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Coca-Cola FEMSA, S.A.B. de C.V. (KOF)

Q1 2015 Earnings Call· Sun, May 3, 2015

$100.09

+1.08%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Coca-Cola FEMSA’s First Quarter 2015 Conference Call. As a reminder, today’s conference is being recorded and all participants are in listen-only mode. At the request of the Company, we will open up the conference out for questions and answers after the presentation. During this conference call, management may discuss certain forward-looking statements concerning Coca-Cola FEMSA’s future performance and should be considered as good-faith estimates made by the Company. These forward-looking statements reflect management’s expectations and are based upon currently available data. Actual results are subject to future events and uncertainties which can materially impact the Company’s actual performance. At this time, I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Hector Trevino, Coca-Cola FEMSA’s Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, Mr. Trevino.

Hector Trevino

Management

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss our first quarter results for this year. As you saw in our earnings release this morning, as of the first quarter of 2015, we have decided to use the recently created SIMADI rate to translate our Venezuelan operating results into Mexican peso. As per the last official option of this mechanism, at the end of March 2015, the rate is effectively 193 bolivars per U.S. dollars. Consequently, with this translation adjustment, there is reduction of Venezuela contribution to our consolidated results and this operation now represents approximately 2% of both our consolidated revenues and our operative cash flow, while continues to represent more than 7% of consolidated volumes. And we have been for the last 12 years and in spite of the operating complexity that we have faced recently, Coca-Cola FEMSA remains fully committed to continue producing, selling and distributing the highest quality products for our Venezuelan consumers’ daily enjoyment throughout the country. Coca-Cola FEMSA delivered strong results despite the relatively weak consumer sentiment facing certain operations and a volatile macroeconomic environment as this quarter was marked by a significant depreciation of the exchange rate of the currencies of our main operations resulting in negative translation effects that led to decline in our reported figures in Mexican pesos. On a currency-neutral basis, and excluding Venezuela, for the first quarter we delivered close to 6% in revenues, more than 9% growth of operating cash flow and an increase of more than 13% in earnings per share. For the quarter, the brand equity of our products coupled with our ability to generate an increasing amount of transactions with consumers and improve execution in business across our territories allow us to gain or maintain of sparkling beverages in every operation and…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We will take our first question from Ian Shackleton from Nomura.

Ian Shackleton

Analyst · Nomura

Yes, good morning gentlemen. I would love to drill down a little bit more into Brazil. And as you see, you had a strong comp, but obviously it looks fairly negative numbers here minus 18 sparkling, minus 13 in stills. Can you give us some idea of what the underlying position is in Brazil in this quarter and whether you think that’s a reasonable guide for what happens for the full year?

Hector Trevino

Management

Good morning, Ian. Yes, I think that what is happening in Brazil, its – and let me go a little bit back in time. We have a very complicated 2013 with increases in taxes and some increases in distribution cost with the so called [indiscernible] 2014 was the year for us to recuperate a lot of that profitability that was lost during 201. And now, we are facing a consumer that is now confronting what I believe are important reforms in the way the country is managed, with important increases in some of the tariffs, especially electricity that is hitting the consumer. Importantly, we’re seeing some deterioration in the employment numbers. So all in all, we are seeing a very soft consumer environment in Brazil for this year. Again, because the consumer is not – the disposable income of the consumer is not going up, that’s called the contrary trend. I think that the important element here is that because of the price points that we have been trying to achieve all the way since 2014 and because of all the price points in the R$1 and R$2 and the introduction of 2-liter returnable PET, we are much better prepared now to serve this consumer that has a weaker environment. Going forward for the second, third and fourth quarter, I believe that we will have a better or easier comps at least on the volume side. And therefore, I think that the performance of our Company will improve. But I’d like to highlight important elements. One is that in Brazil this is an industry trend and other beer that is growing a little bit better when we compare market share numbers, we are increasing in every category except in non-carbonated drinks, where I mentioned that we lost some market share in teas and sport drinks and water. So I think it’s very important to highlight that even though we have a reduction in volume, we are gaining share which is a very important number for us. And the other important element is that the organization in Brazil is capable of transforming this reduction in volumes into an increase – a slight increase in profits and margins which is also an important element that we need to consider. All in all, Ian, what I want to say is I am sure that 2015 is going to be a tough year for Brazil. I think that we are well placed with the package – the portfolios of products that we have and because we have the right price points for those products. And I think that from a competitive point of view, we are also on the right track, while maintaining and increasing shares in the different categories. There’s no question that 2015 is going to be a tough year for Brazil in terms of volume.

