Compañía Cervecerías Unidas S.A. (NYSE:CCU) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Carlos Laboy: Thank you.

Operator: Okay. Thank you very much. [Operator Instructions] We have a follow-up question from Mr. Felipe Ucros from Scotiabank. Please go ahead, Sir.

Felipe Ucros: Thanks operator. Yes, Felipe, if I could do just one more. Just wondering if you could comment a little bit on what’s going on in Wine and what you expect going forward? Obviously, there’s been a lot of pain and it’s not just pain for CCU, it’s industry pain with destocking and wholesale channels around the world. But just wondering if you could give us your take on how you think the next few quarters will evolve for Wine. Thank you.

Felipe Dubernet: Yes. It’s an industry pain as you highlighted due to destocking, I will not repeat myself of previous dialogues that we have had on this. But I would be a little bit more optimist now, because the export because it was especially in exports in the first semester of the year our export volumes from Chile decreased 19%, which was better than industry but it was about 19%. In the third quarter, the reduction was 14% which is better. But what is good is that now in October we have for the first month in the year increased by mid-single digits our export volumes. So it’s the first positive month of the year. So going forward, we expect a recovery in terms of growing since the destocking should stop let’s say. On top of that, we are working on brand preference a lot.

We are working in enhancing our relationship with distributors also our commercial offices that we have in the US, in China, and in the UK should enhance our commercial effectiveness in those markets. So maybe it’s too early to call Felipe, but we have had good news in October in terms of also in the third quarter as we decreased less than the first semester okay. And the first positive final in October. Going forward, we should expect finally recover in terms of volume.

Felipe Ucros: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Okay. Thank you. We’ll just give another couple of seconds for any additional questions to come in. Okay. It looks like we have no further questions. I’ll pass the line back to the management team for the concluding remarks.

Felipe Dubernet: Thank you. Thank you to all for attending today. During quarter three 2023 we continue making progress to recover our financial results and profitability in a challenging and volatile economic context. Our initiatives under HerCCUles are showing positive outcomes through the year allowing us to recover our operational results hold business scale and market share improve margins and strengthening, especially our cash generation. Nonetheless, we are aware that more efforts are needed to improve profitability further especially when the business scenario will remain challenging. In order to do so we will keep executing our strategy to deliver profitable and sustainable growth. I wish you a wonderful day.

Operator: Thank you very much. This concludes today’s conference call. We’ll now be closing all the lines. Thank you and have a good day. Goodbye.