Expansion of networks will have differences of pace in the year

A day after the Pão de Açúcar group present the results of 2012, the American network Walmart and the Spanish supermarket chain Day published their numbers, with high strength in gross sales in the fourth quarter. Despite the good performance, the growth of these companies in the country in 2013 do not follow the same rhythm.
Two of these groups, Sugarloaf and Day, have aggressive projections of opening stores this year. Together, the two retailers must open at least 250 new points of sale in the country. In 2012, were 185. Already the Walmart comes to consolidate the process of integrating acquired operations in recent years. And wants to finalize the commercial template deployment job "everyday low price" which should be completed by the end of 2014. With this, for the second consecutive year, Walmart, the largest retail company in the world, should not open a considerable volume of units in the country in 2013.
The discordant positions are explained by the different moments of the companies in Brazil.
The Day is the retail food operation that registers the highest growth rate in Brazil (between publicly traded companies here or abroad) and the country has helped to sustain the results of the group in emerging markets-46% of the net invoice in these areas comes from Brazil. So, it needs to invest here. In addition, as the Day operates with franchises in the country, who invests heavily in point is the franchisee, not the company. As the network has occupied regions not necessarily expensive in large centers, organic expansion is faster.
"The coverage of new areas in Brazil will give us great opportunities for growth in the coming years," said Ricardo Currás, President of the day, analysts on Thursday. In 2013, the company will open stores in Minas Gerais. The company informed the shareholders that Brazil is one of the countries that receive investments from the group in 2013. The gross revenue of the day in the Brazilian market grew by 14% last year, reaching € 1.52 billion.
The Day provides for the opening of 100 points of the network in 2013, versus 81 in 2012. It was the second food retailer that more stores opened in 2012-loses to the Grupo Pão de Açúcar. The retail chain controlled by Casino opened 104 points in 2012, and provides for 150 openings in 2013-this number can reach 170, found the value. At Sugarloaf, the forecast for 2013 is at least repeat the value of r $ 1.5 billion invested in 2012. Nearly half were for stores-$ 700 million. The Group wants to maintain this pace in 2013, as already commented its CEO, Oscar Pastor, in an interview to the value last week.
At Walmart, efforts are in the other direction. The company needs to complete the project of integration of Bompreço and Sonae networks operations, acquired in 2004 and 2005, and that are being consolidated in the same base of Walmart in Brazil from 2011. This process should be finalised until early 2014. At the same time, another action also won: the implementation of the policy of "every day low price" in the country, which is to stop working with occasional promotions and offer items with stable prices.
With two parallel initiatives, the company in the country has what it takes to complete this phase of change, before leaving again for a stronger organic expansion. The deployment of the "everyday low price", for example, only ends at the end of 2014, according to the network. From October to December 2012, Walmart's sales in Brazil rose by 11.3%, but the company recorded operating loss. Last year, the group opened 44 stores in the country. The number for this year has not been disclosed.