Ian Shackleton

Analyst · Nomura

That’s very useful. I just have a quick follow-up. I think you talked about one way mix that grew, I think, 4 percentage points. I just wondered which are the key markets that was visible in. Did you get mix improvement in all the markets?

Hector Trevino

Management

Generally, Ian, we have seeing one-way mix gaining traction in the Philippine market because of the brief introduction of brand Coca-Cola in small packets, what we call the Mismo presentation. In the majority of all our markets, if my memory is correct, and I think it’s very close to that, returnables are gaining traction because of the soft environment that the consumer is facing. So not only America, returnables are gaining traction in the Philippines, one way presentations are gaining traction because it’s where returnables have the largest penetration in the Philippine markets. So in the Philippine, we’re going in the other direction.

Ian Shackleton

Analyst · Nomura

Very good. Thank you for that.

Hector Trevino

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Carlos Boy with HSBC.

Carlos Boy

Analyst · HSBC

Good morning everyone. Hector, my question is really to innovation and marketing. Can you comment on the innovation pipeline for Brazil and Mexico this year? And are there any adjustments to the marketing plans that have been made in Brazil or maybe even in Mexico to deal with the consumer situation you’re now facing?

Hector Trevino

Management

Carlos, good morning. Administrative Officer I think that one of the pillars that we have in our plan that we do every year has to do with innovation. Sometimes innovation does not advance as fast as we would like mainly because we have to be very careful when you are dealing with a brand as powerful as Coca-Cola and new formulations, new flavors always takes probably a longer time than what the operators would like to have. But let me share with you some of the insights. We have done some innovation in packaging, so last year for example we saw the $R1 and $R2, the small PET presentations being introduced and that’s a big important step in having the right price for the consumer in Brazil. Rolling out the 2-liter returnable PET in Brazil has also been very important as a way to bring in affordability for the consumer that wants to share a drink with the family. We are offsetting for example in Coretiva instead of having 2-liter they have one and a half liter with [indiscernible] we are changing everything to 2 liters. We are trying to work on the flavor area in Brazil because when you look at the market penetration that we have in Cola is the highest market share that we have in the 10 countries in brand Coca-Cola. So, clearly for us the opportunity is in flavors and we need to try to capture flavors from our very strong competitor which is Guarana Antarctica. So there is innovation going in that direction. There is innovation on the flavor water front and the non-carbonated drinks that is where you see more innovation with new flavors for teas, new presentations for juices, new or different content of juice for different drinks so we develop portfolio…

Carlos Boy

Analyst · HSBC

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Lauren Torres with UBS Financials.

Lauren Torres

Analyst · UBS Financials

Good morning. Hector, I was hoping what you did with Brazil to give us an update on the environment in Mexico. I know for the first quarter we heard about the weather in March and I think you still use the word that is struggling, but we are hearing a lot of Mexican consumer product companies talk about the gradual recovery and seeing hints of stronger trends. So, I am just curious to hear you are saying, I guess, opposite to Brazil you will be cycling some easier comps for the remainder of this year. Just to get your perspective on the return to volume growth, I assume the pricing story isn’t as exciting thing to what you did last year, but just directionally curious to get your thoughts on that region and on those topics. Thank you.

