American stores plans to open about 200 stores in 2018

SAO PAULO (Reuters)-the American stores plans to open about 200 stores this year, of which ten have already been opened and other 90 have been hired, said the Chief Financial Officer of the retail network, Carlos P. The estimated number for this year is in line with 2017, when the company opened a record total of 195 stores, entering 85 new cities. In relation to convenience stores, with six open units last year, Padilha said the company has been studying ways to improve the project to gain more market and expand the business. "We see incredible potential to open a huge amount in Brazil (convenience store)," said the Executive at a teleconference on Thursday, without detailing the amount of stores. The day before, the company released your result in the fourth quarter, with high 11,4% in profit compared with a year earlier, to 284.7 million reais. Profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) rose 1,9% to 849.1 million reais, while the adjusted Ebitda margin shrank by 1.5 percentage points in the period, to 22,1%. The fall in the margin, according to the company, reflects the increase in operating expenses in the period due to the higher number of stores open. LOGISTICS INTEGRATION In relation to let's, new company of Lojas Americanas and B2W, Padilha said that the company was created to make management of logistics assets of the two and create more synergies as companies gain scale. "Our business is and as one of the main pillars of our business is logistics, that is also of scale," said the Executive. According to the Executive, nothing changes in the corporate and accounting point of view of the company with the creation of let's. Each will follow with its assets and let's do the management of combined form. "If you have a job that is of the two and because of this has to make an apportionment of costs, we're going to do that," he said.