Natura &Co Holding S.A. (NYSE:NTCO) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Guilherme Castellan: Yes. Bob, sorry, I just want to — again, I’m not going to repeat the question on The Body Shop. I think Fabio gave the answer. Just want to make sure that for all your questions, the first one is about the Body Shop. The second one, you asked about Home & Style, and that was LatAm, right, in LatAm?

Robert Ford: Yes, hard question on, yes, percentage of what it represents the revenue and where you expect that to stabilize as well as the inventory that seems to be slow moving and the need to clear it?

Guilherme Castellan: So I’m going to pass to Joao so he can answer. Sorry.

Fabio Barbosa: And then just to confirm here, by the way, Ian was indicated on April, not even March. So it’s a short period of time for him to show the results. Go ahead, JP.

Robert Ford: Very sure. Understood.

Joao Paulo Ferreira: Hi, Bob. We disclosed before that Fashion & Home, as we called it then, represented around 30% of Avon business in Latin America. You recall that, that’s on average, varying from 20% to 50%-plus in some countries. And we also disclosed the revenue decline this quarter, 30% or so. And as I said, I mean, the portfolio reduction has been already implemented apart from flowing out some slow movers. So, given that we remove a third of this 30%, so going to get close to 20% of the — on an aggregate level of what was Avon business here, which will again be further diluted when we combine with Natura as a percentage of the total business, we are flowing these slow movers basically bringing them back to campaigns more frequently.

We are not giving deeper discounts, if that’s what cross your mind because we are focusing on increasing profitability of that portfolio. You also referred to the competitive dynamics in the region. And as no real change from last quarter, the industry increased prices along the last 12 years — 12 months, sorry. That seems to be a movement that stabilized. Volumes are flattish or so on average, skewed to personal care and no significant change from the ones that we referred last quarter.

Robert Ford: Thanks, JP. And just where would you like to see Fashion & Home stabilize? So if you were 30%, let’s assume now you’re close to 20%, what do you — what’s the right proportion, if any, of the category?

Joao Paulo Ferreira: Well, if we’re — if we achieve our goals in terms of profitability and cash generation, I will be pleased if it stabilizes where it is now.

Operator: Our next question comes from Joao Soares with Citibank. Please go ahead.

Joao Soares: First of all, I just wanted to explore Avon International and margins. And I think there’s a broader discussion, and I don’t know if it’s time to revisit that discussion on where should we see that profitability stabilizing, right? Before we had a guidance that is no longer valid, but it was pretty ambitious, right, getting to mid-teens margins. So I just wanted to discuss in broader terms, where do you currently sit in terms of the contribution margins of the overall geographies and what’s the potential here? If we can have any visibility on that, it would be interesting. And the second point is on the working capital. As you pointed out, there were some improvements, especially in payables and inventories. So, I just wanted to explore that with you, Gui, if possible. Where should we see that going forward? Thanks.