In a bid to drive innovation, DIA has made new appointments to its senior management team, hiring "the best". CEO Antonio Coto aims to make DIA more agile and capable of anticipating the needs of the markets in which it operates, whilst having a more innovative and attractive proposition.

The appointments

After suspending the previous finance director, Armando Sánchez Falcón in October and putting out a profit warning, Enrique Weickert Molina has been appointed as DIA’s new chief finance director (CFO). Weickert was previously CFO for OHL.

Iván Martín is has been named as operations director for Spain, previously supply director at El Corte Inglés. Martín will report director to DIA's executive director in Spain, Faustino Domínguez de la Torre, who was also recently appointed. Marin Dokozic, formerly CEO of Lidl in Germany, will be DIA’s new CEO in Brazil. Dokozic will report directly to Antonio Coto. DIA Argentina also has a new CEO, Freddy Wu.

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Currency volatility and reduced consumer spend have proved challenging for Chile-based Cencosud, who appointed a new CEO and new regional business leaders during Q3. We dive further into the retailers Q3’s results and its performance in all its markets.

The currency depreciation of the Argentine peso and Brazilian real against the Chilean peso have been the biggest contributing factor to an -8.1% revenue decline in Q3.

Snapshot of Q3’s results

• Supermarket revenue decreased by -8.1% as reported
• At a constant exchange rate revenue increased +8%
• Chile’s year-on-year was +3.6% in Same Store Sales (SSS). In Chile increased revenues were driven by increased online sales and the net opening of six supermarkets
• Argentina’s year-on-year was +25.6% (SSS). In Argentina revenue heavily declined due to the depreciation of the Argentine peso against the Chilean peso. As of 3Q2018, the application of the IAS 29 now places Argentina as a hyperinflationary economy
• Brazil’s year-on-year was -1.6% (SSS). The depreciation of the Brazilian real against the Chilean peso, the closure of four stores and lower footfall during the World Cup all contributed to Brazil’s decline in revenue
• Peru’s year-on-year was +2% (SSS). Peru’s revenue increased year-on-year due to the appreciation of its currency against Chilean peso, a third consecutive period of increased footfall and the net opening of three new stores
• Colombia’s year-on-year was -2.9% (SSS). Revenues decreased despite the appreciation of the Colombian peso against the Chilean peso. This decrease is attributed to a year-on-year decline in same store sales and two store closures

Continuing to expand the ecommerce offer

Cencosud’s ecommerce arm has shown continuous year-on-year growth and increased penetration, with an encouraging set of results and an increased number of customers beginning to explore the channel.

Progress in Q3

• Online channel sales increased +24.1% at constant currency
• Reached +2.5% penetration for total retail sales compared to 1.8% in 2017Q3
• New Jumbo websites have gone live in Chile and Argentina
• The “Jumbo Ahora” express service has been well received by customers
• Food picking from stores doubled in Columbia and Drive Thru online collection services were added in a further two stores

Casino-owned, Colombia-based Grupo Éxito has released its Q3 results. The retailer reported an increase in consolidated net revenue of 9.5%, to US$4bn, before adjusting for exchange rate differences.

The group recorded growth in each of its four operating countries; Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay. At the end of the quarter, Grupo Éxito had a total of 1,536 stores; 29 in Argentina, 870 in Brazil, 549 in Colombia and 88 in Uruguay.

Argentina: sales growth of 23.5%

Grupo Éxito’s operations in Argentina increased sales by 23.5%, in local currency terms, with same-store sales rising by 24%. The retailer said its performance was driven by ‘FMCG, fresh and home categories’. It noted that Libertad ‘continued to outperform the market in the midst of a challenging macro environment’.

Brazil: sales growth of 12.9%

In Brazil, Grupo Éxito’s food business, operated through GPA, increased net sales by 12.4%, with same-store sales rising by 6.4%.

GPA’s wholesale division, Assaí, ended the quarter with 134 stores, having opened 19 during the last 12 months. Assaí’s strong net sales growth, at 25.8%, was supported by same-store sales growth of 8.2%. The pace of sales growth saw it account for 47.8% of GPA’s total sales at the end of the quarter. Exito noted that Assaí had ‘posted the best performance per square metre in the last five years.’

Meanwhile, net sales at its Multivarejo division rose 3.2%, with same-store sales up by 6.0%. Exito said the sales growth confirmed the banner’s recovery since Q2 2018 and had been aided by ‘innovative commercial strategies, digital transformation and private label repositioning’. GPA’s digital transformation continued as it registered over 6.5m downloads of the Meu Desconto app.

Colombia: sales fell by 0.9%

In Colombia, excluding calendar effects, net sales fell by 0.9% to COP2.5tn (US$801.2m). Contractions at its Exito (of 1.2%) and its Surtimax and Super Inter (of 8.6%) banners held back its overall performance. The performance of these banners was partially offset by growth at Carulla (+0.8%) and its B2B formats (+26.2%).

Adjusting for calendar effects Exito said net sales and same-store sales had shown an ‘improved trend in all banners’. This has had been driven by a higher share of sales coming from the non-food category, a solid performance from omni-channel, strong sales (+59.2%) and same-store sales (+44.8%) at Surtimayorista and a ‘solid contribution from 16 stores opened in the last 12 months’.

Exito also pointed to “the new concepts Éxito Wow and Carulla Fresh Market, the commitment to ecommerce channels and the monetisation of traffic through complementary businesses and real estate”. Grupo Éxito’s new store concepts, Éxito Wow Envigado and Carulla Fresh Market generated significant growth and were positively received by customers. Sales through Grupo Éxito’s ecommerce channels in Colombia increased by 35.2% and represented 3.6% of the group’s total sales. 

Uruguay: sales growth of 4.7%

Sales in Uruguay grew 4.7%, in local currency terms, amid the challenging economic situation in neighbouring countries, Argentina and Brazil. Same-store sales rose by 4.0% ‘driven by the supermarket and convenience formats’.

For subscribers wanting to learn more about how the group caters to different shoppers needs, see our Grupo Éxito: four formats in focus presentation.