Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. (FEMSA) is a diverse multinational enterprise. Its operations include acting as a key bottler, marketer, and ...
Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. (FEMSA, listed on the NYSE as FMX) is a long-established Mexican multinational headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico (founded in 1890). The company creates economic and social value through a portfolio of businesses spanning beverages, retail, and other consumer-facing and industrial activities. A core pillar of ...Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. (FEMSA, listed on the NYSE as FMX) is a long-established Mexican multinational headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico (founded in 1890). The company creates economic and social value through a portfolio of businesses spanning beverages, retail, and other consumer-facing and industrial activities.
A core pillar of FEMSA’s business is beverages. The company acts as a major bottler, marketer, and distributor of Coca-Cola trademark beverages across a broad territory in Latin America, supporting sales, cold-chain/refrigeration needs, and logistics that are tightly coupled to beverage freshness and retail execution.
FEMSA is also a leading retail operator, particularly through OXXO convenience stores in multiple countries in Latin America. OXXO’s scale implies extensive capabilities in store operations, procurement, merchandising, and last-mile supply and distribution. Related to this retail footprint are OXXO GAS service stations in Mexico, supplying fuel and convenience-oriented products such as car care items, motor oils, and lubricants—business lines that generally require strong vendor management and dependable logistics.
In addition, FEMSA has health-related retail operations, including pharmacy/drugstore concepts in several countries (often including brands such as Cruz Verde, Fybeca, SanaSana, YZA, La Moderna, and Farmacon). This diversification broadens customer demand patterns and ties into operational competencies around retail pharmacy execution, inventory management, and regulatory-compliant sourcing.
From a products and services perspective, FEMSA also engages in enabling activities such as manufacturing of chillers and commercial refrigeration equipment, plastic containers, and specialized food processing and weighing machinery. The company provides logistics transportation, distribution and maintenance services, point-of-sale refrigeration solutions, and plastic solutions. These services can improve operational control across its core retail and beverage businesses while supporting cost management through shared infrastructure and maintenance capabilities.
On cost and operating structure, FEMSA’s business mix typically requires significant working-capital discipline (inventory and receivables management), efficient store distribution networks, and ongoing capital expenditure for stores, refrigeration, vehicles, and logistics assets. The scale of operations is reflected in its very large workforce (about 392,000 employees), which positions FEMSA to invest in operational processes, training, and technology at a cost-per-store/per-channel basis.
Key leadership includes CEO Jose Antonio Fernandez Garza-Laguera, with corporate governance led by senior leadership associated with FEMSA’s executive board. Overall, the company’s strategy is centered on leveraging scale in retail and beverages, maintaining distribution and refrigeration capabilities, and using a multi-sector model to balance demand cycles across geography and consumer needs.
YoYYoY means Year-over-Year. It compares the latest annual value with the previous annual value to show long-term trend strength.
QoQQoQ means Quarter-over-Quarter. It compares the latest quarter with the immediately previous quarter to show short-term momentum changes.
RevenueThe total money that came through the front door from selling things, before paying a single bill. Think of it as the grand total of every credit card swipe from customers. (YoY compares this year to last year's performance, while QoQ compares the current three months to the previous three).
$46.6B
+24.4%
+13.7%
Net IncomeThe absolute bottom line. If the company paid every single supplier, employee, banker, and tax collector, this is the actual money left in their pocket at the end of the day.
$1.1B
-15.9%
-61.8%
Gross MarginThe basic markup. If they sell a $100 pair of sneakers, this percentage tells you how much of that price tag is profit right after paying for the rubber and shoelaces, but before paying for things like store rent or TV commercials.
+40.6%
-1.3%
-0.9%
Operating MarginThe 'day job' efficiency score. Out of every dollar a customer spends, this shows how many cents the company keeps after making the product AND paying for all the everyday corporate overhead (like salaries, marketing, and keeping the lights on).
+8.6%
-4.0%
+20.1%
Net MarginThe final take-home percentage. When you strip away every conceivable cost, tax, and interest payment, this is the exact number of cents the company truly gets to keep from every dollar in sales.
+2.3%
-32.5%
-66.4%
Free Cash FlowThe holy grail of corporate cash. It's the spendable, physical money left over after the business pays for its daily operations AND buys the big, expensive upgrades (like new factories or servers) it needs to survive. This is the 'free' money they can use to pay dividends or buy back stock.
$1.6B
+16.6%
+71.3%
FCF MarginThe ultimate cash conversion rate. It shows how good the company is at turning regular sales directly into cold, hard, spendable cash. A high percentage means the business is an absolute cash-printing machine.
+3.5%
-6.3%
+50.6%
Debt / EquityThe financial risk gauge. It compares how much of the company's empire was built using borrowed money (loans) versus the owners' own money (shareholders). A high number means they are heavily leveraged and playing a riskier game; a low number means they are playing it safe.
105.1%
+22.0%
-4.2%
Current RatioThe 12-month survival check. It simply compares the cash they have right now (plus things they can quickly turn into cash) against the immediate bills they absolutely must pay this year. A score above 1 means they have enough in the wallet to cover the upcoming bills without panicking.
1.35x
-20.1%
-1.7%
Total AssetsThe absolute size of the company's empire. It bundles together absolutely everything of value they own—from the cash in the register and the inventory in the warehouse, to the software patents in the vault and the factories on the ground.
Operator: Hello, and welcome to the FEMSA First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. My name is Sophia, and I'll be your moderator for today's event. Please note that this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the call over to Mr. Juan Fonseca, Investor Relations Director at FEMSA. Please go ahead.
Juan Fonseca: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to FEMSA's First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. Today, we are joined by Jose Antonio Fernandez Garza, FEMSA's CEO; Martin Arias, our CFO; and Jorge Collazo, who heads Coca-Cola FEMSA's Investor Relations team. The plan is for Jose Antonio to open the conversation with some high-level comments on the quarter's performance and trends, followed by Martin, who will provide more granular details on the results. Finally, we will open the call for your questions. Jose Antonio, please go ahead.
Jose Antonio Garza-Laguera: Thank you, Juan. Good morning, everyone. Before we get into the numbers, we should talk a bit about the changes we have made to improve our disclosure. As you saw in our release, we are now reporting OXXO Mexico on its own, given how important its performance and trajectory continue to be for our investors and analysts. At the same time, we are reporting a new segment, Americas & Mobility, which comprises our OXXO operations outside of Mexico as well as our fuel business in those markets where we participate in fuel, namely Mexico and the United States. This new segment contains some of our fastest-growing operations. So hopefully, it will allow you to track our progress as we work to gradually capture the growth opportunity in places like Brazil and Colombia. These are the main changes to our reporting segments with Europe, Health and Coca-Cola FEMSA remaining as they were. Moving on to the quarter results. Most of our operations delivered a strong performance, and the first highlight is the continued recovery at OXXO Mexico. Building on the positive trends we first saw during the final quarter of last year, OXXO delivered 8.3% revenue growth driven by same-store sales that beat the industry despite the disruptions in late February that led to many store closures, a few of which remain today. In particular, we saw revenue growth in the tobacco and soft drink categories, reflecting the pass-through effect from the application of new excise taxes. But we also saw positive revenue dynamics in almost all other categories, except snacks, sweets and alternative beverage. We believe that these revenue trends reflected our continued focus on affordability through promotional activity and price package initiatives, which in turn helped drive improvements in traffic. Beyond the top line, however, the team also delivered gross margin expansion through continued cooperation with our suppliers, increases in distribution income and warehouse cost savings. On the selling expense front, OXXO Mexico achieved selling expense containment with growth in line with …
