MONTERREY, MEXICO--(Marketwired - Apr 28, 2017) - Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. ("FEMSA") (NYSE: FMX) (BMV:FEMSAUBD) (BMV: FEMSAUB) announced today its operational and financial results for the first quarter of 2017.
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS:
- 29.1% revenue growth (18.6% on an organic1 basis) at FEMSA Consolidated
- 5.7% same-store sales growth at FEMSA Comercio's Retail Division, including 2.5% growth in traffic
- 26.4% revenue growth at FEMSA Comercio's Health Division
- 24.8% same-station sales growth at FEMSA Comercio's Fuel Division
- 38.4% revenue growth (16.5% on an organic1 basis) at Coca-Cola FEMSA
Carlos Salazar Lomelín, FEMSA's CEO, commented: "We started the first quarter knowing that we would face significant calendar headwinds relative to last year, with one less weekend in January, one less day in February, and a negative shift in the timing of Holy Week. Fortunately, consumption trends in Mexico remained solid and our team again managed to deliver strong results. At FEMSA Comercio, structurally we were again able to drive revenue growth and gross margin expansion, which is very positive. Operating expenses grew ahead of revenues, putting some pressure on operating margins, but the reasons for this are well understood and short-term in nature. Therefore, we are optimistic about our ability to keep driving long-term earnings growth across our retail formats. At Coca-Cola FEMSA, Mexico was again our main engine for organic earnings growth during the first quarter, as most of our South American markets continued to face challenging macro headwinds. But we keep growing the platform, having now closed the acquisition of the Ades soy-based beverage portfolio, and we are happy to fully consolidate the operation in the Philippines going forward.
As we head into the second quarter, we should benefit from the positive calendar shift in April and from what still looks like a resilient consumer in Mexico, and we will continue to make progress executing our strategy and growing our business. We cannot get complacent, and there are challenges and uncertainties ahead, but we have a great team and a robust business platform that allow us to remain cautiously optimistic. We are off to a solid start in 2017."
The translations of Mexican pesos into US dollars are included solely for the convenience of the reader, using the noon buying rate for Mexican pesos as published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on March 30, 2017, which was 18.8290 Mexican pesos per US dollar.
