we continue with our strategy. This is a long-term strategy, not one quarter. As mentioned by Gerardo Lozoya, Federico Rodriguez, and myself, there were some particular factors compared versus last year, some of the negative effects in the brand coming from the FIFA World Cup. This doesn't change the strategy. We continue on our path to deliver the 60-plus openings that we planned for this year. We continue penetrating the brand. There is still wide space to continue developing the brand in the country, with existing formats like drive-throughs, core stores, and different formats. We are confident with that strategy and with the returns every time we open a new store that are being delivered. No, we don't have any particular concern on that regard. Thank you very much. Goodbye. Thank you, Isabella. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Tiago Bortoluci from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Yes. Hey, good morning, everyone. Christian, Federico, Gerardo. Questions. I have watched previous conversations. To begin this, again, on Starbucks Mexico, right? I understand that most of the mentioned are related to macro–World Cup things that are outside what the company can control. It is also that more recently announced a few management changes, and those are two months after your investor day, right? The first question is, what are the kind of capabilities that you identified that you need today in Starbucks that weren't there two months ago when we discussed the strategic plan? This is the first question. I think we lost Tiago. Let's see if we can bring him back. Our next question is from Ms. Melissa Byun from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted first to ask if you could comment on the impact of the World Cup in Spain and the trajectory sales along the quarter and expectations going into the second half. On South America, I wanted to better understand the drivers of the gross margin contraction, whether higher fuel prices are having an impact either on your cost of goods or on other distribution expenses, and when you expect to see some of the savings from consolidating the back office with Mexico. Thank you. Hi, Melissa. How are you? Regarding Spain and the World Cup, the brand that clearly was positively impacted by the World Cup was Domino's Pizza. Regarding the other brands, due to the time of the games and the times the games were scheduled, we really didn't see neither a positive or negative impact in our food service brands or in the case of Starbucks. Actually, Starbucks continue with a solid performance as well as our other brands like Foster's Hollywood and Vips continue performing solid. Really the brand that was positively impacted was Domino's, but besides that, there was no important or positive impact or negative or positive impact. Pretty much the market remained stable. Okay. The trends in sales by month along the quarter and going into the second half? So far, we are back as we ended Q1 with similar trends. Summer started pretty strong in Europe, which is also encouraging. Regarding South America loss of margin, Melissa, the primary driver was a loss of operating leverage resulting from weaker reported sales against what we were expecting, particularly in Argentina and Chile. Colombia had a great trading, especially with Domino's, during the second quarter. While underlying demand trends were mixed, these markets, Argentina reported sales in MXN negatively affected by the currency translation. This is not only present in South America, but in Europe too. If you look at the figures of Europe in local currency, it's an improving in all the different lines, from top line to EBITDA to profitability. Well, it was a currency translation. Regarding the consolidation of the synergies, not only for the back office, both the increase in productivity, a lot of them will be set in place during the second half of this year, more for the fourth quarter and the remaining part for the first half of 2027. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you very much for your question. We will now return to Mr. Tiago Bortoluci from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Hey, guys. Good morning. Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Could I go back to the first question? Thank you very much, guys, for having me. I'd like to follow up on two themes that we already discussed here, the first one being Starbucks Mexico. I think this one is for Christian. You mentioned, Christian, we all understand well that most of the sources of pressure in the quarter were related to the World Cup, traffic, work from home, all this stuff. It's also true that within the company, the controllables, you have publicly announced a few high-level changes in your management team, and this is something like two months after your investor day, right? I'm wondering, what are the kind of capabilities that you think the banner needs now that weren't that clear or weren't necessarily there when we were together in New York in March? Then I might have another one. Yes, Tiago. Thank you for the question. As you know, we have moved in this vertical integration of our brands, the transition of leadership was mainly due to the evolution of this vertical integration and the focus that we had at this moment on the development