Wurth arrives the country with goal of opening 300 stores by 2012
DCI
The first store of the German multinational Wurth in Brazil is established in Butantã, in São Paulo. The brand, which has annual earnings of 10 billion Euros, intends to get to 2012 with 500 points of sale in Latin America. 300 of them will be located in Brazilian lands. The investment in the project amounts to R$ 250 million (US$ 156.3 million).
After the announcement it is clear Brazil is the flagship of the experience. Such is true that the CEO Reinhold Würth has recently come to the country to announce investments of R$ 300 million (US$ 187.5 million) both in the retail and industrial segments, equivalent to two thirds of the R$ 450 million (US$ 281.3 million) the Brazilian subsidiary earned in 2010. According to the company President, César Ferreira, the goal of the investment is to meet the immediate delivery of the customer orders. "Today we have only three distribution centers, and that delays our delivery a little. With the coming of the stores that will no longer occur", says the spokesman, in an exclusive to DCI.
To cater to small and midsize companies, besides other professionals like mechanics, locksmiths and carpenters, the German chain expects an average ticket of R$ 1 thousand (US$ 625), with which it expects to have earnings of R$ 1.5 million (US$ 937.5 thousand) per store. "Until the end of this year we want to have four outlets opened", he explained. The white, gray and red stores will have available for sale nearly 2.5 thousand items of the product line of the company that today is subdivided into the following departments: automotive (cars and motorcycles); cargo (trucks, buses and agricultural machinery); construction; wood (glass and stone store) and metal (industry and services).
Another important feature of the spaces, which range from 200 to 500 square meters, are the testing rooms of the products - at the site, the client may evaluate, in practice, items of the German company such as chemicals, hand tools, pneumatic and electric tools. Evandro Cordova, Manager of New Businesses of Wurth do Brasil, stresses out that, even adopting the global system, the stores will suffer some tropicalization - model of sale with lower shelves in which the formatting allows the client, if s/he likes, to find what he's looking for without the help of a salesman.
"Besides getting the loyalty of the current clientele to the Wurth brand, we want to attract the regular consumer to our stores", says the manager of the brand in an interview. The President, however, says it should not change the format the company already uses in more than 1 thousand stores it has spread through Europe. "We only want the formats to fit. We know very well the way Brazilians purchase is totally different from that of Europeans, so we're open to suggestions - and to learn as well", he emphasized. Today, the administrative headquarters of the company is located in Cotia, municipality of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. The Group has two branches in the States of Rio Grande do Sul and Paraíba.