Grupo Comercial Chedraui's U.S. grocery banner Chedraui USA improved its EBITDA margin 18 basis points to 7.5% in the third quarter of 2026, even as same-store sales remained under pressure from a combination of macro headwinds squeezing its core Hispanic shopper base. The parent company's consolidated EBITDA margin edged up 14 bps to 8.7%, and consolidated net income landed at 1,626 million pesos for the period.

U.S. Banner Headwinds

Chedraui USA's same-store sales came in soft, with CEO Antonio Chedraui attributing the shortfall primarily to a decline in customer transactions. Three factors drove that traffic erosion: stricter federal immigration enforcement, a reduction in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefit distributions, and persistently high gasoline prices compressing disposable income at the forecourt and inside the store. El Super and Fiesta, the two banners that make up Chedraui USA's footprint, cater heavily to budget-conscious Hispanic households — a segment where SNAP reductions translate quickly into reduced basket size and trip frequency.

Despite the top-line softness, procurement discipline and operational efficiencies at the Rancho Cucamonga Distribution Center (RCDC) in Southern California drove the margin improvement. The RCDC gains also lifted the consolidated gross margin by 53 basis points across the enterprise, underscoring how back-of-house logistics investment can protect profitability when comp sales disappoint.

Mexico Operations and Expansion

On the Mexico side, the Chedraui Mexico EBITDA margin held nearly flat at 9.8%, compared with 9.9% in Q3 2025 — a 5 bps compression that management characterized as contained given the operating environment. Same-store sales in Mexico tracked in line with the ANTAD self-service sector index but were dragged by the Southeast Region, which saw reduced public and private investment and lower tourism activity. That region is disproportionately important to Chedraui's overall Mexican footprint, amplifying its effect on total company SSS.

Expansion continued at pace. During the quarter, Chedraui opened 22 Supercito stores, three Chedraui-format locations, one Super Chedraui, and one Arteli store in Mexico. In the United States, the company added one El Super and one Fiesta location. Over the trailing twelve months, consolidated sales floor grew 3.4%, while Mexico's sales floor expanded 4.7% — a meaningful footprint commitment in a sluggish consumer environment.

The company's balance sheet remained a source of strength. The net debt-to-EBITDA ratio stood at -0.13x at the end of Q3 2026, compared with -0.03x a year earlier, reflecting positive free cash flow generation through the first nine months of the year. Currency was a headwind: peso appreciation against the U.S. dollar clipped reported results by 6.2%, a factor that will continue to weigh on U.S.-segment translation as long as the exchange rate dynamic persists.

For convenience and foodservice operators tracking grocery competition in Hispanic-heavy urban and suburban markets, Chedraui USA's ability to sustain margin growth through distribution efficiency — even with softer traffic — signals that the chain is investing in supply-chain infrastructure rather than pulling back. Operators in overlapping trade areas should monitor whether El Super or Fiesta accelerate prepared-foods or dispensed-beverage programs as a traffic-driving response to the SNAP and immigration-related headwinds, a tactic peers in the grocery-adjacent foodservice space have deployed in similar demographic markets. The unit expansion also keeps pressure on independent and single-store operators in Southwest markets where El Super has historically anchored value-price positioning.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.