of the strategy of the brand. It's about, I would say, focusing on this brand evolution in terms of the elevation of the customer experience, the remodeling of our stores, discipline approach to the capital location and the opening of new stores. As I mentioned before, the right geographies, in the right locations, taking the opportunity of the different formats that we can use with Starbucks. Clearly, it responds to these specific needs. I believe that the moment is different, the needs are different, that's why we made this call. That's it. There is no more additional comments regarding that question. That's good, Christian. Thank you very much. I think my second one is for Fede regarding the guidance again. You commented that the same-store sales and EBITDA growth targets imply broadly flattish margins. Again, we are seeing better FX versus last year and better FX versus what you had initially budgeted. Help us understand why the FX part of the equation is not necessarily flowing to margins. The updated guidance, Tiago, does imply that we need to see a better performance in the second half compared to what we have seen in the second quarter. As said before to Melissa, we believe that is achievable because of the sequential improvement. There are a few reasons behind this confidence. First, the comparisons, if you remember the third quarter of 2025, are easier, particularly after the soft SSS that we faced last year, not only in Mexico, but in all the regions. Second, we saw sequential improvement through the quarter with May better than April and June better than May. Hopefully, let's see what's happened with the second half of July, we'll reach the same trend that we saw during the first quarter. Sorry, you wanted to highlight regarding the FX inputs gains? Why are they not- The FX impact on Mexico growth. Yeah. We have- The FX impacting your gross margin. Because we have some operating leverage, obviously the mix is impacting the total consolidated figures. You have to take into account that year-over-year, we are changing the mix. Obviously, there's a higher growth between Starbucks and Domino's and the full-service restaurant and maybe in the gross margin that could affect even while in the bottom part of the store EBITDA level, you will see a gain. It's worth the operating leverage from Starbucks mainly in the second quarter. We are having around 50 basis points of gain because of the better FX in terms of the 35% of the cost of food line. If I may add, Thiago, to Fede's answer. We do still have a little bit of pressure similar to first Q, related to the inefficiencies of the distribution center, as we mentioned, again in Q1. These are, I would say, much lower than what we saw in Q1. Oh, for sure. Yes. There was, I would say, an impact, I would say around 20 basis points at the gross margin level. We did again, I would say the exercise, and analysis on the mix, which also was mentioned in Q1. Also, I would say, affected the second quarter by around 20, 30 basis points. I would say what Fede was mentioning around the benefit of FX, which was actually around 50 basis points, it was actually, I would say, compensated by these two other effects that I would say as we go through the year, those will get even lower, potentially in Q3 and then in Q4. That was also impacting, let's say, gross margin, and then that flows, I would say, through the EBITDA. Exactly. Thank you, Federico. That's clear. If I may just to round it up here, are you sticking to your free cash flow guidance? Well, we are seeing, as you have seen, we have improved to MXN 2.8 billion year-over-year. I want to highlight that. This is part of the discipline that we need to prove to all the different shareholders and to the market. We are expecting to have the same net debt to EBITDA while we preserve with the openings and the total CapEx of MXN 5.5 billion. Yeah, the answer is yes. Thank you very much, guys. Gracias, Tiago. Thank you. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Alvaro Garcia from BTG Pactual. Please go ahead. Hey, can you hear me? Yes, Alvaro. Great. Great to see you. Thanks for the space for questions. My question is on Vips in Mexico. We've now lived through sort of a multi-year effort on the value front. Menú del Día clearly working, seemingly very positive traffic evolution. Having said that, we really haven't heard from you on what I guess my question is, to what degree do you have conviction that you can grow stores in Vips Mexico down the line, given this newfound sort of value platform? Obviously, we see other successful cases around the world of casual dining brands doing very well. I'm curious of your thoughts on Vips Mexico selling any growth. Thank you, Alvaro. Not only Vips, we have clearly seen Vips and the rest of the food service brands are performing in line or above expectations. Again, expansion decisions remain ROI-driven and disciplined by site availability. During 2006, we will have around 30 new full-service restaurant openings, including all brands, between Spain and Mexico. I believe part of the success of Vips, to your point, is that we have a very disciplined approach in where to open, where not to open, the right pace and the right rhythm. Just next year, we are talking about 19 remodelings in Vips and around 15 openings between Spain and