Compañía Cervecerías Unidas S.A. (NYSE:CCU) Q1 2023 Results Conference Call May 11, 2023 12:00 PM ET
Company Participants
Claudio Las Heras - Head of Investor Relations
Felipe Dubernet - Chief Financial Officer
Carlos Anwandter - Financial Planning and Investor Relations Manager
Conference Call Participants
Felipe Ucros - Scotiabank
Vidhi Vira - Goldman Sachs
Rodrigo Godoy - Creditcorp
Fernando Olvera - Bank of America
Claudio Las Heras
Thank you for attending CCU's First Quarter 2023 Conference Call. Today with me are Felipe Dubernet, Chief Financial Officer; and Carlos Anwandter, Financial Planning and Investor Relations Manager. You have received a copy of the Company's consolidated first quarter 2023 results. Felipe will now review our overall performance, and we will then move on to our Q&A session. Before we begin, as usual, please take note of our cautionary statement.
The statements made in this call that relate to CCU's future performance or financial results are forward-looking statements, which involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to materially differ. These statements should be taken in conjunction with the additional information about risks and uncertainties set forth in CCU's annual report in Form 20-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and in the annual report submitted to the CMF and available on our website.
It is now my pleasure to introduce Felipe Dubernet.
Felipe Dubernet
Thank you, Carlos, Claudio, and thank you all for joining us today. During the first quarter 2023 CCU posted recovery in financial results with a stable EBITDA from previous year in a tough economic environment. This better performance was mostly driven by our main operating segments in Chile. As a consequence of the implementation of our recovery profitability plan HerCCUles 2023.
The upward trend in results during the last quarter showed us that we are in the right path. Nonetheless, we are aware that the results of the first quarter of this year are only the beginning, and to consolidate this trend we will continue focusing on the six pillars of HerCCUles 2023, which are, first maintain business scale, then strengthen revenue management efforts, third enhance the CCU Transformation program to deliver efficiency gains, number four, optimize CapEx and working capital, five, focus on core brands and high volume margin innovations, and six, continue investing in our brand equity.
Before describing the performance of the quarter, it is important to mention that results from first quarter 2022 were still highly influenced by a particularly positive scenario for consumption in Chile, as consolidated volumes during that quarter were up 7.1% versus first quarter 2021. After that, volumes contracted, compared with the same quarter of previous year 2.9%, 2.8% and 5.5% in the second, third and fourth quarter of 2022, respectively. Therefore, in spite of decreasing volumes in the first quarter 2023, we are still on track to maintain businesses scale in 2023 in line with our pillar number one of our regional plan, HerCCUles.