Carrefour transforms Maxxi wholesale stores into Atacadão

Carrefour Brasil announced last Friday (2) the delivery of the first four stores converted from the Maxxi cash and carry store to the Atacadão banner.

They are part of a total of 124 stores acquired from Grupo Big (formerly Walmart) that will be transformed into other banners over two years, at a cost of R$2.1 billion.

This transition of brands from one wholesale to another, however, is one of the cheapest reforms. On average, R$ 10 million is spent and the expectation is that the same space will go from R$ 23 thousand in sales per m², to R$ 35 thousand.

Assaí, Atacadão’s main competitor, is also in a phase of store modernization, having opened the first conversions of Extra stores.

To improve the look of the stores, the CEO of Carrefour Brasil, Stephane Maquaire, guarantees that the change was not just about changing the color from red to orange on the facade.

The operation was transferred to a well-defined cost model, with wider aisles, Wi-Fi for customers, in addition to incorporating facilities such as scales at the checkout counter – which avoids queues in the hortifruti area – and payment via Pix.

The stores will also start to offer about 10 thousand products. Before, Maxxi worked with 6 thousand items. It is also a movement already seen in Assaí, which even incorporated the wine section into the stores.

The advantage is that these improvements do not involve structural changes, which allows the store to stay open for most of the process. In June, the company informed the market that, for the exchange of flags, only three days of closing were needed.

Maquaire says that, despite the services offered today in the wholesalers make the operation of the stores a little more expensive, the projected increase in sales has the ability to dilute these costs.

Altogether, Carrefour inherited from the Big 58 wholesalers. In this first wave, 38 will switch to the Atacadão flag.

Regarding possible conversions of its Carrefour hypermarket stores to the “Winning format of Atacadão”, Maquaire says that the group is attentive to these opportunities, but that today the focus is on converting the acquired stores.

The information is from the newspaper. The State of São Paulo.

Source: CNN Brasil

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