Latin America News & Analysis

DIA has opened its first stores in the north-eastern Brazilian state of Bahia. More stores to open before year-end The stores opened on 2 October in Simões Filho and Dias D'Ávila, towns in the vicinity of the state capital Salvador, advertising their 'low wholesale price and ease of shop' highlighting similarities to the popular atacarejo format. DIA's operations director for Bahia said 10 ...

From time spent analysing the latest FMCG developments in Brazil in September, in-store as well as with retailers and suppliers across three states, we share our top trends from the market. 1. Longer-term optimism over the economy A lot has happened over the past 12 months. There's always a lot going on in Brazil, but the last year has been exceptionally busy. The World Cup brought plenty o...

Walmex has officially launched its grocery website in the Zona Metropolitana area of Mexico City. In its first phase of operation, the site also caters to customers of 75 stores in Acapulco, Guadalajara, Mérida, Monterrey, Puebla, Querétaro and Tampico. Building on existing non-food offer Walmex's e-commerce site marked its first anniversary in 2014 and, so far, has been performing in line...

Mexican convenience retailer Oxxo wants to increase its store numbers in the Colombian capital. Targets 100 stores Oxxo currently has around 40 stores in Bogotá and plans to add around five per year to break the 100-store barrier over the next 10 years.  Maximilian Zimmerman, spokesman for Oxxo, said reaching 100 stores was a good marker which would allow them to be much more competitive. ...

Chile-based Cencosud has announced second quarter results saying that revenue rose 5.4% – to CLP2.586 trillion (US$4.4 billion) – in its second quarter ‘as a result of higher revenues from all the business divisions’. The retailer said that its supermarket division had been boosted by the timing of Easter, which occurred in Q2 in 2014, but Q1 in 2013. Growth in most markets… At the retailer...

Scot Rank, CEO of Walmart de México y Centroamérica, outlined three ways in which Walmex plans to grow sales, in his speech to the Goldman Sachs Global Retail Conference on 3 September. 1. Grow same store sales From January to June 2014, Walmex said same store sales at is self-service formats outperformed the industry average as stated by trade body ANTAD. In August, Walmex said same store...

Carrefour has opened a store under the Express banner in the city of São Paulo this week (28 August). Store layout designed to optimise convenience The Carrefour Express is located in Tatuapé, to the east of the city. The store is designed around three 'circuits' to enable shoppers to fulfil their mission quickly and easily. The first circuit is targeted at products for immediate consumpt...

Walmart’s consolidated net sales increased by 2.8% for Q2 FY15 (three months ended 31 July), to $119.3bn, with sales in its US stores and Sam’s Club divisions up 2.7% and 2.3% respectively. International sales were up 3.1% to $33.9bn. Consolidated net income attributable to Walmart grew by 0.6%. The results: quick take Although there is still work to be done to drive stronger growth in t...

Walmart has reported international sales growth of 3.1% for its international business for Q2 2015 (three months ended 31 July). We look at its performance in Latin American markets. Brazil: focus is on turning business around Second quarter net sales were up 9.1%, and comp sales rose 9.7%, driven by a positive impact from the timing of Easter, and strong World Cup sales. The World Cup als...

Brazil's RaiaDrogasil has reported a 17.4% increase in net revenue for the first half of 2014. Breaks 1,000 store barrier in Q2  RaiaDrogasil opened 29 new stores in Q2, to end June with 1,015; it said it was the first Brazilian drugstore chain to operate 1,000 stores. Two milestones were the first stores in Recife, in the north-east, and the first airport store at Guarulhos international ...