Walmart Brazil has launched a new supermarket concept, Walmart Supermercado, as part of its retail transformation project.
The retailer's supermarkets – under the banners Bompreço, Nacional and Mercadorama – will begin to adopt the new brand over the next four years, following an investment of around R$500 million (€130.5 million).
The first two Walmart Supermercado stores were inaugurated this week, in Curitiba, in the neighbourhoods of Jardim das Américas and Portão.
New Format
According to Bernardo Perloiro, vice-president of operations, commercial and marketing at Walmart Brazil, customers will be offered an improved shopping experience with the new concept.
"We will have a more comfortable, clearer shop, with wider corridors, a higher quality of fruits and vegetables, a smart assortment, and always low prices," Perloiro said.
The retailer says that the stores will also be more efficient and offer an assortment of products suitable for each region of operation.
Walmart Supermercado will feature green and yellow branding, based on the Walmart Neighborhood Market in the US. The company says that the migration to this new brand will be gradual, occurring as stores undergo extensive refurbishment over the next four years.
Meanwhile, Walmart's hypermarket reinvention project, which was launched last year, will see investments of around R$1 billion over the next three years in Brazil, as Big and Hiper Bompreço hypermarket outlets are migrated to the Walmart brand.
Of the 129 hypermarkets in the country, about 10% have already been converted to the new concept.
© 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.
