Chedraui sees 2022 as a year to grow. The Mexican supermarket chain announced that this year it will open 31 units in Mexico and two more in the United States, this one under the Smart & Final format, which it acquired in May of last year.
In Mexico, the new stores will be one Chedraui, five Super Chedraui, and 25 Supercito. to have a presence in markets with high population density, such as Mexico City.
In fact, one of the battlefronts between supermarkets is found in this type of proximity store, which competes against convenience stores and corner stores. In its 2020 results guide, the chain had a plan to open eight units last year, of which five were Supercitos.
In this year, the retail chain reported that the investment will be around 2.1% of consolidated revenues, which will allow it to grow the sales floor in Mexico by approximately 1.6% and 0.6% in the United States organically.
In addition, for 2022 a growth in same-store sales in Mexico of more than 4.5% is projected, thus reaching same-store growth of more than 12% in the last two years, according to data from the Results Guide.
In the operations in the United States, the supermarket expects a greater dynamism in sales than other years due to the global inflationary environment. In dollars, same-store sales growth of 3.5% is expected for the El Super and Fiesta operations, while same-store sales growth of 2.5% is expected for the Smart & Final operation.
Chedraui also reported that for this year it projects an improvement of between 10 and 15 base points in the EBITDA margin of the Mexico Self-service operation and around 200 base points in the Real Estate Division, while in the United States it estimates an improvement of 40 base points. in the EBITDA margin after the consolidation of the Smart & Final operation and the continuity of the Fiesta profitability expansion plan.
At the end of 2022, a Net Bank Debt / EBITDA ratio of between 0.3 and 0.4 times is expected given the company’s outstanding cash flow generation.
