By Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Jorge Ollero
MEXICO CITY, April 29 (Reuters) - Walmart's Mexico and Central America unit is aiming to recover sales speed after reporting results in the first quarter that it deemed were "not good," the company's CEO Cristian Barrientos said on Wednesday.
The retailer, known as Walmex, on Tuesday reported a slight rise in first-quarter net profit, landing at 12.5 billion pesos ($697.34 million) for the January-March period from sales of 245.02 billion pesos.
"Not good results
in the quarter, very clear, but we're confident that we are in the right direction to recover the speed that we need in terms of sales," Barrientos said on a call with analysts when asked about the company's marketplace.
Shares were up 2.5%.
Actinver Equity Research said the results were "slightly weaker than expected," as lower sales in Central America and exchange rate effects affected earnings.
After sales missed expectations, which LSEG analysts forecast at 269.96 billion pesos, the company expects the World Cup and Mexico's annual "hot sale" discount season to provide an opportunity to drive online sales next quarter.
"The focus will be on determining whether commercial initiatives and cost control lead to increased traffic and operational leverage," Banorte analysts said in a note.
Barrientos added that Walmex is working on improving its cross-border business with the help of its U.S. parent company.
The retailer had said in March it was planning to invest around 43 billion pesos (some $2.43 billion) in 2026 - around a 10% increase from the previous year - and to propose a buyback program of up to 10 billion pesos.
($1 = 17.9252 Mexican pesos at end-March)
(Reporting by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Jorge Ollero, Editing by Iñigo Alexander and Nick Zieminski)
