Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news!

Subscribe I am already a subscriber

You are using software which is blocking our advertisements (adblocker).

As we provide the news for free, we are relying on revenues from our banners. So please disable your adblocker and reload the page to continue using this site.
Thanks!

Click here for a guide on disabling your adblocker.

Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news!

Subscribe I am already a subscriber

Colombia: Cencosud enters the convenience store market

After purchasing the supermarket chain Carrefour in Colombia more than a year ago, Cencosud, Horst Paulmann's holding, is betting on entering the convenience store business in the country's coffee area.

In recent times, the national retailer has been dedicated to changing the image of the Carrefour outlets and is currently operating 34 Jumbo and 42 Metro hypermarkets, with 63% and 37% of their sales respectively in formats of 2,500 square meters and 3,000 square meters.

However, in a recent meeting with the media, Eric Basset, managing director of the chain in Colombia, said that "the supermarket format in Colombia is growing in proximity formats, so most of the investments will be made in these formats." He added that they "were experts in that line which will grow in large cities, while hypermarkets will grow in small towns."

In that sense, the company's idea is to open smaller outlets, between 500 square meters and 3,000 square meters, under their Metro brand. In fact, this format is partly developed by Cencosud in Chile, through their Jumbo Express outlets.

Cencosud has planned expanding their Jumbo brand to medium sized outlets ever since they acquired the Santa Isabel chain in 2003, even though they later backed out from doing it and made no changes to the chain. The same happened when they bought the Carlo supermarkets in 2004. They're curently doing it with Metro in Colombia where they expect the group to grow strongly. 

Source: Estrategia
Publication date: