Magazine Luiza resumes growth plans
O Estado de S. Paulo
One year after having started its operations in São Paulo, exactly when the international financial crisis burst, in September 2008 with the bankruptcy of the American bank Lehman Brothers, Magazine Luiza says it does not regret having invested in the capital of the State of São Paulo. The network has already reached one million clients in the biggest consumer market of the Country. The municipality of São Paulo currently represents 14% of the sales of the company. For this year, the perspective of the company as a whole is to increase the earnings by 20% compared to 2008 and reach R$ 3.8 billion (US$ 2.1 billion).
"Our original goal was to reach the break-even point and start profiting in São Paulo only in the last quarter. But we managed to do it in the second quarter", affirms the Sales and Marketing Officer of the retail chain, Frederico Trajano. "São Paulo gives sales volume. It was an excellent deal." The company started the operations in São Paulo with 44 stores, six less than it had foreseen. It currently has 52 stores and it believes it is possible to get to 60 until the end of the year.
In January this year, with an uncertain setting, he told O Estado he was studying adjustments in the company. Indeed, Trajano admits he released the gas pedal in the first quarter. "The conservativeness was necessary because consumption had slowed down. But we started hiring again in June." So far 450 job vacancies were opened all over the chain, without counting the hiring caused by the normal labor turnover.
The change in the consumer market occurred with the cut on the Excise Tax (IPI) in April. In May he started visiting the stores and observing there were clients that were not being served. "We were understaffed". The officer calculates they have lost sales because of that, but he said that the correction has already been made. Such is true that the August sales were better than May's.