Atacarejo continues to advance in sales of supermarkets in 2016

São Paulo-1.58% growth in turnover of supermarkets last year, the volume of products sold fell. According to a survey from Nielsen, the fall in number of units was of 4.3% from January through November 2016, pulled mainly by migration of categories for atacarejo. For the Service Manager of Nielsen, Lenita Mattar, in addition to the migration of some categories for cash carry, another factor that & explains the retreat seen in 2016 is a strong retraction of both the income and the Brazilian consumption. According to the survey, income fell 12% in 2016, compared to the previous year, returning to the level of five years ago. With regard to expenditure, the retreat was even greater, from about 16%.
"This drop in income was impacted by high unemployment, and for people who have lost their jobs and have undertaken with a business with a lower income," explains Ernest. Another factor that influenced, she said, is the fact that the class C, which in previous years has been a major engine of the brazilian economy, have slowed their spending dramatically. According to the Nielsen survey, for the first time in the last four years the class C had an expense of less than your income, since the average income was $2,584, R$ and the average spending stood at 2,552 R$. "Before this consumer endividava and shopped the provision. Last year he spent less than your income to pay off debts, "he says.
Migration to atacarejo
On the migration of certain categories to the atacarejo, she says that the movement, started in recent years, accelerated further in 2016. "In 2015 the hypermarkets have been impacted by the expansion of the atacarejo, but the supermarkets still grew. Last year this channel also was impacted, "said Lenita. While supermarkets, hypermarkets and neighborhood markets saw a pullback of 4.3% in the volume of products sold, compared to 2015, in the same period the atacarejo advanced 12.5 percent on the same basis.
Despite the strong expansion, Lenita says that the trend is that there is a slowdown in the growth of this channel. "With the improvement of the economy some dynamics of consumption will return. In this scenario, the trend is that the atacarejo stabilizes. He''s not going to keep expanding at this rate, "he says. She adds that in terms of store openings there has been a decrease in intensity, but the expansion of sales boost. "The atacarejo is still under development and retail is readequando to it," he says.
A given Nielsen research that proves the migration to cash is on the categories carry & products. According to the study, while categories such as milk, yogurt, ice cream, cookies and toilet paper had a considerable shrinkage in supermarkets, in the atacarejo all showed a strong growth in sales volume. "With the crisis occurred these movements: the consumer has migrated, did downgrade of brands, changed the packaging size and finally reduced the volume of their purchases," lists.
The President of the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Open), João Sanzovo Neto, also points to the change in shopping habits. "Last year the consumer did a gymnastics '': changed habits, stopped consuming outside the home, replaced products and did downgrade to save," he says.
Billing
In relation to the industry, the Executive turnover signals that there has been an increase of 1.58% in 2016, in real terms, in comparison with the previous year. The growth took place, however, due to the high prices. "The supermarket only increased revenue because the price of goods sold in stores has also grown a lot last year," says Sanzovo. Still, he says the result was above the expectations of the Organization, and that he was driven by sales of Christmas and new year''s Eve. "The year was difficult, but we have achieved a satisfactory result."
Supermarket sales also showed growth in December 2016. When compared with the previous month the high was of 20.89% (reflection of the Christmas sales), and in comparison with December 2015, the advance was of 2.23%. With the results of the year, the Open also revised its forecast for industry performance in 2017. The expectation, that in October last year was of a 1.5% growth for this year to 1.3%. In nominal terms, the projection of the entity is of a growth of about 6% in the sector.
"Unemployment was the major determinant in the revised down the forecast for 2017," says the President of Open. He adds that the forecasts for the gross domestic product (GDP) for this year also worsened since October, and that this increases the risk that the unemployment rate exceeds the level of 13% this year (the previous entity perspective was 12.5%).
"Our industry depends on income growth, which in turn depends on employment and investment. The prediction that we''re doing to 1.3% is optimistic, considering the current scenario, "he says. The Executive adds, however, that the prospect of Open for the Brazilian economy is still '' step aside '' in this year.