Anticipate settlement is out of textile retail

Due to the stoppage of the Teamsters, the World Cup and high temperatures for the winter period, the textile sector had compromised performance. For the second half of the year, retailers should readjust their stocks by means of early settlement. One of the examples of retail companies that have had their sales affected was the Gaucho network Lojas Renner, the first in the industry to disclose balance for the second quarter of 2018. "We estimate that, excluding the event of the Teamsters ' strike, we would have reached the high of 5% in sales in the category ' same ' stores," said the Chief Financial Officer of Lojas Renner, Laurence Garcia. According to quarterly data released by retailer last Friday (27), sales growth in the same shops was 2.5% – front of the second quarter of the previous year. Although the business has felt the impact of adverse events from April to June, the retailer introduced a 60% jump in net profit between the first and second quarter of 2018 – reaching R $274.7 million. In addition, executives remembered, during the teleconference, that the hiring of foreign exchange hedge "armored" the effects of the American currency. Market perspective To the Executive Director of the Brazilian Textile retail Association (Abvtex), Edmund Lima, the sector faces difficulties "for the troubled moment in politics and economy" that the Country lives. "We had a hot start to the winter and then, when the cold was coming up, we had the strike of truck drivers who decreased the flow of inside of shopping malls." He still remembers that the colder temperatures in the South of the country are not sufficient for the growth of trade in items expected for the period. "My expectation for the second half is fairly conservative in relation to increased sales, especially with the uncertain political environment and the presence of a strong currency volatidade", he argued. He concludes that the anticipation of promotions "has started since Valentine's day, a month and a half", but that even so it has been difficult to attract consumers to the shops. Following the same line of the Executive Director of Abvtex, the founding partner of the consulting firm Inteligência360, Olegario Araújo, points out that "even people who are employed are scared of going into debt or get lost in installments." According to him, the challenges of retailers who operate in this sector will be "spawn" the stocks accumulated in periods of less movement in stores. Aguilar says that one of the possible outputs for this scenario is to anticipate the sale with inventory items that are not so tied to the period of winter. In this sense, he also mentions the importance of planning ahead to sudden temperature fluctuations to "not to compromise the working capital of the business." According to the founder of consulting firm Telos Results, Luiz Muniz, the reduction in these remaining stocks should occur by the end of August, but that such goods will not be disposed of in full form. He has a more optimistic view regarding the performance of the sector for the second half. "With the approach of several commemorative dates in the coming months, with for example father's day, the trade of the next industry collections should be more natural," argued Muniz. In addition, the expert points out that the volume of retail sales for the months ahead has great importance because the average ticket items geared toward the heat are smaller.