Marisa prepares the opening of 39 stores this year
O Estado de S. Paulo
Lojas Marisa will take a step ahead in the retail of clothing this year. The company wants to more than triple the investment and the number of points of sale in 2010, and plans to debut in a new business segment: a store that will only sell women's lingerie. R$ 102 million (US$ 56.7 million) will be invested in the opening of 39 stores this year, in addition to the improvement of five points of sale. In 2009, 12 stores were open at the cost of R$ 31 million (US$ 15.7 million). "It will be a nice leap", says Marcio Goldfarb, President of the chain that is in the fashion retail since 1948 and aims at the class C consumer.
He says he decided to speed up the pace of expansion for this year compared to what had been announced in the third quarter of 2009, which foresaw 28 new stores, because of the excellent results reached in the last quarter of 2009 and throughout the year as well. The net profit of the company amounted to R$ 81 million (US$ 41.1 million) in the last quarter of last year and R$ 140.7 million (US$ 71.4 million) in 2009. Compared to the same period of 2008, the growth achieved 92.1% in the fourth quarter and 140.7% in the year as a whole. The net sales totaled R$ 533.7 million (US$ 270.9 million) in the last quarter of last year and R$ 1.497 billion (US$ 759.9 million) in 2009, a 7.4% increase.
Taking the same stores into account (those in operation for more than a year) the growth of the net sales reached 13.3% in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to same period of 2008. Goldfarb emphasizes that performance is amazing. That because, in the last quarter of 2008, amid the crisis, the company had already registered a 2.9% increase in the net sales of the same stores when its rivals either underwent stagnation or a fall.