Hector Trevino

Management

Good morning, Lauren. I think that Mexico is yourselves correctly pointed out we have extremely good January, so February and March that was kind of bad because of the weather. We are having better weather in April especially in Mexico which is our biggest market, a very warm weather and May is where we have the warmest climate of the year. Well, this time around the weather was a little bit behind – the good weather was actually [indiscernible]. But I think that Mexico the story this year has to do more with pricing. As I said in the opening remarks, we have already priced ahead of inflation for the first quarter, we are starting to move ahead again on the pricing front during April. In general, I will say that we are moving around 80% of our SKUs for a total compound effect of around 4%. So my expectation is that volume will not grow necessarily, will be more flattish, but I think that we will have a much better pricing formula for Mexico for the rest of the year. I think it’s important that you also – as you have read in the last two or three press releases, we are focusing a lot on understanding at a transaction level the revenue and the margin that we get for any transaction as opposed to just looking at unit cases and that’s an important element to consider going forward.

Lauren Torres

Analyst · UBS Financials

Okay, very good, thanks.

Operator

Operator

We will take our next question from Andrea Teixeira with JP Morgan.

Andrea Teixeira

Analyst · JP Morgan

Hi, Hector good morning. Thank you for taking my question and [indiscernible] as well. Just following up on the previous question, I was just curious as we saw your competitor also taking pricing, if there is any – I understand of course the dynamics of the weather and all of that, but if there is any change after the good pricing and if any changes also as they expand into some more convenient stores, if you are seeing a volume dynamics across the board different or if they are pretty much homogeneous. Thank you.

Hector Trevino

Management

I think that one element to consider here is as there is probably not mentioned very often, but you look at the performance of last year, we ended up – we have been in the industry because of the new tax passing along a 15% price increase basically in general terms. And in our case, our volumes were down around 5%, a little bit less than 5% for the year and I think that the same happens for the rest of the Coca-Cola bottlers and certainly for some of our competitors with probably some variation in the volume performance, but everyone increased prices to pass along this tax effect. So one of the element that I think that we are seeing is that when you have the preference of the consumer for soft drinks as a consumer product, everyone I think that is now looking at the possibility of increasing prices knowing that they will have some elasticity, but quite an elastic effect on the demand. And everyone is trying to capture a little bit better profitability, which I think is good for our industry. In general, what I am seeing here and I did share some market share numbers and performance numbers for Mexico, but in general even though we are seeing sluggish volumes in Mexico basically a decline of 0.9% versus last year, we are seeing in every category market share improvement except flavors where we are losing a little bit market share, but it is less than 0.5% percentage point. So we feel confident with our position. I think that we need again to generate transactions that generate revenues for the Company and that generate good contribution margin for us. Our competitor is now present in option the convenience stores for several quarters, but in general if…

Andrea Teixeira

Analyst · JP Morgan

Great. And in terms of Venezuela, if you can update us on the cash flow if the needs to purchase, and I understand you continue to have the support from the government you get in the FX at an attractive price. But as far as continue the operations there, can you give us an update as you did in the last quarter? That will be great.

Hector Trevino

Management

Yes, Venezuela continues to be a as I explained – we’re in a very difficult environment in terms of having the raw materials that we need to operate in the country. Last year, we received [indiscernible] $120 million as the constant exchange rates to buy raw materials. This first quarter that number has declined significantly. If I remember correctly, we have received $2 million or $3 million. We have been active buying some dollars at the SIMADI exchange rate but so far we have basically bought around $1.7 million at the 190 exchange rate. And a lot of these high-lows that we have internally and with our suppliers at least how can we reduce the dependence of Venezuela from imported raw materials. So we are looking for alternatives with our suppliers to have local sourcing for the raw materials. In general what we need is around $90 million of raw materials, that’s on a yearly basis. We are looking to lower that amount by two-thirds. For example, with the supplier of plastic caps, we are analyzing for them to buy an existing operation in Venezuela that produces caps that presently do not comply with the quality standards that we need. But with this provider that we have and the suppliers that we have in other countries that have perfectly acceptable quality standards. And they buy that operation then we will be sourcing those caps at 100% in bolivars local. Obviously for the suppliers again it can’t be at the end of the road is that they will have a much larger relationship with Coca-Cola franchise in other countries. They will have to bear the main cost either buying from some of this plastic that they need or importing those plastics from the outside, but from KOF’s perspective, we will be…

Andrea Teixeira

Analyst · JP Morgan

That’s very helpful. I mean so to understand, Hector, you said two-thirds of the $90 million, nine-zero, basically, $60 million you’d be trying to replace with local suppliers and leaving about $30 million over the next one or two years and then leaving the $30 million I am assuming constant rates right, is what you cannot replace, obviously.

