Retailers should accelerate expansion of stores in 2010
Valor Econômico
Large retailers have plans to speed up the opening of stores as of 2010 and recover the ground lost in 2009, when the world economic crisis forced the main executives of companies to develop more spartan budgets. Besides the commerce at the physical stores, the dispute among the "giants" is also expected to be intensified in the e-commerce, with a more aggressive operation of the Pão de Açúcar group (Extra, Ponto Frio and Casas Bahia), Walmart and Carrefour - that should debut in the Internet in early 2010.
This Monday, the President of the American multinational Walmart in Brazil, Hector Nuñez, will announce the investment plans for Brazil in 2010 at a meeting with the Minister of Development, Miguel Jorge. Walmart has placed Brazil among the priority markets in the world and it is expected that the group keeps a strong pace of expansion. Last year, at a meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Nuñez announced a record investment in 2009, of R$ 1.6 billion (US$ 930.2 million), with the opening of 90 stores.
After a year of few openings, Lojas Americanas has announced a R$ 1 billion (US$ 581.4 million) program for the opening of 400 stores between 2010 and 2013. As for the Pão de Açúcar group, it has undertaken an aggressive strategy of acquisitions. The group purchased the two biggest retailers of electric and electronic devices of the Country, Casas Bahia and Ponto Frio.
If in 2009 non durable goods such as foods and medicines and perfumery items were in the spotlight in retail, some economists assess that in 2010, it will be the durable goods, such as electric and electronic devices, which will be prominent, in view of the expansion in the credit offer. "The figures of the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) attest the retail is at a new level of growth", said the Institute for the Development of the Retail (IDV), entity that gathers the biggest retail chains of the country in its report. The entity has attributed the performance of October to the "resumption of the credit, the restoration of the income and greater consumer confidence". "That should be the tone of the Brazilian market for the end of this year and the beginning of 2010", foresees the IDV.