Brazil is 8th best country for retail
O Estado de S. Paulo
Brazil is in 8th place in the international ranking of investment opportunity for retail companies and it is the first in the world in attractiveness in the clothing sector, according to survey made by the consulting firm A.T. Kearney, released yesterday. The survey is made since 2003, but Brazil only managed to get into the top 30 list of the most attractive countries for investment in retail in 2005, when it stayed in 29th place. Last year, the country was in 9th place.
The first 10 places in the ranking in 2009 are: India, Russia, China, United Arab Emirates, Saud Arabia, Vietnam, Chile, Brazil, Slovenia and Malaysia. In 2008, the four first countries were Vietnam, India, Russia and China. Markus Stricker, vice-president of A.T. Kearney, believes Brazil will not stay among the first three countries, since its retail is already more consolidated than that of many countries, but he considers extremely positive the position the Country is in.
That structure makes Brazil live a second wave of investments. In the first wave, great part of the real estate located in the great cities was already purchased and associations between great companies - like that of the French chain Casino with the Brazilian Pão de Açucar - were already entered into.
In this second wave, there are chances of investment in other cities. Celso Durazzo, officer of the consulting firm, recalls that the survey discovered that nearly 20 Brazilian cities have more than 1 million inhabitants, a positive point for the country. "There are no opportunities for strong investment in Brazil anymore, which was in its peak in 2007 and it is now maturing. At this time of maturity it is time (for the foreign retail companies) to innovate when investing here", he said.
Besides clothing, other opportunities in the Brazilian retail are the sectors of home appliances and foods and beverages. Brazil leads the ranking of clothing because it is equal to that of the developed countries. 40% of the sales of clothing in the Country are made by means of credit cards, level similar to that of the United States and England, and the two main retail chains of the country, Riachuelo and C&A, have already issued more credit cards of their own than the Visa and MasterCard operators. Other positive points are the young population, which consumes a lot of clothes - more than 60% of the Brazilians are under 30 years of age - and the average expenditure with clothing is of nearly US$ 450 a year, an amount six times greater than China's.