Hector Trevino

Management

The numbers that you are saying is correct, the $90 million is everything except constant rates. Constant rates remember that we paid a portion of our price in local currencies. So the Coca-Cola Company and we are working together with the Coca-Cola Company to see ways of either producing locally, or importing from countries that have a special treaties with Venezuela, for example, Costa Rica is one of those, where for us will be a bolivar transaction and the Coca-Cola Company because of the treaty that Venezuela has with different countries like Peru, Ecuador and Costa Rica, their dollars in those countries. So the $90 million that I was referring that, some of that collective effect will result to $30 million, it’s just for spare parts, resins, plastic cups. Those are the main items there.

Andrea Teixeira

Analyst · JP Morgan

Wonderful, okay, thank you very much Hector.

Hector Trevino

Management

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Luca Cipiccia with Goldman Sachs.

Luca Cipiccia

Analyst · Goldman Sachs

Hi, Hector good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. To follow up if possible one was on the profitability in LATAM, just to understand, you referred, you talked a lot about Brazil, I wanted to maybe get more visibility on the margin improvement or the margin that mix in the other markets or specifically how much of the improvement that we saw in the quarter compared to last year comes from Brazil and how much for the rest or not? That will be my first question. And the second more generally on the innovation in a broader sense, we have seen Coca-Cola having tested the new universal branding, I think that’s what we call it’s a strategy in some markets, I understand that’s already up in Chile and or it’s happenings in Chile and you referred to the fact that Coke Life in Mexico somehow is not really keeping the momentum. So I was wondering whether this is something that we will see coming as well in some of your territories, if there is any plan or any visibility on that because I would assume that’s also to somehow support the lower calories categories under the one brand sort of banner push, so any comment on that would be interesting for us as well.

Hector Trevino

Management

Luca good morning. Let’s just start with the margins number. In general we saw expansions in the margins in every market except Colombia. Colombia we have a slight reduction in the margins and that has to do also with whatever we have expressed for a couple of couple of years now, what we called the plan Colombia where we lower prices, we are growing volumes importantly, but still we have not been able to generate the profit margins that we anticipated in Colombia. So the formula has been that we lower prices, we have more affordable packages for the consumer and volume has been increasing 8% per year for the last two or three years which is very good in terms of the volume performance, but now we need to adjust a little bit factor the pricing. In Columbia we have a very small reduction in margin around 30 basis points.

Luca Cipiccia

Analyst · Goldman Sachs

Sorry to interrupt, but like assuming that the facts headwind in Columbia has been quite large, so how do you think of pricing to compensate for that now may not be an option, no, because of this?

Hector Trevino

Management

In general if you look at – what I was going to say is in the rest of the countries we are increasing margins including Brazil, what we are doing is what I was referring to the question that was done about Mexico [indiscernible]. We are looking at increasing the pricing of the revenue mix, what we call revenue management initiatives in every country. In Colombia we have increased prices to compensate for the headwinds that we have in effect and we think that our competitor will move as well. As I mentioned, we are always we have a very watchful look at the market share numbers because we like to preserve the market share numbers as a way of preserving our possibility continue growing in the future. But we are focusing a lot on the profitability of every package and we have now tools to really do a very profound analysis of the profitability by brand, by package, by categories, by channel, et cetera. So we are looking every month and our operators are looking at presenting in the reports every month what opportunity they see in terms of pricing. So, for example, in Colombia we have increased around 4% already the prices in the first quarter and that we hope will help us counter to some of the pressures that we have on the raw materials. We still have a tool – a strategy with the hedges that will help us in the future. I said with the first quarter, around 60% of our FX exposure in raw materials was hedged for Mexico, Brazil and Colombia and as I explained in other conferences, we have this rolling strategy where we continue to renew hedges for raw materials as we move up further away in the year, we lower the percentage of the raw materials of the amount that is hedged. But so far, as I mentioned, for the first quarter around 60% of the exposure to FX was covered at very good rates and that is obviously on these returns. For the second, third and fourth quarter, we have numbers that vary from 50% in the second quarter to around 30% hedges on the fourth quarter. So all in all, Luca, I think that we are very active with our risk management area to try to either re-buy some of the raw materials in a time when we see opportunities for the prices and to cover the FX exposure on the dollar denominated raw materials. With respect to the universal brand, I am familiar with that the date, but I don’t have a specific where they are planning to roll starting in our countries. I know that it is in the radar screen of the operators, but I don’t have a specific date for that year and I know in the theory that was held unify under the brand Coca-Cola as an umbrella and have traction on the marketing efforts.

