Brazilian food retailer Grupo Pão de Açúcar (GPA) plans to open up to 28 Assaí cash-and-carry stores in 2017.
With the planned openings, the company will double its share of the cash-and-carry market in Brazil, group president Ronaldo Iabrudi told Brazilian daily, O Estado de Sao Paulo.
Last year, GPA opened 13 new Assaí stores.
Between six and eight units will be built from scratch, while 15 to 20 'Extra' hypermarkets will be revamped into Assaí locations.
Compared to the hypermarket, the cash-and-carry has a 30% higher customer flow and 100% higher average purchase value. Also, after conversion, billing per store is three times greater, the GPA president said.
Impact Of The Crisis
The success of the format also reflects a change, due to the crisis, in the pattern of Brazilian consumption.
Iabrudi maintains that despite a more favourable economic environment, customers still prefer going to a simpler store and paying less for the products.
A survey by GPA revealed that 96% of the people who discovered the cash-and-carry format during the worsening economy will continue to give preference to these stores even if the country's economy grows again.
In 2013, hypermarkets accounted for 50% of GPA’s sales, followed by supermarkets (30%) and Assaí (20%).
At the end of December 2016, Assaí accounted for 43% of turnover, followed by hypermarkets (35%) and other formats (22%).
This trend follows on from indications we reported last October.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
