Riachuelo accelerates sales and profit up 52%

With strong performance in sales and margin expansion, the Guararapes, owner of the fashion retailer Riachuelo, reported growth of 51.8 percent in third-quarter net income, to $ 89.4 million. "The fourth [quarter] should be even better," said Flavio Rocha, President of the company, to the value.
The company's net revenue advanced more than 17%, to r $ 1 billion, in a move of acceleration with respect to the remainder of the year. In September, the growth of 13.7%.
On the criterion "same stores" (open units for more than one year), Riachuelo's sales grew 10.1%, surprising those who thought economic conditions did not allow, nor so early, the fashion retailers to present high double digits on the display.
In Renner, ' same stores sales ' rose 5.8% in the third quarter, while in Hering fell 2.4%, compared to the same period last year.
The other two contestants listed, Marisa and the Officer (owner of Le Lis Blanc), disseminate its results for the period next week.
"Although the pace of opening stores in the year and the quarter we were able to move well in sales of antique shops. There was little cannibalization, "said the Manager.
So far, the Guararapes opened 27 new stores in 2013, totaling 187 units.
Before interest and taxes, the company had profit of $ 123 million, an increase of 52.9%, higher than the rate in advance of revenue. There were 1.6 percentage point improvement in gross margin and operating expenses fall.
Rock considered the performance of the quarter "very strong" for showing that the company is being able to grow with margin expansion, even though the consumer environment in 2013 is more challenging than in previous years.
For the entrepreneur, this achievement reflects the capture of synergies from the business model of Guararapes, which coordinates since the production of yarns until the customer financing in the store. "The model is maturing. Since the fourth quarter of last year, this has been more clear in our results, "said Rocha, who compares the integrated format of Guararapes to ' fast fashion ' retailers like Zara, of Spain.
Rocha stressed the importance of the new logistics system that is being implemented by the company, which he calls "integrated per SKU".
The template is enabling the Riachuelo have more agility in spare parts, reducing markdowns and thus preserving margins. "We were also able to reduce breakage in stores. I.e. lack of sizes of certain products, "said the Manager.
According to Ramirez, the integrated logistic system per SKU is already 50% deployed. By mid-2014, will be in every company.
The manager stated that the second half of the year is shaping up to be good for the industry, a fact that occurred not semi-durable in the first half of the year.
The net result of Midway, the Group's financial grew 44%, to R $ 28.4 million in the third quarter. The financial operation revenue reached r $ 201.5 million, up 5.4%.