Luca Cipiccia

Analyst · Goldman Sachs

Very good. Thank you. Thank you Hector.

Hector Trevino

Management

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question [indiscernible]

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to go back to Brazil and I know you have already discussed it in a couple of different ways, but I just wanted to put it all together, I mean, in light of the weaker consumption environment, how are you thinking about the ability to take pricing in this kind of environment and also given what you just mentioned about the hedges being less, helping you less especially in the second half, so the FX pressures intensifying. How do you think about the margins, do you think you could see some pressure in the margins if the consumption remains weak or do you think you can do enough pricing and do enough SG&A containment to offset the pressures?

Hector Trevino

Management

Good morning, Jeronimo. I think that similar to what I mentioned in Colombia and Brazil, we have already increased prices around 3.5% during the first quarter, that’s in anticipation of some of the prices that we will receive in the future. We are also doing some hedging strategies in Brazil for the dollar denominated raw materials. In Brazil we have around 60% of our needs for the second quarter already covered. On that around 30% will be on fourth quarter. And obviously we believe and that’s why we are pending behind the 2-liter returnable presentation, I think that that presentation will get traction with our consumer that have lower disposable income in general and that will help us to get volume with that presentation. I think that the comparison on the second and especially third and fourth quarter will be ensuring the case of Brazil and in every country we are working with this what we call this project E2 that has to do with effecting this on efficiency in the organization. I described briefly last quarter how we are reorganizing our commercial area and our supply chain area differences. In the past, a lot of the time we have heard of commercial was spent in understanding things that has to do with feedaway from growth what’s available from the production plant and all of that. Now this time is going to be 100% dedicated to sales and someone is going to be responsible for the product to be present where it has to be present at the right time. So, our expectation is that and we are having probably some extraordinary expenses related to the reduction in workforce because of this reorganization, but our expectation is that those savings will start to appear towards the end of year and certainly through 2015 as we have a more efficient and more lean organization. I think that all of those strategies are clearly directed into facing a difficult consumer environment in Brazil that the consumer as I mentioned favored a lot of tariff increases. The new production plant that we have in Espirito will give us also capacity to have the 2-liter returnable in that area, which is at the end the third largest city of Brazil and a lot of the key indicators in terms of line efficiency, warehouse production per liter, the productivity of the warehouse, the field rate that we have and the point of sale, the drop sites for our trucks, all of those indicators are being followed very closely so that we improve on those indicators and that will translate into better cost structure for our operations.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. Thanks. And just a follow-up there on the 2-liter returnable, can you give us a sense of how the performance has been so far since in the first quarter or more recently?

Hector Trevino

Management

Let me look for the number, I will give you a number in the second because it has not been growing importantly in the presentation. I will give the number later on, I don’t have here with me, but certainly the growth of returnable presentation has been for last year the growth of 2-liter returnable presentation was 26%. So, it’s a very important element in our growth in the countries last year. Okay.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question come from Jose Yordan with Deutsche Bank.

