Marisa steps on the brake and reduces opening shops in 2014

The fashion retailer Marisa will reduce the pace of opening stores in 2014, predicting that this will be a year of "rainy day". For the time being, are only confirmed 15 new units and 13 reforms. This year, there were 39 inaugurations and 19 reforms.
During a meeting with analysts and investors yesterday in Sao Paulo, the entrepreneur Márcio Goldfarb, President of Marisa, said that the coming years will not be as promising for retailers as they were the last ten, but there is still a lot of growth opportunity for the company, today with 400 stores.
In addition to the 145 municipalities with potential for stores where Marisa is not yet present, the company invests in e-commerce and direct sales. These two channels together should reach revenues of R $ 1 billion per year within five years.
For 2014, Marisa plans to expand direct sales operation for six new States, three of them in the Northeast. For now, this operation works in eight States, with 4,106 consultants. The average ticket purchases on direct sales, which functioned for only seven months in Marisa, is for $ 373. "The acceptance of the brand in this channel is being surprising," said Archimedes Sales, retail sales director.
According to the Executive, the e-commerce now represents a "robust" sales volume, especially in shoes. Because of this, Marisa will migrate to a new distribution center in Navegantes (SC) within 90 days. The unit, which is the online retail and direct sales, has 17 thousand square meters, almost triple the size of the current structure.
In parallel, Marisa has been trying to recover the growth of their sales ' same ' shops (open units for over a year), with improvement in the processes of supply shops. According to Paul Borsatto, CFO, the indicator registers high in the fourth quarter, compared to the previous year. In the third quarter, the ' same ' stores retreated 7.5%.
"We will first attempt to retrieve the ' market share ' that we lost in the third quarter and then grow back more aggressively," said Borsatto.
For the Executive, the consumer of Marisa became even more sensitive to prices this year, because of food inflation. Despite this perception, the company does not intend to make any change "drastically" on its positioning. "We will be more aggressive in input prices [product categories simpler and cheap]. But we will keep trying to increase the ticket ".
Marisa is not only conservative in the shops, but also in granting personal loans on the company's financial, Sax. "We are more selective in granting, prioritizing customers with good behavior," said Borsatto, noting that, in December, Marisa felt fall in demand for credit.
For the Executive, the World Cup in Brazil should boost sales of beers and TVs, but not the clothing retail. "And elections should only bring some benefit to the categories with Government incentive".
If the macroeconomic scenario for 2014 is difficult, 2015 could be worse, in the opinion of the Executive. "The Government will need to make a major fiscal adjustment. One time the account will have to be paid, "said yesterday in conversation with journalists.
In October, Marisa made currency hedge for 80% of its imports until April 2014. This is the first time since 2007, the company makes this kind of transaction. The dollar was caught between R $ 2.17 and 2.18 Reais.