Mexico. Continuous performing and delivering a very solid performance, but part of the recipe is because we have this disciplined approach to the development of the brand in both geographies. Great. Thank you. A follow-up for Federico on interest expense. You guided for sort of roughly $25 million worth of benefits into 2026. There was a one-off in the first quarter. We do see an improvement year-over-year on the banking and derivative instrument fees line. I was wondering if that's where the savings are coming from. If we look at the filing, it's not clear if we're actually seeing the interest expense savings. Are we seeing them on the P&L? If you could just walk us through that'd be very helpful. It's more related with allocation into the P&L, Alvaro, that's a very important point, and I want to highlight this. During the prior year, the financing cost, remember that we held the US dollar bond into our balance sheet. It has a cost spread associated with the US dollar bond derivative instrument. That is no longer in place in 2026, and with the elimination of that instrument, this has been one of the main drivers of the improvement in the financing profile of this year. In fact, if you go to the first six months free cash flow of this year, the absence of this cost spread into the interest expense line generate approximately, in the first months, MXN 478 million of savings versus the prior year. Maybe into the P&L, it is not that clear because of the allocation between interest expense and derivative instruments, where is the saving? We do not have this derivative anymore into our balance sheet, and that is where you can see the saving of more than $25 million that we will have during this 2026. If you go to the free cash flow, you can see in the press release that we have that saving. That is part of what we want to highlight regarding free cash flow, MXN 2.8 billion more than in the first six months of 2025. Awesome. Yeah, I'll let someone else ask about working capital. Thank you very much. Cheers. Perfect. Thank you very much. Bye. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Froy Mendez from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead. Hello, guys. Thank you very much for taking my question. Trying just to wrap up on the guidance, and sorry to be repetitive here. You already established that probably what needs to happen in Mexico for guidance to be achieved is for Starbucks to recover. Probably that brings better mix to the margins. How about the rest of the regions? Can you clearly inform us a little bit more on what needs to happen the third and fourth quarter for each region to land within your updated guidance in terms of sales and EBITDA? Thank you so much. Thank you, Froy. As said before, we are not expecting a sharp change on the part of the demand consumption. We have revised the outlook. We are reflecting the weaker consumption environment, in Mexico, but not only for Starbucks, but for all the different brands, as well as the impact of FX translation on reported results. Let's take into account that when we announced the guidance, more than three months ago, we used an FX of MXN 20.9 per dollar. It was around MXN 22 per EUR. Nowadays, we have more than MXN 2 of difference with the dollar and with the EUR too. That part of the impact on FX translation is consolidated into the new guidance. At the same time, this guidance does not require an extraordinary recovery scenario in the part of the consumption, not only for Starbucks, but for the rest of the brands. What we are assuming is a gradual normalization from the lowest point of same-store sales that we experienced in April, combined with easier comparisons in the third quarter, a continued gross margin support because of the improvements in the Guadalajara distribution center, a lower USD-denominated input cost, like the coffee, that we're having savings for the current fourth quarter, and ongoing productivity initiatives and disciplined SG&A, like the efficiencies that we're saving into the back office and that I have just explained to Melissa. It is not coming only from a same-store sales improvement. It is in all the P&L. Federico, where do you feel the largest upside or downside risk to the guidance, if you can tell us? Maybe upside is Starbucks Mexico, upside is input cost, downside Argentina. Can you let us know where do you feel more comfortable? Let's see. Let's talk around South America. South America is less than 4% of the total EBITDA when you see a yearly basis. Even while we are worried and working hard on a daily basis, that is not one of the main points. This is 70% Mexico, 25% Europe. Europe is performing really well, with the exception of the translation to MXN. We are comfortable with the margin expansion, when you look at the EBITDA margins and the cash flow generation. I would say that the major risk is coming from the consumption environment in Mexico, not only for Starbucks, again, but for the rest of the brands. As said before, we are coming back to the trends that we've seen by the end of the first quarter. We have only taken 15 days of the month of July. Let's see what is happening there, because at the beginning of the year, we were expecting a huge hangover, especially after the World Cup. We did not see the party, but let's see if we are seeing this