Jose Yordan

Analyst · Deutsche Bank

Hi, good morning. Just a couple of quick questions. Any indication that the Venezuelan government was contemplation expanding the price control that they had on a few SKUs or is that pretty stable? And then the second question is more broader on Brazil, after a period of very heavy M&A activity, there has been nothing for a couple of years and I just love to hear your thoughts about when will the conditions be right for a further M&A activity in Brazil both from the point of view of sellers being willing to sell or Coca-Cola being more amenable to more transactions or for buyers to have the willingness, I am assuming this is never a problem, but just would want to hear your thoughts on this.

Hector Trevino

Management

Good morning, Jose. Let me start with the Venezuela question and then will follow with Brazil M&A. In Venezuela right now the only price controls that we have had to do with water. And water is a category that the government perceives this as a necessity for population and we have price controls in that. Other than that it’s important for you to know that we have a law that is called, let me translate, it is called the fair price law or [indiscernible] Basically what it says is that with different formulas of accounting what the government is saying, you should not have extensive margins on your products and it’s targeted more to the retail stores, the mom-and-pops and the supermarkets so that they don’t increase prices importantly, but it applies to every company. So we need to be careful of analyzing our cost structure and the prices and then what the margin is. Of course the difficult part is what is the cost structure once you have starts to give dollar and which dollar rate, you should use for the cost structure. But in general, I think that we are not seeing more ability in terms of controlling more of the prices because of the existence of this fair price law that that everyone has to be in compliance with that and we are obviously compliant with that. If I move to Brazil, I think that in general what we are seeing is also the fact that the last two years in Brazil especially it has been very difficult from the macroeconomic perspective and the perception of the investors in general about the country. For 10 years were the raw materials were increasing in price, importantly Brazil was booming and the middle class was growing importantly with all…

Operator

Operator

Alex Robarts with Citi.

Alex Robarts

Analyst

Hi, and thanks. The question relates to South America. As we kind of look closer to your operating leverage that we see in the quarter, what strikes us is the operating expenses really falling year-on-year faster than the revenues and, I mean, as we think about the margins holding up in this region, it seems that this was a key area and as we think about the distribution, the movement towards returnable that would seem to imply that you have a little bit more expenses on the distribution side and yet you are getting this strong leverage with the OpEx. Is something happening tactically here, have you introduced some structural elements on the go-to-market aspect of the business or phasing the A&P, I guess, fuel costs are down, but if you could talk to us a little bit about what was going on with the OpEx and how are you able to really bring it down in control of the way you did?

Hector Trevino

Management

Yes, Alex good morning. In general, let’s say that this is the fruit of a lot of effort in terms of analyzing our cost structure of the past years and things that are related to the program that I was mentioning of splitting the commercial area and supply chain area and trying to work with less people in all in the organization. For example, in Mexico we reviewed the headcount, around 1400 people last year, similar to that and I don’t remember the number, it was close to 700 people in Brazil. So, we have been in every country have important efforts in reducing the cost on expense. We have also tried to be more efficient with our marketing expenses. In general, this quarter we have slightly lower marketing expenses compared to revenues to what we had last year, probably 10 basis points we have on a consolidated basis than basically the numbers 3.2 versus 2.5 this year. So, there are some efficiency of marketing, but that’s not the majority of the effort. And at the end of the day, the effort we have been doing in having a more efficient organization, especially the commercial and sales side, similar to what we did in Mexico that we have described, we have the structure from the different sales source that we have moving into zero organization where the commercial director now has a manager to report on a state basis, as opposed to having four very big sales area that we had in Mexico before and we are implementing some of some of those things in South America also. And I think that’s what I can share with you on what has to do a little bit of marketing and some reduction in the cost on expenses and it’s also important to remember that in case of Brazil we are also cutting some of the synergies that we announced. We are going to say that we are going to save around $52 million from the synergies of merging of merging [indiscernible]. At the end of this year we will be – in November will be the second year-on-year [indiscernible] and by that time we should be with the full allocation of synergies reflected in our P&L.

Alexander Robarts

Analyst

Is it fair to say on the synergy front that if we think about the buckets in revenues and cost and SG&A that with the new franchises the bulk or the majority of these synergies are coming in the SG&A, is that a fair statement?

