Fast rhythm to restore stocks
Gazeta Mercantil - 01/14/2008
Canceled or postponed vacations and lots of rushing to deliver the extra orders. That was the end of the year for home appliance manufacturers Whirlpool (Brastemp and Consul) and Mabe (Dako and GE). "Santa Claus was generous with us", joked Sérgio Leme, Whirpool's sales director in Brazil. He had reasons to. In the area of commerce, the end-of-the-year's demand made shopkeepers cancel clearance sales, such as the traditional Liquida São Paulo, held in the shopping malls of the capital of São Paulo for 19 years, which uses to offer up to 70% of discounts in several products. According to the president of the Brazilian Association of Shopkeepers of Shopping Malls (Alshop), Nabil Sahyoun, with low stocks due to the increase of the sales in the Christmas period, the clearance sales would not make sense. Data from the São Paulo Trade Federation show that the sale of the segment of electro-electronic products and home appliances grew 12% in the last year. In 2006, those products had a fall of 7.3% in sales, which contradicted the market expectations, mainly with the FIFATM Soccer World Cup's demand. The strength of the moment has very clear factors, according to Leme. According to him, the fall of the interest rates and the growth of the salary mass were decisive. Fecomercio-SP's expectation is that the electro-electronic and home appliance sales should grow 4% in 2008. That is seen as good, considering the previous year's high base. Besides, this year, "credit operations should reach R$ 600 billion (US$ 340.9 billion)", affirms Dellarosa, against 2007's R$ 560 billion (US$ 318.2 billion). The expectation for 2008 is that the sector should keep stable prices, according to Ramos. "We believe that the end of CPMF (Provisional Contribution on Financial Transfers) should help keep the prices at their current levels, partly counterbalancing the expected increases in the inputs", says Ramos. In the sale-to-the-consumer end, products already had a strong reduction in 2007. Electro-electronics and home appliances had falls of 12.78% and 1.06%, respectively, according to Fecomercio-SP's Retail Price Index (RPI).