hangover. Hopefully not, but that's the major risk. Excellent. Thank you so much, gentlemen. If you want to comment a little bit on the subjects. Gracias. I would say, Froy, just to clarify on the exchange rate, we were using 19.3 MXN per USD in our guidance, in the original guidance, and around 22.7 EUR per MXN also in our original guidance, Froy. Excellent. Thank you so much. Let me add on the commercial side, what do we plan to do to get the second half of the year moving forward? We have clearly seen that the consumer environment has decelerated, as Federico was mentioning, maybe some of the hangover after the World Cup. Nevertheless, we're seeing a July that after the games are done, things are going back to normal. To give you some specific highlights, in the QSR segment, we are leveraging proven traffic drivers such as Pizza Mania, which actually started yesterday, also supported by product innovation and targeted value initiatives that we know that this is what the consumer is looking for right now, always with the right level of profitability. In the case of food service, we are expanding affordability and group dining occasions. This is an important part of the strategy around family and group dining, through menu innovation, including, for example, in Chili's, our new smokehouse platform, and in the case of Foster's Hollywood, what we call the barbecue platform, which is based on family-style offerings, designed to deliver compelling value without compromising guest experience. In the case of Vips, we continue to develop the menu with balanced, relevant meal options that respond to changing consumer preferences while maintaining a very high, strong value perception. I don't want to be repetitive with Starbucks, but clearly, it's this campaign of Juntémonos Más, which enhances this third place and how to bring together people, beyond home and office. The launch of our POS system in Mexico, which should improve speed of service and customer and operations experience, and the different initiatives regarding beverage innovation and bringing the classics as we do every year. With all that said, we feel that we have the initiatives and the right focus what the customer wants. Gracias, Christian. Muy claro. Thank you. Thank you, Froy. Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Antonio Hernandez from Actinver. Please go ahead. Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Actually, two very quick ones. The first one regarding Starbucks. You already mentioned some divestments of Archie's and maybe some going on, but what I was thinking about portfolio optimization, if you're considering even, I know your long-term plans haven't changed, but if you're considering maybe some relocation of some Starbucks units, that would be my first question. The second one would be regarding no food inflation that you mentioned in the Alsea date, if you're still within that line. Thanks. As we mentioned, during the quarter, Antonio, we completed the divestment of Archie's in Colombia. This reflects obviously the portfolio optimization that you are mentioning, concentrating the resourcing and management attentions on the brands and markets where we see the greatest growth opportunity. With this transaction, we have completed this phase of the portfolio optimization and strategy for the moment. Beyond that, as you know, we are continuing to evaluate the potential divestment of some other brands within their portfolio. We are not in a position today to confirm or comment any specific brand. Both these are ongoing strategic reviews, as a policy, we don't discuss these transactions or brands to be divested until something's definitive to be announced. I understood, Antonio, you also asked about Starbucks portfolio optimization. Am I right? Regarding that question, this is a live process, ongoing live process. As we continue growing and penetrating the brand across the different geographies, there's always opportunity to split some stores, to relocate some stores. This is a very live process. It has been always part of our strategy, not only within Starbucks, but other brands. It's more complicated with FSR, clearly with Domino's Pizza and Starbucks, it's an ongoing live process, it's always part of what we do every single day, every single year. Thanks. The follow-up regarding internal inflation. You mentioned no food inflation in the Alsea. Is this expected for the year? Is this still expected? It's going to be negative, the inflation for the three markets. Those are good news to support the increase in margins into the gross margin to launch promotional campaigns with a lot of sense, not only for the customer, but for Alsea too. Okay, perfect. Thanks a lot. Gracias, Antonio. Gracias. Thank you very much for your question. That was the last question. I will now hand over to Mr. Christian Gurría for final comments. Thank you. Before we conclude, we would like to thank you for your participation and interest in our quarterly conference call. If you have any additional questions or require further information, our investor relations team is always there to assist you. Thank you again and see you in the call of Q3. Thank you very much. [Foreign language] Thank you very much. Alsea would like to thank you for participating in today's video conference. You may now disconnect.