Hector Trevino

Management

I think that it’s a little bit of everywhere, it’s a little bit on the top line because we increased prices when we have price differentials, it’s a little bit in production capacity as we are using better production capacity. But I think that at least half of that has to do with the SG&A, probably a little bit more than half of that, of the $54 million.

Alexander Robarts

Analyst

Okay. That’s helpful. Okay. The last question just relates to your share performance in Brazil, it’s interesting to see how you have the tough comp in Brazil in volumes, but you have managed to get in both, as I heard it right, as I heard it, flavors as well as the colors gaining share, what has been instrumental in that share gain, has it been kind of the packaging strategy, has it been something that you have done on the pricing and is it then in innovation, if you could talk to perhaps a little bit on what’s behind the share gains in Brazil and is it something that perhaps you expect to continue in the coming quarters?

Hector Trevino

Management

Yes Alex. I think that the very positive news in Brazil is, remember that as I mentioned a little bit earlier, with brand Coca-Cola is the highest market share penetration that we have in the ten countries. So, it’s very difficult to move it in color, but we are moving a little bit on that front. But the very positive news is that we are increasing close to 1% percentage point according to our readings for the quarter on flavors. And that has to do mainly with the Fanta returnable PET. We have a very, very strong competitor in Guarana Antarctica. I think that and we saw during the quarter market shares as well growing a little bit faster and then a very strong reaction from Guarana with price promotion towards the end of the quarter. So, even with that we were able to gain a little bit of market share close to 1% percentage points, which is clearly the positive news in Brazil given the fact in Cola we have a very high penetration. We don’t know if this is also a reaction of the fact that Heineken is growing importantly in Brazil, if I am correct somewhere around 13% growth in volume during the quarter and I don’t know if the reaction with Guarana has to do with that but for us Heineken is a brand that we are just distributing. But Heineken in Brazil obviously they are treated differently. Brazil is for brand Heineken, now the fourth largest country in the world after US, France, Holland and then in Brazil, it is the fourth place, it was like the eighth or tenth place a couple of years ago. So, brand Heineken is growing importantly in a very premium segment, still with very small market share, but I think that it’s also important for us to share that with you. So, the reaction with the pricing in Guarana I don’t know if it has to do with that fact maybe we don’t share with Fanta, a returnable kit or if it was more of a reaction to as a way of compensating for the growth of brand Heineken.

Alexander Robarts

Analyst

Right, you said 13% growth, I am sorry, in your territory of the brand or the Heineken portfolio, sorry?

Hector Trevino

Management

It’s brand Heineken in our territories.

Alexander Robarts

Analyst

Okay, thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

We’ll take our next question from Antonio Gonzalez with Credit Suisse.

Antonio Gonzalez

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Good morning and thank you so much for taking my question. First on Brazil, just a quick follow-up, sorry if you addressed this already because I joined a little bit late, but my understanding is that you had a view internally that volumes for Brazil this year would be up 2% to 4%, I wanted to know if that view is maintained after the first quarter result. And secondly on Mexico, I wanted to make a follow-up on your earlier comment about the focus on improving pricing. Irrespective of what volume dynamics turn out to be this year, how do you think longer term of the category, we are seeing an improvement almost across the board, food products, household products, the retailers, supermarkets, department stores, everyone is talking a little bit about this mild but nevertheless it is happening a consumer recovery in Mexico. And I wanted to ask if you are concerned a little bit that maybe the soft drink category specifically became a little bit little bit too expensive after probably 20% cumulative price increase in two years. I understand that it’s coming from a low base when you compare revenues per unit case vis-a-vis your other Latin American countries, but I just wanted to hear your big picture thoughts on whether there might be a category issue happening with soft drinks in Mexico? Thank you.

