And there is only 1 person working in that needle store. Now on top of that, as we started identifying opportunities, we saw that one clear element was the fact that they needed also evidently a good pricing, good service, additional financial services in the future. And I mean, clearly, as we look at our businesses, on the one hand, Coca-Cola FEMSA with the tremendous knowledge of the traditional market with also with OXXO — with tremendous relationship with the suppliers, knowledge on how to do the peaking as I explained once in terms of how many cases or how many products, how many units each individual store will need. I mean those are know-how that have been developed over the years that are very, very important for these type of platforms.
So — and then on top of that, of these 2 knowledge centers, I would call them, and knowhow center that we have in Coca-Cola FEMSA. And in OXXO, we have the digital business that we have been creating, which clearly with a spin and the financial possibilities that it opens to the traditional store. I mean, just today, for example, many of these small stores cannot accept credit card. They don’t have access to credit. They need to pay in cash to their suppliers. Sometimes, most of the times, customers and consumers, they need to pay cash to them. They cannot accept the service payment. So all those things can be enabled by the digital platform of FEMSA digital with the other 2 businesses serving as a connection point. So that’s the intention that we have of building this omnichannel platform.
And evidently, there are ways in which that can work. There will be some categories that can go in a common truck. And there can be other categories. I mean clearly, Coca-Cola FEMSA, they can continue being delivered through the Coca-Cola FEMSA trucks. So this is a hybrid model that serves like pretty much like a marketplace through a super app. And that’s the intention that we have built in this platform. We know that on top of that, the other element that is important in this omnichannel platforms is the amount or the size of the portfolio that we can carry. I mean, evidently through the categories that we have in OXXO with Coca-Cola FEMSA and other potential partners, we believe that we can represent a significant portion of the portfolio products that more retailers sell which is a very important component so that it shows one of the key pain points that they have today, together with the other ones I mentioned.
Daniel RodrÃguez: Maybe the only additional comment that I would like to make is that one of the advantages that we also have in both platforms, OXXO and Coca-Cola FEMSA is the capillarity. So that allows us really to pilot all what Paco just mentioned. And then before we think in terms of escalating, we can learn, I mean, how we can really solve the pain points of the customers and what are the key elements that are relevant to them in terms of value proposition. So I mean, that also I think it really helps us before we make any final decision in terms of how fast or how — if you want, why the escalation would be.
Héctor Maya: So would it be fair to assume that we could be seeing this strategy play out in the next 1 or 2 years?
Daniel RodrÃguez: Definitely.
Operator: The next question comes from the line of Marcella Recchia calling from Credit Suisse.
Marcella Recchia: I have 2 quick ones as well. Basically, the first is for proximity Americas. If — what can we expect in terms of gross margin trends going forward as you continue accelerating the digital initiatives? And to what extent you also can continue managing that with efficiencies? And the second one, very quickly, you guys are now closing figures for proximity Europe, but without a comparison basis. So can you just give us a color on how these figures reported compared to those from the year before?
