Sugarloaf mira atacarejo against worsening in sales

São Paulo – the recent drop in sales and profitability of the supermarkets did the Grupo Pão de Açúcar (GPA) make a decision that symbolizes how much this type of store has lost space in the country called atacarejo. Next year, between 15 to 20 Extra hypermarkets will turn into shops Assai. The President of the Assai, Belmiro Garcia says that the decision goes through the top of the net sales performance of atacarejo and also by a search for better profits.
"Conversions are an opportunity to contribute to the outcome of the Group at a time when other businesses are being more impacted with the macroeconomic scenario, especially durable goods segments," commented Garcia in an interview with Broadcast, news in real time system of the State Agency.
Although Ebitda margin smaller than the other businesses of supermarkets and hypermarkets of the GPA, the Açaí has been bringing profit this year, while the Multivarejo Division (which includes Extra flags and Pão de Açúcar) has given prejudice.
The difference, explains Garcia, is in the type of operation. The fact of the Assai not be exposed to the consumer electronics business causes him to have minors financial expenses. The format also has smaller depreciation loss because the stores have less equipment than the hypermarkets, which usually have machines of butcher shop, bakery, among others.
In the nine months of 2016, the adjusted Ebitda margin of Multivarejo was 5.2% while the Assai had 4.2% margin. Despite this, the profit of the Assai reached 136 million, while the R$ Multivarejo registers loss of 263 million R$, affected by a level of net financial expense and depreciation is greater than the atacarejo business.
Accelerate the pace of conversions inauguration of Assam and stores tend to put sales of the GPA profile closer to its main rival, Carrefour. Analysts believe that the relevance that the atacarejo format has for the Carrefour is the main differentiator between the two rivals '' sales numbers. The
Currently, the Assam accounts for 34% of food sales from GPA, while the Atacadão is equivalent to 60% of Carrefour''s sales, according to market estimates. With that, the Carrefour group has been growing in pace higher than the GPA in recent quarters.
If confirmed the plans of the GPA, the Assai may next year already exceed Extra hypermarkets in number of stores. In addition to the conversions, the Assai must inaugurate 6 new points of sale in 2017, says Gomes. With that, would come close to 130 points of sale next year. The hypermarkets had, in September this year, 134 shops and could lose at least 15 next year with the conversions and thus exceeded by Assai.
Yesterday, the Assai inaugurated the first store converted, the result of a pilot project that began as early as 2016. The address in the Pillars, in Rio de Janeiro, received an investment of 22 million R$ to stop being an Extra store, below the amounts between 35 to 40 million R$ R$ needed to erect a Assaí store from scratch. The information is from the newspaper O Estado de s. Paulo.