Our retail business in Mexico operates under two hypermarket formats: Tienda Chedraui and Súper Chedraui and we have included the Selecto concept in both models. Each of these formats serves a different segment of the population although we always are careful to maintain the highest standards in terms of price, assortment and comfort.

 

The food retail is highly competitive in Mexico. This is why Chedraui has a solid strategy of organic growth in place that resulted in the opening of fifteen new stores in 2012 of which six were Súper Chedraui and nine were Tienda Chedraui. Of these new stores, 53% were located in the metropolitan area of Mexico City given its importance to our Company. With this step, we solidly positioned Chedraui as the third largest food retailer in the country.

 

In addition to the new store openings, eight other stores were remodeled of which four were converted to the Selecto concept, that is aimed at the highest socioeconomic segment of the population and offers a careful assortment of the highest quality products. We will have to be vigilant that these new and remodeled stores meet the profitability ratios that we have established for each of our stores.

 

This segment generated sales on the order of $50,149 million pesos during 2012, a figure that increased 10.6% over the previous fiscal year and represented 78% of the consolidated revenues of the Group. EBITDA totaled $3,338 million pesos for an increase of 7.4% in relation to the prior year and represented 79% of the consolidated EBITDA of the Group. It should be noted that our same store sales in 2012 rose 1.9%.

 

 

Store Formats

Tiendas Chedraui consists of a network of 144 hypermarkets located in cities of at least one hundred thousand inhabitants with an average sales space of 7,044 square meters and a total of 1,084,815 square meters.

 

Súper Chedraui has a network of 44 hypermarkets located in populous areas with a minimum of 25 thousand inhabitants with an average sales space of 2,142 square meters and a total of 94,260 square meters.

 

 

Distribution Centers

We distribute 80% of the dry merchandise and 50% of the perishable items that we buy through five distribution centers strategically located throughout the country:

 

• Zumpango, State of Mexico

This distribution center has 59,100 square meters of space with the capacity to service 151 stores. It handles dry, refrigerated and frozen merchandise with  a monthly average of four million boxes of dry goods and one million boxes of fruit, vegetables and other perishable products. It has 169 loading docks for receiving and shipping. The area used for frozen products was expanded by 2,269 square meters in 2012.

 

• Villahermosa, Tabasco

This is a distribution center of 60,457 square meters with capacity to serve 151 stores. It handles dry, refrigerated and frozen products with a monthly average of 2.4 million boxes of dry goods and 670 thousand boxes of fruit, vegetables and perishable items. It has 169 loading docks.

 

• Monterrey, Nuevo León

 This distribution center has 883 square meters of space and supplies eleven locations. It handles a monthly average of 184 thousand boxes solely of fruits and vegetables and has sixteen docks.

 

• La Paz, Baja California

This facility has space of 506 square meters; it handles frozen goods and supplies five locations in addition to forwarding imported merchandise.

 

• Guadalajara, Jalisco

This distribution center has 1,700 square meters of space and currently serves 24 stores. It handles average monthly volume of 74 thousand boxes of dry merchandise and 191 thousand boxes of fruits and vegetables with four loading docks.