GPA SEES POSITIVE TREND IN SALES OF MULTIVAREJO

São Paulo – the Grupo Pão de Açúcar sees a positive trend for the sales of multivarejo after a series of adjustments in the operations of the Extra flags and Sugarloaf, which company executives already reflect the performance of March and April and contributed to the resumption of leadership in the industry. "After a difficult quarter in multivarejo, we saw solid sales recovery in March and that trend continues being observed in April, which leaves us confident in the resumption of business," said the Vice President for Finance of the GPA Director, Christophe Jose Hidalgo, in a teleconference with analysts on the results of the first quarter. The day before, the company announced consolidated net profit of 226 million dollars between January and March, surpassing in 7,8% the result of the same period to 2017, with a high of 7,5% in total net revenue, to 11.34 billion reais. "Quite correct Decisions led us to resume the position of Brazil's largest food retailer ... I am convinced that this leadership will differentiate more going forward," said Ronaldo Iabrudi, which from this Friday let the GPA executive presidency to Peter Estermann, passing to the position of Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the company. On April 13, Reuters reported that the Group controlled by French Casino was again against the rival Carrefour Brazil, that by the end of 2017 led the ranking of the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Open) of the supermarket companies country. According to Hidalgo, the positive performance of the GPA in the first quarter strengthens the expectation of same store sales growth aligned to inflation in multivarejo, and above the inflation in Assam. On your first day as Chief Executive, Estermann said that the Group has been working on a revision of the Extra Super format, whose details should be announced in the third quarter. "We are conducting various fronts ... but is the Extra Super that we see more opportunities and where to direct more efforts to reverse the deal," said the Executive Director of the Extra flag, Alberto Calvo. He added that the company is reformulating the product mix and the operation model in the short term, and starting a pilot project in 20 stores with regional focus in the medium term. In the case of the sugar loaf, the GPA will follow "full steam ahead" with the reform, seeking to keep the market share gains and high profitability, said Marcelo David, Executive Director of the flag. In the segment of special formats, including Extra Mini stores and Minute Sugar Loaf, as well as gas stations and drug stores, the company is beginning to reap the results of renovations and work for improvements in infrastructure, with high both in flow of clients such as in sales, according to Executive Director Frederic Garcia. Assaí for atacarejo, that as Iabrudi grew more than three times in representativeness within the GPA, it is expected to maintain the strong performance observed in the first quarter, marked by 25,2% jump in net revenues. "We have projects already underway to the Assai can maintain growth," commented the Director of wholesale business, Belmiro Garcia, citing new mix and products policies and activity and relationship with client legal entity. In his assessment, the deflation of food was the "great challenge" to the atacarejo in the first quarter and only expect relief of effect from the second half of the year. At 13:53 (GMT), shares of the GPA rose 4,67%, quoted at 79.55 dollars, figuring among the top gainers of the Ibovespa, which by your time had 0,3% elevation.