Hector Trevino

Management

Good morning, Antonio. Let me start with Brazil. Yes, we are expecting kind of low single-digit volume growth for Brazil given the result of the first quarter we are still positive for we are seeing some growth for the year, not probably at the 4% level, but a little bit less than that, but we are still positive that for the year we will find a good volume growth. Clearly this first quarter volume was lower than what we were anticipating the result of this first quarter. But assuming that the rest of the year behaves as we were anticipating, we will see growth around 2% to 3% in Brazil and that’s our expectation. With respect to Mexico pricing, we are of the view, and I described quite of this in the call, Antonio, that our activity with respect to revenue management is very important. We have been active for many years in that front, but I think that we have to be especially keen during this period. We are increasing prices in Mexico as we are speaking, around 4%. On top of the fact that for the first quarter we already cover inflation for the last 12 months, so we are starting to increase prices. And we think that the competitor will do the same because obviously everyone has a little bit of pressure what the raw materials as our denominator. We are taking care of the different price points with the strategies that are very familiar to you having many different SKUs at different price points for different consumer locations and not every product being present in every store or every region. We think that we are very good at that. So, returnable products continue to grow in Mexico, that’s a way of having a follow-on growth to…

Antonio Gonzalez

Analyst · Credit Suisse

All right. And just to make sure, are you still expecting to or could you share your latest thoughts on when are you expecting to recover the lost volumes from last year, is it 2015 or is going to take a couple of years?

Hector Trevino

Management

I think it is going to take a couple of years. I think that importantly the two big items that we learned from last year is we increased prices 16% and volumes were down less 5%, 4.8%. So message there about the inelasticity of our product in these markets in Mexico. And the other big message is even with a 4.8% volume decline we were able to be flat on profits with all the strategies that we have been doing in terms of cost containment, passing the right price, obviously we were helped a little bit by the raw materials. But all in all we were able to deliver flat operating income numbers in a very difficult environment where we have a tax that was impacting our prices or the price of the consumer for Panama.So, those are two learning that we need to apply going forward. If we don’t recapture that volume, I think it’s secondary, I think we need to get the transaction, get the revenue, get the marginal contribution and the profits that we deserve from these markets.

Antonio Gonzalez

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Got it, thank you so much.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Martha Shelton with Banco Itau.

Martha Shelton

Analyst · Banco Itau

Thanks for the question. You mentioned that in Mexico returnable continued to grow being a shift to the modern channel from the traditional channel and also if you could comment on any shifts to one way presentation versus the multi serves. And then second to that I wanted to just clarify what you said about pricing. So, I understand that in the first quarter pricing was 3% and you are in the process of taking pricing in Mexico now, so would the cumulative price increase be 7%, if could clarify that, I would appreciate it? Thanks. And then also an update on the Philippines would also be helpful. Thank you very much.

Hector Trevino

Management

Good morning Martha. Let me clarify, when I said that we have recovered first quarter for inflation deflation effect, that’s has been even with some price increases that we have in the second part of last year. So, if you look from January to December we are not going to increase price to 7% when the inflation is around 3% or 3.5%. We probably increased 4% or 5% a little bit ahead of inflation, but I think that we are capturing that extra margin ahead of inflation for this year. With respect to the mix we are seeing returnables growing and because of returnables and the availability of returnables in traditional channel we are also seeing some growth in the price in that channel. It’s very stable in terms of the channel mix, but traditional little by little capturing this opportunity where it’s on our business based. We ended up with more of a channel are not very popular. So, we have this affordable product for our consumers it’s more skewed towards the traditional channel that is growing in importance slightly. And I think, I don’t know if that…

Martha Shelton

Analyst · Banco Itau

Yes, and so far is there a shift to the one way versus multi-serve? Is that something that you are observing as well and then also an update on the Philippines please?

Hector Trevino

Management

Yes, Martha, part of the returnable was not only on multi-serves, it’s very important with the 500 milliliter plus that is growing importantly. So, in general, you are seeing a little bit more of single-serve versus multi-serves.

Operator

Operator

And that does conclude our question-and-answer session. I will turn the call back for any additional or closing remarks.

Hector Trevino

Management

Thank you for your interest in Coca-Cola FEMSA and as always the Investor Relation team is available for review questions you may have. Thank you.